20 March 2026

Dear Minister Dobrindt,

The first quarter of 2026, from which the Desiderius Erasmus Foundation (DES) is entitled to federal funding in accordance with the Foundation Funding Act, has almost passed. And your office has still allegedly not completed its review of whether we fulfil all the funding conditions.

As early as 1986, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that state funding for scientific policy advice, such as that provided by the granting of global subsidies to foundations, is not a violation of the law, all must take appropriate account of lasting, significant political currents in the Federal Republic of Germany. This has been criminally ignored for years by successive federal governments, including the current one, and now also by your House.

The entire history of the DES is a single and uninterrupted sequence of unlawful state discrimination with the aim of privileging the other foundations and securing decisive competitive advantages for the parties benefiting from them:

• initially by distributing the foundation's funds by means of backroom haggling, to which we were not invited. This scandalous method of shifting funds was brought to an end by a complaint to the Federal Constitutional Court.

• then by the assertion of an alleged two-election period rule that had been devised solely by the privileged foundations but was never legally effective. This was also overturned by a complaint to the Federal Constitutional Court.

• then by a simple budget note in which we were simply not mentioned. This was also overturned by a complaint to the Federal Constitutional Court.

• This was followed by a Foundation Funding Act, which is recognisably an unconstitutional individual case law aimed solely at the DES and for the first time stipulated a three-time entry into the Bundestag. However, this line of defence has now also been broken because the AfD has entered the Bundestag for the third time - and more strongly than ever before.

• And now you are crowning this unconstitutional permanent discrimination by simply continuing to delay the examination of our foundation for constitutional compliance provided for in the Foundation Financing Act, for which your ministry has had plenty of time since the Foundation Financing Act came into force in December 2023, but at the latest since the federal election in February 2025!

We, as a conservative foundation that unconditionally respects the rule of law, democracy and human dignity, are endlessly harassed and discriminated against by the state, while the same state has no qualms about fattening up a Heinrich Böll Foundation that is closely networked with anti-Semites and a Rosa Luxemburg Foundation that cooperates closely with militant left-wing extremists and even offers anti-police training, with hundreds of millions of euros per legislative period!

In the twelve years of my political commitment as a member of parliament for global human rights, I have not come across a single democratically constituted state in which the opposition and its associated organisations have been harassed and treated unlawfully in such a way. However, the treatment of the opposition and its organisations is the A yardstick for the quality of a democracy. Unfortunately, things are not going well in Germany.

I am deeply concerned about the state's disregard for the democratic foundations of our country and appeal to you:

Put an end to this scandalous, anti-democratic tragedy and stop it, to further delay the examination of the DES for party tactical reasons!

That would be a service to the rule of law. As Minister of the Interior, you have a special responsibility because you are the minister responsible for protecting our constitution and the legal basis.

Yours sincerely,

Erika Steinbach

Chairwoman of the DES

Open letter to Minister Alexander Dobrindt from Erika Steinbach, Chairwoman DES, 20.03.2026.pdf