"Create peace without weapons": This is one of the core demands of the peace movement and its annual Easter marches.

In times of Russian war of aggression, this message seems to some to be more relevant than it has been for a long time.

To others it sounds like mockery, like a call to the Ukrainians to submit to Putin's war of aggression without resistance.

Leonie Feuerbach

Editor in Politics.

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"When Easter marchers now call for disarmament and propose in interviews to 'support Ukraine non-violently', they spit in the face of the defenders of Kiev and Kharkiv," wrote the FDP politician Alexander Graf Lambsdorff in a guest article for "Zeit".

The "Easter Marchers" are "Putin's fifth column".

Kristian Golla finds it “simply underground”.

He belongs to the Bonn "Network Peace Cooperatives", an umbrella organization that provides an overview of the many locally and regionally organized Easter marches.

In the vast majority of calls, the Russian President is clearly named as the aggressor.

There are 124 entries in his event database.

Some demonstrations took place on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, most are announced for this Saturday.

They are also directed against the 100 billion special fund for the Bundeswehr

“This does not help Ukraine”

There have been Easter marches in Germany since the 1960s, at times they had hundreds of thousands of participants.

Golla finds it difficult to say whether they will be more popular again against the background of the Russian war of aggression.

"I'm not sure whether Butscha's pictures make people helpless or mobilize them," he says.

But how do the footage of murdered civilians fit in with the demand not to ship weapons to Ukraine?

In general, peace groups are of the opinion that arms deliveries do nothing better, only prolong conflicts, according to Golla.

Weapons often achieved the opposite of what everyone wanted, "that the shooting would stop, that you would no longer see these horrific images".

Putin, who already tramples on international law, might see arms deliveries as an escalation.

"And that doesn't help Ukraine." Rather, it must be negotiated instead of fought.

"Of course, weapons prolong a conflict," says political scientist Ulrich Kühn.

“That is a truism.

However, it should be at the discretion of those who are attacked whether they want to defend themselves with weapons," Kühn told the German Press Agency.

Such a defense is "fully defensible and consistent with the Charter of the United Nations.

In this respect, in my opinion, the classic slogans of the German peace movement fizzle out here.”

From Kühn's point of view, this also explains why peace rallies are currently not as popular as "one might expect in view of a war in Europe".

Kühn is head of the Arms Control and New Technologies research department at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg.

He suspects that a new, more pragmatic peace movement could emerge around the Fridays for Future protesters;

a peace movement that clearly names Putin's war of aggression.

An alternative Easter march has been announced for this Saturday in Berlin.

Groups such as Adopt a Revolution, which works for Syrian civil society, and the Alliance of Ukrainian Organizations have called for their own peace march.

The motto: "Stop Russian wars - for freedom and justice".

Peace yes, pacifism no

"We don't want to demonstrate together with those who understand autocrats," says Ferdinand Dürr, a spokesman for "Adopt a Revolution".

The Easter March movement traditionally blames NATO and the Bundeswehr for conflicts and does not recognize that the danger of war emanates primarily from autocracies and dictatorships.

In the call for the Easter March in Berlin, the Russian attack on Ukraine was not mentioned at all.

The traditional peace movement focuses too much on states, alliances, and spheres of influence, losing sight of the victims of war - such as the people who suffer from Putin's bombing terror in Syria and Ukraine.

"There are people who really mean well, who want peace for us," agrees Oleksandra Keudel from the "Alliance of Ukrainian Organizations".

“But peace must come with freedom and democracy, and that is not possible with Russia.

No Ukrainian is safe if Russia wins.”

Therefore, demands for neutrality or willingness to compromise were misleading.

Instead, the Ukrainians must be helped by all means.

"Otherwise we will live in a world where violence prevails instead of humanity."

Kristian Golla says the Berlin Easter March, which does not mention the Russian attack in its appeal and allows Russian flags, is not representative of the peace movement.

However, this applies all the more to groups that are demanding arms deliveries.

Friedrich Dürr, spokesman for the alternative Easter march in Berlin, says: "We belong to the peace movement." But they are not a pacifist organization.