Anna Panek's Gallery

GER, Berlin, Dec 6th 2008: Protest against Neonazi demonstration in Berlin, Karlshorst (photos took between 11 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.) Public (c) photos and text: anna panek, copying and/or publishing of any kind without autor´s permission is strictly prohibited. editorial use only. higher resolution available. if interested in a license, please contact directly through email. you´ll find the contact address in the user´s profile. Berlin, December 6th, 2008. Hundreds of people from Berlin, other cities of Germany (e.g. Leipzig) as well as from other countries (e.g. from Sweden) protest against a neonazi demonstration in Karlshorst/east Berlin, Germany. The day before german court has prohibited a counter demonstration. In spite of this hundreds of people found their way to the place of protests agains neonazi thinking. Eye-springing at this protest event was the fact, that the police cameras observing the place have been focussed not at the neonazi demonstration, but at the group of people protesting against it. At one of the pictures in this album you´ll see the head camera of the police forces, at the roof of a police car in the middle of a totally blocked street: it is aimed at the people who protest against the rising of brown/neonazi mind. The nazis stood at the opposite side of the street, at the back side of the camera and camera holding policeman. At eleven o´clock a.m. the streets between the s-bahn (metro) station and the place of anti-nazi-protest has been fully blocked by the german police. As a result even people who wanted to join the cultural program in karlshorsts culture house have not been let through the police blockade. In the album you'll find a shot showing policemen in action, prohibiting people to join the anti-nazi-protest. And actually, this problem looks dangerous: when even people who want to join a cultural program are not let through to the place, the exclamations of the police forces have to be looked at sharply and critically by the media: there is no excuse that the police had to avoid an "left-exterme counter-demonstration": what has been obstructed by the government-lead forces was a broad protest against nazi thinking. The people had to find their way to the cultural house in karlshorst by several tricks, risking their private and personal piece. People in the culture house, where around the counter-nazi-protests have sampled, said that this blockade between the s-bahn (metro) station and the house have started early in the morning, around 9 o'clock. There has been a cultural program organized, where several artists took part. One of them was the Artist Rainer Wieczorek (Berlin, Kreuzberg). Protesting people from Leipzig, who came with the train leaving leipzig at 8 o´clock early morning, have said that the atmosphere in the train has been strange: the train has transported a group of nazis. Policemen have been placed in the train also. Nevertheless, the train was filled with many counter-protesting persons, in spite of governments trials to decrease the counter-protest. Demonstrators have said that this police forces 'engagement' against counter-nazi-engagement does not make the impression of a real democratic situation in this country. At one of the pictures you´ll see a huge transparent, painted by the counter-protestors. It has been also visible at many sweat-shirts. It has been firstly developped for the shirsts, then the people decided to use it also for the transparent for DEC, 6th. They underline, that the city´s government cut regional multicultural meeting-projects, which of course right now can be observed in pankow, where the politician Thilo Sarrazin tries to come up to power by these shortening programs. Thilo Sarrazin was the person who gave people living from social help (around 300 euro monthly) the tip, not to complain about too low social help (while costs for germany´s armament and police forces' strenght and equipment expolde) but to learn to "eat cheaper", he went so far to make a "shopping and cooking tips book", explaining that it´s possible to live on carrots bought at ALDI. At Dec, 10th a demonstration against these shortenings programs will take place at the metro station U2, Eberswalder str., at 3:30 p.m. (information link: www.aktionsbuendnis-pankow.de). The sweatshort logo, in this album visible on the huge transparent, thematizes that actually it´s the extreme right wing who takes profit of shortages in social and multicultural sector: the neonazis have demonstrated for a "national youth center". 8 p.m.: Berlin´s radio stations report that water canons have been used by the police in later afternoon hours against anti-nazi protesting people. Several civil people injured. The nazi demonstration (around 500 nazis) had to stop before reaching the end of their registrated demonstration route. Reporters counted over 1500 counter-demonstrators. ---- active information links: 1.) find detailed information at http://www.antifa-dezember.de.vu 2.) contact berliner vereinigung der verfolgten des naziregimes: http://berlin.vvn-bda.org 3) contact antifaschistisches bündnis süd-ost: abso-berlin.tk 4.) karlshorster initiative gegen rechts: licht-blicke.org - email: initiative-karlshorst@web.de 5.) ReachOut: beratungsstelle für opfer rechter, rassistischer und antisemitischer gewalt: info@reachoutberlin.de 6.) MBR: mobile beratung gegen rechtsextremismus: www.mbr-berlin.de 7.) culture house karlshorst: http://www.kulturhaus-karlshorst.info/ 8.) music platform for bands who involve themselves for the alliance "colorful instead of brown" (BUNT statt BRAUN): http://bands-fuer-bunt.de/ (STRG+COPY THE LINKS IN ORDER TO REACH THIS SITES)