Franco Paselli Peace Prize
The Franco Paselli Peace Prize has been awarded annually since 1998 (with the exception of 2004, 2006 and 2012) by the International Peace School Bremen . With the Peace Prize named after Franco Paselli , the peace school based in Bremen - Vegesack regularly honors people, groups or projects who are particularly committed to the culture of remembrance and reconciliation between people of different cultures and origins.
Franco Paselli was the youngest victim of the Marzabotto massacre of Italian civilians during World War II . The baby, who was just over a month old, was murdered by the National Socialists on September 30, 1944 in Marzabotto , Italy .
International Peace School Bremen
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8b/Sedanplatz_07_%28retuschiert%29.jpg/220px-Sedanplatz_07_%28retuschiert%29.jpg)
The Bremen International Peace School is a project in the Gustav-Heinemann-Bürgerhaus in the Vegesack district of North Bremen and was founded in 1987. The idea for the foundation developed from the contacts between North Bremen's history and peace initiatives and the Italian municipality of Marzabotto, which had existed since 1985. The city, located in the Emilia-Romagna region near Bologna , suffered in particular from war and violence during the time of National Socialism and the rule of fascism in northern Italy . Employees of the community center, who have been investigating the traces of Nazi rule in their region with the help of contemporary witnesses since the early 1980s , sought, in conjunction with international contacts, to expand their encounter and educational work with the help of the Peace School. The model was u. a. the Peace School (Italian 'Scuola di Pace') "Fondazione Scuola di Pace di Monte Sole" in Marzabotto, which is located in the Parco Storico di Monte Sole (German: 'History Park Monte Sole ').
The Bremen International Peace School sees itself as a “place where generations and cultures meet”.
Since 1985 peace activists from the community of Marzabotto and the later International Peace School Bremen have been organizing international peace camps, seminars lasting several days and other exchange programs in Marzabotto in Italy or in Bremen.
Franco Paselli
Franco Paselli was born on August 20, 1944 as the son of Anna Naldi (1925–1944) and her husband Dante Paselli (1926–1944) in Marzabotto. His father came from the town and had been a resistance fighter in the partisan group " Stella Rossa " since June 1944 , which fought against the German occupation in the region on the Linea Gotica near Marzabotto . In a punitive action allegedly directed against these partisans, units of the German Wehrmacht and the 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Reichsführer SS" destroyed the entire region in and around Marzabotto between September 29 and October 1, 1944. They killed over 770 civilians, according to some sources over 1,800 people, mainly old men, women and children. The list of over 770 victims contains the names and dates of birth of 213 children under the age of 13, while adult men of military age are almost completely absent from the list.
In the massacre , Franco Paselli was shot dead by German soldiers on September 30, 1944 at the age of 40 days in the village of San Martino , part of Marzabotto . The large Paselli family had sought refuge in the settlement on the hills above Marzabotto in the summer of 1944 due to the increasing partisan war of the Germans against the Italian resistance , because they believed they were safer there. That was where Franco was born. During the massacre that lasted several days, nine other members of the Paselli family were murdered, including Franco's parents.
The war crimes committed by German soldiers and SS men in the Marzabotto massacre continued to accompany international relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and Italy long after the end of the war. According to SS people, the victims of the massacre were “bandits and gang helpers”.
Peace prize
The awarding of the Franco Paselli Peace Prize by the Bremen International School of Peace usually takes place in the Vegesack community center - in front of the local monument to the unknown deserter . The winners, in addition to a certificate of honor with a custom crane - Sculpture honored as a peace symbol. The prize was initially endowed with 500 German marks and has since been undoped. It has been awarded annually since 1998, with the exception of 2004, 2006 and 2012, in which no peace prize was awarded.
The crane as a symbol of the peace movement goes back to the origami cranes of the Japanese atomic bomb victim Sadako Sasaki . In Germany it serves as a symbol of peace for the Berlin children's and youth ensemble SADAKO and, with its consent, was adopted by the Bremen International School of Peace. The small crane sculpture, with which the winners of the Peace Prize are honored, is based on a design by the Bremen sculptor Fritz Stein († 2003) for a metal sculpture of the crane symbol from 1998. At that time Fritz Stein had won an art competition at the Peace School, in which "the best design idea for the crane as a symbol of peace was sought". Since 2001 there has been a large metal sculpture of the crane symbol in front of the entrance to the Gustav Heinemann community center on Kirchheide, which was made by members of the metal workshop in the community center based on Stein's design. Also in 2001 Fritz Stein, who u. a. designed various memorials for victims of National Socialism and was also a member of the board of trustees of the International Peace School Bremen, honored with the Peace Prize - together with the citizens of the Marzabotto community in Italy.
The previous crane sculptures for the individual peace prizes were each individually designed by the following artists, sometimes jointly: Horst Gollek, Klaus Siegert, Klaus Schiesewitz and above all Adolf Ebner (see details in the list of previous honors). The little crane is made of metal and "is folded in the origami style as if it were made of paper". A small natural stone or hard-fired clinker is used as the base, to which the crane sculpture is attached in an individual form with metal wires or finally with barbed wire.
Honors
- 1998
- Peace initiative Mladi Most (German 'House of Encounters') in Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina
- (Sculpture designed by Horst Gollek)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Klaas_Touber_Foto_KB_A20407_im_Bunker_bFarge_1995-2.jpg/150px-Klaas_Touber_Foto_KB_A20407_im_Bunker_bFarge_1995-2.jpg)
- 1999
- Klaas Touber , former inmate of the Farge labor education camp
- (Sculpture designed by Horst Gollek)
- 2000
- Rolf Rübsam , teacher and local researcher, Bremen; and
- André Migdal , former inmate of the Neuengamme concentration camp / Farge subcamp , survived the death march in April 1945
- (Sculptures designed by Adolf Ebner)
- 2001
- Citizen of the city of Marzabotto in Italy; and
- Fritz Stein, sculptor, Bremen; designed u. a. the memorial extermination through labor for the victims of the construction of the Farge submarine bunker
- (Sculptures designed by Klaus Siegert)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1e/Ewald_Hanstein_1995_%28cropped%29.jpg/150px-Ewald_Hanstein_1995_%28cropped%29.jpg)
- 2002
- Ewald Hanstein , former state chairman of the Association of German Sinti and Roma in Bremen, surviving prisoner a. a. in the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp ; and
- Rainer Habel (post mortem), former state chairman of the Working Group of Formerly Persecuted Social Democrats (AvS) in Bremen
- (Sculptures designed by Klaus Siegert and Adolf Ebner)
- 2003
- Amicale Belge de Neuengamme , inmate association of former inmates of the Neuengamme concentration camp from Belgium; and
- Peace initiative North Bremen citizens against the war
- 2004: Peace Prize was not awarded
- 2005
- Ursula Kongi, for the Marzabotto Circle of Friends in Bremen
- (Sculpture designed by Klaus Schiesewitz)
- 2006: Peace Prize was not awarded
- 2007
- Klaus Volland, Head of the Sandbostel Documentation Center and Deputy Chairman of the Sandbostel Documentation and Memorial Association e. V .; and
- Anna Dainesi, survivor of the German war crimes in October 1944 in Marzabotto, Italy
- (Sculptures designed by Adolf Ebner)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d9/Portr%C3%A4t_Ernst_Uhl_%28retouched%29.jpg/150px-Portr%C3%A4t_Ernst_Uhl_%28retouched%29.jpg)
- 2008
- 2009
- Robert Milbradt and Eike Hemmer, former works councilors of the Bremen steelworks , founders of a company history group and authors of documentations about the construction of the submarine bunker Hornisse and the fate of forced laborers at what was then the North German hut
- (Sculptures designed by Adolf Ebner)
- 2010
- The group of colleagues at the works council of the Bremen steel works
- (Sculpture designed by Adolf Ebner)
- 2011
- Vocational students, teachers and masters from the school center on Alwin-Lonke-Straße in Bremen, contributors to the public laying of stumbling blocks for the victims of fascism in Bremen as well as artistic and structural design of the stone of hope at the Rosen Memorial for the victims of fascism in the Nazi camps on the Bahrsplate in Bremen-Blumenthal
- (Sculpture designed by Adolf Ebner)
- 2012: Peace Prize was not awarded
- 2013
- Wiltrud Ahlers, long-term commitment to public remembrance and honor of the victims of the Nazi system in Bremen, especially in connection with the laying of stumbling blocks
- (Sculpture designed by Adolf Ebner)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f0/Ludwig_Baumann%2C_2014_%2801%29.jpg/150px-Ludwig_Baumann%2C_2014_%2801%29.jpg)
- 2014
- Ludwig Baumann , long-term commitment to the public rehabilitation and honoring of the deserters of the Nazi system
- (Sculpture designed by Adolf Ebner)
- 2015
- Raimund Gaebelein, state chairman of the Association of Victims of the Nazi Regime - Association of Antifascists (VVN-BdA) in Bremen, long-term commitment to public education and honor of resistance fighters against fascism as well as for the public remembrance and honor of victims of the Nazi regime
- (Sculpture designed by Adolf Ebner)
- 2016
- Baracke 27 initiative in the Association of History Trail Lagerstraße / U-Boot-Bunker Valentin e. V .; Documentation and memorial site in Schwanewede - Neuenkirchen ; and
- Initiative Barrack Wilhelmine in Heimatverein Neuenkirchen e. V .; Documentation and learning location in Schwanewede-Neuenkirchen
- (Sculptures designed by Adolf Ebner)
- 2017
- Gabriele Jannowitz-Heumann, head of the Osterholz district archive in Osterholz-Scharmbeck
- (Sculpture designed by Klaus Schiesewitz)
Web links
- Franco Paselli Peace Prize on the website of the Bremen International School of Peace
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b la storia di Franco Paselli. La memoria della Resistenza in San Donato. In: filorossomemoria.it. Retrieved September 7, 2017 (Italian).
- ^ A b Paselli Franco. Storia e Memoria di Bologna. In: memoriadibologna.comune.bologna.it. Retrieved September 7, 2017 (Italian).
- ^ A b Franco Paselli Peace Prize. In: friedensschule-bremen.de. International Peace School Bremen, accessed on October 25, 2017 .
- ^ A b Volker Kölling: Wiltrud Ahlers excellent. Franco Paselli Peace Prize. In: weser-kurier.de. Weser-Kurier , May 11, 2013, accessed on September 7, 2017 .
- ↑ (wel): Peace Prize for Mladi Most. Certificate and crane presented . In: The North German . May 5, 1998, p. 1 .
- ^ Nicole Koch: Klaas Touber received the Franco Paselli Prize. International friendship festival on the Bahrsplate . In: The North German . May 4, 1999, p. 1 .
- ↑ Michael Brandt: Entirely under the sign of the crane. Peace prize for Rolf Rübsam and Andre Migdal / sculpture in front of the community center . In: The North German . May 8, 2000, p. 1 .
- ↑ Marina Köglin: Award for art in the service of peace. The “Franco Paselli” peace prize, endowed with 500 marks, was awarded to the artist Fritz Stein on Sunday . In: The North German . May 8, 2001, p. 1 .
- ↑ Gabriela Keller: New ways of education for peace. Conference in Vegesack / concert in the bunker / prizes were awarded . In: The North German . May 7, 2002, p. 1 .
- ^ Manfred Wurthmann: Acknowledgment for Belgian prisoners and people from Northern Bremen. Friedensschule presented two Franco Paselli prizes on the Bahrsplate . In: The North German . May 5, 2003, p. 1 .
- ↑ Wiebke Stegmann: Changing the world in small steps. Events for the 60th anniversary of the liberation . In: The North German . May 9, 2005, p. 5 .
- ↑ Sylvia Wörmke: Resistance for a lifetime. Wehrmacht deserter Ludwig Baumann awarded the Franco Paselli Peace Prize. In: weser-kurier.de. Die Norddeutsche, December 18, 2014, accessed on September 7, 2017 .
- ↑ Volker Kölling: Award for memorial work. Gaebelein receives Franco Paselli Peace Prize . In: Weser Courier / District Courier West . December 18, 2015, p. 6 ( digital version [PDF; 140 kB ; accessed on September 7, 2017]). Digitized version ( memento of the original from August 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.