After the beginning of hostilities in Iraq, German leaders voiced regret that efforts to disarm the country peacefully had been abandoned. In a television address Thursday, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder said: "We have tried to prevent this war up until the last moment…. I am convinced: There would have been a different way in disarming Iraq…. This view is shared by the overwhelming majority of my people, the majority in the UN Security Council and of peoples worldwide."

Schröder emphasized that this was not a time for finger-pointing, however, but a time to look ahead and hope for a short war with as few casualties as possible. The chancellor also stressed that what separates Germany from the United States and Britain on this issue are "differences of opinion between governments," not a rift between allied nations.

Hence, while Germany will not contribute troops to the U.S. attack on Iraq, it will continue to fulfill its responsibilities as a member of NATO, Schröder confirmed. He noted that German soldiers flying AWACS planes are monitoring air space over Turkey under NATO command, and that a Bundeswehr force will continue to take part in a defense and humanitarian aid mission in Kuwait. In neither case will German troops provide support for missions in or against Iraq, he said.

Germany will continue to protect U.S. bases and will neither limit nor withdraw overflight rights, the chancellor pledged. German authorities have also stepped up security precautions at U.S. and British installations in the country, and deployed additional police at border crossings, airports and train stations. Security measures have also been increased at major embassies in Berlin.

Schröder offered to provide humanitarian aid in the Iraq region under the auspices of the UN. He said Germany was also prepared, under UN leadership, "to contribute to a political order after the war."

In Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt and Heidelberg, among other cities, more than 200,000 people took to the streets to protest the war. More than 100,000 demonstrators, including thousands of high school students, marched near the Brandenburg Gate and the U.S. embassy Thursday to protest the war, with smaller antiwar groups gathering in other German cities.