Swords to plowshares

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Symbol of the GDR peace movement

Swords to Plowshares is a quote from the Bible that has become a phrase . This expresses the goal of international peace through worldwide disarmament and arms conversion . From 1980 the quote became a symbol of state-independent disarmament initiatives in the GDR , which parts of the West German peace movement also adopted.

Bible

Micha

The prophet Micah says in Mi 4,1-4  NIV :

“In the last days, however, the mountain on which God's house stands will stand firm, higher than all mountains and above all hills. And the peoples will come running, and many pagans will go and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob , that he may teach us his ways and we may walk in his paths!'
For instruction will go out from Zion , and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem . He will judge among great peoples and correct many pagans in distant lands. They will turn their swords into plowshares and their skewers into sickles. No nation will lift up the sword against the other, and they will no longer learn to wage war. Everyone will dwell under his vine and fig tree, and no one will frighten them.
For the mouth of the Lord of the Zebaot has spoken. "

In sharp contrast to this, Mi 3,1–12  LUT announces beforehand:

“If you have something to bite, you shout: Peace! But if you don't put anything in their mouths, they declare holy war . That is why the night comes upon you when you have no more visions ... You are building Zion with blood and Jerusalem with pure injustice. The heads of this city speak justice and accept gifts in return, their priests teach against payment. Their prophets prophesy for money and yet they refer to the Lord and say, 'Isn't God in our midst? Disaster can never come upon us! '
Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed as a field, Jerusalem will be a heap of rubble, the Temple Mount will be a wooded height. "

This judgment word marks the destruction of the Jerusalem temple as an inevitable consequence of the exploitation of the poor by corrupt prophets of salvation and priests who depend on the sacrificial cult. It thus deprived all authorities of the time and the entire Jerusalem temple cult of any justification. Jeremiah reminded his opponents, the temple priests, of this judgment prophecy 150 years later and thus saved his life (Jer 26: 17ff). 586 BC The announced temple destruction occurred.

The promise of peace among nations therefore presupposes the irrevocable end of the previous temple cult and the Israelite kingship. Micha's criticism of the false certainty of salvation, according to Mi 1,2  EU, also applies to all other peoples who , using the example of Israel's history, should recognize God's legal will and allow it to apply: Neither political diplomacy nor military armaments could guarantee peace. It was precisely this adaptation to the policies of the great powers around Israel that was deadly disobedience to God's legal will. Thus verse 4 contradicts the conclusion on the epoch of Solomon , the temple builder, in 1 Kings 5.5  EU , and the offer of a foreign ruler to grant the Israelites a livelihood in the event of their submission, in 2 Kings 18.31  EU .

Instead, YHWH , the “God of Jacob”, will one day take his place himself and visibly rule over the whole world. The elevation of the Temple Mount Zion to the center of the world is the opposite of the self-exaltation of the peoples at the Tower of Babel (Gen 11), which caused confusion of language, distraction and strangeness there. All peoples would recognize this God without worldly intermediaries and would invite each other to obtain his command (instruction, arbitration award) in their conflicts. They would then dismantle and retrofit all weapons worldwide, abolish professional armies and military service and thus enable everyone to make a living and to live together fearlessly. The promise does not call for a specific policy, but promises concrete liberation from hunger , homelessness and fear through voluntary and unreserved renunciation of weapons and the military, permanent unlearning of acts of war, radical reorientation towards what is necessary for living together.

This is followed by a solemn liturgical creed of the congregation in Israel ( Wed 4.5  EU ):

“For all peoples go their way, each calling on the name of his God; but we go our way in the name of Yahweh, our God, forever and ever. "

With this, the recipients of the peace promise undertook to follow YHWH's disarmament command now, even as long as the other peoples do not heed it.

Mi 5.9–13  EU comes back to the previous social criticism and unfolds it: neither military means of power (v.9f) nor religious transfiguration of the same (v.11ff) could save Israel, God's judgment knock them out of the hands of his people. Based on the fate of their religious and political authorities, this prophecy madeclear tothe Jews God's will to disarm pars pro toto (representative of the whole). For them, hope for worldwide and lasting peace was based on Israel accepting judgment over itself as self-inflicted and reversing it. For them there was only realistic hope for peace where people face the self-inflicted catastrophes in their history and accept them as God's judgment over human power.

Micha's promise of peace was in the 8th century BC. By no means unique there. Similar promises have been handed down from his contemporary Hosea , who appeared in the northern Reich of Israel , also connected with the announcement of the judgment and the call to return. Hos 1,7  EU : “However, I will have mercy on the house of Judah and bring them help; I help them as the Lord, their God, but not with bows, swords and war, not with horses and riders. " Hos 2.20  EU :" I break a bow and a sword, there is no more war in the country, I leave them Find peace and security. "

In the book of Psalms , since the time of David, the phrase “YHWH, who puts an end to wars to the end of the earth, who breaks bows and smashes spears, burns shields with fire” has often been found (e.g. in Ps 46 : 9 -11  EU ). Paradoxically, this seems to have arisen from the pre-state tradition of the YHWH war : There YHWH was portrayed as a “war hero” who defended the tribal union of the Israelites and destroyed the enemies and their military power. Since the kingship of Israel and the replacement of an army ban by a mercenary army, this has been increasingly directed not only against foreign military power, but also against the adoption of this form of self-defense in Israel and Judah itself.

Isaiah

In Isa 2, 2–4  EU , the promise of the “pilgrimage to Zion”, which leads to the worldwide conversion of weapons, appears almost word for word. Therefore, some Old Testament scholars date their origin to the time of Isaiah after the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel (722 BC), others to the time after the return from the Babylonian exile (597-539 BC), before the temple was rebuilt has been. In any case, the promise of peace was probably only made after the temple was destroyed in 586 BC. BC, with which the kingship and statehood of Israel ended, inserted into the context of the Book of Michael.

Joel

The post-exilic prophet Joel took up Micah’s promise around 440 BC. As follows ( Joel 4,1.9-12  EU ):

“For, behold, in those days when I will turn the fate of Judah and Jerusalem, I will bring all the Gentiles together and bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat and judge them there because of my people ... Shout this out among the Gentiles: Prepare to holy war! Raise the strong! Let all men of war come and go up! Make swords out of your plowshares and skewers out of your sickles! The weakling says: I am a hero! "

Here the hopeful motive of the worldwide disarmament and conversion, which will follow the pilgrimage to the Temple Mount (Mi 4,3; Isa 2,4), is consciously reversed to the deployment of the highly armed foreign peoples against the God of Israel. "Because of my people", d. H. the repeated exile and dispersion of the Israelites, should they prepare for the final decisive battle with this God. The call to holy war, with which Jer 6.4  EU announced God's judgment on Israel and Zion, is now turned to judgment on Israel's enemies.

This does not, however, withdraw the promise of salvation from Mi 4.1-5. Because Joel emphasizes that all military armor, even if it re-forges all agricultural implements and mobilizes weaklings unfit for war, will perish before God's judgment. The total arming of the foreign peoples, who consider themselves superior to the God of Israel, is mocked and the failure to follow Micah's promise is characterized as a futile escape from God's instruction. The judgment announcement is preceded by Joel 3: 1–5  EU : Afterwards God would pour out his spirit on all mortals so that those who call on his name on “the day of YHWH” (the final judgment ) would be saved.

Ulrich Dahmen commented: “Anyone who is still tempted by the peoples to forge tools into war equipment and to take arms against Jerusalem - and thus against YHWH - (VV. 9f), he - and only he! - falls for the coming judgment (cf. Isa 66,23f). The peoples who go to Jerusalem and Zion peacefully and in search of YHWH's direction have nothing to fear. "

Zechariah

The post-exilic prophet Zechariah (around 520 BC) preserved and updated the promise and commandment of peace among nations in a changed contemporary historical situation. He assumed the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple and, like his contemporary Haggai , hoped that this would lead to a renewal of the entire world order. He announced a new Jerusalem, brought up by God alone, combined with paradisiacal fertility, the return of the formerly exiled Jews from the diaspora, a judgment over the foreign rulers, which converts them to YHWH, and the outpouring of the spirit of YHWH. At the center of the book, which is divided into two parts, is the promise of a nonviolent Messiah who will first implement YHWH's disarmament law in Israel and then worldwide and abolish war altogether ( Zech 9.9f.  EU ):

“Rejoice loudly, daughter of Zion ! Shout out, daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king is coming to you. He is just and helps; he is humble and rides a donkey, a foal, the boy of a donkey. I destroy the chariots from Ephraim and the horses from Jerusalem, the war bow will be destroyed. He proclaims peace for the people; his rule extends from sea to sea and from Eufrat to the ends of the earth. "

In doing so, this prophet placed himself completely in the Zion tradition of his predecessors on the one hand, and on the other hand set himself apart from the former imperial expectation of the Messiah, which disappeared with the Davidic kingship. He also implicitly criticized the claims to world domination of the great empires of his time.

This post-exilic preservation and actualization of the promise of Micah and Isaiah shows the continuity of the hope for peace among nations in Judaism. According to some Old Testament scholars, this was already laid out in the original promise to the progenitor Abraham to become a blessing for the people ( Gen 12.1–3  EU ): “There is no indication that the Jews ever lost this hope [Mi 4.1–5 ], given as a promise to Abraham, of bringing blessing to the whole world when the nations realize that Yahweh is God. "

Jesus of Nazareth

Jesus of Nazareth is already portrayed in the natal legends of the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke as the bringer of the promised peace among nations. So Mt 2,5f  EU refers explicitly to Mi 5,1-3  EU , according to which the future savior will be born in Bethlehem and personify the previously announced peace of nations. In Lk 2,14  LUT the army of angels cheered Jesus' birth on behalf of humanity with the words: "Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth with the people of his good pleasure." Here Luke took up expressions that were then in the Roman Empire on emperors Augustus were minted: This was also hailed as a savior and peace-bringer in the sense of a guarantor of legal security and order. The fact that the angels here praise a powerless Jew who was subjected to the Romans and later crucified with these words is clearly differentiated from the Pax Romana . Later, Jesus directly contradicts this kind of peace according to Lk 12.51  EU : “Do you think I came to bring peace to earth? No, I tell you, not peace, but division “right across the families of his followers who have to decide for or against to follow Jesus .

According to all the Gospels, a multitude of Jewish Passover visitors received Jesus on his entry into Jerusalem with a cheer that expressed an expectation of the Messiah ( Mk 11: 1-10  EU "Praise be the kingdom of our father David, which is coming!" Mt 21, 9  EU : “Hosanna to the Son of David!” Lk 19.38  EU : “Praise be to him who comes, the King, in the name of the Lord!” Joh 12,13  EU : “Praise be who comes in the name of Lord, the King of Israel! ”). So it was hoped that he would restore a Davidic empire, drive out the Roman rulers, and thus help the poor and oppressed to their rights. Jesus himself had promised the liberation of the poor after the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5-7) or Field Discourse (Lk 6) and the inaugural sermon in Capernaum (Lk 4). His appearance, his healings, and his interpretation of the Torah for the benefit of the poor had raised messianic expectations. After the text he answered the cheers by having his disciples fetch a young donkey, sit on it, and ride into the city. This prophetic act of signs reminded the audience of Zechariah's promise and claimed to be fulfilling it. In doing so, Jesus made a visible messiah claim, but at the same time contradicted the national religious expectations of the population.

The non-violent image of the Messiah claimed here corresponds to Jesus' commandment to love one's enemy ( Mt 5 : 38-48  EU ) and the unarmed and defenseless manner in which he proclaimed the kingdom of God and acted in advance. According to Mk 10.45  EU , he declared to his disciples that his mission was to serve, not to rule; his followers should also forego the pursuit of power and thus distinguish themselves from the rulers of this world. In the trial before the Sanhedrin , according to Mk 14.62  EU , he replied to the high priest's question "Are you the Messiah?": "It is I, and you will see the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven and sitting at the right hand of God." With this, Jesus reminded his earthly judges of the vision in Dan 7,2-14  EU of the final judgment and kingdom of the Son of Man, who will time-limit and replace their power. According to this, Jesus represented the apocalyptic hope of the final disempowerment and abolition of all systems of violence and criticized the particular and internal Messiah expectation of a Jewish empire based on the model of other great empires. According to the text, this provoked the unanimous death sentence of the Sanhedrin against him.

Modern interpretations

In 1978, Hans Walter Wolff emphasized the binding nature of Micha's promise also for all non-Jews, especially for Christians:

“The God of Israel, the Lord of the Church does not want to be found apart from his least of all brothers. [...] The prophet's eyes widen to the fact that no holy place is a guarantor of the presence of God and therefore the future. […] The Church thinks just as far for the future of the world of nations as she for her part not only speaks, but lives according to the voice of Zion. If our peoples are still practicing war, the church should all the more clearly take the path of peace. […] In this way, the community of Israel becomes a place of peace, where all means of defense and attack have been smashed, as well as the occult religious practices of self-security. In this way, Zion is being armored by his disempowerment to trust the peace work and word of peace of his God alone. "

In 1980 Jürgen Ebach emphasized the realism of the promise:

“The longed-for peace time has nothing to do with a land of milk and honey. There will be work in a happy future - as already in the Garden of Eden (cf. Genesis 2:15), according to the description of the Paradise story . Working with the plow and the winemaker's knife is also hard work, as it is part of the everyday life of the author and his listeners. The Old Testament does not even consider being human without work, it is not even worth striving for. What is hoped for is a time in which the individual in his community can enjoy the result of his work, work that is not forced labor , that cannot be destroyed, that can be done under conditions that are not alienated. "

Micha knew "that it is not enough to want peace and to express the will for peace, that rather every armament, every accumulation of weapons means the danger of war":

“Peace is not already secured where armaments are defensive, where belligerence is credibly replaced by 'readiness to defend', where an army is designed to prevent wars. Where this is achieved, progress may be made. But peace is only possible where weapons have become productive devices, where there is no longer an army, yes, with Isa 2: 4, only where no one learns to wage war. "

Willy Schottroff emphasized in 1984 that the promise was the result of centuries of painful learning in Israel. Micha concluded from the failure of traditional monarchical great power, alliance and armaments policy:

“The abolition of armaments alone is not enough to create effective peace. Rather, peace has first and foremost justice as a prerequisite: that one people does not rule, subjugate, exploit or even plunder the other and live at its expense and that one class within a people does not oppress and exploit the other. […] The peaceful image […] that everyone should sit undisturbed under their vine and fig tree and have enough is not an image of wealth, but also not an image of hunger. It will still take great efforts of solidarity and solidarity sharing until what this utopia has in mind ... "

Trutz Rendtorff and Wolfhart Pannenberg spoke in 1984 of an abuse of the promise of disarmament in the peace movement and rejected a confession of faith by the EKD against nuclear armament. Hans Walter Wolff stated against it:

“The universal promise, according to which all peoples on Yahweh's way seek peace, is still completely unfulfilled. The world of nations does not yet think of making its decisions according to Yahweh's word. But Yahweh's community should (Isa 2,5) and will (Mi 4,5) already listen to his instruction and his word, already turn swords into plowshares and no longer learn the craft of war. So the Jahweg congregation is already embarking on the path that is promised to all for the turn of the ages. [...] The hearers of the word convert their weapons into peace devices, they stop learning and declaring war. As a consequence of Yahweh's arbitration and judging, the decision to forge swords in plowshares is obviously inevitable. The direction is clear. An alternative to this, even in the direction of the provision of modern weapons of the destruction of mankind, is neither here nor in the abundance of related Old Testament and New Testament texts even remotely recognizable. Working towards international legal agreements on disarmament is urgently desired, but does not even come close to replacing what is proclaimed here as a consequence of the word of Yahweh. As people who listen to the God of the biblical witnesses, must we not, as often in the New Testament apostles and Jesus words, face the expectation of a special and, for the time being, one-sided peacetime behavior in the discipleship, regardless of binding international agreements, but probably in addition to them intensive promotion? "

Christianity history

Patristic

Most Christian patristic theologians strictly opposed any killing of people, especially armed self-defense, with reference to the Sermon on the Mount . Since Jesus began to fulfill the biblical promise of peace among nations in a non-violent way and instructed his successor to proclaim peace to all peoples, Christians could not possibly take part in war and the military. This is how Justin the Martyr commented in his First Apology Micah 4:

“But when the prophetic spirit can be heard as the herald of the future, he says thus: 'From Zion the law will go out, and the word of the Lord of Jerusalem, and he will judge in the midst of nations and rebuke many people; and they will forge their swords into plowshares and their lances into sickles, and they will no longer pick up swords against people and unlearn war. '
And you can see for yourself that this has happened; for men went out from Jerusalem into the world, twelve in number, quite uneducated and unable to speak; but by the power of God they showed all the human race that they were sent by Christ to preach the word of God to all. And we who once murdered each other now not only abstain from any animosity towards our opponents, but we go so as not to lie and not to deceive the examining magistrates, also joyfully for the confession of Christ in death. "

Irenaeus of Lyons , Tertullian , Clement of Alexandria and Origen also represented that Christianity fulfills and teaches the promised worldwide disarmament through its own non-violence, conscientious objection and readiness for martyrdom .

Large church war theory

With the Constantinian turning point in 313, the non-violent and military-critical attitude of most early Christians was soon replaced by an affirmation of the Roman state and its military defense. As a result, the biblical promise of disarmament lost its concrete guiding role for the baptized. It has now been declared to be a condition that cannot be established by human beings and will only occur with God's final judgment or the return of Christ in the kingdom of God on the other side.

The theory of just war formulated by Augustine von Hippo in 420 became authoritative for church speeches and actions on war and the military . It was supposed to subordinate the state's monopoly of force (here: the Roman Empire) to the spiritual leadership of the Imperial Church and its wars to their moral criteria. However, it was often used to justify, not limit wars by Christian governments. Thomas Aquinas developed Augustine's doctrine further in the 13th century without taking into account the Tanakh's promises of peace. The Roman Catholic Church was for him the authority that led the worldly kingdom spiritually. Thus, for him, this empire was a just order of peace which, if necessary, had to be defended against threats by military means. Therefore he did not problematize armaments as such and did not strive for general disarmament.

Peace churches

Around 1200 Christian minorities emerged who rejected gun ownership and military service as incompatible with following Jesus . The lay people of the Third Order , influenced by Francis of Assisi , obeyed the commandment: They may not receive or carry deadly weapons against anyone (Memorial 15.3). In addition, they were obliged to refuse to obey the flag . Both bans together excluded military service.

The Waldensians , since the Reformation the Anabaptist communities of the Stäbler , Hutterer and Mennonites and later the Quakers , Unitarians and Adventists tie in with the early Christian non-violence and therefore reject armed services for themselves. Today they are summarized as " peace churches ". Some of them founded international Christian Peacemaker teams in the 20th century to support civil conflict management on site.

Attitudes of Jews

In the Middle Ages, representatives of the Reich Church tried to force Jews to confess Christ in (mostly forced) disputations . Rabbis involved in this often pointed out in their interrogations that Jesus had not fulfilled the promises of biblical prophets, i.e. that Jesus could not be the Messiah. In the dispute in Barcelona in 1263 , Nachmanides responded to the question of whether he believed in Jesus' Messanity with the counter-question:

“And doesn't the prophet also proclaim that in the age of the Messiah no one will teach others the art of war (Isa 2: 4) and that the world will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as water covers the sea (Isa 11: 9)? However, from the days of Jesus to this day, the whole world has been filled with murder, robbery and plunder - and Christians have shed more blood than any other people ... "

André Schwarz-Bart described such a disputation scene in his novel The Last of the Righteous , in which a rabbi answered the obligatory Messiah question:

“'... if it is true that the Messiah of whom our prophets speak has already come, how do you explain the present state of the world? Gentlemen, the prophets said that the weeping and moaning would disappear from the world when the Messiah arrived - didn't they? And also that all nations would break their swords, oh yes, to make plowshares out of them - right? […] Oh, what would one say, Sire, if you forgot how to wage war? ' - The rabbi was burned - in the name of Jesus Christ. "

In 2000, the Dabru Emet declaration by Jewish theologians in the USA justified their demand that Jews and Christians should work together for justice and peace around the world with the prophetic vision of disarmament.

Time of world wars

In the emerging nationalism of the 19th century, the major churches mostly saw themselves as national churches that had to support their own fatherland , especially in the event of war . Following Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich Schleiermacher, leading theologians saw war as an order of creation , i.e. the natural and unchangeable law of history. The German Protestant churches endorsed the declaration of war by the German Empire and the occupation of Belgium , with which the First World War began. Theologians like Adolf von Harnack , Wilhelm Herrmann , Adolf Schlatter and Reinhold Seeberg signed the manifesto of the 93rd published on October 4, 1914 . Karl Barth experienced this as an ethical failure of his teachers, which caused him to break with their theology. Few Christians refused to do military service. Almost all of them belonged to the peace churches or special groups, were often sentenced to long prison terms and remained without the support of the large church.

On September 8, 1914, Pope Benedict XV spoke . in his apostolic letter Ubi primum against the war. On August 1, 1917, he called on those who participated in the war in the peace note Dès le début to end the war, to immediately begin peace negotiations and to general disarmament. However , like other national bishops 'conferences, the German Bishops' Conference continued to support the war efforts of its own government. The Peace Association of Catholic Clergymen, founded on August 28, 1917, referred to the Pope's call , from which the Peace Association of German Catholics (FDK), which is also open to lay people, emerged in 1919 . By 1932, with 48,000 members, it had grown to become the second largest pacifist organization in the Weimar Republic . Only then did the German Bishops' Conference allow Archbishop Michael von Faulhaber to take over the protectorate for the FDK.

In 1920 Pope Benedict XV took over. in the encyclical Pacem, Dei munus pulcherrimum all the demands of the pacifists since the Hague Peace Conferences before 1914: including an international independent arbitration tribunal for interstate conflict resolution and a League of Nations in preparation for “the enormous burden of military spending, which states can no longer bear to abolish or reduce them in order to prevent these fateful wars or at least to prevent the endangerment they pose as far as possible ”(§ 17).

The World Alliance for Friendship Work of the Churches, founded on August 1, 1914, and the movement for practical Christianity (English: Life and Work ) founded in 1919 also advocated international understanding and general disarmament. At their first international conference in Stockholm in 1925 under the biblical motto of Eph 2,14  EU ( Christ is our peace ) this ecumenical movement declared :

"War, as a means of resolving international disputes through physical violence, combined with insidiousness and lies, is incompatible with the attitude and conduct of Christ and therefore also with the attitude and conduct of the Church of Christ."

The German delegates contradicted this, as they saw war as a law of nature, and taking action against it as a presumptuous intervention in “God's rule”. This theology of war was represented by Emanuel Hirsch and Paul Althaus, among others .

In 1933, the National Socialist regime banned the pacifist organizations, arrested many of their leading representatives and had some of them murdered in concentration camps. The churches did not contradict this. The reintroduction of compulsory military service in 1935 finally broke the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919. The Confessing Church and the German Christians welcomed this introduction in a joint press release:

“For Protestants, general conscription is the huge elementary school, a means of education that, like hardly any other, is able to convey to our people the great moral, spiritual and physical values ​​that a people needs in the struggle for its existence, which have made Germany great and it overcoming severe strokes of fate ... Therefore today and always: God with us! "

The German Catholic bishops unanimously justified conscription in 1936 and 1914 as the necessary preparation for an alleged war of defense :

“The Fiihrer and Chancellor Adolf Hitler saw the advance of Bolshevism from afar and directed his thoughts and worries to ward off this immense danger from our German people and the entire West. The German bishops consider it their duty to support the head of the German Empire in this defensive struggle with all means available to them from the sanctuary. "

After Hitler's attack on Poland , another “ shepherd's word ” from September 17, 1939 said:

“In this decisive hour we encourage and exhort our Catholic soldiers to do their duty in obedience to the Fiihrer, willing to make sacrifices, devoted to their whole personality. We call on the believing people to an ardent prayer that God's providence may lead the war that has broken out to a successful success and peace for the fatherland and the people. "

During the First World War, from 1917 onwards, the churches had made around 65,000 church bells available as weapons material on state orders. At the beginning of April 1940, Hermann Göring's decree demanded that almost all German church bells be given to the armaments industry "to secure the metal reserve for long-term warfare". As a result, 47,000 of 63,000 bells (almost 77%) were melted down and mostly made into grenades. On April 12, 1940, the DEK's “spiritual trust council”, chaired by August Marahrens, recommended that all regional churches implement Goering's order as a “joyful sacrifice for the Führer and Fatherland” in the form of a “bell sacrifice”. At the same time, he decided to congratulate, resign from the pulpit and ring bells across the country for the “ Führer birthday ”. The letter request submitted at this meeting by the conscientious objector Hermann Stöhr , who was sentenced to death by the Reich Court Martial on March 16, 1940 , to support his pardon against Hitler, was not dealt with; Stöhr was beheaded on June 21, 1940. In the week of his funeral, the DEK churches hung up swastika flags, rang the bells for seven days on Hitler's instructions and held thanksgiving services for the victory over France in the western campaign .

Church ethics of peace since 1945

Only after the Second World War did the churches question their traditional war ethics more strongly. In 1948 the World Council of Churches (WCC) adopted the sentence by consensus at its founding meeting in Amsterdam: "According to God's will, war should not be."

West German rearmament began in 1950 : Martin Niemöller , who was one of the first to speak out against it, was reprimanded by the EKD leadership, to which he still belonged at the time.

In view of the impending nuclear armament of NATO , the EKD Council called in May 1954 for a general halt to the nuclear arms race; it was followed by the general assembly of the WCC in August 1954. In June 1956 the EKD Synod called on all Christians with a declaration drawn up by Heinrich Vogel not to take part in the development and manufacture of weapons of mass destruction . But the EKD refused to take over a word of the brotherhoods, which in March 1958 rejected all such means as incompatible with the Apostles' Creed . Instead, it published the Heidelberg Theses in 1959 , in which deterrence, including with nuclear weapons, was temporarily affirmed as peacekeeping. Since then, the formula of “peace service with and without weapons” has expressed the EKD's stance: It affirms the individual right to conscientious objection and supports those who claim it, but at the same time provides pastoral care for those who do military service ( military pastoral care contract ) and upholds fair ones Case by case wars for possible.

Pope John XXIII wrote the encyclical Pacem in terris in 1963 , which for the first time addressed "all people of good will" and u. a. demanded:

“That is why justice, common sense and respect for human dignity urgently demand that the general arms race end; that the weapons already available in various states are reduced on both sides and at the same time; that nuclear weapons are banned; and that finally, on the basis of agreements, everyone can achieve appropriate disarmament with effective mutual control. "

Thus the principle of equilibrium was in fact recognized as peacekeeping and therefore no unilateral, ethically justified renunciation of nuclear weapons was demanded, but multilateral disarmament treaties.

Minorities in the major churches wanted to gradually replace the military security concept with other forms of defense, such as Pax Christi on the Catholic side, Action Reconciliation for Peace Services and Armored Life on the Protestant side. They understand the biblical vision of peace as a binding model for the consistent orientation towards disarmament, non-violent conflict resolution models and reconciliation with descendants of German tyranny and human crimes.

The Second Vatican Council stated in Gaudium et Spes , No. 82 in 1965 :

“Above all, a new education and a new spirit in public opinion are urgently needed. Whoever dedicates himself to the task of education, especially the youth, and whoever helps to shape public opinion, should regard it as his heavy duty to awaken a new sense of peace in everyone. "

The pastoral word Just Peace of the German Bishops' Conference from the year 2000 emphasizes, also referring to the words of the prophets, that peace can only come about through just living conditions for all. Accordingly, a commitment to human rights, sustainable development, violence prevention and post-conflict rehabilitation is required. Arms limits and nuclear disarmament are required of the states. This text, too, does not call for a unilateral and total disarmament of weapons of mass destruction, but instead allows the states to use conventional armed forces “for tasks in the context of national and alliance defense, but also for appropriate engagement in the context of international crisis management”. Because there is the "duty [...] to effectively protect people from foreign arbitrariness and violence".

In 1975 the WCC introduced an anti-militarism program that analyzes the causes of global armament and armed conflicts and considers alternatives. He commits his member churches to the abolition of nuclear weapons and advocates a worldwide ban on landmines . Under its roof, numerous national and international initiatives in the sense of “swords to plowshares” campaign for dismantling and conversion and a fair world economic order. In association with other non-governmental organizations , they also influence NATO countries to implement the obligation to nuclear disarmament entered into in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty . An example of such a group Plowshares ( "plowshares") in Canada : The group will give u. a. a detailed annual report on wars, armed conflicts and rearmament, identifies their causes and relates them to expenditure on development aid .

Peace policy initiatives

Modern pacifism

Not the churches, but the philosophy of the Enlightenment began with considerations as to how the dream of "eternal peace" could be realized politically. In 1795, Immanuel Kant drafted an international treaty system for sovereign republican states, which should regulate the peaceful balance of interests of the peoples in a sustainable manner:

  • A peace treaty among peoples must exclude hidden warlike intentions and future causes of war.
  • He must recognize the sovereignty of every state and its territory.
  • "Standing armies ... should stop completely over time."

The otherwise continuing threat of war would generate arms races and wars of aggression . It degrades people to things and machines of war, so it is incompatible with the idea of ​​universal human rights .

In the 19th century, pacifism was a movement that tried to implement these enlightened ideas. Comprehensive disarmament and the exclusion of a war of aggression were now the first political goals. In doing so, the biblical vision was detached from its theological context and secularized : The commandment of the God of Israel was transformed into a moral appeal to the conscience and the ethical decision of the individual to renounce armed self-defense (cf. Bertha von Suttner : Put your arms down! ).

Only after the First World War did this movement gain popularity in Germany and established a. a. the Anti-War (then August 1) as the date of a recurring annual mass demonstration. But the pacifists remained a social minority: on the one hand, because the relationship between their own renunciation of force and political power and national sovereignty remained unresolved, on the other hand, because they were at odds with one another in terms of nonviolence in principle, anti-militarists (“war against war!”) And Socialists who hoped that the war would only be overcome by the abolition of all class rule and who justified the revolutionary violence that this would entail. Here, also appealed neo-Marxists such as Ernst Bloch on the Bible: The Prophecy of Mi 4 / Isaiah 2 was "the original model of the pacified International " that all men should be accessible and understandable, as they bring their nearest interests expressed.

The “ military-industrial complex ” - the dependencies and interdependencies between the armaments industry , the military and government leaders - was insufficiently taken into account in many ethical appeals. In most of the disarmament demands, arms conversion was only at the very end of an international process of understanding.

UN charter

The goal of sustainable international peace was enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations in 1945 . Since then, most states have theoretically recognized the prohibition of any war of aggression (Chapter I, Article 2, Paragraph 4):

"All members refrain in their international relations from any threat or use of force directed against the territorial integrity or the political independence of a state or otherwise incompatible with the goals of the United Nations."

Soviet sculpture

Sculpture by Yevgeny Wuchetich

On December 4, 1959, the Soviet Union presented the UN with a bronze sculpture by Yevgeny Viktorovich Vuchetich , which depicts the biblical motif in a pictorial and plastic manner. The sculpture was set up in the garden of the main UN building in New York City . Her model is in front of the branch of the Tretyakov Gallery of Modern Art in Moscow. The sculpture shows a muscular hero who forges a sword into a plow . It is designed in the style of socialist realism and emphasizes the creativity of the working person. At the same time, she appeals to the UN Charter for peace. It is part of a series of works by this sculptor, which is connected by the sword motif, including the sculpture "The Liberation Warrior" from 1949 (location: Soviet Memorial in Treptower Park ) and the Mother Home Statue (Volgograd) from 1967.

With the gift to the UN, the Soviet party and state leadership confirmed their then officially declared readiness for peaceful coexistence with the " class enemy ". She always portrayed her country as a peace power and its rearmament serving exclusively defensive purposes. Since 1960, the Soviet Union offered the West its own disarmament initiatives and tried above all to get NATO to abandon its strategy of first use of nuclear weapons. At the same time, both superpowers continued the arms race unabated and waged or supported proxy wars in third world countries . Western historians largely interpret Soviet disarmament advances as a propaganda tool to gain political power in the ongoing Cold War . Advance disarmament work without a multilateral treaty was mostly presented and rejected by government representatives in East and West as a threat to the military equilibrium and thus destabilization of the non-war situation.

USA and UK

In the 1960s, the US Vietnam War met with increasing opposition worldwide. An influential opponent of war in the USA was Martin Luther King : on April 30, 1967, he gave the sermon It's A Dark Day In Our Nation. In it he gave seven reasons for his attitude: first, his distress in conscience before God, who forced him to speak, since silence meant betrayal of the war victims; Finally, his love for America, which with this war had abandoned its own constitutional values, human dignity and God-given human rights . Finally, he encouraged his listeners not to give up their belief in the world-changing power of love. This belief connects Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Christians, Muslims. As the source of this strength he last paraphrased Micha's promise of peace:

“With this trust we can accelerate the day when we sing all over the world […]:… Thanks to God Almighty, we are finally free! [...] People will forge their swords in plowshares and their spears in sickles. And nations will not stand up against nations, nor will they learn more war. And I don't know how you feel about it, but I won't learn war any more. "

With this, King linked his Mahatma Gandhi- based concept of " nonviolent resistance " and " civil disobedience " for the civil rights of African Americans with the stand against this war.

In the 1980s, a broad extra-parliamentary protest movement arose again in the USA and Great Britain , this time against nuclear armament projects under Ronald Reagan . Pacifist and anti-militarist groups of the ploughshare movement explicitly referred to the quotation from the Bible. You wanted u. a. with blockades and occupations of military company premises show that not only public pressure, but direct, risk-ready resistance to nuclear armament is necessary and possible. They made a strict distinction between violence against things and violence against people.

The Plowshare Eight ("Ploughshare Eight") consisted of eight people, including the former Roman Catholic priest Philip Berrigan and his brother, the Jesuit preacher Daniel Berrigan . On September 9, 1980, they broke into a nuclear weapons factory in Pennsylvania and hit nuclear warheads with hammers. They made nuclear weapon designs unusable with their own blood and prayed for peace on the factory floor until they were arrested. Trials followed with sentences of five to ten years for “endangering national security”. These sentences were later reduced to just under two years in prison. After the release, the members of the group stayed together and continued similar actions. The priest Carl Kabat celebrated the 25th anniversary of his ordination with a hammer on a nuclear weapons site.

During an act of sabotage at the British Aerospace on January 29, 1996 , activists of the "Seeds of Hope East Timor Plowshares: Women disarming for life and justice" destroyed a BAE Hawk destined for Indonesia . For the first time after such an act, activists were acquitted by a court of the charge of property damage.

Other groups like the Trident Plowshares in Great Britain took up the idea; this group received the Right Livelihood Award in 2001 for their non-violent actions against a nuclear submarine . Around 70 such actions are known around the world, mostly in western states that have nuclear weapons at their disposal. They all refer to the biblical vision of peace and commit targeted violence related to armaments, but otherwise claim strict non-violence. The perpetrators usually stay at the scene of the crime until they are arrested and defend their actions in court with reference to God, their own conscience and the right to resist .

During the thanksgiving prayer for the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th US President on January 20, 2009, Pastor Joseph Lowery referred to the biblical promise of peace:

"Help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid; when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream. "

Peace initiatives in the GDR

Memorial stone in Gramzow

In 1971 the pastor and superintendent Curt-Jürgen Heinemann-Grüder had a memorial stone set up on the graves of the fallen in Gramzow in the Uckermark region with the words "Swords to plowshares". The years 1933 and 1938 recall the deportation of communists and social democrats to prisons and concentration camps and the beginning of the extermination of the Jews. This was the first public presentation of this text in the GDR, which later became the slogan of the independent peace movement.

First decade of peace

In 1978 the SED introduced the compulsory subject " military education " at GDR schools. The Federation of Evangelical Churches in the GDR filed an objection to this without success and presented an alternative program “Education for Peace”. As a result, independent peace initiatives that were critical of the state emerged in many parishes. Regular seminars, for example in Königswalde (district of Werdau in Saxony), attracted young people from all over the GDR.

"Swords to plowshares" graphic from 1980 as a banner at St. Nikolai Cathedral (Greifswald) , 2008

The image of the Soviet sculpture designed by Herbert Sander together with the inscription “Swords to Plowshares” was first used as a bookmark for an invitation to the divine service on the day of penance and prayer in 1980 by Protestant youth groups in the GDR. This holiday had been agreed upon with the GDR Association of Churches to conclude the first ten-day " Peace Decade ". The suggestion for this came from the interdenominational peace council in the Netherlands , which was the first church association to call for a total dismantling of all nuclear weapons in Europe and justified this with the vote of the Dutch Reformed Church , according to which peacekeeping through atomic deterrence is completely incompatible with being a Christian.

The first decade of peace resulted from the intensive preparatory work of the Evangelical Jungmannwerk (Ostwerk) and a working group of the YMCA (Westwerk) in October 1979. Another working meeting had to take place at night in private apartments in Berlin because of the surveillance pressure of the Stasi . The initiators shared the strong concern about rearmament in central Europe on both sides of the inner-German border. They tried to find a clear common position on this. So they demanded the complete demilitarization of both German states. The material that had been developed was forwarded to the conference of Protestant youth pastors in the GDR as a mandate to implement a joint peace campaign: the first decade of peace. This should take place simultaneously in all member churches of both German church federations and was therefore proposed to them.

The invitation was designed by Harald Bretschneider , the Saxon youth pastor at the time ; the graphic artist Ingeborg Geißler created a printable drawing for it. The bookmark was printed in a print run of 120,000 in the Abraham Dürninger printing house of the Moravian Brethren on nonwovens , as this was considered a "textile surface finishing" and did not require a state printing permit. The text of the invitation referred to church services, youth and community evenings and a "minute of peace": On the day of repentance at 1:00 p.m., the church bells across the country should remind people to pray at the same time as the state siren exercise. After the GDR government forbade this as a threat to civil protection and a call for work stoppages, the bell was rescheduled to 1:15 p.m.

The motto of the decade was "Creating peace without weapons". Independently of this, the West German Aktion Sühnezeichen with its chairman Volkmar Deile used the same motto . It went back to a world-wide meeting of the WCC: In 1975 in Nairobi it recommended that all member churches declare to their own governments their willingness to “live without the protection of weapons”. At first, this remained unknown to most parishes and was hardly made public by any church leadership. In its official declarations, the EKD always spoke of the “peace service with and without weapons” and continued to justify the deterrence even with nuclear weapons in 1982, as in 1959, as a “Christian possible course of action”.

In June 1980, the Evangelical Student Congregation Dresden was the first group in the GDR to take up the recommendation of the WCC in order to initiate a discussion process in the congregations. Under the growing pressure of the church youth, the conference of the Protestant church leaderships in the GDR decided on the first decade of peace. After talks with the secretariat of the GDR Association of Churches, Manfred Stolpe , the invitation was approved together with the graphic of the bookmark. The patch met the longing for peace of many young people. They now spontaneously wore it everywhere on their street clothes, on coats, bags and caps in schools and factories, thus making their wish for peace public.

Second decade of peace

Poster for the Peace Decade, taken in November 1989 in Schwerin Cathedral

In the spring of 1981, some parishes proposed to their synods to introduce a two-year Social Peace Service as an equal alternative to national military service in the NVA and to the construction soldiers . Some regional synods publicly supported this demand until the end of the year, others rejected it. A meeting of the church leaders with the State Secretary for Church Affairs Klaus Gysi in September ended with the government's strict rejection of the idea.

On October 10, 1981, the largest demonstration to date against “retrofitting” in the old Federal Republic took place on the Hofgartenwiese in Bonn with around 300,000 participants . While the traditional groups mostly used the well-known symbol of the blue dove of peace , mainly Christian peace groups showed the motif "Swords to plowshares" out of solidarity with the GDR's independent peace groups. In many cases, these posters were also references to the Solidarity -Gewerkschaft in Poland linked to

  • to call for a cross-bloc peace movement independent of Soviet or large German interests,
  • to draw attention to the common disarmament interests of the labor movement and the peace movement,
  • to combine the peace issue with the issue of democratization and social justice.

As a representative of the East German peace groups, the Erfurt provost Heino Falcke was allowed to speak in front of the Bonn demonstrators.

The following Decade of Peace from November 8th to 18th, 1981, was carried out for the first time at the same time within the West German EKD and had the theme “Justice - Disarmament - Peace”. Since the GDR authorities did not expect a printing permit for stickers or badges, the symbol "Swords to Plowshares" was printed with another 100,000 pieces on non-woven fabric and used as a patch. A little later a large display board with the symbol was set up in the Nikolaikirche (Leipzig) .

While numerous school teachers, people's police and company officials now demanded that the patches be removed, church representatives took the wearers under protection and pointed out the origin of the symbol shown and the official propaganda . The Soviet memorial was also depicted in the GDR history book for the 6th grade, and the textbook for the youth consecration of 1975 explained: “We forge swords into plowshares.” The GDR's “German Journal for Philosophy” quoted at the beginning of 1982 Isaiah passage and wrote:

“Which Marxist would want to assert that religious belief in this form is reactionary and, although he himself has not yet been able to represent a scientifically founded consciousness, is incompatible with scientificism? This [...] belief in a way anticipates the scientific knowledge of a classless society in which there are no more wars. "

With reference to this, the church authorities initially succeeded in averting a ban on the patch. But from November 1981 the Saxon regional bishop Johannes Hempel received the official notification: "Because of abuse, these patches may no longer be worn in schools and in public." This was based on the efforts of the SED to organize acceptance for the new military service law. The patch wearers were now confronted with massive allegations: The undifferentiated pacifism is anti-peace, the patches are Western imports and foreign material, whoever wears them is degrading military strength and undermining state and social activities to protect peace. They have become a sign of an independent peace movement that cannot be tolerated.

Many young people who did not remove the patches were dismissed from universities and advanced secondary schools, experienced punitive transfers, non-admission to the Abitur, refusal of the desired apprenticeship position, school ban or hindrance to entering his company. Educators, customs officers and police officers cut the patches out of jackets if young people did not do so voluntarily, or confiscated the patches or entire items of clothing. Some of it was later found in Stasi files. At the beginning of 1982 a growing number of young people reacted by sewing round white spots onto their jackets or writing on their sleeves with felt-tip pens: "There was a blacksmith here."

Other disarmament initiatives

"Swords to plowshares" on a plaque at the Protestant rectory in Meiningen

On January 25, 1982, Rainer Eppelmann , then a pastor in East Berlin , published his Berlin appeal : In it he called for the withdrawal of all nuclear weapons from the GDR, the Federal Republic and Central Europe. Prominent GDR dissidents such as Stefan Heym and Robert Havemann supported the appeal and publicly called for an autonomous peace movement in the GDR. The attempt by the SED leadership to promote the Western European opposition to the NATO double resolution but to suppress independent East German disarmament initiatives as a threat to the “socialist peace state” had thus failed for the time being .

She responded with an FDJ campaign under the title: Peace must be defended - peace must be armed. The initiative for the Social Peace Service was presented as anti-constitutional. In doing so, the SED showed the confederation of churches its limits: Part of the State Treaty was that it did not act as a political opposition. The bishops wanted to respect this limit, but defended the right and duty of Christians to think independently about their own contributions to peace and criticize militarization tendencies within the GDR system.

On February 13, 1982, young people critical of the state called for a commemoration at the Frauenkirche in view of the increasing militarization of civil life in the GDR on the occasion of the 37th anniversary of the air raids on Dresden . In order to avoid feared clashes between the demonstrators and the Stasi and the People's Police, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Saxony offered a “Forum Peace” in the Kreuzkirche (Dresden) as an alternative to the illegal gathering. Around 5,000 visitors took part in the discussion forum. The rejection of NATO rearmament was just as unanimous as the rejection of the continued GDR militarization and gagging of one's own peace policy activities. Bishop Hempel received a lot of criticism because he advised against wearing the patch, as this provokes the state, narrows the scope of action of the church and could not protect the youth from prosecution. From the event, a few hundred people moved to the ruins of the Frauenkirche, stood there in silence with candlelight or sang songs. The open forum and the following silent commemoration have since been celebrated annually on February 13 in Dresden.

There was no direct connection between Eppelmann's appeal and the Dresden Forum. East German independent peace initiatives were not organized nationwide and were just a real alternative to state-imposed, long-stagnating associations such as the GDR Peace Council and the Christian Peace Conference (CFK). The West German media tried to write a nationwide system opposition as a counterpart to the Western peace movement: But most of the church youth groups in the GDR rejected far-reaching demands for the withdrawal of the occupation forces and the withdrawal of the German states from the military alliances. Initially, they wanted to expand the scope for initiative and social commitment.

In another conversation with Klaus Gysi on April 7, 1982, the church representatives protested against the attacks and suspicions to which the wearers of the patch were exposed. The symbol is a Christian witness to peace, its prohibition a restriction of freedom of belief and conscience. The church is not just an amplifier of the state's foreign policy, but is engaged in independent peace work, which remains necessary as a “disarmament impulse”. The symbol should not be seen as a contrast to the state's peace policy. - With this, the Federation of Churches tried to protect young people and church free spaces. At the same time, he initially excluded more far-reaching concepts that attack state military policy from the debate.

On May 12, 1983, Petra Kelly , Gert Bastian and three other members of the Bundestag of the Greens unrolled a banner on Alexanderplatz in East Berlin with the inscription “The Greens - Swords to Plowshares” and then met with GDR opposition members. The GDR authorities tolerated this after their temporary arrest because the West German Greens rejected NATO's double decision .

On September 24, 1983, during a Protestant church convention in Wittenberg, a symbolic action took place at the Lutherhof : the local blacksmith Stefan Nau forged a sword into a ploughshare in front of around 4,000 participants. Because of the presence of Western media representatives and Richard von Weizsäcker as a guest, the state organs did not intervene. Some sources attribute the idea for this campaign to Stefan Nau himself; Friedrich Schorlemmer , at that time a preacher at the Schlosskirche Wittenberg , supported the initiative. He had founded a peace group as early as 1980, which lasted even after the patch was banned and the West German peace movement subsided. In a later interview with MDR television, Nau reports that Schorlemmer also presented texts by Gorbachev at this blacksmithing event. Gorbachev was hardly known at the time, he only became general secretary of the CPSU in 1985.

In October 1983, Councilor of State Erich Honecker received Petra Kelly, Gerd Bastian and other Westgrüne for an interview. Kelly was wearing a sweater with "Swords to Plowshares" printed on it. She demanded the release of all "those arrested by the GDR peace movement" and asked Honecker why he was banning what he supported in the West in the GDR. Then the visitors met GDR opposition members around Bärbel Bohley . The GDR then banned them from entering the country for a year.

The turning point of 1989

“Swords for Plowshares” monument in the Teterow town church from a scrapped NVA tank
Demonstration of the "Greens" for disarmament and detente during a recruit swearing in the Steiger barracks in Erfurt , October 20, 1990

In July 1989, a civil rights group emerged from the Wittenberg Peace Circle, which joined forces with other predecessors to create the Democratic Awakening Initiative . In the Nikolaikirche Leipzig, a regular open Monday prayer developed under the motto "Swords to Plowshares" , which became the nucleus of the later Monday demonstrations in autumn 1989. The biblical symbol initially remained an expression of alternative peace activities within the GDR. It appropriated a Soviet motif and turned it against state propaganda, according to which the GDR had realized the unity of people, state and party and was therefore by definition a "peace power". It expressed the desire to use the common goal of a pacified world for Christians and Marxists to end the arms race and social militarization . Military security concepts should be replaced by political peace-keeping capabilities. A direct confrontation with the respective systems was not intended.

This is precisely how the symbol linked Christian peace groups in West and East and became the first visible sign of a civil rights movement which, beyond the cross-bloc prevention of armament and war, aimed at and finally brought about a system change. The pacifist legacy was a key factor in the non-violence of the 1989 revolution . The “New Constitution of the GDR” working group at the Round Table adopted the symbol “Swords to Plowshares” in their draft constitution. According to Article 43 of the draft, it should be the state coat of arms of the GDR.

The perspective of social justice and overcoming world hunger , which should be made possible through comprehensive disarmament and which is based on the biblical origin of the symbol, was largely lost. The Peace Decades, which have been carried out in the all-German EKD since 1994, admonish this perspective and continue to use the image of the patch.

In May 2017, it became known that the Protestant Action Group Service for Peace had secured the trademark rights for the symbol of the GDR sticker in 2007 and is taking legal action against unlicensed use with legal warnings.

Artistic reception

literature

In his short story The Kreutzer Sonata, Lev Tolstoy refers directly to the biblical idiom. Posdnyshev's conversation with the narrator says: If the goal of mankind is good, noble things, love […], if the goal of mankind is what the ancient prophecies speak of, that all men are in love one that spears and swords are forged into sickles , what prevents the achievement of this goal?

music

In the work songs , gospels and spirituals of the African American a song Ain't gonna study war no more (“I will learn no more war”) is passed down, which alludes to the promise of Wed 4. It was possibly created after the Civil War . The line of text first appeared in print in 1898 in the hymn Down by the River . The text version widely used today became known in 1940 through an edition of American Negro Spirituals in the USA:

"I'm going to lay down my sword and shield
Down by the riverside
Down by the riverside
Down by the riverside
Going to lay down my sword and shield
Down by the riverside
Ain't going to study war no more ..."

The line Down by the Riverside became the title of the song; it alludes to the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River and the analogous baptism of the followers of Jesus , which in early Christianity included a self-commitment to be free from arms and violence. This song was popularized in numerous modifications after 1945 by Pete Seeger , Willie Dixon , Mahalia Jackson and over 600 other interpreters.

The song line also serves as a book title, for example for an exegetical study of the biblical visions of peace or a historical study of the US peace movement or a scientific study of research projects funded by the military at British universities.

To the tune of a well-known in the US Israeli folk song compacted Dieter Trautwein and Friedrich Karl Barth 1978, the new spiritual song Everybody needs his bread his wine with the promise of Micah style similar to text:

“Everyone needs his bread
and wine, and there should be peace without fear.
Plowshares melt from guns and cannons so
that we can live together in peace. "

Michael Jackson's song Heal the World calls on the listener in the third verse:

"Create A World With No Fear
Together We'll Cry Happy Tears
See The Nations Turn
Their Swords Into Plowshares"

The album Til Death Do Us Unite by the German thrash metal band Sodom contains the song Schwerter zu Pflugscharen .

Felicitas Kukuck created her cantata Swords for Plowshares in 1995 .

Additional information

See also

literature

Bible
  • Raymond Cohen, Raymond Westbrook: Isaiah's Vision of Peace in Biblical and Modern International Relations: Swords into Plowshares. Palgrave Macmillan US, 2008, ISBN 1-4039-7735-6
  • Hans Walter Wolff : Dodekapropheton 4. Micha. Biblical commentary on the Old Testament. Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 2004, ISBN 3-7887-2025-5 .
  • Bertold Klappert , Ulrich Weidner: Steps to Peace. Theological texts on peace and disarmament. Aussaat Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1983, ISBN 3-7615-4662-9
  • James Limburg: "Swords to Plowshares: Text and Contexts." In: Craig C. Broyles, Craig A. Evans (Eds.): Writing and Reading the Scroll of Isaiah: Studies of an Interpretive Tradition. Brill, Leiden 1997, pp. 279-293
  • Norbert Lohfink : "Swords and Plowshares". The reception of Isa 2,1-5 par Mi 4,1-5 in the Old Church and in the New Testament. TQ 166 (1986) pp. 184-209
  • Heinrich Groß: The idea of ​​perpetual and general world peace in the Old Orient and in the Old Testament. TThSt 7. Paulinus, Trier 1956.
Judaism
  • Edwin C. Goldberg: Swords and Plowshares: Jewish Views of War and Peace. URJ Press, 2005, ISBN 0-8074-0943-X
  • Sidney Schwarz: Judaism and Justice: The Jewish Passion to Repair the World. Jewish Lights Pub, 2008, ISBN 1-58023-353-8
Christian theology
  • Roger Burrgraeve, Marc Vervenne: Swords Into Plowshares: Theological Reflections on Peace. William B Eerdmans Publishing, 1992, ISBN 0-8028-0568-X
  • Karl Hammer: German War Theology (1870-1918) , Kösel, Munich 1971
Christian peace initiatives in Germany
  • Gabriele Kammerer: Action Reconciliation for Peace Services: but you can just do it. Lamuv, 2008, ISBN 3-88977-684-1
  • Rainer Eckert, Kornelia Lobmeier: Swords to plowshares. History of a symbol. Foundation House of the History of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn, 2007 ISBN 978-3-937086-18-7
  • Uwe Koch (Ed.): 20 Years of Peace Decade. Working Group of Christian Churches in Germany, Frankfurt am Main 2001
  • Warren Snodgrass: Swords to Plowshares: The Fall of Communist Germany. Nova Science Publishers, 2000, ISBN 1-56072-788-8
  • Anke Silomon: "Swords to Plowshares" and the GDR. The peace work of the Protestant churches in the GDR within the framework of the peace decades 1980–1982. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1999, ISBN 3-525-55733-7 ( digitized version )
  • Martin Hohmann: Swords to plowshares. The peace work of the Protestant churches in the GDR 1981/82, illustrated using examples from the Evangelical Church of the ecclesiastical province of Saxony, Spitz, 1998, ISBN 3-87061-776-4
  • Helmut Zander : The Christians and the peace movements in both German states. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-428-06641-3 .
  • Klaus Ehring, Martin Dallwitz: Swords to Plowshares: Peace Movement in the GDR. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1986, ISBN 3-499-15019-0 .
  • Reinhard Henkys (ed.): The Evangelical Churches in the GDR - Contributions to an inventory. Christian Kaiser, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-459-01436-9
  • Wolfgang Büscher, Peter Wenierski, Klaus Wolschner, Reinhard Henkys (eds.): Peace Movement in the GDR. Texts 1978–1982. edition transit volume 2, Scandica, Hattingen 1982, ISBN 3-88473-019-3 .
  • Peter Hertel, Alfred Paffenholz: For a political church. Swords to plowshares. Torch bearer, 1982, ISBN 3-7716-2305-7
Disarmament and armaments conversion
  • Arthur J. Laffin (Ed.): Swords into Plowshares, Volume One. Nonviolent Direct Action for Disarmament, Peace and Social Justice. Wipf and Stock, 2010, ISBN 1-60899-059-1 ; Swords Into Plowshares, Volume Two: A Chronology of Plowshares Disarmament Actions, 1980-2003. Wipf and Stock, 2010, ISBN 1-60899-051-6
  • Roy S. Lee (Ed.): Swords Into Plowshares. Building Peace Through the United Nations. Brill, Leiden 2006, ISBN 90-04-15001-3
  • Michael Renner: Swords into plowshares: converting to a peace economy. Worldwatch Institute, 1990, ISBN 0-916468-97-6
  • Dennis Haughton: From Swords to Plowshares: The Path to Global Peace. Loiry Publishing House, 1987, ISBN 0-933703-96-1
  • Christoph Butterwegge , Martin Grundmann (ed.): Civil power Europe. Peace Policy and Arms Conversion in East and West. Bund, Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-7663-2577-9 .

Web links

Commons : Swords to Plowshares  - Collection of images
Illustrations
Bible interpretation
German peace initiatives
initiatives outside Germany

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helmut Utzschneider: Micha. Theological Verlag, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-290-17368-2 , p. 91
  2. ↑ John Knox et al. (Ed.): Twelve Prophets. Abington 1982 (1956 1 ), p. 921 ff.
  3. ↑ Hans Walter Wolff: Micha. (1st edition 1982) 2004, p. 94; Robert Oberforcher: Micha. Stuttgart 1995; P. 98f .; Rainer Kessler : Micha. Herder, Freiburg 1999, pp. 189f .; Bertold Klappert, Ulrich Weidner (Ed.): Steps to Peace. Theological texts on peace and disarmament. Sowing, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1983, p. 273
  4. ↑ Hans Walter Wolff: Biblical Commentary Old Testament: Micha , Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1982, p. 97
  5. ↑ Bertold Klappert, Ulrich Weidner (ed.): Steps to Peace , Neukirchen-Vluyn 1983, p. 271ff.
  6. ^ Claus Westermann: Prophetic Words of Salvation. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1987, ISBN 978-3-647-53825-9 , p. 104
  7. ↑ Robert Bach: "... the bow breaks, sticks smashed and chariot burns with fire". In: Hans Walter Wolff (Ed.): Problems of Biblical Theology: Gerhard von Rad for his 70th birthday. Christian Kaiser, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-459-00779-6 , pp. 13-26
  8. ^ Hans Wildenberger: Isaiah 1–12 , Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1972, p. 78ff.
  9. ^ Hans Walter Wolff: Dodekapropheton 2: Joel, Amos , Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1969, p. 96
  10. ↑ Hans Walter Wolff: Swords to Plowshares - Abuse of a Prophet's Word? (1984) In: Hans Walter Wolff: Studien zur Prophetie , Christian Kaiser, Munich 1987, p. 95
  11. ↑ Ulrich Dahmen, Gunther Fleischer: The book Joel. The book Amos , New Stuttgart Commentary, Old Testament 23/2, Katholisches Bibelwerk, Stuttgart 2001, p. 88
  12. ↑ Erich Zenger: Introduction to the Old Testament. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2006, pp. 580-582
  13. ^ Francis L. Andersen, David Noel Freedman: Michah , The Anchor Bible, New York 2000, ISBN 0-385-08402-1 , p. 412
  14. ↑ Hans Klein: The Gospel of Luke. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-525-51500-6 , p. 139
  15. ↑ Christoph Nobody: Jesus and his way to the cross. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2007, pp. 250-261
  16. ↑ Klaus Wengst: The Gospel of John: 2nd volume: Chapters 11-21. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-17-019815-9 , p. 63
  17. ↑ Christoph Nobody: Jesus and his way to the cross. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2007, pp. 485-490
  18. ↑ Hans Walter Wolff: Talk to Micha. Prophetie then and now Christian Kaiser, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-459-01161-0 ; P. 95.99.108
  19. ↑ Jürgen Ebach: The legacy of violence. A biblical reality and its history of effects ; Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1980; ISBN 3-579-00378-X ; P. 36
  20. ↑ Willy Schottroff: The peace celebration. The prophetic word about the transformation of swords into plowshares (Isa 2.2–5 / Mi 4.1–5) : in: Luise and Willy Schottroff: Die Parteilichkeit Gottes. Biblical Orientations in Search of Peace and Justice. Christian Kaiser, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-459-01548-9 , pp. 101f.
  21. ↑ Hans Walter Wolff: Swords to Plowshares - Abuse of a prophetic word? Practical questions and exegetical clarifications on Joel 4,9–12, Isa 2,2–5 and Wed 4,1–5. (Guest lecture at the University of Munich on January 27, 1984)
  22. ↑ Justin the Martyr († around 165): First Apology: 39. General peace in the Old Testament prophesied
  23. ↑ Peter Bürger: Early Church Pacifism and “Just War”, Part 1: Three Hundred Years of Nonviolence
  24. ↑ Franciscan Studies, Volumes 66-67. Dietrich-Coelde-Verlag, 1984, p. 101
  25. ↑ a b quoted from Pinchas Lapide: Isn't that Joseph's son? Jesus in today's Judaism. Calwer / Kösel-Verlag, Stuttgart 1976, p. 95.
  26. ↑ DABRU EMET: Speak truth
  27. ^ Eberhard Busch: Karl Barths biography , Berlin 1979, p. 82
  28. ↑ Hans Prolingheuer, Thomas Breuer: Dem Führer obedient: Christians to the Front , Publik Forum, Oberursel 2005, ISBN 3-88095-147-0 , p. 30
  29. ↑ Hans Prolingheuer, Thomas Breuer: Dem Führer obedient: Christians to the Front , p. 174
  30. ↑ Hans Prolingheuer, Thomas Breuer: Dem Führer obedient: Christians to the Front , p. 185
  31. ↑ Bell destruction in the First World War ( Memento from June 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  32. ↑ Werner Finke: The tragedy of the German church bells (1957) ; 2008 Parish of the Assumption of Mary Hollfeld: Christian signs and symbols - church tower and bells
  33. ^ Eberhard Röhm: Die für den Frieden , Calwer Verlag, Stuttgart 1985, pp. 218 and 242
  34. ↑ Wilfried Härle: Ethics. Walter de Gruyter, 2011, ISBN 3-11-017812-5 , p. 393
  35. ^ The German Bishops, Gerechter Friede (2000), no.132
  36. ^ The German Bishops, Gerechter Friede (2000), No. 150ff
  37. ^ Plowshares
  38. ↑ Immanuel Kant: To Eternal Peace. A philosophical blueprint ; 1795; 3. "Standing armies (miles perpetuus) should stop completely over time."
  39. ↑ Ernst Bloch: The principle of hope. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1967, p. 578
  40. ↑ United Nations UN / UN: Charter of the United Nations and Statute of the International Court of Justice. (pdf) United Nations UN / UNO, June 26, 1945, pp. 1-27 , accessed on March 15, 2016 .
  41. ↑ United Nations Photo (January 1, 1966): Soviet Statue at the United Nations
  42. ^ Klaus Behling : Life in the GDR: Forgotten things from history in 111 questions. Edition Berolina, Berlin 2017, p. 286
  43. ↑ Examples: Dieter Krüger, Armin Wagner: Konspiration als Beruf. Christian Links, 2003, p. 23 ; Michael Ploetz, Hans-Peter Müller: Remote-controlled peace movement? GDR and USSR in the fight against the NATO double decision. Lit Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-8258-7235-1 , p. 114
  44. ↑ Examples: Manfred Wörner, Günter Rinsche, Gerd Langguth: For peace in freedom: speeches and essays. Publication by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Edition q, 1995, ISBN 3-86124-312-1 , p. 25; Oliver Thränert: Peace through unilateral disarmament? Experience so far with unilateral disarmament steps by the United States and the Soviet Union. Friedrich Ebert Foundation, 1990
  45. ↑ Martin Luther King: It's A Dark Day In Our Nation. Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam (sermon April 30, 1967 at Ebenezer Baptist Church)
  46. ^ Benediction by Joseph Lowery, Washington DC, January 20, 2009
  47. ↑ WDR documentary In the Eye of Power from October 3, 2005
  48. ↑ quoted from Anke Silomon: "Swords to Plowshares" and the GDR: The Peace Work of the Protestant Churches in the GDR within the framework of the Peace Decades 1980–1982 , p. 53 ( online excerpt )
  49. ^ Ingeburg Kähler: Frei - In two dictatorships. rainStein-Verlag, 2008, ISBN 3-940634-04-2 , p. 389
  50. ↑ Annett Ebischbach (alias Johanna), Oliver Kloss and Torsten Schenk: Call for February 13, 1982 at the ruins of the Frauenkirche.
  51. ^ Ehrhart Neubert: History of the Opposition in the GDR 1949–1989, p. 521 , ISBN 3-86153-163-1
  52. ↑ Udo Baron: Cold War and Hot Peace. The influence of the SED and its West German allies on the party 'The Greens'. Lit Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-8258-6108-2 , p. 188 ; MDR: Back then in the East: Tragic symbolic figures: Petra Kelly and Gert Bastian
  53. ↑ Manuscript of an SWR broadcast on the reforging campaign ; Photo of the forging operation on September 24, 1983
  54. ↑ SWR: Faith Questions
  55. ↑ Lutz Haarmann: Waiting for the reunification? The West German Parties and the German Question in the 1980s. ( Memento from May 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  56. ^ Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk: Endgame: The 1989 revolution in the GDR. CH Beck, 2nd reviewed edition, Munich 2009, ISBN 3-406-58357-1 , p. 247 ; Heinrich Böll Foundation: The Petra Kelly Archive
  57. ^ Draft constitution of the round table on documentenarchiv.de
  58. ↑ Peter Winsierski (Spiegel, May 23, 2017): Dispute over “Swords to Plowshares”: The Marketing of Peace
  59. ^ Lew N. Tolstoj: Die Kreutzersonata. In: Drohla, Gisela (ed.): Lew N. Tolstoj: All stories. 5 volumes. Volume 4: Lord and Servant and other stories. Frankfurt am Main 2008, p. 168.
  60. ↑ Holger Terp: Ain't gonna study war no more (pdf; 1.8 MB)
  61. ↑ John W. Work: Study War no More , 1940
  62. ↑ Willie Dixon: Study War No More
  63. ↑ Albert C. Winn: Ain't Gonna Study War No More: Biblical Ambiguity and the Abolition of War ( Memento January 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (Westminster / John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky 1993)
  64. ↑ Milton Meltzer: Ain't Gonna Study War No More: The Story of America's Peace Seekers , Landmark Books, Random House Books for Young Readers, 2002, ISBN 0-375-82260-7 (English)
  65. ↑ Tim Street, Martha Beale (Campaign Against Arms Trade): Study War No More (PDF; 1.9 MB)
  66. ↑ Michael Jackson Lyrics Heal the World
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on October 11, 2005 .