D+C Development and Cooperation (No. 4, July/August 1999, p. 15-17)

It all started 40 years ago in divided Berlin. Willy Brandt, then Governing Mayor of West Berlin, opened the first conference centre of DSE in Villa Borsig. His ideas on international cooperation based on equality and mutual respect still sound as modern today as they were in his time. The DSE remains committed to these principles of partnership, participatory learning, and inter-cultural dialogue.

When the German Foundation for International Development (DSE) was founded in 1959, the world outside Europe was still very far away for most Germans. Political efforts in the years after World War Two had concentrated on reconstruction, the integration of eleven million refugees expelled from the regions of east Germany lost to Poland and Russia, and the problems caused by the East-West conflict. The "economic miracle" was uppermost on the minds of Germans of those days. But the political and cultural opening at least in the western part of divided Germany awakened sufficient political engagement to also create a spirit of natural solidarity with the newly independent states of the Third World. It was not by chance that many of the later development politicians and staff members of developmental organisations, as for instance a co-founder of DSE, Dr. Dieter Danckwortt, started their "Third World careers" in international workcamps, student organisations or as exchange students in America.

The mood of change and enthusiasm of the post-war years also characterised the origins of DSE, which go back to the 1950s.They were connected to the Marshall Plan aid, the surprisingly successful reconstruction in Germany, the export interests of German industry and the impact of the Cold War on Germany's foreign relations. A small group of members of the German Bundestag as early as the mid-1950s dealt with what was then somewhat vaguely called "educational aid". Friedrich Georg Seib, who later became the first Director-General of DSE (1960 ­ 1962), recalled: "The idea prevailed that material assistance for the undeveloped countries was not enough. It was seen as equally important to complement the economic measures with the promotion of human relations in the social and cultural fields, and through exchanging professional experience. This was set as the task of a German Foundation for Developing Countries (DSE)."

That Berlin (West) was to become the seat of the new Foundation ­ renamed to German Foundation for International Development in 1973 ­ was clear from the beginning. One of the reasons was that special Berlin subsidies, and especially Marshall Plan funds, could thus be used to finance the DSE. A suitable building was also available in Berlin ­ the spacious Villa Borsig in Reiherwerder with its beautiful park and scenic surroundings which belonged to the Finance Ministry in Bonn (see also pp. 18 ­ 19 ).

It was also obvious that political reasons were speaking in favour of making Berlin the seat of the DSE. It was important to give foreign guests from the Third World ­ especially high-ranking politicians ­ an opportunity to gain a first-hand impression of the problems connected with Germany's division. This was nowhere easier than in Berlin. It was the time of the so-called Hallstein Doctrine. Named after the State Secretary in the foreign ministry, this doctrine insisted that the government of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) had the sole right to represent Germany in international relations. With the diplomatic recognition of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) by India in November 1955, this claim to be the only legitimate representative of the whole German people threatened to become undermined. In order to prevent a wave of recognitions, the assumption of diplomatic relations with the GDR was interpreted by Bonn as an Œunfriendly act' and sanctioned with the loss of economic cooperation and development assistance.

It was only with the policy of detente of the late 1960s that the development policy of the FRG lost this function in the context of East-West German relations. The Hallstein Doctrine was finally abandoned when both German states became members of the United Nations in 1973. Nevertheless, Villa Borsig remained an excellent venue for international meetings and a vantage point for studying the effects of the East-West division of Europe.

The beginnings of Germany's
development policy

In working out the concept of DSE ­ which was founded two years earlier than the German ministry for economic cooperation (BMZ) ­ the members of the federal parliament played an important role. The first draft bill to allocate DM 50 million for development assistance in the budget of the Foreign Office was introduced in the German Bundestag by the Social Democrats in 1956. The ruling Christian Democrats opposed the bill by arguing that Germany had neither suitable experts nor the necessary institutions "in order to gain a foothold in the underdeveloped areas". However, both sides agreed on the necessity of development aid. "The struggle for the 50 million was carried on with verve and idealism", recalled MP Rudolf Vogel, who later became the first President of the Board of Trustees of the DSE. The parliamentarians were fully aware both of the opportunities of development cooperation and the German lack of experience in the Third World. "As Germans, we felt less involved than the big colonial powers like France and Britain. We also believed we had more to offer in the field of education than other industrial countries", said Vogel. The debates in the Bundestag led to the emergence of the principles of Germany's later development policy ­ and to a number of practical proposals. Two of them had important consequences: the establishment of a Foundation ­ later to be called DSE ­ and the creation of a special bank for development assistance ­ the later German Investment and Development Company (DEG) in Cologne.

The Foundation was given the following tasks:

• training assistance for the creation of capable administrations;
• extension of the vocational training schools and apprentice workshops already established by the Federal Economics Ministry, and creation of a centre for the training of local teaching staff;
• establishment of a centre for the training of agricultural staff;
• preparation of German experts for their stay abroad by familiarising them with the language, culture and customs of their host countries;
• coordination of already existing development organisations.

Ludwig Erhard's Asia tour

Ludwig Erhard, first post-war Minister of Economics and father of West Germany's Œeconomic miracle', would probably have liked to also be remembered as the Œfather of German development policy'. This at least was the impression in the delegation of parliamentarians, government officials, and journalists who accompanied the minister on his big tour through Asia in 1958. Erhard's journey through India, Pakistan, Burma, Thailand, Sri Lanka, South Korea and Japan lasted four weeks and for the first time acquainted a broad German public with the problems of developing countries. Asia and Africa were still rather exotic places for most Germans. In contrast to the colonial powers ­ Britain, France, Portugal, the Netherlands or Belgium ­ Germany had already lost its colonies after World War One, and thus the German people did not have to cope with the painful problems of decolonisation. This also meant they were not forced to look beyond their borders to the Third World as their neighbours elsewhere in Europe had to do.

The German lack of experience in foreign countries and insufficient language skills were increasingly seen by the business world as a serious handicap. "A dramatic lack of experienced specialists hampered every effort by German organisations to carry out investments and projects abroad", recalled Rudolf Vogel. "Psychological errors in human management, for instance while building the iron and steel complex in Rourkela, India, contributed little to raise the enthusiam for activities in foreign countries." According to Vogel, there was a characteristic deficit in psychological understanding in large parts of German industry. Ludwig Erhard and his delegation, when visiting Rourkela in 1958, had drawn the conclusion that something must be done to prepare the German experts for their work abroad.

This later led to the establishment of the Area Orientation Centre of DSE which found its permanent home in Bad Honnef near Bonn in 1967. Specialists of German development organisations and their families are prepared here for their life and work in a developing country.

Establishment of DSE's training centres

Already in 1960, right after the Foundation for Developing Countries had come into being, the federal states showed an interest in the new institution. They offered the Federal Government their cooperation in the work of the DSE. This led to the idea to create geographically separate departments ­ later called training centres ­ in the different federal states, each specialised on an important task of the Foundation. The states of Berlin, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, and North Rhine-Westphalia were the first states in which the idea was realised. Thus, the DSE was given a decentralised organisational structure which corresponded to the federal structure of West Germany.

In 1999, the DSE has seven training centres: the Education, Science and Documentation Centre (ZED) in Bonn; the Economic and Social Development Centre (ZWS), the Public Administration Promotion Centre (ZÖV) and the Health Promotion Centre (ZG) in Berlin; the Area Orientation Centre (ZA) in Bad Honnef; the Industrial Occupations Promotion Centre (ZGB) in Mannheim/Magdeburg; and the Food and Agriculture Development Centre (ZEL) in Feldafing/Bavaria and Zschortau near Leipzig/Saxony. In addition, there is the Development Policy Forum (EF) in Villa Borsig in Berlin as well as the Print Media Programme (PMP/IIJ), also in Berlin. DSE's headquarters are on the point of moving from Berlin to Bonn as part of the relocation of government institutions.

German unification and DSE

In the development cooperation of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), the training of staff from developing countries had a high priority. Between 1970 and 1989, about 90,000 students and experts received training in the GDR. After unification in 1990, the DSE was charged with the responsibility of carrying on these contacts and training offers. In October 1990, it became responsible for the training and further training of 850 scholarship holders on the territory of the former GDR. From contacts with initially 25 special institutions which had been involved with training of experts from developing countries during GDR times, concrete cooperation developed with only four of them, which became part of the system of DSE training centres.

Renaissance of personnel cooperation?

Together with the Carl-Duisberg Society (CDG), the DSE has become the main implementing agency for Germany's personnel cooperation with developing countries. Contrary to other forms of assistance, personnel cooperation has rarely been the subject of controversy and dispute. A boost for it came when World Bank Vice President V.K.Jaycox in a widely reported provocative speech in 1993 castigated the political and economic inefficiency of African governments. Everybody was deploring the economic decline in sub-Saharan Africa, Jaycox said, but the World Bank at the same time had US$ 14 billion in the pipeline for projects in Africa. Because of the institutional weaknesses of African governments these credits could not be disbursed, he said. At the same time, 100,000 highly paid foreign experts ­ more than at the end of the colonial period ­ were trying to compensate for the deficits in Africa's political management and to fill the institutional gaps.

The debate on Jaycox' theses on the subject of "capacity building" was hot and controversial. Few people noticed that there were already institutions like the DSE which specialised in the training of local experts and in strengthening the administrations and political institutions of developing countries. An increased utilisation of the know-how of DSE, accumulated over decades of cooperation, could have been extremely useful not only in Africa, but also for the transformation processes in Eastern Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

"The situation is paradoxical: although politicians, experts and the public give priority to investments in Œhuman capital', and although the demand from developing countries for specialised further training is rising, the DSE is less and less in a position to satisfy this demand", said the 1989 annual report of DSE. Well into the 1990s, the DSE was denied a substantial increase of its budget and greater flexibility in using its programme funds. "The need for initial and advanced training in Eastern Europe is enormous. The demand for services from DSE for these countries is rising continuously. So far, however, the DSE is not prepared for an adequate response", said the 1991 annual report which also mentioned with a certain bitterness the activities of federal ministries in Eastern Europe which had no experience with working in foreign countries. "Some activities of the many ministries engaged in personnel cooperation in Eastern Europe give the impression as if they were out to re-invent the wheel. Some of the resources are, therefore, not as efficiently used as it would be the case if the DSE was allowed to play a greater role."

In 1995, the DSE could at last note signs of change. The year closed with two records: the highest number of participants (10,107) and the largest budget (DM 115.1 million) since its foundation. The second half of the 1990s brought further successes: big conferences like the symposium on "One World ­ One Future" with Federal President Roman Herzog in Berlin in October 1996 put the DSE in the limelight. Former trainees in developing countries, who in the meantime have reached top-level positions in their home countries, are also increasingly invited to Germany to attend major conferences. Maintaining contact with former participants in DSE training and dialogue measures is seen of increasing importance by DSE in the time of globalisation. This can be seen as a renaissance of the fundamental principles of personnel cooperation that have governed DSE's work in the past 40 years.