WOFÜR WIR KÄMPFEN

Responses to Intolerance, Dehumanisation and the Undermining of Democracy

Wherever one looks: the ghosts of the past are coming to life and obstructing the formation of a peaceful, solidary and humane future for all. As if living beneath the sword of Damocles of elementary ecological dangers were not enough, even in democracies whose status hitherto appeared to be assured, pied pipers have succeeded in selling the political and social poisons of the past as a cure-all, whether these are nativist-racist ideologies of community and their inherent political and racial cleansing, anti-Semitism, authoritarian constitutions or wars that are fed on prejudices and lies. Political and religious leaders fuel resentment and fear, where understanding, empathy and basic unambiguous solidarity with people as human beings are what would be required. This series of talks is less about the ghosts as such – they have been described many times – but primarily about what it means to combat them. Germany, Israel / Palestine and Russia are case studies and the horizons of our experiences.

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I. CONVERSATION WITH IRINA SCHERBAKOWA AND ULRIKE POPPE

Wed 21.8. 4.15 pm - BAUHAUS-MUSEUM WEIMAR, VORTRAGSSAAL 

Experiences of anti-dictatorial dissidence and democratic courage today

DR. IRINA SCHERBAKOWA (Moskau / Berlin / Tel Aviv)

Historian and human rights campaigner, co-founder of Memorial in 1988, in German ex - ile since the Russian attack on Ukraine, Chair of Zukunft Memorial e.V.

ULRIKE POPPE (Berlin)

GDR civil rights activist, co-founder of the net - work ‘Women for Peace’, former Reassessment Commissioner for the State of Brandenburg

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II. CONVERSATION WITH JOSÉ BRUNNER AND JOANA OSMAN

Fri 6.9. 8 pm - DNT WEIMAR, FOYER 

Fascists and racists on the path to power – defending democracy and diversity now.

THOMAS KRÜGER (Berlin)

GDR civil rights activist, former Berlin Senator for the Family and Youth, President of the Fed - eral Agency for Civic Education

CEM ÖZDEMIR (Berlin / Stuttgart)

Anatolian Swabian and first Federal Min - ister of Turkish descent, former Federal Chair of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, Feder - al Minister of Food and Agriculture

HANNAH ZIMMERMANN (Berlin)

Sociologist and long-term campaigner for a comprehensive reworking of the NSU (National Socialist underground) phenomenon, co-author of the feasibility study for an NSU documentation centre in Saxony and a Federal NSU documentation centre.

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III. CONVERSATION WITH JOSÉ BRUNNER AND JOANA OSMAN

Fr 6.9. 20 Uhr - DNT WEIMAR, FOYER

Not monsters but people! Countering ideologies of inequality and practices of dehumanisation. The example of Israel – Palestine.

PROF. DR. JOSÉ BRUNNER (Tel Aviv)

Political scientist, historian, trauma researcher, currently working on a book about the political and psychological vicious cycle of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

JOANA OSMAN (München)

Daughter of a Palestinian father and a German mother, co-founder of ‘The Peace Factory’, author whose novel ‘Wo die Geister tanzen’, a literary investigation of the history of her Palestinian family, was published in 2023.