AG Chemnitz Peace Day receives honour award
At its meeting today, the City Council decided that the Chemnitz Peace Day working group, which prepares the Chemnitz Peace Day and the supporting programme every year on 5 March, will receive the Chemnitz Prize of Honour.
"Every year, we commemorate what is probably the most tragic day in the history of our city. We remember the more than 4,200 women, men and children who fell victim to the bombing of Chemnitz. But we do so in the knowledge of the historical context of these events. For us Chemnitz residents, 5 March is a day of reflection - against forgetting and, above all, against instrumentalisation. For almost two decades, the Chemnitz Peace Day working group has been preparing the Peace Day in a particularly impressive and committed manner. They stand for basic values such as tolerance, democracy, peacefulness and diversity," says Mayor Barbara Ludwig.
The AG Chemnitzer Friedenstag organises a variety of events and formats on a voluntary basis: Concerts, readings and lectures, church services, exhibitions, film screenings, the peace banners designed by Chemnitz schoolchildren, the peace cross and peace trails.
The current members of the working group are Hartwig Albiro, Stephan Brenner, Nancy Gibson, Etelka Kobuß, Sabine Kühnrich, Christoph Magirius, Dr Thomas Schuler, Heike Steege and Jürgen Tautz.
With the event "Chemnitz Peace Impulses" in the Kreuzkirche, a Chemnitz Peace Day was held for the first time on 5 March 2002, which not only commemorated the victims of the bomb attacks, but also set an example for peace and social coexistence.
The AG Chemnitzer Friedenstag has rendered outstanding services to the development of the city of Chemnitz and the well-being of its citizens with its extraordinary commitment and is therefore honoured with the award of the City of Chemnitz Prize of Honour.