So anyway, a few pieces. Shortly after the demonstration against German arms support for Ukraine, a man walks on Unter den Linden with a huge German flag. In front of it another man, with a thick green tattoo on his neck. At the height of the Russian embassy, a group of counter-demonstrators is waving Ukrainian flags. One of them gasps at the sight of the German flag and neck tattoo. ‘A neo-Nazi! A clearly recognizable neo-Nazi! Why are there neo-Nazis in your demonstration?!’
That is a good question. Several thousand people gathered in Berlin on Saturday to protest against the German government’s Ukraine policy. Demands: an immediate ceasefire. Peace negotiations. No more weapons for Ukraine. The demonstration had gripped the German media all week, especially as far-right groups threatened to flock to Berlin. The demonstration was organized by Sahra Wagenknecht (53), a querulous politician from the far-left political party Die Linke. She hopes to win back poorer Germans who have defected en masse to the radical right in recent years.
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Remco Andersen is correspondent Germany. He lives in Berlin. As a Middle East correspondent, he won the Lira Prize for foreign journalism in 2015 for his work in Syria and Iraq.
Calls were made on far-right chat channels to come to the demonstration, and the far-right party Alternative für Deutschland signed the corresponding petition. But in the end, hardly any supporters of the extreme right showed up. A handful of about five thousand other demonstrators.
Who did come? Classic left is the best description. Many blue flags with white doves of peace. A photo of Gandhi. A handful of Russian flags. A few “Amis go home” banners, referring to the Americans. Conservative left might be a better term. Or: German left. Mainly elderly people, many from the former GDR, typical German pacifists who firmly believe that sending guns to a conflict, anyway, only makes things worse. That Germany must be the last country to get involved in a war. People who are at least as suspicious of the West, NATO and the US as they are of Russia.
Russia defends itself
Or downright sympathize with Moscow, like the lawyer Stefan Habibi (47). “NATO is waging one war after another, but when Russia defends its sovereignty they are suddenly tyrants,” he says, as someone cycles past with a trailer full of speakers from which John Lennon’s Imagine blares. Ahead, someone from the sings Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany a song about revolution. Habibi: ‘In the 1990s, NATO promised not to expand further east, but now they are on the edge of Russia. So Russia is defending itself. And our government sends weapons to Ukraine! We Germans always said ‘no more war’. Now it seems as if we are saying: ‘No more war without us’.’
Asked where he stands politically just before the demonstration starts, Habibi says ‘far left‘. And what if he soon stands protesting shoulder to shoulder with the extreme right? No problem, says Habibi. “If the wrong people put forward the right argument, that argument is still correct.”
It is this shrugging whitewash from the far right that is worrying authorities, not to mention German media and opinion formers. It is a relatively new development, propelled by years of waning confidence in democratic institutions, especially – but not only – among East Germans. Ten years ago, an average German would not have thought about going to a demonstration that also attracted types with German flags and bomber jackets with rune marks.
Coronacrisis
But during the corona crisis, citizens with vaccine concerns demonstrated side by side with far-right groups, often led by Alternative für Deutschland. That happened again last year, during the energy crisis and price increases.
Wagenknecht sees opportunities in this dissatisfaction. She has been trying for years to mobilize a left-wing movement with a nationalistic slant, thereby tearing her own party, Die Linke, apart. Saturday was one of her biggest successes to date.
Halfway through the afternoon, when the people slowly start to leave the demonstration from the Brandenburger Tor, more and more counter-demonstrators show up. They are often loners – another German phenomenon, the one-man demonstration. Surrounded by police officers, they wave Ukrainian flags. A man holds up a handwritten A4 sheet that reads ‘Fight Russo-fascism’. A woman’s banner neatly sums up what the polls say about half of the German population.
“Weapons for Ukraine are for self-defense,” it says. “It’s the (Russian) killers who don’t want to negotiate.”
