Well over 1,000 people demonstrated for peace in Berlin on Sunday and expressed their solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
In an elevator that started in front of the Russian embassy on Unter den Linden, the police spoke of “well over 1,000 participants”. Speeches by pro-European, Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and German initiatives were planned under the heading “Stop Putin – Stop the War”.
The Peter Weiss Foundation for Art and Politics called for a parallel demonstration “For your freedom and for our freedom!” on Bebelplatz. Svetlana Alexievich (Belarus) and Olga Tokarczuk (Poland) as well as Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru/Spain), winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature, were announced as participants on site or via connection, along with many other celebrities.
The call to the rally said: “We must not remain silent. We must support those who are attacked in word and deed. It’s not war just anywhere, it’s a two-hour flight from Berlin.”
The Eastern Europe historian Karl Schlögel spoke on stage, visibly moved, of a “new type of totalitarianism” in Russia under President Vladimir Putin. The former professor at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt an der Oder said literally: “Putin has led the country to a dead end and is evidently ready to drag it into the abyss.”
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The speakers included the former Federal Government Commissioner for Foreigners, Marieluise Beck (Greens). Hundreds followed the live stream of the rally on the Internet.