Across Germany, tens of thousands of people took to the streets against racism and police violence, including in Nuremberg and Hamburg. The occasion was the appeal by the civil rights movement "Black Lives Matter" after the murder of George Floyd by a white policeman in the US city of Minneapolis.

Nuremberg

In Nuremberg, a small group of People of Colour promoted a rally to bring their anger about structural racism to the public. The event, registered for a few hundred people, developed into by far the largest protest against racism that Nuremberg has seen in a long time.

On the improvised podium only coloured people had their say. In stirring and passionate speeches they talked about their experiences with discrimination based on their skin colour. Member of the European Parliament, Dr. Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, reported on her tireless fight against racism, which not only people with black skin colour have to endure, and was pleased that so many people in solidarity came together today. She called for a joint effort against racism in the minds.

The rally was repeatedly interrupted by slogans "Black Lives Matter" or "No Justice, no Peace". Many fists raised underlined the willingness of the more than 5,000 people to take a firm stand against racism.

Hamburg

At a demonstration in Hamburg, about 14,000 people gathered on the Rathausmarkt to commemorate George Floyd and all victims of racist violence and to speak out against racism. Due to the broad participation, which more than exceeded the requirements of the assembly authority, the demonstration was officially ended by the assembly leadership even before it began. However, the people did not leave.

"We respect the hygienic measures, but we die anyway - even without Corona" resounded from the loudspeaker car and showed painfully: Racism is reality, in the US as well as in Germany and everywhere, its violence has innumerable expressions. The emergence of an outcry when this violence breaks out in its most blatant form is not enough. The voices that talk about violence and racism every day are there - these must be listened to. As Angela Davis put it: In a racist society it's not enough not to be racist, we have to be anti-racist.

The fact that Minneapolis is only geographically far away also became clear in the speech of the Revolutionary Alliance of Kurdistan and Turkey. "Racism is not an industrial accident, but a system. It is a system in which inequality is installed and manifested. And therefore, what happened to George Floyd is not only the issue of black people in the US, but the problem of all societies whose core structure is racism." As in Germany - Oury Jalloh, William Tonou-Mbobda, Achidi John, Laya Alama-Condé. The victims of Hanau, Halle, Mölln, Solingen and those of the so-called NSU. All those whose fates remain unknown.

Attention was also drawn to the murder of Barış Çakan in Turkish capital Ankara as the latest victim of the violence against which Kurds and all other minorities in Turkey and beyond its borders were exposed. "The fascist Erdoğan regime relies on one race, one flag and one fatherland, which considers and persecutes all non-Turks and refugees as enemies! It is thanks to its policy and that of the EU states as well as Germany that people are dying every day while fleeing in the Mediterranean. Therefore let us together raise our voice worldwide against any kind of racism and police violence! Long live international solidarity!"