Tens of thousands of people thronged an anti-racism concert Monday in protest against xenophobic mobs that ran rampage in the city of Chemnitz, as Angela Merkel urged Germans to stand up against the far right’s message of hate and division.
German music groups give a free concert to support the civil society in Chemnitz. After two refugees from Syria and Iraq were arrested on suspicion of stabbing a 35-year-old man at a city festival in the East German city Chemnitz, several right-wing organizations called for demonstrations on 31 August 2018. The police said 8,000 people attended the rallies while 3,000 people protested against the right-wing gathering.
DW
Tens of thousands of mostly young people packed a square in the eastern German city of Chemnitz on Monday evening, spilling across a major intersection and into the streets beyond to attend a rock concert in support of refugees.
The slogan of the concert was “Wir sind mehr” (“there are more of us,” or literally, “we are more”), reflecting organizers’ ambition to attract greater number than the thousands who turned out anti-refugee protests sponsored by the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and other right-wing groups last Saturday. The concert, which featured six well-known rock, punk and hip-hop acts from Chemnitz and beyond, had to be moved from its original location because the number of attendees exceeded expectations.
Organizers said they wanted to show that “there is no place in Chemnitz for Nazis,” as the event kicked off on Monday evening. The expected turnout of around 30,000 appeared to be a drastic underestimate. Somewhere between 50,000 and 65,000 people attended the event.
