An imposition: Love your enemies! Impossible, one will answer spontaneously, and yet indispensable, as Wolfgang Schmidbauer explains, who in this book focuses on the Christian idea of loving one's enemies and - starting from a "What if?" - Possibilities of rapprochement developed. As a psychoanalyst, he knows the mechanisms and pitfalls that take effect in quarrels and disputes. He shows how they can escalate and lead to a never-ending spiral of violence when dogmatism takes over. Laws can only frame conflicts, not tame them. Love is the emotional weapon against the primitive impulse of revenge. With examples from literary and cultural history and personal experiences in the memory of his father, who died in the Second World War, he proves that people are primarily social creatures. Each of us has the opportunity to renounce revenge and to interact with our fellow human beings through work and play, says Schmidbauer. Because love is both. Especially the idea of loving one's enemies should be given space again.