German police under strain from coronavirus protests

German police union GdP fears officers face psychological damage from being deployed repeatedly to protests against coronavirus measures, reported dpa.

"The many coronavirus protests are putting a huge strain on our forces," union chief Oliver Malchow said in comments published by Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) on Wednesday.

Police on duty will go from one deployment to the next, often even in the next state over.

Because the protest marches involve increasingly violent encounters with high levels of aggression against police officers, the deployments are extremely stressful, Malchow said.

"The leaders are working hard to reduce stress on their staff but it is becoming increasingly difficult," he said.

Malchow had already said in an interview a day earlier that the frequent demonstrations were causing police to neglect other work, for example traffic monitoring.

Manuel Ostermann, the deputy chairman of the DPoIG police union, cited staff shortages from cuts as the main reason for the problems.

"This is now hitting us in all areas, including with coronavirus measures," he said in comments published by tabloid Bild Wednesday.

Tens of thousands of people in German cities took to the streets in recent days to protest coronavirus measures, particularly in the country's east.

The city of Munich has explicitly banned unregistered coronavirus "walks" for this Wednesday and Thursday after previous instances of such gatherings developing into protests.

Authorities said the aim of the ban is to prevent demonstrations forming where protesters, some of whom are prepared to use violence, are not wearing face face masks or maintaining minimum distances from each other.

Participants in unauthorized coronavirus demonstrations face fines of up to 3,000 euros.