“Eyesore is really the most common term that I hear as criticism,” says Janika Pondorf. The 17-year-old sits at the round table in the Augsburg climate camp. Despite the cold weather, without a hat, without a scarf and her pants end well above the ankles. But for the high school student this is not the first winter here next to the Augsburg town hall. She doesn’t think the camp is nice. Three tents, some of them very provisional, blue plastic tarpaulin, everything in the truest sense of the word crooked and quite chaotic. “We would like to make it nicer,” says Pondorf, but they have conditions.
And besides, they would have to keep moving. A fire brigade access here, the renovation of the Perlach tower there, bike racks had to be built and now the toilets of the Christkindlmarkt are coming. The activists then pull the tents a few meters forward towards the market square and the toilets come behind them. It won’t be nice for anyone involved: When the visitors have to walk through the camp from the mulled wine stand to empty their bladders. But there is no other way, the sewer connections are where they are. Whether the Christmas market can take place at all is in the stars in view of the number of infections, but they will move anyway.
Since Janika Pondorf and her colleagues moved next to the town hall on July 1, 2020, there has been at least a tense relationship between the city and the activists. After a few days, Lord Mayor Eva Weber (CSU) stood in front of the activists and is said to have said: “You are out of here by 6 p.m., otherwise it will be ugly,” at least that’s how someone wants to remember. The green mayor Martina Wild stood right next to it. However, the eviction notice was overturned by the Augsburg administrative court. The administration appealed. The trial is still pending.
In Nuremberg, where the climate camp is similarly prominent on Sebalder Platz, people were more relaxed at the beginning: “Our city lawyers said that the camp had a pretty good legal basis,” said a city spokesman at the beginning of the camp. In the meantime, however, the tone has also become rougher and the scenery has become less peaceful, and that is due to the Christkindlesmarkt, of all things, which, one would think, actually stands for peace on earth. The city declares that it needs the Sebalder Platz for rescue workers, and that it must be cleared “no later than the day before the market begins”. Even in court, the city and climate campers have already dueled; it was about whether the activists store food in the camp, have a refrigerator and kettle in operation and are allowed to repair bicycles in this place, which is not irrelevant for tourists.
That wasn’t a problem for a long time. Now one struggled in court, the activists got the short straw, but now want to forego a second instance – contrary to what was initially planned. “A bit of Christmas peace, so to speak,” says activist spokesman Markus Feuerlein.
In Augsburg, the authorities are having a hard time with the activists
In Augsburg, the mayor explained to the appointment procedure that it was about fundamental issues relating to the right of assembly. How long can meetings last? They want to prevent others, such as right-wing groups, from camping anywhere. Apart from the fact that right-wing groups have not yet tried that, Janika Pondorf explains that she will then be the first to set up the protest camp. At the table in the camp, where people come and go, they signal approval.
According to regulatory officer Frank Pintsch (CSU), there is largely a good dialogue with the activists. And fire protection has to be guaranteed and bike racks have to be built. That is also a concern of the activists. In any case, they are “committed to an important topic, that is clear to us”. But he is already perceiving “anti-democratic impulses”. After all, there are elected majorities, besides, politics is a negotiation process and anyway you can only do so much as a municipality.
It is clear that the activists are not tying their demands to administrative boundaries, but many of their demands could be implemented. To examine more potential locations for wind turbines or, above all, to use wood in urban construction projects.
Green group leader Peter Rauscher already knows what Pintsch means by “anti-democratic impulses”. “The climate camp is very diverse, there are also leftists who tend to struggle with our system.” But that is part of social protest movements and that doesn’t change anything in the activists’ concerns. In addition: “Even if it does not fit our ideas, we advocate the right of assembly.” The Greens do not go along with the appeal.
Compromise to the climate camp: Shortly before the start of the Nuremberg Christkindlesmarkt, the activists want to move to a parking lot next to the town hall – temporarily.
(Photo: Olaf Przybilla)
Zoff has long since become a political issue in Nuremberg as well. Ever since the CSU issued a statement that the activists’ request was “fully communicated”, the climate campers felt themselves covered with “harassment” by the city. In between there was even a sticker at the board entrance of the camp with the words FCK CSU – which should not have been an indication that they are sticking with 1. FC Kaiserslautern in the camp. After all, on the 432nd day of the climate camp, a compromise has evidently been reached regarding the location of the camp: shortly before the start of the Christmas market, the activists want to move to a parking lot next to the town hall – but right after the market back again on the Sebalder Platz. However, there is still “residual hope” that the Christkindlesmarkt will be canceled in view of rising incidences, says Feuerlein.
In Augsburg, Janika Pondorf sees the lawsuit as relaxed. “We have always been right so far, why should that change now. But of course: We are just annoying.” And be prepared for the winter. “We have gotten stronger,” she explains. She spends the night at the camp once a week, because to represent a meeting, the camp must be manned by two people 24 hours a day. The number of regular participants at the camp has doubled since the beginning: “Our shift schedule is well filled.”