Swords into ploughshares

01What does swords into ploughshares mean?

The phrase describes a disarmament that is more than a ceasefire: weapons are not just laid down but reforged into tools for working a field. A ploughshare is the iron that breaks up the soil when ploughing.

The image joins two thoughts. What was made for killing then serves life, and the material stays the same. Peace does not come out of nothing, but out of what served war before.

As a motto the phrase is still widespread today, in churches, in the peace movement and in politics. In Germany it is closely tied to the independent peace movement of the GDR.

02Where is the phrase in the Bible?

The phrase appears twice in the Old Testament, almost word for word: in the prophet Isaiah, chapter two, and in the prophet Micah, chapter four. Both describe a time when peoples have their disputes settled instead of going to war.

In the King James Version, Isaiah says they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruninghooks, nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

The last part matters. It is not only about reworking the weapons but about unlearning war. In it lies the thought that peace is also a matter of upbringing and habit.

03What does the sculpture at the UN have to do with it?

On 4 December 1959 the Soviet Union presented the United Nations with a bronze figure by the sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich. It stands in the north garden of the headquarters in New York and bears the title "Let Us Beat Swords into Ploughshares".

The figure shows a man holding a hammer in one hand and in the other a sword that he is making into a ploughshare. The United Nations describe it as an image of humankind’s wish to end war and turn the means of destruction into tools.

In the middle of the Cold War the gift was also a political gesture. That the GDR peace movement later made this very figure its sign gave the patch a particular edge: it showed a gift from the GDR’s closest ally.

04How did the patch become a sign in the GDR?

In 1980 the Saxon youth pastor Harald Bretschneider developed the symbol for the church’s peace work. It shows the figure at the UN, the man reforging a sword, together with the words "Schwerter zu Pflugscharen".

The motto first appeared at church peace events. According to jugendopposition.de, run by the Federal Agency for Civic Education and the Robert Havemann Society, it reached the wider public as a patch from 1981. Young people above all wore it on their jackets.

According to the House of History, the churches were the only larger organisations in the GDR that could keep a measure of independence from the state. That is why a patch from a church initiative became the most visible sign of the independent peace movement.

05How did the state react to the sign?

When the sign became a protest symbol in 1981, the state, according to jugendopposition.de, cracked down hard on those who wore it. Patches were torn off young people’s jackets; a photo in the Robert Havemann Society’s collection shows a parka with a torn-off patch.

One action became famous at the church congress in Wittenberg on 24 September 1983. In the Luther courtyard the blacksmith Stefan Nau reforged a sword into a vintner’s knife with hammer and anvil in front of about 2,000 spectators. Because a West German television crew was there, many people saw it.

According to the DDR Museum, the peace groups of the 1980s became the nucleus of the movement that led to the Peaceful Revolution in autumn 1989. The sign is therefore part of the history of German unity today.

06How old is the sentence?

According to the Ecumenical Peace Decade, the prophet Micah proclaimed his promise in the 8th century BC; it appears almost word for word in the book of Isaiah.

According to the same source, the Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, even speaks specifically of swords becoming pruning knives. The sentence has thus been in circulation for well over 2,000 years.

07Who organised the forging in Wittenberg?

According to MDR, the action in the Luther courtyard on 24 September 1983 was organised by the theologian Friedrich Schorlemmer during the Protestant Church Congress. A real sword was reworked; the smith at the anvil was Stefan Nau.

According to MDR, the picture went around the world and later became a symbol of the peace movement in East and West. For many people outside East Germany it was the first time they heard of the sign.