Cheering, hustle and bustle, hate crimes: largely peaceful unity celebration in Bremen

A gay couple was insulted and beaten by a group in Bremen's old town. The two men, aged 29 and 33, were attacked on Saturday evening, the police in Bremen said on Sunday. According to the information, the two men had previously attended the celebrations for German Unity Day.

On the way home, a group of around ten people met them in the city center. Several young men loudly insulted the couple and made homophobic insults in Arabic.

When the 29-year-old took out his cell phone to document the incident, the couple was hit with fists by several people, according to police. The suspects then fled on foot. The 29-year-old was given initial treatment by paramedics and then taken to a hospital for outpatient treatment.

It was said that criminal charges had been filed against the attackers for, among other things, inflammatory insults and grievous bodily harm. Since the crime is classified as a hate crime, the state security police are investigating and looking for witnesses.

The attack is part of a series of violent acts against queer people: The brutal attack on two Afghan trans* people in the Steintorviertel at the beginning of May caused a stir. The current act is apparently only related to the celebrations of German Unity Day in a temporal and spatial context.

According to the police, despite considerable reports of concern, especially from the Weser-Kurier, they were essentially peaceful: no incidents were registered at the autonomous demonstration with the participation of the Interventionist Left (IL) on Friday. Instead of 100 as expected, there were a good 700 participants.

However, the police broke up the march of a small neo-old left group through the Steintorviertel on Saturday. The applicant was a small organization nostalgically called the “Red League”, which is committed to the global chairman, the Peruvian mass murderer Abimael Guzmán, who died five years ago.

She had promised that she would “tear down the imperialists’ flag and set it ablaze.” In order to be able to keep her word, after Bremen had only hung up pennants, she even got a black, red and gold flag. The police intervened when they were burned. A skirmish broke out in which officers were injured and several demonstrators were taken into custody.

While a spectacular Weser illumination and top-class pop concerts created an exuberant and happy atmosphere, according to participants, an AfD event in the Bundestag tent in the official program provoked critical heckling.

With passive-aggressive behavior, members of the right-wing extremist party expressed their contempt for Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier during his speech. At the central ceremony in the Die Glocke concert hall, he warned of a threat to democracy through extremism and “shrill emotionalization”. It is important to assert oneself against a “flood of manipulation and lies”. (with material from epd and dpa)