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Police officers during the demonstration on Saturday in front of the Reichstag
Photo: JOHN MACDOUGALL / AFP
Tamara K. speaks in a hoarse voice.
The alternative practitioner from the Aachen area is counted according to SPIEGEL information from the constitution protection of North Rhine-Westphalia to the Reich citizen scene.
Since the weekend she has been the woman who incited a right-wing mob in front of the Berlin Reichstag - and thus put the country into an uproar.
"It is important that the world sees that the people stand up against the German injustice regime," she claims on the phone.
The scenes are recorded in a video that is circulating on the net.
It shows Tamara K. with dreadlocks standing on a small stage in front of the Reichstag.
Saturday evening, around 7 p.m.
In the capital, a total of more than 38,000 demonstrators are on the way to protests against the Corona measures, according to the official figures.
"Look at you, the police have taken off their helmets," barks Tamara K. into the microphone.
US President Donald Trump is in Berlin.
"We're going up there now."
Shocking incident
300 to 400 protesters promptly overcome barriers, wave the Reich flag, a symbol of right-wing extremists - and in no time make it up the stairs to the entrance to the Reichstag.
There they only face individual police officers.
A video shows three officers in close-up, visibly energized.
It takes a few minutes, then reinforcements move in and push the bullying right back down.
The incident, for which the Ministry of the Interior, according to an internal situation report, blames the spectrum of "Reich citizens" and "brotherhoods", shocks political Berlin.
And he raises the question of how it could happen that the police were duped in front of the Reichstag of all places.
In a place that could hardly be more symbolic for German democracy.
Calls for violence and the overthrow of the government were circulating in chat groups and social media days before the demo.
The security authorities have obviously underestimated how seriously some right-wing extremists and conspiracy ideologues took disruptive actions against democratic institutions.
"The lack of protection of the Reichstag was a deficit in operational planning," says criminologist Christian Pfeiffer.
Stephan Kelm, Berlin deputy of the police union GdP, admits: "At the moment there wasn't as much police as there should have been."
That was "of course not optimal".
Officials overrun
In the interior committee, operations manager Stephan Katte said on Monday that there were basically "enough forces" there.
250 police officers were deployed for the Reichstag and the government district.
At the time of the incident, however, many officials were posted between the Reichstag and the Tiergarten to stop the influx of demonstrators.
The remaining officials in front of the Reichstag were then overrun.
According to Katte, that shouldn't have happened.
What exactly the deployment order of the police command provided could not be finally clarified in the Interior Committee.
The document has so far been kept under lock and key.
These include tactics and instructions on where and how the available officers should be deployed in a situation.
Alone the number of civil servants who were basically available in the government quarter is not meaningful, says the Berlin SPD domestic politician Tom Schreiber.
"We as members of parliament have to know: What exactly was the job of these police officers? Has it been neglected to establish a permanent presence of units to secure critical points such as the parliament? If so, it was a clear tactical mistake in terms of police tactics," said Schreiber .
"As announced, the Nazis took advantage of it"
"The operational order should also state whether civil, scene-aware officers were deployed to protect the area around the building. They could have reported the development of the situation and the increasingly aggressive mood immediately. Whether that happened is a central question," says Schreiber.
For reasons that were inexplicable so far, the front door was left open for a short time, so Schreiber.
"As announced, the Nazis took advantage of that".
Nevertheless, experts advise prudence.
The police "behaved sensibly except for the incident in front of the Reichstag," says criminologist Pfeiffer.
"She stayed in the background, was not involved in major battles."
This defensive line has "basically proven itself".
The "verbal excitement" is excessive.
"The right weirdos get too much attention."
A trifle becomes a state affair.
"More right than done wrong"
Police researcher Rafael Behr
Hamburg police researcher Rafael Behr says that the Berlin police "did more right than wrong".
You have renounced a "martial demeanor", used violence with moderation and cautiousness, and thus followed her long-term line.
One should not "overdramatize" the incident before the Reichstag.
It would have "probably been better if the police had a few more forces on the street," said Behr.
At the same time, during such large demonstrations, situations "in which the police are briefly overwhelmed" could never be completely prevented.
The Berlin trade unionist Kelm advocates protecting the Reichstag with technical barriers "that prevent demonstrators from simply storming the stairs to the entrance".
One possibility are raised fences.
In addition, one should "employ more staff" in comparable situations.
Kelm also doubts that the demonstrators could really have penetrated the Reichstag.
"The Reichstag would not have been stormed if the demonstrators had overcome the police at the entrance," said Kelm.
"The doors are too strongly protected for that, and the Bundestag police station was also in the building."
more on the subject
Statement by the Federal President: "Defense of democracy is not just a job for the police"
Policemen defend Reichstag: Good Cops, a column by Nikolaus Blome
Security debate on the Bundestag: The Great Trench by Florian Gathmann, Timo Lehmann, Christian Teevs and Severin Weiland
The conspiracy ideologist Tamara K. explains her appearance on Saturday with a special mood.
"We got the news that President Trump had come to town. That was misinformation."
She spontaneously called for people to take the stairs of the Reichstag.
There was no longer a police officer on the stairs, they had taken off their helmets beforehand.
For them the signal: "Now we can go up there."
She did not call for a storming of the building.
"We only want world peace."
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