Several hundred participants in a demonstration in solidarity with underground or imprisoned RAF members marched through Berlin on Saturday evening. They gathered in the Kreuzberg district in the late afternoon and marched, among other places, through Sebastianstrasse, where the former RAF terrorist Daniela Klette (65) had lived under an assumed name before her arrest at the end of February.
Protesters demand “Stop state terrorism”
The demonstration was announced by a private registrant with 300 participants under the motto “Stop state terrorism – solidarity with those in hiding and prisoners.” According to the Berlin police, the number was lower, even though the group of demonstrators stretched over several hundred meters. Exact data on this is not available.
The demo was registered until 10 p.m., but it ended around two and a half hours before that. The leader of the meeting declared the event at Lausitzer Platz to be over early, a police spokeswoman said in the evening.
The police themselves arrived with a large contingent. There was one squad car behind the other along the meeting place at Mariannenplatz. The police accompanied the demonstrators from the left-wing scene, who regularly chanted things like “We are not all – the prisoners are missing”, “Fire and flame of repression” or “Cheers to international solidarity” along the entire route. Numerous posters and banners could be seen with slogans such as “Where was the state in the NSU investigation?”, “Freedom for Daniela – the system is terrorist” or “Where are the raids against the right?”
Even before the start, demonstrators set off fireworks
Even before the start of the demonstration, fireworks were set off at the meeting location. Later, individual firecrackers also exploded. The police spoke of the repeated use of pyrotechnics. Some of the demonstration participants wore black scarves or black corona masks in front of their faces. There were no violent incidents. Overall, the police concluded that it was a low-disturbance demonstration.
The former RAF terrorist Klette (65) was arrested on February 26th in her apartment on Sebastianstrasse in Kreuzberg. She went into hiding over 30 years ago with Burkhard Garweg (55) and Ernst-Volker Wilhelm Staub (69). All three belonged to the so-called third generation of the left-wing extremist terrorist organization Red Army Faction, which carried out numerous attacks and killed people until 1991. In 1998 the RAF declared itself dissolved.
There are arrest warrants against Klette, Staub and Garweg on suspicion of involvement in terrorist attacks. They were or are also wanted for several robberies. Between 1999 and 2016 they are said to have robbed money transporters and supermarkets in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. They are also accused of attempted murder because there was a shooting.
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