The broken rifle

 

Although it predates the 1921 foundation of London-based War Resisters’s International (WRI), the broken rifle symbol has been adopted by the WRI and its affiliates. The first known example of the symbol was in the January 1909 issue of De Wapens Neder (Down With Weapons), the monthly paper of the International Antimilitarist Union in the Netherlands. It also appeared in a 1915 pamphlet, Under det brukne Gevaer (Under the Broken Rifle), published by the Norwegian Social Democratic Youth Association and the (German) League for War Victims used the broken rifle on a 1919 banner. Ernst Friedrich, a German who had refused military service, founded the Anti-Kriegs Museum in Berlin, which featured a broken rifle over the door.

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