Demonstration | Dispute over the Russian House reaches the street

Scene at the BSW rally under the motto "Bridges instead of walls: In support of the Russian House and the Goethe Institutes in Russia" Photo: dpa/Fabian Sommer If it were a Friday like any other, there would be a vigil with Ukrainian flags in front of the Russian House on Berlin's Friedrichstrasse until 8 p.m. But on this day, from 6 p.m., a BSW rally will take place there against the planned closure of the cultural center, which opened in 1984. That's why the activists move to the next intersection and stand there with around 50 other people at a counter-rally.

Germany blames Russia for the drone incident at Leipzig/Halle Airport. It wants to respond by dissolving the consulate general in Bonn and by closing the Russian House of Culture and Science in Berlin, which the GDR once built and gave to the Soviet Union. Its employees and their families should leave the Federal Republic. But it doesn't happen that quickly. First of all, a 2011 agreement must be terminated by December 6th at the latest so that it is not automatically extended for five years.

At the entrance to the Russian House on Wednesday evening it was said that it was no longer accessible to visitors. On Friday evening it is brightly lit again. Guests stream in and out, participants in the rally get warm drinks in the open café, while BSW state chairman Alexander King speaks on the stage, followed by former Bundestag member Sevim Dağdelen. As far as the Russian House is concerned, both of them agree with the Communist Platform of the Left: it should remain open.

»German-Soviet friendship developed in the GDR. It became - this is not an exaggeration - a matter of the heart for millions of people," says a statement from the Federal Spokesperson's Council of the Communist Platform (KPF). »We have been living in a different Germany for more than a quarter of a century. And hatred of Russians is once again a priority. In the old Federal Republic, this hatred always existed, more or less subliminally.”

Germany is preparing to wage war - again against Russia. Apparently the war in Ukraine makes rearmament necessary, according to the KPF. To avoid a nuclear inferno, the last bridges with Russia must not be burned now. “Culture was such a bridge after 1945, and the Russian House must remain such a bridge.”

Bettina Jarasch, leader of the Green Party in the Berlin House of Representatives, sees things completely differently. “I can breathe more freely when I know that nothing is happening in this house anymore,” she said at the counter-rally. This is “a mild reaction” to the drone attack in Leipzig and “overdue.” Jarasch regrets that Russia wants to close the Goethe Institutes in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg in return, but that doesn't really make her sad. “Nothing more could happen,” the politician waves. In principle, only German courses were offered there. Culture is being suppressed in Russia.

The counter-demonstrators will be happy when the Russian House is finally closed. Photo: dpa/Fabian Sommer Between the rally and the counter-rally, a third group was positioned - a dozen men and women, mostly Russians, who chanted, among other things: "Rossiya bjes Putin." So Russia without its President Vladimir Putin. This group displays white and blue flags. This is the “Russian flag of peace,” explains one of the men, who is himself Russian. The state flag of Russia is white, blue and red. But the opposition members deliberately removed the “blood red” to show that they do not agree with the bloodshed in Ukraine.

»Peoples are not enemies. They’re just being incited.”

Several hundred people take part in the BSW rally, including Ellen Brombacher and other comrades from the Communist Platform. Karsten Hilse, a member of the Saxon Bundestag from the AfD, was not invited, but didn't come by by chance either; he was deliberately there in front of the Russian House. Why? “Because I want to be on the streets with people for peace and international understanding, regardless of their basic political beliefs,” Hilse tells “nd” when he is recognized by an employee of the left-wing faction. Hilse is convinced: »Peoples are not enemies. They are just being incited.” The escalation scares him.

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