Hamburg Pride with message of solidarity after Berlin attack

Thousands of people marched through the northern German city of Hamburg on Saturday for its annual Pride parade, one week after an Islamist terrorist attack on Berlin Pride left one woman dead and 31 people injured.

Under the slogan "Queer solidarity. Take a stand - for a future without fear!" a parade of 60 floats representing companies, associations, political parties and the Protestant Church made its way through the city centre to celebrate diversity and call for equal rights for LGBT+ people.

Organizers said they expected around 250,000 people to take part in the event, although police have not yet released an attendance estimate.

Hamburg police doubled the number of officers deployed compared with last year after overhauling their security plans following the Berlin attack.

There was a float from the Berlin CSD association - the non-profit that organizes the city's Christopher Street Day, or Pride, parade - with participants wearing dark clothing in tribute to the victims.

Christopher Street Day events commemorate the June 1969 Stonewall uprising in New York, when a police raid on the Stonewall Inn bar on Christopher Street sparked days of protests that helped launch the modern rights movement for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. CSD is often the name used for Pride in Germany.

Among those attending Hamburg's parade were Olivia Jones, a well-known personality in the city and perhaps Germany's most famous drag queen, as well several politicians from the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens, including SPD parliamentary leader Matthias Miersch.

Miersch said he hoped conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz would attend a future Pride event.

"It would be a very good signal if the chancellor came," Miersch told the Funke media group. "I think it is important that we, as political leaders, show where we stand in the current climate."

A survey by pollster Civey for the Funke media group found the Berlin attack had shaken many Germans' sense of security. Some 38% of respondents said they felt less safe than before last weekend's attack, while 54% said their sense of security was unchanged and 7% said they felt safer.

Pride events were also held on Saturday in Bonn, Amsterdam and the British seaside city of Brighton.

In Berlin, attacker Abdul B ploughed a car into a crowd attending last week's Pride celebrations before attacking further victims with a machete. The 21-year-old was shot dead by police the following evening after allegedly attacking officers.