Klaus Ehrler

Klaus Ehrler

Klaus Ehrler (* 1930 in Leipzig ; † September 12, 2005 in Berlin ) was a German historian and peace activist .

Life

Ehrler came from an educated , Christian home in Leipzig. The father was a teacher , his mother came from a family of teachers. He experienced his childhood in the time of National Socialism . Although still a schoolboy, he was already practicing passive resistance . Together with a friend he went to the military sport of the young people with bandaged forearm and was allowed to watch. During field exercises in the forest, the duo occasionally lost contact with the troops and returned prematurely. The squad leader remained Escapism not hidden. In the summer of 1942 Klaus and his friend were dishonored in front of the assembled team; the Fähnleinführer cut the victory tune from their uniform blouses and ordered the high school students to weed. From his evacuation site in Nossen , Klaus Ehler saw the bombed Dresden burning. After Germany's liberation from National Socialism , he first worked as a roofer assistant . He later attended school again and graduated from high school in 1948 . After he was not allowed to study history in Leipzig due to his social background , he entered the Saxon school service as a new teacher . From 1950 he studied physics in West Berlin , but then turned to his real preference, history, also studied philosophy , and completed both with a master's degree . After graduating, he found a job as a lecturer in the "Historical Commission" in Berlin. As a student in the 1950s, he campaigned against rearmament and the nuclear policy of the Adenauer government and soon belonged to the inner circle of the student opposition. This attitude led to difficulties with the head of the historical commission, so that he later took over the management of the Protestant student dormitories in West Berlin. The general secretary of the Christian Peace Conference (CFK) appointed him in 1976 as a staff member in Prague . In 1984 he returned to West Berlin. Here he campaigned for steps to be a good neighbor to the surrounding GDR up to and including their recognition under international law.

Ehrler had developed into a radical pacifist . Supported by a phenomenal memory for historical data and contexts, he devoted himself above all to the long-forgotten progress in international law that was once achieved, but z. Some of them were forgotten or canceled. These data such as For example , he tried to bring the Briand-Kellogg Pact to Outlaw War of Aggression of 1928 back into political memory by speaking and writing about it. He turned to Pope Benedict XVI, elected three years later . asking why the Vatican did not ratify this treaty. He proposed that June 17, 1925, on which the Geneva Protocol on the prohibition of poisonous gases was signed, be declared World Disarmament Day. Klaus Ehrler reminded the parliamentarians of the Bundestag of the ban on aerial warfare , which was passed in 1899 at the 1st Hague Peace Conference , but was not extended at the 2nd Hague Peace Conference in 1907.

In an obituary on his death, Dieter Kraft wrote in the young world - reprinted in the newsletter of the Association of Friends of the Hendrik Kraemer House:

" " Ehrler played a significant role in the UN cooperation between democratic NGOs. As a historian in the FRG banned from practicing his profession, he remained incorruptible on the peace issue. " "

Ehrler was married and had lived in the eastern part of Berlin since 1995.

Ehrler's estate, consisting of his publications, but mainly unpublished manuscripts, is in the Evangelical Central Archive in Berlin.

Works

• CDU in the GDR or what we can learn from our brothers and sisters. Cologne: Plan-Verl., 1969
• Ingrid Ehrler (ed.): The race for peace. Klaus Ehrler in texts and contexts. Pahl-Rugenstein Verlag, Bonn, 2007, ISBN 978-3-89144-393-4

Articles (selection)

• What should not be missing in an anti- barbarism program. Reminder of forgotten and unused opportunities, in: From Church and World. Festschrift for the 80th birthday of Hanfried Müller , ed. by Dieter Kraft, Berlin 2006, p. 327ff.
• The Munich "Agreement" - the authorization for occupation, contrary to international law . UTOPIE Kreativ, H. 167 (September 2004), pp. 838-849
• Remembrance as peace service, in: Neues Deutschland from August 28, 2003, p. 3
• Taboo air war - how much longer? On the ban on air warfare, in: Blätter für German and international politics , comments and reports - Issue 05/2000 - pages 552 to 552
• Lidice lives - Lidice stays up to date, in: Documentation on the activities of the Lidice Initiative, Bremen 1992, p. 24f.
• The V. ACFV in the mirror of the press, in the magazine "Christian Peace Conference" No. 61 II 1978, p. 11
• CFK study commissions in 1977, in the magazine "Christian Peace Conference" No. 60 1978, p. 19f.
• About the work of the study commissions 1976, in: Magazine "Christian Peace Conference" No. 56 1977, p. 21ff.
• Europe 30 years without war - on the historical significance of May 8 , in: Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik, issue 4, April 1975, p. 373ff.
• Obligations and perspectives of the Bonn treaty policy between Helsinki and Belgrade, in: Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik , issue 9, September 1975, pp. 971ff.
• On the initiative for a World Disarmament Day, special print from: Blätter für Deutschen und Internationale Politik, Issue 3, March 1974
• Criteria and tendencies of current peace policy in the period of transition from isolated to universal peace, in: Friedensforschung und Friedenskampf, ed. by Gerhard Bassarak , Berlin 1972, p. 47ff.
• Rudolf Heß for example, in: Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik, issue 6, June 1971, pp. 555ff.
• West Berlin and relaxation, in: Blätter für German and international politics, issue 12, December 1970, p. 1230ff.
• Peace for West Berlin, special print from: Blätter für Deutsche und Internationale Politik, Issue 8, August 1968
• The chances of a double federation for West Berlin, in: Blätter for German and international politics, issue 11, November 1966, p. 1005ff.
• Vietnam , Berlin and the students, in: Blätter for German and international politics, issue 3, March 1966, p. 173ff.
• The Moscow Peace Congress and the work of the CFD in Berlin, in: CFD bulletin No. 282, October / December 1962, p. 4f.
• The Berlin problem before its solution, in: Blätter for German and international politics, issue 10, October 1961, p. 926ff.
• The race for peace, in: Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik, issue 4, April 1961, p. 341ff.
• The German student movement facing new tasks, in: Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik, issue 10, October 1959, p. 863ff.
• Then and now, in: "concrete", November 1958

literature

• The Race to Peace, ed. by Ingrid Ehrler, Pahl-Rugenstein, Bonn 2007

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tagesspiegel: beret, white beard, the left ideal type. A fifty-eight. , dated December 9, 2005
2. ↑ http://www.linksnet.de/de/artikel/18831
3. ↑ http://www.blaetter.de/artikel.php?pr=688

Web links

• Literature by and about Klaus Ehrler in the catalog of the German National Library