Anti-militarism
Antimilitarism is a conviction close to pacifism that opposes militaristic tendencies within society and politics . It is thus a counter-movement to militarism in its various forms.
Social aspects
For Kurt Tucholsky , the dominance of the military was one of the reasons for the typical German spirit of submission, which hindered democratic developments. After the end of the First World War , Tucholsky also made Prussian militarism responsible for the grievances at the front. He concluded:
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What matters to us is this: to drive out the Germans, our compatriots, the servile spirit who does not know how to obey without cuddling - who wants no objective submission, but only blind submission. Our officer has done his service badly and rightly, and sometimes it has done it moderately enough - but he allowed himself to be overpaid, and we have to eat up what a degenerate militarism has caused us.
Only by completely turning away from this shameful epoch can we regain order. It is not Spartacus; Neither is the officer who saw his own people as a means to an end - what will it be in the end?
The upright German.
The rejection of the military can be transferred to its various forms such as parades , war memorials , war literature, public vows and weapons shows. This is what Tucholsky says:
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Cheering over military spectacles is an advertisement for the next war; turn your back on this stuff or actively fight it. Benevolent viewers are also encouragement.
Political Aspects
It is not clear that non-militarist states wage fewer wars than militarist ones. The German Reich was involved in few military conflicts from 1871 to 1914, while states in which the military was not so dominant (e.g. the USA ) forced numerous wars (civilistic but bellicose). In view of the enthusiasm for war that prevailed in Germany in 1914, however, society seemed to have been very well prepared for war and to have almost wished for it. It can therefore be argued that the strong military character of the German Reich certainly strengthened the government in its view of being able to enter into a major European conflict. The decision to disregard Belgium's neutrality also made it clear that military considerations were given higher priority than political agreements. In contrast to the democratic states of the Entente , in the course of the war there was complete primacy of the military over politics in Germany, which from 1916 onwards led to a kind of military dictatorship by Erich Ludendorff and Paul von Hindenburg . The French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau , on the other hand, is said to have coined the saying that the war is far too important a matter to be left to the military.
Towards the end of the First World War, the journalist Robert Breuer (alias Germanicus ) therefore welcomed the defeat of the German Reich, because in the event of a victory the military would presumably have completely controlled the state and society:
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Just imagine what would have become of Germany if we had got Europe under our feet in a single victorious race. In honor of the lieutenant: but would it have been possible at all to face the uniform without broken knees?
In the Weimar Republic, radical pacifists nevertheless came to the conclusion that the establishment of a German Reichswehr was to be rejected in principle because Prussian militarism still existed unbroken and, despite severe restrictions, was preparing a new war. Tucholsky therefore often compared the German military with firefighters who wanted to start the fires they were instructed to put out. These critics were right, because the National Socialists only had to implement the long-drawn-out armament and war plans.
In the 1950s, pacifist and anti-militarist arguments failed to prevent Germany from rearming . In the course of this, the Bundeswehr was set up as a parliamentary army according to the principle of the “ citizen in uniform ” and under the primacy of politics over the armed forces.
In the Federal Republic of Germany, the newspaper Graswurzelrevolution and the groups associated with it have been campaigning for anti-militarism since 1972 in a journalistic and actionist manner.
Demands from anti-militarists
Antimilitarists differ greatly in their currents according to what they are calling for.
Anti-militarists' demands include:
- worldwide disarmament.
- Withdrawal from nuclear energy as a prerequisite for nuclear disarmament.
- Rejection of politically motivated violence as a means of political debate.
- Abolition of compulsory military service in order not to order a society to go to war against its interests.
- Rejection of foreign deployments by the police and the military.
- no persecution of anti-militarists based on their political opinion
- The right of all peoples to self-determination - withdrawal of all military occupiers
Currents of anti-militarism
There are numerous currents in anti-militarism. Antimilitarism is a conviction that occurs especially as a counter-movement where a power is arming, intending to arm or has already armored.
Anarchist anti-militarists
Most anarchist currents are anti-militarist and reject any part of a military dictatorship . For anarchist anti-militarists, the military is the oppressor of the lower class and the main pillar of a hierarchical class society.
Anti-militarists for nuclear disarmament
Anti-militarists and opponents of nuclear power campaigned for the nuclear phase-out and for nuclear disarmament on Castor transports .
Anti-militarists for internal disarmament
From 2006, Interior Ministers Otto Schily , Thomas de Maizière and Wolfgang Schäuble began to build a system that, according to political opponents, served surveillance and internal armament. Demands included:
- Data retention
- Upgrade the police to a military level
- Total surveillance
A counter-movement was founded with questions about internal disarmament. She asked whether the obsession with surveillance was militaristic. Military dictatorships are shown here as an example of executives who use weapons against their own population.
Well-known anti-militarists
One of the best-known anti-militarists, Karl Liebknecht , defined militarism as the sum of "all peace-disrupting tendencies of capitalism". This fulfills a double purpose, namely as internal militarism to protect the capitalist class and as external militarism for the imperialist conquest of new areas of exploitation.
Even Erich difficulty was a well-known anarchist anti-militarist. In the Netherlands, Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis founded the Internationale Anti-Militaristische Vereeniging ("International Antimilitarist Association") (IAMV) in 1904. Other anti-militarists included: Fritz Köster , Hendrik Ebo Kaspers , Oskar Stillich , Lodewijk van Mierop , Uwe Timm , Clara Gertrud Wichmann , Augustin Souchy .
Democratic preventive measures against militarism
In democratically organized societies, the role of the military is delimited from that of the domestic security forces (police). There are also protective mechanisms to control the military. This is shown in the capacity of a so-called parliamentary army. In contrast, in many repressive states these two functions are mixed and the military takes on domestic political tasks. The gendarmerie is an expression of this dualism. Gendarmes are also often part of the armed forces, as in France, or historically were once subordinate to the defense department, such as the former Federal Gendarmerie in Austria. Constitutional and administrative norms ensure that such units are subordinate to the Interior and Justice Department in times of peace.
See also
proof
literature
- Wolfram Beyer : Pacifism and Antimilitarism. An introduction to the history of ideas , Schmetterling , Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 3-89657-666-6 .
- Ernst Friedrich : War against war! Guerre à la guerre. War against war. 2 volumes. Free Youth, Berlin 1924 ( DNB 560487576 ); Newly published by the Anti-War Museum Berlin, with an introduction by Gerd Krumeich , Links, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-86153-828-8 (in one volume).
- Karl Liebknecht : Militarism and Antimilitarism (1907).
Web links
- Wolfram Beyer: What actually is anti-militarism? . First appeared in the Lexicon of Anarchy
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ignaz Wrobel: "Militaria: Officer and Man", in: Die Weltbühne , January 9, 1919, p. 38.
- ↑ Ignaz Wrobel: "About effective pacifism", in: Die Weltbühne , October 11, 1927, p. 555.
- ^ Germanicus: "A lost war?", In: Die Weltbühne , October 31, 1918, p. 401.
- ^ Karl Liebknecht Internet Archive . Karl Liebknecht: Militarism & Anti-Militarism (1907). English, accessed December 13, 2012.