Before Schwarzer Wagenknecht rally: Transfiguration of history at Jagelzaun

2023-02-23T20:02:16.579Z

For the 68th time, peace activists are holding a vigil against guns at the Tornado base in Schleswig-Holstein. The small group demands an end to the war. They say: Ukraine can defend itself peacefully.

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“The calls are always for guns, guns, guns.

I don't hear anything about negotiations, not even from Ukraine.«

"Military defense is self-destruction."

»In a nuclear war we would have the arse card here in Germany.«

»And that's why I would like the Schleswig-Holstein solution.

But we also mentioned the Scottish solution here, for example.«

At the Schleswig air base, between Flensburg and Kiel: A small group of peace activists gather in front of discarded fighter jets – and under ones that are still working.

Georg Gerchen, Initiative "Abolish the German Armed Forces"

"But you can see what the military is like: a lot of noise and hot air."

The »Tactical Air Force Squadron 51« is one of the Bundeswehr's two Tornado locations.

Since 2015, the pacifists have come here to hold vigils.

Today is the 68th. The 15 participants are against combat drones, against espionage.

And most recently: against arms for Ukraine.

Georg Gerchen, Initiative »Abolish the German Armed Forces«

»Now we are talking about armored personnel carriers and Leopard tanks, the demands are for aircraft, long-range missiles, submarines, ships.«

Gottfried Müller, pacifist

“I think it's okay for people to flee the Ukraine, and I might even do it.
But then, here in safe Germany, demanding that weapons be sent to the Ukraine, where everything is being destroyed and people are being killed, I cannot understand that at all.«

Georg Gerchen, Initiative »Abolish the German Armed Forces«

»There are hardly any other opinions and if there are other opinions, like we do, then we are reviled and portrayed as naïve or pro-Russian or who knows what.«

Their only audience, here, far from the beaten path: soldiers and employees of the Bundeswehr base.

You already know each other.

Georg Gerchen, “Abolish the German Armed Forces” initiative

“This location has around 1,500 employees.
There's a shift change this afternoon.
They come over here..."

... but they don't stop either.

At the same time, the people with their vigil had suggestions as to how the war in Ukraine could be ended without weapons: by ending it, from both sides.

Birgit Conrad, peace activist

»One has reason and language, and that should be enough to negotiate.
With enough political will, it must be possible.«

Reporter:

So you're saying everything that existed before, the Minsk agreement, all the attempts at negotiation by the heads of state and government, who went to see Putin before the invasion.
That was all too half-hearted?”

Birgit Conrad, peace activist

»Too half-hearted, absolutely!
Yes.
Otherwise it would have worked.
Very easily.
Also from the German side.
All the inspections..."

Reporter:

"How does it feel for you now, standing under such a fighter jet?"

Birgit Conrad, peace activist

»Horrible!
War must be so terrible, so loud and so terrible.
Yes, and we're not even on the battlefield, we're just in Jagel."

The people of Schleswig-Holstein have one or two ideas from their own history as to how the Ukraine should defend itself against the Russian war of aggression instead.

For example the German-Danish War in 1864, after which - 60 years after the annexation by Prussia - the neighboring Danes got their land back and the two neighboring states guaranteed each other minority rights.

The Nazi attack on Denmark in 1940 is also intended to prove that Ukraine would do well to drop its arms today.