World Union for Protection of Life

The World Union for Protection of Life (German: Weltbund zum Schutz des Lebens, French: Union Mondiale pour la Protection de la Vie, Russian: Всемирный союз для защиты жизни) is an international non-profit organization and non-governmental organization which was founded 1958 in Salzburg (Austria) by the writer Günther Schwab. The concept Protection of Life is considered to be different from the protection of the environment as it has been used by the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), though that organization was founded as a result of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in 1972.

Günther Schwab is known as the author of the screenplay for the movie The Forester of the Silver Wood (1954). In his novel Der Tanz mit dem Teufel (Dance with the Devil) Günther Schwab gives his expressions to sentiments for nature protection and describes the destruction of nature as a plan of a devil who seems really existent. The book was translated in many languages, the first English translation was published 1963. In the year 1958 Schwab started to set up an organization with the name World Union for Saving of Life which was registered as World Union for Protection of Life two years later and soon activated branches in more than 30 countries all over the world.

International congresses with scientist and church organizations mainly took place in German speaking countries. Around the year 1968 the organization had several thousand members in the Federal Republic of Germany. Famous members were the physicist Karl Bechert and the chemist Hans-Adalbert Schweigart.

The organization played an active role during the foundation of the German Green Party, especially in Lower Saxony.

The organization was officially registered as World Union for Saving of Life on 24 September 1958 in Salzburg and is therefore one of the oldest anti-nuclear organization. One of the famous members was the biologist Annie Francé-Harrar. The Austrian anti-nuclear power activist Robert Jungk engaged himself for the WUPL. According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior (Austria) the national section was dissolved at December 31, 2012.

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