Vigil

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First vigil in Germany (1958)
Vigil for Peace (USA 2012)

A vigil is a peaceful demonstration to draw attention to a situation that is perceived as a social maladministration. These are usually long-term, mostly silent projects by groups. This form of demonstration is one of the 198 methods of nonviolent action. The term goes back to the English vigil and was "invented" in 1958 by the young glazier Jürgen Grimm in the Action Group for Nonviolence . As early as 1917, a multi-week silent vigil was carried out by the women's rights movement in Washington / USA .

Vigils often remind of sad events and take place in a quiet atmosphere. Nevertheless, they are politically motivated or go public , which distinguishes them from a funeral event.

history

Beginnings of German vigils

The first German vigil took place in the early summer of 1958 in front of the Hamburg City Hall following the largest demonstration in post-war history, organized by the DGB / SPD committee "Combat atomic death", with well over 120,000 participants. Through them, the small Hamburg Action Group against Nonviolence (members of the WRI) protest 14 days and nights against the planned nuclear weapons. WRI activists April Carter and Pat Arrowsmith from England and WRI Council member Bayard Rustin from the USA came to this vigil .

Vigils in the GDR

Vigils became a decisive form of protest against the policies of the SED in the late 1980s. When the Ministry of State Security arrested employees of the East Berlin Environmental Library in November 1987 , GDR opposition members protested within a few hours with an uninterrupted vigil at the Zion Church until all those arrested were released. The vigil was defamed in the GDR media.

After demonstrators were arrested on September 11, 1989 at the Nikolaikirchhof in Leipzig , among them the civil rights activist Katrin Hattenhauer (see also Peaceful Revolution (Leipzig) ), a constant vigil began on October 2, 1989 at the Gethsemane Church in East Berlin , which soon became a focal point of the Peaceful Revolution . The release of the "wrongly imprisoned" as well as freedom of the press and freedom of expression were called for .

Vigil against the Stuttgart 21 rail project

After 2000

Vigils take place against racist murders or war , for example . For example:

  • 2005 the vigil for Hatun Sürücü , who was murdered by her youngest brother after she tried to oppose a forced marriage .
  • The Leipzig vigil for two engineers kidnapped in Iraq at the end of January 2006 from a Saxon plant construction company, which the Nikolaikirche pastor Christian Führer had helped initiate and which he maintained until the two men were released in early May.
  • At the G8 summit in Heiligendamm 2007 , vigils were set up near the fence, but only a maximum of 50 people were allowed to linger.
  • In the second half of 2007, Sascha Weiss organized vigils to draw attention to the fate of his underage brother Marco . He had been held in custody in Turkey for months without any significant progress in the proceedings against him. Ultimately, he was released unconditionally and was able to return to his homeland.
  • As part of the resistance against the Stuttgart 21 rail project , a vigil has been held at Stuttgart Central Station since July 17, 2010 . First for 2 weeks on the north wing, then at the north exit of the station, since April 28, 2012 on the corner of Arnulf-Klett-Platz and Königstraße. It has been staffed continuously and around the clock since the beginning. On August 15, 2020, this vigil celebrated its reopening after a few months of the Corona crisis -related forced break, in addition to the 10th anniversary four weeks earlier. The result of 29 January 2019 satirical program The Institute brought a tribute to this vigil: "You have achieved nothing you've just right Nothing else [...] Yes, you have the experts [...] Hang on, because.... you haven't achieved anything yet. "
  • As a result of the Tōhoku earthquake in 2011 and the associated nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, vigils for the shutdown of the German nuclear power plants took place in Germany on March 14 in more than 450 locations nationwide .
  • Since 2014 there has been a vigil for peace in Germany , at which observers criticized anti-American , anti-Semitic , right-wing extremist and ideological tendencies towards conspiracies .
  • 2015: After the terrorist attacks on Charlie Hebdo in front of the main guard in Frankfurt under the motto Je suis Charlie and a similar vigil called Je suis juif initiated by the German Jewish fellow citizen and lawyer Elishewa Patterson , chairwoman of the Jewish cultural association Ostend ( Frankfurt am Main ).
  • Since 2017, Europe-wide events for grazing animals have been taking place, which gather around warning and solidarity fires and call for the introduction of active wolf management .

Individual evidence

  1. Gene Sharp: From Dictatorship to Democracy - A Guide to Liberation . Munich 2008, p. 102
  2. a b Journal of Nonviolent Action: Quarterly Issues for Peace and Justice , 29th year, 2nd quarter 1997, issue 111/112. ISSN  0016-9390 , p. 66
  3. ^ Robert Cooney, Helen Michalowski (eds.): The Power of the People: Active Nonviolence in the United States . Culver City, California 1977, p. 58
  4. ^ Karl A. Otto : From Easter March to APO - History of the Extra-Parliamentary Opposition in the Federal Republic 1960-70 . Frankfurt 1977, p. 71
  5. Photos from the Zionskirche vigil on jugendopposition.de, viewed on March 2, 2017.
  6. ^ The editor-in-chief of Junge Welt put activists of the vigil on par with neo-Nazis on jugendopposition.de, viewed on August 9, 2010.
  7. See also Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk : Endgame. The 1989 revolution in the GDR. Munich 2009. ISBN 978-3-406-58357-5 . P. 171 f.
  8. Vigil at the Gethsemane Church on jugendopposition.de, viewed on August 9, 2010.
  9. ^ Call of the action group Mahnwache Berlin Gethsemanekirche on jugendopposition.de, viewed on August 9, 2010.
  10. http://g8-tv.org/index.php?play_id=1722
  11. http://www.hilfe-fuer-marco.de/
  12. Active parking guards: Press release: 7 years of permanent vigil against Stuttgart 21: Hats off! Retrieved July 17, 2017 .
  13. Petra Mostbacher-Dix: A halberd for the guards. In: Stuttgarter Zeitung. August 16, 2020, accessed August 16, 2020 .
  14. Max Uthoff and Claus von Wagner: Die Anstalt from January 29, 2019. In: Die Anstalt. Second German Television, January 29, 2019, accessed on January 30, 2019 (monologue by Uta Köbernick, minutes 34:30 to 38:35).
  15. Christian Milankovic: “Die Anstalt” goes to court with Stuttgart 21. In: Stuttgarter Zeitung. January 29, 2019, accessed January 30, 2019 .
  16. Vigils in Germany - "Give me a flag!" , March 14, 2011, taz.de
  17. Commemoration of the Hauptwache: Candles for Charlie Hebdo in Frankfurter Rundschau, online
  18. ^ Jews in Frankfurt demand more solidarity , in Frankfurter Rundschau, online
  19. Shropshire sheep farmer: warning fire and solidarity fire for the restricted spread of wolves
  20. Katharina Lütke Holz: Warning fire for the preservation of grazing animals
  21. Südtirol News: Fire reminders against the wolf light up the mountains
  22. Alfons Deter: Day of action with fire reminders against the wolf
  23. Tagesschau Südtirol: Fire against the wolf
  24. ^ Sheep breeding: Europe-wide solidarity fire
  25. La Nouvelle République.fr: Charroux: un feu contre les loups
  26. ^ Bourgogne Franche-comté: Yonne: les éleveurs appelés à faire des feux contre le loup
  27. Jawina: Today: Over 120 warning fires against the wolf in Europe