200,000 . . . or 20,000? Obama’s Crowd in Berlin
John Rosenthal 25 Jul 2008
WPR Blog
“Obama Addresses 200,000 in Berlin” — thus ran the AP headline the day after Barack Obama’s much-hyped speech in front of Berlin’s Siegessäule or “Victory Column.” This 200,000 figure has quickly become the standard estimate of the crowd for Obama’s speech in both the American and the German media: so standard indeed that it is for the most part not even treated as an estimate.
The estimates given by German public television ZDF actually during the event, however, were as little as one-tenth of that number. ZDF began its special “Obama in Berlin” coverage [German video] at 6:45 p.m. Central European Time: only 15 minutes before the candidate’s speech was scheduled to start. At the time, ZDF reporter Susanne Gelhard was out and about on the so-called “Fan Mile” between the Victory Column and the Brandenburg Gate. “The expectations were highly varied,” she said in her live report, “from a few thousand up to a million. Those were the estimates. But, now, several tens of thousands have turned out.” Barely five minutes before the speech was supposed to start, ZDF Berlin studio chief Peter Frey added, “We do estimate that 20,000 [literally, “a couple of ten thousand”] people have turned out.” Frey’s tone, like that of Gelhard, reflected the gap between the relatively modest number cited and the lofty predictions that had preceded the event. Moreover, while the ZDF live images showed that the “Fan Mile” was indeed populated from one end to the other, they also appeared to reveal patches of thinness and pedestrian traffic flowing easily on the half of the boulevard closer to the Brandenburg Gate (i.e. furthest from the “Victory Column”).
And then: the candidate did not appear at the appointed time. Could his handlers have been disappointed by the turnout? Did they hope to buy time for more spectators to arrive? At this point, ZDF interrupted its special coverage and broke for the nightly news. When the coverage resumed some fifteen minutes later, ZDF host Claus Kleber promptly declared that there were “one hundred thousand” people on the Fan Mile. He then repeated the claim twice more in rapid succession — now, more precisely, “over one hundred thousand people” — as if repetition could somehow cover up the glaring discrepancy between this number and the number cited by his colleague Frey only 20 minutes earlier.
Minutes later, Obama was on stage. And a half hour after that, he was gone again. By 8 p.m. — as the crowd filed out, obediently following the order to disperse given over the loud-speaker system — the number being cited had grown to fully 200,000. As this German timeline indicates, the original source for the rapidly growing estimates was in fact the rally organizers: i.e. the Obama team. The 200,000 figure would also be attributed to the Berlin police — which might represent the first time in modern history that the police and the organizers of a political rally agreed on their estimates of crowd size.
As the Berlin-based writer Christian J. Heinrich notes: “During the big anti-Bush demonstration after the fall of Baghdad, there were 250,000 people. And it looked totally different from yesterday. Then, you couldn’t move all the way from the Brandenburg Gate to the Technical University [on the western side of Tiergarten park, another kilometer beyond the Siegessäule].”
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Just like the “hundreds of thousands” of pro-Sadr demonstrators that the AP used to claim were in Iraq.
July 26th, 2008 at 10:03 amThe media is doing everything it can to polish this turd…as usual it doesn’t pass the sniff test.
July 26th, 2008 at 10:19 am20,000
100,000
250,000
57
Ahn, who’s counting?
July 26th, 2008 at 10:34 amLet’s also not forget, that two of Germany’s most popular bands played prior to the Osama speech.
How many people came for the bands and just happened to stay for Osama.
That man is 100% certified smoke and mirrors phony.
July 26th, 2008 at 10:45 amYeah, when people have no basis for truth, they follow every wind of doctrine and every false prophet. The sheep will follow the Pied Piper of Dhimnitude right over the cliff.
So what. In America, we still fight…and we ain’t giving up until the fat lady sings.
July 26th, 2008 at 10:47 amGermany doesnt vote in our elections.Its like that dumb ass KIDS FOR KERRY BULLSHIT.KIDS CANT VOTE.Just say your the ANTI CHRIST and get on with it.FUCK STICK DUMBO
July 26th, 2008 at 11:19 amThere are experts who can estimate the size of a crowd by looking at a pic. Also, I heard they had free beer and two popular bands playing right before he spoke. Ugh, free beer? In America, you’d get a crowd of 500,000. Free concert? Maybe another 200,000 more!
July 26th, 2008 at 11:29 amThe same guy who counted at the million man march, I mean 100,000 man march, is now counting for Husein.
July 26th, 2008 at 12:08 pmwhat difference does it make how many people turned out?
One way or the other?
First of all. they’re not Americans.
second, and more importantly;
Who gives a shit what hundreds of thousands of other people think?
They have their own reasons for liking Obama, that should have zero impact on your views one way or the other.
July 26th, 2008 at 12:42 pm200K??
July 26th, 2008 at 1:36 pmhell, the germans turn out more than that for david hasselhof.