The Green mayor of Berlin-Mitte wants to replace a peace statue with a “neutral” monument. Japan has been demanding the removal of the statue for years.
The so-called comfort women statue in Moabit in the Mitte district Photo: Miriam Klingl
Berlin taz | The life-size sculpture “Petrified Survivors” by the British artist Rebecca Hawkins shows a petrified woman with a baby on her back, who is wrapped in strangler figs and stands on a compass that shows the four cardinal points. This is how Daniel Walther describes the monument that he created with the association founded on his initiative in June SASVIC (Society Against Sexual Violence in Conflict e. V.) temporarily near the war museum in Wedding. “The woman and her child are connected by intertwined roots and shared suffering and cannot continue their lives until the perpetrators are brought to justice,” Walther explains to taz.
The lawyer was for many years on the federal board of the Junge Union and chairman of the International Young Democrat Union (IYDU), an alliance of youth organizations of conservative and Christian Democratic parties. He worked for an arms company and now works for the company registered in the Bundestag’s lobby register HigginsWalther says that the inspiration for founding SASVIC was the dispute over the peace statue erected in Moabit four years ago. It commemorates the fate of an estimated 200,000 Asian victims of forced prostitution by the Japanese army during World War II and has put sexual violence in military conflicts on the agenda in Berlin.
The association, which currently has seven members and is chaired by Walther, wants to promote “art in public spaces on the subject of sexual violence in conflicts,” according to him. And, in contrast to the peace statue, it is pursuing “a general and global approach,” “free of demarcation problems and one-sided addressees.” In July, SASVIC submitted an application to the Mitte district office to erect the statue. The members of the responsible committee “Art in Buildings and in Urban Spaces” have not yet been able to agree on a recommendation.
The second SASVIC chairman is Tilo Fuchs, once an employee of a Green Bundestag member, known in the Green district association of the Mitte district as a “super-realo” and “ultra-realo” and well connected. Today he is the managing director of the company Advanced Level PoliticsThe third member of the SASVIC board is treasurer Ines Röleke, who is also responsible for Higgins works.
Embassy exerts pressure
Japan’s government has been demanding the removal of the Peace Statue for years. Its embassy and right-wing Japanese circles are putting pressure on state and district politicians. There have also been threats to end the twin city relationship with Tokyo, which the embassy denies. Although the district alone decides on the statue, the Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) promised a “solution” during his visit to Tokyo in May. He said: “It is important that we make changes.”
According to Walther from the SASVIC association, “our application has nothing to do with the peace statue.” But SASVIC wanted to erect the sculpture “Petrified Survivors” exactly at the current location of the peace statue. The district has Korea Associationwho had erected the peace statue at Unionsplatz (corner of Birkenstrasse/Bremer Strasse) four years ago with a temporary permit, was asked to dismantle it by 28 September.
Mitte’s district mayor Stefanie Remlinger (Greens) told taz about SASVIC’s project, which she welcomed: “I advised against putting up the artwork on Union Square after the permit for the Peace Statue there expired, because then there would be a fear that ‘Petrified Survivors’ could be perceived as a counter-project to the Peace Statue.” The artist Hawkins describes her sculpture as “completely independent” of the Peace Statue. Hawkins: “Petrified Survivors is not dedicated to a specific group of survivors, but to all groups worldwide – women, children and men.”
Like Wegner, Remlinger is in principle in favor of a memorial against violence against women. The Mitte district has even already decided to put up a permanent general memorial on the topic of sexualized violence. Remlinger said that Hawkins, along with her supporter Jack Straw, former British Foreign Secretary, and the later SASVIC founders, visited her “about a year ago” to “contribute to the debate with another work of art.”
Statue should not be allowed to remain
Did SASVIC perhaps only start its activities for another monument at the request of political officials? Remlinger said: “I do not participate in such speculation.” Walther said that they were “not asked” to do so. SASVIC works on a voluntary basis. He hopes to cover the costs of the sculpture with donations. Hawkins wrote to the taz: “Budgets and time frames depend on the type and extent of the approval.”
There is little to be said against a second memorial. But why should the peace statue, which has brought the issue to the forefront of public attention, be removed? According to Remlinger, it is not legally possible to keep it: “Without a competition process, an installation can only be approved for a limited period of time within the framework of the granting of a corresponding special use permit.”
Deviations from this would violate the “principle of equal treatment”. Remlinger: “The legally compliant solution is to place the statue on a private property that is accessible to the public.” She is in “good discussions” with “various property owners” about this. Japan’s government has so far always given up its opposition to comfort women statues when they were moved to private property. This also meant that the public debates on sexual violence in war disappeared, as Tokyo had hoped.
Remlinger’s position is not shared by the majority of the Green Party in her district. On Tuesday, they spoke out in favor of keeping the peace statue and supported two motions that are on the agenda of the district assembly (BVV) this Thursday: one of residents and one of the leftwhich the SPD and the Greens have now also joined.
“Living place of remembrance”
“The Peace Statue is not only a memorial to past suffering, but also a reminder of the courage of the survivors,” says the residents’ motion, which was also submitted by a Berliner of Japanese descent. “It is a universal symbol for current and future generations, reminding us to be brave and remain vigilant against all forms of sexual violence. The Peace Statue has become a living place of remembrance and learning.”
The motion of the SPD and Left Party factions in turn, calls for a “legal review of how the current toleration can be extended, as well as an investigation into what options there are to preserve the peace statue.” The reason given is that the statue is “an important project of Berlin’s civil society” and “of great importance for public discourse.” The BVV has already spoken out twice in favor of retaining the peace statue.
The spokesperson for the local Green Party faction, Shirin Kreße, does not share the legal opinion expressed by Remlinger and the responsible district councillor Christopher Schriener (Greens) that the peace statue cannot remain. “There are enough examples in our district where temporary special uses have been made permanent,” she told taz. For example, the sculpture Memoria Urbana am Bethlehemkirchplatz.
“It’s a question of political will,” said Kreße. “We don’t want any competition between victims,” but what is striking about SASVIC is that the association has apparently never responded to attempts to contact the Korea Association, which initiated the peace statue and has since been doing educational work on sexual violence in armed conflicts. “For me, the statue is an initiative from below. It gives all victims a space. It is part of the district, it belongs in Mitte,” said Kreße.
Competing applications
SASVIC lists numerous international celebrities with whom it wants to work and with whom it has made initial contacts, including the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winners, the Yazidi activist Nadia Murad and the Congolese gynecologist Denis Mukwege. “It is a dubious counter-proposal that was put together with international contacts,” says Ingrid Bertermann from the Left Party faction to SASVIC. The way it was done is “not decent”. Because: “The peace statue doesn’t harm anyone.”
Bertermann calls the argument that Japanese are making their investments dependent on the disappearance of the statue “silly”. In Tokyo, Prime Minister Wegner had Signing of a letter of intent between Tegel Projekt GmbH and Mitsubishi electric It is about “smart city applications” in digitalization and energy supply. The CDU-led Senate Chancellery was unable to answer a taz query about SASVIC and the Peace Statue by the editorial deadline on Wednesday.
Nataly Han Jung-Hwa from the Korea Association, the independent association based in Moabit in which Berliners with Korean, German and other roots work together and which erected the peace statue, is irritated by the approach of the SASVIC association to the issue of sexual violence, which is actually seen as a welcome one. She fears that a “universal, pathetic monument” will become a dead place “that no one would identify with.” “The peace statue represents the crime as well as the overcoming of suffering by those affected themselves,” says Han. “We need the statue to encourage young people, girls and boys, to learn to speak, to know that their bodies belong to them, that they have the right to defend themselves and that they can be successful.”
Statue at the existing peace statue’s location, advocating for a “neutral” monument instead. This has raised questions about the nature of conflict memorials and their implications for international relations.
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Title: Berlin’s Peace Statue Controversy: Japan Demands Removal, Green Mayor Seeks “Neutral” Alternative
Meta Description: The Green mayor of Berlin-Mitte wants to replace a peace statue with a “neutral” monument, amid Japan’s demands for its removal. Learn more about the controversy surrounding the comfort women statue.
Headings:
- The Comfort Women Statue Controversy
- A “Neutral” Alternative Emerges
- Japan’s Pressure on Berlin
- The Future of the Peace Statue
- A Broader Conversation on Sexual Violence
Content:
The Comfort Women Statue Controversy
In the midst of Berlin’s Moabit district stands a life-size sculpture, “Petrified Survivors,” commemorating the fate of an estimated 200,000 Asian victims of forced prostitution by the Japanese army during World War II. The peace statue, erected four years ago, has become a symbol of resistance against sexual violence in military conflicts. However, its presence has sparked controversy, with Japan’s government demanding its removal for years.
A “Neutral” Alternative Emerges
Daniel Walther, a lawyer and founder of the Society Against Sexual Violence in Conflict (SASVIC), has proposed an alternative monument, “Petrified Survivors,” to be erected near the war museum in Wedding. The sculpture, created by British artist Rebecca Hawkins, depicts a petrified woman with a baby on her back, symbolizing the shared suffering of women and children in conflict zones. Walther argues that this monument takes a more general and global approach, free from demarcation problems and one-sided addressees.
Japan’s Pressure on Berlin
Japan’s embassy and right-wing Japanese circles have been exerting pressure on state and district politicians to remove the peace statue. There have even been threats to end the twin city relationship with Tokyo, which the embassy denies. The Governing Mayor of Berlin, Kai Wegner (CDU), has promised a “solution” during his visit to Tokyo in May, saying, “It is important that we make changes.”
The Future of the Peace Statue
The district of Mitte has asked the Korea Association, which erected the peace statue, to dismantle it by September 28. Stefanie Remlinger, the Green mayor of Berlin-Mitte, has welcomed SASVIC’s project, but advised against placing the new