Red Cross / EU Office

German Red Cross

Address:

Carstennstrasse 58
12205 - Berlin
Tel: +49 30 854 04-0
Fax: +49 30 854 04470
Email: drk@drk.de
Website: www.rotkreuz.de/

Legal Basis: 
Mission:

The mission statement was adopted in September 1995 and published in all internal publications. In Germany, social welfare provision is based on the subsidiarity principle, which means that NGOs, and also the German Red Cross, are entrusted with the provision of social services though the state has the overall (including financial) responsibility.

Constituency:

Regional level: 19 regional branches, which roughly correspond to the Federal Länder, additionally, 34 branches of the Federation of the German Red Cross Nursing Association

District level: The regional branches are sub-divided into 525 district branches (corresponding to political districts).

Local level: 5,005 local chapters.

Organisation/planning:

Strategic plans: Since 1997, working groups comprising representatives of all levels of the Society have developed strategic plans, which were then adopted by the Presidential Committee. The plans are then carried out at each level of the Society. Regular assessments are carried out; the last one dating from January 2002.

German RC memberships: German RC is a member of the Association of Welfare Institutions, which is a common lobby association of the major welfare institutions within Germany.

Leadership:

The General Assembly, the highest body, is composed of representatives of the regional branches, who have 125 votes, delegates from the Federation of the German RC Nursing Associations and the German RC President, as well as members of the Presidential Committee in an advisory capacity. Its main functions include:
  • Receiving reports from the Presidential Committee,
  • Approving the annual accounts,
  • Deciding on the formal approval of the Presidential Committee’s action,
  • Approving budget proposals,
  • Fixing the subscription rates of the member branches,Issuing financial rules,
  • Approving regulations for the communities, which are organised at national society level.
The Presidential Committee is the Board within the meaning of *26 of the German Civil Code (BGB) and directs the German RC. It also promotes the activities and co-operation of its member branches and implements the decisions of the General Assembly. It is composed of 6 elected members and five ex officio. The board meets about 10X/year and its performance is regularly assessed.

The Presidential Council is the German RC’s federal body. It promotes the society’s work by sharing experiences and making proposals; it also advises the Presidential Committee. The Council is composed of the presidents of the regional branches and the President of the Federation of the German RC Nursing Associations.

Committees of the Communities and Specialist Committees are formed to advise the presidential Committee.

Challenge:

Unemployment is a key issue, affecting approximately 10% of the workforce. In former East Germany, which remains poorer and less productive, unemployment is double that in the west, at over 17% in 1999.

Paid staff:

82,000 employees

Volunteers:

400,000 active volunteers. The challenges that German RC faces to increase the number of volunteers are: developing new models of voluntary service, in particular attracting young people, and competition with other organisations. Voluntary and paid work are viewed to be complementary.

Domestic Activities
The German RC has built up a network across the whole country that offers reception facilities, orientation and support ranging from administrative matters to language courses, legal advice, and psycho-social care. Approximately 1,000 volunteers and staff members work in about 200 migration services.
There are 8 blood transfusion centres, with 36 institutes and 170 mobile teams. They collect about 3.5 million of whole blood donations per year. The German RC covers about 80% of the country’s blood needs, in large part thanks to 2 million voluntary and unpaid blood donors, 3,700 qualified full-time staff and 200,000 volunteers at local and district branches. German RC tasks include:
The German RC strives to promote awareness and understanding of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and the Fundamental Principles of the Movement by
Dissemination is the first statutory task of the German RC. To fulfil this task it runs a system of voluntary dissemination officers based on its federal structure, and publishes i.a. a quarterly journal on IHL.
It comprises around 500 inpatient senior citizens facilities with about 45,000 places, employing approximately 23,000 full time staff; 38 academies for geriatric nursing with around 1,900 training places. German RC also runs about 925 day-centres, 250 emergency services and 400 meals-on-wheels centres, a home nursing service, homes for the elderly and tele-alarm services; approximately 80,000 people are involved in carrying out these activities).
First aid training for members and the general public
Ambulance Service

German RC is the biggest provider in the German ambulance service system. With a network of 1,400 ambulance car posts and about 4,600 ambulances nearly 2,4 Mio. emergency transports and  3,2 Mio. patient transports were carried out in 2002. About 33,000 qualified staff members and volunteers working with the most advanced medical and technical equipment form the core of the largest non-governmental ambulance service organisation in the world.
Health education, prevention and rehabilitation services: The society seeks to promote healthy living by offering a range of courses such as yoga, water gymnastics and child development.
Outpatient welfare services: German RC is represented in approximately 700 outpatient welfare services and employs around 18,000 staff members in this field. Services include social welfare centres, home and family care centres, community nurse centres and mobile welfare. The services focus on assisting those in need of care as well as their relatives, to help ensure that those requiring care and attention can remain at home for as long as possible.

Mobile social services: This programme aims to help the physically and mentally disabled and the chronically ill to remain as independent as possible at home. It offers roughly the same services as provided for outpatients.

Clothing distribution centres: German RC volunteers collect clothes donated by the public and distribute them at local centres. The main beneficiaries are the homeless, the unemployed, recipients of social benefits, low-income families, asylum seekers and immigrants.
German RC Tracing Service provides advice and assistance at all branch levels in four ways:
The Red Cross Youth, founded in 1925, is an independent youth organisation within the German Red Cross, with a particular educational mandate in accordance with the Fundamental Principles. Over 100,000 members, organised in some 5,500 groups, and 5,500 leaders are involved in health and first aid training, as well as campaigns– for example against violence and racism (2001-2002) or social commitment for poor children and teenagers in Germany (2004-2006) and training volunteers and leaders in youth work skills.

International Activites: Humanitarian Aid
1 water/sanitation (including mass water, 1 mass sanitation, 2 specialised water, 2 trucking and distribution)

International Activites: Development Activities
Disaster relief, which also includes food aid, is generally conceived as short-term intervention, but German RC tries to take into account long-term needs and the possible link with infrastructural development.

Personnel:

About 30 permanent staff in 2003.

Amount spent on international work:

16 million Euro spent on international activities (2003)

Delegates:

157 field delegates in 2003.

Membership in RCRC networks:
Country Information

Red Cross/EU Office