For months, unrest has been spreading across Europe. In Spain, a movement against evictions and gentrification culminated on November 11 in a countrywide general strike. In France, student revolt set off the most intense street confrontations since the Yellow Vest movement. Albania has seen wave upon wave of clashes since last February. On Halloween, the European youth protests finally reached Germany. Under the motto “Gen Z regelt” (“Gen Z regulates”), tens of thousands took to the streets of nearly 40 German cities on October 31. While a large-scale uprising like the one in France remains unlikely, the first cracks in the pacification of society are starting to show. In this report, two anarchists describe their experiences in two different demonstrations and discuss the potential of the events. More demonstrations on the same theme are scheduled for November 20. A stylish banner in front of the “Gen Z Regelt” protest in Göttingen. What would Goethe have said? Germany in Crisis The demonstration on October 31 took place in a general context of crisis. In Germany, as elsewhere around the globe, inflation has run rampant over the last six years, driven by the pandemic, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the consequent loss of cheap natural gas from Russia, and, most recently, the US-Iran war. Another growing influence on the economy is the climate catastrophe. It is estimated that Germany will lose around 30 billion euros a year as a consequence of its impact. In one week, a heatwave at the end of June killed close to 10,000 people. Unlike countries that have long-term experience with temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius, only 10% of homes in Germany have air conditioning; with the exception of intensive care units and operating rooms, most hospitals and nursing homes don’t have it, so people who experienced heat stroke were treated in overheated rooms. Senior citizens and those with preexisting health problems were especially hard hit: in at least one nursing home, temperatures reached up to 50 degrees Celsius. A protester in the German city of Essen asks to stop some of the impacts of climate change. Who dies as a consequence of climate change is determined mostly by class. Germany also faces a housing crisis—something like 53% of people live in rented homes—and the cheapest flats are generally located right beneath the roofs of buildings several stories high. These buildings were built to keep heat in, so during heat waves, temperatures in the flats at night often stayed above the outside temperatures at same time. On top of this, the government comprised of the neoliberal left (SPD) and Christian conservative (CDU/CSU) parties has introduced an unpopular austerity program in order to push through a massive increase in military spending, which started after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It would take another article to list all the financial cuts involved. Workers and middle-class people will have many billions less in “social benefits”—in other words, they get less back from the work and resources that the state and capitalists take from them. Some 12% of all jobs in Germany are directly in state institutions, in addition to fully state-owned companies and other organizations connected to the state, like the public health insurance agencies and public media companies. Many of these have stop hiring because of the financial situation. At the same time, German economic growth is stagnating. Consequently, “Gen Z” career entrants confront a context in which companies are trying to figure out how to use artificial intelligence to replace them amid an employment market that is already much worse than previous generations faced. This is undermining the last vestiges of a social contract between companies and the state on one side and segments of the youth on the other. Study, get degree, and you can have a middle-class life? Not anymore. Finally, some international fashions trends like ski glasses are reaching German youth. Unemployment is rising among university and college graduates. The social situation isn’t as catastrophic as it has become in other countries, but by contrast with many other countries, people in Germany do not have much experience helping each other directly. German society has focused on the state as the only thinkable source of support when people lose their jobs or experience other setbacks. As a result, anger has spread among Gen Z and also older generations. When news about the unrest in France and elsewhere around Europe reached Germany, many people were inspired. Some stores in several city centers decided to pretty up their windows in honor of the occasion. Unregistered Demonstrations, Skirmishes, Riots, and Looting The first call for protests on October 31 came from a loose organizing group called “Gen Z regelt” (“Gen Z regulates” or “Gen Z rules”). They organized protest marches in five cities and offered a webpage where people could anonymously report demonstrations in other places or declare that they would be on the streets. By the time Halloween arrived, 180,000 people had announced that they would participate. The numbers on the street were somewhat smaller—but over 100,000 is still an impressive number for protests that were mostly autonomously organized. Many of the demonstrations were not registered beforehand. Generally speaking, in Germany, the organizers of demonstrations are legally required to register political assemblies 48 hours before they are publicly announced. Police officers laughing near Hamburg’s central station. Not long after, they were too busy to laugh. Several cities saw skirmishes or small riots happen, including Hamburg, Bremen, Berlin, Cologne, and Stuttgart. The police themselves were the chief targets, finding themselves on the receiving end of fireworks, stones, and bottles. Police also reported some use of Molotov cocktails, though German cops often exaggerate violence against them to present themselves simultaneously as heroic defenders of order and as victims who need more money and expanded powers. It is possible that the demonstrations in other cities became a bit unruly as well. In any case, the largest riot happened in Frankfurt, where people looted the famous shopping street known as the Zeil. Hamburger (respectively Hamburger*innen—yes that is what people from Hamburg are called in Germany) build some barricades. German public television described how small, mobile groups of about ten people each outmaneuvered the police, who moved too slowly in their massive formations. The loss of control in Frankfurt was so extensive that the Spezialeinsatzkommando (SEK), the German equivalent of a SWAT unit, was sent out to suppress the uprising. This is a rare measure, because the SEK is not trained in riot control, but rather in dealing with armed opponents. The last time this occurred in a large city was during the 2017 G20 summit in Hamburg. To regain the appearance of control in the aftermath of the riot, Hessian police initiated a campaign of reprisals. Columns of police cars have been driving around downtown Frankfurt, stopping to harass groups of young people—whomever the police do not perceive as “white Germans.” They frisked over 1000 people in one week alone. It remains to be seen whether this strategy will discourage people from rioting again or add fuel to the fire. Some of the barricades in Hamburg caught fire. Tales from Two Cities Here, we present reports from anarchists who participated in the protests in two different cities. Because age plays a role in the protests and the reports, for context, the first author is part of Gen Z, whereas the second is a late-born millennial. Account 1 At the Gen Z protest I attended, the protesters were outnumbered by cops. Multiple shops were boarded up as if we were going to loot them. The turnout was somewhat small—about 50 to 100 people, mostly students. Among them were some members of the Internationale Jugend and other youth communist groups. The protest itself went off without a hitch. The guest speakers had great energy. However, they presented the perspective that these protests would only create a divide between generations, suggesting that the slogan “Gen Z will handle this” condescends to the older generation for not working hard enough towards a brighter future. I disagree with this assumption. I see this as a call to action specifically aimed at Gen Z in the context of the riots in France, which were almost exclusively led by students. I think it’s fair to be critical of the fact that the older generations didn’t do enough and now we have to be the ones to take up this dirty fight. I don’t see the revolutionary potential in these protests yet, but I hope they can be a wake-up call for many. Gas masks are coming into style. Account 2 In the city where I participated, the protest remained stationary by choice. I say “by choice” because, with about fifty riot cops for roughly a thousand protesters, the police lacked the numbers they needed to stop us. While we did not live out the full potential of rebellion on that day, it still felt different from ordinary protests in Germany. Normally, demonstrations in Germany are dominated by political parties, NGOs, or the traditional left or Antifa scene. The Antifa and left scenes in many places have become quite liberal or social democratic, mostly trying to defend the status quo—or, at least, an imagined status quo, a social democratic fantasy that never really existed. The only political force openly present were authoritarian communists. The SDAJ (Socialist German Workers Youth) was prominently visible. They are the youth organization of the German Communist Party (DKP), which explicitly supports Russia and promotes a political line somewhere between Leninism and Stalinism. Sadly, the SDAJ has grown massively over the past few years because they were able to position themselves as one of main actors behind the student strikes against the process of reintroducing conscription. Their strategy is spreading the myth that wars are simply driven by “the rich,” obscuring the fact that not only Western capitalists but also the elites that control the machinery of the state on all sides of the various geopolitical power blocs are all involved in starting wars. They conceal this in order to promote the classic Marxist idea that the state could be a tool for liberation. In view of their enthusiasm about Lenin and the Soviet Union, it is hypocritical that they pretend to be anti-militarist, seeing that Lenin introduced forced military service in early 1918 and the Soviet Union went on to invade Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Afghanistan, and other countries. Yet because of the historical dominance of Marxism in Germany and the growing number of people who were not alive during the Cold War, for a lot of young people the Soviet Union has become an imaginary projection of what they call “anticapitalism.” Authoritarian “communism” is on the rise in Germany, often together with macho militancy and sexual violence. With the exception of the authoritarian communists, nearly everyone I spoke to was open to anarchist ideas. I spoke with nearly two hundred people in the course of promoting some anarchist events in our region. In addition, a few people, mostly punks, openly wore patches and shirts expressing anti-authoritarian views. I also saw some local anarchists I had met in other situations. Sadly, most of the comrades acted as inactive observers. It would have been a good opportunity to invite people to connect via an open meeting or some other kind of open space. Hopefully, next time more comrades will get more actively involved. A Wind Of Change? In general, the events of October 31 could be described as a fresh breeze in a society that suffocates from cold obedience and is gridlocked in attempting to preserve an already destroyed status quo. It is uncertain that this breeze will become a storm or even a strong wind; nonetheless, it is significant that more people imagine that they might be able to change the political landscape in Germany. Even politicians and corporate media have indirectly acknowledged this. The interior secretary of Germany suggested that the riots were caused by “chaos people from the extreme left and migrant milieu.” Leading politicians of his coalition partner, the left neoliberal SPD, criticized the allegations about the “migrant milieu”—not necessarily out of actual opposition to racism, but because they understand that pouring gasoline on the fire might escalate things more. Even one celebrity joined the protests in Frankfurt. It is by no means certain that the state will be able to extinguish the fire if it intensifies. While predictable condemnations of violence and extremism have taken place around the country, the biggest public news outlet in Germany, Tagesschau (“Daily Report”), openly discussed whether the riots were planned by “outside extremists” or if they emerged spontaneously from the anger of neglected youth. Tagesschau also interviewed a movement researcher that described the unrest as a normal part of a movement in this kind of crisis. Some second-tier journalists in the newspapers and on the internet openly asked whether violence might be the only way that youth could make politicians listen. This indicates that the more intelligent elements of the elites are aware that the status quo is coming to an end. For Germany, this an immense shift. The left and liberal elements of the elite have been existing outside social reality, and that includes many middle- and upper-class left-wing activists. If their internal consensus breaks down, the ensuing conflict could undermine their ability to pacify social movements. In addition to sending out police with assault rifles, the state carried out mass detentions in Frankfurt and elsewhere. An Expanding Problem for Police? One of the foundations of state control of movements in Germany has been that organizers who don’t register their demonstrations with the state can be charged with a crime (except in Berlin, where it is only an administrative offense) punishable by a prison sentence of up to two years or a fine, which can also lead to prison time if it is not paid. While it is legal to take part in an unregistered demonstration that someone else organized, police often use more aggressive tactics and charges to target unregistered demonstrations. This pushes public assemblies towards self-policing. Organizers can even be required to have a certain number of protest marshals at their demonstrations. Combined with the German police tactic of charging directly into crowds to target those they deem criminals, this has created an environment in which nearly all demonstrations are registered and those who don’t want to give the state a say in how they protest have become increasingly isolated. If a culture of not registering demonstrations starts to develop, that would undermine German police strategy. The standard tactics of the German police rely on making plans in advance and concentrating large numbers to suppress protesters with a mix of detentions (often mass detentions conducted by forming a kettle around demonstrators) and close combat using pepper spray and batons. If unregistered demonstrations become more common, leaving the state uncertain about where to send its forces, and other confrontational tactics continue to spread, things could boil over. Germany only has 21,000 riot police for a population of 80 million. There are about 200,000 ordinary police, but they aren’t really prepared for confrontations with determined crowds. This has been proven on the streets again and again over the past decades. German police also lack sufficient quantities of tear gas or “less lethal” munitions to suppress mass unrest. Water cannons are the only medium-range crowd-control weapon they have widespread access to; consequently, they rely on close combat. In Cologne, the police brought in several water cannons and kettled up to a thousand protesters. Towards Anarchy Of course, it is not certain that this movement will continue to grow. Halloween 2026 could be a one-time event at which people let out their anger, then return to normalcy. On the other hand, if this movement or something like it continues, even if it remains on a plateau without growing, that would still represent a significant shift, providing opportunities to reach new people outside the framework of the statist left. It would be a big mistake for anarchists and everyone else who dreams of radical change to ignore these developments. Rather than seeking quixotically to impose an unified anarchist program on these protests, we should understand that the strength of the protests is in the diversity of participants, topics, and tactics, which render them more difficult to control than previous movements. Anarchists should share their knowledge, skills, and proposals to empower people to organize and act one their own. In Germany, it would help if more people would learn how to do things without political parties, without academic theoreticians, without Marx, Lenin, and Stalin giving them instructions. Something like this can only be learned via experience acting directly, meeting each other as equals, not in a movement divided into leaders, activists, and followers. That doesn’t mean anarchists should hide our positions; the problem is not radicalism, it is politics. Also, we must find ways of opposing authoritarian communists in these protests. Leninists and Stalinists will surely see anarchists as threat that could undermine their dominance, and they will attack anti-authoritarianism in different ways, including violence. While this means taking on risks, if we fail to join these protests in order to offer different visions of resistance and change, those ideological forces will only grow in number, becoming more dangerous in the future. A Grim Smile One of the most fitting ways to describe the mood in discussions between longtime anarchists and those joining the movement right now is a mix of grimness and joy. People are aware that the road ahead will be dangerous and state will retaliate in many ways for whatever trouble that further unrest might cause. But on some faces, there is also a smile expressing the joy of seeing the anger and pain that this society has caused directed towards the institutions oppressing us rather than (as is more often the case here) those below. It is said that German people tend to be obedient subjects. The anarchist movement here isn’t exactly at a high point right now. Yet the breeze of Halloween blew some warmth into numerous faces and hearts. And increasingly, those of all ages with freedom and self-determination on their minds agree that we should prepare our sails for a continuous wind. In any case, once again, the future is unwritten—and that is much more then we could hope for in a long time. The sign on the left reads: “We are too young to be hopeless already. The sign on the right: “Princess Lillifee instead of AFD.”

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