Overview
- At a public celebration in Schwerin, Ministerpräsidentin Manuela Schwesig praised the association’s decades of social work and its role in fostering participation.
- Leaders say the long slide in membership has been halted in Mecklenburg‑Vorpommern, even as the national total stands at about 100,000 after steep post‑reunification declines.
- The regional association counts roughly 20,000 members supported by about 3,600 full‑time staff and 4,000 volunteers across childcare, care services and community programs.
- Plans include launching a youth wing next year and sending an information mobile on the road from January to publicize services and counter social isolation in old age.
- Founded on 17 October 1945 in Dresden with the call “Volkssolidarität gegen Wintersnot,” the organization remains a prominent welfare provider in eastern Germany.