World Federation for the Protection of Life

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Emblem of the international organization since 2014

The World Union for Protection of Life (WSL; English: World Union for Protection of Life (WUPL), French: Union Mondiale pour la Protection de la Vie) is incorporated in Salzburg (Austria) 1960 international non-profit organization and non-governmental organization , which has the "protection of life on earth" as its object. The German section was under the influence of neo-fascist members.

history

International Organization emblem from the 1960s

The writer Günther Schwab , a former NSDAP and SA member, had the idea of ​​founding the organization back in 1953 while working on his novel The Dance with the Devil . In some books Schwab laid down his " völkisch -biologistic views", denounced the impending destruction of nature and the environment and warned early on against the use of nuclear energy .

In Austria, Schwab and nature conservationists founded the “World Association for the Saving of Life” (WRL). The WRL was officially registered on September 24, 1958 by the Salzburg Security Directorate under the number 10.277 / 58; it was officially founded two years later. Johannes Hawranek was elected as the first president, Schwab initially did not want to hold office on the board, but was elected president in 1962 and 1970. In 1963 the organization was renamed "World Association for the Protection of Life".

The World Federation was subsequently active in 32 countries. International conferences with scientists, church and other organizations, especially with the International Society for Food and Vital Substance Research (IVG), initially took place mainly in German-speaking countries. In the self-image of the WSL, the term protection of life was an “integrating umbrella term for nature protection , animal protection and human protection”, whereby the claim was made to want to coordinate the work of all organizations active in these areas as an umbrella organization.

Germany

Emblem of the WSL-D section from 1970

On 25/26 June 1960, at the instigation and in the presence of Schwab, the founding meeting of the WRL section Germany took place in Bad Hersfeld . The association was entered in the register of associations there . Schwab's magazine Derstille Weg was unanimously used as the organ . The former National Socialist and “euthanasia doctor” of the Grafeneck killing center , Walter Gmelin , became the first president of the German section .

The founders of the German WRL section were representatives of ethnic groups, various nature conservation and life protection associations, and individuals. From the beginning characterized by a conservative image of man and nature, the WRL was in its self-image a non-partisan and non-denominational federation to combat the endangerment of nature, which was understood as a danger to the people. According to Günther Schwab, the federal government should work “for the renewal and deepening of life in the sense of eternal moral values ​​and the natural order of life”. In this view, the mind, which constitutes technology and civilization, is viewed as opposed to nature and as destroying natural orders and organic structures. The human being is declared to be the enemy of the divine order, whereby the aim of protecting life is his reintegration into the natural cycle. The former German WSL chairman Helmut Mommsen put it as follows:

"Man is destined to serve as the extended arm of an all-dominating power and as a legal advocate for living nature, putting his personal benefit behind him."

In 1964 the German WSL section had 700 members, in the mid-1980s there were over 3000; around ten years later the number of members had dropped to around 1,000. After Walter Gmelin, Petra Skriver, Wilhelm Ohlenbusch, Eduard Kirwald , Friedrich Wagner, Helmut Mommsen and Hanno Beck were presidents of the German WSL before Max Otto Bruker took over the chairmanship in 1972 . The best-known members included the physicist Karl Bechert (1901–1981), the Spiekeroog doctor Klaus Klasing (1910–1975) and the author Ewald Gaul (1919–2004).

The WSL promoted wholefood nutrition ; From 1972 the external "Health Science Working Group" was integrated into the WSL as the "Nutrition Working Group". The working groups were headed by Johann Georg Schnitzer ; other employees were Max Otto Bruker, Helmut Mommsen and Werner Kollath .

The WSL gained greater importance during the protests against the Würgassen nuclear power plant in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The resistance against Würgassen was the first to find regional support. The World Federation, especially its chairman Bruker, who lives in nearby Lemgo, supported lawsuits against the nuclear power plant financially and in the media. Joachim Radkau calls the WSL the "nucleus of the anti-nuclear power movement ". In the 1970s, the WSL adopted issues and, in some cases, forms of action from the environmental and citizens' initiative movement , trying to become a platform for the environmental movement. The organization also took up issues relating to the peace and women's movement . For example, Ursula Haverbeck-Wetzel and the later Green politician Petra Kelly organized events together on topics related to the women's movement. Anthroposophical figures of thought were widespread in the WSL , which can be traced back to the influence of Werner Georg Haverbeck . WSL members were equally involved in the founding and programmatic development of predecessor organizations of the Green Party as well as in drawing up the NPD's “ecological manifesto” .

In August 1971, the right-wing German Society for Hereditary Health Care (DfE, renamed Society for Biological Anthropology, Eugenics and Behavioral Research in 1972 ) cooperatively joined the WSL and formed the WSL Human Genetics Working Group. In the same year, the Saarland WSL chairman Günther Heipp demanded the dissolution of the working group, since the DfE was "politically to be settled on the extreme right". The then WSL President Bruker ignored the references to the connections to eugenics and neo-Nazis. After further allegations by Heipps, the WSL arbitration court decided in May 1973, at Bruker's application, to exclude Heipps. Heipp anticipated this by leaving. With him, the entire Saarland regional association left the WSL. Bruker was replaced as WSL President by Werner Georg Haverbeck in 1974. According to the political scientist Richard Stöss , Haverbeck freed the WSL from "the worst grievances [...] without officially distancing himself from pro-fascist tendencies". The medical historian Jörg Melzer doubts Stöss' interpretation and refers to Bruker's professional reorientation in the same year and a "catastrophic financial behavior" under Bruker.

In May 1981, President Haverbeck, his wife Ursula Haverbeck-Wetzel and Vice-President Ernst Otto Cohrs resigned from their offices at a federal board meeting in case they had to distance themselves from the Nazi system or Hitler. A corresponding application was then dropped. In 1982 Max Otto Bruker replaced Haverbeck as President. Cohrs remained vice president. Only after public protests and numerous resignations of members did Bruker turn to all members in a circular, expressly forbidding right-wing extremist ideas to be publicly discussed, but not right-wing extremists' membership in the WSL. Because of the letter, there was a power struggle within the WSL, in the course of which Bruker resigned from his office as president in December 1982.

As a result of the resignations in the early 1980s, the overall right-wing extremist tendency of the WSL intensified. In 1985 the German section was excluded from the international association. At the beginning of 2001 the German WSL section announced its dissolution. The reasons given were the outdated membership, the lack of young talent and the long-inactive international structures. Therefore, statutory association activity is no longer possible, which is why the tax authorities have revoked the non-profit status. The association newspaper was continued by the " Collegium Humanum ", which had been a member of the World Federation since 1972.

The successor organization of the WSL was the association Bauernhilfe , which was founded in 1987 or in June 2004 according to various sources. Officially, the association served to promote organic agriculture ; According to the statutes, Bauernhilfe wanted to “continue the tradition of the World Association for the Protection of Life from which it emerged at the time”. Among the club members were numerous people known for right-wing extremist activities, such as Horst Mahler , Ursula Haverbeck-Wetzel and the actress Imke Barnstedt . In May 2008 the aid to farmers was banned by the Federal Ministry of the Interior together with the Collegium Humanum .

Austria

Until 2008, the largest active group in terms of numbers was still to be found in Austria.

Schwab claimed: "In Austria, for example, we were able to help prevent the operation of the nuclear power plant in Zwentendorf or to preserve the Vienna Woods as a mixed forest." Soil biologist and writer Annie Francé-Harrar was an honorary member and active employee.

The work of WSL functionaries in the state “anti-nuclear offensive” was the subject of political disputes for several years. Due to the high average age of the members, the Austrian section was dissolved at the request of the board. According to the Austrian Ministry of the Interior, this voluntary dissolution came into force on December 31, 2012.

International activities

In addition to the Federal Republic of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg were the countries with the most members. However, the global political situation made it difficult - especially because of the East-West conflict - to set up an international organization, although good relations already existed at this level (Council of Europe, UN, Unesco, etc.).

According to its own information, the WSL was represented in the following countries: Egypt, Ethiopia, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Federal Republic of Germany, GDR, Finland, France, Great Britain, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Yugoslavia, Canada, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, South Korea, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and USA. A scientific advisory board of 400 experts from 53 countries, including 40 Nobel Prize winners, supported the work of the WSL. The President of the Advisory Board was Linus Pauling . The fight against cancer also belonged to the work topics at international level. Konrad Lorenz was among the German members of the scientific advisory board .

In 1964, the chemist and nutritionist Hans Adalbert Schweigart was elected the first President of the international level of the World Federation based in Luxembourg. During his tenure, he mainly devoted himself to general topics such as his public lecture on September 14, 1970 in Trier with the title Protection of Life or Fall or the ecological effects of the increase in CO 2 up to the year 2200 - a lecture he gave for which IVG had prepared for the 1972 congress.

In Australia, the organization tried since 1969 to publicly draw attention to the dangers that threatened the operation of the planned Jervis Bay nuclear power plant . According to some representatives, the Australian section has contributed to the fact that to this day no nuclear power plants - apart from the research reactor OPAL - are operated there.

The World Federation for the Protection of Life awarded the following people an award called the "Hans-Adalbert-Schweigart-Medaille":

The following important information is missing from this article or section:
Year of award, other award winners
Help Wikipedia by researching and pasting it .

In the international organization, the seat changed over time, including from Hanover to Luxembourg and later to Bad Reichenhall . After Günther Schwab's death in 2006, a new structure was set up for the 50th anniversary, which is not based on national borders. Instead, members in countries with the same language (e.g. English-speaking members in Australia, Great Britain, Canada and the USA) should work together worldwide.

In view of the large number of organizations with similar goals, the WSL sees itself as an international umbrella organization. Therefore, only scientists or persons with a scientific qualification or elected representatives of organizations with the same objectives should be accepted as members. The practical implementation and the definition of the qualification are still left to the respective national regional associations. In the German-speaking area, activities were discontinued in September 2018.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b c Jörg Melzer: Whole food nutrition: dietetics, naturopathy, National Socialism, social demands. Franz Steiner Verlag , Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-515-08278-6 , p. 317.
  2. ^ Franz Gress, Hans-Gerd Jaschke, Klaus Schönekäs: New rights and right-wing extremism in Europe: Federal Republic, France, Great Britain. Westdeutscher Verlag 1990, p. 322.
  3. ^ Text of the founding document ( memento from December 17, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) on XING
  4. ↑ World Association for the Protection of Life: WSL. Invitation to the international conference Freudenstadt / Black Forest from 22. – 25. April 1965 , quoted in Melzer, Vollwerternahrung , p. 317.
  5. ↑ a b c Richard Stöss : The Free Social Union . In: Richard Stöss (Ed.): Party Handbook. (Volume 2, FDP to WAV), Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1984, ISBN 3-531-11592-8 , pp. 1397-1423, here p. 1413.
  6. ^ Melzer, Vollwerternahrung , p. 318.
  7. ^ A b Jens Mecklenburg: Handbook of German Right-Wing Extremism. Elephant Press. Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-88520-585-8 , p. 319 f.
  8. ^ Melzer, Vollwerternahrung , p. 316.
  9. ^ Joachim Radkau: Rise and Crisis of the German Nuclear Industry 1945–1975. Replaced Alternatives in Nuclear Technology and the Origin of the Nuclear Controversy. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1983, ISBN 3-499-17756-0 , pp. 445-448.
  10. ↑ Joachim Radkau: Nature and Power. A world history of the environment. Beck, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-406-46044-5 , p. 304.
  11. ↑ Silke Mende: "Not right, not left, but in front" A history of the founding Greens Oldenbourg, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-486-59811-7 , pp. 118-120, 140.
  12. ^ Christian Mentel: Collegium Humanum. In: Wolfgang Benz (Hrsg.): Handbuch des Antisemitismus . Organizations, institutions, movements Volume 5, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-598-24078-2 , pp. 114–116, here p. 114.
  13. ↑ Melzer, Vollwerternahrung , p. 366 f.
  14. ^ Melzer, Vollwerternahrung , p. 369.
  15. ↑ Melzer, Vollwerternahrung , p. 369 f.
  16. ^ Protection of the Constitution of North Rhine-Westphalia : Interim Report for the Protection of the Constitution of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia 2001 ( Memento of 14 September 2004 in the Internet Archive )
  17. ^ Menzel, Collegium Humanum , p. 115.
  18. ↑ a b Bauernhilfe eV at Netz gegen Nazis , May 28, 2008 (accessed on November 23, 2016).
  19. ↑ Günther Schwab - biography in Salzburgwiki .
  20. ↑ Peter Bierl : No atom in the people's body . In: Jungle World 34, August 25, 2011.
  21. ↑ a b http://agirpoursasante.free.fr/remissions/pages/prevention_cancer.htm
  22. ↑ Analysis of Peter Bierl on the WSL - World Federation for the Protection of Life ( Memento from March 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  23. ↑ 16th International Convention on Civilization Diseases, Nutrition and Living Conditions, 14. – 20. September 1970 in Luxembourg and Trier
  24. ^ Program of the 18th International Convention on Diseases of Civilization, Nutrition and Living Conditions, 18. – 23. September 1972 in Berlin
  25. ^ Letter from WSL President South East Asia and Oceanic Region, Harry F. Kurth, Sydney, April 8, 1972.
  26. ↑ CV. Konrad Lorenz. Association of Friends of the Konrad Lorenz House Altenberg, December 20, 2017, accessed on May 21, 2020 .
  27. ↑ The other creation. Technology - a fate of man and earth. Fischer Paperback, 1983.
  28. ↑ Richard Haimann: Switzerland levies penalty tax on holiday properties. Environmental activist Franz Weber. Welt.de, Axel Springer SE, June 8, 2013, accessed on May 21, 2020 .
  29. ↑ UDEO Topics: Ralph Graeub - A life in the fight against the "gentle murderer" ( Memento from July 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  30. ↑ The Hanover District Court runs a “German Association for the Protection of Life” under VR 3408 in the World Association for the Protection of Life , based in Luxembourg
  31. ↑ Yearbook of International Organizations. Brussels http://www.uia.org
  32. ↑ Announcement on the WSL homepage , accessed on December 4, 2018