“Gen Z regulates” demonstrations: A stage for discontent

For example, there is Silvia Saß, 68, colorful scarf, who came with her husband. “We are here today because we have children and grandchildren, because we want young people to get a proper education, to have a life worth living, so that no children have to go to war.” It is their responsibility as old people to support the concerns of young people.

According to the organizers, around 10,000 people followed the call from “Gen Z regulates”, the police said there were 6,000 to 7,000 demonstrators, including older people. The speaker of the demo, who appears as Catalina, is satisfied. “It was possible to provide a platform for general dissatisfaction.” And this despite the fact that the Hamburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution had warned against left-wing extremists and the police had caused confusion: there was no demonstration under the name “Gen Z regulates”, only one “against compulsory military service”, said a spokesman at the end of the week. Then Hamburg disappeared from the “Gen Z rules” website. Was there stress? No: “That was much less dramatic than it seemed from the outside,” said Lina Friedrich, spokeswoman for “Gen Z regulates” Germany to the taz. They just didn't have the capacity to organize the demo in Hamburg. Nevertheless, participation was called for, as in the other cities.

There is much to suggest that the International Youth Association, a socialist group, was involved in the organization in Hamburg. Your logo can be seen on flyers that are distributed. But they tend to get lost in the crowd - just like red tube scarves, the signature symbol of Marxist-Leninist groups.

The retailers around the starting point of the demo on Mönckebergstrasse, Hamburg's luxury shopping mile, barricaded themselves as a precaution. Patek Phillippe had even packed up the outdoor clocks and workers were still working on the Gucci stores until shortly before the demo started. According to the Bild newspaper, they accidentally triggered the alarm in the morning. In the end, all stores remain untouched. A few meters away shouts: “Hall international solidarity”. “Up, what?” asks a young person pushing his way through the crowd. He's not the only one who doesn't know all of the voices by heart. There are many people there who have never been to a demonstration before.

For example Tobias, 18, and Nikita, 19, who dressed up as Dragon Ball characters. “We’re here because we just want to be there,” says Tobias. They saw the demos in France and liked the demands of “Gen Z regulates”. They hoped for demonstrations like those in France, but more peaceful. They agree that one should not gamble away one's right to demonstrate. Why haven't you been to a demo before? “We haven’t had that much time yet,” says Nikita.

The first pyros are ignited shortly after the start, then the first firecracker in the crowd. There is a loud bang between the houses and several people are very frightened. The police officers remain comparatively reserved, which may also be due to the number of people. The demo has to stop briefly, but can continue immediately. A speaker from Lauti calls for the end of the Merz government. Many cite the federal government's cuts as the reason for coming to the demonstration. This is also the case for Joana Mandlhate, 32. “It’s giving fear of the future” is written on her sign. She works in marketing, she says, has two jobs and still can't afford a vacation. “I'm annoyed that people say we're lazy, I can barely pay my living expenses, I don't live on a grand scale.”

Then the demo comes to its end. It's a wide street, there's construction work on the edge. It's unclear for a moment what's going to happen, a little incredulous: "Was that it?" Then bottles and pieces of wood fly towards the police, thrown mainly by young men, some masked, but not all. A few take construction site barriers and stack them. Firecrackers go off at smaller intervals. The police run into the demonstration, encircle some of them, but retreat again. Very young people, many Flinta, push them to the margins with anti-war propaganda.

At 5 p.m. the meeting from Lauti is broken up, then construction fences burn. The police are no longer staying on the sidelines, driving people apart and taking rigorous action against mostly very young people. A spokesman says firecrackers were thrown at police officers.

At the end of the Hamburg demonstration, a water cannon hits the street. Pepper spray is in the air, a thick column of black smoke rises into the sky, and it smells of burnt plastic. But the water cannon is not used against people, it only extinguishes the burning construction fences that lie on the street in the St. Georg district, and later a few burning garbage cans and garbage bags, which officials then move out of the way with shovels.

The evening in Berlin was similar: After the consistently peaceful “Gen Z rules” demonstration at the Brandenburg Gate with 5,000 participants, another demonstration started, registered under the name “Gen Z has enough”. It was not the Berlin organization of “Gen Z Regulates” that called for this, but rather the Open Red Meeting Berlin (ORT). This second protest with around 3,500 participants was not without violence.

Right from the start, the participants appear to be much more combative, shouting slogans such as “We are only free under communism” and “Bulls-pigs. Murderers. Liars”. Flags of the socialist groups ORT, Young Struggle and SDAJ (Socialist German Workers' Youth) fly at the demonstration. Individuals repeatedly throw pyrotechnics at the police. The protest later escalated. The police officers stop the march, but cannot control all the routes. This leads to scuffles, arrests and police violence. During an arrest, a police officer repeatedly hits a demonstrator lying on the ground with his fist. Even a boy who is estimated to be 14 years old is violently pushed several times by the police.

At around 7 p.m. the organizer ended the protest himself. But before the meeting was actually over, another hour passed with sometimes violent evictions. Several demonstrators are injured. The police tell the taz that stones were thrown at officers.

In no other East German city have so many registered for the “Gen Z” protest as in Thuringia’s state capital. According to the Erfurt Cathedral Square website, “I’m there” was clicked more than 10,000 times. But 15 minutes before the start there is little to see. A banner against war, a Palestine flag, a dozen young people standing around, somewhat indecisive. But they are actually in the wrong place.

In fact, the demonstration begins a few hundred meters away at Anger, another central square in the city. A little later, several hundred people form a circle around a small loudspeaker. Several young people give short speeches through a connected microphone. It's about pressure to perform in schools, how the distribution of wealth influences educational opportunities, exploitation, the climate crisis, racism and against conscription.

Most of the listeners are also rather young. The speakers often receive applause from the back rows, even though they can hardly be heard there. The speaker is too small. The police are watching the rally from a distance. There are relatively few officers to be seen, their protective helmets dangling relaxed from their belts. Flags of the small cadre party MLPD and the anarchist union FAU flutter over the protest by Gen Z. Between two speeches, the participants chant: “Never again compulsory military service!”

On the edge of the Anger, separated from the protest by the tram tracks, six people shout something incomprehensible and then unpack two German flags. They don't seem completely sober. But now the police officers become active, they quickly move between the rally and the six with the German flags.

A little later, the “GenZ” demo sets off and chants one slogan after another. “The whole of Erfurt hates the AfD,” “Friedrich Merz, go to the front, you’ll be bombed away yourself,” “No God, no state, no patriarchy!” Barricaded shop windows? Not in Erfurt. Most shops are closed for Reformation Day. But from the restaurants, passersby watch the hundreds of demonstrators, some of them wave.

The police assume there will be up to 1,900 participants at the peak. They go to the main station without any stops or incidents. After the final rally, everything in Erfurt is over very quickly.