Chapter 9 Te Spaces and Places of the Peace Movement Susanne Schregel Helmut wir kommen, wenn’s sein muß auch geschwommen! (Helmut, we’re coming, even if we have to swim!) 1 Under a clear blue autumn sky, hand in hand, flowers, songs, a 108-km-long Festival of Peace, a human chain in loops and tangles, colorful and diverse, vivid and creative, winding through dense hous- ing, across town squares, waves building up and swirling around cars and buses, meandering across to the four-lane highway, finally spill- ing over onto the neighboring stubble fields: a vibrant ribbon as a living symbol. 2 Resistance against the arms race has grown considerably in the course of the past year and has led to numerous regional activities. Te Eas- ter march no longer took place just in one or two big cities like it had in the 1950s, it was organized almost everywhere throughout West Germany. Te fight for nuclear weapon-free zones has also spread countrywide, starting with activities in small towns and big cities in the north as well as the south. In the meantime, a number of different forms of protest against the continuous arms buildup have been developed regionally. An hour of silence is regularly held in an increasing number of locations in the Federal Republic. Many different kinds of vigils are being kept. Te idea of peace camps … has taken root here as well. Boycotts, blockades, and similar forms of protest against armament have become daily events. 3 Tese three excerpts serve to spotlight the history of the peace movement: Hundreds of thousands of participants flocked to a mass demonstration in Bonn on 10 October 1981. Among the crowd, the crew of the Disarmament addressed Chancellor Helmut Schmidt with the slogan cited above. Te po- etic description in the second quotation refers to the 108-km-long human