Hildegard Goss-Mayr

Hildegard Goss-Mayr (born January 22, 1930 in Vienna ) is an Austrian peace activist and writer.

Live and act

Hildegard Goss-Mayr is the daughter of Kaspar Mayr (1891–1963). Kaspar Mayr was the founder of the Austrian branch of the International Union of Reconciliation and published the worksheets The Christ in the Present from 1949 .

Hildegard Goss-Mayr studied philosophy, philology and history in Vienna and New Haven ( USA ). In 1953 she was the first woman to do her doctorate at the Vienna University " sub auspiciis ", the highest grade in Austria.

From 1953 she devoted her life to non-violent conflict resolution on behalf of the International Reconciliation Union. In 1958 she married the French peace activist Jean Goss ; the parents had twins in 1960.

In 1962, Goss-Mayr began working in Latin America to build nonviolent liberation movements . She became an advisor to Dom Hélder Câmara . The Argentine Nobel Peace Prize laureate Adolfo Maria Pérez Esquivel explains that he was influenced by Goss-Mayr. For the Second Vatican Council , Goss-Mayr, together with the theologians Bernhard Häring and Karl Rahner, prepared proposals on non-violence, which were reflected in the pastoral constitution Gaudium et spes .

From 1966 to 1985 Goss-Mayr was Vice President of the International Union of Reconciliation.

The success of the "Rosary Revolution " to end the Marcos regime in the Philippines in 1986 and the non-violent ousting of the dictator Ratsiraka in Madagascar in 1991 was also due to her influence and her training of non-violent resistance groups.

Hildegard Goss-Mayr is Honorary President of the International Federation of Reconciliation and a member of the honorary protection committee of the International Coordination for the Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World.

Awards

• 1979 Bruno Kreisky Prize for services to human rights
• 1991 Niwano Peace Prize
• 2005 nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize within the project 1000 women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005
• 2007 Reconciliation Prize from the Klaus Jensen Foundation in Trier
• 2009 Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Prize from the Diocese of Davenport , Iowa

Fonts

• The power of the nonviolent. The Christian and the Revolution using the example of Brazil. Styria publishing house, Graz / Vienna / Cologne 1968.
• Man from injustice. Spirituality and Practice of Nonviolent Liberation. Europaverlag, Vienna 1976, ISBN 3-203-50597-5
• The non-violence of Jesus, answer to the violence of our time. Veritas, Linz 1978, ISBN 3-85329-188-0
• (Ed.): Gift of the poor to the rich. Testimonies from the nonviolent struggle of the renewed Church in Latin America. Europa-Verlag, Vienna / Munich / Zurich 1979, ISBN 3-203-50707-2
• Gospel and struggle for peace. Reconciliation League , 1995, ISBN 3-9804408-0-X
• UN Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World 2001 - 2010. In: Andreas Pecha (Hrsg.): Analyzes and perspectives of the peace movement in Austria. Roithner, Haid 2002, ISBN 3-9502098-1-6 , p. 311 ff.
• How enemies become friends. My life with Jean Goss for nonviolence, justice and reconciliation. With a foreword by Cardinal Franz König . Herder, Freiburg / Basel / Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-451-23930-2 ; 2nd revised edition: Meinhardt Text und Design, Idstein 1998, ISBN 3-933325-08-0
• Elements of the power of quality explained using examples. In: Pete Hämmerle & Thomas Roithner (eds.): Falling in the spokes of the wheel. Voices from Nobel Peace Prize Winners and the Austrian Network for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence. A work book. Roithner, Haid 2003, ISBN 3-9502098-5-9 , p. 156 ff.

Web links

• Literature by and about Hildegard Goss-Mayr in the catalog of the German National Library
• Collection of articles by Hildegard Goss-Mayr on the website of Lebenshaus Schwäbische Alb
• Lecture by Dr. Hildegard Goss-Mayr
• Archive recordings with Hildegard Goss-Mayr in the online archive of the Austrian Mediathek (radio portrait, interviews)

Footnotes

1. ↑ Matthias-W. Engelke: tent of the peace makers. The Christian community in peace theology and peace ethics . Norderstedt 2019, ISBN 978-3-7494-3645-3 , pp. 51-52.
2. ^ ORF : Hildegard Goss-Mayr 75 . January 20, 2005
3. ^ ORF 2 - Orientation : Nonviolence in Austria. 2008 (broadcast on the 60th anniversary of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's death , video, 6:23 min on YouTube )
4. ↑ 1000 PeaceWomen Worldwide. Hildegard Goss-Mayr , accessed on: April 13, 2018, (German digital version of: Verein 1000 Frauen für den Friedensnobelpreis (Hrsg.): 1000 PeaceWomen Across the Globe , series: Contrast Book, Verlag Scalo, Zurich 2005).
5. ↑ Klaus Jensen Foundation: Reconciliation Prize 2007 ( Memento of the original from October 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.