Berlin Anti-NATO Rally Draws 50,000 People, a Complete Success

Feb. 25, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—The Berlin “Rebellion for Peace” rally was a complete success. At the beginning, the police set participation at 5,000, then increased it to 13,000 at the end. German MP Sahra Wagenknecht (Linke), from the podium challenged police figures, saying that she knows what a crowd looks like and according to her there were at least 50,000 people. Whatever the figure is, it has the dimension of an emerging peace movement, as speakers said. People came from all over Germany, with many “Ossies” from the east states.

Among the speakers were actress Corinna Kirchhoff; longtime peace activist and educator, Hans-Peter Waldrich; Brig. Gen. Erich Vad (ret.), former adviser to Chancellor Merkel; Sahra Wagenknecht and journalist Alice Schwarzer, co-organizers of the rally.

At the very beginning, a greeting was broadcast from American economist Jeffrey Sachs, who in five minutes reviewed all the major crimes of the Global NATO war drive. He said that this week is not the anniversary of a year ago, when Russia began its military operation, but the “nine-year anniversary” of the wrongful toppling of the elected government of Ukraine in 2014.

Wagenknecht really electrified the crowd. Among other things, she addressed, and included all the people (except for the right-wing extremists) into the campaign for a new peace movement, which is now in the making. It is the German government that allies with followers of Stepan Bandera, the real right-winger, she said.

The crowd was very expressive, with thunderous applause for denunciations of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, and Free Democrat MP Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann. There was a clear anti-Green mood. You could feel that something is finally moving in Germany, because people do not want the present policy, and no longer feel represented by the government, and are expressing that.

The Schiller Institute had signs: Peace Means Development, Common Good Instead of War; Dona Nobis Pacem, and “Negotiate, Instead of Shooting” (“Verhandeln statt schießen” and “Reden statt schießen”). Altogether, some 2,100 BüSo leaflets were distributed, with the peace call by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, (in German) and the score of the peace canon “Dona Nobis Pacem”; and also our resolution “Leave NATO—For a New Security Architecture.” (in German) Hundreds of people took copies of the BüSo party newspaper.

The leaflets zipped out very quickly from the contingent of 12 volunteer activists and several core organizers, with many people very happy to see the signs and many taking photos of signs. People snatched leaflets out of the organizers’ hands, when they told people upfront: “No more weapons deliveries, Germany out of NATO, nor more war escalation. We must have a global security architecture.” One organizer wore a sign, “Peace through Development,” which rally-goers photographed three times. The activist was interviewed by a private Russian broadcaster.

The crowds streaming to the Brandenburg Gate from various directions did not seem to stop. The mood of people was happy and relieved to finally have the occasion to gather and to speak up. Rally-goers were calm, not hyperactive or aggressive.

Another sign that grabbed attention read “Pipelines Are Not To Be Bombed, Mr. Biden.” A big black-and-white sign in neat Chinese calligraphy said: “Many thanks to Mr. Wang Yi and the People’s Republic of China for the peace initiative in Ukraine. There can be peace in Europe only when the American occupation ends. The people of Europe do not want the United States to station missiles on European soil to threaten our friends in Russia and China. We want a trans-Eurasian friendship, not U.S. aggression.”