Pledge

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Gelöbnix demonstration in front of the Foreign Office in Berlin 2012

Under the name GelöbNix! Various anti-militarist , pacifist , radical left and autonomous groups protest against the public pledge of the Bundeswehr in Berlin, which has been taking place annually since 1996 (with the exception of 1997 and 1998) . The term is now used nationwide for demonstrations and actions against vows (for example in Hamburg ).

The protest is aimed on the one hand against the Bundeswehr in general and developments perceived as militarization and, since 1999, also specifically against July 20 as the date and the Bendler Block (today's seat of the Federal Ministry of Defense , but also the former seat of important Wehrmacht offices ) as the place for the pledge. Opponents of the pledge criticize the attempt to place the Wehrmacht in an anti-National Socialist tradition to which the Bundeswehr could refer positively.

The protests in 1999 caused a nationwide sensation when 15 demonstrators ran across the meeting place with media coverage, showing, among other things, umbrellas with the inscription " TUCHOLSKY HAT RECHT" (an allusion to the famous quote " Soldiers are murderers ") and only after a few minutes removed them from police officers were.

Chronology of the newer vow disturbances in Berlin

1996
When making a vow at Charlottenburg Palace , demonstrators disrupted the event with whistles and broke the police chain.
1998
In front of the Red City Hall , individual demonstrators were able to penetrate the auditorium. A whistle concert began when the vow was spoken. At the demonstration in Spandauer Strasse, the later Federal Environment Minister Jürgen Trittin , as a rally speaker, expressed his solidarity with the critics of the pledge for the last time.
1999
For the first time, the vow took place on the grounds of the Bendlerblock. With the relocation of the event to the premises of the Federal Ministry of Defense, on the one hand, the interference-free state act was to be ensured. On the other hand, by electing the Bendler Block , which was the site of the execution of the Hitler assassins around Beck and Stauffenberg in 1944, the Federal Government wanted to place the German military in the tradition of these resistance fighters from the ranks of the Wehrmacht. Despite strong security precautions, the vow was disrupted to the public. While there were loud protests against the vow within earshot, around 20 critics in the Bendlerblock itself disrupted the vow ceremony. The troublemakers "tore their clothes off" and sometimes carried umbrellas, with the inscription Tucholsky is right - an allusion to Kurt Tucholsky's saying soldiers are murderers .
2000
In front of the Julius Leber barracks in Berlin , demonstrators set up a mobile living room, temporarily preventing the pledge guests from passing to the Bendlerblock.
2001
Two activists pretended to be the daughters of the then Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping and drove in a rented limousine from the luxury hotel Adlon to the Bendlerblock. Despite the lack of an invitation, they were able to pass all checkpoints. In the Bendlerblock they chained themselves to a fence and disrupted the ceremony with alarm sirens.
2002
Ten activists were hiding in the basement of the vacant Greek embassy adjacent to the Bendler block. They wanted to disturb from the roof of the building during the swearing-in ceremony. A few hours before the event, they were discovered by security forces.
2003
After the vow ceremony began, more than 20 people tried to overcome the safety barriers at the Bendlerblock from the zoo . They had previously grilled in the zoo or were disguised as joggers. At the same time, three activists protested the vow from the roof of the embassy of the United Arab Emirates .
2004
After 1999, despite the strong security measures, protesters succeeded for the first time in disrupting the vow on the grounds of the Bendlerblock. While the soldiers were speaking the pledge, two activists ran from the press box to the pledge square and competed with the police officers.
Police officers cordoned off the area around the public vow in Berlin in 2008
2008
For the first time in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bundeswehr recruits made their vows in front of the Berlin Reichstag .
2009
A few weeks before the promised pledge, a flyer was circulating calling for violence against members of the Bundeswehr. The demonstration of the “Gelöbnix” alliance was banned by the police because of “clear intentions to disturb”, as were three other demonstrations against the ban. 1500 police officers were deployed to secure the event and hermetically sealed off the venue.
More years
In the following years, the Gelöbnix demonstrations in Berlin were formed from several hundred participants.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.nadir.org/nadir/aktuell/2004/07/08/24677.html Call of the organization Antifaschistische Linke Berlin
  2. ↑ a b c d http://www.neues-deutschland.de/artikel/152471.geloebnix-demo-bleibt-verboten.html
  3. ↑ PA_FOC: Germany: "Trittin was never a pacifist". In: Focus Online . June 29, 1998. Retrieved October 14, 2018 .
  4. ↑ ddp / cn: Bundeswehr: Radicals want to beat up soldiers when they vow. In: welt.de . July 17, 2009, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  5. ↑ http://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/Bundeswehr-Gewalt-Geloebnis%3Bart270,2837615
  6. ↑ Protest against the German Armed Forces - police slow down Gelöbnix , TAZ from July 16, 2009
  7. ↑ Gelöbnix out of earshot Martin Kröger in Neues Deutschland, accessed July 21, 2009
  8. ↑ Thorsten Jungholt: Bundeswehr: 400 recruits take solemn pledge. In: welt.de . July 20, 2009, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Report from GelöbNIX 2012 on de, indymedia.org, accessed July 23, 2012