Antifa demands release of members facing trial, starts street fires in massive Germany riot

According to Zeit Online, as many as 4,000 protesters were in attendance, with most wearing black bloc and carrying umbrellas or signs.

As the group marched across the city to what Zeit calls the "left-wing alternative neighborhood" of Connewitz, the Antifa activists deployed numerous pyrotechnics, with the outlet saying that the demonstration was "relatively calm" until later in the afternoon, where the group began their destructive actions.

The demonstration, called "Wir sind alle Antifaschist:innen - Wir sind alle LinX" (We are all anti-fascists - We are all LinX) was in support of student Lina E. and three co-defendants currently facing trial in the Dresden Higher Regional Court.

Federal Prosecutor General's Office accuses the four of carrying out brutal attacks against numerous people, including right-wing protestors.

"With the start of the trial in the Antifa East proceedings and shortly before the Bundestag elections, we will take anti-fascist solidarity to the streets and finally make the entanglements between Nazis and German security authorities the scandal it actually is," said spokeswoman for the alliance, according to Zeit.

One demands "the denazification of the German security authorities, the dissolution of the Soko Linx and freedom for all anti-fascists." Everyone who "see's themselves as anti-fascists - whether candlelight, sit-in or militant self-protection," was welcome at the far-left event.

There were reportedly around 1,000 officers there, with officers coming from Saxony, other federal states, and the federal police. A helicopter reportedly kept watch of the event from overhead, with water cannons and armor ready for use.

The group reportedly held a banner that threatened the head of Soko Linx, an investigative commission of the Saxon State Criminal Police Office, which said: "Dirk Münster, soon your dream will be over, then you'll be in the trunk."

As the evening wore on, Antifa began to carry out attacks on banks and police stations, as well as police officers. Cobblestones and bottles were thrown into buildings and officers, and barricades were set on fire.

A Leipzig Left member of the state parliament, Juliane Nagel issued a statement supporting the officers, while condemning the violence at the event. "The police operation was super de-escalating," she said. "People's anger is also justified, they're just letting it out here. They're pissed off at right-wing entanglements in police agencies, however the means that's being used here right now is wrong."