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Action Reconciliation Service for Peace
The Action Reconciliation Service for Peace is a German peace organization founded to confront the legacy of Nazism.
The Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (German: Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste, or ASF) was founded in 1958 by the synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany, driven by the efforts of Lothar Kreyssig. It was prompted by the acknowledgement of guilt that Germans needed to face at the end of World War II and the Nazi era.
The Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (ARSP) is known especially through its international volunteer programs and the organisation of work camps in western and eastern Europe. Every year, ARSP sends approximately 180 volunteers to countries that suffered under the German occupation during World War II: Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, Greece, Netherlands, Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, Belarus, and Ukraine. They also work in Israel and the United States because many Holocaust survivors fled or immigrated to these countries.
Knowing that the consequences of National Socialism are still being felt and that they can never truly be overcome, the Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (ARSP) stands for understanding between generations, cultures, religions and peoples which it strives to achieve through intensive dialogue. Rooted in Christian faith, ARSP seeks to cooperate with all who champion a more peaceful and just world.
— ASRP, About us, ARSP official website
§2 Purpose and operation
ARSP developed out of the actions of the Evangelical Church in Germany to reject Nazism and resist the Nazi regime. The founder of ARSP, Judge Lothar Kreyssig, was one of the determined resisters within the Confessing Church. After the war, he made this refusal by a branch of the Protestant church a subject of discussion and, along with like-minded people, such as Martin Niemöller, Gustav Heinemann and later, Franz von Hammerstein, called for repentance and reversal of harm.
Lothar Kreyssig tried to find fellow campaigners for his reconciliation service for the first time on Kirchentag 1954, in Leipzig. The appeal found few ears. "That something is right and necessary, is not enough to see it materialize in time and space. The hour must be ripe," he later wrote in his unpublished autobiography.[citation needed] The Synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany convened from 26 to 30 April 1958, alternating in Spandau, in West Berlin) and Weißensee in East Berlin. At this point, the synod still involved the entire Evangelical Church in Germany, both east and west. There was a controversy that year over the west German military chaplaincy contract and possible nuclear armament by the Bundeswehr. This was the troubled atmosphere in which Praeses Kreyssig, on the last day of the Synod, read his appeal to found the Action for Reconciliation. Numerous attendees signed the appeal that evening.
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Action Reconciliation Service for Peace
The Action Reconciliation Service for Peace is a German peace organization founded to confront the legacy of Nazism.
The Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (German: Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste, or ASF) was founded in 1958 by the synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany, driven by the efforts of Lothar Kreyssig. It was prompted by the acknowledgement of guilt that Germans needed to face at the end of World War II and the Nazi era.
The Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (ARSP) is known especially through its international volunteer programs and the organisation of work camps in western and eastern Europe. Every year, ARSP sends approximately 180 volunteers to countries that suffered under the German occupation during World War II: Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, Greece, Netherlands, Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, Belarus, and Ukraine. They also work in Israel and the United States because many Holocaust survivors fled or immigrated to these countries.
Knowing that the consequences of National Socialism are still being felt and that they can never truly be overcome, the Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (ARSP) stands for understanding between generations, cultures, religions and peoples which it strives to achieve through intensive dialogue. Rooted in Christian faith, ARSP seeks to cooperate with all who champion a more peaceful and just world.
— ASRP, About us, ARSP official website
§2 Purpose and operation
ARSP developed out of the actions of the Evangelical Church in Germany to reject Nazism and resist the Nazi regime. The founder of ARSP, Judge Lothar Kreyssig, was one of the determined resisters within the Confessing Church. After the war, he made this refusal by a branch of the Protestant church a subject of discussion and, along with like-minded people, such as Martin Niemöller, Gustav Heinemann and later, Franz von Hammerstein, called for repentance and reversal of harm.
Lothar Kreyssig tried to find fellow campaigners for his reconciliation service for the first time on Kirchentag 1954, in Leipzig. The appeal found few ears. "That something is right and necessary, is not enough to see it materialize in time and space. The hour must be ripe," he later wrote in his unpublished autobiography.[citation needed] The Synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany convened from 26 to 30 April 1958, alternating in Spandau, in West Berlin) and Weißensee in East Berlin. At this point, the synod still involved the entire Evangelical Church in Germany, both east and west. There was a controversy that year over the west German military chaplaincy contract and possible nuclear armament by the Bundeswehr. This was the troubled atmosphere in which Praeses Kreyssig, on the last day of the Synod, read his appeal to found the Action for Reconciliation. Numerous attendees signed the appeal that evening.