(live-PR.com) - BERLIN (AP) - A McDonald's restaurant opened Friday in Berlin's Kreuzberg district, a celebrated counterculture enclave, but the only people storming it were hungry students from a neighboring vocational school.
A handful of protesters from the McWiderstand, or McResistance, group shouted «No McDonald's in Kreuzberg!» as the doors opened at 10 a.m. (0800 GMT), but there were no banners or efforts to interfere.
A bigger protest was scheduled for Sunday, protesters said. «If we had done a big action today, we only would have attracted more attention for McDonald's,» said McResistance spokesman Philipp Raschdorf.
McResistance opposes the globalized fast-food giant, favoring locally owned eateries, and argues it will tempt students at local schools to forgo healthy lunches from home or school cafeterias.
There are already 40 McDonald's restaurants in Berlin, including one a few blocks away. But opponents say this neighborhood's alternative character should be respected.
Kreuzberg, a former West Berlin district once stood in the shadow of the Berlin Wall. Over the years, it became a refuge for Turkish immigrants and for people espousing anti-globalist, anarchist and leftist views.
It has been the scene of regular May Day clashes between protesters and police _ disturbances that have calmed in recent years.
The new restaurant is guarded around the clock by a private security firm.
The local representative in the German parliament, Hans-Christian Stroebele of the environmentalist Greens party, is among the opponents. «I still think it's wrong at this location,» Stroebele said Friday.
Student Daniel Seidler, 18, disagreed. «We are all happy about it,» Seidler said. «There's McDonald's in every other neighborhood.
The neighboring school's deputy director, Roger Kutschki, said the cafeteria contractor could feel the pressure.

«He sells fries with mayo and ketchup too,» said Kutschki, who said he saw no point in confronting McDonald's on behalf of his students, who are in their late teens. «We can't tell an adult what to eat.
McDonald's Germany says the new restaurant will add to the diversity of food offerings in the area and that the average age of students at the surrounding schools is 20.4 years, making them old enough to choose their own lunches.
Spokesman Alexander Schramm said the restaurant will employ 50 people; Berlin has an unemployment rate of 15.6 percent.
McDonald's, based in Oak Brook, Illinois, had 52,000 employees and 1,276 restaurants in Germany last year, with more than 300 of them company-owned like the one in Kreuzberg.