Freiheit statt Angst


Freiheit statt Angst is a political protest march, repeatedly taking place in Germany since 2006. The main issue is citizens' data privacy. The protests in Berlin in the last years were the largest demonstrations against public surveillance since the boycott of the census in West Germany in the 1980s.
From 2007 to 2011 the event has been organized by the civil rights association Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung. Its largest protest took place in 2009 with around 25,000 participants.

History

2006

The first protest march called Freiheit statt Angst happened on 20 October 2006 in cooperation with the Big Brother Awards in Bielefeld. The demonstration was formed of approximately 250 people. It has been organized by 9 different organizations, e.g. Chaos Computer Club, Deutsche Vereinigung für Datenschutz, Forum InformatikerInnen für Frieden und gesellschaftliche Verantwortung, FoeBuD, Humanistische Union, Netzwerk Neue Medien and Stop1984
Some months ago the Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung appealed for a demonstration named Freiheit statt Sicherheitswahn which was also followed by about 250 people.

2007

On 14 April 2007 a demonstration named Freiheit statt Angst happened to be in Frankfurt, being attended by at least 1000 people.
On 22 September 2007 about 15,000 people attended to the bigger demonstration in Berlin. According to the data protection commissioner of Schleswig-Holstein, Thilo Weichert those where the largest protests for data protection in the past 20 years. Fifty organisations appealed for the demonstration. Amongst others the Hedonist International and Freie Ärzteschaft attended with their own trucks.