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This text is a written version of the opening lecture of the event 'Responsibility, Community, Europe. The legacy of the Kreisau Circle today". It took place on 2 September 2022 in Haus am Dom in Frankfurt am Main in cooperation with the Krzyżowa Foundation for Mutual Understanding in Europe, the German Institute for Polish Affairs, Haus am Dom and the Freya von Moltke Foundation.
The lecture was given in german.
"The geopolitical holidays are over," the Polish diplomat Marek Prawda recently pointed out. The era of relative prosperity and security that has accompanied us in recent decades is coming to an end. New times are coming with great challenges. The legacy of the Kreisau Circle can help us to successfully stand up to them.
DSc Robert Żurek
PART I
What distinguished the Kreisau Circle
At Whitsun 1942, a strange group of people came together in Krzyżowa in Lower Silesia. People who could hardly have been more different in terms of their professions, their social status, their world views or their political sympathies. And it was no accident, it was deliberate, that was the Kreisau Circle.
This meeting was followed by two more - in autumn 1942 and then at Whitsun 1943. Ten to eleven people took part in each of these three meetings. These were not all members of the Kreisau Circle, but so many were allowed to meet under the conditions of conspiracy without being immediately discovered by the political police.
The Kreisau Circle was a civil resistance group against National Socialism. The three meetings in Krzyżowa were certain highlights of its activities, but the Circle worked very intensively in secret for almost four years, from 1940 to 1944. Even before 20 July 1944, the co-founder, Helmuth James von Moltke, was arrested. Afterwards, some members of the Circle took part in the attempted coup of 20 July; in the end, almost all of them were taken into custody and eight of them were executed by the Nazi justice system.
It was a very mature and interesting, in some respects the most mature and the most interesting resistance group in Nazi Germany. To prove this thesis, I would like to present four features that were characteristic of the Kreisau Circle. These were the objectives, the composition, the way of working and the way of thinking.
The objective. It may be astonishing, but in the midst of the National Socialist inferno, the Kreisauers were hardly concerned with the present. As a group, they did not prepare an assassination attempt or a revolution, even if some of their members later belonged to the 20th July conspiracy. Instead, they dealt with the past and the future. They investigated the question of how it was possible that Germany - the state as well as society - had failed so badly in the confrontation with National Socialism. That this eruption of primitive evil had been possible in the middle of Europe. The answer to this question was of central importance to the Kreisauers, because only an accurate answer to it enabled the Kreis to meaningfully address its actual objective, namely to propose a post-war order for Germany and for Europe that would make a rebirth of a criminal dictatorship impossible.
The composition. The Kreisauers formed a very heterogeneous coalition. Aristocrats and large landowners came together with labour movement activists, Centre politicians with Social Democrats, Protestant theologians with Catholic priests as well as with the Jesuits, who had a particularly bad reputation among Protestants at the time. Before 1933, all these people would probably have argued fiercely among themselves, but now they were making common cause. Why? In view of the superiority of evil, but above all because a post-war order, if it was to be sustainable, had to gain the broadest possible social acceptance. The drafts therefore had to be worked out by the broadest possible representation of society.
The way of working. It was innovative and effective. There were small working groups in which external expertise was also used to deal with different topics and develop concepts. These concepts were then discussed in the three plenary sessions in Krzyżowa and finally found their way into the group's documents.
And finally, the way of thinking. One could go on for a long time about the sometimes utopian, but nevertheless very interesting programme of the Kreisau Circle. I would like to briefly mention only two aspects here.
Domestic: It emphasises the responsibility of the individual and makes a departure from the concept of the subject. Away from the state that appropriates the citizen and determines his or her life, and away from a citizen who acts as a recipient of orders and submits unconditionally to the authorities. Towards a creative, critical citizen who takes responsibility for the common good.
And in terms of foreign policy: the Kreisauers think European. They see the future in a European federation. Away from the nation state, from national egoism and competition, towards very close European cooperation and solidarity.
PART II
The Lessons of the Kreisau Circle - Between Past and Future
As I already mentioned, the Kreisau Circle was not actually concerned with the present, but with history and the future. In a way, this also applies to the Krzyżowa Foundation. We, too, who work today at its old place of activity, are somehow spread out between the past and the future. We draw from history, from the historical heritage of the place, to work on a good future for Germany, Poland and Europe. To provide the young people who visit our International Youth Meeting Centre with inspiration for attitudes and actions that contribute to shaping a good future. The Kreisau Circle is an important support for us in this. But what can we concretely learn from its history? What are the most important lessons of the Kreisau Circle? In my opinion, there are seven that we should particularly internalise.
Assuming social responsibility
The first lesson: a person of integrity, a mature person, must take responsibility for society, especially in crisis situations. If we take a closer look, we will see that this awareness of having to take responsibility was the real motivation for the Kreisauers to go into resistance. There are two well-known quotes from the two founders and leaders of the group. Helmuth James von Moltke wrote in October 1941, referring to the Nazi crimes: "Am I allowed to know this and still sit at the table in my heated flat and drink tea? Doesn't that make me complicit?" And Peter Graf Yorck von Wartenburg notes in November 1938, under the impression of the events: "this must be countered as soon as possible". Although the two quotes from the two fathers of the Kreisau Circle come from a different time, in a way they form a unit, they belong together.
The question that Moltke formulated probably catches up with everyone at some point. Our conscience asks us this question in different contexts. And as mature, sincere persons, we must always be able to answer: "this must be countered as soon as possible". In other words: In this situation, I have to act. I have to take responsibility. Without this ability, people become followers and society slips into a culture of passivity, of looking away, of retreating into the private sphere.
Resisting evil without compromise
Lesson two: Taking social responsibility sometimes means uncompromisingly resisting the evil that threatens society. In 1936, the brilliant Polish violinist of Jewish descent Bronisław Huberman - a forgotten mastermind of a united Europe, by the way - accused German intellectuals of being complicit in the victory of national socialism because they had not done enough to prevent the disaster: "From the very beginning, German intellectual leaders find no other reaction to this assault on the most sacred goods of humanity than coquetting, pacting, cooperating." Even today, pandering to evil is all too popular, despite the cautionary historical examples. Without the consistent "coquetting, pacting, cooperating", there would probably have been neither Hitler's attack on Poland in 1939 nor Putin's attack on Ukraine in 2022. It is similar in our everyday lives, because it is all too human to avoid the difficulties and threats. The Kreisauers admonish us that sometimes this is the wrong way. That dialogue and compromise are not universal remedies. When evil exceeds a certain level, it must no longer be appeased, but only fought.
Civil courage and willingness to make sacrifices
Lesson number three: For the acceptance of responsibility and uncompromising opposition, civil courage and a willingness to make sacrifices are necessary. Even to the point of being prepared to pay the highest price if necessary. Julius Leber, a Social Democrat and member of the Kreisau Circle, wrote in his farewell letter before the execution: "For such a good and just cause, the risk of one's own life is the appropriate price." And Alfred Delp, the Jesuit: "One day others shall be allowed to live better and happier because we have died".
Such heroism is not expected of us, but leaving the comfort zone is, especially today as darker and darker clouds gather over our heads. The climate catastrophe is approaching, and the migration crisis associated with it is likely to intensify. Liberal democracy is not doing well throughout the Western world, the "common Europe" project is under threat. The nuclear power Russia has launched a war of aggression of dimensions that Europe has not seen since 1945. The economic development is worrying. Germany has not seen such high inflation as today for 70 years. Our societies are insecure, disoriented, frightened.
Yes, "the geopolitical holidays are over", as the Polish diplomat Marek Prawda recently put it. The era of relative prosperity and security that has accompanied us in recent decades is coming to an end. New times are coming with new, big challenges. The extent to which they are overcome also depends on our civil courage and willingness to make sacrifices.
Acting responsibly
Lesson four: Taking responsibility also means acting responsibly. Even great moral courage and willingness to make sacrifices can do more harm than good if they are used thoughtlessly. The Poles, a nation of heroic but in the end almost always lost and losing uprisings, can tell you a thing or two about this. But also of the fact that one can learn from historical experiences. The "self-limiting revolution" of Solidarność - as Jadwiga Staniszkis has called this phenomenon - was an impressively successful attempt not to repeat the mistakes of the past and to act consistently responsibly. In German history, too, one can find numerous examples of courageous and noble but ultimately counterproductive behaviour. However, the Kreisauers acted in a considered and structured manner, taking into account their possibilities and limitations. For this reason - if not only for this reason - they did not plan an assassination attempt on Hitler. They preferred areas of action in which they could actually achieve something, because they had the possibilities and competences to do so. That is why they mainly analysed history and drafted concepts for the future.
Overcoming divisions
Lesson five: In the face of evil, it is necessary to resolve secondary conflicts, overcome differences, unite and act in solidarity. As already mentioned, the Kreisau Circle was a broad coalition of people with very different world views and political orientations. In retrospect, Freya von Moltke said that the unification process itself was more important than the content of the plans. Sometimes we underestimate the importance of coming together, of dialogue, of overcoming opposites. But today of all days, in the time of increasing polarisation of society, unification processes are of central importance.
This concerns both the national and the European level. Like many other pioneers of European unification, the Kreisauers saw in a union of European nations and states a remedy for the national conflicts on our continent. The unity of Europe is of paramount importance today, in the face of numerous and serious challenges. We must contribute to this unity within the limits of our possibilities.
Integrating value alternative
Lesson six: one has to return to an ideal, integrating value alternative to evil. For the Kreisauers, it was Christianity. In what is probably the most important document, the "Principles for the Reorganisation of Germany" of 1943, it states: "The government of the German Reich", i.e. post-war Germany, "sees in Christianity the basis for the moral and religious renewal of our people. For the overcoming of hate and lies, for the rebuilding of the European community of nations."
We need such unifying values today as well. Without values that integrate us but also motivate us, we find it difficult to confront those forces that question the achievements of liberal democracy as worthless. But it is especially here that we seem to have a problem today, because what are these values that unite and inspire us? For many, Christianity no longer is. The universal values perhaps? But aren't they too general and too meaningful, so that we can't do much with them? And what about the much-mentioned European values? Do we not have the difficulty of naming them clearly?
Thinking about values that are inclusive and forward-looking is one of the key tasks of the near future. To quote Marek Prawda once again: "Europe will have to clearly identify what defines it, what it wants to defend and what price it is willing to pay for it"
Thinking about the future
And finally, lesson number seven: In the crisis of the present, one must not only think of the direct overcoming of this crisis, one should also plan for the more distant future.
I believe that we must also think about these germs today, on both a small and a large scale. One example that moves me is the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. We are focusing on supporting Ukraine in its struggle for survival to the best of our ability. That is right and necessary. But shouldn't we at the same time design a perspective for the future, especially for the people in Russia? Help them find an alternative to imperial thinking?
This area also includes the question of how far we support young people in constructively shaping the future according to their ideas, not ours.
If you work in Kreisau, identify with the place and its historical heritage, you run the risk of transfiguring the Kreisau Circle. We should not do that. The group had its deficits, in the end it also failed and its plans could largely not be realised. But that does not change the fact that the heritage of the Circle can help us shape the future. The lessons of the Kreisau Circle remain relevant.
