December 2002
News

City remembers 'prophetic' Peace Researcher

A lecturer from the School of Social and International Studies has been helping a nation to remember the efforts made by a Polish-Russian industrialist to avert the loss and devastation caused by the Great War.

Peter van den Dungen, of the Department of Peace Studies, initiated a programme of events during the summer in Lucerne, Switzerland, to mark the 100th anniversary of the inauguration of the world's first peace museum.

Peace Studies research student Kazuyo Yamane with Peter van den Dungen at the unveiling of a comemorative plague for the museum.

The pioneering educational institution was the brainchild of industrialist and early peace researcher Jan Bloch who, in his prophetic six-volume study 'The War of the Future' written in 1898, accurately predicted the nature of a future war between the great powers.

The museum was meant to educate and warn European public opinion in a heroic effort to avert the impending catastrophe of the war. Bloch died in 1902 so never lived to see his prophecies tragically come true.

Peter said: "Countless war graves and memorials in Europe and beyond bare witness to the enormous loss and devastation of the Great War. Historical justice requires that the most significant and explicit effort to avert that catastrophe also be given, at last, its due."

The programme was opened by the Polish ambassador to Switzerland, Dr Jerzy Marganski, and comprised an international historical symposium, a roundtable on the role of peace museums today, a historical walk and the unveiling of a commemorative plaque commissioned by the city.

Peter, who initiated and co-organised the programme, said: "The events were well covered in the local and national media and the city was happy to be reminded in this way of a precious and unique, but fully forgotten, part of its cultural heritage that holds global significance."

3 December 2002

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