Berlin marks day of liberation from Nazis with unprecedented public holiday

Coronavirus lockdown means much of planned commemorations called off

Posters marking the end of World War Two have been put up across Berline (Kulturprojekte)

Germans in Berlin are celebrating a public holiday to mark the end of the Second World War for the very first time.

Normally 8 May passes without any significant attention in Germany, but for 2020 and the 75th anniversary, the city of Berlin decided to declare it a new public holiday for not only the defeat of Nazism but the rebirth of democracy.

However, many of the public events planned for the day have had to be cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Street parties had been planned across the city, and an open-air exhibition, and several museums had arranged events to tie in with the day, but all public events have been postponed until Germany’s lockdown is relaxed.

But the group Kulturprojekte, which is behind many of the plans, has pressed ahead with a “digital theme week” which runs until May 8.

Using augmented reality apps, a series of podcasts and a digital exhibition online, Berliners are being invited to go back in time to spring 1945 to see what life was like at the end of the war in several symbolic locations across their city.

But the project also exists in the real world, as posters featuring images of a wartorn and bombed-out Berlin have been displayed across the city with the slogans “In the beginning was a choice — a choice and a result”.

Kulturprojekte’s website says the campaign aims to remind Berliners that the Nazi era began with democratic elections and “that it is the responsibility of everyone to ensure that history does not repeat itself”.

Marking 8 May as a public holiday “offers the opportunity to send an unmistakable message against fascism and war and for peace”, the group added.

Moritz van Dülmen, the head of Kulturprojekte, said the commemorations were even more important following a series of deadly terrorist attacks by far-right extremists in Germany in recent years.

“We are also keen to reach a young audience, particularly those with a migrant background, who have little knowledge of German history,” he told the BBC.

Both Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel and president Frank-Walter Steinmeier will be in Berlin to lay wreaths at the city’s memorial for the victims of war and tyranny as well.

However, it is controversial for the city to have decreed 8 May as a public holiday, as for many decades VE day was either ignored by most Germans or seen as a shameful reminder of their country’s defeat.

The only federal public holiday marked by all of Germany’s 16 states which commemorates a part of the nation’s history is 3 October, celebrating the date of the reunification of West and East Germany at the end of the Cold War in 1990.

However, in more recent decades 8 May has gradually been seen by some also as a day of liberation from Nazi rule.

One Holocaust survivor has called for the day to become a permanent and nationwide public holiday and 101,000 people have signed a petition supporting her.

Although some left-wing parties have backed this suggestion, the far-right AfD party is deeply opposed to the idea.

Alexander Gauland, a leading figure in the AfD, said: “You can't make May 8 a happy day for Germany. For the concentration camp inmates it was a day of liberation. But it was also a day of absolute defeat, a day of the loss of large parts of Germany and the loss of national autonomy."