Heribert Prantl

Picture: Nina Tenhumberg

Heribert Prantl speaks at the Munich Peace Conference on February 14, 2025, 6:30 p.m., smartvillage, Rosenkavalierplatz 13, Arabellapark

To the tickets HERE

Winning the peace. Unlearn violence.

“Propagating a pro-war stance is not only wrong, it is dangerous. It is a violation of the letter and the spirit of the Basic Law. We need a new peace movement, we need a new policy of détente. We do not need a third world war.” (Heribert Prantl)

Schmalhans peace master
The constitutional lawyers sneak past the preamble of the Basic Law

By Heribert Prantl Legal scholars are characterized by the fact that they turn over every word and every letter three times. It is therefore striking that they do not know much to say about the peace commandment in the Basic Law. It is in the preamble and requires the state of the Basic Law to “serve the peace of the world”. Anyone who looks it up in the legal commentaries will find only meagre and sparse explanations. There has been a failure to elaborate, substantiate, specify and concretize the peace requirement, as has been done with the rule of law requirement and the welfare state requirement. The principle of peace has therefore remained a beautiful but empty formula; it adorns the Basic Law, but has been and is treated like an ornament. This was and is wrong; and this was and still is avenged in the public debate on the war in Ukraine. It was and is a groundless discussion; unlike the discussion about the principle of the welfare state and the rule of law, it has no basis in the constitution – because the content of the principle of peace is not enshrined. The principle of peace still needs to be comprehensively developed; this has not happened. It has been folded up and stands lost and unnoticed in the corner. It would have been better if the mothers and fathers of the Basic Law had come up with the strikingly clear formulation proposed by Carlo Schmid: “War is not a means of politics”. The constitutional lawyers would not have been able to get past such a sentence as easily as they did the commandment of peace. The principle of peace has remained silent. The Basic Law and its commandment of peace have hardly played a role in the pros and cons of arms deliveries to Ukraine. Perhaps this is why the warning of an “escalation” of the war was and is seen as an expression of despondency, perhaps this is why words such as “compromise” and “ceasefire” were until recently pronounced as if they were poisoned; perhaps this is why war rhetoric is seen as an expression of morality. How does one serve peace in times of war in Ukraine, as the Basic Law demands? With howitzers and missiles or with attempts at mediation? With diplomacy or with drones? The principle of peace is a fundamental principle of the constitution that still needs to be developed as a fundamental principle. Then the principle of peace will lead to a good, a better future. It is the path from the law of the strongest to the strength of the law.

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The award certificate for the Geschwister Scholl Prize, which Heribert Prantl received in 1994, states: “He resolutely demands respect for fundamental rights”.

About the person:

Born in 1953 in Nittenau/Upper Palatinate
Publicist, journalist, author. Until March 2019, member of the editorial board and head of the Opinion section of the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Since then, permanent columnist for SZ and commentator and essayist for Sueddeutsche.de

Career:

  • Permanent author, commentator and columnist for the Süddeutsche Zeitung since March 2019
  • Since 2018: Head of the newly founded central opinion department print and online
  • 1992-2017: Head of the domestic policy department at the Süddeutsche Zeitung
  • Since 2016: Honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Protestant Theology at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
  • Since 2011: Member of the SZ editorial board Since 2010: Honorary professor at the Faculty of Law at Bielefeld University
  • Since 1988: political editor at the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Initially domestic political commentator and domestic political editor with a focus on legal policy
  • 1981-87: Judge at various Bavarian district and regional courts and public prosecutor

Studied philosophy, history and law. First and second state examinations in law, doctorate in law under Professor Dr. Dieter Schwab in Regensburg, legal clerkship. Parallel to this, journalistic training

Awards, among others:

  • Catholic Media Prize / Special Jury Prize for the leading articles on the high feasts of the Church (2018)
  • Honorary doctorate from the Department of Theology at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (2016)
  • Hildegard Hamm-Brücher Prize (2015)
  • Journalism Prize of the City of Munich (2013)
  • Brothers Grimm Prize (2012) Wilhelm Hoegner Prize (2011)
  • Cicero Speaker Award of the Verlag für die Deutsche Wirtschaft AG (2010)
  • Justice Medal of the Free State of Bavaria (2009)
  • Roman Herzog Media Prize of the Convention for Germany for analysis and commentary on federalism (2007)
  • Arnold Freymuth Prize “for services to the democratic and social constitutional state” (2006)
  • Erich-Fromm-Prize (2006)
  • Rhetoric Prize for the Speech of the Year 2004 of the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen
  • Theodor Wolff Prize for essayistic journalism (2001)
  • Siebenpfeiffer Prize (1998/99)
  • Kurt Tucholsky Prize for Literary Journalism (1996)
  • Geschwister Scholl Prize of the City of Munich (1994)

Publications, among others:

  • Winning the peace. Unlearn violence. (2024)
  • On large and small resistance. Thoughts on time and untimeliness (2018)
  • The power of hope. Food for thought in difficult times. Munich 2017.
  • Instruction manual for populists. Wals near Salzburg 2017.
  • What a single person can do. Political contemporary stories. Munich 2016
  • Despite all this, you simply have to love Europe. Munich 2016
  • Childhood. First home – thoughts that dispel fear. Munich 2015
  • In the name of humanity – Save the refugees. Berlin 2015
  • The splendor and misery of fundamental rights. Twelve stars for the Basic Law. Munich, 2014
  • Alt. Amen. Beginning. New food for thought, Munich 2013
  • The world as an editorial. On the future of journalism, Vienna 2012
  • The wrath of God. Food for thought on the holidays, Munich 2011
  • The terrorist as legislator. How to make politics with fear, Munich 2008
  • Not a beautiful country. The destruction of social justice, Munich 2005

Further information about Heribert Prantl can be found on his homepage HERE