Christel Küpper
Christel Küpper (* 1906 in Bonn ; † 1995 in Munich ) was a German peace activist.
Life
The trained librarian was a senior employee of the German Central Office for Libraries in Leipzig from 1930 to 1933, and from 1934 she was banned from working . In 1937 she began studying psychology, and from 1942 she worked as a psychotherapist in Munich. Christel Küpper was married and had two daughters.
Work as a peace activist
From 1950 Christel Küpper began to build it up and was a member of various peace organizations. From 1953 she temporarily implemented her peace-political work in parties ( Heinemann Initiative , All-German Party , SPD ). In 1958 she founded the Study Society for Peace Research in Munich.
As a child, Christel Küpper experienced the cruelty of war during World War I. That was probably the reason why, as a young woman, even before the Second World War, she was a member of the International League for Peace and Freedom , which was later banned by the Nazis. In agreement with her husband Ernst Küpper, who was behind her peace policy engagement, she accepted the reduction of her psychotherapeutic practice, financial losses and time burdens for her pacifist work. After the end of the Second World War, Ms. Küpper initially joined the organization " WOMAN ", the world organization for mothers of all nations founded by Dorothy Thompson . She set up a working group in Munich, which she headed until it was dissolved in 1975. She was also the chairwoman of the WOMAN regional association in Bavaria.
As a representative of the German peace associations and board member of the Working Group of German Peace Associations (AdF), she worked for several years from 1948 as a member of the Executive Committee of the International Peace Institute in Geneva. In 1950 she was a founding member and representative for Bavaria in the "Notgemeinschaft für die Frieden Europa" founded by the later Federal President Gustav Heinemann , two years later a founding member of the All-German People's Party (GVP) initiated by Heinemann together with Helene Wessel , which opposes the rearmament of Germany and for the German unity occurred. Ms. Küpper was state chairwoman in Bavaria and a member of the GVP's national board. From 1950 she worked actively in a number of different peace organizations and groups of the extra-parliamentary opposition.
In collaboration with Franz Wuesthoff, she founded the Research Society for Peace Studies in Geneva and a German section based in Munich. In 1966 the German section developed into an independent organization, the Study Society for Peace Research e. V. This put its research focus in the social science and peace education area. Ms. Küpper was chairman of the newly founded study society from 1966 to 1994. At that time, the study society saw its first task in raising awareness of war and peace as legitimate topics of scientific research in order to help pave the way for the development of peace research in the Federal Republic as well.
When the financing of peace research deteriorated after the political change in Bonn , the study society had to find new forms of work. In cooperation with Franz Rieger, the longstanding deputy chairman of the study society, the idea of "food for thought" was born. This is brief information on so far 36 current topics, which should support the formation of opinion through factual information. At the beginning of the 1980s, due to current political developments in Munich, the "New Security Policy Initiative" (INS) was founded in which Ms. Küpper actively participated. The INS later joined the study society.
Awards
- In 1969 she was awarded the Theodor Heuss Medal in recognition of her work and commitment, which reached far into the political and public sphere .
Publications
- Nuclear weapons and conscience , Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 1983
- Peace Education , Opladen: Leske and Budrich, 1979
- Peace in the focus of education , Munich: Studienges. f. Peace Research e. V., 1968
- Peacekeeping through the UN , Opladen: Leske and Budrich
Web links
- Literature by and about Christel Küpper in the catalog of the German National Library
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Küpper, Christel |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German peace activist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1906 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bonn |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1995 |
| Place of death | Munich |