In total, more than 4,200 police officers are to be deployed.

Initially 13 demonstrations were banned, including rallies of the Querdenken (Lateral Thinking) initiative on the main boulevard through the capital city’s large central park, the Tiergarten.

Four emergency petitions against the bans had been filed with the court on Friday afternoon. The administrative court granted one emergency application and overturned the ban on a gathering with 500 expected participants each on Saturday and Sunday. In the other three cases, the bans were upheld.

The police are also particularly attentive because one year ago, on August 29, 2020, tens of thousands of people protested in Berlin against the coronavirus restrictions.

In the process, demonstrators broke through a barrier at the Reichstag building that houses the Bundestag lower house of parliament and briefly occupied a staircase in front of an entrance.

The pictures of this caused outrage among top politicians. Since then, however, the number of people attending these demonstrations has dropped sharply.