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According to police in central Berlin, around 38,000 people gathered on Saturday afternoon to protest against the authorities’ measures to prevent coronary heart disease.
More than 3,000 police officers had been deployed to ensure that people adhered to the rules on infection control with bandaging and social distancing, and the demonstration at the Brandenburg Gate had only just begun when the police deemed it necessary to intervene.
– Most people do not respect the minimum distance, despite repeated requests. We had no choice but to break up the demonstration, police said.
Seated protests
But after the demonstration broke up, thousands of people refused to leave the center. Several groups of protesters took to the streets of central Berlin to protest.
Police in riot gear stormed a demonstration on Friday, pulling out hundreds of protesters by truck and removing hundreds of protesters by truck.
About two-thirds of those arrested were taken to the Russian embassy in Unter den Linden, where thousands of right-wing extremists and members of the Reich extremist movement threw stones, bottles and other objects at the police.
Not far away, a group of protesters broke into a cordoned off area around the Riksdag building, where the Bundestag is located. The police used pepper spray to eliminate them.
In several other locations, protesters set up barricades and a garbage container caught fire in Friedrichstrasse.
Neo-Nazis, anarchists and anti-rollers
Among the participants in the demonstrations were neo-Nazis, people from the extreme right, extreme left, opponents of vaccines and those who believe that the coronary pandemic is a conspiracy.
– The coronavirus is a big lie, a 50-year-old man told the television channel N24.
The protesters carried signs with texts such as “Stop the Crown Madness” and “End the Crown Dictatorship”, and several of the participants lined up with American and Russian flags and German flags from before the war.
Others wore T-shirts marked with the “Q” symbol of the Querdenken 711 movement, which originated in Stuttgart. Querdenken means thinking outside the box.
Along the route, there were several groups of small groups of counter-protesters, shouting slogans against the right-wing extremists.
I tried to stop
Four weeks ago, tens of thousands of people from across Germany participated in a similar demonstration in Berlin.
The police disbanded it shortly thereafter, as many also failed to comply with infection control rules.
Berlin authorities also wanted to ban Saturday’s march in advance for fear of violating infection control rules, but organizers went to court and won in two different courts when they promised to abide by the rules.
Growing infection
Germany has handled the pandemic better than most, but in recent weeks the infection has risen dangerously fast.
The number of daily infections is now as high as in April, especially due to holidays, family gatherings and travelers from abroad.
Therefore, authorities introduced stricter rules on Thursday, including fines of at least 50 euros for not wearing a mask when necessary.
Opinion polls show that there is overwhelming support among Germans for the authorities’ measures, including the ordering of face masks in shops, buses and subways and in public buildings such as libraries and schools.
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