Challenging the military's presence in a German school

On 25 January 2013 peace activists, mostly from the youth branches of the Left Party and the Social Democrats Party, disrupted an information day at the Königin-Mathilde Secondary School in Herford, Germany. Shouting, they interrupted a lecture by a female Bundeswehr (Federal Armed Forces) officer promoting the Bundeswehr amongst the older students. After some time the activists were sent out of the room by the head of the school. Among the anti-Bundeswehr activists was the Herford parson Berthold Keunecke, who remained in the lecture theatre to explain the action after the other activists left. Some time before the event, the activists had written a letter to the organisers the Rotary Club, demanding that the army be omitted from those invited because its jobs are not like other jobs. In all, c.700 students from around the district came to the careers information day at the school.