Alfred Mechtersheimer

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Alfred Mechtersheimer (born August 13, 1939 in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse ; † December 22, 2018 ) was a German officer (most recently lieutenant colonel ), political scientist , politician , political activist and publicist . After serving in the German Armed Forces , he initially worked at the Max Planck Institute for Social Sciences , then became known in the 1980s as part of his involvement in the peace movement and for his own left-wing peace research in Starnberg . From 1987 to 1990 he was a non-party member of the second Green parliamentary group . The military critic took nationalist and neutralist - pacifist positions. Social science research and specialist journalism has included him in the new right and right-wing extremist spectrum since the late 1990s .

Life

Origin and family

Mechtersheimer was born in 1939 in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse in the Palatinate; his father died on the Eastern Front in Russia. He was socialized as a Catholic . Mechtersheimer attended a business school and completed a commercial apprenticeship .

He was married and had two children.

Military background

After graduating from high school , he joined the Bundeswehr as an officer candidate in 1959 and became a regular soldier . He visited u. a. the school for psychological warfare in Alfter . From 1963 onwards, Mechtersheimer studied political science , history and economics at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn . In 1965 he resigned from the German Armed Forces in order to complete his studies at the Otto Suhr Institute at the Free University of Berlin (diploma political scientist, 1970). He was a scholarship holder of the Federal Ministry of Defense and the CDU-affiliated Konrad Adenauer Foundation .

In 1970 Mechtersheimer was a recruiter in the Air Force with the rank of captain . He was u. a. at the Luftwaffe officer's school in Neubiberg near Munich as a teaching officer for military history and as a press officer . During this time he became a member of the working group for the military and social sciences . From 1973 he was a research assistant with a teaching position in political science with Klaus von Schubert at the Bundeswehr University in Neubiberg. In 1976 he was with Kurt Sontheimer at the department of social sciences of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich with a dissertation on the procurement of the fighter aircraft MRCA / Tornado , which one year later as armaments and politics in the Federal Republic, MRCA Tornado. History and function of the largest Western European armaments program was published, for Dr. rer. pole. PhD .

Because of his dissertation, which was critical of the military, he came into conflict with his employer. A research leave funded by the German Research Foundation with the physicist and philosopher Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker at the Max Planck Institute for Research into the Living Conditions of the Scientific and Technical World (from 1980 Max Planck Institute for Social Sciences) in Starnberg near Munich was granted to him by the SPD -managed ministry not approved. The professional soldier then left the Bundeswehr prematurely in 1979 with the rank of lieutenant colonel .

In 1983 he was a co-signer of the "Heilbronn Declaration", which called for conscientious objection to military service .

Peace research and movement

In 1979 he became an employee at the so-called "Weizsäcker Institute". There he worked with the sociologist Horst Afheldt as part of the third-party funded project . After the facility was closed in 1981, he founded the Institute for Peace Policy (also known as the “Mechtersheimer Institute”) in Starnberg with former colleagues from the “Weizsäcker Institute” . This was recognized as a non-profit in 1982 and should serve the independent peace research . From 1983 the organization separated financially and spatially from the former "Weizsäcker Institute". The member support of the institute following the start-up financing was attributed to the successful public relations work by Mechtersheimer, who took over the management. In addition, advertisements in several magazines such as Spiegel , Konkret , Brigitte u. a. be switched. The Max Planck Society , the eco-fund of the Greens Baden-Württemberg u. a. in appearance. By 1986 at the latest, the institute began to lose importance. In 1989 he wanted the institute u. a. deal against the resistance of established peace research. In 1990 Erich Schmidt-Eenboom was elected as his successor. He moved the institute to Weilheim .

As early as 1985, Mechtersheimer wrote the preface, previously published in parts by the national revolutionary magazine we ourselves , to the memorandum Peace Treaty, German Confederation, European Security System by Herbert Ammon and Theodor Schweisfurth from the left spectrum , published by the in-house publishing house . In it he called for “the 'self-liberation' of the Germans from the victors of World War II ”. According to Eckhard Jesse, the work stands in the German political context of a “pacifist overall Germany under neutral auspices”, as it was repeatedly represented by the Greens .

Alice Brauner-Orthen described him as a "former leftist peace researcher". Michael Ploetz and Hans-Peter Müller counted him among the “academic key words of the peace movement”.

Activities since the 1990s

After leaving the Institute for Peace Policy , he founded the non-partisan Peace Committee 2000 for Demilitarization, Troop Withdrawal and Self-Determination in Starnberg in 1990 , which gradually turned towards political right and right-wing extremism . In 1993 he was a co-founder of the German-Arab Peaceworks , which supported the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein . In 1994 he was one of the authors of the new right anthology The Self-Confident Nation , published by Ullstein Verlag by Heimo Schwilk and Ulrich Schacht . In 1995 he initiated the Germany Movement (DB). He saw his programmatic book Friedensmacht Deutschland (Ullstein, 1993) as a basic work of the DB and the German construction organization . The latter tried unsuccessfully, following the example of Jörg Haider , to establish a new collection party on the right edge of the political spectrum. Nevertheless, after the Cold War he contributed to the popularization of the term “peace power”, which u. a. was used by the SPD in the course of the federal election in 2002 and the looming Iraq war . According to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution , he tried rather unsuccessfully with his initiatives to “overcome the fragmentation in the right-wing extremist party area”. Mechtersheimer was a speaker a. a. at the Cannstatter Kreis , at the Alliance of Constructive Forces of Germany , at the Federation of Free Citizens and at the Republicans . He also appeared at the following events: Symposium of the magazine Zur Zeit , Kärntner Kulturtage , “Round Table” by Udo Voigt ( NPD ) and the party conference of the German League for People and Homeland . In 1996, alongside Hans-Helmuth Knütter, he played a key role in the anti-anti-fascist campaign against specialist journalist Anton Maegerle . Last but not least, he campaigned against the Wehrmacht exhibition of the Hamburg Institute for Social Research . Mechtersheimer became chairman of the association Unser Land - Scientific Foundation for Germany eV in Starnberg, founded in 1997 . In 2005 he contributed a foreword to the Tobias Brendle book Michel Friedman , Haim Saban and the German media landscape , which in the report of the independent expert group on anti-Semitism (2011) was classified as an “elaborate of the extreme right-wing margin”, which was “classical [] prejudice against Jews "transport.

Margarete Jäger and Siegfried Jäger ( Duisburg Institute for Linguistic and Social Research ) called him an "important ideologist of right-wing extremism". Anton Maegerle u. a. described him as "one of the leading figures of right-wing extremism in Germany". Stephan Braun and Martin Gerster u. a. counted him to the "establishment of right-wing extremist journalism", as well as Rudolf van Hüllen and Lars Rensmann classified him as a right-wing extremist. According to Fabian Virchow, Mechtersheimer wanted to rehabilitate völkisch nationalism . Alexander Gallus attested him an "always [...] decidedly national position". Christian Freuding noted that Mechtersheimer's “subliminal [] anti-Western [s] resentment” based on “criticism of liberalism and national orientation” turned into “open anti-Americanism ”. He represents an "ethnic-national, neutralist-pacifist point of view". Also Bettina Westle made from "ethno-nationalism". For Gesine Schwan , Mechtersheimer was even an avowed anti-Americanist. Other researchers included him in the context of the New Right . Andrei S. Markovits and Philip S. Gorski concluded from Mechtersheimer's career a "consensus of the radical right and left with regard to German anti-modern conservatism, anti-liberalism and anti-Western attitudes."

Among other things, he was a speaker at the right-wing conservative fraternity Jenensia zu Jena .

Party politics

Union parties

Mechtersheimer was initially active in the Junge Union . While studying in West Berlin - in the time of the 1968 movement - he was a member of the ring of Christian-Democratic Students . He also worked for the CDU , when he moved to Bavaria in 1970 he became a member of the CSU . In 1981 he was excluded from the party due to his criticism of the NATO double decision , his appearance at the peace demonstration in Bonn's Hofgarten in 1981 , which was also supported by communists , his article in the left-wing Pahl-Rugenstein Verlag and his recommendation for red-green in the course of a party regulation procedure .

MP for the Greens

In 1984, through his involvement in the peace movement , he sought a connection with the Greens, of which he nevertheless did not become a member. He was considered realo and was elected to the 11th German Bundestag in the 1987 Bundestag election as a non-party on the Baden-Württemberg state list (2nd place) , where he belonged to the Green parliamentary group. He was a full member of the Defense Committee and an alternate member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Committee on Transport . He was also a member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly .

Mechtersheimer advocated German unity from a neutralist point of view and, in contrast to his Green parliamentary colleagues, voted for the State Treaty on monetary union .

In March 1989, it came through a SZ -Article journalist Kurt Kister - of this later the guard price of German daily newspapers received - to the scandal when it Mechtersheimers participation as a member of the Board of based in Vaduz , Liechtenstein established "MAG [Muammar al- Gaddafi] Foundation for Peace and Solidarity ”. The foundation was seen as the propaganda tool of the Libyan dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi , who financed it with millions.

In the course of the Greens' nomination process for the 1990 Bundestag election , he was no longer able to prevail.

Constitutional Protection Reports of Bavaria

In 1996 Mechtersheimer was mentioned in the interim report of the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution . In 1997 the authority came to the conclusion that in the course of 1997 he had developed into “one of the most important protagonists of right-wing extremist efforts”. At times he and his "Germany Movement" were mentioned in Bavaria's reports on the protection of the constitution .

Awards

In 2013 he received the Ulrich von Hutten Medal from the right-wing extremist society for free journalism .

See also

Publications (selection)

  • Peace power Germany. Plea for a new patriotism . Ullstein, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-548-36609-0 .
  • with Peter Barth (Ed.): Militarization Atlas of the Federal Republic. Luchterhand, Darmstadt 1986, ISBN 3-472-61608-3 .
  • Armament and peace . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1984, ISBN 3-499-17821-4 .
  • Time bomb NATO . Diederichs, Cologne 1984, ISBN 3-424-00824-9 .
  • with Peter Barth (ed.): Making nuclear war feasible and winnable? Rowohlt, Reinbek 1983, ISBN 3-499-15247-9 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ German Bundestag (ed.): Data Handbook on the History of the German Bundestag 1990 to 2010, Chapter 24, Directory of Members of the German Bundestag and Directory of Persons , online edition of January 17, 2019, digitized versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.bundestag.de%2Fblob%2F195644%2F024bcdefaf590584ee0c667bda6bd7f1%2F24_habenindex-data.pdf~%3D~IA%3D%MDZ~ 3D ~ double-sided% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D , accessed on January 23, 2019.
  2. ↑ See Alice Brauner-Orthen : The new right in Germany. Anti-democratic and racist tendencies . Leske + Budrich, Opladen 2001, ISBN 3-8100-3078-3 , p. 68; Edgar Wolfrum : History politics in the Federal Republic of Germany. The Road to Federal Republican Remembrance 1948–1990 . WGB, Darmstadt 1999, ISBN 3-534-14479-1 , p. 449.
  3. ↑ Eckhard Jesse : Democracy in Germany: Diagnoses and Analyzes . Edited by Uwe Backes and Alexander Gallus , Böhlau, Cologne a. a. 2008, ISBN 978-3-412-20157-9 , p. 105.
  4. ↑ Alice Brauner-Orthen : The new right in Germany. Anti-democratic and racist tendencies . Leske + Budrich, Opladen 2001, ISBN 3-8100-3078-3 , p. 68.
  5. ^ Michael Ploetz , Hans-Peter Müller : Remote-controlled peace movement? GDR and USSR in the fight against the NATO double resolution (= dictatorship and resistance . Volume 6). Lit, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-8258-7235-1 , p. 40.
  6. ↑ See Andreas Schulze: Small parties in Germany. The rise and fall of non-established political associations . DUV, Wiesbaden 2004, ISBN 3-8244-4558-1 , p. 110.
  7. ↑ See also Bert Riehle: The European Union as an international actor. A taxonomic analysis of European behavioral options . Lit, Berlin a. a. 2013, ISBN 978-3-643-12090-8 , p. 142.
  8. ^ Gunther Hellmann , Christian Weber, Frank Sauer (eds.): The semantics of the new German foreign policy. An Analysis of Foreign Policy Vocabulary Since the Mid-1980s . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-531-16064-1 , p. 110.
  9. ↑ Federal Ministry of the Interior (ed.): Verfassungsschutzbericht 2001 . Berlin 2002, p. 114.
  10. ↑ Karoline Wirth: The German Language Association: Background, Development, Work and Organization of a German Language Association (= Bamberg Contributions to Linguistics . Volume 1). University of Bamberg Press, Bamberg 2010, ISBN 978-3-923507-65-8 , p. 133.
  11. ↑ Federal Ministry of the Interior (ed.): Antisemitism in Germany. Manifestations, conditions, prevention approaches. Report of the independent expert group on anti-Semitism . Berlin 2011, p. 104.
  12. ↑ Margarete Jäger , Siegfried Jäger : Dangerous legacies. The creeping restoration of right thinking (= construction paperbacks . 7019). Aufbau-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-7466-7019-5 , p. 70.
  13. ↑ Anton Maegerle , Daniel Hörsch: “The fight for heads” has begun. Pioneers, strategists and pioneers of right-wing networks. In: Stephan Braun , Daniel Hörsch (ed.): Right networks - a danger . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2004, ISBN 3-8100-4153-X , pp. 113–122, here: p. 121.
  14. ↑ Stephan Braun , Alexander Geisler , Martin Gerster : The "Young Freedom" of the "New Right". In: Stephan Braun , Ute Vogt (ed.): The weekly newspaper "Junge Freiheit". Critical analyzes of the program, content, authors and customers . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-531-15421-3 , pp. 15–41, here: 24.
  15. ↑ Rudolf van Hüllen : Anti-Americanism in right and left extremism. In: Federal Ministry of the Interior (ed.): Enemy images in political extremism. Opposites, similarities and their effects on internal security . Cologne 2003, pp. 63–75, here: p. 66.
  16. ^ Lars Rensmann : Middle East conflict and globalization as new fields of political mobilization in the extreme right and left. Political valves of anti-Jewish willingness to discriminate ?. National Socialism, the Volkish Movement and Esotericism. In: Zeitschrift für Genozidforschung 6 (2005) 1, pp. 72-107, here: p. 91.
  17. ↑ Fabian Virchow : Against civilism. International relations and the military in the political conceptions of the extreme right (= research politics ). VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-531-15007-3 , p. 298.
  18. ↑ Alexander Gallus : The Neutralists. Advocate of a united Germany between East and West. 1945–1990 (= contributions to the history of parliamentarism and political parties . Volume 127). Droste, Düsseldorf 2001, ISBN 3-7700-5233-1 , p. 378.
  19. ↑ Christian Freuding : Germany in world politics. The Federal Republic of Germany as a non-permanent member of the Security Council of the United Nations in 1977/78, 1987/88 and 1995/96 (= Nomos-Universitätsschriften: Politik . Volume 113). Nomos, Baden-Baden 2000, ISBN 3-7890-6958-2 , p. 76.
  20. ↑ See also Volker Kronenberg : Michael Schäfer: Die Vereinigungdebatte. In: Zeitschrift für Politik 51 (2004) 2, pp. 230–232, here: p. 231.
  21. ↑ Christian Freuding : Germany in world politics. The Federal Republic of Germany as a non-permanent member of the Security Council of the United Nations in 1977/78, 1987/88 and 1995/96 (= Nomos-Universitätsschriften: Politik . Volume 113). Nomos, Baden-Baden 2000, ISBN 3-7890-6958-2 , p. 78.
  22. ↑ Bettina Westle : From constitutional patriotism to unification. In: Thomas Ellwein , Everhard Holtmann (Ed.): 50 Years of the Federal Republic of Germany. Framework conditions - developments - perspectives (= Political quarterly journal . Special issue. 30). Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen u. a. 1999, ISBN 3-531-13182-6 , pp. 567-582, here: p. 575.
  23. ^ Gesine Schwan : Anti-Communism and Anti-Americanism in Germany. Continuity and change after 1945 . Nomos, Baden-Baden 1999, ISBN 3-7890-6020-8 , p. 250.
  24. ↑ See for example Rainer Benthin : The New Right in Germany and its Influence on the Political Discourse of the Present . Lang, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 1996, ISBN 3-631-30017-4 , p. 127; Kai-Uwe Hellmann , Ruud Koopmans (eds.): Paradigms of movement research. Emergence and development of new social movements and right-wing extremism . Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen u. a. 1998, ISBN 3-531-13250-4 , p. 241; Friedemann Schmidt: The new right and the Berlin republic. Paths running in parallel in the normalization discourse . Westdeutscher Verlag, Wiesbaden 2001, ISBN 3-531-13642-9 , p. 261.
  25. ^ Andrei S. Markovits , Philip S. Gorski : Green beats red. The German left after 1945 . Rotbuch-Verlag, Hamburg 1997, ISBN 3-88022-465-X , p. 504.
  26. ↑ See Udo Baron : Cold War and Hot Peace. The influence of the SED and its West German allies on the party "The Greens" (= dictatorship and resistance . Volume 3). Lit, Münster u. a. 2003, ISBN 3-8258-6108-2 , p. 231.
  27. ↑ for example in the reports on the protection of the constitution of the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior: Verfassungsschutzbericht 2001, p. 62; Constitutional Protection Report 2002, p. 61; Constitutional Protection Report 2003, p. 54f., Constitutional Protection Report 2004, p. 70; Constitutional Protection Report 2005, p. 124f.
personal data
SURNAME Mechtersheimer, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German peace researcher, political scientist and politician (independent), Member of the Bundestag
DATE OF BIRTH August 13, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Neustadt an der Weinstrasse
DATE OF DEATH 22nd December 2018