Citizens of the Reich next to rainbow flags: this was the Corona demonstration in Berlin

Gandhi with Trump, Reich citizens with rainbow flags: this was Corona’s demonstration in Berlin

We were at the big Corona rally in Berlin and at the protests against it. We met esotericists alongside right-wing radicals, self-proclaimed leftists alongside opponents of vaccination. The main role was played by a piece of cloth on the face.

Sebastian Heinrich, Tim Kröplin / watson.de

There is Mahatma Gandhi up ahead. A man takes him for a walk on the Unter den Linden boulevard in Berlin. The Indian freedom fighter is printed on a black and white photo, which is fastened on a narrow double bracket. “Peace, freedom, love” is written below. A few meters ahead someone carries a wide black, white and red flag, a symbol of recognition for the citizens of the Reich.

According to the Berlin police, 22,000 people attended the demonstration against the federal government’s anti-crown measures on Saturday.. Against the duty to cover the mouth and nose in public, against the rules of distance, against calls for better hand hygiene, against the prohibitions of important events. From the protesters’ point of view, these are unbearable cuts to personal freedom, and for some of them even symptoms of dictatorship.

“There are only bald people here”

Half past nine, 30 minutes before the announced start of the demonstration. Several protesters are already frolicking under the lime trees. There are people with imperial flags next to those with rainbow flags, representing peace and sexual diversity, next to the flags of the United States. “There are only bald people here,” says one of the men who has just passed through the entrance to the demonstration. When asked what he expected, he replied “no Reich war flags.”

A woman, introducing herself by the name of Ulrike Schmidt, says there is no one here on the right. As she says this, two men with imperial flags pass by. Ulrike Schmidt says, “Well, some outliers, but we are more of the esoteric medium.” A few steps later, three people, one of whom describes himself as a musician, do not want to have their names read in the media. “There are no Nazis here, just some peaceful protesters,” they say. The musician complained that he currently has no income, so he went to the demo. It does not deny the pandemic, but it is not as bad as it is described.

To call this demo a mixed bag is an understatement.

There are the long gray-haired drummers who stand at the corner between Rosmarinstrasse and Friedrichstrasse and hammer their instruments for minutes. A woman who refuses to give her name says they are “people who defend fundamental rights.” What do you mean by that? That they can still stand on demos and drums, it means. It will continue like this. And that we no longer have to wear a mask. “

Opponents of vaccination alongside them, obviously. A woman holds up a sign that says “Your health, hypocrites makes us sick,” and underneath it says something about “the terror of vaccines.”

Few speak to reporters

A few meters away there are two men on bicycles. One of them wears a yellow safety vest with a light strip in which a capital “Q” is written, next to him there is a second man who, on a sign, asks that “Farts + political criminals to Guantánamo” be taken to the famous American prison for suspected terrorists. This is the code for the “QAnon” conspiracy myth. His supporters believe that a hidden elite rules the world, tortures and mistreats children, and his adversary is the president of the United States, Donald Trump. QAnon believers don’t want to talk to journalists.

Right-wing extremists don’t want that later: a young woman in a black T-shirt is standing there with her back turned, “Aryan girl”, Aryan girl, under the number 18, which represents the letters A and H in right-wing extremists. Initials of Adolf Hitler.

The demo itself does not continue. The train starts at 11am, for anti-crown protesters, it should actually continue from Friedrichstrasse in the direction of the Tiergarten, up to the Victory Column and then across the broad June 17th street to the Brandenburg Gate. Really. Because after a few hundred meters they have to stop here on Friedrichstrasse, they are stopped by the police. From a police car, an officer explains why: the demonstration route is crowded. Then comes the first warning from the police: almost no one adheres to the prescribed distance rules. The protesters have to cover their mouth and nose. But no one, really no one, wears nose and mouth protection here. And no one makes a move to put it on.

How will we continue? A member of Lateral Thought 711, the organization that organized the demonstration, tried to contact the organizers around 12 noon. You get no response and you don’t even know exactly how the route should continue. The organization has a communication problem, he says and adds: “Right now it is exhausting,” he says. It is not the first time that communication has failed like this. Nor does he want to give his name.

Twins, 25, people of color, both crown protesters

There are twins a stone’s throw from the emergency vehicle. They are both People of Color, both 25 years old and came to Berlin from Magdeburg to participate in the demonstration against the Corona measures. They don’t want to reveal their names. Why are they here, yeah. One of them says: “We are here to exercise our right to demonstrate. To have space to express our criticism of the Corona measures ”. He was not fundamentally against all measures against the pandemic, especially in the beginning, he was very much right. But now many things are going too far, especially the restrictions in schools. “We need open debate rather than agitation,” he says.

What do you think about the fact that a few meters from him people wave black, white and red imperial flags in the air? “I don’t think that’s cool,” he says. He himself, he says, is politically left-wing. But there is simply no left alternative to Coronademos, no leftist demonstration that “deals with the measures.” “That I have to do?” ask about the right-wing extremists in Coronademos. “Should I quit the demo?” And anyway: at the demonstrations I’d been to, people wouldn’t have yelled “Foreigners out.” But “Nazis out.”

The Corona protester yells “out of the Nazis.” “Marches with Nazis and Fascists” counter-protesters

“Nazis out,” that’s what a participant in the Corona demonstration actually yells. The police have just officially dissolved the demonstration. The reason, via an announcement from the loudspeaker truck: no one had adhered to hygiene rules, kept their distance, or covered their mouth and nose. And two dozen paces from the police car is this middle-aged man with short black hair and a black sleeveless shirt, rowing with outstretched arms and yelling, “Nazis out,” over and over again. He yells it at the counter-protesters, all with masks over their mouths. Some of them are filming the man, almost all of them are yelling at him: “You are marching with Nazis and fascists!”

The counter-protesters gathered from the beginning, on Bebelplatz, opposite the State Opera., 300 meters in a straight line from Friedrichstrasse, where the demonstration will stop later. They all wear masks or cloths over their mouths and stay away from each other. The folders distribute red and white plastic barrier tape, cut into 1.5 meter long strips, with which everyone must measure the distance to the people next to them.

The mask seems to be the most important symbol of that day. The crown protesters reject it, as a symbol of the “crown hype,” the “hygiene dictatorship,” as some call it. Counter-protesters are meticulous about wearing a mask. Anyone walking past Bebelplatz bare-faced is quickly accosted by waiters.

One of the counter-protesters is Til, 27, a student. On his head covered by a mask, he wears a sign that says: “Please take YouTube away from your parents.” The video platform and messaging services like Telegram, he says, are “a catalyst for people indulging in conspiracy narratives.” No, the conspiracy believers haven’t turned around anymore, he believes. But there are more “who may be tempted to take radical steps.” That is why, he says, today he is going out to the streets. There are almost 200 counter-protesters shortly before 10:30 who meet at Bebelplatz. “We are the good guys, we own the city!” says a speaker.

Many of the others, of the protesters for the crown, at some point do not know what to do next. After the police broke up the meeting, some returned to Unter den Linden from Friedrichstrasse. Left-wing counter-protesters stand behind them and the groups are kept separate by the police. But they do not achieve that.

A counter-protester, a cloth over his mouth and a Berlin Union cap on his head, a crown protester in front of him, blue blouse with ruffled sleeves, open mouth.
Counter-protester: “I am demonstrating against the Nazis!”
The Corona protester: “But I’m not a Nazi!”
He: “But they are with you!”
You: «Yes, the three people! The rest take to the streets for freedom and basic rights! “

So it goes on, for a few minutes, out loud but in peace.

It doesn’t stay like that everywhere. The police report of stones and bottles thrown at police a few hundred meters away, from a burning construction container, from obstacles placed in the road. Journalists write about attacks on the press on Twitter.

At the other end of Friedrichstrasse, at the S-Bahn station, the situation seems to be under control. The police only allow people with a blocked mouth and nose to enter the tracks. Then, in the S-Bahn car, each passenger wears a mask over their face. The demo seems to be a long way from here.