Pacifism in West Germany

PACIFISM IN WEST GERMANY Peter H. Merkl J. he current wave of pacifism in West Germany and elsewhere in Western Europe, following upon the rosy afterglow ofPresident Reagan's honeymoon in office amid the symbols of an illusory resurgence of American strength, has deeply disturbed the American public and given rise to many a misperception and misinterpretation in the media and in official quarters. The sight of an estimated 300,000 demonstrators marching in Bonn against the stationing of Pershing II and cruise missiles on the European continent suggested a groundswell of resistance to American defense policies in a key country of the anti-Soviet alliance. To many Americans, it also signified a new brand of German neutralism, anti-Americanism and, perhaps, even a preference for accommodation with the Soviet Union. Going a few steps further, an assistant secretary of defense in the new administration, Richard N. Perle,1 was widely quoted as connecting the pacifist upsurge either with "heavy-duty Soviet and indigenous Communist involvement," or with a "Protestant Angst" exploited by church leaders in order to revive flagging church attendance among the young. The allegations of Communist conspiracy behind the peace movement—to be distinguished from enthusiastic Communist approval—are less plausible in the Federal Republic with its tiny Communist parties than, say, in Italy or France. The 1. Assistant Secretary Perle also chairs the High Level Group of NATO, which includes representatives of allied defense ministries for the discussion of common concerns. Peter H. Merkl is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research and writing over the years has been concentrated on comparative politics and, particularly, West German politics. His latest books are Western European Party System Trends and Prospects (New York: Free Press, 1980) and The Making of a Stormtrooper (Princeton University Press, 1980). 81 82 SAIS REVIEW thesis of Protestant Angst, however, aside from the hilarious suggestion of a church conspiracy to bring wayward parishioners back to the faith, may well contain a kernel oftruth in the midst ofa barnful ofchaff.2 The phenomenon of pacifism in Germany is extraordinarily complex and resists reduction to simplistic formulae. Let us take a closer look at some of its roots and ramifications . The role of the churches and interfaith councils in sponsoring the peace movement, to- begin with, should hardly surprise anyone familiar with the activities of significant numbers of Christian and Jewish leaders in many other moral struggles there or, for that matter, in the United States, where the civil rights movement ofthe 1960s and the antiwar movement ofa decade ago come readily to mind. The German Protestant and Catholic churches, too, have frequently involved themselves in moral isues ranging from the recognition of the Oder-Neisse boundaries of Poland to atonement for the holocaust visited by Germans upon six million Jews. Sometimes the two churches, or particular opinion leaders among them, may disagree on an issue—such as abortion, which aroused Catholic priests and bishops far more than their Protestant counterparts—but both churches, rightly or wrongly, have always felt compelled to take passionate stands on issues of life and death, or of right moral conduct. Conceding moral stewardship to church leaders, on the other hand, need not imply in every case that whatever some of them may choose to condemn is intrinsically immoral or evil. Germans have long been familiar with competing ethical codes, such as the conflict between an ethic of conviction or conscience (Gesinnungsethik), as in pacifism, and an ethic of responsibility for others (Verantwortungsethik), such as may inspire a country's defense policy. When the current German pacifist movement and the Protestant churches first faced the limelight together at the gigantic Protestant Church Congress in Hamburg in mid-1981, several trends had been at work for years to culminate in their astonishing union. One has been a burgeoning Christian revival movement among West and even East German youth3 which in significant ways has paralleled the progression of American rebellious youth from the drug and anti-Vietnam generation to the various manifestations of Jesus movements and neo-orthodox revivalism. Another has been the willingness of both churches, but especially the Protestants, to let the young people...