Education, housing and military service drive demands
By Friday, more than 160,000 people had registered on Gen Z regelt's website for the Halloween demonstrations, which the group says will take place in 34 cities. The campaign's name translates as "Gen Z is sorting it."
The demands include more spending on schools, housing and climate protection, according to the Guardian. Protesters also oppose Germany's recently introduced conscription law and new voluntary military service model, and fear a return to compulsory service.
An open letter addressed to the German government and Chancellor Friedrich Merz states: "Your austerity policies are robbing us of all hope." About 22,500 people had signed by midday Thursday, Oct. 29, including Left party parliamentary leader Heidi Reichinek and former Green Party leader Ricarda Lang.
The German movement took inspiration from youth-led protests elsewhere in Europe. Students have demonstrated in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Albania and France in recent weeks, with violence at some events. German solidarity actions preceded Saturday's rallies, including an Oct. 17 demonstration in Berlin under the slogan "Solidarity with Students in France." French activists have called for further Halloween protests against rising living costs and poor public services.
Decentralized organizing draws both support and questions
Gen Z regelt has organized the German events through a decentralized structure. Organizers said they could speak only for demonstrations in Cologne, Munich, Berlin and Frankfurt, where the movement has official local groups.
Through its website and social media, the campaign has urged participants to reject violence. "Our protest is peaceful, without exception. Violence goes against everything we stand for. Only through peaceful means can we achieve something together," organizers said.
Uncertainty about who is organizing the wider protests has prompted the Federal Pupils' Conference, Germany's national school student umbrella organization, to withhold its backing. The group, known as BSK, says that uncertainty makes the course of the events difficult to predict.
BSK secretary-general Amy Kirchhoff distinguished the organization's concerns about the campaign from its support for students. "We are distancing ourselves from 'Gen Z regelt,' but not from the students themselves, who have legitimate concerns," she said Thursday.
Police prepare as politicians debate the risks
Authorities expect Saturday's demonstrations, held alongside Halloween celebrations, to be mostly peaceful. Nevertheless, police deployed thousands of officers ahead of the rallies. Some luxury retailers and clothing stores boarded up windows against possible looting; along Berlin's luxury Kurfuerstendamm shopping boulevard, some businesses also planned to close early.
The federal interior ministry said elements of Germany's far-left extremist scene, along with some groups connected to foreign extremist movements, had joined efforts to mobilize support for the protests. Officials warned that extremists could attempt to use the events for their own purposes.
Berlin was in contact with officials in France and Italy over concerns that radicals might travel to Germany for the demonstrations. CDU lawmaker Marc Henrichmann, who chairs the Bundestag panel overseeing the intelligence services, warned that the "networking of the far-left extremist scene is international and coordinated."
Roman Poseck, interior minister of Hesse, the state whose capital is Frankfurt, pointed to violence in France. "We all have those images from France in our minds - looting, burning houses, burning police vehicles, and attacks on police officers," he said, according to Reuters.
Felix Banaszak, co-leader of the opposition Green Party, challenged efforts to cast suspicion on the protests before they had happened. He told the RND media group: "The [CDU's] rhetoric, which seeks to criminalise these protests pre-emptively and paint them as the work of marauding gangs, may even drive people towards radicalisation."
Researchers distinguish Germany's protests from France's
Sebastian Koos, a University of Konstanz sociologist who researches youth and protest movements, told DW he did not expect unrest in Germany on a scale comparable to France's. He cited the German demonstrations' official registration, careful planning and emphasis on nonviolence, while saying police and authorities still needed to prepare for attempts by extremist groups to exploit them.
Christian Volk, a protest researcher at Berlin's Humboldt University, told AFP that Germany could see a major protest movement. "There is an enormous amount of pressure building up," he said. But he also described France as having a "completely different tradition" of confrontational protest.
Separately from Saturday's rallies, BSK plans a demonstration in Berlin on Nov. 20 focused on Germany's declining school performance. Teachers and other youth organizations are expected to participate.
