Frankfurt a.M. (epd). The war in Ukraine is at the center of the Easter marches of the peace movement. At the rallies, speakers often called for a halt to German arms deliveries, an end to the fighting and immediate negotiations. The FDP defense expert Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann warned against siding with Russia.
In Hanover, the former head of the council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), Margot Käßmann, said on Saturday: “We don’t want the escalation to continue and more weapons to be delivered to the war zone.” With the arms deliveries, Germany is jointly responsible for all the dead, said the former Hanoverian state bishop. According to the police, around 1,100 people took part in a demonstration march through the city center under the motto “Win the peace – not the war”.
On posters and banners, the demonstrators called for non-violent conflict resolution in the Ukraine war and immediate negotiations. “If a crystal-clear stop sign isn’t put up here, the NATO countries will become a war party,” said Käßmann to applause: “Then we’ll deliver combat bombers, warships, maybe even soldiers and we’ll be on the brink of a third world war, which will also be waged with nuclear weapons . This spiral of escalation must be ended immediately.”
Käßmann opposed defamation of the peace movement and spoke out in favor of Russian conscientious objectors receiving asylum in Germany. The parliamentary director of the Union faction in the Bundestag, Thorsten Frei (CDU), accused the Easter marchers of naivety. As long as there are people like Russian President Vladimir Putin, who rather rely on the law of the stronger than on the strength of the law, one must be prepared to defend free democracy, he told the “Bild am Sonntag”.
The FDP defense expert Strack-Zimmermann warned against representing Russia’s positions at the demonstrations. “It’s louder to take to the streets for peace,” she told the newspaper. “The demonstrators shouldn’t confuse the addressee of their protest.” Those who articulate themselves against the victim make themselves “accomplices of injustice”.
Acting EKD Council Chairwoman Annette Kurschus replied that the call for negotiations should never be dismissed as naïve. People who took to the streets at Easter for peace didn’t want to win a war, they wanted peace. “Without talks, without negotiations, there can be no peace,” she told the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” (Saturday).
The organizers of the regional Rhine-Ruhr Easter March had called for a bicycle stage on Sunday. Around 100 people got on their bikes and joined the tour from Essen via Gelsenkirchen, Wattenscheid and Herne to Bochum, organizer Joachim Schramm told the Evangelical Press Service (epd). With the local people who came to the rallies at the stops, a total of around 300 demonstrators took part in the Easter march.
According to the police, more than 1,000 people demonstrated on two Easter marches in Berlin on Saturday. In Bremen, according to the police, around 1,000 people moved from the “Peace Tunnel” to the market square, following a call from the Bremen Peace Forum. The organizers spoke of around 2,000 participants. At the final rally, the Catholic theologian Eugen Drewermann condemned all forms of militarism. “We will not overcome fear by frightening others,” he said. “One cannot react to evil with the same means.”