What Exactly is a 'Querdenker'?

 Loosely, it translates over to 'lateral-thinker'.  I know....that doesn't help much.

So....remember I'm an American and have a different prospective on things....as I lay out this explanation.

A querdenker is a German who is a long-haul, and energized skeptic....particularly over Covid-19 and the ban-rules.

Anti-government?  Not so much, but they have some hostility over the authorities using power.

Are they dangerous?  Well...if you count not wearing a mask, demonstrating, marginal respect for police control....then that's the full extent of dangerous.

Anti-vaccination?  Some are....a few are pro-vaccination.  

Anti-lockdown?  Yes, to the absolute maximum.

Do they have negative feelings over journalists and public TV?  Yeah, that's one of the serious parts of their feelings.  They won't hesitate to shove a middle-finger at a public TV journalist covering a demonstration.  In one case from two weeks ago, I noted that after 'dad' had challenged and 'fingered' a journalist.....'junior' (his 12-year old son) came up did the same exercise as well.

Do they believe to any one single political party?  You can't make that case....zero evidence.  In fact, in the past week....some leftist groups have joined the 'querdenker' crowd in demonstrations.  The TV journalists have tried to make the case that these are mostly AfD (far-right) demonstrators, but there's just no real evidence to back up the claim.

How many Germans make up the 'querdenker' campaign?  Unknown.  Some of these demonstrations have drifted up to the 10k to 20k level.  As we approach May (better weather), I expect the numbers showing up to drift up to 40k eventually (if the cops approve of such demonstrations).

Is this trend dangerous?  It's a political year (national election in September), and you just have this gut-feeling that weird things might happen with this one single group.  

So to the key question....are they organized?  Well...the bulk of them will tell you it's a personal thing and that's mostly it.  There are trucks rented, and some speeches read by key-but-unknown folks of the side of the trucks....which tends to make you think there is a political lobby in the background.  Russian-lead?  It wouldn't shock me if they dug into this, and half-a-million Euro per demonstration was spread around to cause dissent and frustration.  

Rioting coming out of this effort?  No.  I have noted some cops roughing up a few folks....but there are no Molotov cocktails....no cars turned over....no fires...etc.  The worst you can say so far....without masks on, they might have passed Covid-19 around.  

Here's the bottom line....as long as Covid-19 and ban-rules are around...the 'querdenker' crowd will be around.  That thought might scare a few people in Berlin because Covid isn't going away in 2021 or 2022.