Without me movement

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The Without Me movement (also: “Without me” movement or “Without me!” Movement ) was a pacifist movement in West Germany in the post-war period and the beginning of the Federal Republican peace movement .

“Never again war and Fascism ”, banner at a May demonstration in Berlin, May 1, 1946

The basic pacifist trend in the German population from 1945 onwards, which was shaped by the defeat in the “ total ” Second World War , was expressed in the fact that the “terribly decimated front generation that has returned from the war [...] will never be a soldier again, never wear uniform again, never again have to kill "wanted. The phrase “Without me!” Was used as an expression of personal refusal to participate in the remilitarization of West Germany. Often it was also connected with a general refusal of civic engagement.

When the rearmament discussion began in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 , in an effort by the Adenauer government to make a West German contribution to the Western defense alliance against the Eastern Bloc , this individual attitude towards an uncoordinated and unspecific political orientation with a mass basis intensified, even if only with “isolated readiness to specific actions such as protests and demonstrations. ”With the same objective but different motives, various organizations such as trade unions , intellectuals, Christian groups and women's groups (especially the West German women's peace movement ), but also the West German KPD , which was banned in 1956, took part in actions without me.

The no-me attitude declined as economic recovery and social security increased and the idea of European unification gained support. Anti-communism also played an important role, using the fear of an expansion of the Soviet sphere of influence to Western Europe to strengthen the integration of the young Federal Republic in the mergers of Western states.

After Gustav Heinemann's resignation as Federal Minister of the Interior in October 1950, the idea of ​​a referendum on rearmament arose at the suggestion of Martin Niemoeller , which, however, soon came under suspicion of being a communist-controlled action. Despite the prohibition of the action by the new Interior Minister Robert Lehr in April 1951, almost 6 million signatures against rearmament were collected. Gustav Heinemann's newly founded All-German People's Party , which was most strongly committed to rearmament, only received 1.2 percent of the vote in the 1953 federal election and dissolved in 1957.

Konrad Adenauer during negotiations on joining NATO and rearming the FRG in Paris, October 1954

After the referendum movement, in 1955 the Paulskirchen movement tried to mobilize the masses against rearmament and the accession of the FRG to NATO on the basis of its German manifesto . The final end of the Without Me movement was symbolized by the Federal Republic's entry into NATO in 1955 and the reintroduction of general conscription in July 1956.

The Without Me movement was the first in a series of public pacifist protest movements in the post-war period. In the second half of the 1950s, the fight against the atomic death movement gained some importance as a result. The catchphrase “ Ohnemichel ” developed into a derogatory term for conscientious objectors and rearmament critics in the decade after the end of the Without Me movement.

literature

  • Hans-Josef Legrand: Peace Movements in the History of the Federal Republic of Germany. An overview of the development up to the end of the seventies. In: Josef Janning u. a. (Ed.): Peace Movements. Development and consequences in the Federal Republic of Germany, Europe and the USA (= Library Science and Politics. Vol. 40). Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik von Nottbeck, Cologne 1987, ISBN 3-8046-8676-1 , pp. 19–34.
  • Karl Holl : Pacifism in Germany (= Edition Suhrkamp 1988 = NF Bd. 533 New Historical Library). Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-518-11533-2 , pp. 222-226.
  • Michael Werner: The “Without Me” movement. The West German peace movement in the German-German Cold War (1949–1955). Verlags-Haus Monsenstein and Vannerdat, Münster 2006, ISBN 3-86582-325-4 (also: Münster, Universität, Dissertation, 2000).
  • Detlef Bald , Wolfram Wette (Ed.): Alternatives to rearming. Peace Concepts in West Germany 1945–1955 (= Peace and War. Contributions to Historical Peace Research. Vol. 11). Klartext-Verlag, Essen 2008, ISBN 978-3-8375-0013-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Karl Holl: Pacifism in Germany . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1988, p. 223.
  2. ^ Karl Holl: Pacifism in Germany . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1988, p. 224.
  3. ^ Karl Holl: Pacifism in Germany . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1988, pp. 225f.
  4. ↑ See Holger Nehring: Review of: Michael Werner: The Without-Me Movement. The West German peace movement in the German-German Cold War (1949–1955). Münster 2006. In: H-Soz-u-Kult. October 16, 2008.
  5. ↑ See Andrew Oppenheimer: Review of: Detlef Bald, Wolfram Wette (ed.): Alternatives to rearming. Peace Concepts in West Germany 1945–1955. (Peace and War. Contributions to Historical Peace Research, Vol. 11). Klartext Verlag, Essen 2008 In: Archive for Social History Online. December 21, 2009.