Wise News Communique 415-416

Robert Jungk
13 May 1913 - 14 July 1994

On July 14, 1994 Robert Jungk died in his hometown of Salzburg, Austria, at the age of 81. The famous German born publicist and activist did most of his research on the future social development of the world and the influence of technology on those developments.

No doubt: Robert Jungk was the moral authority of the German and West European ecological, anti nuclear and (later) the peace movement. For years he was their intellectual power station and guiding force. Robert Jungk wrote books that were of enormous importance for the development of the ecological idea. In his bestseller 'Die Zukunft hat schon begonnen' ('The future has already begun') published in 1952 (!), he already foresaw what consequences nuclear fission would have for the world. Robert Jungk had already his doubts concerning the faith in progress even long before the Club of Rome published its first reports. He witnessed a nuclear weapon-test and another decisive influence was a visit he brought to Hiroshima, Japan. He himself said once: "When I left Hiroshima, I had become a complete different human being".

In the seventies the anti nuclear movement became the most relevant protest movement in West Europe. Jungk' s book "Der Atomstaat" ("The Atomic State") in which he writes about the social consequences of a growing nuclear industry became a classic for anti nuclear activists, the author a kind of stylite.
Robert Jungk was present on many locations where the nuclear industry wanted to carry out its megalomaniac nuclear plans. All his sympathy and hope was dedicated to activists and those who occupied construction sites.
He remained an activist full of fighting spirit but the older he became the more important future became for him. In this context youth was his main target group. "There are some elderly people who are capable to learn but that is for sure the minority. But youth is still learning, they long for something that fascinates them". Robert Jungk tried to offer them a vision.

the weak don't fight
the strong fight perhaps for one hour
the stronger ones fight for maybe many years but the strongest fight their whole life
they are indispensible
Bertold Brecht

Thanks to Sebastian Müller!

After a period of one and a half year Sebastian Müller is leaving the Amsterdam WISE-Newscommunique group. He (a German ASF-volunteer) was the one who put most energy in mailing out this News Communique every two weeks. He printed the labels and made sure that everyone got his/her newscommunique exactly as ordered. He was responsible for the invoices, and when he started working his first job was to reorganize the subscription-data base administration. He was the one that replied your complains; to answer angry calls and letters. He did that with great patience and a high quality standard. Besides all these tasks he saw lots of opportunities to collect information and write articles and play an active role in the (sometimes) difficult WISE-group.

We thank him for that.

This is the last regular issue he is involved in. He will be back for a short period to introduce his successor to the ins and Outs of the WISE-environment.