I am in Hamburg - Ask me anything....

[Pachamama]

Staying with family in Altona section....thought this area was safe during the summit....its dark smoke and sirens everywhere and from going down on the streets in neighborhood all hell has broken loose. There are atleast 30-40 cars on fire here in area....the Rathaus and Standesamt (where people marry) have windows broken in and all activities called off. Its chaos and there are police in riot gear all over.

Meanwhile my cousin who works near the Convention Center is trapped in her workplace and can't get out of that section of town that is ground zero of the Summit....another friend with other parents trying to get their kids from school...

Its crazy....

Here is a video filmed right here in Altona to show you what I am referring to:

[LeftishBrit]

1. Best wishes - stay safe!

[Pachamama]

3. Thank you - we were down on streets and its shocking....

Altona is an area that wasn't zoned off by police....but apparently according to the neighbors, this morning there were demonstrators that suddenly started putting down masks over face and running around neighborhood and setting cars on fire everywhere and smashing windows. It looks like a war zone out there....just yesterday and on Wednesday (where we marched with a peaceful "Pussys grab back demonstration against Trump", it was relatively calm other than the rows of police that escorted us going through the street. But what it is now is crazy....

[Demsrule86]

2. Honestly, I don't like violence, but I agree with the protesters.

Globalism is used to enrich the few at the expense of the many.

[Pachamama]

4. Hamburgers (yes - thats what they are called) actually are furious about the Summit being held there

....but agree with the Protesters feelings about the G20....but of course no one is happy that their neighborhood is being destroyed right now....

[SharonClark]

43. Can we assume you agree with the peaceful protesters and not the anarchist violent protesters?

[Ezior]

5. I'm not sure if those kooks are even interested in left-wing politics

What is their plan for an ideal society? No cops ("Bullenschweine&quot , no government, all the cars burned to the ground.. and then? Magic happens, world peace ensues, and everybody is happy? Come on... They resemble Steve Bannon and dream about his fantasies of destructing the administrative state.

I have some sympathies for G20 protesters who say that it's partly the G20's fault that this earth is basically shit for large parts of its population. Still, I'm convinced that it's a good idea to have world leaders meet and talk. And even if the only common ground they can find is on fighting terrorism or trade deals (instead of climate change and refugees/poverty), this is still better than no talk at all. If world leaders don't talk to each other, we risk global war. Of course, Hamburg was a very poor location choice and I feel sorry for Hamburgers.

I'm a globalist, so I support the G20, but I wish that more world leaders would put their focus on climate change and poverty. Alas, I can only choose the German government and the EU parliament, so my options are limited. I ask every inhabitant of G20 countries to vote for sane, future-oriented, globalism-embracing politicians instead of right-wing populists and nationalists.

Trudeau, Macron and Merkel (each to some extent) are a nice start. Let's try to get someone like Obama back for the US and the world will a better place already. No burning cars down and trying to beat up cops can achieve that.

[Pachamama]

8. The opinion of the Hamburgers are that G20 should have taken an aircraft carrier and/or cruiseships

out in the Northsee and had meetings there....with security being naval ships and fast boats...the worst case scenario would have been maybe Greenpeace running some boats out there...

What is the point of holding these meetings in neighborhoods and completely stopping daily life of businesses and making peoples homes and property unsafe and targets?

Who compensates these Hamburgers? My cousins business lost all their business the last several days. They deliver meals to children at schools but because their kitchen is right near the convention center they couldn't maneuver around, do their work and had cancelations of all meals. Other businesses and private property destroyed. The streets all around are now burning and look like a war zone....If the G20 meetings were held out on a ship in the water so those "leaders" can meet, then they would save money and costs of the security of 50,000 plus police officers from Germany?

These leaders couldn't figure their way out of a paper bag in the opinion of most here....so here they are and beautiful Hamburg being destroyed because of their "summit"....

Sorry, but your argument that these G20 leaders have to meet and make these cities their meeting places is a non starter....and by the way....many of us, are peace loving citizens who are going about our lives and not burning cars and beating up cops. We are parents picking up our kids from school, going to work and yet at the same time can disagree with the G20 agenda...

[demmiblue]

6. Black bloc protestors pretty much announced their intentions at the very beginning of the protests:

They are anarchist assholes who obliterate the message of peaceful protesters.

Stay safe!

[Ezior]

7. This is illegal.. They must show their faces as protesters in Germany (nt)

[Pachamama]

14. Well, and so is freedom of speech here in Germany....

My biggest shock this week was watching Police send around people who were examining everyone's signs of protest determining whether they were allowed to be shown....

The police officer doing one of the "Censorship" patrols looked like a skin head....

We may have our police brutality issues in US, but can you imagine if the police were given the power in the US to "approve or disapprove" signage at protests?

[Ezior]

21. Well, I'm German and I didn't expect that

Do you know if they actually censored anything?

There are some limits to free speech here, like you can't claim there was no Holocaust, you can't show the Swastika symbol, and other related issues. Maybe if you incite violence using the sign that's another reason... So are you sure they really checked the messages on the signs? Maybe they wanted to make sure the signs can't be used as weapons against the police? (Which wouldn't suprise me. Most protesters come in peace, but some of them just hate the cops for whatever reason. Most German cops are great. Unfortunately some are actually Neonazis and even KKK members who claim they didn't know what the KKK is.)

[Pachamama]

23. Ich bin auch Deutsch - eigentlich Bayerisch

.....Noch besser....


Every German knows Swastikas can't be shown.... but with the new recent laws passed, they can determine what is appropriate or not and if they think it will incite violence can censor.... and yes, they told some people some signs couldn't be shown. What they said I didn't see exactly....but it was really shocking in my opinion....to see police censors in black shirts...

Fine line of going backwards to the good ole days of swastikas....

[Ezior]

27. That's really disturbing

Thanks for letting me know. Maybe it's time to end the Große Koalition so there's at least a strong opposition party...

aus Bayerisch Schwaben (Augsburg). Though I was born on the "other side of the border" close to Stuttgart and only moved to Bavaria a few years ago.

[littlemissmartypants]

30. Signs are inspected in Raleigh.

And intimidation is rampant. I was verbally reprimanded for not desposing of my protest sign properly before entering the nc leg gallery.

That's a bunch of hangry racists... don't agree, but can't see myself there either.

♡lmsp

[NCTraveler]

9. Stay safe. Nt

[Pachamama]

10. We are safe - staying inside and not going out.

[NCTraveler]

13. Enjoyed reading the thoughts in your post #8. Nt

[cwydro]

16. Nobody is going to hurt you.

Get out and live your life.

[Pachamama]

17. Right now staying in....but by this afternoon, going to go enjoy a few beers...maybe even down at

....strandperl along the Elbe....



But its always good to be smart and make safe choices....and yes, to live life....

[nikibatts]

11. I don't approve of violence. That said, when will the 1-2% world-wide get the message?

[socialist_n_TN]

46. Not until they think that their lives are in danger..........

Or their profits. Until then they will be sure that they and their ill-gotten gains are safe.

[moondust]

12. Reminds me of Seattle WTO in 1999.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Seattle_WTO_protests

[Pachamama]

15. Was there in 1999....

Was pregnant and suddenly my good friend Randy Hayes founder of Rainforest Action Network called me and told me not to come join them because the Seattle Police were using tear gas...

But I was quite proud of Randy and the team from RAN - they got a fabulous banner hung from the crane there in Seattle...

[moondust]

19. Odd coincidence.

Or maybe not a coincidence?

[Pachamama]

22. I have a Forrest Gump life....

My visit here was planned months before the Summit got scheduled....and back in 1999 as I was pregnant, I was living in Seattle and my friends from San Francisco at RAN were there.

No such thing in life as coincidence....its the journey our souls as witnesses and participants get to have....mine just happen to be incredible and often....

[jalan48]

51. I was there also and some of the protesters were only there to disrupt and loot.

There were great workshops all week leading up to the march and then the media focused on the violence. Who knows who these violent protesters really are.

[Not Ruth]

18. What hotel are the protesters staying in?

[Pachamama]

20. No idea....

How should I know? Who is to say some aren't residents and go home? Or are staying with friends or family? Maybe some are at hotels? There are 1000's of hotels....

I was a protester the last few days....I don't burn cars or do anything illegal....

[Ezior]

24. They bring tents

Though police tried to forbid camping pretty much everywhere in Hamburg in an attempt to discourage protesters from coming to Hamburg...

A local church (St. Johannis, IIRC) opened their plot for some of the protesters to camp there though. And I think courts have ruled against the police order not to camp in some places.

[Pachamama]

25. Yes, Mayor Olaf is very popular right now.... (sarcasm)

Hamburgers feel the campers had a right to camp....so did courts...

But Mayor Olaf and the police had other opinion....

[Vinca]

26. Anything directed specifically at Trump or are they generic G20 protests?

[smirkymonkey]

29. That was my question as well.

[Pachamama]

31. Practically every demonstration I have seen has signs that are Anti-Trump (ie. Wanted signs)

...but one of the demonstrations was actually stated as being Anti-Trump - the "Pussy's grab back" protest against Sexism and for women rights....that was on Wednesday and met near the U-bahn plaza by the Mercado shopping center in Altona...then marched through the streets....

[Vinca]

32. Thanks. We're not seeing any of that here.

[Pachamama]

33. Seriously? They aren't showing them on TV in US?

Thats amazing, because there are so many.... it would be hard to walk around and not see them every block.

Even walking down the street to dinner the other night, German teenage girls behind me were mocking Trump and comparing it to when Obama visited Germany. (They were missing President Obama)....

Yeah, we miss him too....

[Vinca]

34. They've been showing the bottle-throwing riots and water cannons and that's about it.

I could easily have missed something, but it seems the media in this country is being more respectful to Trump than Trump is being of the country (trashing Obama, the media and U.S. intelligence services).

[bobbieinok]

39. Early 80s: Massive German protests vs installation of US missles

I remember being very surprised to learn of them from a German visitor later. I did not remember any US media reports of the size and duration of such protests.

The lack of such coverage is especially odd, since IIRC large protests in East Germany over the installation of US and Soviet missles on both German territories helped lead to the fall of the East German government in 1989.

[TEB]

28. Insane

Be safe

[PoliticAverse]

35. What do they call hamburgers in Hamburg? n/t

[Pachamama]

37. Hamburgers, Frikadellen is another

But a Hamburger is a Hamburger...

[PoliticAverse]

53. Are they made from real Hamburgers?... n/t

[Pachamama]

54. Funny you ask....

Some actually are mix between ground beef and ground pork....

So actually "HAM"burgers....

[Historic NY]

36. Looks like is devoid of police and fire service...

[bobbieinok]

38. Hamburg is one of my favorite German cities

As part of my grad program, I studied at the Uni during the 1962 Sommer Semester. Part of that time I had a room in Blankenesee and part of the time one in an area of apartment buildings that had been rebuilt after the Hamburg Fire Bombing of WWII.

[mainer]

40. A beautiful, beautiful city.

Maybe my favorite in Germany. I hope it's unscathed by the protests!

[Pachamama]

41. My 2nd favorite....after Munich, of course...

Being that I am Bavarian....



But they were bombed out in WWII....they will be just fine....this is nothing but a mere scratch and will be fine in no time....

[BlueMTexpat]

42. Thanks so much for your perspective.

Legitimate protesters at these economic summits almost always have their voices overwhelmed by anarchists who are actually nihilists.

I agree with many of the protests, but have absolutely no patience for those who use G20 and other such meetings as an excuse to destroy. They play right into the hands of Trumpistas and their ilk.

A pox on them, Trumpistas and ALL capitalists who emulate and/or admire Trump!

[yuiyoshida]

44. Can you get a

Hamburger in Hamburg? , if so, how are they?

[Pachamama]

49. Sehr Gut!

[yuiyoshida]

59. I guess I would settle for a Tokyo Burger...

yUM!

[Equinox Moon]

45. I would guess anarchists and the like are doing this.

[mshasta]

47. so is that true that "every one"

is talking about podesta??

[Pachamama]

50. Podest-who?

Not any mention in media, amongst the people living here, protestors....and I have not heard of any "Gipfel" (the summit) speaking about him and his emails...

I have had many Germans asking when we will be charging and arresting him for Crimes...

[Ilsa]

52. Yeah, sure:

Link to tweet

[kairos12]

48. Keep safe. Wish you the best.

[romanic]

55. I like how everyone is asking you about Hamburgers lol

Serious question though, are the legitmate protesters doing anything about the anarchists? Any skirmishes between the two groups? I'd hate to think they'd ally themselves with those black-clad losers.

[Pachamama]

56. I think its kind of funny....we can be serious about topics, but we also all love food...

To get to the serious question you ask, there are far more legitimate protesters and demonstrators and they expected the anarchists (they always appear) and everyone hates this. Because they really are the party crashers (nihilists) who feel satisfied with the more destructive things get.

Collusion between groups? No, that I didn't see at all...but I do think that the Police tend to be lumping legitimate protesters together with the anarchists and broad brush painting all protesters as anarchists and destructive.

Greenpeace today had a great boat going down the Elbe River....very peaceful...

[nolabear]

57. How is the German media covering all this?

We see the America-centric version and lots of conflicts between police and protesters. What does the press there feature and what is the attitude toward the protests, violent and non violent?

Thanks! Stay safe.

[MFM008]

58. Did maggot

Choke on a bratwurst yet?

[lunasun]

60. Please keep us updated here if you can