Experience Report From One of Many Anti-Merkel Protest Marches

The following text is a google translation of an article which was originally published on Juergen Fritz Blog.

Yesterday evening I was on my first demo. On a Merkel-muss-weg demo in Hamburg, initiated by Uta Ogilvie. Uta has started a movement, you will not forgive her. But they will now let them and their family atone, to make it clear to everyone: “Do not you dare to start something like that! Woe to you! “But people dare. And there will always be more who dare. These screaming necks, stone throwers, house smoochers and other human harassers have attacked a woman and her children just for holding up a “Merkel must go” sign. The citizens of this country will not accept that. There will be a movement from the center of society. First in Hamburg, then everywhere in Germany. From here it will spread. This is only the beginning, the beginning of something very big!

First past the Antifa

Monday evening, just before 19 o’clock. I arrive at the Jungfernstieg with the U1, go up the stairs. Even before I get to the top of the police, there are police everywhere. I go up the next staircase, am now on Jungfernstieg, right in front of the Apple Store. Here are more policemen and people, enormous masses of people. You can feel it immediately, here is something going on tonight. But where are the Merkel-must-go protesters? I look around, can not see her anywhere. So I start walking along the Jungfernstieg, one of Hamburg’s most beautiful spots. Right just a few tens of meters away the beautiful Binnenalster, left shops at its best. Then I hear the first shouts, no more screams. I feel the extreme aggression. It is immediately clear to me: These are certainly not the Merkel-must-go people. And I’m immediately aware of the volume: that’s not just a few who scream, that’s many.

Normally I’m not very scared, but for a very short moment I get a slightly dull feeling. Then I think “Oh, no one recognizes you here and they do not know where I want to go.” For safety’s sake, I pull my cap down a little bit lower and continue walking. Past the screaming necks around which I make a slight bend, but not too big. Should not be noticed. Okay, done. I am through this needle eye. Nothing happens. I walk on, now see a police chain in the middle of the Jungfernstieg. Man next to man at very close intervals, not even an arm’s length between the individual officers. The police chain goes over the entire promenade and across the wide street over to the other side, where everywhere grids are set up. No one comes through here, who is only allowed to pass. I realize immediately: They block the Merkel-muss-weg-demo from these screaming necks to protect those.

Uta Ogilvie and her father are attacked on the way to the venue

I go to the police, ask if I can go through. A policeman asks back where I want to go. I say “To the demo, to the anti-Merkel demo”. He looks at me briefly and lets me through. Later I find out, others did not come so easily through the police cordon. A friend tells me that she arrived shortly after 19 o’clock and had to go through three police bars, had to explain where she wanted to go and only when she emphatically declared that she wanted to go to the Merkel-muss-weg-demo, they let her finally through. Others did not make it to the venue.

The initiators of the whole thing, Uta Ogilvie, got even more violent. She came together with her father, who had come specially from Cologne, and the two were attacked by anti-fascists. There was a fray, they tore the blame out of her hand, broke it and threw it to the floor. The two received some shocks, but then police officers came and escorted them to the demonstration under police protection. But back to me.

Where is the demo?

I continue walking along the Jungfernstieg, the screams behind me are quieter. But where is the anti-Merkel demo? I still can not see any of it. I walk and run, I’m almost at the end of the promenade. I still do not see those to whom I would like to join. Now I have reached the end. Where are they? Okay, I see something across the street. Behind all the police vehicles could be something. I cross the street, go to the Alster. Yes, indeed, there they are. Well hidden. “But no one sees us there,” I think to myself. In addition, there are policemen everywhere outside. Cleverly made by those who set it that way. We are granted the constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of assembly (Article 8 of the Basic Law), but we are transported to a place where hardly anyone even sees us.

Over 1,200 police officers on duty

A little later, an acquaintance says: “They’ll send us down here, directly to the water” and I think, if one or the other falls into the ice-cold water, there would be a huge humming on the street opposite. I look around and have the impression that even here are almost more police than protesters. And there are many more of them in the area. Sensitively I estimate ten policemen on a demonstrator. Later it will turn out that it probably needed this amount too. According to an official police report , more than 1,200 police officers are said to have been deployed.

I walk through the crowd, which is still manageable, whether I see someone I know. After a few minutes I discover a friend. He has made a great sign saying “Merkel has to go”. We talk briefly and he puts it in my hand, wants to do something on the glove. I have the impression that he is happy that he does not have to hold the thing all the time and I am glad to be able to support the action with the sign in my hand, which I think is absolutely terrific. So I keep the sign, which seems to be very right.

Some newspapers say that these are “rights” or “right-wing extremists”. I can not see that at all. All normal, good middle-class people from young to old.

You can not demonstrate more peaceful

There we stand now on Monday evening, shortly after 19 o’clock. It’s cold, the road is partly quite smooth, we just stand there and talk, we do not even call “Merkel has to go”. One way to march up and down, we do not have. There is no room for that. Further ahead is already the Alex, a great Alsterpavillon in the middle of the square in front of the Binnenalster. And the police somehow fenced us. We can only stand there. This is a booth event tells me a police officer, I ask. We can not go to the other side of the street where people would be more likely to see us.

Then I see Uta, who is surrounded by people and probably just gives an interview. In front of her, someone built up with a big camera and someone with a microphone. Later, I greet you briefly. There are probably many more impressions on them. And considering what day she has behind her. Incredible! But she looks surprisingly calm, but I suspect, otherwise she is still a few times calmer and more relaxed.

Now comes the most dangerous passage

After about an hour the action is over. Someone is shouting loudly that buses are about to come and get us out of here. That is necessary to ensure our protection. Because otherwise we would probably fear that the anti-protesters, probably partly militant “anti-fascists”, would attack us. A friend had already told me in advance that the most dangerous thing was the arrival and departure. Since one should not be recognized in any case, because as the police protection is not guaranteed and the anti-prisoners there would like to attack individuals or small groups.

Then a few minutes later we march closed under strict police protection – countless policemen all around us – but not, as will soon become apparent, to buses, but to a subway station. A few minutes earlier, several police officers have already started running in this direction. I suspect they have secured the way there. In fact, they are now left and right everywhere, guarding each other. Now you can hear screams from the left again. Loud – aggressive. One can only guess what they would do to us if all the hundreds of police were not there. I would like to scream loudly “Merkel has to go!”, But do not really trust me. Maybe that would be too dangerous to provoke the screaming necks. Some of us are shouting “We are peaceful and what are you” , but the calls are always ebbing off quickly.

Then, just before the subway station, someone shouts “Beware, they are throwing stones!” . Now everything is going very fast. Someone pushes us aside, we should get away quickly. Then a friend who has hooked up with me, something hard, probably a stone. She is packed in a thick, almost like a Michelin male. Luckily! Because she got the stone full on the chest. “I have a thick scarf underneath,” she says, “but it still hurts.” The thing must have been thrown with Karacho. Now we quickly go down the stairs to the subway. Here we are in safety. And again cops, police everywhere.

That’s the beginning of something big

We are told that we will be taken away from the danger zone by subway and that the police will then drive us on the next subway. Then we all get into the next train and drive away. The next station is driven through, we are told to get away from the rioters as far as possible. We talk about what we experienced today. “Surreal”, says a friend, “The whole thing is completely surreal”. Yes, that’s it, I think immediately. She hit it in a nutshell.

We talk about Uta. We all admire their courage and we are immensely sorry for what they and their entire family, even the little children, have to endure, just because the mum dared to unpack a sign saying “Merkel has to go”, that’s all. She did not even shout or scream. Nothing. But she did not stay alone. Others have been instantly infected by their example. A week later already tens of people and already hundreds. You will not forgive her for that. She has started a movement. For that they will let them, their family and their environment atone for now, to make it clear to everyone: “Do not you dare to start something like that! Woe to you! “

But people dare. And there will always be more who dare. These screaming necks, stone throwers, house smoochers, and other human harassers and intimidators have attacked a woman and her children for holding up a “Merkel must go” sign. The citizens of this country will not tolerate that. There will be a movement emerging from the center of society. First in Hamburg and then everywhere in Germany. In cities in North and South, in West and East. It will spread from Hamburg. Hamburg has made the beginning. Uta Olgivie has made the beginning. Thanks Uta! We are with you. We stand by your side. We will not leave. And we will become more and more. This is only the beginning, the beginning of something very big!

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