+++ Live ticker GenZ regulates +++: The youth want to protest loudly and peacefully

The protests started with significantly fewer participants than the organizers expected. Initially everything remained peaceful everywhere, as the police announced. In Cologne, a police spokeswoman said that the number of participants in the protests there was “significantly” below the 15,000 registered participants. So far the police have reported 2,700 participants in Berlin, 1,800 in Munich, and around a thousand participants in Frankfurt am Main. More than 50,000 people registered for these four cities on the GenZ website.

In Berlin, Gen-Z regulated press spokeswoman Lina Friedrich is satisfied: "I can hardly believe how many people are here. We don't see any signs of violence. That makes me so happy." Juli, press spokeswoman for the school strike against compulsory military service, is less satisfied: “The mood is not combative enough,” she thinks. (lol/afp/mst)

On the sidelines of the Munich demo, people still have difficulties understanding the concerns of the demos. “I think it's good that young people are raising their voices,” says an older woman to the taz. Her husband interrupts her. “But what are they actually against?” he asks. Demonstrating against compulsory military service “makes no sense at all, compulsory military service is good,” says the pensioner. After all, if Putin is in power here, you can no longer demonstrate against anything. And what does that have to do with the Nazis, who we are also fighting here? “They just want to be against everything,” grumbles a younger man with an FC Bayern scarf. “And capitalism is bad, really bad, right?” He waves away annoyed. (tk)

A loud bang at the underpass on Mindener Straße. And the police run like they've been bitten by a tarantula. “We assume that it was pyrotechnics,” a police spokesman told taz. Shortly after the bang, an emergency doctor was called in, but it is not clear whether this was related to the bang. (and)

Pyros burn on Mönckebergstrasse, then someone sets off a firecracker. It echoes very loudly between the houses. Several people get scared and run away. The demonstration is stopped and the police point out that pyrotechnics are prohibited. Then the train starts moving again until another firecracker goes off. The system on the Lauti sounds overdriven, the atmosphere seems increasingly tense, but the demo continues. (ak)

At least 4,000 people walk from Jungfernstieg into Mönckebergstrasse. “The rich want war, the youth want a future,” they shout. A young woman in a pink onesie and with a Pali flag around her shoulders is very excited. Why is she here today? “Obviously, we have problems!” Money is there, but distributed incorrectly. “More money needs to be put into education; in Hamburg, school accompaniments have just lost their jobs,” she criticizes. (ak)

“The real violence is 2.8 degrees,” says the sign of two friends in Bielefeld. An allusion to the allegations of violence in the run-up to the demos. Paula thinks that accusing young people of violence just because they want to demonstrate is an “insolence.” "This," she points to the crowd, "isn't a danger. But the 2.8 degrees of warming that the earth is heading towards is a danger." (and)

The demonstration started on Mainkai, near the European Central Bank. So far around 2,500 people have gathered. “Changes” do not come about through a single demonstration, but require daily effort, said a spokeswoman at the opening rally. (cay)

The organizing team begins the rally on Jahnplatz. What's on the minds of young people here? Compulsory military service, broken schools, high rents. "Our fight is just beginning. As long as every person is not free, no one is free," says the first speaker. People are “fucked up” by capitalism. “Started in France, carried on to Italy and other countries: the international youth is showing that they are no longer in the mood,” he swears to those gathered. Around 6,500 people have registered for Bielefeld on the website; the organization team is expecting more than 3,000 people. (and)

“We are here because we have children and grandchildren and we want the young people to get a proper education, to have a life worth living and for no children to have to go to war,” says Silvia Saß, 68 years old. Today she came to the demo at Jungfernstieg with her husband. She believes it is her responsibility as an old woman to support the concerns of young people. (ak)

Flags with the symbol of the GenZ regulates protests, the orange squirrel, fly in front of the Brandenburg Gate. You can also see flags of Antifa, for Palestine and with rainbows as well as those of the Socialist German Workers Youth (SDAJ).

A mother holds up a sign with the slogan: “My son is fed up with battles in Fortnite” – a computer game. She explains that she is worried that her 13-year-old son will be dragged into a war that he has nothing to do with. “Teenagers shouldn’t have to worry about that,” she tells the taz.

The Bundeswehr also employs a group of students. “The universities and schools are collapsing while so much money is flowing into the Bundeswehr,” says a student, reminding us: “Friedrich Merz is not only chancellor from his group of voters.” (mst)

It's quickly getting crowded on the banks of the Rhine. There are probably several thousand people on site now. They chant “Alerta, Alerta, Antifascista”, “Tax the rich” and “Merz leck Eier”. The mostly young people also celebrate “international solidarity”. (wyp)

Leipzig's city center is swarming with police, and here too, shops have barricaded themselves behind chipboard. So far there are around 1,500 people on Augustusplatz. Where Legida once demonstrated with chants of “Merkel must go,” young people are now demanding “Merz must go.” The song by rapper Disarstar “Siamo Tutti Antifa” can be heard from the loudspeaker of the small loudspeaker truck. (epe)

In no other East German city have so many registered for the Gen Z protest as in Thuringia's state capital. According to the website, “I’m in” was clicked more than 10,000 times. 15 minutes before the start there is little to see. A banner against war, a Pali flag, a dozen young people standing around indecisively on the cathedral square. But: While the website advertised this location, the demo actually starts a few hundred meters away at Anger, another central square in the city. When the small group discovered the post about it on Insta, they moved, following the Pali flag. (dmn)

The place on Jungfernstieg is filling up. Antifa flags, Palestine flags, and the “One Piece” flag, which has become an international symbol of Gen Z protests, can be seen. A 24-year-old tells taz that she has the feeling that the situation for young people is getting worse and worse. “When I was at school, we had a hole in the ceiling,” she says, giving an example of the poor infrastructure. With the latest social cuts and compulsory military service, the gap between what is expected of young people and what is being done for them has finally become too big. The student believes it is important to protest against this.

Tobias, 18, and Nikita, 19, dressed up as Dragon Ball characters for their first demo. They would have seen the protests in France, read through the demands of Gen Z and thought they were good. They hoped for demonstrations like those in France, only more peaceful. Because you can see there that this leads to curfews and police violence. (ak)

There are still twenty minutes until the official start: there can be no talk of French conditions yet. There are only a few hundred people on Cologne's Konrad-Adenauer-Ufer. “Better education, no weapons” and “Stop fascism” are written on their posters. The police are also still holding back on staff here. The rush is also limited at Planie, the square where the demo is supposed to start in Stuttgart (wyp/bst)

There are already a lot of police at the New Palace. The demo starts a few hundred meters away, at the central Planie square. There was great excitement in Stuttgart last week. Here, Interior Minister Manuel Hagel was forceful with his statement about the “violent mob”.

The organizers of the demonstration can be located in the context of the Communist Awakening (KA). A representative of the International Youth Group told the Südwestpresse that they had nothing to do with the operators of the nationwide website Generations-Z-Rules. The latter had criticized the Stuttgart-based company for their storm mask logo. The representative criticized: "They try to speak for us. We perceive them as an external element." But one should not allow oneself to be “divided by the issue of violence.” The state student council, however, did not call for a demonstration here because, according to its chairman, it was impossible to estimate whether there would be violence.

In an open letter to the city, shop owners in Stuttgart expressed their fears that riots like those in June 2020 could repeat themselves. Now the city and police have relocated the demonstration route. The train is no longer led from the New Castle through the city center, but from Von der Planie via Hauptatätterstrasse to Marienplatz. This takes you past the shopping streets of the pedestrian zone. (ext)

In view of the barricaded shop windows of luxury boutiques, a police spokesman from Munich says that this is not happening on the recommendation of the police. There is no evidence of riots in the evening. Some are just “very, very careful”. The spokesman suspects that a “certain dynamic” has developed. Since yesterday evening, chipboard has been being nailed in front of shop windows in many German city centers, like here on Maximilianstrasse. Online shopping could also be restricted; customers will receive information from delivery companies such as DPD that their packages may not be able to be delivered due to the protests. (tk/lol)

Veronika Dinter, the press spokeswoman for Gen-Z in Berlin, has already distanced herself in advance from another demonstration that has been registered for later in the afternoon in the capital: “We only take responsibility for what we have registered.” The Open Red Meeting Berlin (ORT), among others, is calling for the demonstration called “Gen Z has enough” at 5:30 p.m. at Rosenthaler Platz. The police expect this demonstration to be peaceful. However, insiders definitely expect protesters there who are interested in “actionism”. (mst)

Our reporters are buzzing around and covering today's protests in Hamburg, Berlin, Leipzig, Erfurt, Cologne, Bielefeld, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich.

According to the GenZ website, most people currently want to take part in Cologne, where more than 16,000 people have registered. There are more than 14,000 in Frankfurt, more than 12,000 in Berlin and more than 9,000 in Munich. It remains to be seen whether everyone who has registered will actually take to the streets. (taz)

More than 1,000 police forces are to be deployed in cities such as Hamburg, Berlin and Frankfurt. Stefan Müller, police chief of Frankfurt am Main, seems to feel more like a dog master. “I'm happy about the peaceful protest and then they'll get the maximum leash from me,” he said at a press conference - just as if the demonstrators were dogs. When things go wrong, his people are there to “restrict”. (lol/cay)

The “Gen Z rules” protests have already achieved something before they even started: showing what fears the mere announcement of a French-style youth protest triggers in Germany. The Interior Minister of Baden-Württemberg, Manuel Hagel, vowed that an allegedly “violent mob” should be “struck back with all the rigor of the constitutional state.” The Young Union even wanted to use soldiers against the young people. A police unionist created a racist image in which he spoke of “riot migrants” who could expect “no mercy.” For weeks, people fantasized about the movement being infiltrated by left-wing extremists or even Islamists.

Today is now the day of truth. Will the new movement succeed in carrying this momentum to Germany? Or is it just one of many attempts by left-wing activists to set up social protests in Germany? Will images of colorful signs or burning garbage cans dominate the news in the evening - even though “Gen Z is in charge” has repeatedly emphasized peaceful intentions? (tk)

The Berlin social scientist Christian Volk sees the potential for a larger protest movement in the planned “GenZ” demonstrations. “There is an enormous amount of pressure in the boiler,” the Humboldt University professor told the AFP news agency. “The housing shortage, cuts in education, the conscription debate and the shift to the right in society – a lot of things come together.” The young people demanded “that their political experiences and future expectations be heard” (afp).

Young people want to take to the streets in 34 cities on Saturday under the motto “More money for the climate, schools, affordable living for everyone”. Around 180,000 people have registered on the GenZ-regelt website. “All are welcome, no matter how old,” it says.

The “Gen Z Regulates” initiative consists of individuals who have registered meetings in Cologne, Frankfurt, Berlin and Munich. Other protests that have joined the call are taking place in Dresden, Aachen, Kiel and Freiburg, for example. In most cities, protests have been announced from 2 p.m.

Left-wing political groups also supported the call, for example through posts that were in turn distributed by Gen Z. The CDU and the police union then threatened a police force without mercy. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution raved about left-wing extremist influence. However, the police did not have any “robust information about targeted extremist influence or control of the group”. Other observers fear that the movement will become as well-behaved as Fridays For Future were. There was a first blockade on October 12th at the French High School in Berlin-Tiergarten. You can read more about the origins of the movement here.

In France, but also Spain, Italy, Albania and Portugal, the anger of young people has been venting for several weeks over failed education and social systems, the total failure of governments in the climate crisis, over rearmament and war. (tk/lol)