Do you know who Klara Marie Faßbinder was? Or do you know why numerous celebrities came to demonstrate in the Hofgarten in the 1980s? Or what the University of Bonn has to do with peace? Or perhaps which square in Bonn is named after a Nobel Peace Prize laureate? In our city, there are many places of peace to discover and connections of significant historical figures to learn about, many of whom were committed to human rights. Nonetheless, most of these people, places, and connections remain unknown.

Our Culture of Remembrance in public spaces – much like our entire historiography – is characterised by a patriarchal perspective. It commemorates wars and so-called “war heroes” but forgets the contributions of peace.Monuments are predominantly  erected for men, thereby often rendering the historicalachievements of women  invisible.

The Peace Trail Bonn invites you to make discoveries: monuments, buildings, and places that you may already know – but whose history of peace is almost forgotten. Stories of people, who were advocates for peace and who you may have heard of before – but perhaps you were not aware of their connections to our city.

With the Peace Trail, we want to contribute to closing this gap. At a total of eleven stations, you will explore a snippet of the history of peace in Bonn. You will learn about significant people and their biographies, get to know places from new perspectives, and discover connections between various places. You can adjust the Peace Trail to your needs and interests and either follow the suggested route or combine individual stations as you wish.

With this project, we also want to encourage people to continue their own search for traces of peace history in other places and to find people and stories that can serve as role models and inspiration for us today.

The Peace Trail Bonn was developed by the Netzwerk Friedenskooperative in cooperation with the Frauennetzwerk für Frieden e. V. and with financial support from the Bertha-von-Suttner-Foundation of the German Peace Society – United War Resisters. The English version was made possible with financial support from the Foundation for International Dialogue of the Savings Bank in Bonn.

We hope you enjoy (re)discovering the city of Bonn!

The brochure can be ordered here in our online shop.

The Peace Trail Bonn is also available online as a PDF file to walk yourself.

Guided city tours are available on request: info [at] friedenskooperative [dot] de