Reconciliation – Placebo, Sedative or Bitter Medicine? On the Ambivalence of Dealing With a Violent Past

Experiences of violence strike deep at the human core and can trigger transgenerational shocks. The experience of violence is the experience of extreme defenselessness and the vulnerability of human life. Therefore, the German Catholic Bishops state in their last statement on peace that reconciliation must engage in a deeper confrontation with violence and its consequences. The experience of violence is the experience of extreme defenselessness and the vulnerability of human life. What is often overlooked, however, is the fact that not only victims, but also perpetrators and bystanders experience violence, which leaves specific wounds and traces in each case. Violence and its consequences generate a complex reality that defies categorization into black and white, and they also damage or destroy relationships between people and groups as well as identities. Finding a response and interpretation for the existential shock triggered by violence becomes literally aquestion of survival. For healing and reconciliation processes, it is not only of great importance to understand how the ­respective patterns of interpretation come into being and what questions and experiences they develop around, but also that the ability to speak and the willingness for dialog are developed. 

In order not to succumb to the risk of superficial political stabilization, this article presents a problem matrix that describes the essential aras and challenges of dealing with a violent past. Its four elements are interlinked in many ways: 1. Solidarity with the victims, 2. Nuanced approach to dealing with the perpetrators, 3. Dealing with personal responsibility and guilt, 4. Addressing systemic contexts of violence . All these must be examined and adequately dealt with on various levels. Such a process bears great potential for healing; however, it requires acknowledgement of the victims’ or the “others’” suffering as well as an attitude of active patience in the first place.