Vigils for peace

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Sticker, Hamburg, June 2014

As vigils for peace (even peace movement 2.0 , Friedensmahnwachen , Monday demonstrations in 2014 or Montagsmahnwachen ) rallies are called, which usually Mondays from 17 March 2014 in Germany , Austria and Basel take place or took place. With the name and date they place themselves in the tradition of the peace movement and the Monday demonstrations in 1989/1990 in the GDR . According to the self-image of the organizers, they should be politically neither left nor right , but open to any interested individual.

The trigger was the 2014 Ukraine crisis . The main speakers around Lars Mährholz blame the USA and the Federal Reserve Bank (FED) in particular for this. You speak of a global system of financial capitalism that is ruled and directed by a small group of very powerful individuals. They regard the established media as a means of manipulating this system and the World Wide Web as a means of a counter-public sphere.

Since April 2014 observers have criticized anti-American , anti-Semitic , right-wing extremist and conspiracy ideological tendencies at the vigil. This led to an intense public debate inside and outside the spectrum of participants. Many groups of the peace movement and left-wing groups separated themselves from the positions and representatives of the vigil.

On December 13, 2014, vigil representatives and parts of the peace movement organized a joint “winter of peace” rally against the German government's Ukraine and Russia policies. The peace movement separated from the vigil by May 2015. Some follow-up initiatives have been appearing since 2015 under names like “Patriotic Europeans against the Americanization of the West” (“Pegada”) or “Committed Democrats against the Americanization of Europe” (“EnDgAmE”). These groups are also known as the "peace front" .

development

Germany

Protest sign against German media groups on Jungfernstieg in Hamburg, June 2014

Lars Mährholz registered the first Berlin Monday vigils and invited their keynote speakers. He stated that he was an entrepreneur and formerly a member of the CDU and FDP , but was not politically active. On March 17, 2014, around 100 participants protested with torches in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin for the first time . The motto was "For peace in Europe, in the world, for an honest press and against the deadly policies of the Federal Reserve (a private bank)". According to the organizers, such vigils were held in 88 German-speaking locations until June 2014. They were mainly announced via social media such as Facebook and had several thousand visitors a few times in Berlin until June, but far fewer elsewhere.

The main speakers at the first Berlin vigil were journalist Ken Jebsen , right-wing populist Jürgen Elsässer and interest rate critic Andreas Popp. In April 2014, the controversial band The Bandwidth performed . Because some Alsatians refused, Mährholz let the former Attac representative Pedram Shayar speak from May 5, 2014 . The organizers of the vigil in Erfurt then invited Elsässer to be the keynote speaker. In an open letter to her, Shayar appealed to a “basic humanistic consensus” among the vigils. Because Shayar was too left for some, they opened a second vigil on Alexanderplatz in Berlin . Alsatian was allowed to speak again there.

From April 28, 2014, the Trotskyist songwriter Florian Ernst Kirner ("Prince Chaos II.") Appeared several times as a musician and speaker at the Berlin vigil. At first he declared his stance as a trial of solidarity in order to promote a consensus on peace policy. Global accusations of racism against the vigils are "sectarian". He praised Pedram Shayar's speech as a "blazing firewall [...] against anti-Semitism , fascist infiltration and scapegoat politics". However, the further development of the vigils is uncertain.

Despite a delimitation decision by his party Die Linke , Diether Dehm spoke and sang on June 9, 2014 at the Berlin vigil. On June 23, a representative of the civil rights movement Solidarity spoke there , and on June 30 the author Ansgar Klein. By then, the number of participants had dropped from around 1600 to 300. From July, Mährholz attended vigils in other cities with Jebsen and Shayar. Instead of the "open microphone" that was initially available to every participant, Mährholz decided which of the registered speakers should have their say. This should avoid unwanted contributions, for example to chemtrails . At the beginning of June 2014 he planned a joint day of action in Berlin with 250 vigil organizers for July 19, 2014. About 2,000 people took part; one had expected up to 10,000.

Because they were against the exclusion of Alsatians, several vigils separated from the Berlin organizers' alliance. Two of them demonstrated in Berlin on November 9, 2014, the anniversary of the November pogroms in 1938 , next to “Reich citizens” and neo-Nazis . Elsässer campaigned for the inclusion of hooligans .

By appealing for a different policy towards Russia on December 5, 2014, Jebsen and Mährholz succeeded in getting the Cooperation for Peace , IALANA , some trade unionists and members of the Left Party to join them in the “Peace Winter 2014/15” series of demonstrations. The main initiator of the call was Reiner Braun (IALANA). He wanted to revive the old peace movement through the alliance with the vigils, involve their representatives and develop them into leaders. He defended statements classified as anti-Semitic by Ken Jebsen as "relatively harsh criticism of Israel". The Education and Science Union , the Association of Victims of the Nazi Regime - Bund der Antifaschisteninnen and Antifaschisten and the left party chairman Sahra Wagenknecht withdrew their support at short notice. Around 4,000 people took part in the rally on December 13, 2014 in front of Bellevue Palace in Berlin. The church critic Eugen Drewermann , the cabaret artist Reiner Kröhnert , the moderator Lea Frings ( RT Deutsch ) and the songwriters Reinhard Mey and Konstantin Wecker performed there. Reiner Braun read a distancing from anti-Semitism, the New Right , "Reich Citizens", racism, nationalism and fascism . However, actors from this spectrum also took part.

In 2015, a group called PEGADA (“Patriotic Europeans against the Americanization of the West”) emerged from the Erfurt vigil . Its name is based on the right-wing populist and racist Dresden demonstration alliance Pegida . On January 24, 2015, around 1,000 Pegada supporters demonstrated against the "terrorist power" USA, a break with Russia and the danger of a third world war . These mobilized Pegada of the Facebook page Endgame ( "Engaged Democrats against the Americanization of Europe"). Several representatives, including Stephane Simon, had previously performed at Pegida. “Endgame” trailers demonstrated in Halle (Saale) (February 21, 2015) and Hanover (March 14, 2015, around 250 participants). There spoke Christoph Hörstel and because of sedition sentenced Taylan Can. Officially, Pegada distinguishes itself from racism, extremism and nationalism. The Halle endgame group around Frank Geppert calls for "peace, democracy and honest media" as an "inseparable unit". At the end of April 2015, the former Pegida spokeswoman Kathrin Oertel also joined in when she apologized to Muslims for the racist Islamophobic slogans of Pegida. The apology was intended to enable vigil supporters to join Pegida and AfD supporters in Pegada and Endgame groups. Jürgen Elsässer brokered this approach with Oertel at the beginning of April 2015.

In June 2015, former vigil representatives published a "Policy Paper of the Peace Movement 2015", which among other things called for the exit from NATO and the stop of acts of war on German soil. Kathrin Oertel was one of the signatories. About 130 endgame and vigil supporters demonstrated on June 12, 2016 in Dresden against a Bilderberg conference in Dresden . The main speaker was Rico Albrecht ("Wissensmanufaktur"). On the previous days there were protests by the NPD , Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), Pegida and “Reichsbürgern”.

Reiner Braun continued his alliance efforts in 2016. He accepted a peace prize from the Bautzner vigil, at which neo-Nazis had previously appeared as speakers. In March he appeared at the Berlin vigil and congratulated on the two-year anniversary.

The group “Peace Movement nationwide Coordination” (FbK) emerged from the vigil. Stephan Steins spoke in his web magazine Rote Fahne in connection with Pegida about “the real problem of mass immigration, foreign infiltration and, ultimately, the ethnocide against the Germanic cultural area “Writes. In December 2016, the FbK demonstrated with Russian flags and images of Assad against Saudi Arabia's participation in the Syrian war . Long-time activists of the peace movement such as the organizer of the protests against the Munich Security Conference , Claus Schreer, describe the FbK as a “right-wing alliance of Pegida, AfD and NPD supporters”. The “grande dame of the Berlin peace movement” Laura von Wimmersperg calls her “people who are not close to us, they are at least suspicious of the AfD”.

Austria

A weekly meeting was held in Vienna from April 2014 under the leadership of a member of the Pirate Party , actor Stephan Bartunek and social media activist David Kyrill. During these events there were performances by Ken Jebsen , representatives of the chemtrail conspiracy theory , Franz Hörmann and objectors from the environment of the One People's Public Trust . The documentation archive of the Austrian resistance criticized a speech given on May 19, 2014, in which National Socialism was glorified.

subjects

According to the sociologist Peter Ullrich , the issues and demands that are expressed at the vigils are often incoherent to peculiar: "There has seldom been such a hodgepodge of often unrelated and incoherent and also completely contradicting positions as at the Monday vigils". In June 2014, respondents surveyed cited general peace, media criticism, justice and general anti-capitalism as their main concerns . Even the call for the first vigil linked “peace” with a criticism of the financial system, which was determined by the US Federal Reserve. The "debt money system" of money and interest without material intrinsic value has been described as the main cause of many social problems and wars. This also included criticism of globalization and free trade agreements .

Criticism of the commercial and public media was directed against the current reporting on Ukraine, which was perceived as hostile to Russia, and also against an “ aligned press” or “mainstream press” in general. It was called for the population to be educated with alternative information available on the Internet which, in the opinion of the participants, would otherwise remain hidden. The vigils were seen as the place and means of this alternative education.

In many cases, lobbying, brawling and politicians alienated from the “people” and only following economic interests were criticized. More participation and direct democracy were called for . With a view to environmental protection and nature conservation, changes in individual behavior, conscious nutrition and ethical consumption were often called for. Community experience and political activation without specific substantive demands were often concerns of the protests. Lucius Teidelbaum ( HaGalil ) described a general longing for peace, opposition to the “establishment”, support for Russia in the Ukraine conflict, press scolding, anti-Americanism and a self-assessment as “neither right nor left” as the basic consensus of the participants . The media criticism also referred to the “ lying press ”.

In an interview with the Russian foreign broadcaster Voice of Russia at the demonstration in Berlin, Mährholz stated that the "private bank" Federal Reserve (FED) was solely to blame for all wars of the past hundred years . In right-wing circles this is known as the anti-Semitic code for “Jewish finance capital”. Mährholz described the Fed and the interest system as the "beginning of all evil". The US wars of aggression were only used to stabilize its currency. The US military is "just the stick of the FED" and enforces their profit interests at the expense of other peoples, for example in Iraq and Libya. Mährholz initially recommended the websites of the “Reichsbürger” who deny the existence of the German state, and affirmed the view of an NPD MP that Germany, the EU and the USA were actively working with “fascist murderers” in Ukraine. In May 2014, he demanded the immediate withdrawal of all Bundeswehr soldiers from abroad, a ban on all Bundeswehr missions abroad and a general ban on waging war on German soil. The FED is promoting conflicts around the world in order to then make a profit on loans for reconstruction. In this context it is alleged that the FED and the banks of Wall Street financed the rise of the NSDAP through IG Farben . The speakers relied on the anti-Semitic pamphlet The Rothschilds: A family rules the world of the conspiracy theorist Tilman Knechtel.

“ Chemtrails ”, the conspiracy theory that jet planes emit poisons and psychoactive substances into the atmosphere in order to decimate or control the population, were also a frequent topic at Monday vigils.

The social scientist Wolfgang Storz named the "content links" of those networks that organized the vigils:

“Germany is not sovereign. The USA is the opposite of a role model. The mass media lie and manipulate. Germans are not allowed to criticize the Israeli government. The EU bureaucracy is undemocratic, the euro is wrong. The financial markets rule everything. "

The "winter of peace" was directed against "war propaganda", NATO and the militarization of foreign policy, for example through Federal President Joachim Gauck's warnings to increase German participation in military operations. They demanded "peace with Russia" and understanding for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian annexation of Crimea . Some showed slogans like “ Israeli child murderer ” and “9/11 - I'm not stupid!”.

The themes of the vigils can be connected to both left and right discourses, which the actors strive for in the sense of a transverse front.

In spring 2020, vigils picked up on topics from the protests during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany . False information was spread on Hamburg's Jungfernstieg, such as that COVID-19 can be cured with herbs and that a health dictatorship is threatening .

Attendees

In June 2014, Berlin social scientists working with Dieter Rucht surveyed 305 of around 1000 Berlin vigil participants. They found that at that time there were more men, younger, better educated and familiar with the Internet than the average German population. 39% of them rejected the right-left scheme, 38% were politically more on the left. 42.6% said they had voted for Die Linke in the 2013 federal election, 15.4% named the Pirate Party , 12.8% the AfD. A third assigned to non-voters . In contradiction to this, larger proportions of those questioned agreed with anti-American, anti-Zionist and anti- Semitic, right-wing extremist and conspiracy theoretical views: for example, the desire for a national leader (33.8%), the stereotype that "the Zionists" control the levers of power in politics worldwide Stock market and media (27.3%), and the stereotype “Jewish underhandedness” (24.7%). Although the majority of them affirmed democracy as a principle, they viewed democratic institutions and large social organizations with considerable distrust. The participants are therefore more likely to be classified as a transverse front movement that integrates right and left content. With its distance from parliamentarianism and its distrust of the established media, this is a symptom of post-democracy in Germany.

For the social scientist Alexander Häusler , the vigils spread “typical right-wing conspiracy theories” with their anti-Americanism and their criticism of money creation mechanisms, inspired by Silvio Gesell . However, their supporters are too diverse to be assigned to the New Right. Right-wing extremism researchers Julian Bruns and Natascha Strobl point to right-wing positions by Mährholz, anti-Semitic statements by individual participants and the openness of the vigils for right-wing extremist organizations. Not all participants are right-wing, but right-wing extremists, conspiracy theorists and history revisionists use the vigil to shift the social discourse to the right.

The spectrum of participants in the vigil is similar to that of Pegida: In both movements, middle-aged, self-employed or freelance men dominate with an above-average level of education, which, however, is lower than in other social movements. The support environment for both movements includes the same media, including Jürgen Elsässer's magazine Compact , Kopp Verlag , Kai Homilius Verlag and the Russian state broadcaster RT Deutsch . Both claim the slogan “ We are the people ” in a particular, anti-Russian and anti-American interpretation that is compatible with identity , ethno-pluralistic and xenophobic positions. The vigils show more anti-Semitic, and Pegida more anti-Islamic resentments. Markus Liske and Manja Präkels classify both movements as “ folk neo-nationalism ”, which historically began with the slogan “We are one people” during the fall of 1989 . This is represented by a section of the population that is open to right-wing populist and racist attitudes in various shades, lays claim to the middle of society and increasingly reaches into it.

At least 10 vigils with up to 40 people took place in Basel , which were rated as right-wing esoteric with a few slips into the right-wing extremist, but above all as conspiracy theory.

reception

media

The vigils met with a predominantly negative media response from the start. The publicist Jutta Ditfurth was one of the first to warn on Facebook from March 2014 of anti-Semitic vigils. On April 16, she said in a television interview: The criticism of the FED was a well-known code for the alleged “Jewish world conspiracy”. The main representatives are new right-wing propagandists who specifically aimed for a lateral front and also recruited supporters from the left. Anti-Semitic cartoons and references to the Rothschilds can be found on their websites . Mährholz have connections to right esotericism , to the zeitgeist and imperial citizens' movement. There are references to the 9/11 Truth Movement , Silvio Gesell and the AfD. There is a basic conspiracy-theoretical and anti-Semitic consensus between these heterogeneous directions.

From then on there were many critical reports about the vigil. They also often classified them in a cross-front and New Right, referred to anti-Semitically decipherable statements, right-wing extremists involved and conspiracy theories. A testimony by Elsässers at a vigil was classified as anti-Semitic. Speaking of a financial oligarchy that included “ Rockefeller , Rothschild, Soros , Khodorkovsky ”, he asked, “And why would it be anti-Semitism when you talk about how this tiny little layer of money aristocrats are using the Federal Reserve for the whole To throw the world into chaos? ”The emphasis on Jewish bankers as alleged global controllers of money is a well-known anti-Semitic stereotype. In Koblenz, a co-organizer of the Monday “peace parties” there promoted the anti-Semitic hate speech Protocols of the Elders of Zion and was sentenced to a fine of 70 daily rates of 30 euros each, which was suspended on probation against payment of 2,000 euros. The journalist Jakob Augstein agreed with a criticism by Petra Pau (Die Linke): “Peace demonstrations, at which hatred against Jews is preached, are war demonstrations.” He contradicted the assumption that anti-Semitic slogans reacted to Israeli military policy at vigils. Hatred of Jews did not need news from Israel. In him hatred, racism, esotericism and conspiracy theories flow together.

Critics described the vigils as the "fair of the bizarre" or as "'delusional', where aluminum hats tell stories of world conspiracies, chemtrails and NATO conspiracies". There is the "delusion program" and " anti-enlightenment nonsense " is spread. Often the lack of demarcation from right-wing extremism was found, for example because the Berlin NPD around Sebastian Schmidtke , the racist propaganda side Anonymous.Kollektiv and the “Reichsbürger” took part, campaigned for the vigils and propagated their goals there. Andreas Kopietz ( Berliner Zeitung ) therefore called the vigil in April 2014 " ethnic peace movement ". The Frankfurter Rundschau also saw right-wing tendencies there, but considered their further development to be open in May 2014 due to the diversity of the participants.

Stefan Lauer, editor of Vice , described right-wing tendencies of some vigil representatives: Heiko Schrang had questioned the guilt of the Germans in the Second World War in his book The Century Lie . Jürgen Graßmann, who was used as a steward against anti- fascist protests, organized a demonstration in Berlin on al-Quds Day , where calls for the destruction of Israel were made. Alsatian is campaigning for the AfD and has contacts in the right-wing extremist milieu. Jebsen took over Norman Finkelstein's thesis of an alleged Holocaust industry. Andreas Popp invokes the National Socialist Gottfried Feder for his economic ideology (“Plan B”) and adopts his distinction between “creative”, i.e. German, and “ruffling”, i.e. Jewish capital. Feder's slogan of “breaking interest bondage” can be found in a modified form at the vigils. Its audience, which rejects the opposition between right and left, is in favor of right-wing ideas or is uninformed. Mährholz concealed his earlier contacts with the right-wing nationalist Torsten Witt ( Bundestag Free Citizens ) and had Facebook contacts with anti-Semites. Jebsen's original call for a “March on Berlin”, with which he consciously recalled the Hitler coup of 1923, was criticized as an expression of anti-democratic sentiments by many vigil supporters.

According to Lena Gorelik , the vigil audience consists of left and right-wing groups who are “a little bit against capital , a little bit against the USA, a little bit against the 'Jewish world conspiracy', a little bit against the CIA , a little bit against everything”. They do not unite a common political idea, but rather a diffuse fear, a general dissatisfaction, possibly also a lack of insight into the increasingly complex world political contexts.

The Berliner Zeitung interpreted the "peace winter" as an "obscure alliance" between left and right-wing radicals, while the taz wrote of "peace with confused heads".

Pascal Beucker (taz) also attributed the low number of participants to the 2015 Easter marches to a "loss of reality" by those peace activists who would have viewed the right-wing vigils as a "fresh cell cure" for the graying peace struggle. Both unite "their intellectually under-complex friend-foe thinking: there the bad West, there good Russia with its great leader Vladimir Putin."

According to the journalist Tobias Jaecker , the widespread idea among the vigils that the Ukraine crisis was solely to blame for the Western, and above all American, elites, reduces the complexity of the events to a simple mechanism: in secret, powerful masterminds steer world events around their illegitimate goals to persecute that the people are being cheated, that democracy is just a facade. These anti-American conspiracy theories, “partly with clear anti-Semitic undertones”, are not a social criticism , but a simplification, “an ideology that combines elements of left and right views”, for example from völkisch worldviews and left anti-imperialism .

Sebastian Leber (Der Tagesspiegel) described the Berlin vigil on Potsdamer Platz in March 2017 as a “gateway drug” in conspiracy theories. In addition to their supporters, "Reich citizens, Israel-haters, esotericists" meet there.

Political groups

From March 2014, many left-wing groups warned of the vigil, including Linksjugend Solid in Magdeburg (March 31), Indymedia (April 7), Cooperation for Peace (April 10), the coordination office for the Monday demonstrations against social cuts from 2004 ( April 12) April), Publikative.org (April 22), Antifascist Revolutionary Action Berlin (April 23) and others.

On May 19, 2014, some members of the Left Party around Andrej Hunko , several representatives from Attac and the Interventionist Left demanded cooperation with the vigil in an open letter. In many places these have delineated themselves to the right and could be further developed into an "emancipatory movement". The letter did not mention statements by vigil speakers classified as anti-Semitic. Stefan Liebich (Die Linke) and Werner Rätz (Attac), on the other hand, warned against cooperation, because the vigils continue to represent positions that are open to the right or those from the right spectrum. Diether Dehm and Wolfgang Gehrcke opposed the “demonization” of the vigils and called on all left and peace-moving forces to contact, debate and cooperate with democratically motivated participants. On 25/26 In May 2014, however, the Federal Executive of the Left Party declared that it would “fundamentally” not cooperate with the vigils because of cross-front strategies by “right-wing populists, nationalists , conspiracy theorists and anti-Semites”. The left-wing youth criticized the vigil as a “German national, anti-American and anti-Semitic movement” with a regressive and structurally anti-Semitic criticism of capitalism. The party executive declared that Dieter Dehm's vigil appearance on June 9, 2014 was an unsolicited private initiative. Dehm described critics of Xavier Naidoo , who had appeared at a Berlin vigil for "Reichsbürgern", as " anti-German Shitstorm-SA". Pedram Shahyar, who spoke at a “vigil” in Berlin in May 2014 despite his critical stance on the participation of right-wing extremists and “Reich citizens”, compared left-wing vigil critics with the tea party movement in the USA.

The Cooperation for Peace endorsed on 24 June 2014 local, decentralized cooperation with vigils in which anti-fascism is consensus. When it became known to them that Jebsen and Mährholz had co-designed and signed the call for peace winter, prominent leftists such as Tobias Pflüger ( Militarization Information Center ) withdrew their signature. Monty Skull ( DFG-VK ) warned of an alliance with the vigil organizers. Otmar Steinbicker ( Aachen Peace Prize ) declared that he wanted nothing to do with “new right conspiracy theorists” like Jebsen and Mährholz. Klaus Lederer (Die Linke, Berlin) described the vigil as a "new edition of a very old, right-wing critique of capitalism that also resonates in left-wing contexts". The fact that parts of the old peace movement tried to overcome their crisis with an “opening to the right” was “an oath of revelation”. Reiner Braun, on the other hand, stated that the vigils were by no means right-wing, but contained the typical problems and contradictions of a new social protest movement . The left parliamentary group decided on December 16, 2014 not to support “peace winter” rallies financially if vigil representatives were significantly involved.

In March 2015, Monty Skull pointed out the continuing openness of the vigils to right-wing speakers and positions in two interviews. He called for the collaboration to end before the 2015 Easter marches . On March 15, 2015, 140 representatives of the peace movement discussed this in Frankfurt am Main. Most criticized Monty Skull. Christiane Reymann (Die Linke) saw a negative press campaign as the cause of the dispute over the vigil. She only regretted Ken Jebsen's statement of a "final solution for Palestine". A motion against joint appearances with Jürgen Elsässer was withdrawn when it was foreseeable that he would not find a majority. Ken Jebsen insulted skulls at the Berlin vigil on March 16, 2015 as “cross-fronters” and “bought by NATO”. Thereupon the DFG-VK withdrew its support for the "peace winter". The Cooperation for Peace distanced itself from Jebsen.

Because of the discussions about the “reactionary ideas” of the vigil representatives, the peace movement demonstrated on May 27, 2015 in Berlin without them against the United States Air Force's drone war, which was controlled from Ramstein Air Base . With that the separation was complete.

Left-wing critics also classify newer groups from the vigil environment such as PEGADA and ENDGAME as cross-front attempts because of the ideological and personal overlaps with PEGIDA and the AfD: “Diffuse petty-bourgeois fears, but also precarious conditions, lack of education and existential worries, abstract longing for peace and the perception of massive real societal issues Wrong developments ensure that dangerous regressive worldviews experience a renaissance and make themselves heard more powerfully than was the case for many years. The potential for authoritarian, anti-democratic and inhumane worldviews in Germany is great. ”The Forum Democratic Socialism counteracts the attempt to unite topics of the PEGIDA movement and the vigils with educational lectures.

science

The sociologist Peter Ullrich analyzes the vigils as representatives of a new type of protest movement, namely the “ post-democratic indignation movements”. They were all like, for example, Occupy and Pegida characterized by a radical rejection of the political system , a deep-seated distrust of the political and social institutions, barely political prior experience, a low degree of organization, the refusal, in the usual left-right scheme to locate, a rejection of the socially formative " big stories " up to then , spontaneous mobilization and weak identities, often shaped by the Internet. In three respects the vigils are typical of “post-democratic” conditions, in which, according to the analysis of the British political scientist Colin Crouch, democracy is outwardly intact, but important social decisions are no longer made in elections that degenerate into mere stagings and exhibition fights , but from the elites in a small circle behind closed doors. According to Ullrich, the vigils are, on the one hand, a reaction to these conditions; secondly, they represent a protest against it; thirdly, they are themselves part of post-democratic subjectivity and the associated practice: Although the supporters are socially well integrated and above average, they are politically but completely alienated from the political system, so that they would find a home neither in the mainstream nor in alternative milieus. For her, it is rather the "Web 2.0, where every opinion, no matter how well-founded or bizarre, can find its forum and at the same time a helplessness with transporting indignation and echoing are part of the basic tone".

According to the sociologist Simon Teune, the offer of cooperation with the vigil during the peace winter 2014/15 caused problems for the old peace movement: there was disagreement on whether to take the opportunity to rejuvenate or to show "a clear edge against groups open to the right" . This shows that in the old peace movement, beyond the question of right or left, the relationship to anti-Americanism was unclear.

According to political scientist Laura Luise Hammel, there is a scientific consensus that vigils are generally open to conspiracy theories. These are often rooted in anti-Semitic resentment, but this is not openly formulated in the sense of communication latency. Behind the thesis that the Fed was to blame for World War II, however, can be seen the intention to reassess history and shift responsibility for the Second World War from Germany. Through the reference to Wall Street and the use of Jewish-sounding names, the Jews are indirectly assigned responsibility for the crimes of National Socialism. This takes place in the sense of a defense against guilt and a perpetrator-victim reversal, as is typical for secondary anti-Semitism . The pronounced acceptance of conspiracy theories, the alienation from the political system perceived by the actors and the hatred of the elites are common features of the vigils and right-wing populist movements like Pegida .

literature

  • Priska Daphi, Dieter Rucht, Wolfgang Stuppert, Simon Teune, Peter Ullrich: Occupy Peace - A survey of participants in the “Monday vigils for peace”. Center for Technology and Society of the Technical University of Berlin / Association for Protest and Movement Research e. V., Berlin, June 2014 (PDF)
  • Laura Luise Hammel: "... and you have been pulling the strings on this planet for over a hundred years". Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories in Current Protest Movements: The Example of the Vigils for Peace . In: Marc Grimm and Bodo Kahmann (eds.): Anti-Semitism in the 21st century. Virulence of an old enmity in times of Islamism and terror . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2018, ISBN 978-3-11-053471-9 , pp. 367–388
  • Markus Liske, Manja Präkels (Ed.): Beware of the people! Verbrecher-Verlag, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-95732-121-3
  • Peter Ullrich: Post-democratic outrage. An experiment on democracy, social movements and contemporary protest research. In: Tino Heim (Ed.): Pegida as a mirror and projection surface. Interactions and demarcations between Pegida, politics, media, civil society and social sciences. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2017, pp. 217-251.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Kristiana Ludwig, Erik Peter (taz, June 23, 2014): Spontan für den Frieden
  2. ↑ Priska Daphi and others: Occupy Peace - A survey of participants in the “Vigils for Peace”. Berlin 2014, p. 3 f.
  3. ^ Daniel Bratanovic and Sebastian Carlens (Junge Welt, April 23, 2014): Falsche Friedensfreunde
  4. ^ Stefan Geyer (Berliner Zeitung, May 6, 2014): Monday demos in Berlin: What the Monday demos are really about.
  5. ↑ Internet newspaper , May 24, 2014: Open letter from Pedram Shayar (Attac) to the Erfurt Mahnwache
  6. ↑ Stefan Lauer (Vice.com, July 22, 2014): "Those who criticize the critics are in favor of the system" - The Monday demos continue to revolve around themselves
  7. ↑ Florian Ernst Kirner: As a leftist also an activist on Mondays. ND, May 19, 2014
  8. ↑ Anja Maier : Mr. Dehm writes a poem. taz, June 17, 2014
  9. ↑ Stefan Lauer: The Monday demos are getting rid of . Vice.com, July 1, 2014
  10. ↑ Issio Ehrich: The great peace demo flops . Who am I, and if so, how many? N-tv, July 20, 2014
  11. ↑ Stefan Lauer (Vice.com, November 10, 2014): Antifa against Hooligans-NPD-Reichsbürger-Monday demonstration: Four to zero.
  12. ↑ Claudia van Laak: Peace Movement: New alliances scratch the credibility. Deutschlandfunk, December 4, 2014
  13. ↑ Martin Kaul: Peace Movement wants to rejuvenate: Good night, friends. taz, November 25, 2014
  14. ↑ Steven Geyer: “Lack of demarcation against the right”: Traditional unions distance themselves from the “peace winter” demo. Berliner Zeitung, December 12, 2014
  15. ↑ a b Stefan Lauer: The Peace Winter - A Lose-Lose Situation. Vice.com, December 15, 2014
  16. ↑ a b Martin Niewendick: Demo "Peace Winter" in Berlin: conspiracy theorist, leftists and neo-Nazis against Gauck. Tagesspiegel, December 13, 2014
  17. ↑ Christian Jakob : The peace of the tangled heads. taz, December 15, 2014
  18. ↑ Christian Jakob: New Right Peace Movement - Touched a thousand times. taz, March 13, 2015
  19. ↑ Pegada in Erfurt: Hundreds demonstrate against the "Americanization of the West"
  20. ↑ Deutschlandfunk, March 21, 2015: Opponents of America mobilize in Erfurt After "Pegida" now also "Endgame"
  21. ↑ Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung, March 14, 2015: “Endgame demonstration” remains peaceful
  22. ^ Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, March 13, 2015: Endgame demo by Pegida offshoot: USA opponents of Pegada demonstrate in Hanover
  23. ^ Die Zeit, April 30, 2015: Ex-Pegida spokeswoman: Oertel apologizes to Muslims
  24. ↑ Stefan Lauer (Vice.com, April 30, 2015): Kathrin Oertel's apology to the Muslims is as put on as her eyebrows
  25. ↑ a b Klaus Lederer: Resentment instead of enlightenment: The "new peace movement" and the left. In: Markus Liske, Manja Präkels (Ed.): Caution people! Berlin 2016, pp. 118–127, here p. 126f.
  26. ↑ Lucius Teidelbaum (HaGalil, June 13, 2015): With the cross front against the supposed "world government"
  27. ^ Silvio Duwe, Hendrik Loven (Bayerischer Rundfunk, April 5, 2016): Political cross-connections: When left and right are in agreement
  28. ↑ Robin Avram: How the New Right infiltrates the peace movement , rbb of April 13, 2017
  29. ↑ We just don't understand the Monday vigil in Vienna , VICE, May 14, 2014
  30. ^ Archived version from Kyrill's website
  31. ↑ Ken Jebsen puts the finishing touches on the Monday vigil in Vienna , VICE, May 30, 2015
  32. ↑ Chemtrails: The Absurd Conspiracy , Profil, December 13, 2014
  33. ^ Krude theses on "Friedensmahnwachen" , Der Standard, December 30, 2014
  34. ^ Nazi apology at "Monday demonstration" in Vienna , DÖW, June 2014
  35. Jump up ↑ Peter Ullrich: Postdemokratische Outrage , Wiesbaden 2017, p. 234.
  36. ↑ Priska Daphi and others: Occupy Frieden , Berlin 2014, p. 14 f.
  37. ↑ Lucius Teidelbaum ( HaGalil , July 2, 2014): The new Monday vigils: A cross front for peace?
  38. ↑ Alexander Albrecht (Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung, March 12, 2015): At the Heidelberg vigil for peace, "there is pure anarchy"
  39. ↑ Erik Peter: New rights “peace movement”: In the fight against the media mafia . In: the daily newspaper , April 16, 2014.
  40. ↑ a b Julian Bruns and Natascha Strobl : (anti-) Emancipatory responses from the right . In: Momentum Quarterly 4, No. 4, 2015, pp. 205-274.
  41. ↑ Wulf Rohwedder (Tagesschau.de, April 16, 2014): Vigils with a questionable background: For peace, against the Fed ( Memento from April 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  42. Jump up ↑ Peter Ullrich: Postdemokratische Outrage , Wiesbaden 2017, p. 232.
  43. ^ Lars Mährholz (Mahnwachen.info, May 19, 2014): Demands on the world
  44. ↑ Laura Luise Hammel: "... and you have been pulling the strings on this planet for over a hundred years". Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories in Current Protest Movements: The Example of the Vigils for Peace . In: Marc Grimm and Bodo Kahmann (eds.): Anti-Semitism in the 21st century. Virulence of an old enmity in times of Islamism and terror . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2018, ISBN 978-3-11-053471-9 , pp. 367–388, here pp. 378–381 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
  45. Jump up ↑ Peter Ullrich: Postdemokratische Outrage , Wiesbaden 2017, p. 234.
  46. ↑ Wolfgang Storz: Make the differences clearer. Where does emancipatory criticism end and where does anti-enlightenment begin? ND, December 19, 2014
  47. ↑ Markus Reuter (Netzpolitik.org, June 28, 2016): Monitoring report "Right-wing extremists and inhuman phenomena in the social web" published ; Guido Speckmann: The powerful virtual rights. Neues Deutschland (ND), June 29, 2016; Michael Gruber: The new dimension of aluminum hats. taz, July 1, 2016;
  48. ^ Andreas Speit: Mondays against Bill Gates. In: taz.nord of May 13, 2020, p. 22.
  49. ↑ Priska Daphi and others: Occupy Frieden , Berlin 2014, pp. 8–28
  50. ^ Frida Thurm (Die Zeit, April 22, 2014): Protests: The very own world of the Monday demonstrators
  51. ^ Lars Geiges, Stine Marg, Franz Walter: Pegida. The dirty side of civil society? transcript, Bielefeld 2015, ISBN 978-3-8394-3192-4 , p. 83
  52. ↑ Markus Liske, Anja Präkels (Ed.): Beware of the people! Berlin 2015, pp. 7–11
  53. ↑ Conspiracy theories and legal esotericism - that's behind peace vigil Basellandschaftliche Zeitung July 7, 2014
  54. ↑ Kulturzeit, April 16, 2014: The New Right Monday Demos: Conversation with Jutta Ditfurth
  55. ↑ concrete (June 2014): Interview with Jutta Ditfurth ; Laura Luise Hammel: "... and you have been pulling the strings on this planet for over a hundred years". Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories in Current Protest Movements: The Example of the Vigils for Peace . In: Marc Grimm and Bodo Kahmann (eds.): Anti-Semitism in the 21st century. Virulence of an old enmity in times of Islamism and terror . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2018, ISBN 978-3-11-053471-9 , pp. 367–388, here p. 370.
  56. ↑ Priska Daphi and others: Occupy Frieden , Berlin 2014, p. 4
  57. ^ Roland Sieber (April 16): Citizens of the Reich, neo-Nazis and anti-Semites - Querfront hijacks peace demonstrations ; Erik Peter (taz, April 16, 2014): New rights “Peace Movement”: In the fight against the media mafia ; Christian Stöcker (Spiegel, April 16, 2016): Facebook spam: Russia friends from the right corner ; Christian Stöcker (taz, May 11, 2014): Demonstrating for peace: conspiracy on Monday
  58. ↑ Sebastian Christ (Huffington Post, April 22, 2014): Elsässer, Jebsen and the Monday demonstrations: Why the new "peace movement" is so dangerous ( Memento from July 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  59. ↑ Hartmut Wagner (Rhein-Zeitung, October 26, 2014): Jew baiting at the Koblenz Peace Party: "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" recommended as reading
  60. ↑ Jakob Augstein (Spiegel, July 28, 2014): Historical Paradox
  61. ↑ Peter Ullrich: Left, right or just crazy? The new Monday demonstrations challenge the peace movement, the left and our understanding of political lines of conflict. In: analyze & kritik No. 594, May 20, 2014, pp. 11–12
  62. ↑ Torsten Heinrich (Huffington Post, 18/12/2014): Propaganda show under public law
  63. ↑ Christian Jakob (taz, June 23, 2014): Where madness is program
  64. ↑ Mohamed Amjahid and others (Tagesspiegel, April 21, 2014): New Monday demonstrations peace movement with shades of brown
  65. ^ Andreas Kopietz (Berliner Zeitung, April 16, 2014): Monday Demos: Völkische Friedensbewegung
  66. ↑ Hanning Voigts (Frankfurter Rundschau, May 4, 2014): Monday Demos: The Right Path to Peace ( Memento from June 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  67. ↑ Stefan Lauer (Vice.com, May 13, 2014): Who does the Monday demos on the right? ( Memento of the original from August 17, 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vice.com
  68. ↑ Stefan Lauer (Vice.com, May 21, 2014): Monday demonstration initiator Lars Mährholz hides his real past
  69. ↑ Stefan Lauer (Vice.com, June 17, 2014): The Monday Demos - Science speaks
  70. ↑ Lena Gorelik: "You will be able to say again ..." Anti-Semitism in high and popular culture . In: From politics and contemporary history , 64 (2014), issue 28–30, p. 7.
  71. ↑ Michael Müller: Commentary Peace Winter Demo at Bellevue Palace: Left and right radicals united in an obscure alliance on berliner-zeitung.de from December 12, 2014, accessed on December 15, 2014.
  72. ↑ Christian Jakob: Peace with tangled heads . In: taz of December 15, 2014, p. 3
  73. ↑ Pascal Beuckert (taz, April 4, 2015): Easter marches in crisis: The bear market of the peace movement
  74. ↑ Tobias Jaecker: Mainly against America . In: Jungle World, May 21, 2014 ( online , accessed June 19, 2014).
  75. ^ Sebastian Leber: Vigils in Berlin How conspiracy theorists tick . tagesspiegel.de, March 31, 2017, accessed April 2, 2017.
  76. ↑ VVN-BDA, November 25, 2014: Dossier: The Peace Movement and the Vigils. A fateful symbiosis? (PDF, pp. 1–2)
  77. ↑ Erik Peter (taz, May 20, 2014): Linke argues about Monday demos: The transverse front one step closer ; Andrej Hunko and others (Die Freiheitsliebe, May 19, 2014): For a solidarity-based dispute with the Monday vigils ( Memento of the original from July 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / diefreiheitsliebe.de
  78. ↑ Diether Dehm, Wolfgang Gehrcke: Against the demonization of the Monday vigils
  79. ↑ Die Linke: For Peace and De-escalation in Ukraine. Decision of the party executive committee of 25./26. May 2014
  80. ↑ Federal Spokespersons Council Left Youth Solid, May 28, 2014: Demanding peace and criticizing capitalism - without conspiracy theories and aluminum hats! ; Federal Shalom Working Group (June 16, 2014): For Peace - for Germany ( Memento of the original from June 12, 2018 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / bak-shalom.de
  81. ↑ Publikative.org, June 11, 2014: The Left, the Decision and the Monday Vigil
  82. ↑ Sebastian Christ (Huffington Post, October 28, 2015): The Left Party is on the right
  83. ↑ koop-frieden.de, June 24, 2014: Cooperation Council on Monday Vigils ( Memento of the original from June 30, 2014 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.koop-frieden.de
  84. ↑ Martin Kaul (taz, November 26, 2014): Peace movement wants to rejuvenate: Good night, friends
  85. ↑ Pascal Beucker (taz, November 26, 2014): "A highly problematic spectrum"
  86. ↑ Pascal Beucker (taz, December 1, 2014): "This is an oath of disclosure"
  87. ↑ Pascal Beucker, Martin Reh (taz, December 12, 2014): "Putin's policy is reactive"
  88. ↑ Matthias Meisner (Tagesspiegel, December 17, 2014): Left-wing faction is distancing itself from the "winter of peace"
  89. ↑ Martin Kaul (taz, March 13, 2015): Future of the Peace Movement. "An attempt that failed"
  90. ↑ Martin Kaul (taz, March 16, 2015): Task: Future
  91. ↑ Martin Kaul (taz, March 30, 2015): Before the Easter marches: War of the Friends of Peace
  92. ↑ Christian Jakob (taz, May 28, 2015): Fortunately, solo again
  93. ↑ Potemkin, March 15, 2015: fds event in Hanover: Not a hand's breadth for the new right endgamers
  94. ↑ Peter Ullrich: Post-Democratic Outrage. An experiment on democracy, social movements and contemporary protest research. In: Tino Heim (Ed.): Pegida as a mirror and projection surface , Wiesbaden 2017, p. 234 ff.
  95. ↑ Patricia Hecht: "Peace politics has lost its innocence". In: taz of March 31, 2018, p. 5.
  96. ↑ Laura Luise Hammel: "... and you have been pulling the strings on this planet for over a hundred years". Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories in Current Protest Movements: The Example of the Vigils for Peace . In: Marc Grimm and Bodo Kahmann (eds.): Anti-Semitism in the 21st century. Virulence of an old enmity in times of Islamism and terror . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2018, ISBN 978-3-11-053471-9 , pp. 367–388, here pp. 375–386 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).