Does a video on social media showing garbage scattered across Frankfurt's Old Town in Germany accurately attribute the trash to "the consequences of mass immigration"? No, that's not true: The claim on social media misled about the cause of the scene. In reality, the footage showed litter and debris left by soccer fans who arrived in the city to watch one of the Euro 2024 matches.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly known as Twitter, where it was published on June 24, 2024. It opened:
Not sure how long Frankfurt will survive the consequences of mass immigration.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Jun 25 17:59:16 2024 UTC)
The footage showing the recognizable Römer building complex (archived here) in the background, which has been the seat of the city's administration for centuries, portrays one of Frankfurt's squares in Old Town. The video was shot roughly from this spot seen on Google Maps (archived here).
Only four days before the post in question was published, tens of thousands of people arrived in Frankfurt to watch the Euro 2024 game between England and Denmark (archived here). As reported by the Guardian (archived here), the square seen in the video -- and the Fountain of Justice (archived here) in front of the Römer building complex in particular -- became a scene of soccer fans' mass gathering coupled with drinking beer and jumping into the water.
On the next day, June 21, 2024, a German local news website, Hessenschau, published a photo of the aftermath (archived here) featuring flags, plastic, glass and various types of litter left on the ground there.
On June 24, 2024, when the post that is the focus of this fact check was published, a longer version of the same footage (archived here) appeared on YouTube under the title:
Multiple social media accounts on TikTok (archived here), X (archived here) published videos and photos capturing the garbage at the square with the captions referring to soccer.
Some even shamed (archived here) those who republished the video and photo materials under factually incorrect captions linking the litter to immigrants.
Other Lead Stories fact checks about sports can be found here. Stories about Europe are here.
