The Alumni & Friends Association of the Federal Academy for Security Policy is an association that provides ideal and material support to the academic work of the Federal Academy and contributes to building the “strategic community”. At the same time, however, the Alumni & Friends Association wants to maintain, cultivate and develop personal relations of former seminar participants at the Federal Academy for Security Policy. To this end, Alumni & Friends and the Federal Academy organize on an annual basis the all-day forum “Aktuell” on security issues that is held in connection with the general assembly.
Since 1995, the Alumni & Friends Association has invited on a rotational basis a public figure to deliver the so-called “Manfred Wörner speech” at the Federal Academy for Security Policy. This is a keynote speech about security policy, named after the former Federal Minister of Defence, Manfred Wörner. To date, the following individuals have been invited to deliver the speech:
1996 Karsten Voigt
1997 Minister of State Dr. Werner Hoyer
1998 Jörg Schönbohm (since then every two years)
2000 Federal Minister (ret.) Prof. Dr. Klaus Töpfer
2002 Federal Minister Rudolf Scharping (turned down because of the Erfurt massacre)
2004 with Prof. Dr. Harald Müller
2006 with Federal Minister (ret.) Christian Schwarz-Schilling
2008 with State Secretary (ret.) Prof. Lothar Rühl
2010 Christian Schmidt, Member of the Bundestag, Parliamentary State Secretary, FMOD
2012 (suspended because of the 20th anniversary of the Federal Academy for Security
Policy, instead a speech delivered by Federal Minister (ret.) Genscher)
2014 Prof. Dr. Dr. Klaus Töpfer, Executiv Director Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam
2016 Prof. Dr. Michael Stürmer, Chief Correspondent for "Die Welt"
Alternatingly, the Federal Academy confers the Karl Carstens Award. This prize is bestowed on individuals who have rendered outstanding services to communicating both a comprehensive security concept security-related contexts. Previous winners include:
1997 Gerhard Hubatschek, editor-in-chief of IAP-Dienst Sicherheitspolitik
1999 Rolf Clement, editor-in-chief at “Deutschlandfunk” (DLF) broadcasting station
2001 Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Leidhold, inventor of POL&IS
2003 Dr. Christine Kolmar, head of the policy department at “n-tv” German television programme
2005 Dr. Peter Scholl-Latour, publisher
2007 Helmut Markwort, editor-in-chief of FOCUS magazine
2009 Dr. Volker Perthes, SWP
2011 Paul Elmar Jöris, WDR
2013 Dr. Claus Kleber, ZDF
2015 Ambassador ret. Avi Primor
Alumni & Friends members have exclusive access to the virtual study platform of the Federal Academy for Security Policy and, thus, access to a special network and discussion forum of security actors.
You want to join Alumni & Friends? Then please send an e-mail to the secretary of Alumni & Friends, Mr. Rathjen (sekretaer-fk@baks.bund.de) – or simply fill in and return the attached membership application form.