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'Never again is now!
Schongau is colorful!': 1,400 people took part in the demonstration on Sunday.
© Ellenberger
Schongau – 'Never again is now!
Schongau is colorful!'
was written on the large banner that led the demonstration around the old town on Sunday.
After he had been at the demonstration against right-wing extremism and racism in Munich the weekend before, Moritz Poppler immediately registered a demo for Schongau and prepared it with a few other young people.
When it started at 2:30 p.m., according to the Schongau police, who secured the demonstration with ten officers under the direction of Herbert Kieweg, there were around 1,400 participants.
“We want to demonstrate peacefully together here,” said Poppler right at the beginning.
Hate slogans have no place here.
During the speech of a young man who, in his own words, was not from Schongau and who did not want to give his name to the district messenger, he took the opportunity not only to turn against right-wing radicals and the AfD, but also against democratic parties, even to the point of denouncing them by name Federal and state politicians.
Afterwards, SPD mayor Falk Sluyterman and Schongau's Green board member, city and district councilor Bettina Buresch, summarized their opinion on this contribution in a small discussion group: "Contributions like this help the AfD," Sluyterman let him know.
Ultimately, all Democrats have to stick together here.
After the demonstration procession led the line of people back to Marienplatz via the Ballenhaus, the Frauentor, the Frauentorweg, Marktoberdorfer Straße, Bahnhofstraße and Münztor, further speeches followed.
“Be proud of what we can actively help shape”
Councilor Tobias Fuhrmann (SPD) spoke there first.
He questioned whether it was justified to be proud of one's homeland, although it seemed "as if pride in one's origins were more of a coincidence."
It could therefore make much more sense to “be proud of the values and achievements of our country, which we can actively shape” and to ensure that this pride is based on values such as tolerance, respect and humanity.
City councilor Esra Böse (Greens) introduced the event with the words “Never again is now”.
It was a reminder of the “Day of Remembrance of the Victims of National Socialism” celebrated the day before, on January 27th.
In the face of terrible atrocities, one must “learn for the future”.
It is therefore important that “all of us” stop the shift to the right and constantly fight “for respectful interaction, diversity, humanity, solidarity” and thus “against xenophobia, against discrimination and against right-wing radicalism”.
Over 75 nations formed Schongau society and made the city colorful.
City councilor Greogar Schuppe also described the demo as “really important”.
Addressing AfD voters, he said: “Only the stupidest calves choose their own slaughterers.”
By pointing out that he does not believe that “racist laws are being passed in the Bundestag,” he expressly distanced himself from the first speech of the day.
A statement that received a lot of applause. “Either you go or I go,” he said firmly when a sign with an inscription that puts a democratic party in a corner with the AfD was placed near the speaker.
“How long do you have to live in a country to be able to say 'I belong'?
How long before I can say that I am a citizen of this country?” She asks herself this question again and again, said Hava Sirin from the Turkish-Islamic community of Schongau.
In her eyes, “the events of the last few months and recently the exposure of the politicians’ meeting” have “brought the camel’s back to the last straw.”
The idea of deporting millions of people who have contributed to the country's prosperity makes it clear what the populists involved really want - namely "back to the dark times, back to the times of racial madness."
Together we stand for a world in which hate and extremism find no room.
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“The world is colorful, thank God”
“The world is colorful, thank God,” the Protestant pastor Julia Steller said afterwards.
For almost 20 years, this has been the motto of the Protestant youth in Bavaria to “stand up against racism, against extremism, against right-wing radicalism and xenophobia”.
She continued: “Hate is not an opinion, not an attitude and hate is certainly not a solution.”
Rather, diversity is an enrichment and freedom is precious.
Felix Schimke-Klubuk came to address the participants.
He moved to the Ukraine ten years ago and came to Weilheim two years ago with his wife Myroslava because of the Russian invasion at the time, and he had bought an apartment there years ago, which he had temporarily rented out as a shared apartment.
It was important to him to tell “a few things that happened to us here”.
“Society and democracy threatened by extremism”
One of the residents was dark-skinned, whereupon residents tried to go to court to “enforce that I had to rent to ‘normal people’”.
A legal opinion that the regional court of course did not share.
Nevertheless, it was shocking to him “that someone seriously tried to enforce such a racist view of humanity through the courts.”
The success in court did not end the whole thing and defamations and threats continued unhindered.
When a dentist from Yemen was looking for a place to stay, the defamations in the house started again and “ultimately culminated in a swastika that was daubed on the door.”
Despite immediately removing it, it was “back the next day.”
And when Schimke-Klubik wanted to hold an exhibition for Jewish-Bavarian art, he was unable to open it because it seemed too risky to him after “two smashed windows and an illegal graffiti on the house wall.”
As a result, after some photo prints of corresponding works of art were displayed in a shop, there was further damage to property and anti-Semitic slogans.
Now it's no longer just individual people who are threatened by extremism, but rather society as a whole and democracy itself. The war in Ukraine taught him that "everyone who is not my enemy is actually my friend," no matter what other differences of opinion you have.