Call to Europeans

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The appeal to Europeans was an appeal to European cohesion published at the beginning of World War I. Its author was the German doctor and pacifist Georg Friedrich Nicolai .

history

In October 1914, German intellectuals published their Manifesto of 93 , in which they, as representatives of German science and art, accused the world of lying about German warfare, lamented "inciting Mongols and Negroes against the white race" and lamented German militarism as protection of the defended German culture. A few days later, Georg Friedrich Nicolai wrote his appeal to the Europeans in reply .

content

In it he explains that technology and traffic are pushing towards a “common world culture”. The world has "become smaller through technology", Europe already represents a unity. The current war and the "national passion" interrupt these "numerous communal ties". The “educated and benevolent Europeans” are obliged to try to prevent the fall of this Europe through a “fratricidal war”. The current struggle will "hardly leave behind a winner, but probably only the defeated". In a clairvoyant anticipation of the effect of the Versailles Treaty , Nicolai demands: It must be prevented that “the conditions of peace do not become the source of future wars”. And decades before the formation of the European Community , he judged: Now is "the time in which Europe must act as a unity in order to protect its soil, its inhabitants and its culture". Once those whom Goethe called good Europeans come together, they will try to “call a European Union” together. The call concludes:

"We ask you, if you are like-minded people and we have decided to give the European will the widest possible response, to send your signature."

Nicolai sent the text privately by mail to numerous scientists, politicians and artists. Although they met with friendly approval in many cases, almost all those who agreed ultimately refused to publish their names for formal or fundamental concerns. Only Albert Einstein , Otto Buek and Wilhelm Foerster (who had just signed the 93 manifesto) agreed to this. Therefore, the planned immediate publication of the call in Germany was not carried out. Instead, it was first published in 1917 in Nicolai's book The Biology of War in Zurich.

literature

  • Appeal to Europeans as a private dispatch by post, first published in printed form in the unauthorized edition of Die Biologie des Krieges, Zurich 1917.
  • An appeal to Europeans, updated version in Europe, Zurich 1918.
  • Appeal to Europeans in the authorized edition of The Biology of War. A natural scientist's reflections on German reflection, Zurich 1919.
  • The biology of war. Considerations of a natural scientist to the Germans for reflection, vol. I u. II with an introduction by Wolf William Zülzer . Verlag Darmstädter Blätter, Darmstadt 1983.
  • The biology of war. Considerations by a German naturalist. Zurich 1917. British reprint 2012, Nabu Press Lightning Source, 238 pp., ISBN 978-1275916159
  • Wolf William Zülzer: The Nicolai case, Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1981.
  • Herbert Gantschacher : The Hidden History of Georg Friedrich Nicolai, Viktor Ullmann and Andreas Latzko in The Limits of Virtual Reality or Our deal with the past and future in The Unifying of Cultures - TRANS Studies on Changing the World Volume 1, Lit Verlag Münster- Berlin-Vienna-Hamburg-London-Zurich-New York 2004. ISBN 3825876160
  • Herbert Gantschacher: Witness and Victim of the Apocalypse, ARBOS, Vienna-Salzburg-Arnoldstein 2007/2008.

additional

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ University of Bern 1999: Nicolais “Appeal to the Europeans” in the version from 1914 with later English annotations pdf archive link ( Memento from October 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 172 kB)
  2. ↑ Nicolai: “Call to the Europeans”, excerpts from p. 44 in: Siegfried Grundmann: Einstein's files: Science and politics - Einstein's time in Berlin . Springer, 2004, ISBN 9783642185953

Web links