This is how the big demo at the Brandenburg Gate works

From BZ/dpa

The number of participants has been estimated by the Berlin police at at least 10,000. A spokesman said on Saturday. A spokeswoman for the organizers spoke of around 50,000 participants, and a lot of people came.

“It’s already very crowded on March 18 Square and people continue to flock to the rally,” the police tweeted in the afternoon.

Left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht and women’s rights activist Alice Schwarzer called for the demonstration.

The police wanted to be on duty with 1,400 forces on Saturday because of demonstrations in Mitte in connection with the war. She was supported by colleagues from Saxony-Anhalt. A police spokesman reported that there were minor fisticuffs on the sidelines of the event at the Brandenburg Gate.

In addition, according to the police, a group of left-wing counter-demonstrators had a loud argument with the publisher of the “Compact Magazine”, Jürgen Elsässer. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies the magazine as a proven right-wing extremist effort.

Wagenknecht calls for a ban on arms deliveries to Ukraine

At the demo, Wagenknecht again called for a stop to arms deliveries to Ukraine, which was attacked by Russia, and called for peace negotiations. It’s about “ending the terrible suffering and dying in Ukraine,” she said at the rally.

At the same time, it is about making an offer to negotiate with Russia, “instead of munitions an endless war of attrition with ever new weapons”. It is important to avert the risk of the war spreading to all of Europe and possibly the world. This risk is “damn big”.

On the website of the “Uprising for Peace” rally, participants were called on to refrain from party and national flags. “Far-right flags, emblems and symbols have no place at our rally,” it said.

In the meantime, the U5 no longer stopped at the Brandenburg Gate. The same applied to the S-Bahn lines S1, S2, S25 and S26. They drove through without stopping.

With the rally, Wagenknecht and Schwarzer want to underpin their demands for dealing with the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. Two weeks ago they published a “Manifesto for Peace” in which they called on Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) to “stop the escalation of arms deliveries”. The women’s rights activist and the left-wing politician call for a ceasefire and peace negotiations with Russia. Critics had accused Wagenknecht and Schwarzer of being “naive”.

Scholz had also said that he did not share the conviction. One has to understand “that the Russian President currently only accepts one form of negotiations, namely that someone surrenders unconditionally and he implements all his goals,” said the Chancellor on the ZDF program “Maybrit Illner”.

Also AFD members on the demo

The AfD state chairman from Saxony, Jörg Urban, came to the event at the Brandenburg Gate, the federal party wrote on Twitter on Saturday. She also posted a photo of Urban holding a sign with a dove of peace. “One year after the beginning of the war, we finally need serious efforts for peace negotiations instead of even more escalation!” wrote the AfD with a view to the Ukraine war.

Alice Schwarzer contradicted allegations that the call needed a stronger demarcation from radical currents. . “Of course we will take action against any kind of right-wing extremist propaganda on the square,” assured the women’s rights activist of the German Press Agency. Both Wagenknecht and she stand for the opposite of right-wing politics.

More than 10,000 participants

On Friday evening, more than 10,000 people demonstrated in Berlin against the war and demanded support from Ukraine. The Brandenburg Gate was illuminated in blue and yellow in the evening.

Ambassador Makeiev thanked the Germans for their “fantastic solidarity”. A million Ukrainians have found protection and Germany has supplied weapons. “German weapons save lives. German weapons are saving Ukrainians,” he shouted. About the opponents of further arms deliveries, Makeiev said: “Peace must be won.”