Funeral March Through Hamburg Due To Lost Privacy (2007-12-31)

 On Monday, the 31st of December 2007, German citizens were mourning the loss of privacy in the city of Hamburg, where a ‘funeral procession’ was carrying a coffin through the city center to symbolically burry the loss of privacy, as well as fundamental and civil rights. 

Background of this procession is the passing of a law by the governing parties of CDU, CSU, and SPD which determines that every communicative action and people’s manner of movement in Germany should be implicitly recorded (data retention).

 About 500 participants were demonstrating against a recording of their communicative action and an observation their manner of movement without reason. They took through Hamburg’s prestigious streets (Mönckebergstraße, Bergstaße, and Reesendamm) to end up in front of the city hall to “deliver” the coffin. Following up, there was an address by Kai-Uwe Steffens, Hanno Zulla, and Patrick Breyer of the Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung (Working group on data retention), Dr. Silke Lüder of the Freie Ärzteschaft (Free Physicians Association) and Bernhard Schillo of the Piratenpartei (Pirate Party). Furthermore, there was a common reading of Germany’s fundamental rights (Grundrechte), which closed the event.  

Responsible for the organization of this demo were local branches of the Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung in Hamburg and Buchholz

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