From Hildburg Bruns
Only distance and wreath diplomacy will help. The difficult handling of the commemoration at the end of the Second World War.
On May 8th and 9th, 1,500 police officers are deployed around the three Soviet memorials. The police and courts had been fighting for bans for days. In the end, only the Ukrainian flag is allowed for Tuesday, the Russian no longer.
► Memorial Day Monday:
9 clock: German shepherd Haix (3.5) from Hamburg scans the area at the memorial in Schönholz with her explosive sniffing nose. Red and white barriers are set up widely, groups with civilians stroll inconspicuously along the graves of the 13,000 fallen.
Explosives detection dog Haix was specially fetched from Hamburg Photo: Hildburg Bruns
10 O `clock: Putin’s Ambassador Sergey Nechayev (69) and representatives from Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia bow to their wreaths. Most wear the Saint George ribbon on their lapels.
An old symbol of glory, which is currently also being directed against Ukraine. For May 9, administrative judges have banned it, at least in Tiergarten.
11 clock: Pankow Mayor Cordelia Koch (50, Greens) helps an employee of the Ukraine Embassy with the wreath of blue delphiniums and yellow chrysanthemums. The ambassador will not be seen this year, instead he was at the Neue Wache.
12 o’clock: The Berlin protocol has the wreaths rearranged – the companies hung them wrong. Above all, the wreath of the Federal Republic is placed one floor below – in front of the Pieta, no longer in front of the obelisk near the wreath of the Soviet Federation, Belarus, etc.
In front of the obelisk of the Schönholzer Heide memorial, the morning wreath row with federal wreath (3rd from left) near Kazakhstan, Russian Federation, Belarus Photo: Olaf Selchow
The midday formation a few steps down in front of the Pieta (from left): with wreaths from Brandenburg, Berlin, House of Representatives, Federal Government, Volksbund War Graves Commission, House of Representatives factions Photo: Olaf Selchow
13 o’clock: The governing Kai Wegner (50, CDU) and his deputy Franziska Giffey (45, SPD) come, arrange the loops of their wreaths next to the wreaths of Brandenburg and the federal government.
The governor Kai Wegner and Mayor Franziska Giffey (m) after the wreath-laying ceremony Photo: Olaf Selchow
What Wegner says about the confusion of flags: First both are banned, then both are allowed, now one is banned again? “The courts decided that, I don’t have to comment on that. I wish that we experience May 8th peacefully in this city.”
Lecturer Andreas Hopf (55) deliberately came to the memorial in Schönholz with the Ukrainian flag: “The majority of the liberators in 1945 came from Ukraine and Belarus. It was also Ukraine whose territory was devastated in World War II.” Photo: Olaf Selchow
► Continued Tuesday
11 a.m.: A demonstration begins in front of the Brandenburg Gate – the procession leads along Straße des 17. Juni to the Soviet War Memorial.