When a paint bag hit a German wartime foreign minister 26 years ago

From Kontrapolis
June 2, 2025

Full Title: Turning Veterans Day into a political disaster – Continuity & Perspective – When a paint bag hit a German wartime foreign minister 26 years ago

26 years ago today, the then Foreign Minister of War, Fischer, was hit with a paint bag :-).

This year, Ascension Day fell on May 29th . For us, it was a holiday because Ascension Day marked the anniversary of the paint bag being thrown at the Green Party's wartime foreign minister during Germany's participation in the war against the former Yugoslavia. In 1999, at the Green Party's special conference, a red paint bag was thrown at Fischer with full force, marking him as responsible for the war, murder, and expulsion.

An opportunity to once again honor the 26 - year anniversary of this spectacular action. And to place it in the context of the current debate about radical antimilitarism.

Many of the reasons for the action, which were stated in the trial statement regarding the paint attack, are still relevant today. Therefore, we are calling for a rally in front of the Reichstag in Berlin (Ebert Street at the corner of Scheidemann and Dorotheen Street ) on June 15th, starting at 1:00 p.m. At that time, in the context of the debate and surrounding the paint bag trial, a fundamental stance, "Against all war," was put forward for discussion. Building on this, we are expanding this debate to "Against all military action." We have provided multiple political justifications for this .

Some parallels to today make a look back meaningful. Looking back is more than just remembering, because with this past and almost forgotten war in 1999, the course was set that led to new wars and will continue to lead to them in the future.

Here and now we should continue to work on fundamental antimilitarism in order to be able to counteract future wars.

At that time, the Greens were a key factor in securing the support of a left-wing, rather critical public for a bellicist course. The Greens celebrated themselves as a "divided" party, claiming to be conducting a self-critical examination of themselves and their values ​​on behalf of society. In reality, they were legitimizing war and its logic. The pseudo-critical debate at the Green Party conference became a focal point for the international press, which hoped for a "yes" or "no" to the war.

The war, with German participation, had already been going on for over 40 days, with up to 120 bombs being dropped daily, including by German Tornado bombers. And Foreign Minister Fischer and the entire Green Party government declared that they would not support a grassroots vote to war.

Thus, the outcome was clear. The party conference was merely a means to an end: to discipline the base and ensure Fischer's participation in the government without major friction or defections. The opportunistic, power-hungry Greens, who had already thrown many principles overboard, followed the government line as expected. They were simply "so torn."

From the perspective of autonomous groups and the anti-militarist resistance, there was nothing left to negotiate. The wartime party congress was to be overturned. From this position, Fischer was hit with full force by a paint canister in front of running cameras and a massive international press presence. Even before the party congress could begin its farce. Visibly shaken, Fischer surely remembered his revolutionary macho past at this moment: He was now truly on the other side, while the women around him tried to wipe away the blood-red paint. Fittingly, on German Father's Day ("Ascension Day" is when drunk men get drunk in Germany).

To this day, Fischer is trying to influence and erase the image that marked him blood red for life.

In retrospect, there were the polarized positions that are always inherent in wartime situations. In times of war, there is only an "either/or" mentality, in other words, a "friend/foe" mentality. Positions that were "against all war" were rendered invisible, just as they are today with regard to the war of aggression between Russia and Ukraine.

At that time, the remnants of so-called anti-imperialists and many communists supported the Milosevic regime and legitimized Serbia's nationalist war and its crimes against Kosovo as the defense of a socialist country against NATO. This led to absurd situations in which anti-imperialists seriously described support for Serbian deserters as treason. Many young Serbian men withdrew from the war, refusing to participate in a murderous and nationalist mobilization (as is the case today: approximately 650,000 draft dodgers from Ukraine and several hundred thousand men from Russia have fled to the EU or other countries to avoid the front).

The polarizations today regarding Ukraine and Russia seem very similar: remnants of former anti-imperialists, young communists, and communist parties and sects are once again glorifying Russia's attack on Ukraine as a "defensive measure against NATO encirclement."

And again, on the other side, the German Greens are the strongest proponents of war. Standing on the side of Ukraine, the Green Party's Hofreiter has mutated into a self-propelled howitzer. Fischer, long since detached from Green history and a lobbyist for Siemens, RWE, and other corporations, is now calling for the introduction of conscription.

The Greens and many on the left defended the first war with direct German involvement since 1945, arguing, among other things, that they wanted to prevent a "new Hitler." The lessons of German fascism practically compelled Germany to wage war in order to prevent Hitler and the ongoing genocide. That was actually the argument. Fischer even legitimized the war against Serbia with Auschwitz in order to achieve his political goals: "I stand by two principles: never again war, never again Auschwitz, never again genocide, never again fascism. For me, the two belong together." Only now "Never again Auschwitz" meant waging war to prevent Auschwitz. The German armed conflict was blessed with a distortion of history. He ignored criticism from Jews about the instrumentalization of the Holocaust for German war policy.

The parallels to today with regard to support for Israeli policies and the Israeli army are open to discussion. With Germany's declared "reason of state" toward Israel, the massacres of the civilian population in Gaza and the Israeli government's starvation policy are supported as "self-defense." [The discussion of ethnic cleansing/genocide is entirely justified.] German solidarity with Israel is unconditional and claims to be the lesson of German fascism. The murders, rapes, and abductions committed by Hamas today largely unchallenged justify the expulsion and extermination fantasies and practices of a right-wing extremist Israeli government and its unbelievable massacre of the Palestinian civilian population. Criticism of the massacres is declared (especially in Germany) to be anti-Semitism.

Then, as now, leftists and left-wing radicals sided with the Greens to make peace with the German state. In addition, some former anarchists, who could also be described as the "armed wing of the Greens," sided with militarism. These warmongers view radical anti-militarism as a threat.

At that time, the US had prepared Schröder, Fischer, and Trittin for the war in the former Yugoslavia. The future red-green government would then have to decide to side with the US, Trittin stated years later in an interview. Years later, Fischer and Schröder also admitted in interviews that German participation in the war was "illegible under international law," but by then, no one had cared anymore.

Today, war supporters on all sides can once again utter things that were once unthinkable. One of the foundations for this was laid in 1999. Therefore, the paint bag is also a symbol of resistance against the "turning point" that was already beginning back then.

For Germany today, "war readiness" is being discussed in all areas. A few hundred billion for weapons? No problem. The Chancellor at a groundbreaking ceremony for weapons companies. Leadership is being sought. Conscription is coming soon. People are for war. And even if they don't want it, they still have to wage it. The borders are being tightened even further, the ranks are being closed firmly against unwanted migration. People are thinking in terms of war: more war, more weapons, and more borders. Neither the patriarchal, nationalist narratives are being questioned, nor are the economic interests on all sides.

And radical antimilitarism is still slowly and tentatively forming as a visible initiative. We, as the "Provisional Anarchist Antiwar Council," have therefore chosen to make Veterans Day our theme. Some groups are following suit, but it seems more like they are reluctant to leave the issue to others and are trying to bring themselves into play, but are unable or unwilling to flesh it out. Groups that cannot bring themselves to oppose all military forces and all war may have their own militaristic reasons and an option for a politics that follows the logic of war. And the denial of the connection between militarism, the military, war, and patriarchy is telling. We have published several policy papers on this as well. Discussions are being avoided.

The paint bomb attack on Fischer took a fundamentally anti-militarist stance against any war. This is reflected in the trial statement. Furthermore, the anti-sexist and queer expression of the action, which eschews polarized gender relations and friend-enemy thinking, is taken into account. The action was carried out by a person for whom the term "transgender" was still unknown at the time. She came from the autonomous scene and described herself as an anarchist and queer activist. This fact then also permeated the political debate surrounding the action. For many people who were not active in political groups and who followed the arguments of the Green Party in disbelief, the action spoke to the hearts of those who were not active in political groups. For queer and transgender people, the signal of visibility was significant in itself. Nevertheless, active support for the subsequent court case was not overwhelmingly widespread. The traditional left, as it does today, found it difficult to adopt a fundamentally anti-militarist stance against any war and patriarchy. The war supporters on the left were already on a different battleship anyway. And Fischer continues to delete all photos of his red ear from Wikipedia.

The paint bag "belongs" to a radical anarchist, anti-militarist, and queer feminist movement within society. Attempts to reinterpret history must be countered. Mainstream journalists like to cite the paint bag as an internal Green contradiction and even claim that the person throwing it was a member of the Green Party. This is nonsense. A fundamental anarchist critique of war is thus rendered invisible. The "Tagesspiegel" in Berlin and the "Süddeutsche Zeitung," for example, have attempted this distortion.

Then as now, many people find it easier to militarize themselves, to take one side of a conflict and dehumanize the other side, than to renounce the logic of war.

From an anarchist perspective, war should fundamentally be politically sabotaged.

The disarmament of the rulers on all sides and the fraternization and sisterhood with opponents of war, conscientious objectors, and anarchists on all fronts is one of the viable responses in any war.

Of course, it's superficially harder to gain traction with a position that rejects polarization. "Friend vs. foe" is easier to think of, and naturally, this position is louder and, above all, more brutal. Antimilitarists, autonomous activists, queer feminists, and anarchists can and should assume more public responsibility and offer alternatives to pro-war positions. Otherwise, only the ugly voices will remain audible. Disrupting the war course everywhere, even if seemingly only a few people do so, creates publicity, points of contact, and points of contact for the silent and the searching.

With that in mind, let's make Veterans Day a complete flop. Your creativity is called for.

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The article from 2024 without an attachment can also be found at https://kontrapolis.info/13019/

Reference should be made to the 2000 trial statement and the 1999 interview, the article "Radical Interventions in a Militarized Democracy," and the article in the book "Autonomous in Motion." All can be found in the appendix on de.Indymedia.org at: http://dvqlamnbbzli62qfyt5faspxunueqdxc4csrslhcp2z3haiflnrn6dqd.onion/n…

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Provisional Anarchist Anti-War Council Berlin:

INFORMATION ABOUT THE VETERANS' DAY ACTION DAY

Great Mobiclip for Veterans Day and against conscription, please share: https://archive.org/details/vtag_B
Website WEAK: https://antikrieg.blackblogs.org
NEW WEBSITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION: https://antikrieg.noblogs.org
Mobile material: Poster on the website for download
Mobi-Flyer: Bookstore Schwarze Risse, Gneisenau Str 2a Berlin_Kreuzberg or to print as pdf on indymedia or website: http://dvqlamnbbzli62qfyt5faspxunueqdxc4csrslhcp2z3haiflnrn6dqd.onion/n…
Veterans plan from the Reichstag: https://antikrieg.noblogs.org or on indymedia: http://dvqlamnbbzli62qfyt5faspxunueqdxc4csrslhcp2z3haiflnrn6dqd.onion/n…
Position paper on Veterans Day in GraswurzelNo499 or on indymedia: http://dvqlamnbbzli62qfyt5faspxunueqdxc4csrslhcp2z3haiflnrn6dqd.onion/n…
Funny Bundeswehr film: archive.org/details/alex-und-die-bw

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