After years of intense debate, the CDU presented a plan for the introduction of a society year.

In an application for the federal party conference in September, which is exclusively available to the FAZ, the applicant named a “profit” for society, for the personality development of the individual and for the “resilience of our state” as a “common goal” and also for the better integration of people with a migration background.

Eckhart Lohse

Head of the parliamentary editorial office in Berlin.

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It is about the experience that “individualism must be supplemented by the values ​​of community and solidarity”.

Especially with regard to people with a migration background, "we see the Society Year as an invitation to mutual solidarity between immigrants and the host society".

The service should be able to be performed at different institutions and organizations, for example in hospitals, at the Federal Agency for Technical Relief or the German Armed Forces.

There are no plans to return to traditional conscription.

Both the voluntary and the obligatory variant state that the service should be designed to be “worthwhile”.

In addition to appropriate remuneration, the service should also provide advantages when taking up a course of study.

Year of society “immediately” after leaving school

Since opinions in the CDU differ as to whether such a year should be mandatory or voluntary, two corresponding variants have been worked out, which are to be decided at the party conference.

Carsten Linnemann, deputy federal chairman of the CDU and member of the Bundestag, told the FAZ: “I have been campaigning for a mandatory year of society for years.

We've discussed long enough, now we have to make a decision." In contrast to what is often the case with party congress motions, a consensus solution should not be negotiated in the executive committee or the motions committee before the delegates' meeting at the Society Year, but rather an open and controversial debate should take place.

The mandatory solution provides that a year of society should be completed "immediately" after graduation.

The legal obligation should start at the age of 18, but the year can also be completed earlier.

The voluntary solution provides for a “legal right for all citizens to volunteer”.

The previous work of the providers of voluntary services should be strengthened.

Both variants are to be enshrined in the constitution.