MEMORIAL ADBUSTING FOR RUDI FRIEDRICH AT BERLIN CENTRAL STATION
Workshop for Anti-Fascist Action ⸻ on July 22th, 2025
Over the weekend, activists from the «Workshop for Anti-Fascist Action» (W2A) hijacked an advertising display at Berlin Central Station. They placed a homemade poster with a black border in the display. It shows a photo and the name of the recently deceased pacifist Rudi Friedrich. The poster also shows the month of his death and the website address of the campaign «Object War!»
«Rudi had been a driving force behind this campaign to support conscientious objectors, especially from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, in recent years,» explains Kai N. Krieger, spokesperson for the activists from the W2A: «We think he would have liked that people were paying their last respects to him by drawing attention to his political views.»
Rudi was the managing director of the «Connection e.V.». Its chairman, Frank Nadler, announced to the public on Friday that Rudi had died in a hiking accident while on vacation in the mountains in Italy on Monday, July 14, 2025. «We would like to express our sincere condolences to the employees and volunteers of Connection e.V. and to Rudi’s family and friends,» said Kai N. Krieger.
Rudi Friedrich was 62 years old. He lived in Offenbach am Main. After the «German Peace Society — United Conscientious Objectors» (German: Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft — Vereinigte Kriegsdienstgegner*innen, DFG-VK) refused to prioritize the demand for asylum for conscientious objectors, Rudi founded «Connection e.V.» in 1993 together with other pacifists. Since then, the organisation has supported conscientious objectors around the world and in Germany with asylum issues. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Rudi and his colleagues launched the campaign #ObjectWarCampaign. He managed to bring together organizations from all over Europe to support conscientious objectors from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. The campaign also called for easier asylum in the EU for those affected.
In her obituary Olga Karach, director of the Belarusian human rights organization «Our House», explains what the #ObjectWarCampaign meant in practical terms for those affected: «A person who stood by us — quietly but firmly. That person was Rudi Friedrich. Rudi did not raise his voice or try to dominate the conversation. He did not lecture us. He simply listened [...]. Rudi gave us reason to believe that peace is not naive, but necessary — and that resistance, even in silence, counts for something.» (Translation by Stephan Brües, co-chair of the BSV and BSV representative in the WRI, available online at https://soziale-verteidigung.de/zum-tod-von-rudi-friedrich/)
The activists of the W2A also mourn Rudi’s untimely death. «We can only agree with Olga’s words,» says Kai N. Krieger. Because there is much to learn from Rudi’s example. «If more people in the peace movement took Rudi as an example, it would be a better one.»
Keywords: ⇒ Actions