I’m done 100 demonstrations for peace organized throughout Germany on the weekend of Easter: the first Maundy Thursday a Erfurt, Freiburg, Chemnitz, Gronau. The latter, after a minute’s silence for the victims of the war, went towards a plant for the enrichment of theuranium and called for closure. “We are demonstrating against the international onslaught armor -explained a spokesman for the demonstrators- and that nuclear weaponsagainst any use of nuclear energy”.
For the German peace movement, Easter rallies are part of it tradition it’s been like this for decades: first against them Born and the Cold Warthen to request pickup Afghanistan, Iraq and the stop to the various “Peace Missions”. Since the beginning ofinvasion of Ukraine the German pacifists are defined, in the friendliest hypothesis “Naïve Antimilitarists” or more often “Putinian Professional”.
Various voices in civil society have made suggestions over the months Berlin as a sponsor of a armistice. One such appeal, promoted by a parliamentarian and an activist, was successful 600,000 signatures in a few days. Since last spring, various religious, cultural and scientific groups have asked that no more arms be shipped to Kiev, not for a Ukrainian surrender but to facilitate peace negotiations. The historian is the sponsor of the most recent open letter Peter BrandtSon of the legendary German Chancellor Willie Brandt. Under the historian’s appeal are the signatures of the union world and leaders of the Social Democratic Party.
The legacy of the two world wars, the shame for atrocities of the crimes committed, the subsequent occupation and division of the country established in the Germans the conviction of which pacifism should be proud. However, the contradiction is clearly visible. Huge ones are housed on German territory US military bases that offer protection and a nuclear shield. From 1945 Berlin retained its neutrality Wars in the Balkans. Then there was Afghanistan and the missions of the Blue Helmets. There armed forces, German army, was nicknamed the broken army, army in pieces. Old weapons, useless vehicles, even uniforms are missing.
Governments have succeeded one another, but no one has invested in it restructuring of the armed forces. The war in Ukraine changed a lot, if not everything. The Chancellor began a few days after the invasion Olaf Scholz creates a fund 100 billion euros for defense. Despite the announcements, almost nothing has been done in more than a year and these funds are still intact.
Civil society continues to hold back. THE Survey They show that the Germans are afraid of the war spreading. Inside the Protestant church there is a strong pressure for one diplomatic solution: “We will be more resourceful – said the bishop in an interview Frederick Kramer – than simply continuing to use weapons to foment a war that will cost thousands, hundreds of thousands of lives.” The bishop received sharp criticism: “May he never get into a situation – according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine – in which the smug inaction of others could be his could death penalty“.