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Jecken at the beginning of the carnival on the Cologne Heumarkt: "The need was great"
Photo: Rolf Vennenbernd / dpa
Just before the confetti cannon pounds with a clap of thunder in Cologne's old town on Thursday morning, Lord Mayor Henriette Reker comes on stage.
Your appearance at the opening of the Cologne carnival session in front of around 10,000 jockeys lasts only a few moments.
"Stay out in the fresh air as much as possible," warns the mayor.
"We all don't want to experience that we are criticized."
Just a few hours later, that's exactly what happens. Pictures and videos of a completely overcrowded Cologne amusement mile are making the rounds.
By security staff who simply wave the partying through at the entrances to the 2G zones without any control.
From thousands of people who were tightly squeezed outside without a mask on 11/11.
celebrate.
The pictures cause astonishment all over Germany.
A mass party in a phase of the pandemic, in which Germany is setting new incidence records every day and federal states like Saxony are already thinking out loud about a lockdown.
Doctors also react in dismay to the crowd.
"I was terrified," said World Medical President Frank Ulrich Montgomery in an RTL interview.
His prognosis: "It will not only affect the jerks, but also those who are infected by them."
»As a› sexy intubate ‹in the university clinic«
The Cologne satirist Jan Böhmermann scoffed on Twitter: »Alaaf!
Today as a ›sexy nurse‹ on Zülpicher Straße, at Christmas as a ›sexy intubate‹ in the university clinic! «The RKI even sent out a warning: larger events should be canceled or avoided if possible.
At least in Cologne, the message from the Berlin virus experts caused confusion.
It was only sent on Thursday evening.
The hustle and bustle in Cologne's party zones had long since gotten out of hand.
Already in the afternoon Reker felt compelled to comment.
"A large number of people have been vaccinated, and that is exactly what we let on the event space," she said.
11.11.
belong to Cologne customs.
»You can't forbid people to do 11/11 appropriately and with the greatest responsibility.
to enjoy.
People will not put up with anything else. "
She expressly praised the controls in the 2G zones.
She herself, said Reker, was turned away at an entry point that morning because she did not have an identity card with her.
But hardly anyone here wants to speak of the responsibility that Reker invokes. The images of the celebrating crowds reverberate. In Cologne there is a hangover mood on Friday. Sweepers drive through the party zones, men in neon orange overalls blow the party muck off the streets and sidewalks with leaf blowers.
Some restaurateurs are still stunned.
Claudia Wecker is a member of the Gastro Lateng interest group and has owned the Das Ding discotheque since 1996, a well-known student club on the edge of the party mile that made the headlines yesterday.
Her shop was also open on Thursday.
However, the 53-year-old did not want to rely on the city's controls; every guest was checked again for 2G at the entrance.
"I'm horrified," she says.
“Everyone in the City of Cologne knew exactly that there would be a state of emergency.
But no one acted accordingly. "
Martin Schlueter, landlord of the Reissdorf am Hahnentor in the city center, is also shocked.
“The city has allowed such images to be sent from Cologne to the world.
That is negligent and damaging to your image. "
"Crucial questions not answered"
Apparently, Wecker, Schlueter and the other landlords had met during the preparations for November 11th.
gladly coordinated more specifically with the city.
But the last planned meeting of the common round table before the start of the carnival broke the administration.
"For reasons of schedule," as the city writes when asked by SPIEGEL.
There was no longer any need to talk anyway.
The concepts for 11/11
had already been discussed in the September meeting, the city says.
Wecker and other hosts disagree and raise serious allegations in an interview with SPIEGEL.
The cancellation came as a surprise.
“Crucial questions about the security concept haven't been answered yet,” says Wecker.
“The meeting should have taken place.
The city has apparently ducked away so as not to have to deal with possible problems. "
However, Wecker does not want to blame the city alone.
It is a political and legal mixture.
A rejection, as many hosts here also believe, would still have been the wrong decision.
"People would have come anyway, celebrating could not be forbidden," says Wecker.
“So it's better to do it in a controlled manner.
Even if that might sound strange today. "
The city and the organized carnival do not want to spoil the mood despite massive criticism and are defending the approach. Everything went largely well, asserts Christoph Kuckelkorn, head of the powerful Cologne Festival Committee. "Carnival is an integral part of life for Cologne residents, and there was a great need for it," he says. “That's why we have to have a day like 11/11. organize as well as possible, otherwise there is a risk of escalation. "
The NRW Ministry of Health also believes that a short-term ban would have led to a "barely manageable unorganized situation," writes a spokesman when asked by SPIEGEL.
The authority has so far ruled out a cancellation of the upcoming session.
It is "legally not justifiable to continue to exclude people who have been vaccinated, who have also made a solidarity-based contribution to health protection and to enable normalization of social life, from certain offers through bans".
On the contrary: Due to the current infection rate, further measures against unvaccinated people are conceivable.
"The same disaster in spring"
The city of Cologne fears that a ban could even have negative effects on the vaccination campaign.
In other words: if you are not allowed to celebrate Carnival, you will not be vaccinated.
But there is also a touch of self-criticism.
On Monday, the city writes on request, the crisis team will meet and together with the police the events of 11.11.
work up.
The aim is to discuss »what works well and what has worked less well, so that we can then, if necessary, make adjustments for the street carnival in spring 2022«.
According to the disco owner Wecker, this is urgently needed.
"If nothing happens now, there will be the same disaster in the spring."