Bygott, Annette

Annette Bygott

Bertha von Suttner

25 November 2014Feature Annette Bygott

Celebrating the memory of a forgotten German pacifist

Bertha von Suttner 1906. Photo: Carl Pietzner

She is hardly known in this country. Faces go blank when I mention her name. Even amongst friends in the peace movement. At the same time numerous schools, streets and public squares in Austria and Germany are named after her: Bertha von Suttner, who lived from 1843 to 1914. The commemoration of the outbreak of the First World War would give a distorted picture if we did not simultaneously remember the courageous stories of those who campaigned…

Memorials for German deserters

22 May 2013Feature Annette Bygott

30,000 German soldiers deserted during the Second World War: 20,000 were executed

Memorial for deserters by Nikolaus Kernbach in Stuttgart.
Photo: Ohne Rüstung Leben, Stuttgart

Most friends in the peace movement are familiar with the name of Franz Jägerstätter. There were other conscientious objectors who, like him, refused to fight Hitler’s war of aggression and paid the ultimate price. A few of these are pictured in Lars G Petersson’s book Deserters (2005), which mainly focuses on the 30,000 German soldiers who deserted while on…

Self portrait

22 May 2013Comment Annette Bygott

“I was doing a self-portrait around the time when the firestorm on Iraq started. That was ten years ago. It was the beginning of the immoral and illegal onslaught on people like us. Thinking of their religion and ancient culture, I gave myself a kind of hijab to say where and with whom my heart was at that hour of unfolding horror.”