유신치하와 5·18 광주 민중항쟁 전후의 한·독 개신교 에큐메니컬 협력과 김대중 구명운

Abstract

The human rights movement and democratization movement in Korea gained great strength in the 1970s and 80s through ecumenical cooperation with German and international churches. Ecumenical Information Networking was able to effectively exert political pressure on the dictatorship from the international community by quickly notifying the human rights situation in Korea to overseas. In addition, the various research and educational programs that have contributed to securing the right to live among the lower classes and organizing them by raising critical political consciousness of the residents would have been very difficult without the continuous and diverse financial support of the German church. In addition, the anti-dictatorship political struggle of progressive intellectuals would not have been possible for a long-term struggle if they had not relieved their suffering through financial support for the political prisoners and the families of dismissed professors. However, it is worth noting that the ecumenical cooperation between Korea and Germany was never a one-sided beneficiary relationship. The German missionary Dorothhea Schweitzer was touched by the courage and faith of the pastors, professors, and social activists who led the Korean church's human rights movement and struggle for democracy, despite intense oppression, and testified that German churches and Christians should learn from this courage and faith of the Koreans. If he hadn't seen the devoted struggles of Korean friends he had known close to, such as Ahn Byung-moo, Seonam-dong, Park Hyung-gyu, and Kim Kwan-seok, another German pastor Paul Schneiss might not have been so passionately helping the democratization movement in Korea. German churches and theologians expressed deep interest and respect for Korean Minjung Theology. Germans, who had little interest in Korean Christianity until the early 1970s, began to take interest in the devoted struggle of progressive Korean Christians against the Yushin system. It was the Declaration of Democracy on March 1, 1976 that brought the decisive momentum. The German Church's extensive and active life-saving campaign for the release of 18 arrested Christians and a fundraising campaign to help the political prisoner's families took place. Pastor Lee Hae-dong, who was arrested with Kim Dae-jung at the time, defined the case as an event of great significance that united the politician Kim Dae-jung and the “Jaeyaseryeok”(opponent forces). If you add this in connection with the Kim Dae-jung lifesaving movement, this incident was also the case that linked Kim Dae-jung to the network of the Korean Christian Democratic Comrades. Until 1975, the democratization movement information network consisting of Kim Kwan-seok, Ji Myung-gwan, Kim Yong-bok, and Oh Jae-sik was expanded to a global network under the support of the WCC, and German missionary Schneiss joined the network as a very excellent messenger to support the Korean democratization movement in Korea. It became a fantastic overseas information and support network. After the 1980 Kwangju People's Uprising and the so-called “Kim Dae-jung Civil Conspiracy Incident”, solidarity with Gwangju in May and the Kim Dae-jung life-saving campaign could be efficiently implemented based on this network.