In the past months, the world seems to have changed. More than once I thought: „Wow, I could not have imagined this happening a year ago.“ Most recently: Germany’s vote in the EU elections. Some media commentators think that climate protection was the issue that made all the difference for the German vote in the […]
Tag: Germany
Reviewing Developments in Hambach Forest
Words fail to convey my happiness and joy when I learned that Hambach Forest would not be logged – for now. The court had ruled that before any logging could take place it needed to evaluate whether (1) the forest should be protected under the Fauna Flora Habitat Directive of the EU and (2) if […]
The Good News from Hambach Forest
On Sunday September 30th again thousands of protesters and supporters joined the walk in Hambach Forest. Again thousands broke away from the official demonstration route and went into the forest. Many re-errected barricades and dug ditches to make it more difficult for the machines to evict the remaining tree houses Paragraph11 and GhostTown. Possibly more […]
Hambach Forest: Lies and Nepotism
Most of the information about the currently situation in the Hambacher Forest is in German. I want to make some of the recent events accessible for the international world. To start with I summarized the incidents that astonished me most. Here we go: Deutsche Bahn Supports Coal Nepotism The national train company Deutsche Bahn that […]
Sunday Walks in Hambach Forest
During the last Sunday Walk in Hambacher Forst I saw a transformed forest and civil society. It was sunny and the activists in the tree houses were extremely happy to see hundreds of citizens who had entered the forest despite the police prohibiting it. They came with Michael Zobel’s Sunday Walks which have now become […]
Hacking Live Bullshit Interviews @ Hambi
In a live interview a reporter from Welt24 spoke about riot tourism and said that environmental organizations had called for massive civil disobedience for the weekend. Both is bullshit!! Since I happened to be in the forest, I used the opportunity to jump into the live interview, grab the microphone and correct him on the […]
Lobbying for Planet Earth at Bundestag
Power to the people! In Germany you can talk to your representatives in the Bundestag. Even as a normal citizen. With the volunteers from the citizens’ climate lobby we do exactly that: We lobby for the needs of the one whose lobby is far too small: Gaia – our planet earth. The Lobby Goal […]
Imagination – Threat to Power Elites
I felt like a character in a utopian novel when I walked through some 10 centimeters of fresh snow on my way to the Leipzig book fair. It was only five days before the start of spring! Utopias and future topics were popular for readings, book presentations and discussion rounds at this annual bookworm gathering. […]
Economy for the Good of All Beings
“All economic activity caters to the common welfare.” This phrase sounds like a utopian ideal. Too good to be true. Yet this is article 151 of the Bavarian constitution which legally took effect in 1946 (and is now obsolete in large parts due to the German Constitution). But there are economic alternatives. Last weekend some […]
How Architecture Influences Group Dynamics
Recently I have been thinking a lot about what shapes our view of the world without us really noticing it. I like to call these phenomena “invisible architectures”, referring to Jean-Francois Noubel, a researcher on the field. Here I focus on the invisible architectures that are relevant to (almost) everybody in a given society. I […]
Solidarity with Oppressed Authors
“The most powerful thing one can do for a journalist or author in prison is to make their story international. To show solidarity,” said Can Dündar during a panel discussion of Turkish authors at the Frankfurt Book Fair. “It gives imprisoned writers hope to know that their story is out there, although they are in […]
Mega Event of International Publishing Industry
The Frankfurt Book Fair is THE global gathering place for the international publishing scene. By default it is a B2B fair. But even if you are an author, translator, self-publisher, a creative mind or a simply a reader: you will find something interesting here. As an accredited blogger I had the opportunity to join the […]
Occupying Hambacher Forst
I spent two days and two nights in the Hambacher Forst, an ancient forest near Cologne that has to give way to the brown coal excavators. Forest occupiers have been living here since 2012. The community wants to save the small remains of the old and beautiful forest. They live in tree houses to make […]
Legal Reflections
Stopping Coal Infrastructure: Police-Countered Crime This year in August the Klimacamp (climate camp) took place in the Rhineland, only a bit more than one hour from the city where I grew up. One group of climate activists had proclaimed that – besides many legal actions – some of them would enter the open-cast brown coal […]
Climate Activism & Police Violence
The Klimacamp Rheinland (climate camp Rhine Land) is a 10-day open camp organized by different groups of climate activism. Thousands of mostly young people gather for education, political action and experimenting with new low-carbon-emitting forms of living. The Klimacamp takes place close to Europe’s largest brown coal surface mines in the Rhineland, North-West of Cologne. Even […]
Back to Germany: Old Country – New Perspective
In the first days and weeks I looked at sceneries I have passed by millions of times and I am awestruck with their beauty as if I perceived them for the very first time. For example when I studied in Mainz I often took the train through the Rhine Valley towards Cologne. Returning from Frankfurt […]
Permaculture Design Course in „Zukunft“
I was back to the Future. “Zukunft” (future) is the nick name of the community “Wir bauen Zukunft” where I recently completed my 100 hours Permaculture Design Course. I was here last August for the first summer work camp and couldn’t wait to come back. It’s a lovely place of wild nature, rare plants and […]
One Day in the Nieklitz Summer Camp
In August, the project “Wir bauen Zukunft” in Northern German Nieklitz invited for a summer work camp. For two weeks, volunteers helped in the 10 hectares biotope, planting, tidying, constructing, repairing… The camp was organized in an open space format. In the morning, after a hearty breakfast in the outdoor kitchen and dining area, the […]
Gathering of the Rainbow Family in Bavaria
I did it! I went to a gathering of the Rainbow Gathering! For over a year I had been looking for opportunities to join one of these “family reunions”. Now it became true. Getting to the secret spot only vaguely communicated through offline channels was easier than I thought. Friends in Munich knew a friend […]
Working with a Smile: Summer Work Camp in Nieklitz
I felt like I entered into the enchanted remains of a long forgotten world when I opened the great wooden gates of the biotope park in Nieklitz, 70 km east of Hamburg in Northern Germany. Behind those gates, nature had reclaimed its space in the past three years without any touch of a human hand. […]
Video interview with Ceylan, co-founder of “Wir bauen Zukunft” in Nieklitz
Ceylan Rohrbeck, co-founder of “Wir bauen Zukunft” (we build future) gives insights into this new project in Northern-Germany. The group will not only construct sustainable buildings but use the former biotope as a place for co-working, co-living and as an educational center. In German. (English subtitle will follow)