Ten People in Germany who Support Nonkilling

Last Updated (Sunday, 12 July 2009 11:05) Written by Anis Hamadeh Sunday, 12 July 2009 10:59

The following collection of ten biographies (Grässlin, Hänsel, Schachtschneider, Todenhöfer, Reisin, Hörstel, Wagner, Neudeck, Pfaff, Alaiyan) and sources is about people from different working fields who are engaged in the German public for nonkilling aims. I left the German sources in this translation and provided as many English links as possible. The series will be continued.

Jürgen Grässlin in Freiburg, weapons opponent and teacher, informs Germany with a lot of energy and protest events about arms manufacturers and visits victims of German weapons abroad. He wrote books on the subject and is a member of several peace organizations. Sometimes, major news media report about him.
Press Release 2008: www.rib-ev.de/stuff/PMs/Press-Release_DFG-VK&RIB_08-06-11.doc
German Video "Allein gegen die Waffenindustrie - Der Kampf des Juergen Graesslin", 28 min: www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/educational_and_howto/watch/v18636875RtGDEHrY (also YouTube)
German Wikipedia: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%BCrgen_Gr%C3%A4sslin

Heike Hänsel, Member of the Bundestag for the Left Party, is one of the few politicians in Germany who coherently advocate the Human Rights in the world. A clear no to war and to killing and a clear yes for sincere peaceful solutions (which are possible at any time).
Website: http://heikehaensel.wordpress.com
Wikipedia: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heike_H%C3%A4nsel

Professor em. Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider is an expert on law who specializes in the Constitution of the European Union. He rejects this constitution for its insufficient legitimacy and its problematic executive power, for its demand for armament and its reintroduction of the death penalty through the backdoor. A group in Austria brought Schachtschneider's theses  into the major yellowpress newspaper Kronenzeitung which eventually led to the breakup of the Austrian government coalition. This case clearly shows how societies can break away from harmful things like killing through public discussions.  Schachtschneiders philosophical basis is Immanuel Kant's lore of morals and of freedom.  
Video lecture (in German) 1:25 h, Feb. 2008: http://video.google.de/videoplay?docid=-5576047373264439629&ei=eohYSra4MZLi2wLZkcnDAw
Audio interview (in German) 1:47 h, Sep. 2008, http://video.google.de/videoplay?docid=1126380715837037548&ei=eohYSra4MZLi2wLZkcnDAw
Wikipedia (in German): http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Albrecht_Schachtschneider

Jürgen Todenhöfer, author of "Why do you kill, Zaid?" and several other books, traveled to Iraq and reported from there. The former politician (conservative CSU) points to the violence that the West afflicts on the East and concludes that the Muslim East has by far not exerted so much violence. The winnings of his books Todenhöfer uses to finance several aid projects. Despite his fundamental criticism he sometimes makes it into major media outlets.
Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%BCrgen_Todenh%C3%B6fer
Book review Zaid: www.anis-online.de/1/orient-online/warum-zaid.htm

Professor Dr. Fanny-Michaela Reisin, Israeli-German peace activist. She witnessed the 6-day-war as a student in Israel and became a pacifist. She is President of the "International League for Human Rights", and founded the "Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East" in 2002. She is member of the executive committee of the organization "European Jews for a Just Peace". Reisin lives in Berlin, she is a professor for computer science at the Technische Fachhochschule.
Website International League for Human Rights: www.ilmr.de
Radio-Interview 2007, in German 45 min: www.swr.de/swr2/programm/sendungen/zeitgenossen/archiv/-/id=660644/nid=660644/did=2018620/1we5ozu/index.html

Christoph Hörstel from Munich, author of "Sprengsatz Afghanistan" and "Brandherd Pakistan", political counselor and speaker of the Friedenskreises Deutschland e.V. (Peace Circle Germany), explains why the current Afghanistan and Pakistan policy of Germany/ the USA cannot lead to peace. Hörstel criticizes and fights politics and media wherever the Human Rights are grossly violated, e.g. in Palestine, and emphasizes that guilt and complicity will not remain without consequence.
Long interview, June 2008: www.muslim-markt.de/interview/2008/hoerstel.htm
Video lecture in German, 36 min, April 2009: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX4M43T9PtA 
Audio interview in German, 1:16 h, Juni 2009: www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4Sd2mzHRqk 
Wikipedia (German): http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christoph_H%C3%B6rstel

Frieder Wagner, who won the Grimme Award several times, made the documentary film "Deadly Dust" on uranium weapons that was televised in Germany. These horrible weapons can lead to genetic defects and to cancer. Not only the victims in the Kosovo, Iraq, Gaza, Afghanistan, Somalia, Lebanon and elsewhere suffer from them, but also soldiers, also German soldiers. Wagner wonders why his important educational film was aired only once in German TV.
Video "Deadly Dust - Todesstaub", 53 min, http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5146778547681767408
Video interview in German, 43 min, Juni 2009: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZMlON5A75E

Dr. Rupert Neudeck, journalist, founder of the Komitee Cap Anamur/Deutsche Notärzte e.V.(German emergency doctors) and chair of the peace korps Grünhelme e.V. was often awarded and became worldwide known in 1979, when the Cap Anamur saved Vietnamese refugees in the Chinese Sea. Neudeck's major concerns are nonviolent conflict resolution and fighting hunger in the world.
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Neudeck
Website: www.gruenhelme.de/59.php
 
Florian Pfaff, Major in the German Bundeswehr army, became known to the public because of his pacifist attitude. In the book "Homicide in Office. How Peace was betrayed" (2008, in German) he explains why Germany's activities of support in 2003 in the beginning war on Iraq were against international law. 
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florian_Pfaff

Dr. Halima Alaiyan, Saarbrücken, is a doctor and a peace worker. Her autobiography is called "Expulsion from Paradise. My Long Escape from Palestine". The Talat Alaiyan Foundation is named after her late son and aims at active peace work through fostering information, encounter, reconciliation and friendship among children of Palestine, Israel, and Germany by student exchange and humanitarian, social, and medical aid.
Feature: www.anis-online.de/1/orient-online/halima.htm
Foundation: www.talat-alaiyan.de

Attention: open in a new window. PDFPrintE-mail