At the beginning, when the speeches are being held, when Thorsten Schulte, one of the best-known figures of the “lateral thinker” movement, speaks to the demonstrators, it is still said: The day should set a “symbol of love and freedom”.

It was announced that the demonstration through Frankfurt's inner city should be a "peace march" on this Saturday afternoon.

But less than an hour later, all you can feel on the street is anger.

Alexander Juergs

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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“That's all chicane, like in the GDR,” some shout.

“You step on freedom with your feet”, “You are nothing without a club and a helmet”, “You only carry out the orders of armchairs,” echoes from the ranks of the demonstrators.

When a group of press photographers approaches a group of them, one of the men can no longer contain himself.

He hits a photographer with his fist with full force.

“Resistance,” yells another.

After a few meters, the demo train is stopped

The demonstrators in Frankfurt's Reuterweg are furious because the police broke up their march after a few meters.

The train has run barely a hundred meters.

The demonstrators have not even reached Opernplatz, where another protest rally against the Corona regulations and the introduction of a general vaccination requirement is taking place.

The reason for the dissolution: The demo participants opposed the conditions that were set for their rally.

This is not a surprise: even at previous rallies by the “lateral thinkers” scene in Frankfurt, the majority of the protesters had neither adhered to the mask requirement nor to minimum distances.

Demos were therefore broken up several times.

Also on Reuterweg, where around 500 “lateral thinkers” and anti-vaccination campaigners gather, it can be foreseen early on that they will not obey the rules.

On the way to the meeting place, the police instructed the demonstrators of the obligation to wear mouth and nose protection.

Reluctantly and often grumbling, the demonstrators pull their masks over their mouths and noses - only to take them off again just a few steps further.

They also vent their anger when the police announce the conditions for the demonstration by loudspeaker.

Above all, a ban annoys them: that the Frankfurt Public Order Office had ordered that so-called “Jewish stars” may not be worn on the demonstration.

The yellow star with the addition "Unvaccinated" is a frequent symbol at the rallies of the "lateral thinker" scene.

Holocaust relativized

In this way, those who oppose the vaccination compare themselves with the persecuted Jews of the Nazi era - and thus relativize the Holocaust. The demo participants react to the reading out of the arrangement with loud boos. "Michel Friedman, come out," yells a man. The Jewish publicist Friedman is a frequent victim of anti-Semitic hostility.

This Saturday, however, not only the demonstration that wanted to move through the city from Reuterweg will be dissolved, but also the nearby rally at the Alte Oper. There, too, many of the 500 or so participants disregard the mask requirement and compliance with minimum evening stands. And there, too, the police did not hesitate and vacate the space. In the evenings there are always small protests by “lateral thinkers” at different locations in the city, but by and large the security forces have the situation under control.

On the social networks, on its Telegram channels, the scene has been hoping for a “big demo” over the past few weeks, for a new rise of mass protests.

In downtown Frankfurt this did not happen this Saturday - not only because of the police operation, but also because significantly fewer demonstrators than announced followed the calls.

The vaccination opponents still do not want to stick: They announce that they will be back on the streets next weekend.