Alemanha, Deutsche Welle, Alemão

The Gen Z protests in Germany were mostly peaceful throughout the day, with tens of thousands of people having participated across big and smaller cities.

The peaceful demonstrations were overshadowed by reports about violence in some cities like Frankfurt (see below).

Hesse’s state interior minister said he suspects that about 100 left-wing extremists instigated the violence in Frankurt.

There were instances of disturbances in Cologne, Hamburg and Bremen too.

Riots, looting and attacks on police broke out in several German cities after protests by tens of thousands of young people across the country demanding better schools, relief from rising living costs and greater social justice.

The demonstrations had been largely peaceful during the day. 

But serious disturbances erupted in the evening in several places.

Clashes broke out in Cologne on Saturday, with about 200 people involved in disturbances near Cologne Cathedral.

Police officers were attacked on the square outside the famous cathedral, with bottles and bicycles hurled toward them.

One person was injured, police said.

Authorities detained five people.

In a nearby side street, a window was smashed by an electric scooter thrown during the unrest, police said. 

According to regional broadcaster WDR, other groups besides Gen Z demonstrators were involved in riots.

Cologne’s police chief Johannes Hermanns said it was deeply saddening that peaceful protests were overshadowed by “extremists who had nothing but violence in mind.” 

While Gen Z protests across Germany were largely peaceful during the day, clashes were reported in several cities as night fell.

German police sealed off a major shopping street in central Frankfurt on Saturday night after rioters smashed shop windows, looted stores and attacked officers following a demonstration.

Police closed Die Zeil, one of Germany’s busiest shopping streets, to incoming visitors and urged bystanders to leave the area.

“Anyone not involved who is still on the Zeil can leave. Access to the Zeil is no longer possible,” Frankfurt police said in a post on X and in loudspeaker announcements.

Chaotic scenes unfolded along the shopping street, where dpa journalists witnessed people breaking into stores and stealing trainers and other goods.

A specialist firearms shop was also targeted, prompting several arrests, a police spokesman said. 

Police also reported attacks on officers, including attacks involving incendiary devices. 

The violence erupted after police broke up a demonstration organized as part of the nationwide “Gen Z regelt” (roughly meaning “Gen Z takes charge”) protests.

A large contingent of officers was deployed around the Zeil, with authorities advising people to avoid the area or leave central Frankfurt.

The German protests on Saturday are a part of a wider trend that has seen members of Gen Z, born between 1997 and 2012, protest in several European nations.

The wave of protest was triggered by students seeking education reform in France, with the standoff erupting in violence and looting two weeks ago.

For our standalone story on protests in France today, click here.

After a day of youth protests in Germany, senior police union representative Andreas Rosskopf said that there was no widespread property damage “so far.”

“The Gen Z protests have turned out to be very peaceful,” Rosskopf told the daily Rhenische Post.

While confrontations were reported after the marches ended in multiple cities, the people driving the clashes were “individuals acting independently, some of whom were masked.”

Rosskopf, who represents Germany’s federal police, said security forces acted very decisively and forcefully when such response was appropriate.

“Security forces remain absolutely ready to prevent any further clashes in the late evening of overnight,” he said.

German security forces reported minor violent incidents in several cites in the wake of the Gen Z demonstrations.

In Hamburg, protesters at the city’s Steintor square pelted the police with fireworks . Police used “immediate force” to clear the area, including using a water cannon.

Several police officers were injured during a similar incident in Frankfurt, according to a state interior minister.

Police also used a water cannon in Cologne, where the march was halted and turned into a stationary rally after some protesters covered their faces and used pyrotechnics.

A police officers sustained light injuries in nearby Bonn during a confrontation with a group of protesters.

In Berlin, the authorities noted a rally separate from the official event organized by the Gen Z movement. Police initially reported “isolated instances of throwing eggs and bottles” from a crowd of around 500 people. The authorities later also reported “illegal burning of pyrotechnics” and said the crowd has grown to around 3,000 participants.

Several police officers were injured in a clash with a group of protesters following the Gen Z demonstration in Frankfurt, authorities said.

“One officers could be injured more seriously, but this will need some more looking into,” said Hesse Interior Minister Roman Poseck.

“We assume there were about 100 attackers motivated by extreme leftist ideology,” the state minister said.

“They have staged a massive attack against the police by throwing bottles, stones and fireworks.”

Police responded with water cannons and have the situation in hand, he said

In Germany’s second-biggest city, Hamburg, police estimated 6,700 people taking part in the demonstration. 

They reported some groups of black-clad protesters, some of whom also wore face masks, pulling apart construction site barriers and throwing them on the street. Some of the barriers were later set on fire.

Police said they pushed the crowd back and used pepper spray to break them apart. The fire was eventually put out.

Following an initial estimate of several hundred people attending the rally in central Berlin, police said that some 5,000 people were now gathered at the Brandenburg Gate. The organizers, “Gen Z regelt” (Gen Z sorts it) gave a much higher number, saying 10,000 people were in attendance.

One of the speakers in Berlin, Kaja Schwab, decried false promises made by politicians.

The youth is being told that “we will do well if we work hard enough.” In reality, the life is getting unaffordable and the young are “forced into military service,” she said, in reference to Germany’s renewed recruitment drive.

Thousands of young people have joined the demonstrations in over 30 German cities, with police reporting largely peaceful protests.

Early police estimates included:

• Berlin: Around 650 people gathered at the historic Brandenburg Gate
• Frankfurt: More than 1,500 attended a rally near the European Central Bank.
• Munich: Around 1,000 people attending the march
• Mainz: Police counted around 1,200 participants, situation “peaceful”
• Freiburg: Around 2,500 people attended, according to police.

Hundreds also gathered in Hamburg, Erfurt, Magdeburg, Dresden, Leipzig,  Nuremberg, and elsehwere.

Retailers in several city centers had boarded up shop windows, particularly along luxury shopping streets, fearing unrest. Some shops were already closed for the Reformation Day public holiday.

No nationwide turnout figure was immediately available. More than 182,100 people had expressed interest in attending the events online.

Police in Cologne called off the planned “Gen Z regelt” procession after some participants covered their faces and used pyrotechnics.

“The demonstration will continue as a stationary rally,” a police spokeswoman told the DPA news agency. Participants would remain on the Rhine riverbank, she said, appealing for restraint.

Attendance remained below the 15,000 people registered for the demonstration. Based on advance registrations, Cologne’s protest was expected to be the largest in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Police repeatedly stopped a youth protest march in Stuttgart, citing participants covering their faces and leaving the agreed route.

Officers also reported smoke devices and firecrackers before the procession began. “Be loud, but remain peaceful,” a police spokeswoman urged in a video.

In other German cities, police reported a largely peaceful start to demonstrations. Authorities estimated included 2,500 participants in Freiburg, more than 1,500 in Frankfurt, 1,200 in Mainz, 1,000 in Munich and 650 in Berlin.

No nationwide turnout figure was immediately available.

Politicians must involve young people in decision-making or risk the youth turning away from political institutions, education researcher Nina Kolleck warned.

Their exclusion “creates the impression that there is a policy for the old, but not for the young,” the University of Potsdam professor told Germany’s RBB Inforadio.

Kolleck pointed to decades of underinvestment in schools and the disproportionate impact of climate change on younger generations.

She warned that populist parties could exploit the resulting political vacuum if young people’s frustrations continued to go unanswered.