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Den Blick wagen – Internationale Friedensarbeit in Guatemala im Kaleidoskop der vielen Frieden

My thesis seeks to explore the motivation of Germans working within the field of peace and conflict in Guatemala. The country experienced one of the most ensanguined civil wars in the history of the American continent (1960-1996). The acts of violence and mass murder committed against the indigenous population have been classified as acts of genocide. Throughout 190 pages I explored whether or not the fact that Germans working for peace in Guatemala, is connected with their own national and personal history. From a transrational perspective, I explored if the aftermath of the Holocaust is still vibrating within the persona of the peace workers; the literature calls this phenomenon “the transgenerational transmission of (Holocaust) Trauma”.

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How can I describe my personal experience of writing? Let me use the image of the kaleidoscope. By seeing through it you see patterns, small shining almost surreal-seeming images that move, transform and melt into something new. This is how I understand peace from a holistic perspective and this is also how I felt while writing. In the beginning I could not see the clear picture and that made me impatient. I had to let go of the image that I wanted to see, I had to trust. At one point I just wrote and step by step, patterns, images and routes appeared and transformed. I transformed and grew with every single page that was written until the full picture was finally there.