A week after the attack at Christopher Street Day in Berlin, around 300,000 people marched through the city at Hamburg's CSD (Christopher Street Day) on Saturday. The Hamburg Pride association described it as record participation. According to organizers and police, the large-scale event proceeded peacefully.
The rally, held under the motto "Solidarisch queer. Haltung zeigen – für eine Zukunft ohne Angst" ("Queer solidarity. Taking a stand – for a future without fear"), took place one week after the Islamist attack at Berlin's CSD. Security measures had therefore been massively tightened. According to police, more than twice as many officers were deployed compared with the previous year.
The demonstration route led through Hamburg's city centre, and a street festival was also held alongside it. With around 300,000 participants, more people took part in the CSD march than "ever before in Hamburg," the organizer stated. Around 250,000 participants had originally been expected. Last year, about 260,000 people had been counted.
A spokesperson for the association said he was impressed that "the city's society comes together and stands in solidarity at our side." He noted that many people on the streets were not queer themselves, "including families with children, senior citizens and heterosexual couples."
A police spokeswoman described the mood on Saturday afternoon as "absolutely peaceful and joyful." A police spokesman said on Sunday that there had been no incidents afterward either. Nearly 60 trucks and around 80 walking groups took part in the parade. In addition to those who marched through the city, many people also accompanied the event from the sidelines. According to police, these bystanders were included in the overall count.
Among the participants were also politicians from Hamburg and the federal government, including SPD parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag Matthias Miersch, former Green Party federal chair Ricarda Lang, and Hamburg's Senator for the Environment, Katharina Fegebank (Greens).
The Berlin CSD association took part in the Hamburg demonstration with its own float. Berlin's Senator for Social Affairs, Cansel Kiziltepe (SPD), was also present. Following the attack in Berlin, "it is now about standing at the side of the queer community," she explained. "The attack must not lead to queer people withdrawing out of fear or becoming less visible," Kiziltepe emphasized.
CSD demonstrations also took place in a number of other, in some cases smaller, cities on Saturday. In Naumburg, Saxony-Anhalt, around a thousand people took part, according to organizers. There, as well as at other CSD marches, events also remained peaceful.
On Saturday of the previous week, a 21-year-old had driven a small van into a crowd of people near the closing celebration of the CSD demonstration in Berlin and had also allegedly attacked others with a machete. One woman died, and 31 people were injured. The attack had taken place on the edge of the actual event area.
CSD rallies commemorate 28 June 1969, when police raided the gay bar Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street in New York. This is considered the birth of the modern lesbian and gay rights movement.
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