Maybe some of you have already gehört (heard) that this year´s love parade ended up in a Katastrophe (catastrophe). 21 people were squashed to death due to a mass panic. 500 were verletzt (injured).

Originally the love parade took place in Berlin. It began in 1989 as a small political demonstration initiated by Techno DJ Dr. Motte, though there was no real political Hintergrund (background). In the following years until 1999 the love parade evolved to a mass event where up to 1.5 million people took part. Zwischenzeitlich (meanwhile) the parade often had to change places because there were simply too much people and the inhabitants of Berlin complained about Müll (garbage) and Lärm (noise).

Since 2000 the Besucherzahl (attendance) was regressive and the status of the event has been changed from “political demonstration” to “commercial event” by law. After a break in 2004 and 2005 a new organizer was found and the love parade took place in Berlin (2006) again.

The following love parade should take place on 7^th of July 2007 but was canceled by the organizer in February. He was looking for a new city as a partner to the love parade and was finally successful with the “Ruhrgebiet” in Germany. So since 2007 it took place in Essen, Dortmund and Duisburg and the attendance was huge again.

This year the event took place on the 24^th of July in Duisburg. About 1.4 million people besuchten (visited) the world´s biggest techno party. But as we know now, the place was not well chosen. The main problem was a tunnel that was the only Eingang “entrance” for all of the people. As the space around the people became closer and closer, a panic among them was unvermeidbar (unavoidable). 16 people died immediately in or beneath the tunnel. 500 were injured and 5 of them didn´t survive. The situation must have been horrible…I won´t even imagine!

The “catastrophe from Duisburg” is still very present in the media and daily discussions. But sadly this is not only to mourn the dead. It seems that nobody wants to take Verantwortung (responsibility) for the wrong planning and the accident. So the Bürgermeister (mayor), other people of the city, the organizer and other parties argue about Schuld (guilt) and Unschuld (innocence) as well as future events like the love parade.

But in my opinion there should be someone who shows the courage to take responsibility. This is not only a question of law and order but as well a moral one. I think they better should argue about how to help the families of the dead and injured people. And after this they should plan how to update security systems for mass events to avoid ähnliche (similar) situations. I hope the topics of the discussions will change soon!

One day after the Unfall (accident), the organizer said that there will be no more love parade. Time will tell.