200 arrests at the Berlin Crown rally: sit-ins in the west, riots in the east

At some point in the afternoon, the main demo event against the crown in Berlin is divided into two worlds. East of the Brandenburg Gate, on Unter den Linden boulevard, the atmosphere is charged, yes, ready for violence. Bottles and stones fly. Berlin Interior Senator Andreas Geisel (SPD) reported in the early afternoon of 2000 to 3000 right-wing extremists and citizens of the Reich that they fought with the police in front of the Russian embassy. There are seven police officers injured and 200 arrests here alone. Attlia Hildmann, a follower of the conspiracy, is also taken away.

To the west of the Brandenburg Gate, the event is reminiscent of a Woodstock-style sit-in. In fact, there are also two demonstrations, registered by two different people. In the west, it is the area of ​​Michael Ballweg, the Stuttgart businessman who founded the “lateral thinking 711”. The closing ceremony takes place around the Victory Column from 3:30 pm Her followers fill the Grosse Stern square and the Strasse des 17. Juni to the Brandenburg Gate.

There are young and old men and women, hippies among them, some have set up small camps in the zoo right next to them, children play there. According to Interior Senator Geisel, more than 30,000 people have gathered here. Over multiple speakers, he calls Ballweg from the stage next to the Victory Column to put his hand on his heart. “With our hands on our hearts, we are setting an example of love and peace in the world,” he says. And many participate. In between there are always urgent warnings to keep a safe distance. Otherwise, the event would be evacuated by the police. Because nobody wants to wear masks here.

Ballweg has a soft voice and chooses soft words. But what he calls is tough, he wants nothing less than to overthrow the government. “We demand the abdication of the federal government,” he shouts. His followers applaud wildly. But they also applaud when he asks them to applaud the Berlin police, with whom they “worked very well.” Ballweg then asks the police to protect a “constituent assembly” that is supposed to be here for the next 14 days. “You are here today because nobody tells you how to think and how to live,” he shouts at his followers. It seems somewhat paradoxical in Ballweg’s mouth.

In the east of the demo, however, things are much more difficult. The event in Unter den Linden around the corner of Friedrichstrasse is declared closed by the police at 1 pm Despite repeated warnings, the protesters did not keep a safe distance and refused to wear masks. “The president of the meeting no longer has the opportunity to influence you,” repeated the police several times over loudspeakers. “The meeting is dissolved.” But the people here don’t want to go. “We are people. We stay here,” say organizers and supporters.

The police tactics, deployed with a good 3,000 officers, are not aimed at evacuating large areas, but rather to remove individual people from the crowd. This is also how officials proceed with a meeting of right-wing hooligans and Reich citizens in front of the Russian embassy. This leads to the first fights. Spectators warm up the atmosphere with loud calls. First they sing “Resistencia”, then “Paz”. That too: something paradoxical.

The mask is the symbol that separates the worlds

The calculation of right-wing groups to blend in with sympathizers of lateral thinking doesn’t really work. They set up their stage in front of the Reichstag, but only a few hundred people listen to them.

Two men and a woman sit on a bench a bit away from the crowd. They seem in a good mood, they came from Mannheim in the morning and want to come back in the evening. Why are you here? “Because we are afraid,” says the young woman who is an engineer and her name is Jessica. They believe that the corona virus exists, but it is not bad enough to justify the harsh restrictions. She talks about her mother, who lives in a nursing home and “withers” because her daughter was not allowed to visit her. “But that’s your free will.” The young man next to her, Sven, also an engineer, talks about his son, who must now wear a mask at school. “He already got slapped.”

In general, the mask is the symbol that separates the worlds. While almost none of the protesters wear masks, counter-protesters wear them ostentatiously.

In the middle of the night, at three in the afternoon, the Superior Administrative Court (OVG) gave the green light to the act. It was the end of a legal skirmish between the state of Berlin and the protesters of the anti-crown regime of “lateral thinking 711”. After assembly authorities banned Wednesday’s protest march, organizers from Stuttgart, area code 0711, had submitted an urgent request to the administrative court, which had granted it on Friday afternoon. Against this, the Berlin police lodged a complaint, which the OVG judges have now rejected after an evening session.

The decision is a defeat for the State of Berlin, but above all for Interior Senator Geisel. He had vehemently defended the ban on the demonstration. But the judges literally dismantled the reasons for the ban: The court did not see an “immediate danger to public safety” from supporters of “lateral thinking 711”. The use of masks, which they reject, is not mandatory, as long as safety distances are respected. The judges also gave the organizers some safety instructions for the demonstration. Later, the police announced that they would “evacuate quickly” if the participants did not comply with the protection against infection.

In the morning, the Berlin police tightened their course: because protesters do not adhere to safety distances, they make masks a requirement: the court gives meeting participants “a second chance to show that they are meeting the requirements, “Geisel commented on the decision. . He hopes that the people demonstrating in Berlin “will do everything possible to protect themselves against infection. And let them do it in peace. “He said he was” still concerned about the European mobilization among right-wing extremists. “

The far-right scene calls for a “storm in Berlin” in advance

Because even more problematic for the security authorities than thousands of opponents of Corona who violate hygiene regulations are the groups that move as a result of “lateral thinking 711”. In addition to AfD officials, the entire right-wing extremist scene has also called for people to take to the streets in the capital at the weekend: identity movement, NPD, Third Way. According to the police, his supporters have also mobilized in Spain, France and Belgium.

Security authorities are particularly shocked by the reactions of right-wing extremists, crown deniers and conspiracy theorists to the provisional ban on meetings. The “storm in Berlin” was called on social media, and in some cases the use of weapons was called for. Berlin Police Vice President Marco Langner warned of some considerably aggressive protesters: “This openly formulated willingness to use violence against the state represents a new dimension for us.”

Posted today at 7:58 pm