Speech at the main event of the Chemnitz Peace Day on 5 March 2022

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear members of the Peace Day Working Group
Dear Mr Lottig

Dear people of Chemnitz,

First there was a distant humming sound. Then a deafening noise. Whistling, howling, roaring and banging. Illuminated horizon in the night, fireballs in the sky, heavy vibrations, walls shaking. The air raid sirens wail, tanks roll through the city, bullets crash into houses.

Mothers hastily wake their children, pack a few belongings into their bags and seek shelter in the underground metro stations. They pray that the walls will hold, that the ceilings will not collapse. A gruesome reality that is catching up with people these days.

These depressing images are not from the past. Although they are similar, I am not talking about 5 March 1945. No, they are a harsh description of the current situation in Ukraine.

[Salutation],

Rarely has the 5th of March, the Chemnitz Peace Day, been more significant than today.

What few would really have thought possible has materialised: Vladimir Putin is invading the whole of Ukraine. The Russian attack on a European country shocks us. We look on in shock and bewilderment at this breach of international law in Europe. When the shock subsides, anger sets in. Anger at the attacks, anger at a war on our continent on a scale and of a kind that we thought belonged to the past.

Vladimir Putin is attacking Ukraine with the concentrated military might of Russia, with missiles, cruise missiles, fighter jets, bombers and tanks. His tanks surround the cities, this warmonger fires missiles at blocks of flats, he lets the homes of countless people go up in smoke. He doesn't seem to care about the lives of innocent civilians.

People die in the hail of bombs, many are wounded. Desperate mothers weep for their dead children. Families for their loved ones. They all stand before the ruins of their existence. The scars of the survivors last a lifetime. Every victim is one too many.

Our sympathy and solidarity go out to the people of Ukraine. Just a few weeks ago, I met the mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, here in the town hall. We talked about Ukrainian doctors who are coming to Chemnitz for further training. We talked about the local transport plan and thought about student exchanges between the two cities. None of that matters any more.

Because now Ivan Fedorov and the citizens of his city are fighting for their country, their city and their lives. He is just one of the many faces of this war. But he and his citizens are particularly close to me because of the personal meeting. Absolutely unimaginable.

But it's not just an attack on Ukraine, it's an attack on the whole of Europe. An attack on democracy and peace in Europe.

This democratic asset must be protected. We must stand up for democracy and defend it against its enemies. We don't have to do this sometime. We must do it now.

[Salutation],

For 77 years, we have been remembering this 5th March, which was full of fear and destruction. We remember how bestially the war machine acted in the Second World War, how cruel the acts of violence of the National Socialists were, how our city was destroyed by the hail of bombs, how the future prospects of people and cities were shattered from one day to the next.

For twenty years now, this day has not just been a day of remembrance. 5 March is our day of peace. A day of reflection, against forgetting and against instrumentalisation. It is not only a day for the dead, but especially for the living. When we practise remembrance culture, it is never just about the past. It is about the future of our society.

Together with civil society, we want to put this terrible day in 1945 where it belongs. It is a terrible event whose origins must be known in order to recognise its consequences and repercussions. Combined with the idea of the future: we must keep the peace.

This applies not only to Chemnitz, but to Germany, Europe and the whole world.

In keeping with today's Peace Day programme and the connection to the Ice Magic, we will now see the Olympic freestyle skating of our honorary citizen of Chemnitz, Katarina Witt, on the big screen. It is original footage from the International Olympic Committee from 1994, in which she skated to the peace song "Tell me where the flowers are", which was dedicated to the people of the Bosnian war in 1994.

(The spoken word prevails)