Wolfgang Sonntag: from Dresden to Sweden
IAL was founded by Wolfgang Sonntag, a teacher and musician. He was born in 1911 in Dresden, Germany. During the 1930s, he was forced to leave his homeland because of his Jewish background and his political stance against Nazism.
First he traveled to England where he came into contact with the English branch of Service Civil International. Through volunteer work there he experienced a strong sense of community, openness and joy of life, something that gave him inspiration and strength.
Later, Wolfgang moved to Norway, where he worked as a teacher and organised a volunteer work team. The group was ready to travel to Finland in the spring of 1940 to participate in the reconstruction work after the Winter War. However, the plans were stopped when Germany occupied Norway that same year. Wolfgang then fled to Sweden, where he continued his fight for peace and volunteer work.
Sweden and the first steps towards IAL
When Wolfgang arrived in Sweden, he found that there was already a branch of Service Civil International, but it was dormant. He encountered resistance and felt that the Swedish youth did not understand the deep crisis of values that the world was experiencing during the war years.
He found it difficult to get Swedish youth organisations involved in issues related to building peace outside the country's borders. Wolfgang experienced Sweden as “the country without volunteers.”
However, in his meeting with the non-profit youth movement Frisksportarna, he found the enthusiasm and idealism he had been looking for. From their activities, the Internationella Arbetslag (IAL) was born. In 1942, the Frisksportförbundet organised a study leadership course in Norrhyttan in southern Dalarna. Wolfgang participated and proposed a six-month training course where young people would be trained as peace pioneers.
The first school started in November of that year in an abandoned miners' farm, where the participants studied languages, psychology and Samaritan service in the mornings, while working for a forestry company to support the business.
The Pioneer School, the conferences and the first courses
Despite many setbacks, Wolfgang's pioneer school in Norrhyttan began to grow, although conflicts within the group made the work difficult. By Christmas 1942, only four of the original nineteen participants had remained.
At the same time, Wolfgang organised a conference together with the Quakers in Stockholm. On January 7, 1943, a large gathering was held in Viggbyholm, with over a hundred participants. This became the first real impetus for Swedish action to plan relief efforts after the war. Later that year, Wolfgang gathered thirteen people for a new meeting on Lidingö. Among the participants was the well-known Quaker Emilia Fogelklou Norlind, who inspired the group by telling them about American volunteer camps.
In the autumn of 1943, the first two real courses were started near Nissafors in Småland. They were based on a program statement about peace work and at the same time participated in practical work at Danish refugee camps. This marked the beginning of IAL's activities as a movement where studies, physical training and practical work were combined.
Post-war years and international efforts
When World War II ended, the organisation was ready to act. Already during the final stages of the war, IAL had conducted around twenty courses that helped refugees, concentration camp survivors and people in rural areas through work in agriculture and forestry.
The ambition was for Swedish youth to lead the way for a new peace movement, where small groups of volunteers could contribute to reconstruction in the war-torn parts of Europe. At the same time, the aim was to foster a peaceful mindset that would make future wars impossible.
However, the authorities in Europe were skeptical about accepting help from a small, unknown organisation, and IAL was instead allowed to organise volunteer teams in Sweden. A center was opened in 1946 in Ulvsunda, in the so-called “Kråkslottet”, where home help services were provided for families with many children.
Shortly afterwards, IAL was able to send volunteers to Finnmark in northern Norway, which the Germans had burned down during their retreat. Shortly afterwards, groups were also sent to Poland in cooperation with the Intra-European Mission and later to Germany. The ambition to combine practical aid work with ideological peace work continued, but conflicts both within the organisation and with authorities made development difficult.
In 1950, IAL's most ambitious project in Germany was completed, and the movement evolved into an office for organising volunteer camps. During the 1960s, IAL officially became a branch of Service Civil International.
Wolfgang Sonntag: life's work and legacy
Wolfgang Sonntag continued to be a visionary throughout his life. He was involved in aid work in several African countries, in South America and in the United States. He wrote books, translated works by, among others, Ivar Lo-Johansson and Emilia Fogelklou, and set poems by Karin Boye to music.
He also worked as a music and language teacher in the Stockholm area and was particularly interested in music education for preschool children. In 1962, he took the initiative for the Nordics' first Peace Corps course in Glabo, Småland, which became the model for Norway's first course the following year.
During his final years, Wolfgang devoted himself to summarising the philosophical and socio-political basis for his peace work. His life came to a tragic end when he fell seriously ill and died in 1970, being only 59 years old.
He left behind two unpublished manuscripts and a comprehensive life's work. His entire work was shaped by the experience of how Germany had been crushed by Nazism and militarism, and his life became an expression of an unbroken faith in peace, solidarity and human community.