Jürgen Grässlin

Jürgen Grässlin (2013)

Jürgen Grässlin (born September 18, 1957 in Lörrach ) is a German educator, publicist and pacifist peace activist.

Since the 1990s he has been considered the most prominent German opponent of armaments and has published numerous non-fiction books on the automobile and armaments industry as well as the German armed forces . He is the spokesman for the German Peace Society - United War Service Opponents (DFG-VK) and other armaments-critical organizations.

Life

In 1960 Grässlin's family moved to Freiburg im Breisgau , where, after graduating from high school, he studied at the local teacher training college . The studies were interrupted in 1978 by the basic military service, which he broke off after five months (formally “for health reasons”). In 1982 he entered the secondary school.

From 1983 onwards, Grässlin campaigned against arms transfers from Heckler & Koch (H&K) and other armaments companies and in 1989 founded the Armaments Information Office Oberndorf (RIO) at the H&K headquarters in Oberndorf am Neckar .

When the RIO moved to Freiburg, it became part of the Armaments Information Office (RIB e.V.), which he co-founded in 1992. At first as RIB chairman and now as RIB board member, Grässlin advocates the stop of all arms exports. RIB now houses an extensive archive on arms production and exports, which also provides specialist military information for the peace movement .

Grässlin is married, has two children and lives in Freiburg.

author

Since the mid-1990s, Grässlin has published several books on the arms industry. “Weapons from Germany bring death to death” (1994) and “Hide yourself when they shoot” (2003) focus on arms exports and licensing of H&K weapons to Third World countries using specific case studies. For his research on the latter book, Grässlin followed the route of German weapons to civil war areas and conducted 220 interviews with victims of German rifle exports in Somaliland and Turkey .

In 1997 he published “License to Kill? - How the Bundeswehr is made into an international reaction force ”and presented the international disarmament initiative“ Five for Peace ”, which he launched in the same year, to cut armaments budgets by at least five percent annually. This project, supported by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate José Ramos-Horta , among others , is being continued today in the DFG-VK's “Steps towards Disarmament” campaign.

Criminal charges against Heckler and Koch

In 2010, Grässlin filed a criminal complaint against H&K for allegedly having illegally delivered HK G36 assault rifles to the troubled Mexican provinces of Chiapas, Chihuahua, Guerrero and Jalisco in 2006. The Stuttgart public prosecutor opened an investigation against those responsible at H&K and searched the company's premises on December 21, 2010 on suspicion of "violations of the war weapons control - and of the Foreign Trade Act ". In addition, the Federal Ministry of Economics put the export permits from H&K for Mexico on hold for the time being.

At the end of February 2019, the Stuttgart Regional Court sentenced the company to pay around 3.7 million euros. Two former employees were sentenced to 17 and 22 months respectively on probation for "gang-like export due to fraudulent permits" and the aiding and abetting. The court acquitted three other defendants, also former employees, on all counts.

Media response

Grässlin's engagement brought him considerable media attention: He is considered “Germany's most prominent armaments opponent” or “Germany's best known armaments opponent”. Reports also described him as "Germany's most stubborn arms opponent" who fights "alone against the arms industry".

Party politics

Grässlin was a member of Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen and ran for it in the federal elections in 1994 and 1998. After his party had agreed to what he believed to be a “illegal combat operation in Kosovo” and arms exports, he resigned there in July 2000 and has been non-party ever since. By turning away from party politics, Grässlin increased his involvement in pacifist organizations. Since 1999 he has been a national spokesperson for the DFG-VK.

Automotive and defense industries

In the early 1990s, Grässlin and others founded the “Umbrella Association of Critical Shareholders Daimler” (KAD) and has been one of its spokesmen ever since. Starting with "Daimler-Benz - The Group and its Republic", Grässlin wrote four books about the Daimler Group. For his biography of the long-time Daimler CEO Jürgen Schrempp he researched worldwide and conducted numerous interviews. The so far only biography about Schrempp has been translated into several languages and found international distribution.

For the biography “ Ferdinand Piëch . Techniker der Macht ”(2000) about the VW boss refused to cooperate with him. During his research, Grässlin then, according to his own statements, contacted former VW board members who only provided information on a confidential basis because of their exit contracts.

In 2002, Grässlin and other peace activists founded the "German Action Network for Stopping Small Arms" (DAKS), of which he is still a national spokesman. The DAKS addresses the support of German politics for exports of small arms and the leading role of German small arms producers. With the financial proceeds from his numerous book readings, Grässlin founded the DAKS fund to support political work for victims of the use of German small arms.

DaimlerChrysler tried unsuccessfully to influence the publication of Grässlin's book "Das Daimler-Desaster" (2005). In spring 2006, the work reached first place on the German bestseller lists for business books.

In 2006, Schrempp and Daimler sued Grässlin for injunctive relief, since Zetsche had linked Zetsche with arms deals on the gray market. The case was ultimately dismissed by the Federal Court of Justice. In December 2006, Grässlin filed a criminal complaint against Schrempp's successor Dieter Zetsche and other Daimler managers on suspicion of false statements. On the basis of the complaint, charges were brought against one of the accused, which in the second instance resulted in an acquittal.

Awards

2009: Prize for civil courage from the Solbach Freise Foundation ("for 25 years of daring resistance against the German armaments industry")
2011: Aachen Peace Prize 2011.
2016: Stuttgart Peace Prize

Memberships and functions

Functions:

Federal spokesman and member of the board of directors authorized to represent the German Peace Society-United War Service Opponents
Spokesman for the Critical Shareholders Daimler (KDA)
Spokesman for the German Action Network " Stopping Small Arms " (DAKS)
Board member of the Armaments Information Office e. V. (RiB e.V.)

Memberships:

Amnesty International
attac
German Peace Society - United War Resisters
German Action Network for Stopping Small Arms (DAKS)
Education and Science Union (GEW)
Association of German Writers (VS) in ver.di
Verkehrsclub Deutschland (VCD)

Publications

Jürgen Grässlin: Weapons from Germany bring death . Droemer Knaur, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-426-80029-2 .
Jürgen Grässlin: Daimler-Benz. The concern and its republic . Droemer Knaur, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-426-80064-0 .
Jürgen Grässlin: License to kill? How the Bundeswehr is made into an international reaction force . Droemer Knaur, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-426-80081-0 .
Jürgen Grässlin: Jürgen E. Schrempp. The Lord of the Stars . Droemer, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-426-27075-7 .
Jürgen Grässlin: Ferdinand Piëch. Technician of Power . Droemer, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-426-27182-6 .
Jürgen Grässlin: Hide when they shoot. The real story of Samiira, Hayrettin and a German rifle . Droemer Knaur, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-426-27267-9 .
Jürgen Grässlin: The Daimler disaster. From a model group to a restructuring case? Droemer, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-426-27267-9 .
Jürgen Grässlin: Worn out ?! The Daimler disaster continues . Knaur Tb., Munich 2007, ISBN 3-426-77977-3 .
Jürgen Grässlin: Black Book Arms Trade. How Germany earned money from the war . Heyne, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-453-60237-3 . ( Review at Zeit Online )
Jürgen Grässlin with Daniel Harrich and Danuta Harrich-Zandberg : Network of Death: The criminal interdependence of the arms industry and authorities . Heyne 2015, ISBN 978-3-453-20109-5 .