ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a brief description of the environment in which German political think tanks operate, followed by a short definition of Politische Stiftungen as a specific institution in German public life. The main emphasis lies on a more detailed description of the activities and experiences of the Department of Political Research in the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS). In the mid-1960s, with the beginning of a German development policy the KAS—as it became known—started to promulgate these values on an international level as well. The work of the KAS is premised on Christian Democratic values that place the individual human being in the center of politics and care for understanding and tolerance for different cultures, the promotion of human rights, and individual freedom as well as responsibility. Since its founding, the KAS has considered itself an anchor of transatlantic orientation for Germany and the European Union and a promoter of German-American friendship.
