A crowd of tens of thousands gathered in Berlin on Saturday for a protest against coronavirus-related preventative measures, including face masks, shelter-in-place orders, and vaccines. Police pegged attendance at around 20,000 people, according to AFP. Organizers had boasted of 500,000 attendees for the “day of freedom” gathering. The title is the same as a Nazi film from 1935. German authorities have initiated legal proceedings against rally organizers for disregarding virus protocols. The crowd, which was reportedly comprised of conspiracy theorists from both the far right and far left, chanted, “We are the second wave,” at the Brandenburg Gate and called the pandemic “the biggest conspiracy theory.” One German politician, Social Democrat Saskia Esken, condemned the marchers as “covidiots.”
