Germany Pride march draws hundreds of thousands in Germany week after attack

Under the rainbow, from left to right: Member of the Bundestag; Matthias Miersch (SPD), Chair of the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag; Katharina Fegebank (Greens), Second Mayor of Hamburg; Oliver Greve, Hamburg Pride e.V.; and Olivia Jones, drag queen; along with other participants, stand on Luebecker Strase at the start of the Hamburg Pride 2026 parade for Christopher Street Day (CSD), in Hamburg, Germany, Saturday Aug. 1, 2026. (Georg Wendt/dpa via AP)

Some 300,000 people took part in a Pride march in Germany’s northern city of Hamburg on Saturday, a week after a jihadist attack on a similar march in Berlin left one dead and several dozen injured.

Under clear skies, people of all ages waved rainbow flags as they march on foot or rode in floats through the city, according to an AFP photographer.

“Solidarity among LGBT people, take a stand for a future without fear,” read some of the placards.

Both police and march organizers put the turnout at around 300,000.

Police were out in force, one week after a man who had reportedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in a video ploughed a minivan into a crowd near the parade in Berlin.

A 65-year-old Polish woman was killed and another 31 people were injured.

The alleged attacker, 21-year-old Abdul Rahman Ballout, was shot dead by police, who said he had run at them with a bladed weapon.

Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots, was known to the criminal justice system and last year travelled to Lebanon in a failed attempt to fight for IS.