Sprecher(in) und Anschrift
Johannes Spatz,
( (030) 6321-4703, Fax: -1220
c/o BA Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Gesundheit 21
Bergstr. 90
12169 Berlin
Giselly Leinenbach, (
(030) 897 49007
Dr. Jörn Reimann, (
(030) 256 33829
Wolfgang Nitze,
(
(030) 747 55974
Press release
Berlin, 06.02.06
The Association of the
Cigarette Industry (VdC) has named Bishop Wolfgang Huber, Head of the EKD
Council, and Karl Jüsten, Director of the Berlin Commissionership of German
Bishops, as honorary guests at a "Spree Discussion" on 8 March 2006. The
names of these two representatives of the Protestant and Catholic churches
are the only names on the invitation, which announces "freedoms" as the
theme of the event. There is to be discussion about "social, political and
economic processes" as well as about "freedoms in the ecumenical movement."
Johannes Spatz, spokesperson for Forum Rauchfrei, criticizes the "church
pact with the devil." For whereas the Church is committed to life, the
tobacco industry is involved in the death of 140,000 people per year as a
result of tobacco consumption. In a letter on 5 February Forum Rauchfrei has
urgently requested the church representatives to decline the invitation.
Spatz, in a letter on 13 September 2005, had already warned Huber, "that the
tobacco industry attempts to build up a socially recognized image and to
stem the 'loss of control over the public discussion about smoking and
tobacco' (words of British American Tobacco Germany, BAT)." The issue at
that time was a joint event of the Protestant Academy and the Körber
Foundation, which receives a large part of its funding from the production
of cigarette manufacturing machines.
The tobacco companies refer to this approach as the "third way" and believe
that they have "built up a network of relationships with all parts of
society and eased the market climate in this country" (BAT advertisement,
Vorwärts 12/2000, p. 17). To this end they hold events such as these with
which they want to pull representatives of individual groups onto their side.
In this connection Forum Rauchfrei cannot understand how the advertisement
of Brot für die Welt (Bread for the World), a foreign aid organization of
the Protestant Church, could appear in the 3 February issue of Tabakzeitung.
The Church apparently sees common ground with the tobacco industry when it
states, "Together we can help (these first words appear in boldface type) to
assure that poverty, disadvantage or disability do not hinder people from
assuming full responsibility for their own lives." This sounds cynical in
light of the prognosis of the World Health Organization for the coming
decades, that predicts 10 million deaths primarily in the Third World as a
result of the expansion of the cigarette market.
For further information: Johannes Spatz; Tel.: (030) 90299 oder 0176 2441 9964