Rally on Anti-War Day ‘Against War – Solidarity with Ukraine’ on 1 September 2023
Speeches at the rally:
Speech by Eckart Conze, Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Philipps University of Marburg
Kidnapped children. Children who have lost their parents. Children who have been killed. Children as victims of war. Anyone following the news from Ukraine cannot help but think of Bertolt Brecht’s poem ‘The Children’s Crusade,’ written in 1941. It begins as follows:
In Poland, in the year thirty-nine
There was a bloody battle
That had turned many towns and villages
Into a wilderness.
A sister lost her brother
A woman lost her husband in the army;
Between fire and ruins
A child could no longer find its parents
The war that haunted Brecht is back in Europe. A war of aggression. A war of annihilation.
For the first time since the Second World War. More than eight decades after it began on 1 September 1939. The unimaginable has become a bloody, cruel and disturbing reality. Horrific images – Bucha, Irpin, Mariupol – horrific images shock us. They take our breath away and leave us speechless. They leave us stunned.
Europe’s bloody past has caught up with us. The past of violence, destruction and terror is not over. It has become the present again. This, too, is part of the epochal break of 24 February 2022. A new era has begun for Europe and Germany, for us as Europeans and Germans. A new era, but one that includes the return of a past we thought we had overcome. This is how history and the present are linked, and we are particularly aware of this on 1 September.
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The full text of the speech can be found here.
Speech by Hubert Kleinert, spokesperson for the Zeitenwende Marburg initiative:
I am Hubert Kleinert, spokesperson for the Zeitenwende Marburg initiative, and I would like to welcome you all here on behalf of the co-organisers of this event. The co-organisers are the Marburg Green Party, the Marburg SPD, the Marburg CDU, the FDP, the Protestant Church, the Marburg Jewish Community, the German-Ukrainian association Hand in Hand, Pulse of Europe and the Young European Federalists.
We have gathered here to remember that terrible day 84 years ago when the Second World War began with the German invasion of Poland. This war, unleashed by the National Socialist regime of violence, claimed the lives of around 65 million people by 1945 – soldiers and civilians alike. Twenty-seven million Soviet citizens alone lost their lives, along with around ten million Germans and six million Poles. At least six million Jews fell victim to the Nazis’ racist genocidal mania. And for hundreds of millions, this war meant destruction, hunger, misery and the loss of their homes.
The memory of this greatest military catastrophe in recent human history and of the horrific machinery of extermination of National Socialism still reminds us today to strive for peace. It reminds us to do everything in our power to ensure that such a thing can never happen again. It reminds us to work together peacefully as peoples. It urges us to reject racism, nationalism and chauvinism. And it urges us to condemn war as a means of politics. War must never again be accepted as the continuation of politics by other means. That is why we are here. We stand for peace. And we stand for the peaceful reconciliation of interests through political means.
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The full text of the speech can be found here.
Call for a rally:
Against the war – Solidarity with Ukraine
On 1 September 1939, Germany’s invasion of Poland marked the beginning of the Second World War. The war unleashed by the National Socialist regime of violence claimed some 65 million lives by 1945 – soldiers and civilians alike. Twenty-seven million citizens of the former Soviet Union lost their lives, including 13 million soldiers of the Red Army. Nearly ten million Germans were killed. Six million Jews fell victim to the Nazis’ racist genocidal fanaticism. And for hundreds of millions of survivors, this war meant destruction, hunger, hardship and misery, the loss of their homes and their livelihoods. And grief for the loss of loved ones.
The memory of this greatest military catastrophe in human history still reminds us today of the importance of peace. It reminds us to do everything in our power to ensure that such a thing can never happen again. It reminds us to work together peacefully and to reject war as a means of politics. And it reminds us to reject racism, nationalism and chauvinism.
But this day also reminds us of our solidarity with the victims of military aggression. In the 84th year since Germany’s invasion of Poland, we in Europe are once again confronted with the return of war. On 24 February 2022, Russia launched an open war of aggression against a sovereign neighbour, Ukraine. This unprovoked attack is not only unique in post-war European history. It is also a fatal reminder of the Nazi regime’s invasion of Poland in 1939. For the first time since 1945, a European state is attempting to destroy the existence of another independent state by military force and to shift borders by force. The reasons given for this criminal war of aggression are absurd. When Russian war propaganda claims that the aim is to eliminate a ‘Nazi’ system in Ukraine, it insults the historical memory of the struggle against the National Socialist regime of terror and the victims in the former Soviet Union. These victims include millions of Ukrainians. During the first half of the 20th century, Ukraine was the country in Europe most ravaged by brutal violence. Today, this is once again the case.
The war in Ukraine has claimed tens of thousands of lives to date – soldiers and civilians alike. Millions of people have been forced to flee their homes. With the Russian military in Ukraine, the horrors of war have returned to Europe.
As a victim of Russian aggression, Ukraine has the right to self-defence. It is exercising this right resolutely and effectively. But we have a moral and political obligation to stand by the victim of aggression and provide effective support.
In this case, effective support means not only providing Ukraine with moral, political, economic and humanitarian support. It also means providing military assistance.
The desire for peace and the imperative to provide effective support to the victims of a war of aggression are not easy to reconcile. Western weapons also kill. That is why we do not find it easy to agree to arms deliveries. But Ukraine’s defence must be successful because the logic of violence must not triumph over the law and the principle of peaceful cooperation. That is why our support for Ukraine must continue. Including military support. If Western democracies did not provide this military support, Ukraine would probably no longer exist as a sovereign state.
We want this war to end soon, we want death, violence and destruction to stop. We are counting on Ukraine being strong enough to force Russia to agree to a negotiated peace that is acceptable to Ukraine, secures its state sovereignty and integrity, and provides sufficient security guarantees for the future.
The war in Ukraine is particularly in the spotlight because it is a war of aggression reminiscent of the imperialist wars of conquest of past centuries and directly affects our own security interests. However, on this day, we must not forget the many other wars and violent conflicts around the world – in Syria, Congo, Yemen, Haiti and many other places on earth. The International Red Cross estimates that there will be over 100 violent conflicts in 2023.
Anti-War Day on 1 September reminds us all of the horrors of war. It urges us not to slacken in our efforts to promote peace and non-violent conflict resolution. But it also obliges us to show solidarity with the victims of military aggression. On 1 September 2023, being against war also means standing in solidarity with the people of Ukraine who are defending their freedom and self-determination.
That is why we are calling on the people of Marburg to come to the rally on 1 September 2023 at 5 p.m. on the market square. Send a message: Against war – solidarity with Ukraine!
Zeitenwende Marburg
Bündnis 90/Die Grünen Marburg
Die Marburger SPD
CDU Marburg
FDP Marburg
Evangelischer Kirchenkreis Marburg
Jüdische Gemeinde Marburg
Deutsch-ukrainischer Verein MAVKA
Pulse of Europe
Junge Europäische Föderalist:innen