Organisers said up to 20,000 young people gathered before Berlin's Brandenburg Gate (the city's landmark monument) on Friday for a concert-rally against Chancellor Friedrich Merz's government's push to reintroduce conscription and expand military spending, though police counted only about 3,000 at one point. Speakers and bands criticised both rearmament and social spending cuts, and voiced solidarity with student protests in France. It may be the largest single protest against conscription so far in Germany, where the debate over compulsory service has increasingly mobilised school-age and young adult activists; more demonstrations were planned for Saturday in Berlin and Stuttgart.