Moreen Thuemmler

For a Livable and Peaceful Future, for Peace

This is the edited transcript of a video message by Moreen Thuemmler, delivered to the Schiller Institute’s Oct. 27, 2022 International Seminar, “For World Peace: Stop the Danger of Nuclear War,” the second seminar of current and former elected officials of the world. Ms. Thuemmler is with the Forum for Freedom and Democracy, which has been organizing the big demonstrations in Germany. She spoke in German with English interpretation. The title has been added. The video of her presentation is available here.

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Schiller Institute

Moreen Thuemmler

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:

I would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. My name is Moreen Thuemmler, I am 42 years old, a mother of three children, and I live in Plauen in Germany. If one wants to describe the current situation in Germany, one doesn’t really know where to begin. I will try anyway.

Everywhere, people are taking to the streets by the hundreds, by the thousands, by the tens of thousands. They are driven by existential fears, fears for the future. They are driven by anger and despair, anger and despair concerning a government which, by means of decisions, actions, and clear breaches of election promises, is quite obviously opposing its own citizens entrusted to its care.

People feel not only abandoned by the federal government, but betrayed. People are in an uproar about being forced to freeze even at work and at home, while the politicians can afford to build themselves in Berlin a lavish new building for a planned €770 million, which has already cost half a billion euros, and is to be inflated now to a gigantic extent, which, when finished, will exceed the White House and the Elysée Palace.

Huge financial transfers abroad, for example to Ukraine, is a waste of taxpayers’ money. Billions invested in armaments, while there’s nothing left for education and healthcare, led people to oppose and no longer put up with all of this. Companies are going bankrupt due to the immense price increases; employees are losing their jobs and the livelihood that goes with it. There is no money for our old people and for the children. The sanctions policy is inflicting enormous and perhaps even irreparable damage on Germany, turning a once progressive, innovative and rich country into a rubble heap.

People are afraid: They’re afraid of losing their jobs, of impoverishment, afraid of expropriation. And above all, people are afraid of war.

The word “peace” echoes across all of the streets in Germany at demonstrations, rallies, vigils; it can be read on placards, flyers, posters, tee-shirts, stickers, and buttons. The little word “peace” which means everything to all of us, and decides everything—peace is the highest and most valuable thing to strive for worldwide.

I think I can speak for all people when I say, peace is the only important thing that we should bring about and leave to our children. The institution of citizen protests is finding a new platform these days, based on a brutal threat of war and nuclear extinction. The great people—the organizers and hosts of civic protests, peace movements, rallies, demonstrations, and vigils—are attacked, defamed, discredited in their job-related and private sphere, and sharply criticized, first and foremost, by a large part of the press.

And yet, or precisely because of this, these people stand firmly together. They organize, connect, network, and work together to develop solutions and peace plans, and this is also the motivation of the Forum for Democracy and Freedom, to which I belong. Like the entire movement, we all have one, common goal: peace in Europe. And there are their clear demands. Germany is ripe for this: the immediate commencement of diplomatic talks, the safeguarding of peace, the drawing up and implementation of a peace plan, an immediate halt to all arms deliveries; referendums and thus a real say for the citizens; securing and strengthening the economy; the real freedom of speech, the real freedom of the press, and the rolling back all corona measures.

For this, the people here in Germany stand together day after day in the streets for a livable and peaceful future, for peace. Thank you for your attention.