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Demonstration on January 19th: Overcrowding in downtown Hamburg

Photo: Jonas Walzberg / dpa

The number of participants in the large demonstration against right-wing extremism in Hamburg in mid-January, which was canceled due to overcrowding, was apparently significantly higher than previously stated. In a letter from the interior authority, which is available to the dpa news agency, there is now talk of an estimated 180,000 participants. Several media outlets, including NDR and "Hamburger Abendblatt", had previously reported that the interior authorities had corrected the information.

On the day of the “Hamburg stands up – against right-wing extremism and neo-Nazi networks” rally, the police said there were 50,000 participants. The co-organizer of the rally, Kazim Abaci, initially spoke of 130,000 demonstrators at the rally; The organizers later revised the number down to 80,000 participants in light of police information. The event was canceled due to security concerns due to the large crowds.

Recalculation is not the norm

An investigation by the interior authorities requested by Abaci, who is an SPD member of parliament and managing director of the Entrepreneurs Without Borders association, has now shown that the official figures were clearly too low.

Based on the analysis of publicly available images, the letter from the interior authority assumes a meeting area of ​​around 60,000 square meters. “Based on an empirical value of three people per square meter, this calculates to be around 180,000 meeting participants,” it says.

The interior authority pointed out that the review was only carried out as an exception and “due to the special character, the particular size and the public interest in the number of participants”. "A subsequent calculation, as shown above - based on area sizes - is not normally planned by the police."

The background to the demo was a conspiratorial meeting to deport millions of people from Germany by right-wing extremists, including AfD officials, in Potsdam, which the Correctiv research center had uncovered.

bbr/dpa