CPA - The Guardian

My name is Max Renkl. I am the chairman of the circle of friends Ernst-Thaelmann Memorial, Ziegenhals (near Berlin). We have now our hardest times. The authorities privatised this anti-fascist memorial and the new owner wants to destroy it. He plans to build instead of the memorial some upper class housing there.

A short look back: The memorial was built in the ’50s. The GDR built it to remember the meeting of the leadership – the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and its chairman Ernst Thaelmann on the February 7, 1933. On January 30, 1933, one week before the Nazis came to power in Germany Thaelmann and his comrades held the first meeting of the German Party to organise the anti-fascist resistance.

Thaelmann gave his famous Ziegenhalser Speech there, where he called all anti-fascists to unite and fight against the fascist regime.The communists needed one week to start the struggle against the Hitler-regime.

After 1989/1990 the Treuhand-Anstalt (a government agency set up to sell all the peoples’ property of the GDR to private hands and the state) was the owner of the soil, the building and the memorial. They sold it in 2003 to an official of Brandenburg. This guy closed the memorial immediately and tried for seven years to destroy it.

Only broad nationwide and international solidarity prevented a demolition. Now we have to increase our efforts, because the owner wants to destroy the memorial right now and the authorities of Brandenburg support his plans.

These were the reasons why we started an international campaign. The authorities have to understand that there are a lot of people, especially outside of Germany who support our struggle.

We send you an appeal against the demolition of this important and famous memorial. This appeal can be signed – online or on paper. Have a look at our site:
www.etg-ziegenhals.de/Aktuelles

We started to collect signatures three weeks ago and now have around 3,000. This is a good start. Please help us to make this campaign a success.

United we stand!

Kind regards,

Max Renkl

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