Königswalde Peace Seminar
The Königswalde Peace Seminar takes place twice a year in Königswalde near Zwickau . Lectures and discussions will mainly focus on social justice, peace activities and environmental problems.
history
The first peace seminar took place on May 19, 1973. On the subject of creating peace without weapons - what are the arguments in favor of it? 26 young people among them debated the initiator Hansjörg Weigel (1943–2020) in the rectory in Königswalde. This was the hour of birth of the Christian Peace Seminar in Königswalde. From then on, topics were repeatedly the problems of military service in the GDR , conscientious objection, Christian peace work and social commitment. Since then, the peace seminar has been inviting people to meet in spring and autumn.
In May 1979 the seminar was relocated to the village church due to the increasing number of visitors. In addition to the seminar, a parallel exhibition in the church started and at the end of a seminar day there was a musical conclusion; mostly by artists who hardly had any chance to perform in the GDR.
Since then, the peace seminar has been organized by a preparatory group that is still active today. Especially with the background of Christian ecumenism and the exchange with peace activists in the GDR, the seminar received more and more attention in the following years and became a primary goal for state security in the GDR.
In 1989 up to 700 people attended the seminar. After the fall of the Wall , the topics of the event changed. The focus was no longer only on military service and peace service , but also dealt with environmental pollution and issues of social justice. Today the main focus of the seminar is the social question . The number of participants has steadily decreased since the fall of the Wall, but the level of commitment is still the same.
literature
- Martin Luther King Center (ed.): Room for goodness and conscience. The Christian Peace Seminar in Königswalde in the former district of Karl-Marx-Stadt / GDR 1973–1990 . Kraussreinhardt, Werdau 2004.
- Matthias Kluge: The Christian Peace Seminar Königswalde near Werdau. A contribution to the origins of the East German peace movement in Saxony . Evangelical Publishing House, Leipzig 2004.
- Matthias Kluge: The flower from the steel helmet. The Königswalde Peace Seminar as a focal point of an alternative counter-public in the GDR. Published by the Saxon State Center for Political Education , Dresden 2017.