Berghof Foundation: 50 years of conflict transformation

The Berghof Foundation as a pioneer of
civil society and action-oriented conflict
and peace research
1970s
It is not war that is the real issue, but peace — this was
the theme of Gustav Heinemann’s inaugural speech
as Federal President in 1969, which marked the
start of state-funded peace and conflict research in
Germany. Just one year later, the German Society for
Peace and Conflict Research was founded, followed
by institutions that are still prominent today, such as
the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (Hessische
Stiftung Friedens- und Konfliktforschung — HSFK)
and the Institute for Peace Research and Security
Policy at the University of Hamburg.
The Cold War, security threats from
conventional arms races and the dangers of war
posed by the nuclear deterrent system were
salient reasons for this development. Against this
background, and with momentum created by the
student movement in the 1960s and the change of
government to a social-liberal coalition in Germany,
there was a willingness to formulate and shape a new
peace policy at the end of the 1960s that was unique
in Germany’s post-war history.
It was in this spirit of optimism that Professor
Georg Zundel took the decision to establish the
private Berghof Foundation for Conflict Research
in 1971. It focused on several key aspects: (1)
(interdisciplinary) cooperation between the
social and natural sciences; (2) the analysis of
complex structural and direct relations of violence,
including with countries of the Global South; (3) the
exploration of civil, non-violent alternatives to the
prevailing military-supported security policy and the
individual and societal preconditions for successful
peacebuilding; and (4) the communication and
application of research results to support peace
education and peace policy practice.
In its first decade, the Berghof Foundation
funded not only larger projects but also several
journals and more than 20 organisations located
at the intersections of peace research, peace
education and the peace movement. These were
often smaller grants for projects that would otherwise
have had little chance of receiving financial support
under the emerging state and academic funding
system. Funding was provided for working groups,
conferences and international exchange, as well
as for the development of a peace education
infrastructure in Germany. The Institute for Peace
Education founded in Tübingen in 1976 — formerly the
Association for Peace Education — was among the
organisations that received funding during the 1970s.
Based on experience of the first decade, the
Berghof Foundation’s Board decided in 1985 to define
various strategic priorities and promote research
projects and activities that focused on peacebuilding
and peace education, social movements and nonviolent
action, global political trends and conflict
dynamics in the Global South, and armament
dynamics and their implications for peacebuilding
policy and structures in Europe.
In setting these priorities, the Berghof
Foundation enriched the research landscape and
enabled civil society actors — through infrastructural
aid and participatory action research — to support
the peace movement in Germany, which had gained
strength in the 1980s. The need for this was obvious.
On the one hand, the general public had to be made
aware of the peace-threatening dimensions of the
prevailing security policy, and on the other hand,
it was a matter of supporting an emerging societal
learning process on issues of peace policy. The
decision to station new (tactical) nuclear weapons in
Germany in December 1979 raised many questions
for which answers had to be found. At the same time,
there was a growing interest in appropriate forms
of action within the new peace movement. Many of
the research papers and learning materials whose
development and publication were facilitated by the
Berghof Foundation and which focus on non-violent
resistance and non-violence as a principle of life and
action have been agreed, discussed and enhanced
at conferences and during courses and workshops.
Frequently, the direct experiences of participants
in non-violent action have been incorporated into
this process.
In the process of clarifying the relationship
with the peace movement, a principle has emerged
that is still valid for the Berghof Foundation’s
approach today: making people aware of the
correlation and simultaneous difference between
attitudes and personal commitment, on the one
hand, and professional peacebuilding as enabling,
counselling and supporting, on the other. Building on
these experiences, institutions such as the Research
Institute of the Berghof Foundation (1989), the
Berghof Research Center for Constructive Conflict
Management (1993, later Berghof Conflict Research),
the Institute for Peace Education (1999) and Berghof
Peace Support (2004) were each able to set new
accents in theory and practice and unite them in 2012
within the framework of the Berghof Foundation,
which — 50 years after its founding — continues to
explore the academic bases for the promotion of
peacebuilding capacity and conflict transformation,
both in Germany and around the world.
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