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“Train of Love”: Techno fans danced through Berlin
A reveler carries a sign with the inscription ‘Charity instead of wars on raw materials’ at the Technoparade Parade of Love through Berlin. photo
© Joerg Carstensen/dpa
How can you draw attention to social associations that help people in humanitarian need? For example with a techno parade. That’s what happened in Berlin.
On Saturday, thousands attended the Berlin techno demonstration “Zug der Love”. According to the police, a little more than 5,000 people took part until 5 p.m. According to the authorities, the event was largely trouble-free, around 450 emergency services took care. The organizers spoke of around 10,000 participants.
With the demonstration, the organizers wanted to draw attention to social organizations that “have made charity part of their everyday life,” as their website says. According to the information, a total of eleven organizations took part in the demonstration, which drove their own cars or cars provided by the association. The motto of this year’s demonstration was “More love for the world of tomorrow”.
“We cannot solve the world’s problems, but we want to support those who provide people in crisis and disaster areas with shelter and essential supplies worldwide or locally, wherever we can,” said Jens Schwan, spokesman for the Zug der Liebe association. The association was founded in 2015 in response to the Pegida marches. Pegida is a nationalist and Islamophobic organization that was founded in 2014 and is still active today. It opposes Germany’s immigration and asylum policy.
Everything has changed since then, the spokesman said. “More than 340 million people worldwide are in humanitarian need, more than 100 million are fleeing. And in Germany, a hate group without a single meaningful answer to the crises of our time has 20 percent approval.” This means the AfD, which received a high level of approval in surveys in July.