From People Building Peace II - Successful Stories of Civil Society
(Lynne Rienner Publishers 2005)
In 1946, a group of Swiss bought the run-down Caux Palace Hotel above Montreux to serve as a place where the combatant nations of World War II could meet. It was the fulfillment of an idea that had come to a Swiss diplomat named Philippe Mottu three years earlier: if Switzerland were spared by the war, its task would be to make available a place where Europeans, torn apart by hatred, suffering, and resentment, could come together. Mottu and the other Swiss were associated with a worldwide movement to promote reconciliation called Moral Re-Armament-known since 2001 as Initiatives of Change.
Moral Re-Armament (MRA) had been launched in 1938 by an American, Frank Buchman, who believed that selfish human nature lay at the root of national and international divisions. At a moment when the emphasis was on nations rearming militarily, he proclaimed the need for individuals and nations also to "rearm morally." He spoke of a "return to those simple truths which many of us have forgotten-honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love." Peacemakers had to begin the process of peacemaking by looking within themselves; apologies were central to the process of reconciliation. "Peace is people becoming different," he said. He stressed the importance of those from opposite sides of a political divide meeting in the right atmosphere.
The distinctively turreted hotel purchased by the Swiss, which was renamed Mountain House, is set in the midst of restful grounds with a panoramic view of Lake Geneva and the peaks of the Dents du Midi. In the years since Mountain House received its first guests, it has been host to several hundred thousand people from all over the world, many of whom met across contentious divides - whether they be Turks and Greeks from the two sides of the Green Line in Cyprus; Muslims, Christians, and Jews from the Middle East; or Cambodians attempting to move beyond the killing fields. In the early 1950s the reconciliation work taking place at Mountain House, particularly in helping to forge better relations between France and Germany, led to Buchman's nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Philippe Mottu recalls the start. "On the day he arrived in Caux in July 1946, Buchman confronted us with a challenge. After meeting all those who had worked so devotedly to get Mountain House ready, he suddenly asked: 'Where are the Germans?' And he added: 'Some of you think that Germany has got to change; and that is true. But you will never be able to rebuild Europe without Germany.'"
His compassion for the countries that had suffered at the hands of Nazi Germany, and his understanding of Germany's own suffering in defeat, were matched by his realism. The material and moral ruins of six years of war formed the background to the first conference; national hatreds, class war, and personal vendettas were poisoning the atmosphere of Europe. "Neither international conferences nor grudging concessions could heal these wounds," says Mottu. "The peace for which Europe had so ardently longed was tragically incomplete, for there was no peace in people's hearts." In Germany, there was a vacuum that would be flooded by forces of anarchy and materialism unless the Germans were offered something more than just the end of war.
Approaches were made to the occupation authorities to permit a group of Germans to visit Caux the following year. A list of 150 possible participants was drawn up and, with the cooperation of the Swiss authorities, the Germans arrived in Caux in the summer of 1947. The group included survivors from Nazi concentration camps, widows of officers executed after the 1944 attempt on Hitler's life, and German personalities who were working with the Allies in the administration of Germany. Among them were prime ministers from West German states and two future chancellors of the Federal Republic of Germany. Hans Ehard, prime minister of Bavaria, told the international audience, "It is a unique experience for Germans to find themselves received into a circle of so many different nations on a level of complete equality and in an atmosphere where they have every freedom to speak without previously set limitations on what they shall say and on what they shall remain silent, and where one can be sure that one will not be met by that hatred which is so strong in the world today."
Democracy at Work
In his autobiography, Against Two Evils 1931-45, Hans von Herwarth, West Germany's first ambassador to Britain, writes that most of the German personalities who played a role in the reconstruction of West Germany took part in Caux or its outreach. "At Caux we found democracy at work, and in the light of what we saw, we faced ourselves and our nation. It was personal and national repentance. Many of us Germans who were anti-Nazi made the mistake of putting the whole blame on Hitler. We learned at Caux that we, too, were responsible" (von Herwarth 1990: 59).
For the first time, wrote Hamburg's Freie Presse, "the question of the collective guilt of the past has been replaced by the more decisive question of collective responsibility for the future. Here in Caux, for the first time, Germany has been given a platform from which she can speak to the world as an equal."
Between 1948 and 1952 more than three thousand Germans attended Caux conference sessions, including most of the leading figures in German public life - future prime ministers, industrialists, educators, and opinion makers from all levels and occupations. The personal trust that developed among these men and women gave a decisive impetus to European unity at a crucial time.
At Caux, the Germans, like everyone else, had the chance to meet those from their own country and from other countries not only during plenary sessions and at meals but in walks together and in attending to everyday household chores. Scholar Edward Luttwak describes how, often, the German participants would give vent to expressions of self-pity upon their first arrival at Caux, recounting their own sufferings and those of their families as if they were unique, and with no apparent recognition that others had suffered far more at German hands. Later, having absorbed the "spirit of Caux," the tone and content of the declarations would change drastically, combining expressions of intense gratitude for being received as equals and even as friends by the other participants, avowals of guilt and repentance, repudiations of past belief in Hitler and his ideology, and promises that Germans would never again be guilty of aggression. (Luttwak 1994: 54)
The "spirit of Caux" was helped immeasurably by the willingness of some two thousand French participants, including cabinet ministers, members of parliament, industrialists and representatives of industrial workers, teachers, clergy, and journalists, to take account of their own country's part in the European tragedy. The French paper L'Aube reported that in Caux, Franco-German relations were dealt with "frankly and courageously." The Alsatian wartime resistance leader and French deputy Joseph Wasmer, for instance, asked forgiveness for his hatred of the German people. "I hated the Germans with everything in my power for what they did to my friends and my country," he acknowledged. "I rejoiced to see Berlin in flames. At Caux this hatred has left my heart. I ask forgiveness from the Germans. I want to make restitution to them."
The heart of the philosophy of Caux was the notion that if you wanted to bring a change in the world, the most practical way to start was with change in yourself and your country. Caux fostered the practice of spending time in silence, alone or in community, helping each individual find for himself or herself the right course of action. Even as sessions dealt with tough world issues, the concept of wanting the best for the other person took precedence over the desire to book political, social, or economic advantage.
Extending the Spirit
The work over the years at Caux was extended by international teams that crisscrossed Germany at the invitation of Germans who had been at the conference.
These teams helped to lay the foundation for the reestablishment of democracy and to heal the wartime hatreds. They included men and women who had survived the concentration camps, as well as veterans of Allied forces and the resistance movements.
In 1949 George Villiers, president of the French Employers' Federation, visited Caux as a representative of French foreign minister Robert Schuman. There he got to know one of the architects of the new Germany, Hans Boeckler, who was president of the German Trades Union Congress. Boeckler said to Villiers, "We ought to be enemies on two counts. I am a German, you are French; you are the head of the employers, I am a trade union leader." "Yes", Villiers replied, "and there's a third count: your countrymen condemned me to death, I was in a political concentration camp, and I saw most of my comrades die around me. But that is all past. We must forget it." With personal reconciliation came political reconciliation as well; Villiers announced that he would throw his weight behind the "moral and economic union" of France and Germany.
Six weeks after the essentials of the Schuman Plan-the framework leading to the creation of the European Common Market-had been agreed by France and Germany, Buchman was decorated with France's Legion of Honor for his "contribution to better understanding between France and Germany." Subsequently, he was also honored by the German government. Two months after the treaty creating the European Coal and Steel Community was signed in 1951, German chancellor Conrad Adenauer stated, "The nations of the world will only have stable relations with one another when they have been inwardly prepared for them. During these last months we have witnessed the success of difficult negotiations and the signing of important international agreements. Moral Re-Armament has played an unseen but effective role in reducing the differences of opinion between the negotiating parties and has guided them toward a peaceful agreement by helping them to seek the common good."
"MRA did not invent the Schuman Plan but it facilitated its realization from the start," concludes Edward Luttwak. "That is no small achievement given the vast importance of every delay - and every acceleration - of the process of Franco-German reconciliation during those crucial, formative years."
The Continuation
In the more than fifty years that have elapsed since the arrival of the first Germans in Caux, Mountain House has continued to work on the principles learned and applied at that time - an emphasis on how to build the future rather than on assignment of responsibility for the past and a belief that caring for the individual's well-being and spiritual growth is as important as any diplomatic or political result. Historian Scott Appleby, writing on the role of Mountain House in The Ambivalence of the Sacred, observes that it embodies MRA's conviction that "peaceful and productive change in hostile relations between nations or ethno-religious groups depends on change in the individuals prosecuting the war; that process, in turn, requires individuals representing each side to listen, carefully and at length, to their counterparts" (Appleby 2000: 225).
As a nongovernmental organization, Caux is today providing a forum for debate on a range of vexing issues, bringing together people from all corners of the world. A French member of parliament, Georges Mesmin, says that political figures find there a respect for all opinions, an openness, both to others and to the principle of forgiveness - even when one thinks another is wrong - and an atmosphere of friendship. Supplementing the work of individuals, which has always been the backbone of Caux, distinctive programs have been developed.
Agenda for Reconciliation, for instance, assists efforts in preventive diplomacy and nation building, and in recent years, has drawn to Caux men and women on opposite sides of conflicts in Somalia, Sierra Leone, and the Great Lakes region of Africa, as well as participants from Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine. In addition, encouraged by the Dalai Lama, who has twice been to Caux, sessions have brought together religious leaders in dialogue including, significantly, dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims in 2002.
Foundations for Freedom is fostering moral and spiritual values in newly democratic countries that have been undermined by decades of totalitarianism.
The Caux Round Table has promulgated "Caux Principles," which have been described as the most widely distributed statement of business ethics in the world.
The Caux Scholars Programme has, over more than a dozen years, graduated students from sixty-one countries from courses addressing practical aspects of conflict resolution.
The International Communications Forum encompasses a network of hundreds of men and women in the media who are committed to restoring public confidence in their work
Hope in the Cities works to create partnerships of reconciliation and trains dialogue facilitators in interracial community initiatives. In language that would have been as appropriate in 1946 as it is today, and which truly embodies "the spirit of Caux," it calls for honest conversation that "includes everyone and excludes no one, focuses on working together towards a solution, not on identifying enemies, affirms the best and does not confirm the worst, looks for what is right rather than who is right, and moves beyond blame and personal pain to constructive action."
Selected Bibliography
Appleby, R. Scott. 2000. The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence and Reconciliation (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield).
Henderson, Michael. 2002. Forgiveness: Breaking the Chain of Hate (London: Grosvenor Books; Portland, OR: Arnica Publishing).
---. 1996. The Forgiveness Factor (London: Grosvenor Books).
---. 1994. All Her Paths Are Peace (West Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press).
---. 2003. "Initiatives of Change," in Abu-Nimer, Sampson, and Whitney Liebler, eds., Positive Approaches to Peacebuilding (Washington, DC: Pact Publications).
Initiatives of Change, http://www.iofc.org
Initiatives of Change-Agenda for Reconciliation, http://www.afr-iofc.org
Lean, Garth. 1985. Frank Buchman, a Life (London: Constable).
---. 1988. On the Tail of a Comet (Colorado Springs, CO: Helmers and Howard).
Life and Peace Institute, http://www.life-peace.org
Luttwak, Edward. 1994. "Franco-German Reconciliation: The Overlooked Role of the Moral Re-Armament Movement," in Douglas Johnston and Cynthia Sampson, eds., Religion, the Missing Dimension of Statecraft (New York: Oxford University Press).
Oxford Research Institute, http:www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk
Piguet, Jacqueline. 1986. For the Love of Tomorrow (London: Grosvenor Books).
Von Herwarth, Hans. 1990. Von Adenauer zu Brandt-Erinnerungen (Berlin: Propyläen).