Contesting Peace – Conflicts and Divisions in Mobilizations about the Ukraine War in Germany

The Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 has led to a protest mobilization rarely seen since the Iraq War in 2003. In Germany and other European countries, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in the first weeks after the attack to express their outrage at the war and their solidarity with Ukraine. While the initial major demonstrations in Germany were supported by broad alliance of diverse civil society actor, however, divisions emerged swiftly in the following months. While the traditional peace movement called for negotiations and disarmament, other groups demonstrated in solidarity with Ukraine and called for arms deliveries. Furthermore, right-wing actors increasingly employed the term peace in their own mobilizations and joined larger peace protests. This paper explores the diverse mobilizations around the Ukraine war in Germany based on protest event analysis drawing on 500 local newspapers. We will analyze the involved groups' diverse aim and orientations and investigate protest events' diverse actor constellations and in particular the extent to which right-wing and left-wing groups collaborated.