News from the Fritz Bauer Forum | March 2023

How can the conversion of a former mourning hall into a library be realized without making fundamental structural changes to the existing building? Thanks to the team of architects led by Rainer Tönnes (planplus GmbH), the answer to this question has long been clear: a free-standing, walk-in bookshelf, which has been taking shape since the beginning of this month.

On the contemporary relevance of Fritz Bauer

Portrait of Fritz Bauer ©Fritz Bauer Forum | BUXUS STIFTUNG

March began this year very politically and showed us that Fritz Bauer has lost nothing of his relevance. Whether it is the trade union strike of Ver.di together with the climate movement or the campaign of the “Last Generation”, which was perceived by many as an attack on the German Basic Law, Fritz Bauer still provides answers to the urgent questions of our time:

“The term working and economic conditions covers not only what can be regulated by collective bargaining, but is a collective term for all labor law and social policy interests of the trade unions and their members.”

“You can make paragraphs, you can write articles, you can make the best basic laws. What you need are the right people to live these things.”

That’s why we are even more pleased that we were able to bring the jurist Fritz Bauer closer to many people this month as well, and found initiatives and individuals who want to work together with us, in his spirit.

New cooperation partners and new stories

In the coming years, we want to bring the topics of human rights and resistance into a university context. For this purpose, we have met with different staff members of the Ruhr-University Bochum and the University Witten/Herdecke and considered in which framework we can implement events and seminars. We are therefore pleased to inform you that our first seminar in this context will start on May 4, 2023 at Witten/Herdecke University. Registrations are still possible here.

We are also currently creating a whole range of different stories for the interactive Fritz Bauer Library. For example, employees of HÁWAR.help are writing the stories of the founders Düzen and Tuğba Tekkal for the digital library. We were also able to publish two stories this month. One is that of Victor Kugler (in German language), who hid the family of Anne Frank, and the life story of Augusta Farvo(in German language), an Italian partisan and anarchist.

Event: RA Peter Fahlbusch – “You don’t belong to us”.

Insights into the event, ©Fritz Bauer Forum | BUXUS STIFTUNG

On March 9, 2023, attorney Peter Fahlbusch gave a presentation on his findings based on the cases he has conducted on detention pending expulsion. Fahlbusch, unlike the federal states and the federal government, keeps statistics on the constitutionality of expulsion proceedings based on his clients.

The alarming result: in half of the cases he conducted, the courts found that the persons concerned had been detained unconstitutional. In the second part of his talk, Fahlbusch pleaded for a real change in this state of affairs and presented some ways in which we can all help those who are suffering – because it is often enough, he said, if those facing expulsion do not have to face a court alone. Fahlbusch said that not even more laws are needed for this change, but only the observance of the Basic Law and human rights.

Upcoming events

20.04.2023: RA Gabriele Heinecke at Q1 in Bochum

04.05.2023: Start of the seminar series at the University of Witten/Herdecke, hier anmelden