Peace Education and Nonviolent Conflict Management in Germany

Currently, we have three active main projects, and one former project that produced materials that are still available.

"Share Peace - Multiplying Peace"

Peace, justice and development belong together. The project "Share Peace - Multiplying Peace" provides capacity building in this area. The target groups are people in North Rhine-Westphalia who are active in educational work on a voluntary or full-time basis: in one-world or peace work, at schools, in youth groups, adult education centres, town twinning, etc.

The training courses we offer iask:  How can I communicate the connection between dynamic conflicts, war, peace and sustainable development in education and teaching in an attractive way? In the courses, content is jointly developed, methods are tried out in practice and educational materials are presented. Formats range from weekend seminars to daytime and evening events.

The project is funded by the Foundation for Environment and Development in NRW.

"Strong Against Discrimination and Violence"

The wave of right-wing extremist violence and hate speech against migrants*, fugitives, blacks and People of Colour (PoC) is still a serious problem in Germany - the attack on a shisha bar in Hanau in February 2020 is the most recent of this kind. Many of the groups mentioned are also confronted with various forms of everyday racism

Physical attacks, violence and humiliation usually happen unexpectedly, and within a short time enormous psychological and physical damage is caused. In such a situation there is usually little or no time to react or deal with it. Therefore, it is essential for people who are threatened by right-wing violence (but also by other forms of racism) to consider possible ways of dealing with it. It is very important to create a safe space for these groups to develop their own strategies and protection mechanisms to deal adequately with racist or otherwise motivated violence, whether physical or not.

In the framework of "Strongly against discrimination and violence", the aim is to carry out workshops for the self-empowerment of people who do not feel safe, are subject to racial discrimination or are confronted with direct violence. The content of the workshops will be to instruct the participants with an analysis of situations of danger and threats and to develop concrete non-violent possibilities for action on the spot for the given situations.

The project is funded by the BMI.

"Global Peace Goes Mainstream - Think Peace"

This project is the predecessor of "Share Peace". It ended in 2019. Its objectives were to promote concepts of conflict transformation in the context of South-North work. It was meant especially for young people - from school pupils to young adults - in the ways how development and peace depend on each other. We have produced various materials (films, comics etc.) that can be found on the German part of this website. The project was funded by Bread for the World and Engagement Global.

"LOVE Storm"

is a project run from a satellite office in the North of Germany. It is about protecting people against hatred in the internet by setting up solidarity structures. Here is a link to the German website.