Bund New Fatherland

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The Bund Neues Vaterland was the most important German pacifist association in World War I and was founded on November 16, 1914 . It emerged from the New Fatherland publishing house, which had existed since the beginning of October 1914 and was headed by Lilli Jannasch, and was based in Berlin (Tauentzienstrasse 9). The chairmen of the federation were Kurt von Tepper-Laski and Georg Graf von Arco . One of the co-founders was Elisabeth Rotten .

task

During the war, the federation attempted to work towards a speedy conclusion of peace through its members establishing personal contact with government representatives and international peace organizations. He sent corresponding memoranda to a selected circle. From January to mid-March 1915, the Confederation published hectographed communications that were banned by the military authorities. From September 1918 they appeared again in a new series. Furthermore, until the 1915 ban, six brochures were published as part of a series of publications. In its "Critical memorandum to the Reich Chancellor" of June 20, 1915 against the annexation petition of the six business associations of May 20, 1915 (→ Memorandum of Business Associations 1915 ), the federal government took the clearest position against the war and possible annexations. Topics such as strengthening German democracy, the role of parliament and the modernization of electoral law were discussed at federal level.

In its statutes, the federal government set itself the task of "fulfilling the diplomacy of the European states with the idea of ​​peaceful competition [...] and bringing about political and economic understanding between civilized peoples". On February 7, 1916, due to the state of siege, the supreme command in the Marche forbade the federal government from any further activity for the duration of the war. Lilli Jannasch, who worked as the executive secretary of the federal government, was arrested on March 31, 1916 and taken into " protective custody ". On June 8, 1916, a replacement group was founded on a small scale under the name "Association of Like-Minded People". The federal ban on activities was not lifted until October 1918.

At the end of 1918, the federation issued a new basic program which stated: "The federation of the New Fatherland is an association in order to contribute to the construction of the German socialist republic on a democratic basis and, beyond that, to the great work of international understanding without being obliged to adhere to a specific party programme to collaborate.” In the years that followed he became friends with the French League for Human Rights . Under her influence, the federation changed its name to the German League for Human Rights on January 20, 1922 and became a founding organization of the " Fédération international des ligues des droits de l'Homme ".

members

The number of members was about 200 until 1922 and then rose to over 1,000. Members of the federation were u. a. Friedrich Simon Archenhold , Walther Borgius , Elsbeth Bruck , Minna Cauer , Hans Delbrück , Albert Einstein , Kurt Eisner , Friedrich Wilhelm Foerster , Alfred Hermann Fried , Alexander Futran , Hellmut von Gerlach , Rudolf Goldscheid , Emil Julius Gumbel , Paul Guttfeld , Arthur Holitscher , Harry Graf Kessler , Gustav Landauer , Otto Lehmann-Rußbüldt , Ernst Meyer , Georg Friedrich Nicolai , Paul Oestreich , Hans Paasche , Ludwig Quidde , Heinrich Rausch von grape mountain , Ernst Reuter , Helene Stöcker , Leopold von Wiese , Clara Zetkin and Stefan Zweig .

German League for Human Rights

The German League for Human Rights was re-established in 1949 and was based in Berlin. In 1961 the club's headquarters were moved to Munich. No club activities are documented online in 2020 .

literature

  • Dieter Fricke : League of New Fatherland (BNV) 1914-1922 . In dsb. etc. (Hg.): Encyclopedia of party history. The bourgeois and petty-bourgeois parties and associations in Germany (1789-1945) . Cologne 1983-1986, here: Vol. 1, pp. 351-360.
  • Erwin Gülzow: The Bund "New Fatherland". Problems of Bourgeois Pacifist Democracy in World War I 1914-1918 . Diss. phil. Humboldt University , Berlin 1969.
  • Otto Lehmann-Rußbüldt: The struggle of the German League for Human Rights, formerly the Bund New Fatherland, for world peace 1914-1927 . Hensel & Co, Berlin 1927.

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