German Peace Society - United War Resisters

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German Peace Society - United War Service Opponents eV
(DFG-VK)
purpose Association of political pacifists and conscientious objectors
Establishment date: 1892
Seat : Stuttgart
Website: www.dfg-vk.de

The German Peace Society (DFG), founded in 1892, is the oldest organization of the German peace movement . After its 1968 merger with the then International of War Resisters to form the DFG / IdK (except in West Berlin) and five years later the merger with the Association of Conscientious Objectors (VK), the organization has "operated" since 1974 under the name Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft - Vereinigte Military service opponents (abbreviated: DFG-VK). It is an association of political pacifists and conscientious objectors . Michael Schulze von Glaßer has been the managing director since 2017 . As the organ of the association, the DFG-VK publishes the journal “ ZivilCourage ”, which appears approximately four to six times a year almost every three months.

At national, European and worldwide level, the association is involved in various pacifist and anti-militarist alliance organizations. B. the largest German member association of War Resisters International .

history

The peace movement arose in the wake of the British-American War of 1812–1814, first in the United States of America and the United Kingdom . The first international peace congress took place in Brussels in 1848 without the participation of Germans; in addition to the British and Americans, only French, Dutch and Belgian participants appeared. The first German Peace Society was founded in Königsberg on September 20, 1850 - it was banned as early as March 1851. In the period that followed, up to the founding of the empire in 1871, the chances for pacifist organizations were poor, since the interests of the liberal German bourgeoisie, as the only possible sponsor of such associations, were concentrated on achieving German national unity. The national enthusiasm prevented by the wars of unification initially continue to be a rise of pacifism in Germany for lack of interest. It was not until the founding of the Frankfurt Peace Association in 1886 that the first signs of change showed, even if the number of members, which was only around 70 in 1890, continued to show little interest.

Until the First World War

Leading DFG members at the World Peace Congress 1907 in Munich: (seated row from left) Eduard de Neufville, Bertha von Suttner , Ludwig Quidde , Frédéric Passy ; (two others not known, then) Edwin D. Mead, Lucia Ames Mead, Benjamin J. Trueblood, Anna B. Eckstein, Robert Treat Paine; (standing row) Mathilde Bajer (behind Eduard de Neufville), Frederik Bajer (behind Bertha von Suttner), Margarethe Quidde (behind Ludwig Quidde), Henri La Fontaine (right next to her), Therese Vollandt (behind Edwin D. Mead) AH Fried (behind Lucia Ames Mead).

In November 1892, Alfred Hermann Fried, with the support of Bertha von Suttner , one of the most famous women of the time, was able to set up a preparatory committee for the establishment of a German peace society in Berlin . The German Peace Society (DFG) was founded on December 21, 1892; it was the first association with the claim to represent the pacifists throughout the German Empire. At first, however, it was controversial in the Berlin association whether they wanted to be an exclusive club that only tried to influence the Reichstag in the sense of international arbitration , or whether they wanted to win public opinion for such ideas. In the first few years, every national effectiveness of the DFG suffered from this contradiction. The end of the German Freisinnige Party , to which DFG sponsors belonged, also affected the DFG. The success of the German peace movement since the mid-1890s - newly founded local peace associations in numerous cities - reflected above all the growing international tensions, the rearmament represented by German naval policy , and imperialism. They turned against imperialism and militarism , the oppression of national minorities, and the chauvinist upbringing of the youth. The DFG tried an organizational reform in which the main board under the new president Adolf Richter moved to Stuttgart in 1899 . Since the industrial judge from Pforzheim , who remained DFG president until 1914, was increasingly suffering from illness, the historian Ludwig Quidde , who had always headed the German delegation to the world peace congresses since 1899 , maintained contacts with peace associations in other countries.

The association, which was largely financed by patrons such as Georg Arnhold , Eduard de Neufville and Heinrich Roessler , was strongly influenced by the bourgeoisie in the first two decades of its existence. This was also expressed in the fact that a considerable number of the members were close to the German People's Party, as well as to the Free People's Party and the Free Union . For 1902, the DFG gave 6,000 members in 60 local groups. By May 1914, when Ludwig Quidde officially succeeded Adolf Richter, the number of members rose to 10,000 in almost 100 local groups. While the leadership of the DFG in the Wilhelminian era had a bourgeois character, the membership base was clearly petty-bourgeois: small businesses and small businessmen, intellectuals, doctors, lawyers and pharmacists formed the largest member groups, while members of the public service, workers and farmers were hardly any until not represented at all. In May 1914 the women's rights activist Frida Perlen , a member of the DFG since 1913 , founded a women's association within the DFG with the support of Mathilde Planck and other representatives of the bourgeois women's movement , which was only able to establish itself for a short time.

The beginning of the First World War shattered the optimistic ideas of the German pacifists. Through the propaganda representation of the world war as a "war of defense" by the Reich leadership, the laboriously established connections to the peace societies of the Entente states were broken . Many turned away from pacifism through the ideas of 1914 , others went into exile in order to escape the suppression of any pacifist agitation , which the German military authorities intensified from autumn 1915 through extensive surveillance of the pacifists.

Weimar Republic

Since the end of the First World War , the DFG has gained increasing sympathy in the social democratic camp, which resulted in new classes of members during the Weimar Republic . The influence of pacifists on politics initially increased, symbolized in the offices of DFG Chairman Quidde as Vice President of the Provisional Bavarian National Council in 1918 and Member of the German Democratic Party (DDP) in the Weimar National Assembly in 1919. The League of Nations fulfilled earlier concepts in its conception pacifist demands, supported in the post-war period by the DFG through efforts to promote international understanding.

However, the stab in the back legend also targeted the pacifists who were blamed for the German defeat. In the further course of the development of the demand for a revision of the Versailles Peace Treaty by military means, the DFG was exposed to sharp attacks from the right. With the slogan "A steel helmet and a swastika are Germany's downfall" she turned against the new militarism and the emerging National Socialism .

By 1927 the number of members rose to around 30,000 after slumps during the First World War. But the change in the membership structure presented the DFG with new challenges. Struggles for direction between traditional bourgeois, moderate pacifism (which definitely advocated defensive wars) and the newly emerging radical pacifism , largely supported by the labor movement (which advocated conscientious objection, for example) weakened the movement. With the resignation of eleven board members around Ludwig Quidde in 1929, the radical wing around the new DFG chairman Paul von Schoenaich prevailed.

In 1933, after the NSDAP took over the government , the organization was dismantled and many leading pacifists fled into exile or were persecuted and murdered during the Nazi era .

After the Second World War

After the end of the Second World War , the DFG was re-established in 1946 as one of the first pacifist organizations; first it was approved in the British zone of occupation , last in the French. Paul von Schoenaich , who was its president from 1929–1933, took over the presidency again until 1951, which was intended to establish continuity with the Weimar period. As early as mid-1946, the DFG had five functioning regional associations, and by autumn 1948 the number of members had grown to over 10,000. In the first few years, the DFG demanded the inclusion of articles on war bans in the state constitutions, its demand for a right to conscientious objection was met by four state constitutions, but above all the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany passed in 1949 . This right was given the status of a fundamental right in Germany for the first time with Article 4, Paragraph 3 of the Basic Law , with which the Federal Republic also assumed a pioneering role in international constitutional history .

“No advertising for killing and dying”; Information stand during the Easter March 2013 at the Kröpcke in Hanover

With the development of the Cold War , the DFG suffered significant setbacks, such as a sharp decline in membership, the ban in the Soviet occupation zone in 1949 and - nonetheless - the frequent suspicion of being communist infiltrated in West Germany. Nevertheless, the DFG played an important role in the protest against rearmament and in the Easter march movement , although it avoided close ties to any organization. In the 1950s, the DFG's programmatic focus was on peaceful coexistence and disarmament in East and West, combined with the proposal for a demilitarized Germany as a whole. In 1960 the association explicitly acknowledged the practice of conscientious objection.

In 1958, the group of conscientious objectors (GdW), founded in 1953, merged in Frankfurt after a failed merger with the International of Conscientious Objectors (IdK) with the merging parts of the IdK to form the Association of Conscientious Objectors (VK).

After another attempt to merge in 1968, this time between the VK and IdK, the DFG and IdK merged to form the DFG / IdK. The UK finally united with this association in 1974, creating the German Peace Society - United War Service Opponents (DFG-VK). As a logo, it adopted the symbol of the WRI , a broken rifle, in a graphic variant of its own .

Due to the assessment as a preliminary organization of the DKP , members of the association were temporarily observed in the Federal Republic of Germany by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution . Despite the strong green alternative wing, even members of the Christian pacifist movement were denied access to professions in the public service as a result of the radical decree of the early 1970s.

In the movement against the medium-range missiles Pershing II, Cruise Missile and SS-20 of the 1980s, the DFG-VK played an important role as a hinge between the “traditional groups” of the Easter march movement and the new eco-pacifist initiatives. From the DFG-VK came important action ideas like the human chain from Stuttgart to Ulm in 1983 and popular slogans like “creating peace without weapons”.

In the spring of 1990 it became known that the DFG-VK had received financial support from the German Communist Party (DKP) for years without the knowledge of the majority of the association's bodies.

present

Organization, networking, international integration

The association is a member of the Central Office for Law and Protection of Conscientious Objectors , the Cooperation for Peace , the Federation for Social Defense , War Resisters International , the European Bureau for Conscientious Objectors and the International Peace Office .

The association is important in advising conscientious objectors under Article 4 Paragraph 3 of the Basic Law and as part of the peace movement . Similar to Amnesty International , the DFG-VK draws attention to conscientious objectors imprisoned around the world and campaigns for their amnesty .

The association is one of the sponsors of the International Munich Peace Conference .

The association's newspaper “ZivilCourage” - the magazine for pacifism and antimilitarism - appears six times a year.

aims

Concrete goals are to overcome military service and the like. a. through the school without Bundeswehr campaign , recognizing and highlighting the causes of violence , worldwide disarmament , abolition of the Bundeswehr and the worldwide right to conscientious objection .

“War is a crime against humanity. I am therefore determined not to support any kind of war and to work to eliminate all causes of war. "

- Declaration of principles by the members of the DFG-VK

The association is committed to the withdrawal of nuclear weapons in Büchel as a step towards the abolition of all nuclear weapons, and to the withdrawal of the Bundeswehr from Afghanistan.

Actions

In 2008, the DFG-VK was criticized by the then Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung (CDU) for a satirical anti-war poster from 2003 on which the coffin of a killed Bundeswehr soldier was depicted with the comment “Step towards disarmament”. The poster was designed by the “Bureau for Antimilitarist Measures” (BamM) and was downloadable from the joint website of the DFG-VK regional association Berlin-Brandenburg and BamM. The DFG-VK federal association, on the other hand, criticized the poster, did not use it and wanted to “ask the Berlin regional association to remove this poster from the side”.

On its website and on leaflets, the association repeatedly called for disruptions to solemn vows by the Bundeswehr. Furthermore, the Berlin-Brandenburg regional association invited soldiers to celebrate at the Bundeswehr Memorial in Berlin in the event of the death of soldiers . The student convention of the Helmut Schmidt University / University of the Bundeswehr Hamburg filed a criminal complaint against the BamM as a result. The satirical character of this “invitation” (according to the standpoint of the Berlin activists) was made clear by the “relocation” of the celebration to the “Haus der Wirtschaft”, which was pronounced on April 2, since, according to a declaration by the BamM and the Berlin-Brandenburg regional association In fact, the German economy is actually the one that [...] has the most reason to celebrate. ”This“ Day Y ”campaign by the Berlin-Brandenburg regional association is also controversial within the federal association.

In 2008, the association supported the surveillance-critical data protection demonstration freedom instead of fear .

In 2010, the Schwarze Risse bookstore in Mehringhof was searched for anti-militarist leaflets that were also published on the website of the Office for Anti-Militarist Measures.

Members

Four members received the Nobel Peace Prize before the Second World War :

In 1914 Otto Umfrid was to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The beginning of the First World War prevented this.

Well-known members were also:

Still active today:

literature

  • Stefan Appelius : Pacifism in West Germany. The German Peace Society 1945–1968. 2 volumes, Aachen 1991–1999.
  • Roger Chickering : Imperial Germany and a World Without War. The Peace Movement and German Society, 1892-1918 , Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA, ISBN 0-691-05228-X .
  • Guido Grünewald (Ed.): Lower your arms! One hundred years of the German Peace Society (1892–1992) . Donat, Bremen 1992, ISBN 3-924444-59-5 .
  • Karl Holl : Pacifism in Germany . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1988.
  • Friedrich Karl Scheer: The German Peace Society (1892-1933). Organization - ideology - political goals . 2nd edition, Frankfurt am Main 1983, ISBN 3-881296220 .
  • For peace, justice and a decent future. Principles and work of the DFG-VK . Published by DFG-VK, Velbert 1993, ISBN 3-922319-25-4 .

Web links

Individual references, comments

  1. ↑ In 1968 the DFG merged with the majority of the IdK in West Germany. The IdK in West Berlin was an exception. This continued to exist and is still an existing pacifist-antimilitarist organization in Germany as the International of War Resisters; like the DFG-VK one of the German member organizations of War Resisters International
  2. ↑ Online presence of the association journal “Civil Courage”
  3. ^ Karl Holl: Pacifism in Germany . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1988, pp. 20-41.
  4. ^ Karl Holl: Pacifism in Germany . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1988, p. 44.
  5. ^ Karl Holl: Pacifism in Germany . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1988, p. 50 f.
  6. ^ Karl Holl: Pacifism in Germany . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1988, pp. 50-54.
  7. ↑ JD Shand: Doves among the Eagles. German Pacifists and Their Government during World War I . In: Journal of Contemporary History 10, 1975, pp. 95-108.
  8. ^ Karl Holl: Pacifism in Germany . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1988, pp. 221f.
  9. ^ Karl Holl: Pacifism in Germany . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1988, p. 222.
  10. ^ A b Karl Holl: Pacifism in Germany . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1988, p. 229.
  11. ^ A b Karl Holl: Pacifism in Germany . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1988, p. 228.
  12. ↑ "The VK, [...] was created in 1958 from a merger of the SPD-affiliated ' Group of Conscientious Objectors' (GdW) and a spin-off of the IdK , after merger negotiations between IdK and GdW on the refusal of the IdK majority, an anti-communist clause in to incorporate the common statutes, had failed ([Rolf] Seeliger [, extra-parliamentary opposition , Munich,] 1968, 125). Due to the close connection between the UK and the 'Easter March' movement, this had also developed in the beginninganti-communist accents. ”(Karl A. Otto, Vom Ostermarsch zur APO . History of the extra-parliamentary opposition in the Federal Republic 1960–1970, Campus: Frankfurt am Main / New York 1977 [ ISBN 978-3-593-32192-9 ], p. 72)
  13. ↑ Radicals Decree. So-called. Constitutional enemy . In: Der Spiegel . No. 6 , 1978, p. 46 f . ( online ).
  14. ↑ Guido Grünewald (Ed.): Down your arms! One hundred years of the German Peace Society (1892–1992) . Donat, Bremen 1992, p. 206 f.
  15. ↑ Our history - German Peace Society - United War Service Opponents DFG-VK. Retrieved January 5, 2019 .
  16. ^ [1] School without the Bundeswehr
  17. ↑ http://www.bundeswehrabschaffen.de/cms/index.htm
  18. ↑ a b "Again one less". Outrage over poster with dead Bundeswehr soldiers . In: Spiegel Online , September 4, 2008, accessed June 25, 2010.
  19. ↑ Attention: party postponed! (Info 9 p.m.) . In: BamM.de , April 2, 2010, accessed June 25, 2010.
  20. ↑ Jürgen Grässlin: The DFG-VK is at a crossroads ( memento of the original from December 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Civil Courage Issue 1, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dfg-vk.de
  21. ↑ Demo "Freedom Instead of Fear 2008". Call for demonstration in Berlin on Saturday, 11 October at 14:00 . In: vorratsdatenspeicherung.de (list of supporters), accessed on June 25, 2010.
  22. ^ Berlin: Raid against anti-militarists . In: BamM.de , April 19, 2010, accessed on June 25, 2010.