Peter van den Dungen

Despite the age-old longing for peace, and the long history of peacemaking—and the necessity in the nuclear age to abolish war—peace museums are still relatively rare, certainly when compared with war museums. War and violence are dominant themes in school history books and war heroes are glorified in monuments and memorials. Peace and anti-war narratives are little known and forgotten and often even censored and repressed. Peace museums are an important instrument to make peace visible and contribute to peace education and the development of a culture of peace—providing a necessary counterpart to the dominant culture of war and violence.

One particular category of object available for display in peace museums consists of significant books from the histories of the peace idea and the peace movement. A selection of a dozen such books drawn from the European tradition is represented by Desiderius Erasmus (1517), Emeric Crucé (1623), Hugo Grotius (1625), Abbé de Saint-Pierre (1713), Pierre-André Gargaz (1782), Immanuel Kant (1795), Henri de Saint-Simon (1815), Henry Dunant (1862), and Bertha von Suttner (1889). Also included are two famous and often reprinted artworks depicting as never before the horrors and cruelties of war by Jacques Callot (1633) and Francisco Goya (1863) as well as George Grosz’s portfolio of equally unforgettable drawings attacking the military (1928). The first editions of all these works are rare or very rare, with prices to match.

Countless war graves, battlefield sites, war memorials, and museums bear witness to the ravages of centuries of war in Europe. Such memorials traditionally glorify war, celebrate victory, and project intense nationalism. The article explores how such legacies of a troubled past can be transformed for a continent that has embarked on its peaceful unification. Exemplary in this respect is the massive Monument to the Battle of the Nations (1813) erected in Leipzig in 1913. Opposition to war and attempts at war prevention and abolition are far less frequently memorialized. Several peace monuments are described such as the famous statue of Erasmus in Rotterdam, the Peace Palace in The Hague, the Palace of the Nations in Geneva, and, in the same city, the Temple of Friendship and Peace erected by Count Jean-Jacques de Sellon, founder of the Geneva Peace Society (1830), the first on the continent.

The Austrian baroness Bertha von Suttner did more than any other woman to prevent war in 1914. Following the success of her antiwar novel, Lay Down Your Arms (1889), she became a much-admired leader of the international peace movement until her death in June 1914. A friend of Alfred Nobel, she was the first woman to receive his peace prize in 1905 and was one of the most famous women of her day. Plans for a museum devoted to her “life for peace” which have existed since 1914 have not yet come to fruition. Her courageous campaign for a world without war, and numerous publications and public addresses, continue to inspire and encourage people today, not least women and girls. She lived and died in Vienna; a Bertha von Suttner Peace Museum would be a living monument to her and a splendid addition to the city’s many great museums.

This is a plenary address given at the 8th conference of the International Network of Museums for Peace (INMP) that was held at the No Gun Ri Peace Memorial in the Republic of Korea. The title is also the theme of the conference. The memorial commemorates the massacre by the US Air Force of citizens fleeing the village of No Gun Ri during the Korean War (1950–1953). To remember the atrocity, establish the truth, obtain an apology, and start a process of reconciliation, a long campaign was conducted by a survivor, Chung Eun-yong. His moving novel, Do You Know Our Pains? (1994), greatly advanced the cause. The title of the novel is reminiscent of the graphic work of the German artist Käthe Kollwitz whose drawings, etchings, and sculptures of the victims and survivors of war have universal resonance.

This article describes the history of the unique museum created by the Polish-Russian entrepreneur Jan Bloch. His stunning and prophetic six-volume work on the war of the future (1898) convinced him that a great war had to be avoided at all costs since it would be suicidal. The museum, meant to inform and warn a large public, displayed especially a large collection of weaponry, showing the increased lethality of war over time. The peace movement objected that its own activities and proposals were insufficiently presented. The financing of a purpose-built museum, opened in 1910, caused controversy. The absence of visitors and tourists during the 1914–1918 war and the resulting loss of income forced the closure of a remarkable institution that history has forgotten.

To remember the horrors of the 1914–1918 war and learn lessons, the German anarchist and anti-militarist Ernst Friedrich opened an anti-war museum that also served as a peace education center, especially for young people. The museum displayed many photographs, drawn from his bestselling book, War against War! (1924), which contrasted the rhetoric of military heroism and national glory with the sordidness and pity of war. When the Nazis took power in 1933, they destroyed his museum and converted the building into a torture chamber. Friedrich fled to Switzerland and then Belgium where he reestablished his museum. Following the Nazi occupation, he fled to France. After the war, with compensation received from the West German government, he bought an island in the Seine River near Paris and established a reconciliation center for French and German youth.

The advantages of museums as learning centers compared with schools are outlined. Almost all peace museums share the aim of informing and inspiring visitors and encouraging them to work for peace. Several categories of peace museums are identified and examples given. Public education about peace is also provided through traveling exhibitions produced not only by peace museums but also by several peace organizations and religious bodies such as the Global Ethic Foundation in Germany and Soka Gakkai International in Japan. The development of the International Network of Museums for Peace (INMP) and the growing literature about peace museums are also introduced.

In 2017 INMP held its ninth conference in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and also celebrated its 25th anniversary. A special issue of the INMP Newsletter explains the origins of the network at the first conference in 1992 in Bradford (UK) and provides concise information on each of the subsequent conferences in various locations in Europe and Asia. Separate sections are devoted to institutional developments such as INMP’s affiliation to the UN and the establishment of a secretariat in The Hague and the programs and activities it initiated. They include conferences and exhibitions celebrating the centenary of the Peace Palace in The Hague (2013) and of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF, 2015) founded in the same city. Tributes are paid to volunteers, donors, and peace museum pioneers.

Peace and antiwar museums often use art to educate, celebrating peace and nonviolence and condemning war and weapons. There is a rich legacy to draw upon, not least as regards paintings. The Russian Vasily Vereshchagin (1842–1904) has often been compared to Leo Tolstoy for the greatness of his depictions of the horrors and miseries of war. His numerous exhibitions throughout Europe and the USA from the 1870s onward were spectacularly successful. Sometimes authorities forbade soldiers and youngsters from entering because the gruesome reality of war would turn them against the army. A reproduction of his most famous painting, The Apotheosis of War, belongs in every peace museum. The artist met leading figures of the peace movement such as Bertha von Suttner and W. T. Stead, and his work was also praised by Alfred H. Fried and Jan Bloch.

The introduction to a special issue of the Journal of Peace Education recognizes that museums are educational powerhouses that also play a vital role in the global tourism industry. Four case studies are presented: the Women’s Active Museum on War and Peace (Tokyo), about “comfort women”; the Tehran Peace Museum, about the victims of chemical warfare; peace museums in Kenya and their role in promoting interfaith dialogue; and the Kyoto Museum for World Peace and the contribution of volunteer guides in enhancing the educational experience of visitors. While peace museums are important agents and instruments of peace education, militarism remains a potent, worrying force in the educational system of many societies.

Numerous peace exhibitions have been organized in the Netherlands, some resulting in proposals for a peace museum. Both were stimulated by events such as the opening of the Peace Palace in The Hague (1913), the founding of the League of Nations following the First World War, and the Olympic Games in Amsterdam (1928). Rev. J. B. Th. Hugenholtz, the leader of several radical Dutch and international peace organizations, was the driving force behind many initiatives. A permanent Peace Room, opened in The Hague in 1927, was expanded into a Peace House (1934) after Hugenholtz had visited Albert Einstein in 1932 and received his support. Other exhibitions were organized by the Youth Peace Federation including one in Amsterdam (1931) that was meant to provide support for the Geneva Disarmament Conference (1932). An official exhibition on the Dutch East Indies in The Hague led young people to form an Anti-Colonial Exhibition Action group.

While the heritage of war is both obvious and abundant in many societies, that of peace and antiwar is largely unknown and sometimes even repressed. That heritage deserves to be discovered and displayed in peace museums, thereby helping to correct a widespread perception that history shows that war is inevitable and peace impossible. Belief systems shape society and history; ideas once held to be utopian are later realized. The abolition of war has become an imperative for survival in the nuclear age. That age has stimulated the growth of peace research, peace history, and peace education which provide insight and inspiration contributing to the development of a culture of peace and nonviolence. Peace museums are symbols of that culture and ideal instruments for its promotion.

Important factors that help to explain the lack of progress in the global campaign for the abolition of nuclear weapons are widespread public ignorance, official censorship, and media manipulation. The creation of anti-atomic bomb museums such as those in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the capital cities of the nuclear weapon states (starting with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council) would greatly raise awareness and result in a change of public opinion forcing governments to abide by their legal obligations to disarm their nuclear weapons. The investment required is relatively modest and should be provided by philanthropists. They should follow the examples of Alfred Nobel and Andrew Carnegie whose substantial legacies for peace more than a century ago continue to benefit society today.

Both Immanuel Kant (1795) and Kenneth Boulding (Peace & Change 14:461-469, 1989) have argued the need for a new kind of “universal history” to replace the traditional, narrow, and nationalist approach—a main ingredient in the complex of factors leading to war. During the Cold War, a specialized field of history—peace history—emerged. The article highlights some of the achievements of contemporary peace history and peace research including the first publication of such essential reference works as the Biographical Dictionary of Modern Peace Leaders (Josephson, Biographical Dictionary of Modern Peace Leaders. Greenwood, Westport, CT, 1985) and the World Encyclopedia of Peace (1986). A parallel development is the growth of peace museums which provide a much-needed complement and alternative to the numerous war museums. Peace history and peace museums are timely approaches for promoting education about peace and nonviolent conflict resolution.

This discussion document for a working party of the Give Peace a Chance Trust aiming to establish a peace museum in Bradford (UK) delineates the concept and defines the functions of a peace museum. It suggests organizing principles for a display and provides details of 18 possible themes that can be illustrated in such a museum. They present a comprehensive picture of the history and evolution of ideas and movements for a world without war. Not only the general public but also many peace activists are unaware of the long and rich history of peace thinking and peacemaking. A peace museum is the ideal vehicle to bring that history alive through the display of a wide variety of artifacts drawn from the past and the present and providing inspiration for the future.

This broad, historical overview of peace museums, memorials, and exhibitions introduces the world’s first peace and anti-war museums, established by Jan Bloch in Lucerne (1902) and Ernst Friedrich in Berlin (1925), respectively. It also discusses related institutions such as the Peace Palace in The Hague and the World Palace (later the Mundaneum) in Brussels, created in the early decades of the twentieth century. Exhibitions about the League of Nations in the interwar period, and the Peace Pavilions in Paris (1937) and Glasgow (1938), are also discussed. Post Second World War, a major peace museum and park, with many monuments, was constructed in Hiroshima, the leading peace city of the nuclear era. The first peace museum in the USA was established in 1981 in Chicago.

Peace museums play an important role in the promotion and dissemination of UNESCO’s Culture of Peace program. This overview of existing peace museums throughout the world shows the variety in their origins and content. The survey comprises the first peace museums created by Jan Bloch and Ernst Friedrich, museums in Japan and Germany, and museums dedicated to individuals and to international organizations. It also discusses whether some of the numerous war museums can also be classified as peace museums and suggests that museums which deal with issues such as genocide, the Holocaust, abolition of slavery, or colonialism can be regarded as peace-related museums. The prospects for the further development of the field are addressed with reference to a number of peace museums planned in Africa, Europe, and North America.

This article documents the spread of peace museums following the first such survey published in 1986. The emergence of conferences, networks, and publications since then suggests that the concept of peace museums has become widely accepted and that it has become possible to refer to a global peace museum movement. The processes of institutionalization and professionalization in the field in the 1990s are described. A comparison is drawn between the emergence and development of peace research and, a generation earlier, that of peace museums. A tribute is paid to Dr. Young Seek Choue, founder-chancellor of Kyung Hee University in Seoul who initiated the World Encyclopedia of Peace in which the 1986 article appeared. The present article was published in the 25th anniversary edition of the annual publication of the University’s Graduate Institute of Peace Studies.

The British Museum director Neil MacGregor’s 2010 exhibition (and 2011 book) showing the history of the world in 100 objects inspired this chapter which, for practical reasons, is limited to ten objects. They are of the most diverse kind and associated with a wide range of individuals and organizations including Albert Einstein, Victor Hugo, Alfred Nobel, William Penn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Bertha von Suttner, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Quakers, and the United Nations. It is argued that worldwide there is an abundance of such objects and that bringing a selection of them together would make for a beautiful, revealing, and inspiring display illustrating the reality of the notion of cultures of peace.

This is a contribution to a Festschrift for Professor Ikuro Anzai, then director of the Kyoto Museum for World Peace at Ritsumeikan University. Inaugurated in 1992, the museum was one of the first in the country to show that Japan was not only a victim in the Second World War but also an aggressor. The university is unique in the world in housing a peace museum. Anzai has not only been the foremost promoter of such museums in Japan and the wider region but also a pillar of support of the International Network of Museums for Peace (INMP). Parallels are drawn with Jan Bloch, the founder of the world’s first peace museum (Lucerne, 1902). To help prevent the catastrophe of nuclear war, it is proposed that an Atomic Bomb and Peace Museum is created in Lucerne, in the spirit of Jan Bloch. This might be realized with the help of the peace museums in Hiroshima and Nagasaki with which Ikuro Anzai is closely associated.The advent of the nuclear age has seen the creation of many peace museums, especially in Japan. They are important instruments of public peace education. As director of the Kyoto Museum for World Peace at Ritsumeikan University, Professor Ikuro Anzai has played a central role in their development. The world’s first peace museum was established by Jan Bloch in Lucerne in 1902, to warn of the dangers of a new large war. He belongs to a rich tradition of peacemakers and peace educators from the past, whom the world does not remember. Their inspiring lives and ideas should also be told in peace museums. In order to enhance the effectiveness of the atomic bomb museums in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, such museums should also be established outside Japan. The creation of an Atomic Bomb and Peace Museum in Lucerne would provide a great stimulus for the movement for abolition of nuclear weapons and of war.

This book is the first comprehensive study of the history, nature, and purposes of peace museums, comprising twenty-one essays by a leading authority in the field. It presents a powerful argument for the need for this new kind of museum that informs and inspires visitors that a world of peace and nonviolence is both necessary and possible. Whereas there are numerous museums about war and the armed forces, museums about peacemaking and peacemakers are rare; indeed, the very concept of peace museums is still largely unknown. This is a reflection of the traditional writing and teaching of history which is dominated by narratives of war and warriors, with little or no attention being paid to the history of efforts to prevent and abolish war. Peace museums are ideal instruments to bring the long, fascinating, and vitally important history of peace to life for a large public. Among the essays included are histories of two (forgotten and unknown yet) heroic efforts to prevent World War I, and then World War II, through museums that educated and alerted visitors about the disasters ahead if war was not avoided, and ways to steer a different course following the catastrophe that was the Great War. At a time when a barbaric war in Europe, continuing wars in Africa, and ominous threats of war in Asia, are raising the specter of nuclear war and World War III, the need for anti-nuclear bomb and anti-war museums is greater than ever. Such museums are essential for the development of a global culture of peace and nonviolence. The book provides inspiration and hope for everyone interested in efforts to overcome an existential threat to civilization that is wholly man-made.

What was particularly revolutionary in the original Quaker doctrine is the commitment to nonviolence. This found expression as early as 1660 in a declaration signed by Fox and eleven other Quakers which has become known as ‘The Peace Testimony’. Around 1700 two prominent Quakers, William Penn and John Bellers, put forward two designs for ridding the continent of the great scourge of war. This article gives an account, together with an analysis, of the main elements of the two peace plans. It also explores the influence of Penn’s plan in the work of Saint-Pierre and, through it, in the Age of the Enlightenment.