Speech OB 05.03.2012

The spoken word counts!

(Thoughts in the cellar)

The evening of 5 March 1945, it's war. For four and a half years already.
Air raid alert in Chemnitz!
The rising and falling of sirens fills the air above the city.
They sit tightly packed in the cellars of their houses. Women with their children. There are also men, but not too many.
The 16 to 60-year-olds have to replace the fallen in the Wehrmacht and Volkssturm. Millions had already lost their lives, supposedly for Germany.

The thoughts of the women in the cellars about their husbands, fathers and brothers hurt. Pain because of the news of death that had already arrived. Or the fear that the postman might still bring it.
Are the men still alive? Will I still be alive in an hour? What will happen to the children?

Thoughts in the cellar.

There is a swelling hum of aeroplanes in the air. It gets louder and louder. Death comes roaring horribly.
Those sitting there can feel it, the approaching disaster. Some are praying, some are crying, many are silent. They are all afraid.

Some think about why everything has come to this. Why the 11933 voted for the Nazis.

Thoughts in the basement.

Images of everyday life in a peaceful Chemnitz are in the mind. A longing arises.
Cafés, cinemas, theatres, shops, department stores, swimming pools, parks and, of course, many factories. A vibrant city that had a good reputation in the world.
The name Chemnitz stood for quality products. The city, a Saxon Manchester. Merchants, entrepreneurs, workers, yes, the 350,000 inhabitants of Chemnitz had that in common.
But even this city was now producing for the war machine. The Allies know that!

Thoughts are torn apart by the first impacts, coming ever closer. The ground trembles. This first blow hits a house in the street. When will it hit us?

Thoughts in the basement.

What was that about Manchester? In 1940, the name was written large in Chemnitz newspapers: "Germany's Luftwaffe brilliantly superior - New phase of the German air war against England" read the bold headlines on the front page.
The proud English industrial metropolis was engulfed in a hail of German bombs. Thousands died.
Manchester, Christmas 1940.

Chemnitz, 5 March 1945: aerial mines, high explosive bombs, incendiary bombs. An inferno breaks loose. Fear dominates the people.
It feels as if an earthquake is tearing open the whole earth.
It probably feels like the cellars of Stalingrad in August 1942, when German pilots reduced the entire city to rubble.

Thoughts in the cellar.

Stalingrad, my loved one died there and now maybe I have to die too, here in Chemnitz in the cellar of the house where we once lived happily. These are the thoughts of some women. For some it is the last of their lives. They die in the ruins of their city.

Dear people of Chemnitz,
Honourable Members of Parliament,
Today we commemorate the victims of the bombing of Chemnitz in 1944 and 1945. 5 March of the last year of the war is the occasion for our remembrance. On this day alone, over 2000 people lost their lives in the heaviest attacks on Chemnitz. The city lost its face.

67 years have passed. We have lived in peace ever since. The city has been rebuilt. In its centre, only a few buildings still remind us of the old Chemnitz.
Four generations have been born. The witnesses of that time are becoming fewer.

For those born after 1945, the question arises: How do we deal with the experiences that the witnesses have passed on to us?

There is no inherited guilt. Nor do any of our neighbouring countries impose such a burden on us.
The cities of Manchester and Stalingrad, now Volgograd, which were destroyed by German bombs, have long been twin cities of Chemnitz.
In the numerous meetings with citizens of these twin cities, this sad part of our shared history was of course also discussed. But there are no reproaches. On the contrary. The wonderful hospitality experienced by the Chemnitz delegations, especially in Volgograd, is an example of the human greatness with which they should deal with the difficult historical legacy. This warmth is touching.
The people of Volgograd sometimes put us to shame.

• They are proud to be able to recite a poem by Heinrich Heine in German.
• Some of them study in our country.
• Many talk enthusiastically about their experiences travelling to Germany.
• And older people, some of whom have certainly not had an easy life, tell us Chemnitz residents that they have now forgiven those who once destroyed their city and wiped out the lives of their relatives. They also lay flowers on German graves.

Remembering and commemorating are not a self-image that should be limited to empty rituals. Remembering and commemorating requires true knowledge. Knowledge that makes it possible to place historical events in the context of that time in order to be able to judge them correctly.
We need this knowledge,

• so that we and our children can experience a future without wars.
• Hence today's day of remembrance, which already has a long tradition as Chemnitz Peace Day.
• Therefore, a clear yes to the development of a culture that is not backward-looking and enables a clear view of our history.

We need this knowledge in order to prevent any form of abuse of remembrance.
Hopefully many people from Chemnitz will follow the call for peaceful remembrance of the victims of the bombing of our city in the Second World War tonight. They are coming to show clearly: Chemnitz is our city - Nazis have no place here! Our city is cosmopolitan and tolerant.

I invite you, I call on you, to come to the Chemnitz Neumarkt this evening at 18:00. Bring your families, friends and neighbours.
Let's show together that Chemnitz is our city, where we don't want Nazis.

Because other people have also announced their presence. Neo-Nazis who want to victimise the victims of the Second World War for the second time.
They feign sympathy, they twist history with demagogy.
They are abusing our democracy's fundamental right to freedom of opinion and assembly with the clear aim of abolishing democracy.
Yesterday I had a meeting with Chemnitz rubble women, contemporary witnesses who experienced the war and the bombing of Chemnitz when they were still young women or children. They cleared the rubble. Today they are over 80 years old.
Their message to us: Never again war! Never again Nazis! Do everything to keep the peace!
Thank you all for coming.