This past weekend was nothing so peaceful. We had been warned in e-mails and by fellow Germans that Saturday there would be a Neo-Nazi march. This in itself was not to be violent, but in past years, extreme leftists (the opposing party) had attempted to stop the march and to use more violent forms of protest.
We went out on Saturday to view the action from afar. We weren't sure if we should venture out at all, but this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see an event that is a huge part of Dresden history.
As we walked from Altstadt to Neustadt (where the march was said to be held), we didn't see any violent uprisings, but we did see trams stopped along bridges to keep floods of people from storming,
more police cars than we've ever seen in Dresden
and police decked out in riot gear.
We passed the riot police blockade without incident, but as we looked back, we were a little worried that we wouldn't be able to cross back to our side of town.
After scouting around and grabbing some coffee, we successfully made it back without seeing any Neo-Nazis marching, or any violent riots. Reading about it later on the web, I think I'm glad we made it out and back without any incident.
Later that evening, we did hear shouting outside our window and looked out upon a march of hundreds of leftist protestors.
If you are interested in reading more about this event, check out the following webpages:
allvoices.com
dw-world.de
No comments:
Post a Comment