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Not surprisingly, there is another dispute over the number of participants after the Corona demonstrations in Berlin on Saturday. In the first manifestation of lateral thinking on August 1, the police had indicated the number of around 20,000 people.
But another number quickly made the rounds – supposedly there should be 1.3 million participants. That this number can hardly be plausible was shown, among other things, by a calculation by the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation, in which the number of people per square meter was first determined and then multiplied by the installation area. The estimate reached 20,000 people and thus confirmed the police estimate.
Only 38,000?
The Berlin police have distributed various figures on the number of participants in yesterday’s protests against the crown policy. 18,000 people are said to have participated in the demonstration in Mitte, which quickly broke up. However, there were even more demonstrations, including in front of the Reichstag, in front of the Russian embassy (according to the police, 3,000 participants) and the rally of the Querought 711 initiative at the Victory Column and on the Strasse des 17. Juni.
The Berlin police estimated the total number of protesters in Berlin at 38,000. But at the rally at the Victory Column, speakers from hundreds of thousands of participants spoke, at this event alone.
At least for the protest organized by Lateral Thinking 711, it is possible to estimate the number of participants. Because people watched the speeches standing or sitting, and there are aerial photos of Großer Stern, the place on the Victory Column, where the main stage was also located.
As an example, we counted the people on the lawn next to the Victory Column in order to estimate how high the density of participants was per square meter. Each person is marked with a colored arrow – see the following edited screenshot of the 711 lateral thinking live video (time: 2 hours 39 minutes). To make counting easier, there are always ten arrows of the same color together.
The hand count showed 463 people. We round this number to 500, an increase of eight percent. Because there were some bigger gaps, especially on the left. With 500 people, the meadow would have been as densely packed as the asphalt area next door directly in front of the main stage.
The area of the lawn examined is 1355 square meters; this can be easily measured with Google Maps. So there were 500/1355 = 0.37 people in one square meter.
Now the area for the rally is missing. the Big star area It is about 30,000 square meters, so the area occupied by the Victory Column in the middle has already been subtracted. In the live video of the lateral thinking you can see that the space on the opposite side of the stage was barely full, therefore we have two thirds of the space, that is, 20,000 square meters.
Then there are the Surfaces in the June 17th Street. The street is 1,700 meters long from Großer Stern to the traffic light in front of the Brandenburg Gate. The width is 40 meters including the parking lane, the bicycle and the path on both sides. This gives an area of 1700 * 40 = 68,000 square meters.
Both areas together are 88,000 square meters. With an occupation like in the meadow with 0.37 people per square meter, this results in a number of participants 32,500 people.
This number assumes that the areas have been fully used; of course, you would have to deduct the areas occupied by stages, police, etc. from this.
Unrealistic six digit number of participants
To reach 100,000 or more participants, people would have to be at least three times closer, throughout the entire area. Or they would have had to occupy at least a 40-meter wide strip on the left and right of Straße des 17. Juni, that is, a total of more than 120 meters in the total length of 1700 meters.
Therefore, a six or even seven digit number of participants seems unrealistic. It would only be possible if the distance rules had been massively violated. However, the organizers meticulously ensured that they were at least roughly adhered to.
When people crowded in front of the stage, there were announcements to please stay farther away in areas where there was more space. Aerial photographs taken by lateral thinking organizer 0711 show that at least in Victory Column square there was not a dense crowd.
