Peace Circle Pankow

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The Pankow Peace Circle , founded in 1981, is an independent working group, but organized within the Alt-Pankow Evangelical Church Community , on the subjects of peace policy , disarmament , peace education and environmental protection . As part of the peace and environmental movement , the Pankower Peace Circle belonged to the GDR opposition .

Established in 1981

On October 24, 1981, the Alt-Pankow parish organized a parish day on the subject of "Against death security - for peace". A specially designed poster was used to advertise this community day. During the peace festival, to which around 500 people had come, Hans-Jürgen Misselwitz invited to found a peace group. During a meeting on November 27, 1981 in the parish hall, he presented the approximately 50 people present with a text entitled “Reflections on the work of the peace group in the parish”. The decision was made to meet in the future as the Pankower Peace Circle.

The main founding members and initiators of the Friedenskreis included pastor Ruth Misselwitz and her husband Hans-Jürgen Misselwitz, graphic designers Martin Hoffmann , Marina Grasse, Freya Klier , Gerd Stadermann and Vera Wollenberger . After its founding, the core of the peace circle consisted of around 30 active members, with participants leaving the circle again and again. T. by leaving the country, and others were added. The later members of the German Bundestag Angelika Barbe and Werner Schulz also worked temporarily in the Peace Circle.

Form of organization, working method and public impact 1982–1989

After the founding of the peace circle, groups were formed that worked permanently or temporarily on certain topics. The work in the groups served both the preparation of the monthly so-called "Open Fridays" or "Great Peace Circles" as well as the participation in major church events such as the Berlin Peace Workshop and the Peace Decade. The working groups “Arguments for Peace”, “Raising Children”, “Nonviolent Training”, “Ecology and Armaments” and the women's Bible group were particularly active.

Although the Pankow Peace Circle was basically open and non-conspiratorial, it was recorded by the Ministry for State Security (MfS) as early as September 1982 in the “Virus” operational process . From 1983 up to 30 direct students from the MfS and SED comrades regularly took part in the “Great Peace Circles” and other events. They tried to prevent, or at least make more difficult, content-related work. In addition, between 1982 and 1989 more than 30 unofficial employees (IM) reported on the Pankower Peace Circle. Among them was Knud Wollenberger , who, after his exposure in 1992, was the only IM to admit to his work and to comment on it in writing.

The majority of the peace circle members were baptized Christians. Most of the unbaptized members came from communist families with an anti-fascist biographical background who had consciously spoken out against baptism. In the Pankow Peace Circle, unlike in most other opposition groups, over half of the members were women. Most of the members had children, which was on the one hand one of the motives for cooperation and on the other hand set limits to the willingness to conflict. Among the Berlin opposition groups, the Pankow Peace Circle was therefore more of a moderate group and was far less radical than groups like the Peace and Human Rights Initiative (IFM) or the Environment Library . Nevertheless, the members took precautions in the event of imprisonment by writing orders and depositing them with the Pankow superintendent Werner Krätschell , stating who should look after their children in such a case.

In the 1980s, the Pankower Peace Circle was integrated into the GDR-wide network of the independent peace and environmental movement through its annual participation in the Mecklenburg peace seminar and the meetings of “Concrete for Peace”. The Peace Circle sought publicity in a variety of ways. These included the "Open Fridays", the Berlin Peace Workshop, the Peace Decades , parish days, the design of an own church convention center at the Protestant Church Congress in Berlin in the summer of 1987 and participation in the Olof Palme peace march in September 1987.

In contrast to other peace and environmental groups, the Pankower Friedenskreis was rather hesitant in publishing the materials developed in the thematic working groups. Exceptions were z. B. the text collection “Introducing the unimaginable. The Consequences of a 'Limited' Nuclear War in Central Europe ”from 1984 with materials on the effects of a nuclear weapon explosion, a fictional scenario of an atomic bomb being dropped over Berlin and international appeals against the theory of a limited nuclear war as well as a study on space armament from 1986.

With the elaboration "Invitation for dialogue to an old master of the social sciences - to Professor Jürgen Kuczynski ", the economist Barbara Hähnchen from the Pankow Peace Circle entered a new area with her well-founded criticism of the state subsidy policy. The theses were widely disseminated and discussed in 1989 and finally overtaken by the autumn events. It was not until September 1989 that the Friedenskreis published a small newspaper, "dasblatt". It contained "reports, observations, examples from and for groups and people in the Pankow church district". After a few issues, this publication lost its function and importance and was discontinued.

Activity after 1989

After the Peaceful Revolution , most of the active members of the Peace Circle got involved in the new parties and civil movements that were being formed, as well as non-governmental organizations . The working groups of the peace circle broke up and the work concentrated on the preparation and implementation of the monthly meetings as well as events in the parish, to which speakers were often invited. The peace circle became particularly effective in 2006 when it called for dialogue in connection with the construction of the Khadija mosque in Berlin-Heinersdorf . Since 2010 the Peace Circle has been a member of the “Abolish Nuclear Weapons - Start with Us” sponsoring group, which is a partner of the International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which received the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize .

Others

The archive of the Peace Circle is part of the archive of the Protestant parish Alt-Pankow.

literature

  • Thomas Klein : "Peace and Justice!" The politicization of the Independent Peace Movement in East Berlin during the 1980s. Böhlau, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-412-02506-9 (especially chapter 3.1.4.3).
  • Ehrhart Neubert : History of the opposition in the GDR 1949–1989 (= Federal Center for Political Education [Hrsg.]: Series of publications. Volume 346). 2nd, revised, expanded and corrected edition. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89331-294-3 .
  • Marianne Subklew-Jeutner: The Pankower Peace Circle. History of an East Berlin group within the Evangelical Churches in the GDR 1981–1989. Der Andere Verlag, Osnabrück 2004, ISBN 3-89959-145-3 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  • Marianne Subklew (Ed.): I became more courageous. The Pankower Peace Circle - political self-assertion and public contradiction. Exhibition catalog (texts: Marianne Subklew, design: Martin Hoffmann), Berlin 2003 (revised 2009).
  • Marianne Subklew: Massive siege. The "Great Peace Circle" Pankow as a Stasi decomposing object. In: Listen and Look . Volume 18, Issue 65 (3/2009), pp. 20-23 ( full text ( memento from March 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive )).

Personal memories

  • Freya Klier : tear-off calendar - a German-German diary. Kindler, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-463-40101-0 ; 2nd edition Droemer-Knaur, Munich 1989.
  • Vera Wollenberger : Virus of the hypocrites. Interior view from Stasi files. Elefanten Press, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-88520-435-5 .
  • Vera Lengsfeld: I wanted to be free. The wall, the Stasi, the revolution. Herbig, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-7766-2669-8 .
  • Soon home - Skoro domoi: The life of Eva-Maria Stege. Recorded by Sigrid Moser. Aufbau-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-7466-0066-9 .
  • "Where is your place?" A visit to Marina Grasse, co-founder of the Pankow Peace Circle. In: 25 years after the fall of the wall. Nothing new in the West. Church letter. Protestant parish Alt-Pankow. [Berlin] September – November 2014, pp. 26–29 ( PDF; 2.3 MB ; interview with Ulrike Queißner and Sophie Alex).
  • Werner Krätschell : The power of candles . Memories of the Peaceful Revolution. With an essay by Timothy Garton Ash (=  publications of the Berlin Wall Foundation ). Ch.links, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-96289-046-9 (96 pages).

Periodicals

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marianne Subklew (Ed.): I became more courageous. The Pankower Peace Circle - political self-assertion and public contradiction. P. 14.
  2. ↑ Marianne Subklew-Jeutner: The Pankower Peace Circle. Osnabrück 2004, pp. 57-63.
  3. ↑ a b Marianne Subklew (ed.): I became bolder. The Pankower Peace Circle - political self-assertion and public contradiction (see short portraits and interviews).
  4. ↑ Marianne Subklew-Jeutner: The Pankower Peace Circle. Osnabrück 2004, pp. 64-67.
  5. ↑ Marianne Subklew-Jeutner: The Pankower Peace Circle. Osnabrück 2004, pp. 93-95.
  6. ↑ Marianne Subklew (Ed.): I became more courageous. The Pankower Peace Circle - political self-assertion and public contradiction. Pp. 34-41.
  7. ↑ Marianne Subklew: Massive siege. The "Great Peace Circle" Pankow as a Stasi decomposing object. In: Listen and Look . Volume 18, issue 65 (3/2009), pp. 20-23.
  8. ↑ Marianne Subklew-Jeutner: The Pankower Peace Circle. Osnabrück 2004, pp. 297-301.
  9. ↑ Marianne Subklew (Ed.): I became more courageous. The Pankower Peace Circle - political self-assertion and public contradiction. P. 129.
  10. ↑ Marianne Subklew-Jeutner: The Pankower Peace Circle. Osnabrück 2004, pp. 82-83.
  11. ↑ a b c d Marianne Subklew-Jeutner: The Pankower Peace Circle. History, forms of work and activity within the Evangelical Churches in the GDR and the GDR opposition in the years 1981–1989 ( PDF; 30 kB ). In: bundesstiftung-aufendung.de, accessed on July 17, 2017.
  12. ↑ Marianne Subklew-Jeutner: The Pankower Peace Circle. Osnabrück 2004, pp. 238–249.
  13. ↑ Marianne Subklew-Jeutner: The Pankower Peace Circle. Osnabrück 2004, Chapter 9.
  14. ↑ Marianne Subklew-Jeutner: The Pankower Peace Circle. Osnabrück 2004, pp. 132-135.
  15. ^ Ehrhart Neubert : History of the opposition in the GDR 1949–1989. Berlin 2000, p. 740.
  16. ↑ Marianne Subklew-Jeutner: The Pankower Peace Circle. Osnabrück 2004, pp. 140-142.
  17. ↑ Marianne Subklew (Ed.): I became more courageous. The Pankower Peace Circle - political self-assertion and public contradiction (see short portraits).
  18. ↑ Marianne Subklew-Jeutner: The Pankower Peace Circle. Osnabrück 2004, pp. 375-378.
  19. ↑ Church calls for dialogue. Friedenskreis organized a discussion on the construction of mosques. In: Berliner Woche (local edition Pankow), vol. 17, No. 29, July 19, 2006, p. 1.
  20. ↑ Members of the sponsoring group "Abolish nuclear weapons - start with us". In: atomwaffenfrei.de, accessed on July 17, 2017.