Chemnitz peace banners are exhibited in Berlin
13 banners adorn the Paul Löbe House for the Festival of Democracy
Today, Gerald Richter, his wife Sylvia Eichner and Marian Kretschmer from the citizens' initiative Aktion © travelled to Berlin to present the Chemnitz peace banner project on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Basic Law.
From 23 to 26 May 2024, 13 four-metre-long banners and other Aktion © projects will be on display in the Paul Löbe House. For the exhibition, Gerald Richter has adapted the original seven-metre-long banners from previous years to the new four-metre format.
Since 2012, children and young people from Chemnitz have been designing colourful banners with messages of peace, which are hung up on the town hall and other buildings in the city the following year for Peace Day on 5 March. On Peace Day, the city of Chemnitz and civil society actors hold numerous events and campaigns to commemorate the bombing and destruction of Chemnitz on 5 March 1945 and remember the victims of war all over the world. The now more than 270 peace banners, which have long been supported by the Local Action Plan for Democracy, Tolerance and a Cosmopolitan Chemnitz, are an important part of this and promote peace and tolerance every year.
Aktion © is also planning to exhibit all peace banners in Chemnitz in the Capital of Culture year 2025 - by then there will be 300 in total - and thus set a world record.
Further information on the peace banner project can be found at www.chemnitzer-friedensbanner.de.