Time for the second part of the 42 days in Berlin’s Invalidenpark.
After beautiful 36 hours of break, I took over the responsibility of the Camp on Saturday. Actually, the break wasn’t as much of a full break as planned, because Malte died. Malte was a brave man opposing an homophobic aggression against two people peacefully attending the Pride march in Münster. Malte confronted the oppressors and was beat into coma for that. After a couple of days, he then died due to his injuries, on the Friday, my day off. So, instead of spending a full day in bed, I left the house in the late evening to go to Alexanderplatz and participate in the ceremony there, honouring Maltes braveness. I met two friends there and we had a very sad, but very powerful night there, with all the other people attending the ceremony. Rest in Power, Malte.
Back to Mobility Change Camp. Something to add to the last post: Just before OKNB took over, two beautiful pieces of art emerged in the camp:
The two weeks following were extremely unspectacular. Of course, nobody from the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (Bundesministerium für Digitales und Verkehr, BMDV) ever came to us to speak with us. However, we started hanging out with some kids from school, who were visiting us the first Thursday after OKNB with their teacher to discuss the matter of the Climate Crisis. As a class coming from a part in Berlin which is structurally quite far from education, nobody really knew much about it. So we were forced to discuss the quite abstract matter in simple terms. What a nice learning experience for us! Apparently, we didn’t do too bad, as we met for another two weeks on Thursday with some of them, and the “Climate Justice Crew” (CJC) emerged from it (check them out on TikTok and Insta: @climatejusticecrew, and Twitter: @c_j_crew). Here is a picture of some of them at our “Mobility Change Car” (will be talked about later):
Another think worth mentioning is the involvement of the Respect Cyclists crew, especially Jörg, the head of the crew. Jörg spent plenty time with us and also made one of his protest tours end in our camp. That was nice. 🙂
Then, after almost another two weeks, Extinction Rebellion (XR) took over the camp. Mostly officially, because they were the structure supporting the camp the most from the beginning, structurally as well as personally. What a pleasant experience with XR it was!
We stayed for another week with them, but without responsibilities, before FFF finished the spectacular time with their giant climate strike on 23.10.2022. I don’t want to talk too much about the XR Fall Rebellion or the FFF Climate Strike (which both were super cool), but here is a picture of our core crew (or almost, as Mary is missing) at our car: Chi, me, Ella, Micha, and Nils (from left to right).
Leaving the Invalidenpark on day 42 was a feeling of relief. It really started getting cold (the last days I didn’t sleep outside anymore, but moved in with the artists of the artwork presented above) and I was really looking forward to move on. Over the longest parts, the camp was mostly a pain. I think it was extremely important, but the plant bodies of the seeds we planted are not yet visible. And it was nice to see (also painful, but also nice) what a hole we left. So, I can certainly say, we made a difference.
So much for now. The car has a story on itself, but the story isn’t finished yet, so I’ll talk about it another time – prepare for Pt. 3.