100 police injured and 54 arrested as rioting follows youth protests in Frankfurt, Hesse's interior minister says

Rioting broke out in Frankfurt on Saturday night after largely peaceful youth-led protests across Germany, leaving 100 police officers injured, the interior minister of the state of Hesse says. This report draws on ZDF, Tagesschau (ARD) and The Guardian; quotations from German have been translated by Scopa's Realm unless otherwise noted. ## Update: the police's first tally Police and Hesse's interior ministry gave a first tally on Sunday, Tagesschau reports: 54 arrests, 100 injured police officers, five looted shops, 87 criminal complaints, 1,225 orders to leave the area (Platzverweise) and 366 people checked. Firefighters and rescue workers were also attacked. Police said officers were attacked with firecrackers and Molotov cocktails, in some cases from ambush, and that rioters put up barricades; at times there were up to 30 incident sites at once, according to Tagesschau. Police distinguish between a smaller group that turned violent towards the end of the demonstration and a different group responsible for the later rioting in the city centre, Tagesschau reports. Frankfurt's police chief, Stefan Müller, said the night-time rioters and looters were mainly young men from migrant backgrounds, from groups known to police that regularly meet in the city centre at weekends, and that no political motive was evident among them, according to Tagesschau. Those arrested are aged between 13 and 29 and are mostly German citizens, Poseck said; they include people from Frankfurt, other parts of Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia, Müller said, Tagesschau reports. Poseck called the rioting an "appalling excess of violence" and said he was counting on detentions and deterrent sentences, Tagesschau reports. Frankfurt's mayor, Mike Josef, took a different emphasis: "I don't care at all what passport someone has or where their parents were born," he said, adding that anyone who uses violence must face the legal consequences. The "Gen Z regelt" initiative, which has distanced itself from the violence, plans to take part in Europe-wide protests on 20 November, a spokesman told the dpa news agency, Tagesschau reports. ## Frankfurt Thousands of people joined the daytime marches in Frankfurt, called by the "Gen Z regelt" and "Generation Aufbruch" initiatives, to call for more investment in education and health and to oppose the introduction of military service, ZDF reports. The mood turned in the evening: police said they were pelted with firecrackers, stones and bottles, and when they broke up the demonstration at about 6.20pm, shop windows were smashed, shops looted and barricades set alight, according to ZDF. Hesse's interior minister, Roman Poseck, said on Sunday that 17 shops had been damaged and five looted, Tagesschau and The Guardian report. Up to 1,300 police officers had been deployed, according to ZDF and Tagesschau. One hundred of them were injured, one seriously after being hit in the face by a stone, Poseck said, according to Tagesschau's later report; this replaces the figure of more than 100 given in earlier reports, which said one officer lost teeth. Fifty-four people aged between 13 and 29 were arrested, ZDF, Tagesschau and The Guardian report, and a special investigation unit has been set up, Tagesschau reports. A gun shop was also attacked, and police recovered two weapons that had been taken from it, a police spokesperson said, according to Tagesschau. Police estimate they faced between 1,000 and 1,500 violent troublemakers, Poseck said, ZDF, Tagesschau and The Guardian report. He blamed violent left-wing extremists, of whom he put the number at about 100, and violent young people, mostly from migrant backgrounds, ZDF and Tagesschau report; The Guardian reports that he said most of those arrested were German nationals. "I am shocked by what I have seen, and there is no point in sugar-coating it. Let me make this very clear: things cannot go on like this," Poseck said, in The Guardian's translation. The police commander, Erik Hessenmüller, said the great majority of people who demonstrated in Frankfurt had done so peacefully, and that the march had to be clearly distinguished from the rioting that followed, ZDF reports. Frankfurt's mayor, Mike Josef, said he would meet the retail association to rebuild confidence, Tagesschau reports. ## Reactions Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told ZDF: "What we saw there is clearly a breach of the peace. (...) I expect there to be tough penalties." The Guardian reports that he singled out "violent leftwing groups and troublemakers from the migrant community" and said the rioters and looters "will be identified and held accountable" (The Guardian's translation). The "Gen Z regelt" campaign distanced itself from the violence, Tagesschau and The Guardian report. ## Elsewhere in Germany More than 100,000 people marched in more than 30 German cities on Saturday for better education and lower living costs, The Guardian reports. In Cologne, rioting broke out around the cathedral and the main station in the evening, Tagesschau reports, and The Guardian says police used water cannon there. In Berlin, 27 officers were lightly injured, police said, according to Tagesschau, and The Guardian reports that protesters there attacked police with bottles and fireworks.