Looking back to the future - dealing with the National Socialist era and commitment to democracy in companies
On June, 20 a workshop took place as a Finkelstein Foundation initiative in cooperation with the Gesellschaft für Unternehmensgeschichte (Business History Society) and the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ). The topic of the workshop, which has been held in Frankfurt am Main, is a look back to the future – dealing with the time of National Socialism and Engagement for Democracy in companies.
Over recent years, there has been a change toward a historically conscious and responsible way of dealing with the past. Many studies have been published about dealing with the time of National Socialism in the companies. Business leaders have publicly embraced basic democratic values. Some companies have established educational programs on historical and ethical issues. They have realized that the social relevance of remembering, revealing your history and developing a value-based company policy on that basis from it is becoming more obvious, considering the strengthening of inhuman positioning and right-wing extremist ideology.
However, some companies are not sure which activities would be suitable for them, or they have few resources to implement measures. This is where our workshop showed different ways and possibilities, presented best practice examples and opened up a confidential space for sharing experiences.
17 professionals from 10 different companies took part in our workshop. We plan to organize the workshop annually. In case you are interested in participation, please, feel free to write as at finkelstein.stiftung@bayer.com
A cooperation of the Hans and Berthold Finkelstein Foundation with:
