German Catholics’ Peace Association

The German Catholics’ Peace Association, known in German as the Friedensbund Deutscher Katholiken, was a Catholic peace organization established in Weimar Germany in 1919 by the Roman Catholic priest Max Josef Metzger. Its formation followed the First World War, during which Metzger had served as a military chaplain in the German Imperial Army. His wartime experience led him to reject the idea that modern war could produce meaningful gains, and he came to regard peacebuilding and international cooperation as central religious and political responsibilities. The association connected Catholic religious commitment with organized pacifism. Metzger sought relationships with the wider international peace movement and advocated an ecumenical understanding of peace that could reach beyond denominational boundaries. Through this orientation, the organization represented a strand of German Catholic public life that opposed militarism and treated reconciliation among nations as a moral and international project. The association became particularly significant during the period of Nazi rule. Its founder, Max Josef Metzger, was repeatedly targeted by the Gestapo. In June 1943 he was arrested after being denounced for attempting to transmit a memorandum to Erling Eidem, the Swedish archbishop of Uppsala. The memorandum addressed the reorganization of the German state and its incorporation into a future system of international peace. Metzger was sentenced to death and executed on April 17, 1944. Gertrud Luckner was another prominent member associated with the organization. A social worker, Luckner assisted people persecuted by the Nazi regime, including Jews and foreign prisoners of war. Her activities led to her arrest in 1943, after which she narrowly survived imprisonment in concentration camps. Her work illustrates how the association’s peace ideals could overlap with practical assistance to victims of persecution and resistance to Nazi policies. The available reference material establishes the association’s founding, Catholic-pacifist orientation, links with international and ecumenical peace efforts, and the persecution of prominent members during the Nazi period. It does not provide sufficient information to document a current operating structure, headquarters, postwar development, dissolution date, membership figures, or present-day activities. Its historical importance is therefore best understood through the lives and political-religious commitments of Metzger, Luckner, and other Catholic opponents of militarism and Nazism.

The German Catholics’ Peace Association, or Friedensbund Deutscher Katholiken, emerged in the immediate aftermath of the First World War. It was founded in Weimar Germany in 1919 by Max Josef Metzger, a Roman Catholic priest who had served as a military chaplain in the German Imperial Army. Metzger’s experience of wartime destruction changed his understanding of armed conflict. He concluded that modern wars no longer offered a credible prospect of gain that outweighed their human and social costs. The association provided an institutional setting for Metzger’s postwar pacifism. It combined Catholic religious language with opposition to militarism and sought to place peace advocacy within a broader international movement. Metzger also promoted an ecumenical conception of peace, aiming to encourage cooperation among Christians and to connect Catholic peace work with wider efforts for international reconciliation. During the Nazi period, the organization and its leading members faced political repression. Metzger was arrested by the Gestapo on several occasions. His final arrest came in June 1943 after a mail courier denounced him for attempting to send a memorandum to Erling Eidem, the Swedish archbishop of Uppsala. The document proposed ideas for reorganizing the German state and integrating it into a future structure of international peace. Nazi authorities treated this activity as a capital offense, and Metzger was sentenced to death. He was executed on April 17, 1944. Gertrud Luckner was another high-profile member. Her social-work activities included assistance to Jews and foreign prisoners of war who were targeted by the Nazi regime. She was arrested in 1943 and subsequently imprisoned in concentration camps, where she narrowly avoided death. Luckner’s experience demonstrates the connection between the association’s broad peace principles and concrete efforts to protect people persecuted by the state. The available material does not establish the association’s full organizational history after 1945, its legal status, or whether it continues to operate. It does, however, document the organization as an important expression of Catholic pacifism in interwar and Nazi-era Germany, especially through Metzger’s internationalist peace proposals and the humanitarian resistance associated with members such as Luckner.

• 1944

  Max Josef Metzger executed

  [1]German Catholics’ Peace Associationen.wikipedia.org

  Metzger was executed on April 17, 1944, after a Nazi death sentence connected to his peace and political reorganization proposals.

• 1943

  Metzger arrested after peace memorandum effort

  [1]German Catholics’ Peace Associationen.wikipedia.org

  Metzger was arrested for attempting to send a memorandum concerning Germany’s reorganization and its future integration into an international peace system to the Swedish archbishop of Uppsala.

• 1943

  Gertrud Luckner arrested

  [1]German Catholics’ Peace Associationen.wikipedia.org

  Prominent member Gertrud Luckner was arrested for helping Jews and foreign prisoners of war persecuted by the Nazi regime.

• 1919

  Association founded in Weimar Germany

  [1]German Catholics’ Peace Associationen.wikipedia.org

  Max Josef Metzger founded the Friedensbund Deutscher Katholiken after the First World War, establishing a Catholic organization dedicated to peace advocacy.

Catholic pacifist and ecumenical advocacy organization focused on opposition to war, international reconciliation, and peacebuilding.

1. 1German Catholics’ Peace Associationen.wikipedia.org