Love Parade - people walk over dead bodies

The events at the Love Parade in Duisburg hit me hard. 19 young people who are no longer alive. Hundreds injured.

I was already very interested in this event when it was still taking place in Berlin. Nobody knows the exact figures, but it was said that around a third of all participants took Ectasy and other drugs - many for the first time. Love Parade as a drug gateway. Not to mention the "soft", liquid, alcoholic drugs.

I'll never forget the pictures I once took late at night walking along the Love Parade "festival mile" in Berlin. There were couples lying on top of each other on the pavement and sleeping together (or close to it - I didn't look that closely). On crushed plastic cups, next to rubbish bins. A few metres away and at the stations, paramedics were treating people who had collapsed. Due to lack of water, alcohol, drugs...or all of the above.

Trying out what works - young people want to test and push boundaries. That's part of being young. Those responsible have the task of drawing protective boundaries here. But this has hardly happened in the past. The fact that people take drugs at the Love Parade (often for the first time) and suffer damage to their health has always been condoned by the organisers and those politically responsible. The financial benefits and image were obviously more important than protecting young people - including from themselves. The fact that there were now also deaths was - in addition to obvious planning errors - only the consequence of an attitude that forgoes the protection of others for the sake of its own advantage.

I cried when I read about what happened. I grieve for the people who can no longer live their lives and the families and friends who have lost a loved one.

I am deeply saddened by what has happened. But I wasn't surprised.