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Reinhold Schairer and the Revival of the German Philanthropic Tradition from Weimar to the Federal Republic

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German Philanthropy in Transatlantic Perspective

Part of the book series: Nonprofit and Civil Society Studies ((NCSS))

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Abstract

Malcolm Richardson develops a case study of America’s influence on German philanthropy and civil society through the career of Reinhold Schairer. After working with the Red Cross in Denmark during the First World War, Schairer became a skillful administrator of student groups and helped to institutionalize exchange programs for German students in the United States. As codirector of the Abraham-Lincoln Foundation, he received grants from the Rockefeller Foundation and in a 1928 editorial urged Germany’s wealthy to follow the example of American philanthropists such as Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan. After 1933, Schairer emigrated—first to Denmark, then Britain, and he arrived in the United States in 1940, where he created the U.S. Committee for Educational Reconstruction and positioned himself for a postwar career in Germany. Drawing on these experiences, Schairer played a key role in postwar Germany as an advocate for philanthropy and civil society.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A viewpoint seemingly shared by the European participants in one of the first international comparative discussions, summarized in McCarthy (1984).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Endowment for the Humanities, 400 7th Street SW, Washington, DC, 20506, USA

    Malcolm Richardson

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  1. Malcolm Richardson
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Correspondence to Malcolm Richardson .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Indiana University, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

    Gregory R. Witkowski

  2. Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Arnd Bauerkämper

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Richardson, M. (2016). Reinhold Schairer and the Revival of the German Philanthropic Tradition from Weimar to the Federal Republic. In: Witkowski, G., Bauerkämper, A. (eds) German Philanthropy in Transatlantic Perspective. Nonprofit and Civil Society Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40839-2_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40839-2_8

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-40837-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-40839-2

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