Municipality of Hülben in association with “Mayors for Peace” plant Peace Pole, Hülben – GERMANY
The Peace Pole stands at the Peter-Härtling-School.
After the municipality of Hülben joined the association “Mayors for Peace” a few weeks ago, the community also wanted to make the idea of peace in Hülben visible. This is announced by the municipality in a press release. In addition to the permanent “Mayor for Peace” flag, a peace stake was set up in front of the Peter Härtling School last Tuesday with a festive event. To this end, grades 3 and 4 creatively dealt with the topic of peace and friendship in joint project work.
The project day began for the students of all grades with a joint reading. “New here?” tells the story of Wilma Wochenwurm, on whose meadow suddenly foreign beetles live, which do not answer the questions “Where do you come from?” and “What do you want here?”. This annoys the other meadow dwellers until Fritzi Friedenstaube explains that the beetles are refugees and do not understand the language. The aim is to bring the topics of war, flight and integration closer to the pupils.
In a subsequent round of discussions, it became clear that almost all the children present had already had contact with people who spoke differently. However, this is not a reason for exclusion. After all, you can still communicate with your hands and feet. “It works somehow,” said one of the students. School Principal Jana Feske emphasized: “It is simply important that we deal with these topics at primary school and we want to show that peace is not that difficult!”
After the reading, grades 1 and 2 went to class, while grades 3 and 4 went to different project groups. Here, friendship ribbons were knotted, mobiles were made from peace signs, canvases and stones were painted and the peace pole was designed.
According to the congregation, peace posts are a memorial, silent prayer and an international symbol of peace in one. They are meant to remind us that peace is possible, that it can only begin in people themselves, and that everyday life should be lived in the spirit of the words “May there be peace on earth”. Peace stakes are a project of May Peace Prevail On Earth International e.V., a non-governmental organization of the UN, founded in 1955 in Japan by Masahisa Goi.
However, before the stake was officially inaugurated, grades 3 and 4 returned to the school auditorium. Buntestag member Pascal Kober, the social policy spokesman of the FDP federal parliamentary group, military chaplain and victims’ representative of the Federal Government, visited the Peter Härtling School for this occasion and took time for the children’s questions during a joint exchange.
Afterwards we went out in front of the school building, where some Hülben citizens had already gathered. Mayor Ganser greeted those present with a few short sentences and then handed over the floor to Kober. “The fact that Mayor Ganser has joined the Mayor for Peace campaign is not only an important symbol. In concrete terms, it was the occasion for the students to deal with the topic of peace in various forms, artistically and in terms of content. This also offers the children the opportunity to process the news about the war in Ukraine,” emphasized the member of the Bundestag. This was followed by Udo Lindenberg’s hit “Wir ziehen in den Frieden”, which was sung by the students. Immediately afterwards, Mr. Ganser, Mr. Kober and the school board member Udo Paulus, who was also present, solemnly inaugurated the peace stake.