Attila Hildmann arrested – storm stops rally in Munich

© dpa
Vegan cook Attila Hildmann was arrested during a demonstration in Berlin. Source: dpa


The demonstration against corona politics, which had been widely announced in Munich, literally fell into the water on Saturday. Shortly before the official start of the rally on Munich’s Theresienwiese, a thunderstorm swept across the grounds, so that the organizers decided to cancel their protest against fundamental rights restrictions. “Nothing works anymore today,” commented a police spokesman about the situation in thunderbolt.

Up to 1000 people were expected to attend the demo in the state capital. The motto of the meeting should be “Stand together for freedom, fundamental rights and self-determination”. The original request was for 10,000 people. However, the organizers failed because of official requirements and on Friday evening also at the Bavarian Administrative Court.

In Nuremberg, too, there was no significant number of demonstrators. “Dead trousers,” commented a police spokesman in the afternoon of the situation. Instead of the announced 500 people, only “scattered people” could be seen in rainy weather. Also in Kempten in the Allgäu the announced demo was quickly canceled due to bad weather.

Attila Hildmann arrested by police

In Berlin, a total of well over 30 rallies of opponents of the restrictions and counter-demonstrations were registered, said a police spokeswoman for the AFP news agency. The protests were largely uninterrupted until the afternoon.

A rally of radical right-wing citizens at the Victory Column had ended prematurely by the organizer, said the police spokeswoman. As a result, participants had expressed their displeasure that there had been wrangling and “some freedom-restricting measures” on the part of the police.

In front of the Russian embassy gathered a non-registered demonstration and only danced to David Hasselhoff’s cult hit “Looking for Freedom”, then sang “Imagine” by John Lennon, “A Little Peace” by Nicole and “We are the World”. According to the police around 250 people violated applicable distance rules.

Also the vegan TV chef Attila Hildmann called again for an unauthorized protest against corona policy, this time at the Berliner Bodestrasse. However, while trying to run to the Reichstag with a handful of demo participants, he was briefly arrested by the police and was dragged to the ground by four officers, as can be seen in a video.

The reason was obvious that the participants did not abide by the distance rules – and that Hildmann ignored multiple requests to end the demo. Hildmann was taken away in handcuffs, because of the implementation an unauthorized meeting and violation of the Infection Protection Act. The press office of the Berlin police initially did not want to comment on the incident when asked by WELT. As a another video shows, Hildmann was escorted by a dozen police officers a few minutes later – again without handcuffs.

Several rallies were registered in Stuttgart, but the number of participants was “quite manageable” compared to the previous week, as a police spokesman said.

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