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Less than 15 kilometers north of Hamburg is the community of Henstedt-Ulzburg, which on Saturday became the scene of a chaotic demonstration that ended with several injuries and a warning police shot.
In the small town, the Bad Segeberg district association had invited the AfD to a conference on the “economic consequences of the crown crisis”. AfD federal spokesman Jörg Meuthen was invited to the Bürgerhaus as a speaker. The AfD debate event started around 3:30 pm in response to the protest of residents and supporters of the “No AfD in Henstedt-Ulzburg” alliance.
The police denounced “up to 200 people from the bourgeois spectrum” in the counter-demonstration, which was also attended in the afternoon between 50 and 60 people from the left wing.
The protesters in the left-wing scene appeared separated from the actual counter-protest and had registered a spontaneous gathering in the immediate access area to the AfD event. According to the police, there should also have been harassment and fights against police officers and AfD sympathizers.
The Bad Segeberg Police Department speaks of a dispute outside the actual demonstration, in which “a person from the scene on the left” was so seriously injured in a traffic accident that she was taken to hospital.
According to eyewitnesses, the driver deliberately drove towards the protesters.
The “aggressive offenses” against those involved and officials after the incident would have required the firing of a warning shot by the police, according to the authority. According to the press release, an investigation was initially launched against the person who caused the accident due to dangerous interference with road traffic.
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The Tagesspiegel had the opportunity to speak with three eyewitnesses to the situation. According to her, the driver of the car deliberately drove his car into the crowd.
First of all, it is said that four men appeared in the counter-demonstration, who could be identified as sympathizers of the right-wing scene through the scene’s clothing and unconstitutional symbols and tattoos. Obviously, they had nothing to do with the AfD event. The group of men was expelled from the square by the police.
Soon after, however, it is said that right-wing people were there again. The four people are said to have deliberately provoked and only appeared on the sidelines of the left-wing counter-protest to “create a scandal,” says a participant in the demonstration.
When the four men were expelled for the second time, it is said that they had affixed stickers of the initiative called “One Percent”, close to the Identity Movement, on several street lamps as they left. The group is classified as a right-wing extremist and is under observation by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
When several leftists removed the stickers, at least one person from the group of right-wing men got into their car. “However, the driver of the silver VW van does not drive his car from the parking lot onto the street, but instead directs it towards various people on the sidewalk,” a witness to the situation said in a telephone conversation.
Four people were run over and three of them injured before the car stopped. The witnesses speak of the fact that the driver had given “full throttle” and followed and hit the protesters with “clear intent”.
According to one observer, the so-called “Antifa” finally “got” the driver out of the car. In this situation, an officer of the Schleswig-Holstein State Police is said to have taken a gun without warning to fire a warning shot.
Registrants of the counter-demonstration for the AfD event also largely follow these descriptions. A press release from the alliance says: “It is terrible that a car was obviously used as a weapon against the protesters.”
The firing of the police warning shot is also criticized. In the communication, the alliance relies on the descriptions of those present, according to which “at that time no threat or situation of direct danger was recognized”, which would justify a warning shot.
What the AfD says about the incidents
Meanwhile, the AfD is primarily critical of “extremist left-wing violence” in the immediate vicinity of its event. Bad Segeberg district association party spokesman Julian Flak complains that there are “extremist left-wing disorders that the police can hardly control.”
In a press release, the party criticized “excessive demands on the police” and denounced “physical attacks on the participants” of the conference. He goes on to say: “The new dimension of left-wing extremist violence is terrifying when a police officer even has to fire a warning shot on the sidelines of the opposing demonstration.” Emergency services apparently misjudged the situation in the run-up to the event, Flak told Tagesspiegel.
The Kiel prosecutor has now taken over the investigation. An expert was hired to examine the crashed vehicle. Among other things, the objective is to find out at what speed the defendant approached people.
On Monday, the prosecution informed Tagesspiegel that the 19-year-old driver of the car is now under investigation on suspicion of dangerous bodily injury. So far, there is no evidence that it is an attack scenario, but a possible intention to kill is also under investigation, according to a representative of the authority. At first, Kiel declined to comment on the suspect’s possible political convictions.
