4000 participants

Depots with stones discovered at demonstration in Berlin

Left-wing demonstration on May 1 in Berlin(Bild: AP/APA/dpa/Sebastian Gollnow)

More than ten thousand people took part in left-wing and far-left demonstrations in Germany on Wednesday, 4000 of them in Berlin alone (see video above). There, residents discovered depots with stones and roof tiles along the planned route. They alerted the police.

The dumps were on roofs and on the ground. "When I hear that there are stone deposits on roofs in this city, these are not trivial offenses. These are acts with a high probability of seriously injuring people - or even more," said Berlin's mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) on Wednesday about the discovery. Anyone who throws stones and attacks police officers or firefighters will be punished. "We will not tolerate that in our city."

Left-wing demonstration on May 1 in Berlin(Bild: AP/APA/dpa/Sebastian Gollnow)

High police presence defended
In this context, he also defended the high police presence on Wednesday. A total of 6,200 police were on site, some from other German states and from the federal police. These were spread across 19 gatherings. In Berlin, at least 4,000 people responded to the satirical call for a "raid on the villa district" in the Grunewald district.

Police and demonstrators in Berlin(Bild: AP/APA/dpa/Sebastian Gollnow)

In Hamburg, pyrotechnics were set off from a roof.(Bild: AP/APA/dpa/Axel Heimken)

The police were deployed in large numbers.(Bild: AP/Ebrahim Noroozi)

The police had evacuation vehicles, water cannons, a helicopter and light poles ready to illuminate the streets. There was initially no information from Berlin about actual riots. A demonstration by the DGB trade union federation was temporarily halted because pro-Palestinian chants were repeatedly shouted and banners were displayed.

Here you can see a tweet from the Berlin police.

Eight arrests
Eight people were provisionally arrested at a feminist demonstration under the slogan of taking back the city. One police officer was also slightly injured.

In Hamburg, on the other hand, there were no major incidents, although demonstrators set off pyrotechnics from the roof in one case. In Stuttgart, a left-wing rally was broken up after attacks on police officers. The protest had been registered by an individual.

In total, more than ten thousand people took part in left-wing and far-left demonstrations across Germany. Depending on the event, demands included more social justice and redistribution, a society based on solidarity, an end to social cuts and an end to capitalism. "Let's take the money from those who have it in abundance and give it to those who need it," was one of the calls, for example.