There was a big counter-demonstration of course, which was attended by a lot of people from my institute (including us). There was actually some controversy at work about the use of the internal email list for political purposes (despite the fact that people regularly use it to advertise apartments for lease and parties, without complaint).
There were two marches organized, one leaving from downtown at 9:00 and one leaving from Lobeda (south of the city) at 8:45. We were with this large group heading out from the centre of the city:
We walked through the city, past the train station (at the right):
where there was already quite a sizable police presence...
And we made our way to the park on the east side of the Saale river, just across the road from the area where the nazis had a permit to have their party from 12:00-7:00. We got there around 10:00, and there were some speeches and some music, and then the crowds dispersed into three separate sit-ins. Flyers were distributed along the way in three different colours, and there were three different coloured flags to lead the groups to three different roads which were to be blocked with peaceful protesters sitting on the ground. (This couldn't be officially endorsed by the organizers, so they were saying funny things like: "I don't know where everyone is going - perhaps it has something to do with the coloured papers everyone seems to have? I don't know anything about that. Perhaps if you read it, you'll know more than me.") And though it was not "officially" okay, even the mayor was taking part, along with lots of families with kids and elderly people (mostly women).Though not actually showing people sitting here, this was an attempt to block an intersection:
The original three blockades worked pretty well, but of course there are always different routes. As the day went on, groups were rallied to block the various bridges, to keep the nazis gathered at the bus station from making it to the party. Eventually most of them made it through, with police escort, but events were much delayed. (Due in part to the lack of a generator as well...)The number of police officers around was truly staggering. And with several different varieties of uniforms as well. Here's a group hanging out by the streetcar tracks (all the streetcars on these tracks were cancelled that day, as the tracks ran between the two demonstrations):
And there were some lighter aspects to the demonstration too, like this group of clowns, who played ring around the rosie with cops in the middle...
And this group of people, who were doing something satirical with chants and marching to satirize Hitler Youth. Their armbands aren't really swastikas, though it looks like it from this distance. (It's actually illegal to wear a swastika in Germany.) They're actually pictures of apples, and one of their chants translated to something like "What should the German youth drink?" "Apple juice, apple juice"... (Something may or may not have been lost in translation there.)
And after all this political heaviness, perhaps you'd like to see the cat hanging out with her new best friend, paper bag. And in the background you can see the vacuum cleaner that Jeremi saved from Sperrmuell last night, which conveniently came with a note saying "funktioniert noch" (still works), and a plastic bag full of vacuum bags tied on.
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