About us

In 1979, a non-profit association called “Documentation Center for War Events and Peace Work Sievershausen e.V.” was founded to set up and operate the Anti-War House. Its mission is to “encourage peace work for Christian and humanitarian reasons, to carry out and promote peace work itself” and to work for “international understanding and peaceful coexistence”.

The volunteers and full-time employees in the house have been trying to fulfill this purpose, which is set out in the statutes, under changing conditions ever since and were able to celebrate the association’s 40th anniversary in May 2019.

Our understanding of peace and peace work

As an Anti-War House, we are not – contrary to what the name might suggest – primarily against something, but we are for something, namely peace. Peace as a value, peace as a practice, peace as a utopia! Nevertheless, the name was deliberately chosen by the initiators of the institution in order to permanently discredit war as an apparent means of political conflict.

In our work, Christian and humanistic motives, beliefs and considerations on the value of peace, the object of peace itself, as well as the practical conditions of peace and paths to peace are in constant dialogue.

Peace is tied to conditions that we address in our work and try to convey:

Peace is based on respect for human dignity and respect for and protection of the natural resources of life.

Peace needs a rule-based conflict resolution in which the conflicting parties respect the personal integrity and interests of the other party.

Peace needs justice, not power and strength as a norm of action. This implies the search for just conflict solutions that are acceptable and legitimate for all.

Peace needs freedom with responsibility: Respect for the freedom of others and responsibility in exercising one's own freedom towards fellow human beings as well as the environment and resources are the foundations for sustainable peace.

Peace needs foresight: decisions can have long-term effects. Therefore, peace is not possible in the long term without taking the needs of future generations into account.

At the same time, the issue of peace remains a constant challenge; previous answers must be reviewed and new answers found under constantly changing conditions, such as globalization. Which peace is fair to people and can therefore be called a just peace? How do we achieve peace?

Our understanding of peace establishes a responsibility for peace as a human being, citizen and Christian, which does not end at our own doorstep. Peace must be worked for and committed to. Peace work in this sense includes commitment to peace ethics, peace policy and peace practice.

Peace work thrives on constant curiosity as the key to productive, cooperative interaction with one another and to constructive handling of conflicts that are part of life. If we resolve arguments and conflicts with mutual respect and with the ability to doubt ourselves, conflicts can also help us move forward - precisely because they help us to question what we take for granted and to learn about and develop new ideas. Curiosity also means getting involved with one another, listening to one another, looking for and discovering what we have in common. But also developing together and creating perspectives for living together.

Peace work requires creativity and a sense of reality in equal measure in order to find ways to peace, hope, despite all the sobering confrontation with reality. It requires attentiveness, kindness and the willingness to reconcile, patience, and can only succeed if it is done with joy and confidence, despite all the responsibility.

The Anti-War House Sievershausen as a place of peace as a civil society and political voice

The Anti-War House in the Peace and Nail Cross Center Sievershausen sees itself as a meeting and event location in the middle of Lower Saxony and, as a place of peace for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover, promotes social and political debate on issues relating to peace ethics, peace policy and peace practice. Our supra-regional networking and international contacts enable an important bridging function between the local and global aspects of peace work. We support ways of peacefully resolving conflicts and contribute to a culture of peace by addressing the following topics:

Dealing with wars and conflicts, their causes, forms of conflict and consequences

Potential for peaceful conflict resolution

Human rights issues

Advocating for the victims ofViolence and human rights violations

Culture of remembrance and historical awareness: responsibility before history - responsibility for the future

Dealing with xenophobia, anti-Semitism and right-wing extremism

Perspectives on ecological sustainability

We see it as our responsibility and task to get involved in the social and political discussion and to take a public position. In our role as a political and social actor, we see ourselves as an advocate and voice for the realization of opportunities and possibilities for peaceful conflict resolution and the strengthening of civil conflict resolution skills and resources

against the violation of human rights and for people in war and emergency situations

for the creation and preservation of a political and social culture capable of peace

against the destruction of our natural livelihoods and for ecologically sustainable forms of life and economy.

We repeatedly express our opinions on selected issues at public events, in our publications and to the media. We can strengthen our voice by appearing together with partners and working in networks to define common positions. This applies in particular within the Action Community Service for Peace (AGDF), but also within the initiative 'Church for Democracy - against Right-Wing Extremism' (IKDR) in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover or at the local level in the Lehrter 'Alliance against the Right'. Partners for our remembrance work are the Bergen-Belsen Working Group and the Remembrance and Future Network in the Hanover region. Since 2014, together with the Evangelical Lutheran St. Martin's Parish, we have been a member of the worldwide reconciliation community of the Cross of Nails in Coventry.

Other decidedly ecclesiastical and ecumenical aspects of our work include our participation in the Action Group for Justice, Peace and the Preservation of Creation, and we participate in the preparation and implementation of the annual ecumenical forums. In 2010/2011 there was intensive collaboration at various points in the regional church's preparation for the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation in Jamaica at the end of the Decade to Overcome Violence, including collaboration on the regional church's working materials and the organization of a peace festival. There is regular collaboration at peace services in the Market Church in Hanover.

For many years we have had our own stand at the Protestant and Ecumenical Church Days.

Representatives of the Sievershausen Documentation Center on War Events and Peace Work appear publicly as discussion participants or as impulse providers for third parties.