War.
Called by the unions and supported by the Social Democratic Party, they were protesting against government plans to cut public spending and social benefits.
The rally was a climax to weeks of protests and brief strikes by public sector workers which have taken place since Chancellor Kohl announced plans for £21.7 billion of cuts in April.
The background is a familiar story across Europe: forecasts for next year predict that Germany's public spending benefit will exceed the three per cent limit set by the Maastricht Treaty. There are growing doubts as to whether Germany will be able to meet the strict criteria required to qualify for European Monetary Union.
Kohl has been careful to argue that the cuts are about making German firms competitive and cutting unemployment rather than securing Germany's place in Europe. But the two are inseparable.
Kohl has been calling for a two-year pay freeze in the public sector. However, the unions demanded a 4.5 per cent increase and it looks like they will settle for a 1.3 per cent increase. This will increase the pressure on Kohl to push through the cuts.
There are even doubts about whether the cuts proposed by Kohl are actually enough to bridge the budget deficit, given the fact that the "In England they are killing cows: in Germany they are killing the social state"; a banner at the hundreds-thousands strong march in Bonn economy is unlikely to grow by more than half a per cent this year-less than the European average. On top of the job losses that have taken place recently in major German companies, these public spending cuts look like producing the class conflict which the German capitalists have long sought to avoid by their sham of social -drawing union leaders Darmesas -into joint decision-making about jobs, pay and conditions.
The strength of the German unions could well prevent Kohl's cuts and set another example, after the French one, to workers across Europe about the real meaning of European Union and how to fight it.