When I was in college, some of my fellow students set up a peace camp on the quad. They were protesting U.S. bombings of Iraq in 1999 (yes, that's how old I am). The peace campers posted their signs and pitched their tents that spring. It started as a curiosity, became a political statement, and eventually the tents in front of Old Main just became a fixture of the campus. The peace campers were out there, smelly and full of conviction, for 4 or 5 weeks. I didn't join them. Maybe I was lacking in conviction and I definitely did not own a tent. Mostly, I wasn't sure what they were going to accomplish, how they could influence world events by sleeping outdoors at a liberal arts college in the Upper Midwest.
Getting back to 2015... you may remember my post about Pegida. It's a German anti-Islam movement based in Dresden. They are the "Nazis in pinstripes," who are against the Islamization of the West. Now we have our very own chapter of Pegida in Hannover, called Hagida.
If there's anything I am "for" politically, it's immigration. I think immigration is a strength, not a weakness. I used to work for and with immigrants. And now I am an immigrant too. So when my (blond-haired, blue-eyed, German) friend Ulla invited me to come to the counter-demonstration against Hagida, I said yes. It was the anti-anti-Islamization march. Officially they called it the anti-racism march.
There were three marches that evening. First, there was the Hagida march, with 200 participants. There was a counter-protest of the Socialist Worker Youth party, with about 300 people. Then there was our demonstration, with 19,000 people. I guess that means we won. Our demonstration, called 'Hannover says: lights out for racists', was backed by the city. Former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder spoke, as did the mayor and other important people. The lights at the opera house and the office buildings surrounding it were all turned off. Maybe they were trying to confuse the Hagida people into marching somewhere else.
I read that the Hagida marchers and the socialists got into some scuffles a few people were arrested. I didn't see anything like that. Our protest was very peaceful. It was so peaceful, in fact, that I forgot I was protesting and just felt like I was in a slow-moving line to get on an airplane or leave a sporting event. My 18,999 fellow protesters weren't chanting or throwing Molotov cocktails. Someone up ahead was beating a drum but otherwise it was very mellow.
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| A dark opera house |
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| This sign says "with one another" |
German demonstrations, as you might imagine, are very well organized. All groups involved have to apply for a permit first, so that streets can be closed and police can be available. Hagida now wants to demonstrate in Hannover, every Monday starting on the 26th of January. I imagine them all marking their calendars, or setting up a recurring appointment on their smart phones that says "Monday, 5pm, go protest against those low-down dirty Muslims taking over your country."
So back to the question I first raised about the peace camp: did our protest accomplish anything? Unlike the young socialists, we did not physically stop any Hagida people from marching. We may have created some peer pressure to show them that they are very much outnumbered, that the city of Hannover does not agree with their views. We made the international news, showing that Hannover is a city that will not tolerate intolerance. But did we change anyone's mind? Probably not - that takes a lot more work than just getting a bunch of Germans to walk together. It takes people getting to know those who are different from them, and figuring out that they are not really so different after all.
At least that's my opinion. But I do lack political conviction, and a permit, and a tent.
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| "Hannover remains open to the world and tolerant. There is no place here for Nazis and Fascists." |
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