Berlin Calls for Peace

It's a leaden-grey and chilly Saturday in Berlin, and thousands of people are streaming down to Alexanderplatz in the city center, wrapped up well against the freezing air. Around 100 000 people are expected at the square for a demonstration calling for "No War on Iraq."

Indeed, as people gather to start the march, it seems the message has brought out many more than expected.

"I want to do something to stop this war," says 77-year-old Herbert Lein from the east Berlin district of Friedrichshain. It is not his first demonstration: "Actually, it's probably about my fiftieth," Lein says, who was in Dresden when it was carpet-bombed on February 14, 1945.

Lein says he will be writing the U.S. president a very long and angry e-mail when he gets home. "I know that dropping bombs isn't going to solve anything."

Anti-war enthusiasts

21 year-old Arne and his 27 year-old friend Miguel took a special bus from Hanover to get to the protest in Berlin. They may be underdressed for Saturday's cold, but are all the more enthusiastic when it comes to their anti-war position and are equally eager to talk. "It's no use just sitting around at home," says Arne, clutching a tin of beer tightly to his chest, "people need to get out and show that they're opposed to war."

Shivering in the cold, he asks "why is it that so many European governments support military action when 80 percent of the people are against military action?"

The meaning of peace

The demonstration moves off at 12:30 pm. Passing the cathedral, civil-rights activist and theologian Friedrich Schorlemmer makes a speech on the church's steps. Welcoming the presence of representatives from so many different religions, he says the word "peace" plays an important role in most religions, and that governments shouldn't try and justify war by invoking peace.

Not far from the cathedral, U.S. citizen Bridget from Munich stands with her German husband and a still unfurled banner. On it are the words "Americans Against the War" and then below it in German, "we are the majority."

Indeed, it seems there are a lot of Americans milling around. One man has shipped in a consignment of perfectly produced "Stop the War" signs from a company in Seattle. And another woman hoists up a stick with a large pretzel pinned to the top, the bready arms of the roll forming a perfect peace sign.

Joint call for peace

A huge array of organizations is represented on this peace march -- the German Communist Party, the Green Party, the Construction Workers' Union, various leftwing groups, a host of Christian organizations, the Turkish Communist Party, not to mention several rather drunk punks.

Unter den Linden, Berlin's East-West axis, is packed, and the demonstration spills out into the side streets. Forming a carpet of bright color beneath the leaden Berlin sky, the crowd is dotted with flags of many nations: Palestine, Britain, Cuba and Italy.

Strolling past the statue of Frederick the Great, Prussia's Soldier King, already splashed with red paint, one demonstrator sits on the figure's pedestal holding a placard with the message "Make Art Not War."

At the U.S. Embassy, a ring of defenses blocks the surrounding roads, while access to the building is only possible through a maze of concrete blocks and fences and a chain of green police vans.

Despite the police here, their presence is otherwise minimal -- limited to the securing of sensitive sites and taking occasional photos from the top of police vans with the cameras of picture hungry demonstrators.

More than expected

As the crowd arrives at the demonstration's final destination, the "Siegesäule," or Victory Column, and the organizers announce that 500,000 people have turned out in Berlin on this freezing February day, a great cheer goes up.

Those who have the stamina to stick around will be treated to east German rock group The Puhdys, peacenik songwriter Konstantin Wecker and a host of other German stars.

But will this demonstration actually get what it demands? No, it seems is the consensus among the protestors, but sometimes you just have to make yourself heard.