As reported here last weekend, the first day of the German music festival “Rock am Ring” had to be evacuated and cancelled, due to a potential terrorist threat.

Egri Nök has translated some additional videos and textual material about what caused the Rock am Ring cancellation. She includes this summary:

I did not translate the whole article from Die Welt, because it says what we already know. Only the part that is new: On the morning of Friday June 2, police officers a traffic control noticed that three men wore wristbands giving them unlimited access to the festival site at the Nürburgring. It turned out that their names could not be found on the list of employees that the organizer had given to the authorities for security check. Further investigations revealed that the men had been sent to the Ring by a subcontractor who had been appointed at the last minute as a stand-in, and “would not have had time to prepare an attack”. The men are one German and two Syrians who live in Hesse. The German is a Salafist, known to the security authorities of Hesse. He was living in Frankfurt and had participated several times in the now-banned Quran-distribution event “Lies!”. His brother is currently in jail in Freiburg for drug dealing. According to police, there is no concrete suspicion at the moment, but the security authorities have “clear insights in the area of Islamist terrorism” regarding at least one of the men.

The first video is the press conference about the cancellation that caused so much controversy. It was convened by Marek Lieberberg, the organizer of the festival (thanks to Vlad Tepes for subtitling both videos):

The second video is a response recorded by a prominent Turkish-German Muslim:

Egri includes the following material about Marek Lieberberg’s press conference:

Press conference held by Marek Lieberberg, the organizer and event manager Lieberberg is an important and respected person in the German music industry. He has been doing concerts for +20 years. Rock am Ring, Germany’s largest rock music festival with almost 90,000 visitors, was cancelled Friday night due to a terror threat. Three Salafists had gained access to the festival’s sensitive area as stagehands, using backstage passes with false names. Right after the evacuation, Marek Lieberberg, the festival’s organizer, made this spontaneous statement to the press. Lieberberg is Germany’s most important concert promoter and is immensely popular with music fans. He was born in a camp for displaced persons as the child of Holocaust survivors. The first concert he organized was The Who in 1970. 2017 marked Rock am Ring’s 30th anniversary. In his spontaneous statement, Lieberberg alleged that whenever there is a terror threat, large sports events received priority treatment from security authorities. Events such as his would bear the consequences of failings that happen at the level of the security authorities, as in the case of Amri, the Berlin Christmas Market attacker, who walked freely despite being a known terror risk. “I want to see something finally happening in this country! Terror risks being arrested, for example. That those risks don’t walk free.” Lieberberg said he was tired of hearing “This is not my Islam”, and instead, wanted to see Muslims demonstrate against terror: “I have yet to see Muslims take to the streets by the tens of thousands to ask: What the hell are you doing?”. For this, the next day, the media widely accused him of “snapping” and catering to the AfD. Many media outlets and the German Council of Muslims (Zentralrat der Muslime in Deutschland, ZMD), demanded an apology from him. Bento, a teen magazine published by Der Spiegel, claimed that Lieberberg was wrong, because, after Islamic terror attacks, Muslims “often take to the streets, unified and in dedicated protests, to warn of associating Muslims with attackers.”[1] oblivious to the fact that this is exactly the “This is not my Islam” reaction that Lieberberg was so tired of. Instead of backpedaling, in an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung[2], Lieberberg on Saturday confirmed: “I expect unambiguous opposition to violence and terror from everyone. But in my perception, people of Muslim faith have so far unfortunately largely missed out on articulating this in demonstrations.” He expounded on the difficulties of securing a large event: “The Manchester attack did not happen inside the hall, but in front of it. But it could have happened in the subway, too. So the question arises: how far-reaching can the shield be on events? We cannot completely shield ourselves off. In my opinion, the authorities are called upon — and I mean somewhere completely else.” Süddeutsche Zeitung: “Arresting terror risks, like you demanded in your press conference?” Lieberberg: “The authorities need to improve how they find and deal with suspects. We see in the Amri case the kind of gaps that exist.” To the Süddeutsche‘s accusation that he had been “quick to assume an Islamistic [sic] background”, Lieberberg dryly replied: “I did not assume that, the authorities did. I was informed that the arrested persons belonged to the Salafist scene.” Notes: 1. Bento 2. Süddeutsche Zeitung



Video transcript #1:

00:01 We are not like sports events and similar events, 00:04 where groups of fans are hostile towards each other, fight each other. 00:10 That’s true. —Please. 00:13 When can we expect a first assessment by the police? 00:16 We don’t know. I can only recommend that you 00:20 address your questions to the Interior Minister, to the police. 00:26 Ask the police how much time they need, 00:30 if overnight is sufficient. There is still daylight now, it is still daylight at the site. 00:35 They can send bomb detection dogs. They have 1,200 officers here. 00:39 I think if that is not enough to declare a site safe, 00:43 then how could a football game by Borussia Dortmund take place on the next day? 00:50 I ask myself, how can an international match take place? 00:53 Why are the police willing to back the decision? 00:56 Why is this possible when it is about football? Why is this possible in other situations? 01:00 Why are we the scapegoat in this situation? 01:04 And I have always unmistakably spoken out against terrorism. 01:10 And I am of the opinion that there must be an end now to “This is not my Islam” 01:14 and “This is not my sh**” and “This is not my whatever”. 01:18 Every single person has to speak out against this now. 01:21 I want to finally see demonstrations against these violent thugs. 01:25 I have yet to see Muslims take to the streets by the tens of thousands 01:29 to ask, “What the hell are you doing?” 01:33 And I want to see something finally happening in this country! 01:36 Terror risks being arrested, for example. That those risks don’t walk free. 01:41 We are paying the price for the Amri scandal. That is what I am saying here and now! 01:49 We are used as stopgaps. — (applause) 01:58 And I don’t want to be misunderstood — I back it [the decision to cancel the festival]. 02:05 The safety and the well-being of every visitor is more important than our commercial interest. 02:15 But there should not be different rights for us. 02:19 And I always have the feeling that we are the scapegoat 02:24 for a situation that we have not brought upon ourselves. 02:27 We are just doing large peaceful cultural events. 02:32 They should ask themselves: is this a culture worth keeping? 02:36 Or is it only culture when — and I admit I love it too — 22 people are kicking a ball? 02:50 Any more questions? —Why are you standing here alone, and — 02:53 I ask myself that, too! But that was not my doing. — (applause) 03:03 You know, I’m 71 years old, I’m not in it for perpetuating my name. 03:11 It’s more often in the media than I like. 03:14 And most of you here know me and know that I am valiant and sometimes provocative. 03:21 But I am not someone who wants to see his name in the media. 03:25 For every interview that I give, I turn down ten. I don’t care. 03:30 But as always, they made us deal with the situation. 03:34 The cancellation — our staff is taking care of the disciplined evacuation. 03:37 Take a look outside, it was exemplary. 03:41 Because people trust our competence. 03:45 But it is an experiment, and the background of this has not been clarified. 03:51 In my opinion — I said that the people in question have been arrested. 04:00 The situation was clarified. 04:03 These people worked here indeed, even though there was a lack of clarity about the names. 04:06 But in my opinion, it was not a reason, not a decisive reason, for a cancellation. 04:14 In my opinion. But I defer. 04:17 The gentlemen have been arrested? —Excuse me? —The gentlemen have been arrested? 04:22 You should ask the police about that. 04:26 At least a police officer could be here. —Yes. 04:30 Catharina, have you had word from the police? 04:36 Can we —Catharina? —I am here. Can we get the police representative, 04:40 the one who conveyed the decision? 04:45 The decision was conveyed to me. I wanted to discuss it; 04:51 I pointed out the sweeping consequences of the decision to the minister. 04:55 And then the instruction was given —I received the instruction, and of course I carry it out. 05:03 I think we carried it out so well that, if it weren’t so sad, 05:07 you could say it was with military precision. 05:17 Catharina, can we try to get the police here? —I’m on it. 05:23 Do you feel like this is a problem with Rhineland-Pfalz? 05:26 No. No, I do not correlate this with Rhineland-Pfalz. 05:33 I would say you are thinking too Greek. 05:36 It’s too Greek. 05:47 More questions? Catharina is trying to get the police here at last. 05:52 [unintelligible] —Excuse me? —[unintelligible] 05:56 He doesn’t have to. 05:59 Marek would like to get a police representative here. 06:06 I can’t reach Mr. [unintelligible]. —Where is he? 06:10 Or Mr. Lewentz. 06:28 We are waiting. We can’t go outside now, anyway. 06:34 The road is closed off at the moment. 06:37 The roads are completely closed, there is no through traffic, 06:42 The only thing running is the shuttle service to the car parks. 06:49 The buses are taking the viewers to the parking lots, as well as possible. 06:58 That is working. 07:08 I am taking a sip on you. 07:25 There are no further questions at the moment.



Video transcript #2: