Friedensforum Potsdam: Discussed new ways in peace ethics!

Friedensforum Potsdam: Discussed new ways in peace ethics!

On June 16, 2025, the Dialog forum "Create peace - with weapons?!" Instead of illuminating a wide range of current peace ethical challenges and geopolitical threats. Organized by the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) , Diakonie Germany, the Evangelical Future Workshop Midi and the Garrison Church Potsdam, the event offers a platform for deep discussions and reflections on the complexity of peace ethics in times of military conflicts.

prominent participants of the forum are Bishop Kirsten Fehrs and Bishop Friedrich Kramer from the EKD and Hans-Peter Bartels, the former military officer. Your personal insights could not be more relevant under the pressure of global threats. Bischöfin Fehrs emphasizes the importance of non -violent solutions - a principle that, despite all the challenges in recent years, especially after the war of Russia in Russia on Ukraine, gained in explosive. "We have to adapt our peace ethical positions," she emphasizes.

peace ethics in change

The discussion about peace ethics is not only shaped by current conflicts, but also by a emphatic historical context. The content of the EKD peace memorandum of 2007 has developed in a changing global political situation. Against the background of the Ukraine War, the EKD has launched a participatory process to redesign its peace-ethical foundations. According to evangelische-friedenspfeit.de , this process is accompanied by a variety of consultations and expert discussions to advise relevant topics and develop a new basic paper.

A crucial step in this process was the participatory resonance formatting, which is to be tested in the summer of 2025. The aim is to integrate the changed global conditions into the EKD peace ethical considerations and at the same time to promote a broad dialogue within the general public. "We have to question and honestly how we understand and responsible for peace," says Kramer.

The debate about arms deliveries

The ethical questions resulting from the Ukraine conflict are particularly controversial. Activists have even protested a destroyed tank in front of the Russian embassy in Berlin. The EKD's pacifist approach is strongly represented by Margot Käßmann, the former chairman of the council, who speaks for a stop of western arms deliveries to Ukraine. However, critics like Petra Bahr, who considers the delivery of weapons to be legitimate.

The variety of opinion within the EKD reflects the “camps of responsibility pacifism” discussed, the principles of which aim to always see violence as an extreme opportunity. The EKD Council President Annette Kurschus has also emphasized that Ukraine's right of self-defense must not be neglected. At the same time, the attitude towards atomic deterrence and the handling of weapons of mass destruction is being discussed intensively, because the clear rejection of nuclear threats is in the pedagogical line of the church.

At the end of 2025, the EKD plans to publish the results and considerations in order to create a clear and standardized position on peace ethics and the associated questions. "Peace is a central ideal that we, as a church, have to meet current challenges in the face of current challenges," says Käßmann.

The debate about peace ethics could not be more important, and the dialogue forum in Potsdam will undoubtedly be another step towards a broader understanding and a more coherent strategy for peace in the 21st century. The focus is on a dialogue that also includes the votes of society, as das-Parlament.de reports.