Opitz-Neubauer-Stiftung

The Opitz-Neubauer Foundation is a legal entity, non-profit, and charitable foundation under civil law based in Erfurt. It was established on April 24, 2004, by the Thuringian Fire Brigade Association and recognized as an independent foundation in 2012. It is named in memory of the two firefighters Winfried Opitz and Holger Neubauer, who were killed in the line of duty on August 15, 2003, in Niederpöllnitz. The foundation provides financial assistance to alleviate the consequences of operational accidents, occupational diseases, and psychosocial burdens for affected firefighters and their surviving dependents. Additionally, it is committed to combating social exclusion and supports socially disadvantaged children and youth in youth fire brigades.

The Opitz-Neubauer Foundation is dedicated to selflessly and unbureaucratically supporting needy and ill firefighting personnel and their families in the Free State of Thuringia. Furthermore, it promotes the participation of children and adolescents from socially disadvantaged families in fee-based youth fire brigade programs and supports emergency personnel in coping with particularly stressful operational experiences through appropriate prevention and aftercare services.

The funding programs of the Opitz-Neubauer Foundation are primarily aimed at firefighters in the Free State of Thuringia who are injured or suffer from an occupational disease in the line of duty, as well as their survivors and families. In addition, children and adolescents of the Thuringian youth fire brigades are supported if their participation in official programs would not be possible without financial assistance. The foundation also supports firefighting personnel with psychosocial aftercare following stressful operations.