Enlarge image
Motorcade on April 3, 2022 on the Olympiaplatz in Berlin: “A permit from the police is available”
Photo: Carsten Koall / dpa
That's probably how it all started: a video, 48 seconds long.
It shows a worn keyboard and the frozen screen of an old computer.
'No propaganda.
Protection for Russian speakers," reads the screen.
That should be the motto of the demo.
A deep voice explains what is planned: "I welcome you.
There is a car parade this Sunday.
Meeting point 12 p.m.
We have a permit from the police.«
What followed has been the subject of discussion for days, in the capital and throughout the country.
Motorists came to the meeting point at the Ahrensfelde S-Bahn station with flags and pennants from Russia and the former Soviet Union in order to drive across the city to Spandau.
The police said they counted around 400 cars.
Several interior ministers criticized
"For heaven's sake, how could they allow this car parade of shame in the middle of Berlin," the Ukrainian Ambassador Andriy Melnyk scolded on Twitter to the address of Berlin's Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD).
"And that was on the day when the massacre of civilians in Bucha came to light." Several interior ministers and politicians also voiced criticism.
The demonstration was registered by car mechanic Christian Freier.
He also apparently created the video that went viral on TikTok;
at least his voice can be heard in it.
"No propaganda in the school," he says in Russian in the video, apparently referring to the Russian war of aggression in German schools.
What's all this about?
In a phone call to SPIEGEL, Freier says it was a "protest against discrimination against Russian-speaking people in Germany."
Because every day it gets “worse for us in Germany”.
Incidentally, the protest was "apolitical".
Russian and German flags could be seen on several cars;
a Ukrainian flag if there are at least six cars.
Enlarge image
Christian Freier at the demonstration in Berlin: »I am definitely against all wars.«
Photo: Florian Boillot
What looked like a pro-Russian provocation in the middle of Berlin should have been a non-political, cross-national community action?
In any case, Freier insists that he feels misunderstood.
In the German media, everything is lumped together.
He only found out about what happened in Butscha after the motorcade.
There are now numerous eyewitness reports from Butscha, and SPIEGEL has also been there several times;
there is much to suggest that the crimes are attributable to Russia.
Who do you think is responsible for the atrocities in Bucha?
Freier says: "I don't want to comment on that."
The fact that so many took part in Berlin on Sunday – Freier speaks of 700 cars – surprised even him.
He only advertised the motorcade via a WhatsApp group.
He keeps quiet about his TikTok movies.
He had said in it: "Please share the video as widely as possible."
How the controversial action was received by supporters loyal to Putin can be read on the UK page of the Russian embassy.
A film of the convoy was posted there.
"Very well," writes one, "there are still people who can think freely and do not allow themselves to be manipulated by the Western media."
The embassy's website mentions 5,000 cars that took part in the campaign.
"A real start," writes another in his commentary, "the regime must be shown how far their propaganda is allowed to go." Apparently the German government is meant and not the Kremlin.
Nobody on the site complains about the civilian casualties of the war in Ukraine, the Bucha killings and the arrests of demonstrators in Russia.
Even the organizer of the motorcade prefers to avoid such topics.
He does not criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Freier prefers to keep it general: »I am definitely against all wars.«
