Germany’s youth protests largely peaceful but evening clashes erupt

Youth-led demonstrations took place across Germany on Saturday, with organisers and police offering different levels of detail about the scale and character of the protests. The movement said about 120,000 people joined rallies, while DW reported participation in 34 cities and France 24 described the turnout as tens of thousands. The demonstrations, organised under the slogan “GenZ regelt!”—roughly, “Gen Z has got this”—focused on education funding, the cost of living and climate protection.

Participants also opposed increased military spending and a new voluntary service model that they fear could precede a return to compulsory military service. Some protesters called for Chancellor Friedrich Merz to step down. The daytime events were mostly peaceful.

France 24 reported a festive atmosphere, including demonstrators wearing dinosaur and Batman costumes because the protests coincided with Halloween. The movement itself said extremist groups, anti-constitutional symbols, racism and hate speech had no place in its demonstrations. Tensions rose after some marches ended.

In Frankfurt, police said demonstrators threw stones, bottles and fireworks, and reported attacks involving incendiary devices. A specialist firearms shop was targeted, while dpa journalists cited by DW witnessed shop windows being smashed and goods being stolen from stores on the Zeil shopping street. Police sealed off the area and made several arrests.

Hesse Interior Minister Roman Poseck said several officers were injured in Frankfurt and suggested around 100 attackers were motivated by “extreme leftist ideology.” He said the police had responded with water cannon and had the situation under control. The reports do not provide an independently verified count of those involved in the violence. Other confrontations were reported in Hamburg, Cologne, Bonn, Berlin and Leipzig.

Hamburg police used water cannon after fireworks were thrown at officers; Cologne’s march was halted and converted into a stationary rally after participants used pyrotechnics and covered their faces. A Bonn officer suffered minor injuries, while police in Berlin reported eggs, bottles and illegal pyrotechnics at a separate evening rally. The police response included water cannon, pepper spray and what DW described as immediate force.

Andreas Rosskopf, a senior police-union representative, said the main protests had been “very peaceful” and that widespread property damage had been avoided so far, attributing the clashes to individuals acting independently. The demonstrations were influenced by youth protests elsewhere in Europe, particularly France, where education and living-cost rallies had recently been followed by serious disorder. The German organisers explicitly rejected violence, but the incidents left a clear divide between the broad peaceful movement and groups involved in the later confrontations.