People demonstrated for peace at traditional Easter marches in dozens of cities and municipalities across Germany on Saturday. According to the Friedenskooperative network, events took place in over 70 cities, including Berlin, Bremen, Munich, Duisburg, Leipzig, and Stuttgart. The number of participants remained moderate: in Stuttgart, around 3,000 people gathered for the Easter march according to police figures, about 1,600 in Berlin, and 300 in Duisburg.
Participation was at similar levels to the previous year, said Kristian Golla from the Friedenskooperative network to news agency AFP. This year's Easter marches focused on the ongoing wars in the Middle East and Ukraine. The peace movement is calling on the federal government to pursue diplomatic initiatives to end the wars.
The Easter marches are also directed against rearmament in Germany and against a return to military conscription. At events in several cities, school students themselves wanted to speak about the conscription debate. The Friedenskooperative network therefore anticipated higher participation from young people this year.
While the first events already took place on Thursday and Friday, Saturday was the main day for the traditional Easter marches. Only isolated events are planned for Easter Sunday, but around 30 more are scheduled for Monday, including in Dresden and Hamburg.
"It is important that so many people take to the streets for peace," Golla stated. The issues are not becoming fewer, quite the contrary: "In nearly 40 years of Easter march work, I have never experienced such a large number of crises in the world at Easter time."
The Easter marches of the peace movement are traditionally organized decentrally in Germany. The events in different cities accordingly operate under different mottos. The Easter march in Berlin took place under the slogan "War-ready and capable of victory? Dismantling the welfare state? UN Charter in the trash? Not in our name!" In Munich it was "International law instead of the law of the jungle - Together for peace and justice!" and in Dresden "Refuse wars - create peace."
The Easter marches in Germany have been taking place since the 1960s. They recorded their highest turnout in the 1980s during the Cold War, when hundreds of thousands of people participated. In recent years, mobilization has been significantly lower.
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