Social representations of pacifists in Germany: guardian of the dove of peace or fallen angels that come from hell?

Abstract Prompted by the war in Ukraine, voices are being raised in Germany calling for a massive strengthening of the German armed forces and strong military support for Ukraine. Pacifist counter-positions are rarely heard. Based on the question of what significance pacifism still has in Germany today, this article turns to the example of the war in Ukraine. Referring to Social Representation Theory, this paper aims to analyse three research questions: (1) Which attributes could be found that contribute to the social representation of pacifists? (2) Which anchors were used? (3) Which consequences might result from the social representation of pacifists? To this end, 50 articles in different media are analysed applying content analysis. The results show that primarily negative attributes are attributed to pacifists. In turn, this type of media representation can contribute to silencing voices for peace.