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Demonstration at Alexanderplatz station in Berlin: conspiracy ideological milieu
Photo: Annette Riedl / dpa
At 2 p.m., the protesters face the police.
They want to move from the rally they just ended at Alexanderplatz in Berlin to the one that is also taking place this Saturday, just a few hundred meters away, near the Red City Hall.
"Peace, freedom, no dictatorship," they shout in the faces of the police officers, they drum and trill, and the air raid alarm sounds again and again.
Dozens of them don't care that they shouldn't get through, they push their way through the five police officers before they get reinforcements.
Others walk around the television tower.
In the end they are at the Neptunbrunnen, at a demonstration of the left-wing peace movement - and thus ensure the first major cross-front event in years.
Right and left combined.
They are the ones who came to the Craftsmen for Peace rally.
It was primarily the right-wing extremist »Compact« magazine that mobilized, about 600 people appeared, only a small number of them recognizable as craftsmen.
The decisive factors were those who had been pushing out onto the streets from the right-wing extremist and conspiracy-ideological milieu for months.
For example, the right-wing extremists »Free Thuringians« and »Free Brandenburgers«, as well as the »Automobile Center«, a right-wing extremist pseudo-union.
In addition, there are fans of the conspiracy ideological micro-party »Die Basis«, supporters of the »Communist Platform Saxony« from the Left Party and the lateral thinker splinter group of the »Free Left«.
And of course the editor-in-chief of the »Compact« magazine, Jürgen Elsässer, is there himself – he is carrying one of his last cover photos with Economics Minister Robert Habeck as »Der Kaltmacher« in front of him, the hood pulled down over his face.
How little it is about the craft was shown on the posters: "Baerbock has to go" is written there, just like "Habeck has to go" or "Rather cheap RUSSEN gas and nuclear energy than totally stupid politicians".
Others demanded that "warmongers from the media, military, politics and business should be accused".
Russian flags or those with doves of peace wave between the posters and umbrellas.
And these: "Beware of storm and wind - and Ossis, who are in a rage!"
Desired the end of the Federal Republic
A master roofer and a master butcher spoke on stage, but the topics went far beyond the craft: Nord Stream 2 and the sanctions against Russia, which one rejects, Ukraine, which they didn't care about, the Greens, for which only contempt was voiced and opposition to the government, which was hailed.
One of the speakers says that politicians don't solve problems, they "just make them".
You would want to make that clear to them, apparently by whatever means, because: "If you don't want to hear, you have to feel, I promise you." Another demanded that "the FRG be sent to the history pages, like the GDR".
Wishing for an end to the Federal Republic, but you don't want to be »right« on stage.
Then the closing speaker again recommends going to the other demo.
There, at the »Action Day of the Peace Movement«, there are mainly fans of the German Communist Party and its youth organization as well as of »Stand Up«, the self-proclaimed »collection movement« that the pro-Russian left-wing federal politician Sahra Wagenknecht helped initiate.
A banner of the district parliamentary group of the Left Party Oder-Spree from Brandenburg can also be seen, "Peace now!" It says.
Around 700 came from the left.
The program includes speeches by a »Get Up« activist and a former journalist who worked for WDR and the ZDF satirical show »Die Anstalt«.
Hundreds of right-wing extremists set off, only briefly stopped by the police.
A single man with an Antifa flag stands in their way, says in a nod to Alsatian “go back to your Uncle Jürgen”, but is approached – and withdraws.
The stewards of the demo at the Neptunbrunnen watch the whole thing as if they couldn't have expected it.
There were warnings
There had been discussions in the left spectrum about the Monday demonstration of the left-wing politician Sören Pellmann in Leipzig at the beginning of September, as it took place on the same day as one of the right-wing extremists "Free Saxony".
There was no transverse front because a large part of the Left Party and its anti-fascist front resisted it.
In addition, there had been warnings on social networks in the past few days that such scenes could occur in Berlin, after all, there was a similar mixture at the "Craftsman Demo" in Dessau a few weeks ago, at that time with around 2,000 participants.
At least the state executive of the Berlin Left Party had refused financial support for the event at the Neptunbrunnen, since "the general end of the sanctions and the attribution as an aggressor towards the federal government" did not correspond to the party's position.
And yet the right-wing and left-wing front on the street that Kremlin fans and right-wing extremists had been longing for for months has now become a reality.
A success, even if not many came that Saturday and "the regime" was not "shaken," as the right-wing extremists had previously claimed.
It took several minutes before a speaker on stage said that supporters of the AfD, NPD or Reich citizens were "not welcome".
There is not much applause for this, and there are no consequences.
Instead, a woman distributes copies of the communist daily newspaper »Junge Welt« to those who have just arrived from Alexanderplatz.
Only half an hour later did the organizer say that "clear Nazis" were present, in particular the supporters of the "Automobile Center" who were "to the right of the AfD".
Attempts were made to exclude people, but the police refused to do this for them.
"So if there are Nazis running along here, I want to make it clear that it's not our fault," he continues, but then only speaks of "five crazy people."
A few of the "peace activists" then go to those from the "Automobile Center" and shout "Get lost!" and "Nazis out".
The police arrive, intervene, protect the right-wing extremists and their banner.
They are happy about the tumult: "Great for publicity," says one, the other grins.