Berlin (dpa) - Numerous athletes from Germany took part in a solidarity campaign after the death of the African American George Floyd and uploaded a completely black picture on Instagram.
Among other things, the current or former national soccer players Thomas Müller, Jérôme Boateng, Joshua Kimmich, Toni Kroos, Leroy Sané, Mario Götze, Mats Hummels and Marco Reus supported the "#BlackOutTuesday".
The action, which comes from the US music industry, is intended to draw attention to the injustice and to encourage people not to produce content for a day, but to deal with the processes. Floyd had been killed in a brutal police operation in Minneapolis last week. Since then there have been numerous demonstrations against police violence and racism in the United States.
Many other athletes from Germany also participated, including the former ski racer Felix Neureuther and his ex-teammates Thomas Dreßen and Stefan Luitz, the NBA basketball player Maxi Kleber or the ice hockey professionals Tobias Rieder and Korbinian Holzer playing in the NHL.
The initiative was supported worldwide. Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton posted a black fist against a black background and wrote emotional words about it. Basketball superstars LeBron James and Stephen Curry are just two examples from the NBA. The current or previous ski stars Mikaela Shiffrin and Lindsey Vonn (both USA), Kjetil Jansrud and Aksel Lund Svindal (both Norway) were there.
French footballers Franck Ribéry, Spaniard Javi Martínez, Austrian David Alaba, Chilean Arturo Vidal, Brazilian Philippe Coutinho and Real Madrid coach Zinédine Zidane from France also showed their sympathy and called for the broadcast break on the networks to demonstrate for justice and equality.
