Berghof Foundation: 50 years of conflict transformation

Georg Zundel
Founder of the
Berghof Foundation
A life
for peace
The book you are holding in your hands provides
an overview of the Berghof Foundation’s work and
impact over the past 50 years. However, none of it
would have been possible without the vision, courage
and generous support of our founder, Prof. Dr. Georg
Zundel. He established the Berghof Foundation in
1971 and enabled us to grow and continue our work
also after his passing in 2007. This book is dedicated
to him.
Born in Tübingen, Germany, on 17 May 1931,
Georg Zundel was confronted from an early age with
an environment which would shape his convictions
and ideals and ignited a passion for the three themes
that would remain central to him throughout his life —
peace, the sciences, and agriculture and forestry.
It was his parental home and the political
developments during his childhood and adolescence
that were particularly formative for Georg Zundel.
He was brought up in a political household at the
Berghof, an Art Nouveau country house that his
parents, the painter and farmer Georg Friedrich Zundel
and Paula Bosch, had built on the edge of Schönbuch
forest, overlooking the university town of Tübingen.
Intellectual and physical work characterised life at
the Berghof, where Georg Zundel soon developed an
understanding of the social and political tensions of
the time and learned to appreciate nature and the
value of agriculture.
The rural idyll of the Berghof, which was
to lend its name to many of Georg Zundel’s later
ventures, stood in stark contrast to the horrors that
were about to unfold in Germany. The experience of
totalitarianism and the terrors of the Second World
War left a deep mark on Georg Zundel and instilled
in him a deep conviction that led him to continue the
political and pacifist tradition of his grandfather,
renowned German entrepreneur Robert Bosch,
and his father’s first wife, Clara Zetkin, a women’s
rights activist and socialist politician.
In his memoirs, Georg Zundel wrote:
“The violent confrontation of the Second World
War [...] resulted in my resistance to rearmament,
my involvement in the anti-nuclear movement and
finally the establishment of the Berghof Foundation
for Conflict Research. [...] Our youth today lacks
such experiences. It therefore seems to me to be
of the utmost importance to raise awareness of
the conflicts smoldering in society and to work out
strategies that will make it possible to resolve these
conflicts peacefully.”
He actively opposed the rearmament of the
Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 and took part
in protests against the arming of the German military
with nuclear weapons in the years 1958 to 1961. As
the founder of the Berghof Foundation, he became
“the most important private promoter of peace
and conflict research in Germany,” as his longtime
colleague, fellow peace researcher Reiner Steinweg,
wrote in his obituary. In 2003, Georg Zundel’s
commitment to peace was honoured with the Grand
Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic
of Germany.
Beyond his passionate commitment
to peace, Georg Zundel pursued a successful
career as a scientist. A trained physicist known
for his contribution to the field of hydrogen bond
research, he had a thirst for scientific discovery
that transcended boundaries and whose aim was
the practical application of research results. To that
end, he founded the Berghof Group, a technology
company and innovation hub, which celebrated its
50th anniversary five years ago. In accordance with
his pacifist ideals, he would not allow the company
to carry out any research or development in the
armaments sector. Georg Zundel was profoundly
convinced that natural sciences, innovation and
business shared a strong social responsibility to
serve humanity. This responsibility extended to
scientists themselves, who in his view were obliged
to consider the ethical implications of their work.
At the same time, he was strongly attracted to a
universalistic understanding of science across
political divides, which he actively pursued by
building strong and often personal links to scientists
in the Soviet Union and Poland. Natural sciences,
business and ethics were inseparable to Georg
Zundel; in that sense, he was clearly ahead of
his time.
A central part of his belief in thinking beyond
disciplinary boundaries and always keeping the
greater good in mind was his attempt to build bridges
between the natural sciences and peace work. While
this did not always meet with a positive response in
the early years of the Berghof Foundation’s existence,
it is today more relevant than ever. In light of the
immense challenges that climate change poses to
peace, finding scientifically sound ways of integrating
the latest findings of climate change research into
peace work is not only a strategic priority for the
Berghof Foundation but also the best way to honour
our founder’s legacy.
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