I'm moving to Germany!

Story By Alexandra Hudson
REUTERS
7:05 a.m. February 23, 2005

MAINZ, Germany – Some 7,000 protesters, some carrying banners saying "Bush go home," "War Monger" and "No. 1 Terrorist," marched through the German town of Mainz on Wednesday but were kept away from the visiting U.S. president.

The largely peaceful rally never got within a kilometre (half mile) of U.S. President George W. Bush, who is on his first German visit since the 2003 Iraq war, which was deeply unpopular in Germany. "I'm disgusted by the war in Iraq Bush started that has cost thousands of civilian lives," said Thomas Odenweller, 49, a computer technician. "Now he's trying to normalise relations with Europe. It must be stopped."

Ignoring snow and freezing temperatures, the demonstrators held banners chastising Bush in English with slogans such as: "You can bomb the world to pieces but not into peace." Many had pre-printed posters reading: "Bush, No. 1 Terrorist."

Before the march, one speaker told the crowd: "Mr. Bush, please leave our country. You started an illegal war against Iraq."

German police confiscated one poster that read: "We had our Hitler, now you have yours."

Some protesters praised Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder for his opposition to the Iraq war and refusal to send troops.

"Schroeder's opposition to the Iraq war made me so proud to be German," said Helmut Bach, 50, a pilot who marched with his 20-year-old daughter. "That's why I voted for him."
Several protesters wearing fake U.S. army uniforms pulled a trailer with dummies of blood-covered Iraq prisoners impaled on iron bars under a banner: "We don't want your type of freedom."

A force of 10,000 police officers staged one of the biggest postwar security operations. Frogmen searched the Rhine for explosives, 1,300 manhole covers were welded shut and thousands of residents were displaced.

For Bush's 8-hour stay there was also a strict ban on air traffic within a 60-km (40-mile) radius of Mainz, barges on the river were halted and motorways in the region closed. Factories, businesses and schools were shut.

Alex Berg, 31, a dancer, and his friends were dressed as cows and carried a poster reading: "We don't need no cowboys."

Bush's visit contrasted with that of his father to Mainz in 1989 when large crowds cheered Bush senior for his calls for the Berlin Wall to be torn down.

Other U.S. presidents have also been given a hero's welcome in Germany.
"When John F. Kennedy came to Germany he drove through cheering crowds," said Mark Reichelt, 20, a student. "Now Bush is here and will drive through empty streets."