Riots follow German Gen Z protest day; 100 police hurt across seven cities

Street violence broke out across seven German cities on Saturday night after a day of nationwide protests organised by the Gen Z Regelt movement, leaving 100 police officers injured and more than 200 people arrested across the country.

The organiser put turnout at 120,000 across 30 cities; police set the figure at roughly half that. Gen Z Regelt publicly distanced itself from the violence.

The worst scenes unfolded in Frankfurt, where multiple shops on the main commercial street — including a weapons store — were looted from around 9 p.m. More than 50 people aged between 13 and 29 were arrested there. In Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin, Stuttgart, Bremen and Nuremberg, officers were struck by thrown objects and fireworks.

In Hamburg, a call for vandalism at the central railway station had spread via social media; 120 people were detained there.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, who spent both day and night at a federal police command centre coordinating with state authorities, blamed the disorder on left-wing agitators and individuals of migrant origin. He also claimed the police response — based on mass presence and decentralised deployment — had contained violence to a level below that seen in Paris.

Dobrindt travelled to a Berlin flashpoint at midnight. His framing is also aimed at countering messaging from the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party, whose youth wing briefly appeared at the Brandenburg Gate demonstration before leaving under tension.