Arnd Bauerkämper
Professor of Modern History
Freie Universität
Berlin, Germany
Some of the oldest European charitable foundations were formed on German territory as early as the Middle Ages. Charity was to save souls and serve God, and donors aimed to preserve the memory of their benevolence after their death. In the 16th century, wealthy merchants like the Fugger family in Augsburg, too, donated in order to be remembered. Christian charity was increasingly replaced by the efforts of economic elites to enhance their social status. At the same time, monarchical rulers (like kings and dukes) continued to support artists and scholars at their courts. In the late 18th century, Enlightenment thinkers inspired citizens to organize support for the poor by providing for training of workers. As these efforts largely foundered in Germany, the more stringent Elberfeld System for defining and combating urban economic deprivation emerged in the 1850s.
At the same time, the number and size of foundations increased tremendously with industrialization and the wealth it generated. The new bourgeoisie of rich entrepreneurs and businessmen (Wirtschaftsbürgertum) as well as the educated classes of the Bildungsbürgertum (for instance teachers, professors and high-ranking civil servants) shared a commitment to the ideal of selfless support for their communities in Imperial Germany. At the same time, their philanthropic engagement was due to vested interests, as they sought to displace the traditional patrician notables in German cities and to raise their status as Germany’s new urban elite. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, trusts and other broad-based philanthropic institutions supported housing, health and social programs in major German cities such as Leipzig, Hamburg and Berlin. Yet the role of the state in social policies grew, partially crowding out bourgeois relief efforts.
Altogether, Germany had become a model of philanthropy around 1900, inspiring urban philanthropy and patronage in the United States of America. By and large, the direction of exchange reversed in the twentieth century. The two World Wars resulted in the gradual rise of the US as a global power and economic preeminence. Business magnates Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller established their large foundations in 1910 and 1913, respectively. According to their conception, “scientific philanthropy” was to create the knowledge for policies that were to promote the well-being of mankind. After the Second World War, the Ford Foundation, too, significantly expanded its international programs. By contrast, the Nazi dictatorship, the military defeats of 1918 and 1945 as well as its economic repercussions (especially inflation) and the partition of the country from 1949 to 1990 lastingly reduced the financial resources and undermined the political preconditions of German philanthropy.
In their support for the (West) German recipients, US foundations oscillated between internationalist idealism and vested interests. They espoused liberal democracies while promoting policies in favour of American governmental, economic and cultural elites and their institutions. Yet many recipients in the Weimar Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) did not unanimously share the liberal internationalism of US philanthropic organizations. In fact, the latter frequently clashed with the particular aims of many recipients as well as national traditions of philanthropy in Germany. This led to multiple conflicts and misunderstandings in the transatlantic relationship. Moreover, the impact of American foundations on Germany has been less due to the size of their funds (which were limited) rather than the networks and the “politics of knowledge” that they promoted.
Not least, the record of US philanthropic organizations’ activities in the asymmetrical transatlantic exchange is mixed and characterized by successes as well as severe setbacks. In particular, the foundations’ commitment to reform agendas and their optimistic belief in progress led them to underestimate the danger of an illiberal backlash by radical nationalists and the National Socialists, who challenged the notions of international understanding and global cooperation as well as the ideals of peace and reconciliation in Weimar Germany. After the foundation of the FRG, however, intellectual communities on both sides of the Atlantic shared the hope that science could transcend politics. This expectation was closely connected to a profound belief in modernization and progress, infusing US foundations to promote democratization and liberal economic policies in Germany.
All in all, the transatlantic exchange between German and American philanthropic organizations has been asymmetrical. Whereas Germany dominated the transatlantic relationship in the 19th century, large US foundations proved superior after 1914 and even more so after 1945. In the last resort, overriding political and economic conditions shaped the exchange between German and American philanthropy throughout modern history.