This year Germany is celebrating the 32nd anniversary of German unity. The celebrations will be held throughout Germany on October 3rd. Here you can find out where you can follow the Day of German Unity in the live stream.
On Monday you can watch the ceremony and the ecumenical service on the Day of German Unity live on ARD and ZDF.
32 years of German unity – actually, a celebration would have been announced on October 3rd. But the day has proven to be a difficult national holiday so far, and not just because of the sometimes inclement autumnal weather.
“In most towns and cities, the population has not yet had a public celebration tradition – the meaning of October 3rd as a national holiday is hardly recognized by the younger generation,” criticizes a nationwide initiative by the Federal Music Association Choir
On Monday from 7:00 p.m. there will be open singing and music-making in market places throughout Germany. More than 200 choirs and orchestras have registered so far, as the organizers announced in Berlin on Wednesday. According to the initiator of the project, Bernd Oettinghaus, they want to commemorate the peaceful revolution of 1989/1990 as a sign of solidarity and democracy.
This year, the initiative is under the patronage of the current President of the Federal Council and Prime Minister of Thuringia, Bodo Ramelow. In the state capital of Erfurt, where the federal government’s central public festival is taking place on the day of German unity, the initiative is accompanied by the MDR symphony orchestra.
In 2022, a special focus of the nationwide campaign will be on the war in Ukraine and the topic “No Violence”: “It honors all the peaceful civil rights activists and, with a view to the current military developments, says thank you for the peaceful revolution and the fall of the Wall”, according to the organizers.
Only a few cornerstones of the program have been set: The plan is to sing ten “well-known and connecting songs” simultaneously across the country on October 3rd from 7 p.m., including “Tell me where the flowers are”, “Freedom”, “We shallovercome” and “Of good powers”, as well as the national anthem and the European anthem.
There will also be songs in Ukrainian and Hebrew. “This is a conscious sign against anti-Semitism and against the war in Ukraine,” said the organizers. The participants should also hold candles in their hands – in memory of the peaceful revolution of 1989. Otherwise, all organizers are free to expand the event.
