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What remained of the masses: The great comeback of the lateral thinkers in Berlin fizzled out initially – Berlin

In the afternoon it gets tricky on the edge of Nettelbeckplatz in Wedding. A well-known lateral thinker yells at police officers for minutes, refuses to put on his mask, accuses the officials of driving Germany straight into dictatorship. The police remain calm and do not arrest him. The lateral thinker continues to scream and wants to know whether demonstrators will soon be shot at, as they did in the GDR.

The brief excitement cannot hide one thing: the crowd of lateral thinkers on the first day of the long-announced protest weekend turns out to be much smaller than expected. The movement has only mobilized a few hundred supporters, the big comeback of the corona downplayers does not appear for the time being. Now the scene is hoping to bring crowds to the streets, at least this Sunday. Ultimately, the federal government is to be overthrown.

In the morning, the leaders of the lateral thinkers are optimistic that the ban on the big rally on Sunday in the Tiergarten will be overturned by the Higher Administrative Court – the OVG confirmed the ban on another demo in the afternoon.

If that also applies to the rally, people will come anyway, says the Sinsheim conspiracy ideologist Bodo Schiffsmann. People will “meet up with friends” in the zoo, make music and dance …

Thinking outside the box: In the end, only moderate to disastrous numbers of participants

The messenger service Telegram gives lateral thinking tips on how arriving demonstrators can trick the police. Among other things, the group advises everyone who comes to Berlin by bus not to be dropped off at the Tiergarten. There the police will send you back to your hometown. Better: get off at a safe distance and continue on foot. Followers are also asked to hide their signs and whistles until they reach the meeting places.

[Lesen Sie die Ereignisse des Demo-Wochenendes nach und bleiben Sie auf dem Laufenden – mit unserem Live-Blog.]

A success on Sunday is also important to those responsible because the lateral thinking rallies recently had only moderate to disastrous numbers of participants. Any further failure would solidify the impression that the movement has outlived itself.

Tiergarten and the Holocaust memorial cordoned off with bars

However, experts assume that lateral thinking will gain momentum again in the fall, should the fourth wave of the pandemic require more stringent measures. In addition, the conspiracy believers could open up topics apart from Corona – and denounce measures against climate change as restrictions on freedom.

[Behalten Sie den Überblick: Corona in Ihrem Kiez. In unseren Tagesspiegel-Bezirksnewslettern berichten wir über die Auswirkungen auf Ihren Bezirk: leute.tagesspiegel.de]

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On Saturday morning there is hardly anything to be seen from the lateral thinkers in the government district. This is also due to the fact that the police cordoned off a large area of ​​the zoo and the Holocaust memorial with metal bars – apparently a precautionary measure, since, among other things, an unauthorized demonstration of the corona downplayers formed in the zoo at Whitsun.

The competition considers lateral thinking to be “controlled opposition”

Hours later, several motorcade parades through the city, which also called for lateral thinking. One started in front of the Olympic Stadium, another from a parking lot in Hellersdorf. However, the action angered a Berlin group of conspiracy believers who regularly organize car parades in the city.

“24 hours of fear-mongering” is written on the wagon of a car parade at the starting point in Heinersdorf.Photo: Christoph M. Kluge

After all, you yourself have been active in Berlin since January. In addition, lateral thinking is about “controlled opposition”, so the Ballweg troops are not really against the “Merkel regime” – in contrast to themselves. The local group therefore called for its own parade through Treptow-Köpenick.

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A large protest concert by opponents of the corona measures was actually planned for Saturday. However, this was canceled at short notice. Bodo Schiffmann explains that one of the artists is ill and another is ill.

“The Basis”: Not allowed to vote, internal power struggle

The meeting in the afternoon on Nettelbeckplatz was organized by the lateral thinker party “Die Basis” – it was only on Friday that the state electoral committee decided not to allow them to participate in the general election. “Die Basis” has founded local groups in all districts, and a power struggle is currently raging internally.

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