Summit in Hamburg | Attac is taking the former G20 protest ban to court

Attac had to carry out the small protest in the summer of 2017 far away from the addressee, the former colonial company C. Woermann. Photo: Attac Attac Germany has appealed against a ruling by the Higher Administrative Court (OVG) in Hamburg regarding a protest action during the G20 summit in 2017 that was prevented by the police. The globalization-critical network made this known on Tuesday. At the end of August, the judges decided that the small Attac gathering was not dangerous, but that its ban was still legal: It could not be ruled out that other people could have joined the Attac protest and thus gotten the police into difficulties.

The OVG thus deviated from a ruling by the Hamburg Administrative Court in the first instance. The latter had initially decided that a ban on gatherings, even within a large demonstration ban zone, was only permissible if the respective gathering posed a specific threat to public safety.

The Higher Administrative Court assessed the situation differently and included small gatherings like Attac's in an "overall protest event." The individual case does not play any role. Attac sees it differently: According to the organization, other higher administrative courts have also decided in comparable cases that meetings must be examined individually.

The organization now wants to have this clarified by the highest court before the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig. The Society for Freedom Rights (GFF), which specializes in strategic litigation on fundamental rights issues, is supporting the process.

The Attac campaign planned nine years ago was entitled “Free Trade Makes Flight” and was supposed to take place in front of the office of the African Association of German Business and in front of the “Afrikahaus” in Hamburg’s old town. The building on Neuer Jungfernstieg in the city center, built in 1899 as the headquarters of the C. Woermann trading company, represents the colonial history of the city. An inflatable boat was supposed to symbolically represent an escape situation.

The intended location was within the 38 square kilometer demonstration ban zone that was set up on the occasion of the G20 summit in Hamburg. Attac could therefore only hold the small meeting far away from the “Afrikahaus”.

The lawsuit before the Federal Administrative Court is therefore also generally about the legality of large-scale assembly ban zones and the use of so-called general orders, based on which protest camps should also be banned in Hamburg. Authorities can ban protests across the board for a specific area and a set period of time without examining them individually.

Hanni Gramann, who registered the campaign in 2017, therefore criticizes the OVG's decision. It cannot be the case that a confusing overall situation is enough to restrict fundamental rights across the board, explains the world trade expert and retired secondary school teacher.

Attac had already complained in other cases against restrictions on protests at the G20 summit. Together with the Comm association, the organization took action against requirements for a protest camp in Hamburg's Volkspark Altona, with which the police wanted to prevent overnight accommodation as part of a general order. However, the Federal Administrative Court confirmed the legality of the restrictions in November 2024. It assessed the planned accommodation infrastructure as not covered by the protection of freedom of assembly.

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