One week out from Germany's general election, tens of thousands of people gathered in Berlin to protest the growing support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. A quarter of a million people joined a similar rally in Munich last weekend.
Issued on: 16/02/2025
FRANCE24
By: NEWS WIRES
Demonstrators hold placards during a protest against right-wing extremism, racism, anti-Semitism and queerphobia and for social justice, fair working conditions, climate protection and responsible international politics ahead of the upcoming general election, in Berlin, Germany on February 16, 2025. © Christian Mang, Reuters
Tens of thousands of people joined a Berlin demonstration against the far right on Sunday, a week before Germany votes in a hotly contested general election.
Around 30,000 people took part in the protest, according to police, while organisers put the number at 38,000.
Many carried placards with slogans denouncing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is expected to become the second-biggest party in next Sunday's vote.
On the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Dresden, tributes to victims are hijacked by far right
More than 25,000 people died during the Allied firebombing of the city of Dresden, Germany, from February 13 to 15, 1945. Eighty years later, thousands of people have linked hands to form a human chain in the city to pay tribute to the victims and to push back against right-wing extremists who use the anniversary to push their own revisionist agenda.
Issued on: 13/02/2025 -
By: Stéphanie TROUILLARD
By: NEWS WIRES
Demonstrators hold placards during a protest against right-wing extremism, racism, anti-Semitism and queerphobia and for social justice, fair working conditions, climate protection and responsible international politics ahead of the upcoming general election, in Berlin, Germany on February 16, 2025. © Christian Mang, ReutersTens of thousands of people joined a Berlin demonstration against the far right on Sunday, a week before Germany votes in a hotly contested general election.
Around 30,000 people took part in the protest, according to police, while organisers put the number at 38,000.
Many carried placards with slogans denouncing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is expected to become the second-biggest party in next Sunday's vote.
09:03
Robert Porth, 32, an employee at German rail operator Deutsche Bahn, said he was "really scared by the current political developments in Germany".
"I don't want to have to reproach myself later that I sat at home on the sofa and did nothing about it while I still could," he said.
Pensioner Hannelore Reiner, 71, said she saw "a lot of parallels to 1933, to the time before the war when Hitler's fascism came to power".
"A lot reminds me of that. The discussions back then, the exclusion, the anti-Semitism. And I'm afraid history will repeat itself," she said.
The conservative CDU-CSU alliance of former chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to be the biggest party after the election, with the AfD second.
The anti-immigration party has seen its poll ratings edge upwards in recent months and is expected to register a record-breaking score of around 20 percent of votes.
The resurgence of the AfD – aided by US support, most notably from tech billionaire Elon Musk – has alarmed its critics, with several demonstrations attracting large crowds in recent weeks.
Some 250,000 people attended a demonstration against the far right in Munich last weekend, with a similar demo in Berlin the week before drawing around 160,000.
(AFP)
Robert Porth, 32, an employee at German rail operator Deutsche Bahn, said he was "really scared by the current political developments in Germany".
"I don't want to have to reproach myself later that I sat at home on the sofa and did nothing about it while I still could," he said.
Pensioner Hannelore Reiner, 71, said she saw "a lot of parallels to 1933, to the time before the war when Hitler's fascism came to power".
"A lot reminds me of that. The discussions back then, the exclusion, the anti-Semitism. And I'm afraid history will repeat itself," she said.
The conservative CDU-CSU alliance of former chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to be the biggest party after the election, with the AfD second.
The anti-immigration party has seen its poll ratings edge upwards in recent months and is expected to register a record-breaking score of around 20 percent of votes.
The resurgence of the AfD – aided by US support, most notably from tech billionaire Elon Musk – has alarmed its critics, with several demonstrations attracting large crowds in recent weeks.
Some 250,000 people attended a demonstration against the far right in Munich last weekend, with a similar demo in Berlin the week before drawing around 160,000.
(AFP)
On the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Dresden, tributes to victims are hijacked by far right
More than 25,000 people died during the Allied firebombing of the city of Dresden, Germany, from February 13 to 15, 1945. Eighty years later, thousands of people have linked hands to form a human chain in the city to pay tribute to the victims and to push back against right-wing extremists who use the anniversary to push their own revisionist agenda.
Issued on: 13/02/2025 -
By: Stéphanie TROUILLARD
FRANCE24
A mixture of explosive and incendiary devices
In January 1945, the Soviets launched a major offensive against Germany and made rapid progress. As the end of the conflict seemed within reach, the Anglo-American General Staff decided to revive the ‘Operation Thunderclap’, which had been proposed in the summer of 1944 and initially intended to massively bomb Berlin. But in 1945, the plan was modified to carry out bombing raids on many cities in eastern Germany, including Dresden.
“The aim was to hinder the reinforcement of German troops from the Western Front by paralysing German infrastructure,” says Dutch historian Bas von Benda-Beckmann, author of a thesis on the German historiography of the Allied bombings.
“In addition, British military leaders believed that a decisive blow aimed at civilian areas would be capable of provoking a complete collapse of German society and, consequently, the rapid surrender of Germany. The Western Allies also wanted to demonstrate to Stalin that they were contributing to the Allied victory” with the bombing campaign, he adds.
Dresden, one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, had been spared Allied air attacks until the night of February 13, 1945, when the first bombs fell on the former capital of Saxony. “The Royal Air Force first bombed the city with 800 planes, dropping a mixture of explosive and incendiary devices. The aim of the raid was to cause as much damage as possible over a wide area. Over the next two days, the US Air Force continued these attacks with a further 400 aircraft,” Von Benda-Beckmann says.
View taken from the destroyed Dresden town hall after the Allied bombing raids of February 13-14, 1945. © Walter Hahn, AFP
Victor Gregg, a British prisoner of war in Dresden in 1945 who lived through the Allied bombings of the city, described the onset of the attack in the Guardian in 2013:
“As the incendiaries fell, the phosphorus clung to the bodies of those below, turning them into human torches. The screaming of those who were being burned alive was added to the cries of those not yet hit. There was no need for flares to lead the second wave of bombers to their target, as the whole city had become a gigantic torch. It must have been visible to the pilots from a hundred miles away.”
“I still suffer at times the memories of those terrible events,” Gregg wrote.
The British veteran, who died in 2021, wrote that he considered the Dresden bombing a war crime, and many historians have seen the attack as a senseless killing of civilians in the final stretch of the war.
In the months leading up to the infamous bombing, however, the end of World War II did not look so imminent.
“In the West, the Allies had been slowed by the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 and were only as far as the Rhine. In the East, the Red Army was still blocked around Breslau (Wrocław) in Poland,” says Jérôme Bazin, lecturer in contemporary history at the Université Paris-Est Créteil.
Victor Gregg, a British prisoner of war in Dresden in 1945 who lived through the Allied bombings of the city, described the onset of the attack in the Guardian in 2013:
“As the incendiaries fell, the phosphorus clung to the bodies of those below, turning them into human torches. The screaming of those who were being burned alive was added to the cries of those not yet hit. There was no need for flares to lead the second wave of bombers to their target, as the whole city had become a gigantic torch. It must have been visible to the pilots from a hundred miles away.”
“I still suffer at times the memories of those terrible events,” Gregg wrote.
The British veteran, who died in 2021, wrote that he considered the Dresden bombing a war crime, and many historians have seen the attack as a senseless killing of civilians in the final stretch of the war.
In the months leading up to the infamous bombing, however, the end of World War II did not look so imminent.
“In the West, the Allies had been slowed by the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 and were only as far as the Rhine. In the East, the Red Army was still blocked around Breslau (Wrocław) in Poland,” says Jérôme Bazin, lecturer in contemporary history at the Université Paris-Est Créteil.
The city of Dresden destroyed by deadly Allied air raids in February 1945. © Associated Press
A mixture of explosive and incendiary devices
In January 1945, the Soviets launched a major offensive against Germany and made rapid progress. As the end of the conflict seemed within reach, the Anglo-American General Staff decided to revive the ‘Operation Thunderclap’, which had been proposed in the summer of 1944 and initially intended to massively bomb Berlin. But in 1945, the plan was modified to carry out bombing raids on many cities in eastern Germany, including Dresden.
“The aim was to hinder the reinforcement of German troops from the Western Front by paralysing German infrastructure,” says Dutch historian Bas von Benda-Beckmann, author of a thesis on the German historiography of the Allied bombings.
“In addition, British military leaders believed that a decisive blow aimed at civilian areas would be capable of provoking a complete collapse of German society and, consequently, the rapid surrender of Germany. The Western Allies also wanted to demonstrate to Stalin that they were contributing to the Allied victory” with the bombing campaign, he adds.
Dresden, one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, had been spared Allied air attacks until the night of February 13, 1945, when the first bombs fell on the former capital of Saxony. “The Royal Air Force first bombed the city with 800 planes, dropping a mixture of explosive and incendiary devices. The aim of the raid was to cause as much damage as possible over a wide area. Over the next two days, the US Air Force continued these attacks with a further 400 aircraft,” Von Benda-Beckmann says.
Photo dated 1945 showing residents and emergency personnel cleaning up the rubble in the east German city of Dresden, following the Allied Bombings on February 13, 1945. © Richard Peter, AFP
Most of the bombs were dropped on residential areas. This old town, with its narrow streets and alleys lined by wooden buildings and houses, burned for several days. “The destruction was rapid. In just a few days, the centre of the town was razed to the ground. It wasn't as quick as the atomic explosion in Hiroshima, but there was destruction of stupefying proportions,” Bazin says.
A dispute over the human toll
The death toll was difficult to establish precisely, says Bazin. “Calculating the number of victims was a contentious subject. Bodies were burnt, and many people fled the devastated city while the country was in total chaos. Survivors’ accounts bear witness to families being separated and dispersed.”
The Nazi authorities took advantage of the situation to inflate the number of victims. As early as March 1945, Joseph Goebbels, the Third Reich's Minister of Propaganda, put forward the figure of 250,000 dead “in order to take advantage of international indignation and, above all, counter British criticism of the systematic destruction of cities” by the Nazi regime, notes historian Robert Beck from the University of Tours, author of the study "The bombing of Dresden. Remembrance, commemorations, historiography" (Le bombardement de Dresde. Souvenir, commémorations, historiographie).
In the post-war decades, estimates of the death toll varied widely. After the war, historians in the new Federal Republic of Germany put the number as high as 400,000 dead – a toll that exceeded the number of victims of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
Beck says that this high estimate could have been a way of minimising the horror of the destructive power of the atomic bomb at a time when West Germany, soon to become a member of NATO, was placing itself under the protection of the American nuclear umbrella.
Most of the bombs were dropped on residential areas. This old town, with its narrow streets and alleys lined by wooden buildings and houses, burned for several days. “The destruction was rapid. In just a few days, the centre of the town was razed to the ground. It wasn't as quick as the atomic explosion in Hiroshima, but there was destruction of stupefying proportions,” Bazin says.
A dispute over the human toll
The death toll was difficult to establish precisely, says Bazin. “Calculating the number of victims was a contentious subject. Bodies were burnt, and many people fled the devastated city while the country was in total chaos. Survivors’ accounts bear witness to families being separated and dispersed.”
The Nazi authorities took advantage of the situation to inflate the number of victims. As early as March 1945, Joseph Goebbels, the Third Reich's Minister of Propaganda, put forward the figure of 250,000 dead “in order to take advantage of international indignation and, above all, counter British criticism of the systematic destruction of cities” by the Nazi regime, notes historian Robert Beck from the University of Tours, author of the study "The bombing of Dresden. Remembrance, commemorations, historiography" (Le bombardement de Dresde. Souvenir, commémorations, historiographie).
In the post-war decades, estimates of the death toll varied widely. After the war, historians in the new Federal Republic of Germany put the number as high as 400,000 dead – a toll that exceeded the number of victims of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
Beck says that this high estimate could have been a way of minimising the horror of the destructive power of the atomic bomb at a time when West Germany, soon to become a member of NATO, was placing itself under the protection of the American nuclear umbrella.
A woman lights a candle during a rally by Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD) commemorating the 72nd anniversary of the deadly Allied bombing of Dresden during WWII in Dresden, eastern Germany on February 14, 2017. © Jens Meyer, AP
In 2010, after six years of research, a commission of German historians finally concluded that 25,000 people had perished under the 650,000 incendiary bombs dropped by the Americans and the British. But this figure has since been contested by Germany's far right, including the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which believes that it underestimates the death toll. In its political discourse the party uses the term ‘Bombenholocaust’ ("Holocaust of bombs").
Von Benda-Beckmann says that the aim of the extreme right is to use the bombing of Dresden to minimise the crimes perpetrated by the Nazis: “The extreme right wants to argue that Dresden constitutes a war crime that far exceeds the destruction caused by Luftwaffe bombers and is ‘just as horrible’ as the atrocities committed at Auschwitz and other death camps.”
Using this line of argument is not a recent development. Since German reunification in 1990, the anniversary of the destruction of Dresden “has served as a rallying point for far-right groups", Bazin says. “The commemorations of February 13 have been an opportunity for various ultra-nationalist groups to make their voices heard in the public arena, by saying that Germany also suffered during the war, that it was a victim of violence.”
A human chain
Parties opposed to the far right in the 1990s began to organise anti-fascist demonstrations in Dresden on February 13.
And since 2010, thousands of people mark the day by linking hands to form a human chain in the city centre to pay tribute to the 25,000 victims, but also to protest against marches organised by the extreme right.
This human chain is part of a series of municipal commemorations surrounding World War II, including events marking the deportation of the Jews of Dresden and the German surrender.
In 2010, after six years of research, a commission of German historians finally concluded that 25,000 people had perished under the 650,000 incendiary bombs dropped by the Americans and the British. But this figure has since been contested by Germany's far right, including the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which believes that it underestimates the death toll. In its political discourse the party uses the term ‘Bombenholocaust’ ("Holocaust of bombs").
Von Benda-Beckmann says that the aim of the extreme right is to use the bombing of Dresden to minimise the crimes perpetrated by the Nazis: “The extreme right wants to argue that Dresden constitutes a war crime that far exceeds the destruction caused by Luftwaffe bombers and is ‘just as horrible’ as the atrocities committed at Auschwitz and other death camps.”
Using this line of argument is not a recent development. Since German reunification in 1990, the anniversary of the destruction of Dresden “has served as a rallying point for far-right groups", Bazin says. “The commemorations of February 13 have been an opportunity for various ultra-nationalist groups to make their voices heard in the public arena, by saying that Germany also suffered during the war, that it was a victim of violence.”
A human chain
Parties opposed to the far right in the 1990s began to organise anti-fascist demonstrations in Dresden on February 13.
And since 2010, thousands of people mark the day by linking hands to form a human chain in the city centre to pay tribute to the 25,000 victims, but also to protest against marches organised by the extreme right.
This human chain is part of a series of municipal commemorations surrounding World War II, including events marking the deportation of the Jews of Dresden and the German surrender.
People hold hands to create a human chain along the banks of the River Elbe in Dresden, eastern Germany on February 13, 2024, during commemorations marking the 79th anniversary of the city's bombing in 1945. © Jens Schlueter, AFP
A communiqué from the city council web site reads:
“On February 13, 2025, we commemorate the bombing of Dresden 80 years ago. We commemorate the immeasurable suffering that the National Socialist tyranny brought upon humanity.”
“Unfortunately, Dresden's destruction in World War II was not an isolated incident; the city was neither ‘innocent’ nor a ‘victim’,” the communiqué reads, recalling the fate of the cities of Coventry and Leningrad, which were largely destroyed by the Wehrmacht.
In the run-up to the German federal elections scheduled for February 23, and with the AfD in second place in the polls behind the conservative CDU/CSU, the municipality was hoping to attract as many participants as possible to this year’s commemoration.
“February 13 reminds us to take a stand when our democracy is in danger, when people are discriminated against and intimidated, when verbal and physical violence has become acceptable,” the city statement notes.
At 9.45pm, church bells throughout the city were set to ring, marking the time when the first bombs fell on Dresden 80 years ago.
This article was translated from the original in French.
A communiqué from the city council web site reads:
“On February 13, 2025, we commemorate the bombing of Dresden 80 years ago. We commemorate the immeasurable suffering that the National Socialist tyranny brought upon humanity.”
“Unfortunately, Dresden's destruction in World War II was not an isolated incident; the city was neither ‘innocent’ nor a ‘victim’,” the communiqué reads, recalling the fate of the cities of Coventry and Leningrad, which were largely destroyed by the Wehrmacht.
In the run-up to the German federal elections scheduled for February 23, and with the AfD in second place in the polls behind the conservative CDU/CSU, the municipality was hoping to attract as many participants as possible to this year’s commemoration.
“February 13 reminds us to take a stand when our democracy is in danger, when people are discriminated against and intimidated, when verbal and physical violence has become acceptable,” the city statement notes.
At 9.45pm, church bells throughout the city were set to ring, marking the time when the first bombs fell on Dresden 80 years ago.
This article was translated from the original in French.
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