Freiheit statt Angst ('freedom not fear') 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 (working-group data retention). Its largest protest took place in 2009 with around 25,000 participants.[1][2]
A few months prior, the Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung appealed for a demonstration named Freiheit statt Sicherheitswahn ('Freedom not security delusion') which was also followed by about 250 people.[4]
2007
Freiheit statt Angst 2007 in Berlin
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 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 (free doctors association) attended with their trucks.
2018
On Saturday, October 13, 2018[5] there were protests in the streets of Berlin for the data security of German citizens. The protesters' demands included:
Stopping monitoring
Stop data retention
No State Hacking - Stop State Trojans
Protect the presumption of innocence and the rule of law
