Nikolaus Koch (philosopher)

Nikolaus Koch (born November 2, 1912 in what is now Konz on the Moselle; † September 8, 1991 in Witten ) was a fundamentally democratic Catholic thinker, professor of philosophy, publicist and war opponent.

Life

Nikolaus Koch received his doctorate in 1939, became a library trainee and completed his assessor examination in 1944. "His experiences in fascism, which he was clearly opposed to, and his experience of the war in Russia, from which he returned seriously wounded, shaped his critical attitude towards state and church authorities." In 1960 Nikolaus Koch received a professorship for philosophy in Dortmund .

Services

Koch was co-founder and first state chairman of the Junge Union in Württemberg-Hohenzollern and, together with students and professors from Tübingen, held the first international conference on German soil after the end of World War II : Social-ethical working conference for Christian students . In 1948 he broke away from party-political connections and began to become politically active through new initiatives.

In 1951 he became an active member of the International of War Resisters (IDK). He worked for several years in various areas of the IDK: on the IDK board as an assessor, then also on the advisory board and in the working committee.

In 1953 he prepared himself and six friends, including the Buddhist Paul Debes , for a negotiation that led the group on bicycles to Witzenhausen, on the inner-German border with the GDR. “At a point that was closed to the crossing, without papers, open and with prior notice”, it was possible to cross the inner-German border. "Communists over there, who supposedly only understand the language of violence, (said) a hundred such groups, and the zone boundary was untenable ... We have reason to believe that a far smaller number of small groups is sufficient to set the frozen fronts in motion."

In 1954, Marie Eberhard , a member of the Reconciliation Union, helped Nikolaus Koch and his friends to set up a “Peace Service Counseling Center” in their home in Witten-Bommern, the main task of which should be “people who do not want to stop saying no to military service , to put in a state to perform peace service, which makes war service superfluous when it is sufficiently developed. ”It was gradually expanded into a conference center for small groups and should become a“ cell of general nonviolent self-help ”to explore the possibilities of To research, publicize and realize non-violent self-help "in the psychological, ideological, economic, political and military areas of modern war."

In 1951 his book The Modern Revolution was published. Thoughts of the non-violent self-help of the German people , in which he tried to show that and how the history of violence is changing and that "contexts and powers gain political significance that previously only found form in the temporary achievements of individuals and small groups and in utopian ideas." Nikolaus Koch was the first to use the term " nonviolence ", which later dominated the peace movement and was ascribed to Theodor Ebert , but later usually spoke of "nonviolence" and the civil struggle "without weapons".) In 1954 he published together with others on the basis of training experience Brochure War Service and Peace Service . In it he deals with, among other things, the modern "Five War" / the primacy of conscience in the democratic state / the new - non-violent - defensiveness / the necessary sovereign behavior of the individual towards the authorities. "This document claims to be a kind of army service regulation for volunteers."

In the same year 1954 he became head of the Pedagogical Central Library of North Rhine-Westphalia in Dortmund (until 1970) and gave the first philosophical lectures at the Pedagogical University. As the initiator and chairman of the Federal Working Group on Pedagogical Libraries and Media Centers, he successfully campaigned for the integration of libraries into the overall educational system; as chairman of the university council, he fought for educational reform and comprehensive universities.

From 1957 he worked with Bodo Manstein , the doctor and founder of theKampfbund against nuclear damage , a forerunner of the alternative movement against nuclear weapons and against nuclear energy. In the same year, both called for a voluntary action against the US nuclear tests in the Pacific (even before non-violent groups from the USA started their model protests with sailboats). The project was not carried out due to intensive reflection and resulted in training related to the German situation. The results of this course were reflected in the joint publication by Koch and Manstein: Die Freiwilligen. Training in non-violent self-help and non-military defense.

In addition to overcoming the military, it dealt among other things with the nuclear armament of the Bundeswehr, air raid protection and the reunification of Germany. The key points were a new level of defense and strategies for nonviolent political practice from below. These ideas influenced, among other things, the Hamburg Action Group for Nonviolence ( Mahnwache 1958, Initiative for the German Easter Marches 1960 “Have you trust in the power of the individual”, Action Mole against the construction of the first nuclear shelter in Hamburg 1960 and first German individual publication of the essay by Henri David Thoreau Civic Disobedience , Translation and Editing of the American Handbook on Nonviolent Actions, 1959)

In 1960 he lodged a complaint with the Federal Constitutional Court against the Substitute Service Act because it was incompatible with the fundamental right to freedom of conscience. Two years earlier, as an appraiser for the Central Office for the Law and Protection of Conscientious Objectors, he had formulated: “Anyone who is responsible and conscientious about the revised understanding of war can no longer become or remain a soldier. Neither can he be ready for a surrogate alternative service or be content with practical work on individual social evils. He must recognize the decisive civil tasks and devote himself to them with all his might that are necessary to master them. It is obvious that the civilian mission is not a temporary matter for a few years of conscripts, but an enduring matter of all democrats, old and young, men and women, healthy and sick, each in their place and with their means. "

In the mid-1960s, a group of radical democratic citizens gathered around Koch in his house in Bommern and worked under the name "Critical Christians (Witten)"; it was about humanistic philosophy and conscientious objection. During this time he was also a member of the Association of Conscientious Objectors and in March 1970 contributed to a new policy statement of the association.

In 1969 the group "Critical Christians (Witten)" expanded and expanded its topics in the direction of economics / companies, vocational training, Antifa and, organized as a group within the group, the DFG / VK area. This association, to which more than 70 local non- party members belonged, was named after the West Berlin model " Republican Club ", in which Koch was not active, although the members expressly respected and honored him. He worked critically through lectures, reports and articles in several peace organizations, gave speeches at Easter march rallies and was active in working groups and citizens' initiatives on other topics. His contributions have appeared in the Peace Review of the International of War Resisters, the German Branch of War Resisters' International and in right-wing, neutralist media such as Neue Politik and Holsten-Verlag ( Wolf Schenke ). Through sharp analyzes and "undiplomatic openness", categorical formulations and polemical escalation, he occasionally generated resistance and refusal to talk and was also perceived as an uncomfortable "lone fighter". In later years and after his retirement, he dealt more with questions of state philosophy and the role of the churches in overcoming the violence, but remained open to current political problems: January Declaration on the Gulf War (1991): “The German peace movement is not anti-american. She is in solidarity with the USA of the liberal world revolution on the way to a world culture of open people. She is in solidarity with the internal American opposition to the Gulf War. It is not in solidarity with American politics of violence in the third world. She also helps the USA with open criticism ... The German peace movement does not confuse democracy with anti-communism ... The German war opposition is neither anti-Semitic nor anti-Israeli. It faces the plight of the young state in its tensions between the first and third world. She is in full solidarity with Jewish life and indivisible human dignity. Behind archaic claims, she senses the incorruptibility of the great Jewish prophets. Israel's inability to achieve peace burdens them all the more because they themselves do not know a peaceful solution ... "

The life of Nikolaus Koch was shaped by a Christian-inspired attitude, the ideals of the Enlightenment and socio-political commitment.

Fonts

• The modern revolution - thoughts of nonviolent self-help of the German people, Tübingen / Frankfurt 1951
• Military service and peace service , Witten-Bommern 1954
• Revolution in defense thinking , special edition for “Community and Politics”, issue 5/1956, 1956
• The volunteers (with Bodo Manstein ), Göttingen 1959
• Easter speech about the beginning and end of German politics 1961 / trade union. Monthly issues 13/62
• German Partisan School , in: Neue Politik 13/68 (with Arnold Haumann and Sieglinde Pfeil)
• State philosophy and revolution theory , 1973
• Negative anthropology - open anthropology , Hamburg 1981
• Church and Revolution , Dortmund 1985
• Non-aligned Germany in non-aligned Europe / Our revolutionary task , Dortmund 1986
• Situation and method , Dortmund 1986
• State apparatus and primacy of conscience , Witten-Bommern 1988
• Christianity in the 4th Revolution , Witten-Bommern 1988
• The Germans and the 4th Revolution , Witten-Bommern 1989

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Detlef Thierig: Nikolaus Koch: Philosopher and Peace Partisan in: Frank Ahland and others (ed.) Wittener biographical portraits , Witten 2000, p. 201, cf. Also fight with full openness / Nikolaus Koch - philosopher and committed citizen in: Civil 3/2009, p. 26 f, in terms of content almost identical to the article from 2000
2. ↑ Guido Grünewald: The International of War Service Opponents (IdK), Cologne 1982, p. 555 ff
3. ↑ Bodo Manstein and Nikolaus Koch: Die Freiwilligen , s. Works, p. 20
4. ^ Nikolaus Koch: War service and peace service , s. Works, p. 57
5. ↑ Printed information, apparently for the funeral service in September 1991, without information on the author
6. ^ Nikolaus Koch: War service and peace service , s. Works, p. 3
7. ↑ Nikolaus Koch was the first to use the term "nonviolence", which later dominated the peace movement and was ascribed to Theodor Ebert (see the book title Die Moderne Revolution - zur non-violent self-help of the German people ), but later usually referred to "nonviolence" and civil struggle Spoken “without weapons”.
8. ↑ Bodo Manstein and Nikolaus Koch: Die Freiwilligen , s. Works, p. 30
9. ^ ^{A b} Friedrich Rapp: Funeral speech for Nikolaus Koch , September 12, 1991, copy of a manuscript
10. ↑ Helga and Konrad Tempel: Beginnings of nonviolent action in the first 20 years after the war - who knows what really happened? in: Politics from below - On the past and present of nonviolent action , ed. Christian Büttner and others, 1997, p. 64 ff. (on US protests see Albert Bigelow )
11. ^ Helga and Konrad Tempel: Beginnings of nonviolent action in the first 20 years after the war. Who knows what really was? in politics from below. On the past and present of nonviolent action , ed. Christian Büttner and others, 1997, p. 64ff as well as Konrad Tempel incitement to nonviolence. On ways of mindful practice and spirituality , AphorismA-Verlag, Berlin, 2009, pp. 66, 82, 141
12. ↑ Expert opinion on the fundamental right of conscientious objection to military service , in: Central Office for Law and Protection of Conscientious Objectors (ed.), The freedom to say NO, 25 years for the right of conscientious objectors , Dreisam-Verlag, Freiburg 1983, ISBN 3- 921472-80-6 , p. 39f, also archived copy ( memento of the original from October 27, 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. 
13. ↑ On the situation in the UK , civil, vol. 15, No. 8/9, July / August 1969
14. ↑ Detlef Thierig Nikolaus Koch. Philosopher and peace partisan in Frank Ahland a. a. Ed. Wittener. Biographical portraits , Witten 2000, p. 203
15. ↑ Detlef Thierig: Nikolaus Koch: philosopher and peace partisan in Frank Ahland u. a. Ed. Wittener. Biographical portraits , Witten 2000, p. 203
16. ↑ cf. Letter to Cardinal Joseph Höffner and Hans Maier , December 17, 1986, (copy of a brochure The Christianity in the Fourth Revolution. To the Churches in both German post-war states , Haus Bommern eV, 1988), as well as a letter to the Christian dual party , August 17, 1987 (copy of a brochure on the state apparatus and primacy of conscience. To the German parties in the Bundestag and Volkskammer , Haus Bommern eV, 1988, p. 13)
17. ↑ Detlef Thierig: Nikolaus Koch: philosopher and peace partisan in Frank Ahland u. a. Ed. Wittener. Biographical portraits , Witten 2000, p. 203
18. ↑ Copy of the declaration dated February 7, 1991 and signature "Nikolaus Koch"

Web links

• Literature by and about Nikolaus Koch in the catalog of the German National Library