Fighting for the homeland? Never, says the young German pacifist Oly Nymoen

If Germany is recovering military service and the German Podcaster Ole Nymoen (1998) is called up, he will flee abroad. Or try to do replacement military service in, for example, a hospital. Under no circumstances does he want to be sent to whatever front. « Rather a bad life in a dictatorship than dying on the battlefield, » says Nymoen.

With the same message, De Jonge Socialist and Pacifist wrote last July by invitation A piece in the German Weekblad Die Zeit (« I fight for Germany? Never! »). One of the big publishers in Germany, Rowohlt, made it a book with him. Warum ich Niemals für Mein Land Kämpfen Würdewas published in March.

Then Nymoen performed in it one German interview program NA the other. At the end of March he was a guest on the Leipziger Buchmesse. At the beginning of April he gave a lecture for part of the German peace movement. Abroad, the Financial Timesusually no lover of socialists or pacifists, readers on the « striking honesty » of a representative of Gen Z. The book was on the book for almost two months Bestseller list of Weekblad Der Spiegel.

Nymoen, who obtained a bachelor’s degree in economics and sociology at the University of Jena, earns a living as a publicist and with a financial-economic channel on YouTube (Wolhstand für all,, «  52,000 subscribers). In addition, the Nymoen living in Leipzig is active on social media channels. In a video call he discusses his motives and reactions to his book.

Why this book?

« I have been annoyed by the militaristic atmosphere in my country for some time. Nie Wieder Krieg Gold here for a long time, and you should see us now! All kinds of age celebrities come by to testify in the media of their patriotism and to tell that they want to enter the army. The government increases the pressure on young people to enter the army and makes the spirits ripe for reintroduction of conscription further the new CDU Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, wants to publish hundreds of billions in weapons. Rewring has become normal. I’m not going into that. « 

Who are your sources of inspiration?

« I consider myself as a Marxist, as an internationally oriented socialist, so Karl Marx was a source of inspiration. I have the view that the interests of the state and those of ‘his’ citizens are far -reaching, and are often the opposite. The state, so shows the history, wags war against other states, so that does not like the trenches with Solidaris. I so I want to go out.

„Oorlog is de ultieme, gewelddadigste vorm van competitie tussen staten die elkaar in het neoliberale tijdperk fel beconcurreren. Vooralsnog verloopt die competitie, naar het lijkt, vreedzaam, via de internationale kapitaalmarkt en arbeidsmarkt met gunstige belastingtarieven voor bedrijven en investeerders. Vreedzaam is het echter allang niet meer voor de mensen van wie de lonen worden gekort, publieke voorzieningen zijn verdwenen of die geen woning can get because private equity has bought entire blocks.

« I also wanted to write a book in which non-marxists could also recognize themselves. That is why I consulted Eric Maria Remarque’s Roman Im Westen Nichts Neues from 1929. He not only showed the horrors of war, which people now talk fairly easily. I kept the question about him: why do I have to kill someone – because that is war – that I personally have nothing against? What kind of madness is that? « Why should I fight a French shoemaker or blacksmith, » a soldier in his novel asks. Answer: « Because this has to be from your leaders. »

« I too feel much more connected to the person I have to shoot than with the person who instructs me to do that. »

You are also inspired by Bertold Brecht, a prominent communist, and his play Mutter Courage und Ihre Kinder (1939).

« Certainly! The main character, a market vendor who travels through the Thirty Years War, was important to me. For her the desire to lead a life at the center without violence. She asks her own life above who she is ruled. Then even the capitulation of the own rulers can be a blessing. The honor is lost, but nothing else, writes. »

You write: being a citizen is not a matter of happiness but bad luck. Do you really mean that?

« Yes, I believe that. I paraphras the aforementioned Karl Marx. He talked about workers in the nineteenth century who are increasingly squeezed by state and employers. That still happens. Just look at what happens at car manufacturer Volkswagen, where employees were asked to deliver a lot of wages last year. If that did not happen, Volkswagen will no longer be a foreigner and will not be folkwagen and will not be afraagenwagen and and will not be afraagen and and will not be afraagen and and Volkswagen will not be afraagen and and will not be aware and and will not be aware of the foreigns. used, and even for shorting social provisions.

« Politicians also say: it is simply. As if competition between states is a natural law and it is obvious that Germans have to compete with Chinese to a good life. But we are not born? Call me utopist, but as an internationalist I dream of a world in which no one has to wonder who he has to compete or fight. »

Yet a lot of citizens prefer to live in Europe than in Russia. Many of them even say they are willing to go into the army to fight for achievements and freedoms. That you don’t want that, they call « privileged » and « decadent. »

« Many citizens? Who do you mean? If you look closely at the figures, are there less than you think. There is a majority for reintroduction of military service in many polls. But if you ask the same people: if you want to fight with a gun in your hand, then the image tilts immediately and you also see a majority in Okraine, you can also in Okraine in Uekraine A large group of men of at least many hundreds of thousands mostly young, who tries to avoid conscription by hiding or fleeing abroad. They are afraid of being picked through the state of the street.

« And with regard to that ‘privileged’ of me: I live from openly expressing my opinions. In that respect, I have to lose more in a dictatorship with my plea than, for example, a worker who spends eight, nine hours a day in a factory, and can only publish a two in the evening.

« After the Second World War, we have indeed had a long period of growth and stability in Europe, but that did not apply to everyone for a long time. The militarist reaction of the West will continue to work out. To finance the dozens of billions for the arms industry, the upper lacquer lighting will inevitably be cut back on public facilities.

« And then politicians of the SPD as (Federal President) Walter Steinmeier state that it is so good for young people to go into military service or to fulfill a social service, because they ‘grow person personally’. That’s the same politicians who, at the time of the SPD governments of Gerhard Schröder (1998-2005), they now want to know the Gaten with the Gaten. Cheap youngsters.

Many young people will share your antimilitaristic attitude, if only from self -interest. Is that correct?

« Many young people see the madness of the thought of killing someone you personally have nothing against. But as soon as someone starts about the Russians and their war crimes in Ukraine, the mood turns, I noticed in a talk show in which I was sitting. Then many young people suddenly find that you should go to battle against Moscow. »

A logical reaction, right?

« Many people assume that states defend themselves to protect themselves to protect their citizens. That is not true: a state first looks at whether it can inflict a defeat, and as long as it possibly holds it, it will sacrifice citizens and send it to the trenches. The importance of the citizen who wants to survive and that of the state that certainly corresponds. »

To share

Mail the editors