60 years after the prohibition and criminalization of hemp, the initiators of the Hanfparade stated "THAT´S ENOUGH!" and founded the "Hanfparade Association" in February of 1997. It is the associations' aim to mobilize the public and to fight for the legalization of hemp. With our work we try to enforce the legalization of hemp as natural resource, medical drug and stimulant.

As a first step on this way the assocation organized the first Hanfparade on the 23th of August 1997.

With this top-event of the international hemp scene the organizers supported the political demand "Legalization now!" and the ecological appeal "With hemp into the future". They have also shown the cultural variety of the hemp movement. .

This took place in front of the Brandenburger Tor in a way that could not be more imaginative or varied.

On two stages artist, politicians and hemp lobbyists shaked hands. The musical main events were the appearances of the famous german bands J.B.O. and Blind Passengers and the british formation SAXON. From the very beginning on, there was a "childrens' corner" with toys, clowns, make up, Punch and Judy show, and many more attractions for parents and their kids.

Many traders on the "market of possibilities" offered hemp food and a lot of information. The supply included hemp bakers, brewers of hemp beer, hemp muesli producers, hemp cola, and hemp tofu food. Head and grow shops from all over Germany used the chance to offer their products on the "market of possibilities".

The interested public had the chance to get informed about the various possibilities of usage the hemp plant offers in a special information tent. Legalize organisations and Cannabis self- help groups took the opportunity to present their work to the public. For more see the Archive 1997.

The unbelievable response by the parade visitors unfortunately was not shared by the Berlin city government. In the next year the expected trouble with the conservative government began... See the archive of the Hanfparade1998 for further details.

The mayor of Berlin at the time, Eberhard Diepgen (CDU, Christian Democratic Union), prohibited any kind of "commercial events" close to the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate). At the same time, the Police President declared the final rally of the Hanfparade to be commercial because goods were sold on the event.

As the Market of Possibilities is an important part of the final rally, and it is one of the few possibilities for us as a non-profit association to raise funds, the aim was clear. It was intended to financially ruin the organizers and make it impossible for the Hanfparade to continue in the next year. Luckily this could be prevented in the last minute by a high court express decision.

And so, on August, 29 of 1998, again people of all kinds gathered for the Hanfparade in Berlin. The participants came from all over Europe to make their statement in favor for legalization. Headed by several trucks thousands of hempsters moved from the Alexanderplatz to the Brandenburger Tor to join the final rally.

In 1998 again a wide coalition of political parties, organizations, self-help-groups, and legalization-associations, producers and trades of the hemp business gathered for the Hanfparade.

The Green Party and the PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism) even participated with a truck and sent - like in the year before - their best speakers: Christian Ströbele (Greens) and Freke Over (PDS).

Considering that at this time still many people believe that Marijuana and hashish are substances causing strong addiction just at the same level as crack, cocaine or heroine, it was no surprise the police and local authorities tried to scale down this big and very political demonstration. Even members of the police counted 10.000 - 20.000 participants. In the media much smaller numbers were presented. For example the well known Tagesspiegel reported about only 2.000 demonstrants.

No one needs to have clairvoyant talents to know that, if bands like "Zion Train", "Fünf Sterne Deluxe", "Mutabor", and many more, are playing for free, alone about 2000 people would come to see them. But the music program was not the only reason to visit the Hanfparade. After all the main reason to come was the political message every single one of the demonstrants transported by showing up and being a part of the Hanfparade.

In spite of the numeric success of the last years Hanf Parade and a lot of help from the basis, the association maneuvered into financial problems. It hasn't been managed to pay first year's debts with the advantage of the second year. At least, in 1998, the event was almost able to finance itself. But the debts stayed. For a while it looked like the association had become a bankrupt and the Hanfparade had to die. With even more effort, numerous phone calls, faxes and letters, the organizers found a possibility to "save" the Hanfparade 1999.

As everybody knows, the best way to get out of difficult times is solidarity. Maybe this is why there were more visitors on this year's Hanfparade than ever. Ten thousands of hemp-enthusiasts from all over Europe came to Berlin and once again set an indication for the legalization of hemp as a natural resource, medical drug and stimulant. After all it had to be traveled "with hemp into future" - that was the motto. By the way, all youth organizations of German politic parties, except for the "Junge Union" (youth organization of the CDU), joined that motto.

Thanks to the creative and imaginative support from the hemp-lobby and in spite of the small budget the Hanfparade 1999 was able to convince the visitors by a varied and diversified program. Unfortunately last year's giant main stage had to be abandoned in 1999. Fortunately this had the effect that the association managed to acquit their outstanding debts.

In 2000 the organizers intensified their efforts to make the Hanfparade part of the international hemp scene. So the slogan "Legalize it globally! Hanfparade 2000 - Zeig Dich!" came up. The second part of the slogan originated from a campaign started by teh hemp magazine "grow!" called "Zeig Dich!" ("show yourself"), which animated all friends of the green herb to report themselves to the police. The aim was to collect about 100.000 reports to give them to the police at once. It was intended to paralyze the justicial system this way and to force the reformation of the legal framework.

On August 19th, tens of thousands (who knows exactly how many tens of thousands...) moved with the Hanfparade from the Alexanderplatz to the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate), where the final rally began at 4 p.m. It was planned to continue until 10 p.m. ...

...But then everything came different...

When the Reggae band "Cashma Hoody" played their song "Legalize it globally!", which was composed esclusively for the Hanfparade, thick clouds came up over the city and minutes later - around 7 p.m. - it began to storm and to rain heavily. Just when the band finished the song, hailstones big like golf balls came down on the surprised audience.

Still, this could not lower the good atmosphere as the people gathered under all kinds of rain shelters. Through the close contact many intersting and very funny discussions arose, there was a lot to see, and the participants showed that it is possible to have a lot of fun with very wet clothes... After about 30 minutes of storm and hailing it continued to rain heavily. Many bands could not finish their program bcause the main stage was flooded. The gigs of DJ Tanith and the czech band Hypnotix had to be cancelled.

One year later the parade met in Kreuzberg. The HANFPARADE2001 started with the motto "Kein Krieg gegen Pflanzen" at "Hallesches Tor" and went through the city east to "Platz vor dem Roten Rathaus".

During the parade there were interim-manifestations (Zwischenkundgebungen) in front of the main office of the SPD (social democrat party) and the Ministry of foreign affairs. During the demonstration on this September 1st, the political character of the organization ought to be emphasized in a stronger way.

The main manifestation was a very international event again.

Additional to European speakers from the Netherlands, Switzerland, England, Poland and Austria there even spoke hemp-activists from Australia and the USA. As a representative of the Organization "Cures not wars" Dana Beal came all the way from New York to speak about the international (hemp) associations.

His topic was the international Million Marijuana March, which is globally connected and coordinated and takes part every year.

Once again the friends of hemp-related music got their money worth, too. Artists as "Sofa Surfers", "Spezializtz feat. Curse", "Götz Widmann" (Ex Joint Venture) and "Rockers HiFi" inspired thousands of visitors to dance.

The HANFPARADE2002 was intended to offer a lot of new aspects to all participants and therefore it started at the "new center of Berlin", the newly opened area of the Potsdamer Platz. From there we moved to the Breitscheidplatz, whre the final rally was arranged around the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church. On the way to there, an interim manifestation was held in front of the main office of the CDU (Christian Democratic Union), where Christian Ströbele (Green Party) demanded the release of the decoration hemp plants which had been confiscated by the police before.

"Gebt das Hanf frei!" - "Release the hemp!" or "Free Hemp!". This sentence was the origin for our slogan in the following year and caused a lot of media interest. Stefan Raab, a well-known german tv-moderator, sampled the statement and together with Shaggy he produced a top ten hit in 2003.

But on August 31st of 2002 nobody could know that, yet...

The demonstration stopped for the interim-manifestation in front of the CDU main office and the Ministry of foreign affairs to emphasize our political claims.

We stayed political when we arrived at the memorial church, and bands like "Ganjaman", "Dubtari" and "Letzte Instanz" contributed their opinion. Many speakers of various organizations and political parties took the opportunity to present their view.

On August 23rd of 2003 the Hanfparade started in front of the Ministry of Finance and moved to the Kurfürstendamm and memorial church. With the slogan "Free hemp!" a big party rocked the streets until late at night.

Many well-known people of the hemp-scene contributed again this year. Rainer Nowotny, a industrial hemp processor, Werner Graf of the Hanfjournal, and many more hempsters from Switzerland and the Netherlands participated and made the Hanfparade 2003 the biggest and most interesting pro-hemp event in Germany.

The political highlight surely were the speeches of Christian Ströbele (Green Party) and Jan van der Tas (former ambassador of the Netherlands).

The musical range was wide again and bands like Les Babbacools, Schwarz auf Weiß, Götz Widmann, Kamikaze 52, MC Rene and the Skunk Allstars rocked the main stage. The alternative stage was a great opportunity for new bands to present themselves to a bigger audience and to show their potential.

The Hanfparade2004 was on August, 14th of 2004. It followed the slogan "Get Wise - Legalize! Drogenfahnder zu Kleingärtnern!"

After the opening speeches at the Rotes Rathaus 3000 hemp friends walked to the Chinese Embassy. There the convoi of 13 parade trucks stopped for a short rally.

After reaching the Oranienplatz, 8000 people had a lot of fun with the final rally. On the main stage the "host", the mayor of Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain, miss Cornelia Reinauer, explained her vision of a rational drug policy.

For the first time there was a fashion show by Hanf Mode International on the main stage presenting clothes made out of hemp. This showed everybody that hemp textiles are not longer looking like potato skins.

Hanfparade2005 was on the 13th of August. It followed the slogan "Wir sind das Hanf!" (We are the hemp). Again less people then in the last year joined the parade. In 2005 only one thousend people partitipated.

Hanfparade2005 started in front of Rotes Rathaus. After the opening rally we moved together with 5 hempy trucks across Berlin and had a interimrally at the Zionskirchplatz. After this we moved on to the Mauerpark. - Read more about the route of Hanfparade2005!

At the Mauerpark a big final rally was planned. Cause the city of Berlin has vorbidden our final rally we were not allowed to enter the park. - Read more about this!