At the time, Christa Mientus-Schirmer was a young woman. The country in the former Eastern Bloc was another place where hopes for democracy were crushed on orders from the Kremlin in what became known as the 'Prague Spring.' It was a similiar situation in Poland in the early 1980s when the independent Solidarnosc trade union movement, which was pushing for reforms, was suppressed with Soviet support. 'But the fear that the Russian tanks spread in East Germany at the time is naturally something that was talked about in the family,' she says. As a child on vacation with her parents in the Ore Mountains, Mientus-Schirmer heard tanks rumbling into what was then Czechoslovakia. Christa Mientus-Schirmer was among an estimated 100,000 protesters on Sunday in Berlin Image: Marcel Fürstenau/DWĬhrista Mientus-Schirmer was born a few years later and did not experience the fight for freedom, which was crushed with Soviet help. Juni, a famed boulevard named after a failed popular uprising in 1953 against the Communist dictatorship in East Germany. Holding up two open umbrellas in the national colors of Ukraine, she had her back to Strasse des 17. 'I am terribly sad that in the 21st century, we have a war in Europe again,' says Mientus-Schirmer, who grew up in East Berlin, long separated from the West by a wall. The 67-year-old Berlin resident did not name names, but it was clear she meant Russia's President Vladimir Putin, whom many protesters on this Sunday, 77 years after the end of the Second World War, likened to Adolf Hitler on placards.

'Those responsible (for the invasion) should be in The Hague,' says Christa Mientus-Schirmer. Protesters want Putin to face consequences A man with huge white wings like an angel of peace, dressed in the Ukrainian national colors of blue and yellow, faced the crowds, his message plain for all to see on a cardboard sign: 'Putin to The Hague.' It was a reference to the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands, which is responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity, crimes of aggression and war crimes. The going was slow at Berlin's landmark Brandenburg Gate half an hour before the official start of the rally. This protester wants the Russian president to face the International Criminal Court for war crimes Image: Marcel Fürstenau/DW The train platforms on the city's outskirts were crowded with people, like on a regular work day during the morning rush hour. A sea of blue and yellowĪnyone moving around in the German capital on Sunday at noon under a bright blue sky could sense that an entire city was in deep solidarity with the people in Ukraine. Either way, it was a powerful demonstration for peace, shortly after the start of the war on February 24. But at least five times as many joined the demonstration with police estimating the number at 100,000. Organizers spoke of half a million. The organizers of the anti-war rally, an alliance of churches, trade unions, environmental groups and peace initiatives, had expected 20,000 protesters. This time however, the occasion is different ⁠- Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Juni boulevard turns into a gigantic fan mile, teeming with people as far as the eye can see. Aerial shots of a sea of people are normally common at the Berlin Marathon in late September, or at major international soccer events, when the city's Strasse des 17.

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