Germany: 'Time for arms' at Protestant Church Assembly
June 9, 2023
"Right now, the war is being used to justify everything," says Jan Gildemeister, the director of Action Group in the Service of Peace (AGDF).
"Budgets in every government ministry are being slashed, only the defense ministry's is growing. And they are procuring weapons systems that have absolutely nothing to do with Russia," he complains.
Gildemeister and a few associates are attending this year's Protestant Assembly (Kirchentag) in the city of Nuremberg in southern Germany — with 60,000 participants, the country's largest such gathering of the year.
They are running PR at a stand for the Ecumenical Peace Decades, (Ökumenische FriedensDekade, or EKD) an alliance of church groups.
'Swords to plowshares'
Numerous other groups, including the German Peace Society, the Civil Peace Forum and the Berlin Anti-War Museum are also present.
Though the names and titles of the various groups and initiatives may be complicated, the Peace Decades' logo is recognizible — "Swords to plowshares" can be seen on stickers and posters, beer coasters and pins.
The biblical phrase represents the idea of peace among all peoples. In the 1980s, it became a symbol of non-governmental, often church-related, disarmament initiatives in communist East Germany.
Shortly thereafter it was adopted by the West German peace movement. The visual image accompanying the phrase features a bare-chested smith hammering a sword into a plow.
It was common to see the patch sewn onto the bags or jackets of many of those attending the event 30 or 40 years ago, at a time when the Protestant Kirchentag influenced German political debate.
When the event was staged in Hamburg in 1981 and Hanover in 1983, for example, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest nuclear armament.
And now? In the shadow of Russian aggression against Ukraine, of war in Europe? Although armament is being discussed in earnest this year, it does not seem to be so controversial.
President Steinmeier addresses Putin
That was clear from the start of the conference, which was opened by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, himself a Protestant.
Steinmeier has been roundly criticized by numerous experts for his approach to Russia when he served as foreign minister under Chancellor Angela Merkel — for far too long, they say, Germany, and the Social Democrats, courted Russia and accepted Moscow's claims to power.
In Nuremberg, Steinmeier spoke of "Vladimir Putin's brutal, inhumane war of aggression against Ukraine," of the "endless suffering, destruction and death" that the Russian president is visiting upon Ukrainians.
Addressing conference participants, Steinmeier accused Putin of waging a "campaign of destruction."
"I never would have imagined that I would ever say… there is also a time for arms," he said. "I know I don't have to urge you to debate. My request to you is: don't stop. Get involved!"
Steinmeier's speech was periodically interrupted by applause, but there was also criticism from the audience when he spoke of Ukraine. One could clearly hear individuals yelling "Moscow," at times, but none of that stopped the flow of the president's speech.
Political support for arming Ukraine
In the first two days of the conference there was broad condemnation of Putin's war of aggression by German politicians.
Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Chairman Friedrich Merz spoke of "war in Europe" and "a profound break." Britta Hasselmann, the head of the Green Party parliamentary caucus in Berlin, spoke in similar terms.
And Manuela Schwesig, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Social Democratic state premier, dropped a line on "Russia's awful war of aggression against Ukraine" into remarks on "bible study."
She did not, however, make mention of her own personal ties to close Putin allies — ties that have been hotly discussed for months and for which she has been heavily criticized.
Overall, the topics of arms deliveries and support for Ukraine have not sparked widespread protest. No doubt that has to do with the fact that some of the most prominent arms critics in the Protestant Church are not in Nuremberg.
Margot Kässmann, once president of the Council of the Protestant Church in Germany and one of the most important Protestants in the land of Martin Luther — a star in the church for decades — declined to attend this year's assembly after a pacifist concert-lecture by her and the singer Konstantin Wecker was struck from the official program.
Both would have had the clout to impress thousands of participants and potentially bring about a questioning of current political calculus.
Now the most anticipated event on the schedule is an appearance by Carsten Breuer, inspector general of Germany's Bundeswehr. He will take part in a discussion with EKD Peace Commissioner Friedrich Kramer and others.
Never before has a top army figure taken the stage at the German Protestant Assembly. If the same had happened in the 1980s he would likely not have been able to speak over the cries of protesters.
Jan Gildemeister and his colleague Thomas Oelerich, spokesman for Action Decade, are not sure if they will attend the discussion. He told DW that the debate around the war in Ukraine had led to polarization.
"People no longer know what the reply to such aggression should be, whether 'swords to plowshares' is even an answer," Oelerich said.
New 'arms race'
Like Gildemeister, Oelerich warned that the "new era that Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called for" could lead to a new "arms race."
Neither has high expectations that anything will change before the conference wraps up on Sunday. "I don't get the feeling that there will be much debate about the issue of arms during this year's conference," said Gildemeister.
That, despite the fact that it is of critical importance to question information and political decision making and discuss them among society at large, he said.
This article was translated from German by Jon Shelton