COVID-19 protests in Germany
Since April 2020, when Germany's Federal Constitutional Court ruled that the governmental lockdown imposed in March to counter the COVID-19 pandemic did not allow blanket bans on rallies, numerous protests have been held in Germany against anti-pandemic regulations. The protests attracted a mix of people from varied backgrounds, including supporters of populist ideas who felt called to defend against what they saw as an arrogant central government; supporters of various conspiracy theories; and sometimes far right-wing groups. Anti-vaxxers generally also formed a major part of the protesters. Some protesters held strongly negative views towards public media, who they believed to report in an unfair manner; repeatedly, journalists covering the rallies were subjected to harassment and physical attacks. Such attacks were the main reason why Germany slipped from eleventh to 13th place in the Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders, according to a report published on 20April 2021.
Since about mid-2020, the main organizer of the protests has been a group called Querdenken, which was initially based in Stuttgart but soon started to organize rallies also in Berlin and other cities. During the second lockdown starting in November 2020, radical conspiracy theorists increased their influence in the movement. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution began to observe parts of the Querdenken movement countrywide in April 2021 for their questioning of the legitimacy of the state. The display of anti-semitic tropes was common at rallies, which drew strong condemnation.
Local authorities repeatedly sought to ban rallies. Court challenges to the bans began to be upheld more often in late 2020 as the pandemic situation worsened, and as courts expressed their lack of faith in the ability of organisers to maintain physical distancing and other safety measures. Protests were frequently accompanied by counterprotests, which often resulted in tense situations as police tried to keep the groups apart.
Background
From 22 March 2020, Germany entered a first lockdown in order to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control. It was eventually extended, with some differences among federal states, until June 2020. The lockdown regulations included, besides a physical distancing requirement of 1.5 metres in public – to which a requirement to wear a nose and mouth covering in stores and on public transport was added in late April –, initially also a prohibition for restaurateurs to provide in-house dining; also, service providers in close-contact professions, such as hair-dressers, cosmetic, massage and tattoo studios, were required to close.Early protests
The first protest of what became known as Hygienedemos took place on 28 March in Berlin, and soon spread to other cities in Germany. At the 28 March rally no speeches were given, with its motto, "Defend basic rights – say no to dictatorship" also reflecting demands repeated at later weekly Hygienedemos. Observers noted that participants were from very disparate groups, some even holding conflicting views; they further noted that while the protesters were united in rejecting the anti-pandemic measures by the government – in which they saw violations of basic rights enshrined in the German constitution, such as the freedom of trade in view of the prohibitions mentioned above –, they lacked a common notion how they wanted society to be reshaped.During May, attendance at the Hygienedemos generally decreased sharply. This was attributed by observers to a combination of several factors: the relaxation of the lockdown that had been imposed in March; a high level of satisfaction in the general population about the government's handling of the crisis; the impact of counter-protests; and the recognition by the general population that the protests had shown to be utilized by the right-wing Alternative for Germany and violent or extreme right-wing individuals sprouting conspiracy theories, including vegan chef Attila Hildmann. The German non-government organization platform Campact warned its members against attending the Hygienedemos.
Emergence of ''Querdenken'' (Lateral Thinking) movement
From mid 2020, the main organizer of protests has been a group called Querdenken, which was initially based in Stuttgart but soon became a nationwide movement; individual Querdenken groups often appended the phone area code of their cities. Media soon began to use the term Querdenker to describe more generally any person opposing anti-pandemic measures, even though other groups were also organizing protests.The Querdenken rallies saw a varied mixture of participants. While protests became smaller after those of summer 2020, violence became more frequent. There were increasing concerns that the rallies were becoming a platform for far-right, and even extremist, views, and that protesters were embracing conspiracy theories, notably those of the QAnon movement originating in the United States. Querdenken founder Michael Ballweg was reported to have said the motto of QAnon into the microphone at a rally in August 2020.
However, according to a study published by the Federal Agency for Civic Education in January 2021, only a small number of protesters was integrating governmental pandemic policies into the theories of QAnon or the extreme-right Reichsbürger movement, which likewise was present at several rallies.
In a number of instances, local authorities banned rallies as they deemed coronavirus protection plans submitted by the organizers as insufficient. Several rallies only went ahead after a partial or whole overturn of such bans via court appeals. Prohibitions began to be upheld more often from late 2020, such as for a rally that had been planned in the northern city of Bremen for 5 December, as on two rallies planned for 12 December in Frankfurt and Dresden.
After a hiatus over the New Year, Querdenken founder Michael Ballweg announced on 27 January 2021 a resumption of protests through motorcades. The first such protest, drawing several hundred participants and extending over several kilometers, took place in Stuttgart the same day. Over the next fortnight, several motorcades took place in Munich. Smaller motorcades in Mannheim on 6 February were dissolved by police.
Ebbing of protests in 2021
In June 2021, as Germany had overcome the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemicwith daily case numbers having decreased substantially from the peak while vaccination rates were increasing, observers considered that, while Querdenken had not run its course, it was finding it more difficult to mobilize protesters. Josef Holnburger, politologist at the think tank, said that while the protests of 2020 had resulted in an increase in the number of subscribers to Telegram channels of the movement, that number had essentially leveled out since November 2020, which he ascribed to a string of unsuccessful protests. However, he expressed concern that the content discussed in those channels was at times becoming more radical. He said that the movement had already become active in other areas where it aimed to undermine trust in government institutions and their representatives, including Climate change denial and allegations of rigging in the 2021 German federal election scheduled for September. While he deemed it likely that these two topics would be there to stay for considerable time, they were unlikely to be as effective in mobilization of protesters as the COVID-19 pandemic.Renewed rise during fourth and fifth waves of the pandemic
In late 2021, vaccine mandates became a subject of wide debate in Germany, as the vaccination rate had remained below government targets and daily case numbers in the fourth wave of the pandemic increased rapidly. The debate gave new momentum to the protests, which now focused on radical opposition against a mandate.The new wave of protests originated in the state of Saxony, which in some areas had infection rates which were among the highest in Germany, widely traced to a relatively low vaccination rate. Emergency regulations that took effect in the state on 22 November 2021 limited public rallies to a maximum of ten people and prohibited marches. In response, particularly in small and medium-sized cities, protesters gathered for what they labelled as "strolls". The atmosphere at the strolls and other protests, for which calls were spread via Telegram by the right-wing extremist group "Free Saxons", was often tense. Police in Chemnitz confirmed in early December that strolls do not count as demonstrations, provided that physical distancing is observed. The ten-person limit was criticized by AfD parliamentary leader Jörg Urban as having disturbed the peace in the state, through pitting participants and police "automatically" against each other; he called for a "restitution of the freedom of assembly". The protest form of strolls was copied by protesters in other German states. In order to counter the circumvention of assembly regulations through the strolls, interior minister of Bavaria Joachim Herrmann suggested in early January 2022 that local authorities issue generally applicable restrictions on locale, time, or number of participants, making violations at strolls potentially subject to heavy fines on participants.
On 3 December 2021, around 30 people gathered in front of the private home of state health minister Petra Köpping in Grimma, some carrying flame torches. Police, the public prosecutor's office and state security were investigating the incident, which the Saxon state government labeled as "trespassing with the aim of intimidating responsible people." The gathering, for which the "Free Saxons" claimed responsibility, drew sharp criticism by several politicians from across the country, with Winfried Kretschmann saying, "These are methods invented by the SA." Newly appointed interior minister Nancy Faeser called the incident an "attempt at intimidation" and vowed to take strong action against any future torch rallies of Querdenken protesters or COVID-19 deniers.
In January 2022, figures from Querdenken shared a story by the German edition of The Epoch Times that amplified accusations by German activist Steffen Löhnitz that the Austrian government had deliberately inflated infection numbers to justify a lockdown, and reported his claims of "massive fraud" against the populations of Austria and Germany as fact.