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For today Saturday a total of 27 demonstrations, rallies and rallies against the Corona measures have been announced in Leipzig. The Stuttgart “lateral thinking” initiative has been mobilizing nationally to Saxony for weeks.
According to their own statements, the police are preparing for “a very intense operation because a certain potential for radicalization is recognizable from all sides.”
The Saxon officials are supported by hundreds from Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt, North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Bavaria, Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, as well as the riot police of the federal police. The Berlin police, who have been tested in demonstrations, are also present in Leipzig.
Follow the current development in Leipzig here (more background on the Move “Think outside the box” at the end of the text):
2:25 pm: There are reports that the congregation is about to disband. Police told the Tagesspiegel that a decision had not yet been made. But the chairman of the meeting will be influenced.
1:55 pm: Police have repeatedly called on loudspeaker protesters to comply with the requirements. But the distances have not yet been maintained and the masks are almost nowhere to be seen.
1:20 pm: The organizers of the “lateral thinkers” demonstrations against the crown measures suffered further judicial defeats in Munich. The Bavarian Administrative Court on Saturday rejected two complaints in relation to the demonstrations, both this Sunday and from Monday to Sunday next week. The city of Munich had previously banned the demonstrations in order to protect against infections.
An event with around 120,000 people was supposed to take place this Sunday at Theresienwiese. Despite a request from the Senate, the organizer had not made it credible that it actually wanted to hold these announced meetings, it said in the Administrative Court notice.
1:15 pm: The space between the Gewandhaus and the Leipzig Opera was already full on Saturday afternoon. “Control is almost impossible for us,” said Leipzig Police Department spokesman Olaf Hoppe.
On Friday, authorities announced that the original elevator route on the “Leipziger ring” around Augustplatz could not be carried out in view of the current infection rate.
Instead, the “lateral thinkers” were offered the railing of the New Fair in front of the city gates. This would have been a major setback for the movement, as the Peaceful Revolution of 1989 was to be emulated on the Leipziger Ring. For weeks, the organization’s chat groups have been spreading the myth that Saturday’s demonstration could be the beginning of a new revolution.
1:05 pm: The situation is according to the assessment of our colleague Julius Geiler, who is following what is happening in Leipzig. Obviously there are a lot of rights and hooligans on the site. These would mingle with the protesters. Estimate their number at around 1,000.
12.30 pm: The city center is becoming increasingly crowded. The photos show that most of the participants do not meet the crown requirements. Distances are not saved. The masks are not visible.
10:45 am: According to the dpa news agency, Leipzig city spokesman Matthias Hasberg says of the Higher Administrative Court decision: “It is difficult to explain that currently only two households are allowed to meet, but 16,000 people can demonstrate in one place”.
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10:00 am: Even before the official start of the demonstration, there was a first incident around 10 am At the old fair in the center-southeast should begin a parade of cars of the “lateral thinking” movement. After a few meters he stopped. Reason: blocking of up to 50 counter-protesters on the left.
The 100 or so “side thinkers” who wanted to roam Fair Town under the motto “Love Wins” are not moving forward. Police are on the scene with a hundred from Bavaria, but so far they have made no move to clear the street.
9.45 am: The “lateral thinking” initiative can now manifest itself against the crown’s measures in the center of Leipzig. The Bautzen Higher Administrative Court decided that the rally with 16,000 people can take place on Augustusplatz, the city announced on Saturday morning.
The court combined this permit with strict conditions. Among other things, there is an obligation to wear a mouth and nose guard. The number of participants must also be a maximum of 16,000 people.
On Friday night, the administrative court upheld the city’s requirements for the first time in an urgent procedure. The city wanted to move the rally to the New Fair parking lots outside of the city center.
Numerous attempts to mobilize rights
The city of Leipzig will continue to advertise on internal channels, and numerous crown-skeptical rallies and conspiracy theorists within the city center ring remain unaffected by the court order. Unlike the movement’s last major protest actions in Berlin, Dresden and Munich, the Leipzig demonstration is once again highly publicized among right-wing populists and right-wing extremists.
A similar mobilization from the scene on the right was last seen on August 29 in Berlin, where in the afternoon groups of right-wing hooligans fought with the police in front of the Russian embassy and in the evening hundreds of Reich citizens brought down the barriers in front of the Bundestag building and up to the entrance portal. could advance.
In the lead-up to the meeting, a two-minute video is particularly popular in the “side thinkers” internal exchange groups. You can see a compilation of various demonstrations of the movement, with the Leipzig Völkerschlachtdenkmal in the middle.
Reich citizens and hooligans announce a demonstration
The clip is layered with dramatic and heroic music. The text that appears says, among other things, “This is what is worth fighting for. Germany is on the rise ”and“ it is time to put an end to it. The Germans never give up. ” It is also shared by supporters of the Reich citizen scene from around the former NPD official Rüdiger Hoffmann, from whose stage on August 29 there was a call to “storm the Reichstag.”
At the same time, right-wing extremist organizations such as the NPD youth organization “Junge Nationalisten” and “Legida”, the Leipzig branch of Pegida, are calling for participation in the “lateral thinking” demonstration. From the beginning, Legida was even more radical than the Dresden original.
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People from the Leipzig hooligan scene continued to mingle with the contestants at Legida events. A strong presence of supporters of the “QAnon” conspiracy theory is also to be expected, the number of which, according to experts, is growing rapidly in the Federal Republic of Germany.
Call to violence in group chats
To the American conspiracy theory community, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, is seen as a messiah who, as a savior, liberates the world from evil. The unclear outcome of the elections in the US and a possible victory for Joe Biden cause great unrest in the community.
It is not entirely clear to what extent this tension could be reflected in the streets of Leipzig on Saturday. In the screenshots of the Telegram groups and the comment columns of the live stream, which are available to Tagesspiegel, the calls for gun violence are among other things.
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Finally, the time would come to get up and fight back, it is the prevailing tenor in the panorama on the right. It is not clear to what extent the “Lateral Thinking” organization manages to differentiate itself from right-wing extremists who are willing to use violence. In the past, this has happened little or nothing. This highly explosive situation, in combination with the great counter-protest expected from the traditionally strong left-wing scene in Leipzig, may lead to an escalation in the streets of the larger Saxon city.
The protesters ignored the crown’s requirements
Friday night offers a preview of the weekend. While more than a hundred “side thinkers” held two rallies in the central Augustplatz and the market square, some without mask or distance, chaotic scenes briefly occurred in the traditionally alternative Connewitz district.
From a spontaneous left-wing demonstration of around 200 people, emergency services were thrown with stones and fireworks, as a police spokesman told Tagesspiegel. Images on social media show the broken glass of a bus stop and barricades raised by overturned garbage cans. Three officers were injured and one was forced to resign.
The Connewitz events, however, were not in the context of the demonstrations in the city. The motive was apparently the arrest of a person belonging to the scene on the left by the Saxon LKA on Friday morning.
At the demonstration of “lateral thinking” in the Leipzig market, the meeting leader should expect a complaint. Mounting requirements, such as the use of mouth and nose protection, were often ignored, as announced by police at night. (with dpa)
