A video was also shared on September 9 by a Facebook user from Lithuania.
In the 10-second clip, judging by the architecture, a young man is standing in a square of a German city. He films the scene around – mountains of trash on the pavement – and comments in confused English: “Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like this…”
The screen also shows a phrase in English: “Uncontrolled Muslim immigration to Germany leaves marks in historic places like this in Frankfurt.”
Commentators also reacted to the video. “It’s a pity that Germany’s appearance is changing like this,” “I remember as a child, the city was perfectly clean, as was all of Germany,” they shared their opinions.
One internet user couldn’t resist irony: “Doctors and engineers arrived and brought their culture.” Another commentator from Latvia, but living in Germany, explained that the mess appeared after a party, usually it doesn’t happen like this, everything is clean.
No one paid attention to the last comment, although it explained most accurately what happened.
Also read: Do the thousands of protests in Spain really mean a civil uprising against migrants?
This year, the same clip was shared in other countries as well, for example, at the beginning of August in Bulgaria, where it received hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of reactions and comments and was actively shared. Although the latest post about immigrants does not mention them, the sentence at the very end “Well, Mrs. Merkel, you managed to turn your country into a landfill!” clearly indicates that they are blamed for the mess.
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Last January, an internet user bluntly stated on their Facebook and Instagram accounts: “The streets of the German city Frankfurt are devastated by trash and mass migration from the third world.” In June 2023, the clip was posted on TikTok and X.
Who really littered?
The date of the recent posts is the key to explaining what was actually captured in the video. At that time – for the entire month from June 14 – the UEFA European Football Championship (“Euro 2024”) was taking place in Germany. The mess in the video is related to this sporting event.
Searching by freeze frames and keywords helps find several videos that were uploaded to YouTube on June 20, 2024, showing similar scenes. The channel “The Sun Sport” even had a live broadcast.
“Cheering England fans sing and have fun in Frankfurt a few hours before the Euro 2024 match against Denmark,” “Impressive scene in Frankfurt: England and Denmark fans flooded the city before Euro 2024 matches,” “Fans gather in downtown Frankfurt before Denmark and England match” – these are the titles of these videos.
An article about the English fans’ celebrations in this big city appeared the next day on the The Northern Echo portal. It states that during the match against Denmark, thousands of England team supporters flooded the huge Frankfurt fan zone.
“Soon after noon, entering or leaving the main Römer square in the city became almost impossible due to the huge number of fans. They drank beer from cans and kicked footballs up into the sky,” the article describes.
At the end of the live broadcast recording, it is seen that after the football fans’ gathering in the square, a lot of trash was left behind. The view of the surrounding buildings confirms that this is the same place – Römerplatz (Römer Square, the heart of Frankfurt’s historic district). On some buildings next to the Hesse state and European Union flags, the England flag is also visible.
That the trash in the square was not left by Muslims is also shown by the fact-checking conducted by the Digital Forensics, Research and Analytics Centre (Digital Forensics, Research and Analytics Centre, D-FRAC).
15min verdict: false. The trash in Frankfurt’s old town square was not left by Muslim migrants. It was the aftermath of the gathering of England football fans who watched the Euro 2024 match against Denmark.
Publication prepared by 15min in cooperation with Meta, aiming to stop the spread of misleading news on social media. More about the program and its rules – here.
