Life without armor

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Without Armor Life eV (ORL) is an ecumenical organization of the peace movement in Germany that emerged in the late 1970s . As a consistently pacifist grassroots movement, it wants to "politically develop peace without arms". In addition, she advocates the general waiver of any military protection.

history

The association goes back to the Württemberg initiative Pro Ökumene. The Protestant pastor Werner Dierlamm, a member of the anti-militarism working group of Pro Ökumene, presented a voluntary commitment for discussion at a conference in Mannheim at the end of August 1977, in which the willingness to live without weapons was expressed. Wolf-Dietrich Hardung , dean of the church district Bad Cannstatt, then added to this declaration the demand for a political development of peace. The voluntary commitment conceived in Mannheim and later elaborated thus read: “I am ready to live without the protection of military armaments. I want to advocate in our state that peace without weapons is politically developed. ”It became the basis of the Action Life Without Armament, which was launched in the spring of 1978 and which was initially a working group of Pro Ökumene.

The reason for this declaration and thus for the founding of Armorless Life was an appeal by the Fifth General Assembly of the World Council of Churches (World Council of Churches ) in 1975 in Nairobi / Kenya. It demanded: "The church should emphasize its readiness to live without the protection of weapons and take significant initiatives to press for effective disarmament."

In April 1978, the initiators of Without Armament went public - in addition to Dierlamm and Hardung, these included pastors Niels Hueck, Hermann Mayer, Hermann Schäufele, Gerhard Schubert, Reinhardt Seibert and Gerhard Voss - for the first time with the self-commitment. It was entitled “Appeal to all Christians”. This public appeal was supported by other organizations such as the Church Brotherhood in Württemberg, the International Union of Reconciliation and the Evangelical Working Group on the Care of Conscientious Objectors and Civilian Service Providers (EAK) , but not by the Württemberg regional church . However, she recognized life without armament as a peace group and let the action go.

The first major opportunity to present itself and its self-commitment in public was offered to the association at the Evangelical Church Congress in Nuremberg in June 1979. The appeal “To all Christians” was also published in several major daily and weekly newspapers over the next few years . As a result, the number of people who signed up for themselves grew slowly but steadily: from 834 signatories in June 1978 to 15,800 in April 1981. According to Der Spiegel, the association had become “within three years the largest of the new peace groups in the Protestant Church”. At the end of July 1983, 23,800 people had finally signed the declaration. At the same time, many of the signatories have organized themselves into local groups. Thus in 1982 there were 120 regional or local groups of Armored Life. Most of them have since disbanded.

Right from the start, education and awareness-raising have been the focus of the peace policy work of the Initiative Without Armaments, which has been a registered non-profit association based in Stuttgart since 1983. In addition, it published and continues to provide information material such as circulars, the quarterly magazine "Informations", which has been published every quarter since 1978, and various papers dealing primarily with issues relating to peace and armaments policy. Furthermore, the association's peace work also consisted of actions that it carried out or promoted itself: In addition to regular participation in the Kirchentag, these included, for example, peace chains, protest marches, fasting, silence or postcard campaigns, constitutional complaints, tax refusals, participation in the "coordination committee the peace movement ”, from which it officially resigned in 1986, or actions of nonviolent civil disobedience , such as blockades.

Programmatics and controversies

The peace-political endeavors of the initiators of Life Without Armor were based on the New Testament and in particular on the Sermon on the Mount (especially Matthew 5: 38-48). They understood the gospel as “liberation and an obligation to peace”. They took the view that the word of Jesus applies not only to the religious area, but also to the secular. They concluded from this that Christians are not only "empowered to make peace" on a personal level, but also in the political sphere, or are obliged to work for peace. Life without armament called for unilateral disarmament steps, the dissolution of military alliances and an education for peace.

The call for the voluntary commitment of the Unarmed Life triggered passionate discussions in the Protestant churches in particular and ultimately led to the fact that in 1980, as a direct reaction to the “radical pacifist” and “more ethical” position of the Unarmed Life with the working group Working group on securing peace in Munich formed a “more ethical of responsibility” and “more ethical of sentiments” Christian counter-movement. It included prominent Protestant Christians such as the a. D. Eberhard Müller and the former editor-in-chief of Evangelical Commentaries, Eberhard Stammler, represented. They were of the opinion that peace had to be defended responsibly for one's neighbor - and that "in the extreme case by force of arms", which they also emphasized in a counter-statement to the self-commitment of living without armament. Therefore an armament equilibrium is necessary. As with Life Without Armor, the Working Group on Securing Peace also argued with the contents of the Sermon on the Mount, but linked them to the fifth commandment of the Decalogue (prohibition of killing), which not only forbids murder but also “the - if necessary armed - protection of life, the fundamental Human rights and freedom ”.

organization

The association has been registered as a registered association in Stuttgart since 1983 and recognized as a non-profit organization. The organization is mainly financed from donations and not from membership fees. One of the full-time employees is Paul Russmann.

Goals and Activities

The association campaigns against arms production and exports and for a world free of nuclear weapons and the expansion of civil peace services . The initiative focuses primarily on high-profile protest actions and campaigns, as well as information, education and lobbying work. This includes information events and peace policy campaigns as well as rallies and demonstrations.

Living without armament was or is a co-initiator of numerous campaigns and actions, such as:

  • “Producing for life. Stop arms exports "
  • "Stop Daimler mines"
  • "Night of 100,000 candles for a world without nuclear weapons"
  • "Peace Campaign Turkey / Kurdistan Silence Kills - Peace Now!"
  • "No school for the Bundeswehr"
  • "Abolish Nuclear Weapons", "Our Future - Nuclear Weapons Free" and "Nuclear Weapons Free Now!"
  • "Action outcry - stop the arms trade"
  • "20 million more from the military" (campaign for the expansion of the civil peace service)

In addition, Ohne Armor Leben coordinates the “ Critical Daimler Shareholders ”, took part in the establishment and further development of a German peace service and supported civil conflict management projects in crisis regions.

Awards

Living Without Armaments was awarded the Göttingen Peace Prize in 2011 together with the “Armaments Exports” section of the Joint Conference on Church and Development (GKKE) .

In November 2012, without armament, Leben received the Stuttgart Peace Prize 2012 together with other organizations such as Pax Christi and the German Peace Society / United War Resisters for the “Outcry - Stop the Arms Trade” .

Memberships

Life without armor is a member of:

literature

  • Make peace. The Christians for Disarmament - a documentation, ed. v. Günter Baadte, Armin Boyens, Ortwin Buchbender, Munich 1984.
  • Hardung, Wolf-Dietrich: Peace Movement as Part of Ecumenism. In: And reach out for what is ahead. 25 years open church, ed. v. Eva-Maria Agster, Reutlingen o. J.
  • Leif, Thomas: The strategic (powerless) power of the peace movement. Communication and decision-making structures in the eighties, Opladen 1990.
  • Lienemann, Wolfgang: Peace: from “just war” to “just peace”, Göttingen 2000.
  • Manz, Hans-Ulrich: Peace work in the province. Experiences, options for action and perspectives in a church community, scientific work for a diploma (FH) as a social pedagogue, Tuttlingen 1982.
  • Live without armor. Pro Ökumene working group, ed. v. Living without armament, Gütersloh 1981.
  • Schregel, Susanne: The nuclear war on the doorstep. A Political History of the New Peace Movement in the Federal Republic 1970–1985, Frankfurt / M. 2010.
  • Zander, Helmut: The Christians and the peace movement in both German states. Contributions to a comparison for the years 1978–1987, Berlin 1989.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.ohne-ruestung-leben.de/frieden-entwickeln.html
  2. ↑ Cf. Zander, Helmut: The Christians and the peace movement in both German states. Contributions to a comparison for the years 1978–1987, Berlin 1989, pp. 74f.
  3. ↑ See Living Without Armor. Pro Ökumene working group, ed. v. Living without armaments, Gütersloh 1981, p. 20.
  4. ↑ Live without armament, 1981 p. 32. See also: Lienemann, Wolfgang: Peace: from “just war” to “just peace”, Göttingen 2000, p. 152 ff.
  5. ↑ a b cf. Manz, Hans-Ulrich: Peace work in the province. Experiences, options for action and perspectives in a church community, scientific work on diploma (FH) as a social pedagogue, Tuttlingen 1982, p. 5. See also: Schregel, Susanne: The nuclear war in front of the apartment door. A Political History of the New Peace Movement in the Federal Republic 1970–1985, Frankfurt / M. 2010, p. 47; Life without armor, 1981, p. 20ff.
  6. ↑ See Manz, p. 5; Zander, p. 75.
  7. ↑ See Manz, p. 6; Zander p. 74.
  8. ↑ Cf. Manz p. 6. See for example: Die Zeit No. 23/1981: To all Christians from May 29, 1981, p. 11.
  9. ^ Peace Movement: Gentle Crusade . In: Der Spiegel . No. 18 , 1981, p. 19-21 ( Online - Apr. 27, 1981 ).
  10. ^ Peace Movement: Gentle Crusade . In: Der Spiegel . No. 18 , 1981, p. 20 ( Online - Apr. 27, 1981 ).
  11. ↑ Making peace. The Christians for Disarmament - a documentation, ed. v. Günter Baadte, Armin Boyens, Ortwin Buchbender, Munich 1984, p. 58.
  12. ↑ a b cf. Zander, p. 75.
  13. ↑ a b Zander, p. 78.
  14. ↑ See register of associations at the Stuttgart District Court
  15. ↑ See Zander, p. 79.
  16. ↑ Leif, Thomas: The strategic (powerless) power of the peace movement. Communication and decision-making structures in the eighties, Opladen 1990, p. 35.
  17. ↑ Life without armor, 1981, p. 10ff.
  18. ↑ a b Life without armor, 1981, p. 24.
  19. ↑ Life without armor, 1981, p. 12.
  20. ↑ Life without armor, 1981, p. 20.
  21. ↑ a b Making Peace, p. 60.
  22. ↑ a b Zander, p. 82.
  23. ↑ See self-description on the organization's website: http://www.sicherung-des-friedens.de/sicherung%20des%20friedens_003.htm
  24. ^ Zander, p. 77 and p. 80ff; Making peace p. 60ff; Lienemann, p. 164.
  25. ↑ Lienemann, p. 164.
  26. ↑ Making Peace, p. 60ff, Living Without Armor, 1981, p. 55.
  27. ↑ See register of associations at the Stuttgart District Court
  28. ↑ See the website of Life Without Armor