Several demonstrations, an Elbe tunnel closed due to construction work and the home game of the Bundesliga soccer team Hamburger SV demanded a lot of patience from drivers over the weekend. In some cases they were stuck in traffic in the city center for up to an hour. But local public transport also became tight at times. Due to the A7 motorway being closed between the Hamburg-Stellingen and Heimfeld junctions, more than 30,000 of the approximately 57,000 football fans used buses and trains such as the one to get to the stadium Federal Police announced on Sunday.
Federal police accompany Dortmund fans
For the game between Hamburger SV and Borussia Dortmund (1:1) on Saturday, the federal police said they deployed around 225 officers to keep the fan scenes classified as hostile separate. Around 650 Dortmund fans who traveled on a single train were accompanied by the federal police from Harburg train station to Othmarschen train station. The same applied to the way back to the main train station.
Also on Saturday afternoon, several thousand people demonstrated in the city center under the motto “There must be order: Right-wing extremist parties on the Basic Law-“TÜV”!” for a general review of right-wing extremist parties by the Federal Constitutional Court. The satirist, former EU MP and organizer of the nationwide kick-off event, Nico Semsrott, spoke of around 5,700 participants. According to their own information, the police counted around 4,500 demonstrators and spoke of it being peaceful.
Demo every second Saturday of the month in the future
There is only one demand: “All parties that are classified by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution as suspected right-wing extremists or definitely right-wing extremists should be examined by the Federal Constitutional Court,” said the call for the demonstration. Even if the party was not specifically named, it was about the AfD. “We are “Prüf!”,” says the call. That stands for “Examination saves freedom”. The organizers announced that they would soon take to the streets in all state capitals on the second Saturday of every month until the Federal Council requested the review.
Parallel to the “test” demonstration, hundreds of people marched through the city center to demonstrate against the oppression of peoples in the Middle East and Africa. Observers estimated the number of participants at less than 2,000. The organizer himself had expected up to 20,000 demonstrators. The elevator started at the Landungsbrücken in the direction of Baumwall and went over the Rödingsmarkt to Steindamm at the main train station.
There was no major traffic jam on the A1 and A7 motorways over the weekend. But due to the closure of the A7 before and after the Elbe tunnel, progress on the A1 was slow at times over a length of up to seven kilometers. The Hamburg section of the A7 with the Elbe tunnel is completely closed until Monday morning at 5 a.m. due to construction work in the direction of Flensburg and Hanover, as Autobahn GmbH announced.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:251109-930-269730/1
