As of: February 16, 2024, 9:12 p.m
By: Marie Ries, Sok Eng Lim
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Protests in over 700 cities and municipalities: demonstrations against right-wing extremism are currently taking place every day.
© picture alliance/dpa/Rebsch (montage: Litzka/Lim/Bruckmann)
Hundreds of demonstrations from West to East, from North to South: A data analysis shows the wave of protests against right-wing extremism in graphics.
From the sea of lights on Munich's Theresienwiese to the human chain in the small town of Wenningstedt-Braderup on Sylt: hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets since the beginning of January in protests against right-wing extremism and the AfD.
They came together in more than 700 cities and towns, as a data analysis by IPPEN.MEDIA shows.
Based on data from the organizations ACLED and Democrat Team as well as our own research, we collected, compared and prepared protest locations.
Click through our map below to get a glimpse of demonstrations in your area.
The map makes it clear: rallies and demos can be found in different corners of the Federal Republic.
This great regional breadth is a special feature of the protests, as Professor of Political Sociology Sabrina Mayer explains.
“You can see that the topic concerns people in all parts of Germany – both in the old and new federal states,” says the expert from the University of Bamberg.
Expert on the wave of protests: Demos in smaller cities are particularly important for political dialogue
For example, more than 150,000 protesters gathered at the protest in Berlin's government district on February 3rd.
Four demos against right-wing extremism took place in Kiel and six in Dresden.
But a wide variety of alliances are also mobilizing participants for the demos in smaller cities and communities.
Around 150 people in the 900-inhabitant district of Gschlachtenbretzingen in the Schwäbisch Hall district protested against the reception of the AfD district association, as the Südwestpresse reports.
According to sociology professor Mayer, demonstrations in smaller and medium-sized cities away from major cities are particularly important for the impact of the wave of protests.
“The more there is protest among people who sympathize with or vote for the AfD, the more there is political dialogue,” says Mayer.
The wave of protests was triggered by an investigative report by the Correctivs research network.
The report, published on January 10, revealed details of a secret meeting of extreme right-wing extremists near Potsdam, including AfD politicians.
Since then, demonstrations and rallies against right-wing extremism have taken place every day.
Most protests were reported on the last weekend in January.
The graphic shows that despite a certain decline, dozens of demos continued to take place afterwards.
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Dozens of right-wing protests planned for the coming weeks
However, according to sociology professor Mayer, it is still unclear how the protests will develop in the long term.
A decline is to be expected due to the high effort involved in participating in the demo, as is the case with most protests.
“But I still don’t think the protests will simply peter out,” says Mayer.
Protests have also been announced for the coming weekend.
From the perspective of protest researcher Teresa Völker from the Free University of Berlin, it is still too early to speak of the demonstrations as a movement.
The biggest challenge in forming social movements is to mobilize people over a longer period of time and not just for a one-off protest.
“This is also important because a democracy thrives on an active civil society and culture of protest – but the long-term effect depends on further development.”
Our data, sources, methods
The analysis is based on information from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), information from the Democrat Team organization and our own research.
ACLED is a non-profit organization supported by, among others, the European Commission.
Democrat Team lists protest events against right-wing extremism on its website, stating the number of participants.
Events that were supported by at least one additional source or confirmed by our own research were included in our analysis.