800 walkers and 450 counter-demonstrators collide on the Obermarkt

Created: 01/10/2022Updated: 01/10/2022, 9:17 PM

From: Volker Ufertinger

Neatly separated: on Monday evening, the walkers (left, without mask) and the counter-demonstrators faced each other.

Both sides largely avoided provocations.

© Sabine Hermsdorf-Hiss

The meeting of the Monday strollers and the human chain at Marienplatz was peaceful in the evening.

There is great relief in the city.

Wolfratshausen

- There was tension in the air. When the ominous strollers turned from Schwankleck to Obermarkt shortly before 7 p.m. on Monday evening, the anxious question arose how the next half an hour would go. On one sidewalk, on the St. Andreas side, 450 citizens from Wolfrathausen and the surrounding area had formed a human chain, all of them connected with masks and scarves. On the other hand, the walkers, who for very different reasons are against the government's corona policy, 800 strong, many with candles in their hands. In total, well over 1000 people in the Obermarkt, how would that end? “Please do not provoke and do not allow yourself to be provoked,” Inspection Manager Andreas Czerweny gave the walkers as a last warning when they made the turn around the bends.

It turned out that both sides had no interest in anything happening here. Controversy Yes, disparagement No was the motto of the counter-demonstrators. Event manager Gerald Bruschek had warned the supporters of the campaign “Human chain for solidarity: WOR tolerant”: “We want to organize something calm and peaceful here.” He was followed. The posters were deliberately not worded too sharply. “Check your sources” or “The truth is not on Telegram” they said. On other banners that you had brought with you it became clearer: “Anyone who walks with Nazis doesn't understand anything” could be read, for example.

The walkers even tried a charm offensive.

“We are friends,” said the leading group of walkers.

Yes, they even tried to hand out hearts with something like the word "human family" on them.

Or handwritten the text: “You are a great person!

I hope we shake hands one day! "The man at the top, whose identity is unknown, kept shouting:" It's all a misunderstanding.

We all want the same thing. ”But direct contact between the two camps was not wanted, the groups were separated by the street, the police kept them apart.

Also read: "WOR tolerant" calls for counter demo

There were hardly any tricky moments. Only once, when some walkers applauded with apparently malicious intent, did it become restless. But the police asked the walkers to go on quickly, and the situation calmed down again. Every now and then there was even a kind of fraternization. "What, you here?" It echoed from one side of the street to the other. You just know each other. And when the pandemic is over, we will have to live together again.

When the last walker disappeared behind the Isarkaufhaus, there was applause from the human chain for the police.

Gerald Bruschek praised those who had participated in the human chain for their discipline via megaphone: “Thank you everyone.” Christina Loy from the Wolfratshausen police was relieved that everything went so peacefully.

Only that the walk stopped from time to time because of the narrow part of the Isarkaufhaus, bothers her.

“We just learn something new every Monday,” she says.

There was nothing to be learned from the strollers.

They are not officially organized, have no spokesperson and do not register their walks as demonstrations.

They just show up and go away.