Has everything been said about Hamburg’s civil war-like days, just not by everyone yet? In fact, the countless voices from experts, journalists and politicians are likely to retrospectively reverse public perception of what happened in Hamburg.

The left-wing extremist excessive use of violence, which went as far as attempted murder, has been devastating for all open and secret supporters of the trivialized "left-wing activists", as they were called. So the event’s re-interpreters virtually fell over one another in their rapid defense of them. Within a few hours, the claim "This cannot be left-wing, because being left means being solidary and non-violent" soon changed to, first, "non-political", then, "actually right-wing", and finally, "neo-Nazis" (Sigmar Gabriel – the German Minister of Foreign Affairs). In his statement, Gabriel is closer to the truth than he thinks, because the methods used by Antifa actually are fascist.

Among the red herrings of recent days, the most important message has nearly gotten lost. The G20 summit has been nothing but a gigantic waste of taxpayers' money. And it is not over yet because Chancellor Merkel, looking forward to the upcoming elections, has promised compensation to everyone harmed. It’s a transparent campaigning maneuver that only works because the pro-government press does not expose it.

A few months ago, the same Chancellor needed public pressure from social media to mention the name of the Polish truck driver who was murdered by the Christmas market terrorist in December last year. To the best of my knowledge, the German government has not offered his family compensation for the loss of their breadwinner, nor has it offered any compensation to the other people affected by this terrorist attack. In the case of the Polish truck driver, a British trucker has collected money for his family.

Back to the summit. The final report is a document of its failure, the commitment to free trade could have simply been achieved in a conference call. The only tangible result was the separate meeting of the American and Russian presidents. The two of them agreed on a ceasefire in southern Syria. However, a bilateral meeting in Sochi or Camp David would have been sufficient for this purpose.

The summit only served as self-promotion of the heads of state involved. Chancellor Merkel apparently believes the nonsense that is spread throughout the media, that she is destined to be leader of the free world. That's what she wanted to emphasize with the summit. This not only failed, but the leftist terrorism in Hamburg made it perfectly clear that the German police is not in a position to protect citizens from the violence of an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 extremists, even though they had been preparing for the expected confrontation for over a year and a half.

At the press conference, which was attended by representatives of Hamburg’s Senate and the police on Sunday, Senator Andy Grote emphasized that the "entire expertise of the German police" had been incorporated into the preparation. Police commissioner Meyer added that all the necessary techniques, "everything Germany has at its disposal", were on the spot. A total of 20,000 officers were involved. This was just enough to enable the summit participants to enjoy a quiet concert and an undisturbed meal. Meanwhile, the mob rioted on the streets, barricades and cars burned. There were attacks with life-threatening weapons, such as slingshots with steel balls and Molotov cocktails, while Beethoven’s Ode to Joy was played in that symbol of arrogance of power, Hamburg's brand new philharmonic hall. It was like a scene out of the movie “Apocalypse Now”.

Even more disgusting than the rioting mob were the spectators drinking their beer and wine, who enjoyed watching the destruction downtown and felt the police disturbed their indulgence of the “reality show”.

We don’t dare to ask the question of what would happen if more than a million young men who have “recently started to live among us” (Merkel’s euphemism for migrants) were to get the idea of publicly expressing their frustration of their disappointed expectations. "Those who have lived here for a longer time" (Merkel's paraphrase for the German people) will be defenseless, since the state can no longer fulfill its crucial function of protecting the citizens.

This is nothing new for Europe. The Swedes are one step ahead of us. Our "quality media" failed to report that at the beginning of July the Swedish police chief Dan Tore Eliasson turned to the public for help. He said, "The police can no longer ensure compliance with the laws." The police are no longer able to enforce the laws in more and more areas. He goes on to say that, "in parts of Stockholm there is lawlessness. The legal system, which is a pillar of any democratic society, is collapsing in Sweden."

Various groups have been deconstructing the German rule of law, and after the events in Hamburg, Germany should concede this, first and foremost the politicians. By this I do not only mean the ritual accusations directed at the police by left-wing and green politicians, as they were uttered by Katja Kipping, leader of the socialist party "Die Linke", as well as Christian Ströbele, member of the Green party. What's far more important is that left-wing extremist structures have been financed for decades, but increasingly so by the Merkel government in recent years. The former Minister of Family Affairs Christina Schröder had recognized the problem and tried to end this practice by introducing an extremism provision. Whoever received state funding was obliged to sign a pledge to the constitution. The leftist establishment were up in arms about it. One of the loudest voices was Anetta Kahane (former unofficial collaborator of the Stasi, now head of the state-funded Amadeu-Antonio foundation), under whose leadership the internet is being searched for hate postings today.

One of the first official acts brought about by the new Minister of Family Affairs, Manuela Schwesig, was the abolition of the extremism provision. Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maizière also distributes the funding of his ministry without asking the recipients for their adherence to the constitution. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble increased the budget for the "fight against the right" to 100 million euros. Among the benefactors are left-wing extremists.

The left-wing government of the state of Thuringia goes even further. It finances transport to demonstrations against right-wing protests. The question is whether protestors were brought from Erfurt (the capital of Thuringia) to the demonstration "Welcome to hell" in Hamburg or to one of the many other demonstrations there.

It's hypocritical of politicians to complain about "incredible violence" now. Everything that's happened in Hamburg has already been happening for years. In many German cities, especially in Hamburg and Berlin, cars have been torched for years, unpopular representatives' offices and homes have been attacked. "Gentrifiers" and other unpopular individuals have been attacked and hounded.

For more than a year, Antifa has been trying to frighten away a dentist from Berlin-Weissensee. The demonstrations are organized at a state-funded meeting point. The established parties remain silent about this manhunt, because the dentist is an AfD member (the AfD is a recently formed party, often accused of being right-wing populist). The example of this dentist is only one of over 800 attacks on members and politicians of the AfD, and Antifa understands the lack of outrage as tacit approval. The new quality in Hamburg was that planning was conducted with military precision. For example, the number of injured protesters could not be quoted, because Antifa had their own paramedics and doctors.

It started with a demonstration on Thursday, where about 1,000 masked people had joined the "peaceful" demonstrators. The police demanded that the disguises should be taken off before the protest could move on. It was not met with compliance at first, only later it was partially complied with. At the press conference, the police chief of operations described what happened next, "As if on command, police officers were attacked with stones and bottles." The police reaction was then criticized as "disproportionate" by Katja Kipping and others. After the attack, the troublemakers dispersed in small groups. They literally played cat and mouse with the police, as in their backpacks they had colorful clothes, in which they changed into and mingled with the "peaceful demonstrators". Whenever needed, they changed back to their black clothes.

The police head of operations, Hartmut Dudde, said at the press conference that the boys looked like the next door school kids. A friend of mine who lives in the Hamburg war zone commented, "They didn't just look like next door school kids, they were."

Therefore, I would like to say a few words about the "peaceful protesters." For the G8 summit of 2007 in Rostock and Heiligendamm, these "peaceful protesters" formed walls to protect the Antifa and to obstruct the police pursuing the criminals. At that time, over 100 police officers were injured, some of them seriously. Chancellor Merkel did not visit the wounded, nor did they receive any support. But it took place out in the countryside and therefore worldwide coverage was not as focused on it as it was on the events in Hamburg.

Another particularly despicable chapter in the history of the “peaceful protesters” is the hounding of journalists denounced as being close to the Identitarian Movement (whose goal is preservation of national identity) by a former employee of the newspaper "Die Zeit." Many of them took part in this persecution.

As the images of the hunted and beaten-up journalists went around the world, it was clear that the perpetrators were not members of the "Black Block", but so-called "peaceful demonstrators," who didn't commit their deeds in secret, but in the public eye, surrounded by dozens of people.

An American journalist tried to calm his attackers by kneeling and holding up his hands, but none of the spectators helped him. Their only reaction was to take photos with their cell phones. And there we have it again, the tacit approval of left-wing extremist violence. To me this means that there's a gradual, but not a fundamental difference between peaceful and violent protesters.

Considering the whiny statements of arrested criminals, who claim to be completely apolitical, but nevertheless threw stones or looted supermarkets, it becomes clear how thin the layer of civilized behavior has become.

Hamburg is a warning for what the future holds, but whether it will be finally understood as a warning is uncertain. Everybody has seen and heard it. The images and reports could not to be overlooked and ignored. It is now up to us to draw our conclusions and become active. If we do not want Swedish conditions or Hamburg's civil war scenes to be part of our everyday lives, we must do something about it. The terror of the RAF (a German left-wing terrorist organization mainly active in the 1970s and 80s) was ended when the people turned their backs on the terrorists. Left-wing extremism is not an "exaggerated problem" (Manuela Schwesig), but a serious threat to our social fabric. At a minimum, state funding of left-wing radical groups has to stop. Reintroduce the extremism provision now!

Translated from eigentümlich frei, where the original article was published on 13th July 2017.