The G20 summit is currently being held in my city, Hamburg, Germany.
It's a meeting of 20 of the biggest and most influential nations that come together to discuss difficult topics and world problems.
It seems like the whole world is looking at Hamburg right now, so I'll share how this event had an impact on the city and its people!
The G20 summit in numbers
- 19,000 policemen from all over germany were summoned to work in Hamburg this weekend. There has never been a bigger police operation in hamburg! The German police has been preparing for the G20 summit since over 1 year, and every police officer in germany (whether stationed in Hamburg or not) had to work on july 7 + 8 and help with the preparations .
- Almost 10.000 hotel rooms have been booked in Hamburg, occupied by the various politicians and their security, press teams, advisors, etc. The saudi-arabian representatives for example have come with a team of several hundred people, and even brought some camels so that the Sheikh can enjoy fresh camel milk even in Germany.
- 15 Tonnes of food are prepared at the main venue for the summit!
- The retail industry in Hamburg is expecting losses of € 15 Million, since many shops are closed and hardly anybody will go shopping this weekend.
- The demonstrations against the summit have caused unimaginable chaos, 200 policemen have been injured on july 7 alone, and over 100 protesters have been arrested.
July 6 - Exceptional circumstances in the streets of hamburg
The summit itself happens on july 7 and 8, but the chaos in Hamburg already started on thursday, july 6th.
Since thousands of politicans from all over the world arrived in Hamburg, the police blocked countless roads around the airport and the city center.
Like I already mentioned above, over 19.000 policemen from all over the country are stationed in Hamburg, and they took their job very seriously - they blocked roads all around the city center, the summit venue, and the location of the largest hotels.
Most citizens were already expecting some traffic, but no one was prepared for what was about to happen: Almost the complete city stood still, most main roads around the city center were completely blocked off, resulting in an unimaginable traffic jam.
People were literally stuck in their cars for hours, and many of them ended up just parking their car somewhere along the road and walking the rest of their journey.
July 7 - G20 day 1: Brutal demonstrations and vandalism
The summit really began yesterday, on july 7.
While the politicians and representatives spent the day congress center in Hamburg, thousands of protesters were getting ready for their anti-G20 demonstrations.
The left-radicals were masked and gathered in certain areas around the city - citizens were advised not to leave the house.
In the evening, the situation escalated completely:
The protesters were breaking into countless shops by crashing the glass front, they were pillaging, lighting up cars and barricades, and attacking the police. They fought back with water guns and tear gas.
The speaker from the Hamburg Police stated that they had "never seen such an extent of Hate and Violence."
Today, July 8 is the last day of the G20 summit. Will the situation escalate once again?
Many people speculated that saturday, the last day of the summit, will be the worst in terms of protest and violence.
We'll see how the situation will evolve!
That's why I decided not to be in the country during these eventful days - I'm off to the sun!
I'd rather be enjoying the sun and this stunning view than being back in Germany where all the chaos is going on..
© Sirwinchester
Thank you for this insight from near the event and the effects it had on the city. The level of violence that is becoming expected at political events these days is so sad
G20 Leftist Protesters Turning Violent
We should expect to see increasing civil unrest especially in Europe going forward.
Yes, while many of the protestants were peaceful, there were many left extremists who started being violent
For me it works 2 ways. Violence doesn't get you anywhere but I understand people are angry. The're quite some things not ok these days with politicians/economics etc. Thnx for making the post
And what can you do when non-violent protest only gets ignored?
No, not the demonstrations. The vandals.
Two types of people.
Or does this look like people who burn cars?
(twitter: CNN)
(Twitter: Anne Roth, saying the noG20 protest is marching for 30 minute already and no end.)
(Twitter: G20demo)
To come back to my statement:
(Twitter: TobiSchlegel)
True, and the violent ones were also mostly not from hamburg/germany!
I think I would have left to it looks like madness!
Exactly, leaving now was perfect timing!
Why not a skype call?
No protest
No police
No deaths
And maybe someone could hack the call so we can finally get to know wtf they talk about.
very true!
That's mayhem! thanks for posting this
HolySmoke! .... I remember the Pittsburgh G20 got outta there before they entrapped everybody !!! RESTEEMED !! This Sir is a GRrreat Post.. you have added something of real value..
That's crazy i get the protest but not the vandalism and violence, i remember the one that was in Toronto quite a few years back it got bad at times
Interesting information and good post
time for a change -- neo liberal BS is not working for us
Well at the very least at least people will be talking about climate change.
Perhaps for the wrong reasons but at least it's happening.
Again you captured a great shots. But take care of yourself! Be safe
Thank you for this.
The best protest is to create a life where these toxic leaders have no affect on ones life. @waykiwayki
Thank you for info.
god bless..
spechless , i dont know about politics :(
The G20 members will discuss creating backdoors in encryption at this summit, so I'm not surprised that there are protests (I'm sure there are many other reasons for them, too).
It's just sickning to see the impunity in whitch some people act. And to feed the problem many outlets call these thugs "Protesters"! The ones who commit violence and destruction should be called for what they are: "Criminals"
I am against violence, but the protests were rightful! The media just focused on the Idiots who destroyed the Schanzenviertel.
Trump was yet again a clown and is playing with our world as a senile little prick. He has no idea about Global Warming and doesnt care about anything than money.
G20 is a joke!
Yes those are some good points, some of the protesters just seemed to be violent and hateful without any reason or connection to G20
Yeah, it is like the "football fans" that come to the game just to fight.
That so called protesters, were just hooligans who wanted to destroy stuff. It is a shame, that they used this G20 protest for that. So now, nobody talks about the real protests just about the destroying and burning...so this whole weekend was wasted. Political and social.
Please link to my user page. This is another time you've used my image without citing the source.
Looks like a war zone.
Great work, Upv all post and follow You :)
Follow me, have a nice day :)
Greetings from Poland
antifa scum are totally brainwashed. and theyre government-
promoted vandals, tripping they are somehow heroes.