Germany's Gen Z protests disrupted by violence on Saturday

This is a round-up of events at the youth protests across Germany on October 31, 2026:

Riots broke out in Cologne on Saturday, with about 200 people involved in disturbances near Cologne Cathedral.

Police officers were attacked on the square outside the famous cathedral, with bottles and bicycles hurled toward police. One person was injured, police said.

In a nearby side street, a window was smashed by an electric scooter thrown during the unrest, police added.

According to regional broadcaster WDR, other groups besides Gen Z demonstrators were involved in riots.

Cologne's police chief Johannes Hermanns said it was deeply saddening that peaceful protests were overshadowed by "extremists who had nothing violence in mind."

While Gen Z protests across Germany were largely peaceful during the day, clashes were reported in several cities as evening fell.

German police sealed off a major shopping street in central Frankfurt on Saturday night after rioters smashed shop windows, looted stores and attacked officers following a demonstration.

Police closed Die Zeil, one of Germany's busiest shopping streets, to incoming visitors and urged bystanders to leave the area.

"Anyone not involved who is still on the Zeil can leave. Access to the Zeil is no longer possible," Frankfurt police said in a post on X and in loudspeaker announcements.

Chaotic scenes unfolded along the shopping street, where dpa journalists witnessed people breaking into stores and stealing trainers and other goods.

A specialist firearms shop was also targeted, prompting several arrests, a police spokesman said.

Police also reported attacks on officers, including attacks involving incendiary devices.

The violence erupted after police broke up a demonstration organized as part of the nationwide "Gen Z regelt" (roughly meaning "Gen Z takes charge") protests.

A large contingent of officers was deployed around the Zeil, with authorities advising people to avoid the area or leave central Frankfurt.

The German protests on Saturday are a part of a wider trend that has seen members of Gen Z, born between 1997 and 2012, protest in several European nations.

The wave of protest was triggered by students seeking education reform in France, with the standoff erupting in violence and looting two weeks ago.

After a day of youth protests in Germany, senior police union representative Andreas Rosskopf said that there was no widespread property damage "so far."

"The Gen Z protests have turned out to be very peaceful," Rosskopf told the daily Rhenische Post.

While confrontations were reported after the marches ended in multiple cities, the people driving the clashes were "individuals acting independently, some of whom were masked."

Rosskopf, who represents Germany's federal police, said security forces acted very decisively and forcefully when such response was appropriate.

"Security forces remain absolutely ready to prevent any further clashes in the late evening of overnight," he said.

German security forces reported minor violent incidents in several cites in the wake of the Gen Z demonstrations.

In Hamburg, protesters at the city's Steintor square pelted the police with fireworks . Police used "immediate force" to clear the area, including using a water cannon.

Several police officers were injured during a similar incident in Frankfurt, according to a state interior minister.

Police also used a water cannon in Cologne, where the march was halted and turned into a stationary rally after some protesters covered their faces and used pyrotechnics.

A police officers sustained light injuries in nearby Bonn during a confrontation with a group of protesters.

In Berlin, the authorities noted a rally separate from the official event organized by the Gen Z movement. Police initially reported "isolated instances of throwing eggs and bottles" from a crowd of around 500 people. The authorities later also reported "illegal burning of pyrotechnics" and said the crowd has grown to around 3,000 participants.

Several police officers were injured in a clash with a group of protesters following the Gen Z demonstration in Frankfurt, authorities said.

"One officers could be injured more seriously, but this will need some more looking into," said Hesse Interior Minister Roman Poseck.

"We assume there were about 100 attackers motivated by extreme leftist ideology," the state minister said.

"They have staged a massive attack against the police by throwing bottles, stones and fireworks."

Police responded with water cannons and have the situation in hand, he said

Thousands of young people took part in protests in 34 German cities on Saturday.

German Gen Z protesters called out rising living expenses, remilitarization of Germany, and declining education.

Some of the protesters also called for Germany's current chancellor, center-right Friedrich Merz, to step down.

The protests were held under the slogan Gen Z regelt (Gen Z sorts it).

Police were out in force after many politicians warned that Germany will not tolerate the kind of violence seen in France in mid-October.

Police reported incidents in which pepper spray and water cannon were used to keep crowds under control, with protesters setting off fireworks and lighting fires.

Most of the demonstrations ended peacefully.

But tensions remained high in some German cities with reports of several police officers injured.

In Germany's second-biggest city, Hamburg, police estimated 6,700 people taking part in the demonstration.

They reported some groups of black-clad protesters, some of whom also wore face masks, pulling apart construction site barriers and throwing them on the street. Some of the barriers were later set on fire.

Police said they pushed the crowd back and used pepper spray to break them apart. The fire was eventually put out.

Following an initial estimate of several hundred people attending the rally in central Berlin, police said that some 5,000 people were now gathered at the Brandenburg Gate. The organizers, "Gen Z regelt" (Gen Z sorts it) gave a much higher number, saying 10,000 people were in attendance.

One of the speakers in Berlin, Kaja Schwab, decried false promises made by politicians.

The youth is being told that "we will do well if we work hard enough." In reality, the life is getting unaffordable and the young are "forced into military service," she said, in reference to Germany's renewed recruitment drive.

Thousands of young people have joined the demonstrations in over 30 German cities, with police reporting largely peaceful protests.

Hundreds also gathered in Hamburg, Erfurt, Magdeburg, Dresden, Leipzig, Nuremberg, and elsehwere.

Retailers in several city centers had boarded up shop windows, particularly along luxury shopping streets, fearing unrest. Some shops were already closed for the Reformation Day public holiday.

No nationwide turnout figure was immediately available. More than 182,100 people had expressed interest in attending the events online.

Police in Cologne called off the planned "Gen Z regelt" procession after some participants covered their faces and used pyrotechnics.

"The demonstration will continue as a stationary rally," a police spokeswoman told the DPA news agency. Participants would remain on the Rhine riverbank, she said, appealing for restraint.

Attendance remained below the 15,000 people registered for the demonstration. Based on advance registrations, Cologne's protest was expected to be the largest in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Police repeatedly stopped a youth protest march in Stuttgart, citing participants covering their faces and leaving the agreed route.

Officers also reported smoke devices and firecrackers before the procession began. "Be loud, but remain peaceful," a police spokeswoman urged in a video.

In other German cities, police reported a largely peaceful start to demonstrations. Authorities estimated included 2,500 participants in Freiburg, more than 1,500 in Frankfurt, 1,200 in Mainz, 1,000 in Munich and 650 in Berlin.

No nationwide turnout figure was immediately available.

Politicians must involve young people in decision-making or risk the youth turning away from political institutions, education researcher Nina Kolleck warned.

Their exclusion "creates the impression that there is a policy for the old, but not for the young," the University of Potsdam professor told Germany's RBB Inforadio.

Kolleck pointed to decades of underinvestment in schools and the disproportionate impact of climate change on younger generations.

She warned that populist parties could exploit the resulting political vacuum if young people's frustrations continued to go unanswered.

Organizers of Germany's nationwide youth protests have accused the media of stoking fears of violence and distracting from their demands.

A "narrative of violence" was being used "to divert attention from our core demands," spokeswoman Veronika Dinter told the German broadcaster Deutschlandfunk.

She stressed that "GenZ regelt" — roughly meaning "Gen Z takes charge" — called for peaceful demonstrations, pointing to its published principles. Anyone who shared those principles was welcome, she said.

Dinter also regretted the decision by Germany's national school student representative body to distance itself from the protests. It had cited concerns including unclear organizational structures.

The initiative is holding rallies in Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt and Munich, with local groups organizing protests in another 30 cities. Nearly 180,000 people had pledged online to attend, although actual turnout remained unclear.

Security authorities had warned that extremist groups could try to infiltrate the demonstrations.

People in Germany have the fundamental right, enshrined in the constitution or Basic Law, to assemble in public provided they remains peaceful and are unarmed.

However, several states have adopted their own assembly acts, which means some of them have additional restrictions, such as a ban on protesting on highways in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Federal law itself imposes the obligation on organizers of protests to notify the local authority entrusted with approving public assemblies at least 48 hours before they invite people publicly to take part.

This aims to allow authorities to put in place security measures and to lessen the impact of any assembly on others by, for example, instigating traffic control measures.

Spontaneous assemblies are, however, also allowed in cases where a topical issue of urgent importance is at stake, and there is no notification requirement for indoor assemblies.

Protests or other assemblies can be banned beforehand or dispersed while they are underway, but this is considered a means of last resort.

Some locations are also subject to restrictions on protests, such as the area around the Reichstag building in Berlin where the German parliament sits, and around the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe.

Demonstrations around the Reichstag are, for example, permitted only when the parliament is not in session.

Post-war Germany has seen several massive demonstrations, including one in 1983, when 250,000 people — according to police estimates — gathered in the then West German capital, Bonn, to protest against the decision by NATO to station American nuclear missiles on German territory.

That was, however, surpassed in size by a protest in Berlin in 2003 against the invasion of Iraq by US-led forces, which drew a crowd of around half a million people.

There is some more detail on the law regarding the right of assembly in this DW article.