March for Science, Berlin, Germany April 22, 2017DIANA KWONThe sun began to peak through the clouds on a rainy day in Berlin as marchers gathered in the courtyard of Humboldt University, one of the cities’ oldest academic institutions. As pre-march speakers took to the stage, what started off as a few hundred people quickly swelled into thousands of marchers, many holding signs about science, facts, and evidence—though a few anti-Trump and anti-Alternative für Deutschland (the right-wing populist party in Germany) placards appeared scattered among the masses.
The crowds marched relatively silently—no shouts or chants could be heard—along Unter den Linden, a wide boulevard stretching through one of the most popular tourist districts in Berlin. According to unofficial police estimates, around 11,000 people had gathered by the time the march reached the Brandenburg Gate. “We had people counting, and the first estimate we gave to the police was 5,000,” said march organizer Claudio Paganini, a PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, a city just outside of Berlin. “They just looked at us and said, no, there’s no way that’s just 5,000.”
A series of statements by scientists from various disciplines and from Michael Müller, the mayor of Berlin, were met with cheers from the marchers. The ...
