When Church Bells were transformed into Weapons of War

 

On September 21, church bells will ring out throughout the whole of Europe in remembrance of the end of WWI. During the war many bells were melted down into artillery guns. The pain of this loss united the people.

The deacon had resigned himself to what was about to happen. For some time, he had tried to evade the decree, to keep its consequences to a minimum. But then at the end of July 1917, he had to recognize that his efforts had been in vain: The bells of his parish in the Rhineland-Palatinate town of Kusel would be taken down from the tower. They would then go to an ironworks to be melted down and turned into guns.

"They will speak a different language in the future," Deacon Karl Munzinger said in his sermon on July 22, 1917 about the loss. "It goes against any feelings, that they, who like no other preach peace and should heal wounded hearts, should tear apart bodies in gruesome murders and open wounds that will never heal."

With metal essential to the war industry in short supply, the Imperial Government issued a decree in March 1917 to turn bells into weapons of war. The decision distressed many citizens, even those who weren't Christian.