Civic Foundations under Socialism: The Peter-Warschow-Stiftung in Greifswald

Abstract

This paper traces the fate of Greifswald’s most significant civic foundation: the Peter Warschow Foundation, a foundation that has existed since the Middle Ages to the present day. It examines the reasons why foundations were dissolved or merged at the local level in the GDR and how a civic foundation was able to survive the period of socialism. The empirical basis for this are previously unpublished archival records. The result of the study is that foundation dissolutions and mergers were primarily pragmatically motivated and that the Peter Warschow Foundation was able to survive mainly because of its cultural practice and financial basis.