For several weeks, people throughout Germany have been taking walks on Monday evening to show their support for freedom, vaccine choice, and less discriminatory Covid measures (2G/ 3G). In Germany, demos have to be registered with the state... so these walks have been a great unofficial alternative.
The focus of these walks is really freedom, peace and unity - the people walking are encouraged to be peaceful and friendly, not carry signs, and avoid confrontations with the police. Also, there's no centralized leader, which is typical for a demo... it's really just a bunch of people who "happen" to be taking a walk at the same time. Currently, gatherings of more than 10 people aren't allowed (even outside)... but as long as everyone isn't officially gathered, and is walking/ moving, there's really nothing anyone can do.
The media portrays these people as extremists, anti-vaxxers and "Querdenker" (a term recently coined for people skeptical about the Covid situation)... so I wanted to check it out for myself. Last Monday, I pulled myself together, got nice and bundled up, and headed over to the starting point close to where we live. Originally I wanted to just observe from afar and report things to our neighbors (who are also considering going)... but somehow I ended up walking along with everyone! It was a great mixture of people... young couples with families, older/ retired people, students, etc. And no one looked like a right-wing-extremist-skinhead...
All participants were peaceful and friendly, even the police officers. At no point did I feel uncomfortable, threatened or in danger... though just to be safe, I kept some distance, walking beside the crowd. I've heard from friends in other parts of Germany that the police tried to block the walks, provoke the crowd, and were even violent in some cases. So it was nice to have a positive experience in my part of town.
We were expecting maybe 50-100 people... I live a little north of Berlin, and my part of town is pretty quiet and boring compared to the inner city. So we were shocked when 500-600 people showed up (most counts were 580, including children). It was super encouraging!
After spamming my neighbors with videos, I was able to convince several to accompany me next Monday! So it'll definitely be exciting to go with a few other people. And it's a great mixed group... 3 Germans, 1 Bulgarian, 1 Armenian, 1 American... 3 vaccinated, 1 unvaccinated, 1 recovered, 1 unknown. And we're all fine with eachother and our decisions! We just wanted freedom of choice when it comes to medicine, and no more discrimination based on personal medical decisions.
Here are a couple of short videos I took...
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