[5][6] Some protesters held strongly negative views towards public media, who they believed to report in an unfair manner;[7] repeatedly, journalists covering the rallies were subjected to harassment and physical attacks.

This was attributed by observers to a combination of several factors: the relaxation of the lockdown that had been imposed in March; a high level of satisfaction in the general population about the government's handling of the crisis; the impact of counter-protests; and the recognition by the general population that the protests had shown to be utilized by the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) and violent or extreme right-wing individuals sprouting conspiracy theories, including vegan chef Attila Hildmann.

[30] There were increasing concerns that the rallies were becoming a platform for far-right, and even extremist, views, and that protesters were embracing conspiracy theories, notably those of the QAnon movement originating in the United States.

[32] However, according to a study published by the Federal Agency for Civic Education in January 2021, only a small number of protesters was integrating governmental pandemic policies into the theories of QAnon or the extreme-right Reichsbürger movement, which likewise was present at several rallies.

[36] In June 2021, as Germany had overcome the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic – with daily case numbers having decreased substantially from the peak while vaccination rates were increasing – , observers considered that, while Querdenken had not run its course, it was finding it more difficult to mobilize protesters.

He said that the movement had already become active in other areas where it aimed to undermine trust in government institutions and their representatives, including Climate change denial and allegations of rigging in the 2021 German federal election scheduled for September.

[42] The ten-person limit was criticized by AfD parliamentary leader Jörg Urban as having disturbed the peace in the state, through pitting participants and police "automatically" against each other; he called for a "restitution of the freedom of assembly".

The gathering, for which the "Free Saxons" claimed responsibility, drew sharp criticism by several politicians from across the country, with Winfried Kretschmann saying, "These are methods invented by the SA.

"[42] Newly appointed interior minister Nancy Faeser called the incident an "attempt at intimidation" and vowed to take strong action against any future torch rallies of Querdenken protesters or COVID-19 deniers.

[49] On 15 December, around 140 police officers searched the homes of six suspects, five males and one female, in Dresden and a property in Heidenau, seizing weaponry including crossbows, as well as mobile phones, computers and electronic storage devices.

[50] In April 2022, police foiled a plot by a right-wing extremist group that, in order to achieve its aim of creating a "war-like" situation to topple the German government, had intended to kidnap health minister Karl Lauterbach, besides planting bombs in energy infrastructure.

[55] Some observers noted that police faced difficulties in devising containment strategies due to the unusual mixture of protesters, which on several occasions included families with children and retirees.

The purpose of the arrests had mainly been to check identities after the minimum distance requirement had not been met multiple times, and as calls by police on protesters to observe the 50-person limit for the location were not heeded.

This was overturned by the supreme administrative court of Saxony, whose decision had been based on a prospective estimate of approximately 16,000 participants, considering this to not exceed the capacity of the locality and neighbouring side streets under the physical distancing rules.

In response to the events, Saxony announced a tightening of pandemic related restrictions to come into force on 13 November, limiting the number of participants at rallies to a maximum of 1,000, subject to exceptions.

[97][98] Querdenken founder Michael Ballweg said in his speech that the movement had no place for extremism, violence, antisemitism, and inhuman ideas; several known extremists took part in the march, however.

[105] A Higher Administrative Court had overturned a prohibition by local authorities but only allowed two rallies, capped at 5,000 and 1,000 participants, to be held at adjacent locations outside the city centre, and mandated physical distancing rules and the wearing of nose-and-mouth covers.

[106] Before the rally, the Health Ministry of Baden-Württemberg had told Stuttgart authorities that the state's coronavirus regulations could be used in several ways to prohibit the large Querdenken demonstration that was anticipated; his counterpart, however, did not see these options as viable.

[116] United Nations Special Rapporteur Nils Melzer, who had been contacted with multiple videos allegedly showing excessive police violence, said on 5 August that he would ask the German federal government to make a statement regarding the incidents.

[123] On 13 September in Berlin, on occasion of the start of a week-long federal campaign for vaccination, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was verbally abused by protesters while visiting a school.

In Hamburg, an estimated 3,000 participants joined a protest against COVID-19 measures and vaccine mandates, ignoring a ban that authorities had issued on account of the high prevalence of the Omicron variant in the city, and which had been upheld in a court appeal.

[134] In response to a parliamentary request from the Left Party, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) advised in early September 2020 that extreme-right spokespersons had been present at over 90 protests against coronavirus-related restrictions since the end of April 2020.

[82] The Baden-Württemberg State Office for the Protection of the Constitution began to observe the core administrative layer of Querdenken in December 2020; at that time, Minister of the Interior Thomas Strobl justified this step with the presence of radical tendencies (fostering extremist and conspiracy-ideological narratives) within the movement.

[135] On 28 April, the BfV announced that it had placed parts of the Querdenken movement under countrywide observation in a newly created category, due to its questioning of the legitimacy of the state.

[136] In May 2020, media professor Bernhard Pörksen told the dpa press agency that labeling the protesters as "paranoids", "hysterics", or similar wholesale attacks would only antagonize them and only serve to make it more difficult to reach the important goal of cooling down the debate.

[137] An article in the Tagesspiegel from May 2020 pointed out that the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party was trying to capitalize on the protests, but that in doing so it was entering a difficult balancing act, as it did not want to be seen as overtly supporting conspiracy theorists.

[140] The advance of protesters to the German parliament building entrance at the demonstration on 29 August 2020, and the storming of the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, were seen in an opinion piece in The New York Times to have parallels, crucially a deep distrust in officials and a belief in conspiracy theories, in particular QAnon.

She said that police was falling short in fulfilling its legal requirement to protect journalists at Querdenken rallies, and that no attempts were made by the movement to exclude right-wing extremists from demonstrations.

He further said that the protesters' understanding of basic rights was directed primarily "against the fundamental idea of societal solidarity" and further against the government which they, due to being under the influence of "conspiracy legends", considered to be a fascist dictatorship.

[145][146] In a tweet posted on 1 August 2020, Saskia Esken, co-leader of the Social Democrats, referred to participants of the Berlin rally on that day as "Covidioten", the German equivalent of covidiots.