AG Chemnitz Peace Day to receive honour award
The Chemnitz Peace Day working group, which prepares the Chemnitz Peace Day and the supporting programme every year on 5 March, is to receive the Chemnitz Prize of Honour. The Chemnitz City Council will decide on this at its next meeting on 5 February.
"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.
On 5 March 2002, Chemnitz Peace Day took place for the first time with an event ("Chemnitzer Friedensimpulse") in the Kreuzkirche, which not only commemorated the victims of the bomb attacks, but also set an example for peace and social coexistence. Since then, the Chemnitz Peace Day has included a variety of events and formats: Concerts, readings and lectures, church services, exhibitions, film screenings, the peace banners designed by Chemnitz schoolchildren, the peace cross and peace trails. This would not be possible without the voluntary work of the Chemnitz Peace Day working group. Its current members are Hartwig Albiro, Stephan Brenner, Nancy Gibson, Etelka Kobuß, Sabine Kühnrich, Christoph Magirius, Dr Thomas Schuler, Heike Steege and Jürgen Tautz.
Section 3 of the statutes of the City of Chemnitz on honours and awards states: "Citizens who have rendered outstanding services to the development of the City of Chemnitz and the well-being of its citizens can be honoured with the City of Chemnitz Award of Honour." This applies to the extraordinary commitment of the Chemnitz Peace Day working group, which is therefore to be honoured with the award of the City of Chemnitz Prize of Honour.