The former East German civil rights activist Friedrich Schorlemmer has died at the age of 80. He became known in 1983 through the symbolic forge action “Swords to Plowshares.” He played an important role in the peaceful revolution.
The Protestant theologian and East German civil rights activist Friedrich Schorlemmer is dead. Schorlemmer died on Monday after a long illness at the age of 80 in a nursing home in Berlin, as reported by the Protestant Press Service on Tuesday from family circles.
Schorlemmer was born on May 16, 1944, as the son of a pastor in Wittenberge in present-day Brandenburg and grew up in Altmark. In the Luther Year of 1983, he had a sword forged into a plowshare by a blacksmith in Wittenberg at night in front of a thousand people, which attracted great attention.
After studying theology in Halle, he worked at the Francke Foundations and later as a student pastor in Merseburg. He later became a lecturer at the Protestant seminary and a preacher at the Castle Church in Wittenberg in Saxony-Anhalt.
Schorlemmer was one of the key protagonists of the peaceful revolution in East Germany. He was among the speakers at the government-critical major demonstration in East Berlin’s Alexanderplatz on November 4, 1989. He co-founded the Democratic Awakening (DA) party but switched to the SPD in 1990.
From 1992 to 2007, Schorlemmer worked as a study leader at the Protestant Academy of Saxony-Anhalt in Lutherstadt Wittenberg. He repeatedly criticized globalization and rejected military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt, Reiner Haseloff (CDU), described Schorlemmer as “an important voice from the East and a symbolic figure of the church peace movement in East Germany.” He utilized the church’s freedom eloquently. Schorlemmer consistently intervened and influenced public discourse, Haseloff stated in Magdeburg.
Broadcast: rbb24 Inforadio, 10.09.2024, 14:40