Almost 10 years after the Love Parade tragedy which claimed 21 lives in Duisburg, a regional court has definitively closed an investigation seeking to establish whether organizers were responsible for the tragedy.
The regional court in the western city of Duisburg suspended the trial after 184 days of proceedings and just under two and a half years. Prosecutors had already made it clear that the last three remaining defendants were only suspected of minor guilt and that the trial might not be complete before the statute of limitations expired at the end of July. The coronavirus' impact on public life made an already tight timetable untenable, the court said.
The disaster, which also left over 650 people injured, took place inside of a 240-meter-long tunnel — the only entrance and exit to the festival area. To stop too many people from crowding in, police began instructing people entering to turn back. However, festival attendees continued to crowd towards the tunnel from behind, leading to a panic in which the 21 victims suffocated.
Around 650 people were injured and 21 killed in the crush
Ten employees either of Duisburg's local government or the company organizing the festival had originally faced trial. Seven had already taken an offer in 2019, using a controversial quirk of German law, to pay fines in exchange for all criminal charges against them being dropped. The three remaining defendants had refused to take such a deal, saying they wanted to be acquitted in court. Such deals are typically offered by the prosecution if they think the chances of conviction are slim, or if they think completing the trial will not be a productive use of time.
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Love Parade: From humble beginnings, to major music festival, to tragic ending
Four DJs, three cars and just 150 party-goers
Matthias Roeingh, better known by his stage name Dr. Motte, organized the first Love Parade in Berlin in 1989 along with fellow DJs Jonzon, Westbam and Kid Paul. Roeingh said he wanted the festival to be seen as a protest for peace. Some 150 party-goers, followed by three cars blaring techno music, danced down Berlin's Kurfürstendamm boulevard under the banner "Peace, joy and pancakes."
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Love Parade: From humble beginnings, to major music festival, to tragic ending
Europe catches the love bug
It wasn't long before the Love Parade grew into one of the largest music festivals in Europe. As the number of party-goers increased, so did the number of artists and event organizers who brought their own floats, or "love mobiles," to the parade.
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Love Parade: From humble beginnings, to major music festival, to tragic ending
Partying in the heart of the German capital
After almost half a million people flooded Berlin's Kurfürstendamm for the Love Parade in 1996, it became clear that a larger venue was needed. The following year, the festival was moved to Berlin's Straße des 17. Juni (17th of June Street), with the Victory Column, Brandenburg Gate and Tiergarten Park providing a historic backdrop to the frenzied techno rave.
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Love Parade: From humble beginnings, to major music festival, to tragic ending
More stress than love
But as the festival attracted ever more revelers, it also attracted more trouble ... and much, much more rubbish. Mountains of garbage in the Tiergarten became a common sight, to the disgust of many locals. However, because the Love Parade was still, in theory, a political festival, Berlin's state government had to bear the costs, both for security and for the mass clean-ups.
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Love Parade: From humble beginnings, to major music festival, to tragic ending
Ravers protest festival commercialization
For all its controversies, the main point of criticism directed at the festival was its increasing commercialization. Love Parade organizers made a pretty profit through licensing, advertising and merchandise sales. However, that also drove many techno heads to distance themselves from the Love Parade, with some even starting an annual counter festival, know as the "F*** Parade" (pictured above).
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Love Parade: From humble beginnings, to major music festival, to tragic ending
Out with the politics
In 2001, Germany's Constitutional Court revoked the Love Parade's classification as a demonstration. The court found that the festival offered no clear political message, a requisite for any protest. Since organizers did not want to bear the security or clean-up costs, the 2004 and 2005 Love Parade festivals were cancelled.
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Love Parade: From humble beginnings, to major music festival, to tragic ending
'The Love is back!'
Under the banner "The Love is back!" the Love Parade relaunched in 2006, bringing more than a million revelers to Berlin. But it would also be the last edition to take place in the German capital. That year, Rainer Schaller, an entrepreneur who runs a chain of fitness centers, took over the company in charge of organizing the festival. His plan was to bring the Love Parade to Germany's Ruhr area.
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Love Parade: From humble beginnings, to major music festival, to tragic ending
A record attendance in the Ruhr metropolises
According to the Love Parade organizers, more than a million flocked to the city of Essen for the first edition of the festival in western Germany in 2007, while some 1.6 million people partied in Dortmund the following year. Several people, however, have claimed that the numbers were massively inflated by organizers, likely for marketing purposes.
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Love Parade: From humble beginnings, to major music festival, to tragic ending
Bochum refuses Love Parade invitation
High on the festival's successes in Essen and Dortmund, organizers wanted to bring the Love Parade to the city of Bochum in 2009. However, city officials refused, citing security concerns. This ultimately forced the party to be cancelled in 2009, provoking outrage from seasoned ravers and parade-goers.
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Love Parade: From humble beginnings, to major music festival, to tragic ending
The horrific ending
Organizers wanted to make up for the lost year by staging a massive festival in Duisburg in 2010. The festival coincided with the city's selection as a European Capital of Culture and attracted over a million visitors. But the party ended in tragedy. Panic broke out as crowds converged in a tunnel leading to the festival grounds, resulting in the deaths of 21 people, and injuring a further 650.
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Love Parade: From humble beginnings, to major music festival, to tragic ending
Never again
The very same day as the deadly stampede, Love Parade organizers announced that there would be no further festivals. Every year on July 24, Germany comes together to commemorate the victims of the festival tragedy.
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Love Parade: From humble beginnings, to major music festival, to tragic ending
Love Parade disaster goes to trial
In December 2017, more than seven years after the tragic Love Parade incident, prosecutors launched criminal proceedings against six Duisburg city employees and four festival organizers. The trial is set to be one of Germany's largest ever court cases, with 70 lawyers involved — 32 representing defendants and 38 representing 65 joint plaintiffs, mainly relatives of the young people killed.
The current case only began in 2017, when North Rhine-Westphalia state's supreme court said that it would reopen proceedings for the prosecution of the 10 plaintiffs, accusing them of negligent homicide and negligent bodily harm.
The Love Parade, with the slogan, "The Art of Love," was an electronic music festival that was started in West Berlin in 1989. Following the disaster, the parade's organizer Rainer Schaller announced that the parade would never take place again.
Read more: German DJ wants to revive Loveparade techno festival
"The Love Parade has always been a peaceful party, but it will forever be overshadowed by the accident, so out of respect for the victims the Love Parade will never take place again."
lc/msh (AFP, dpa, epd)
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