Organizers of Germany's traditional Easter marches, which come to an end on Monday, said they were satisfied with what they said were more than 10,000 participants throughout the country.
The largest marches were in Berlin with around 3,500, Stuttgart with around 2,000 and Bremen with around 1,000 participants, according to the organizing Peace Co-operative Network. Kristian Golla from the network said the turnout was about the same as last year or slightly higher.
Around 700 people took part in Cologne and 500 in Munich, she said, figures that largely coincided with those of the police. Up until the 1980s, Easter marches attracted hundreds of thousands of people to the streets.
In a statement on Monday, peace activist Willi van Ooyen, an organizer of the German Easter March movement for more than 40 years, spoke of more than 120 marches, peace services, bicycle demonstrations and rallies throughout Germany.
At the demonstration in Berlin, participants also displayed signs reading "Friendship with Russia - Viva Palestine" and "Genocide in Gaza." Others turned against the German government. Russian and Palestinian flags could be seen.
Leaders of Germany's coalition government, which consists of the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) all referred to the need to defeat Russia in its war against Ukraine.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in a video message published on Saturday, said peace without freedom means oppression.
"That is why we are supporting Ukraine in its fight for a just peace - for as long as it is necessary. We are also doing this for ourselves, for our security," said the SPD chancellor.
Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck also published a video and said that "we are supporting Ukraine not just out of solidarity or sympathy, but in the interests of Germany and Europe." Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to destroy the unification and unity of Europe, he said. If Putin succeeds in Ukraine, he will continue.
"We long for peace. Yes. But the honest, bitter answer is: there will probably not be a quick, good end, even if we wish otherwise," said Habeck.
"We have to adapt to the threat situation. Anything else would be naive."
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who, like Habeck, is in the Green party, told the Funke Mediengruppe newspapers that reality could not be ignored.
"If Ukraine can no longer defend itself because we are not supplying it with enough weapons, Putin's troops will be on the Ukrainian-Polish border tomorrow - just an eight-hour drive from Berlin. Ukraine also secures our peace."
German Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the FDP also warned against a decline in support for Ukraine.
"Our peace and our freedom are under threat. Putin is not just interested in Ukraine, he wants to change the order of peace and freedom in Europe," the FDP leader told the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper.
"He wants power over us in order to control our way of life and our prosperity. Anyone who is tired of supporting Ukraine because it is too strenuous or too expensive should therefore consider the consequences. The danger of war would move closer to us."
In contrast, the marches' organizers said the central themes are demands for negotiations in Russia's war against Ukraine and the war in Gaza, nuclear disarmament and criticism of rising arms spending.
This year's motto was "Now more than ever - together for peace."