Police made a total of 31 arrests at the weekend as violence marred annual commemorations for late communist leaders Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, officials said on Monday.
A total of 24 police officers were injured, 23 of whom were reportedly able to continue their duties.
All told, 34 criminal charges have been filed, including for assaulting law enforcement officers, particularly serious breach of the peace, and using the symbols of unconstitutional and terrorist organizations.
The police were on duty with 550 officers.
Violence between police and demonstrators
At the traditional large-scale demonstration on Sunday, participants reportedly lit flares and physically assaulted police officers. The officers used mace and batons.
Police also intervened because participants repeatedly shouted banned slogans related to the Middle East conflict.
One demonstrator lost consciousness during an altercation and was taken to hospital. There it was discovered that he was wanted by police.
In a statement, police said several thousand people took part in the demonstration, whilke 10,000 participants had been registered.
Violence also erupted at the demonstration last year.
Two detained at cemetery ceremony
At another memorial service at the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery, two men were detained after spitting on a memorial stone for the victims of Stalinism.
Luxemburg and Liebknecht, founders of the German Communist Party, were murdered in Berlin on January 15, 1919, by soldiers in the early days of the Weimar Republic and are seen by the left as martyrs.
For decades, thousands of people have laid wreaths and red carnations at the two leaders’ grave sites on the second Sunday in January.
Demonstrators walk to the socialists’ memorial during the “Luxemburg-Liebknecht-Ehrung 2025” demonstration in memory of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. Luxemburg and Liebknecht co-founded the anti-war Spartacus League which eventually became the KPD, and both were murdered in 1919. Sebastian Gollnow/dpa