If Wednesday night and Thursday are to be filled with the rowdy protests many expect to greet President George W. Bush’s Berlin visit, Wednesday must have been the quiet before the storm.

High temperatures and sunshine had a relatively calming effect on the thousands of protestors gathered in Berlin’s historic Mitte district. Hours before Air Force One was scheduled to touch down at Berlin Tegel airport, demonstrators spent their time listening to live concerts, shouting the occasional slogan and making sure their anti-Bush stances didn’t get confused with anti-Americanism.

"We’re not against the American people, we’re against Bush," student Nils Boehlke, 23, part of a leftist group calling themselves Linksruck told DW-WORLD. "We don’t think he’s representing them right."

His group is one of some 240 that have latched onto the "Axis of Peace" protests in Berlin in anticipation of Bush’s visit. Though the American president will spend less than 20 hours in Germany, organizers have put together three days worth of protests that began on Tuesday.

Tight security measures

German government officials have made sure Bush never sets eyes on the transparencies and effigies depicting him in a less than favorable light. They have put Berlin’s government district into a virtual quarantine, barricading the streets along which his motorcade will travel and forcing the closure of more than a few shops during his short visit.

More than 10,000 police officers, the largest postwar deployment for a state guest, will keep watch and monitor the protests.

Organizers hope they don’t have much to do. Demonstrators say they want to send a peaceful message both to the Bush administration and the German government, which has hesitated in supporting military action against Iraq.

"Solidarity after the attacks, yes," said Fabian Scheidler, 33, of the globalization critical group Attac "But at the same time, it doesn’t mean we do everything they tell us to. Europeans need to be allowed to have their own view without being labeled anti-American."

An American in Berlin

It is something Sarah Patterson and Katherine Whiry have come to understand. The two Americans have been living in Berlin since the Fall – Whiry as a Berlin university student and Patterson as a photographer.

In the months following the Sept. 11 attacks, the two told DW-WORLD they have come to appreciate the critical solidarity Germans have been showing their home country.

"I think it’s more anti what American represents," said Patterson, 18, as she sat in the shade across from the massive Berlin Cathedral. "For them, it’s big business, capitalism, the war on terrorism. If that’s what they’re against, I have no problem with it."

Both said they appreciate the freedom with which people in Germany criticize Bush’s policies.

"I feel like it’s good to actually say something," said Whiry, 21 who will return to the University of Maine after her exchange program ends in August. "In the US, there’s a sense you shouldn’t say anything bad about Bush because it’s wartime ... what we’re experiencing here is more eye-opening."