Germany admits it lost track of millions in NGO funding over six years
The Good Old Paper FileāStill Alive and Well in Germany's Federal Ministries
Anyone who thought paper records had long been consigned to history in Germany's federal ministries has now been proven wrong. Last week, the government cited the continued existence of paper files as one reason it could not answer a sweeping parliamentary inquiry from the AfD faction in the Bundestag.
The party had sought details on which organizations received financial support from various ministries. Had the government answered as requested, the result would have been a comprehensive breakdown of all funding recipientsāincluding left-wing NGOsāfrom 2020 to 2026, creating unprecedented transparency.
But the government threw in the towel. In its response, it stated that fulfilling the request would involve "more than 40,000 individual grants." Researching the necessary data would require scouring "various lists, databases, and paper files across numerous specialized departments and subordinate agencies." The workload, it claimed, would amount to "several thousand hours"āan effort it deemed "unreasonable."
Groping in the Dark
Anyone hoping for a full overview of all funded projects will continue to grope in the dark. No such comprehensive record exists. Only fragmented insights can be gleaned through individual requests or databases from specific ministriesāsuch as the Federal Program "Demokratie leben!" (Living Democracy), administered by the Family Ministry. This also means the government itself lacks a complete picture of which NGOs it funds.
At least the Federal Interior Ministryāalongside the Federal Press Officeāmade an effort to address the AfD's inquiry as thoroughly as possible. The result? A 39-page table listing funded NGOs. A quick review reveals some familiar names. The left-leaning Amadeu Antonio Foundation, for instance, appears eight times as a recipient of financial support.
Socialist Youth Organization Receives Funding
For a project on "online agitation by far-right extremists and conservative Christians against pluralistic gender and sexual identities," the foundation received ā¬25,000. For another initiative combating "conspiracy theories among people over 40," the Interior Ministry allocated a total of ā¬244,000 between 2020 and 2022.
The left-wing platform Correctiv is listed twice, having secured ā¬132,000 from the ministry. The Berlin branch of the socialist youth organization Die Falken (The Falcons) appears three times, with total funding of ā¬134,000. Some of this money was earmarked for a "mobile anti-racist library" called Audream. A separate AfD inquiry later revealed that the organization's federal branch had received millions in government funding in recent years.
This information is particularly explosive given that Junge Freiheit reported last week that representatives of Die Falken had distributed a pornographic magazine during a project day in a ninth-grade class in Saxony. Further reporting by JF this week exposed the ideology the group has been pushing in schools.
"Queer" and "Anti-Racist"
Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry's funding list also includes lesser-knownābut no less ideologically drivenārecipients of taxpayer money. The Institute for Resistance in Post-Fordism, for example, received ā¬5,000 to discuss "inheritance and perpetrator continuity." The event was advertised online with the claim that German history is "explicitly evil."
The association Haki secured ā¬64,000 for a project on "migration and queerness." The group describes itself as working in "the emancipation of queer people of all (a)sexual, (a)romantic, and (a)gender identities and orientations." The State Network of Migrant Organizations in Saxony-Anhalt was granted ā¬277,000 for "anti-racist and racism-critical political education."*
Overall, the list paints a one-sided picture: The term left-wing extremism does not appear at all, Islamism is mentioned twice, while right-wing extremism or related terms crop up 19 times. Of course, the document also includes many uncontroversial projects, such as funding for German minorities abroad.
Dobrindt Cuts Funding to Left-Wing NGO
Many initiatives that previously received funding under Social Democrat Interior Minister Nancy Faeserāand even during the tenure of her predecessor, Horst Seehofer (CSU)āno longer appear in this year's budget tables. This includes the Amadeu Antonio Foundation as well as the organization Radikale Tƶchter (Radical Daughters), which had been listed five times with total grants amounting to nearly ā¬800,000.
Recently, however, the group announced that the ministry had "withdrawn funding for our project to strengthen democracy and combat far-right extremism," leaving them "stuck with ā¬120,000 in unpaid costs." Is this a deliberate political decision by the ministry, now led by CSU politician Alexander Dobrindt?
It's worth noting that the founder of Radikale Tƶchter launched a petition last year against Chancellor Friedrich Merz's comments on Germany's "urban image." When the Frankfurter Rundschau inquired about the funding cuts, a ministry spokesperson stated in late March that leadership reserved the right to "set its own priorities in the current funding period."
Organizations Turn on Prien
Earlier, Family Minister Karin Prienāwho oversees the federal program Demokratie leben! (Living Democracy!)āannounced a realignment of her ministry's NGO funding, leading to the termination of 200 project grants. Since then, affected organizations have fiercely criticized the decision (Junge Freiheit reported).
The Amadeu Antonio Foundation, for instance, launched its own petition. Der Spiegel amplified the outcry last week with a dramatic report, quoting a ministry employee who questioned whether he was becoming "an accomplice" in the dismantling of civil society groups.
"No Tools for Partisan Politics"?
On Wednesday, numerous NGOs issued another open letter warning of "severe consequences for established structures." They argued that programs like Demokratie leben! "must not become instruments of partisan politics but remain essential pillars of a resilient democracy."
The statement implies such programs have not been politicized in the pastāa claim conservative critics have long disputed. Prien, who is not considered a hardline conservative within the CDU, appears to share some of these concerns. In a March interview with taz, she acknowledged that Demokratie leben! had developed a reputation for catering "more to the left-liberal milieu."
