Remembrance Day in BerlinMattarella warns in the Bundestag against returning to “dark times”
Italian President Mattarella called on the Bundestag to strengthen multilateral structures – as a safeguard against new wars. He warned that the EU must not be torn apart by forces that fuel hatred and division. Bundestag President Klöckner and Federal President Steinmeier also warned.
On Remembrance Day, Italian President Sergio Mattarella called for strengthening multilateral structures to prevent new conflicts and wars. “Multilateralism is not a bureaucracy, as autocratic rulers claim,” he said at a major anniversary event at the Bundestag in Berlin. “It is a tool that defuses conflict and enables peaceful solutions. It is the language of shared responsibility.”
Mattarella shows the great work of European unification. “We have succeeded in creating a region of peace, freedom, prosperity, respect for human rights, which has no parallel in history.” The European Union, emerging from the ruins of war, is capable of placing multilateralism in favor of peace, the Italian President said. “Let us not allow the dream of Europe, of our Union, to be torn apart today by the imitators of dark times. Times that have left behind suffering, misery and destruction.”
Mattarella said that the “never again” response to the Holocaust was now being countered with “again.” “This is what we are experiencing now: war again, racism again, great inequality again, violence again, aggression again.”
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Bundestag President Julia Klöckner, Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz and President of the Federal Constitutional Court, Stephan Harbarth, also took part in the commemorative hour in the Bundestag. They previously laid a wreath at the Neue Wache in Berlin. Neue Wache is Germany’s memorial center for the victims of war and tyranny.
Klöckner called for the defense of democracy
On Remembrance Day, Klöckner called on society to consistently defend peace and democracy. Commemorations should mean more than just remembering, he said in Berlin. “This must mean understanding and action: Peace and democracy are not simply given conditions that can be managed. It is a task that begins every day and no one else can do it for us.”
The Bundestag President emphasized that anyone who honors the victims of war and violence knows where hatred and delusion lead. “He cannot remain silent when peace and democracy are threatened – anywhere in the world.”
“Dictatorship and war are closely related”
At the commemoration hour in the Bundestag, the President of the German War Graves Commission, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, stressed that dictatorship and war are inextricably linked and, conversely, democracy and peace are one. “When war occurs, democracy is lost. And when democracy is abolished, the door to war opens.”
At a wreath-laying ceremony at the Bundeswehr memorial at the Bendlerblock in Berlin, the Inspector General of the Bundeswehr, Carsten Breuer, said: “This day reminds us and obliges us: war and violence must be prevented at all costs.” Breuer also remembered the Bundeswehr soldiers who died in the line of duty.
Steinmeier allowed the warning to be expanded
Remembrance Day was originally introduced to commemorate those who died in the First World War. The first official commemoration was held in the Reichstag in Berlin in 1922. From 1952 onwards, the commemoration was held again in the Federal Republic. Since then, this group has also included civilians who have become victims of war. Remembrance Day is celebrated every year two Sundays before the first Advent with various church services, wreath-layings, and memorial hours throughout Germany.
Federal President Steinmeier has ordered that the commemoration be expanded this year. For the first time, people who were persecuted and killed during National Socialism because of their gender or sexual identity were remembered. Police officers who lost their lives in action were also remembered.
