IAA: A look into the protest camp – atmosphere different than neighbors feared – Munich

What’s going on there? Climate activists thank the regulatory authorities. A left-wing city councilor praises the police. And neighbors are thrilled with the young people who have settled in their park. It’s the week of the IAA in Munich, the mobility transition camp is taking place in Schwabing, and Luitpoldpark is becoming a place of compliments. Wrong world? Or is this simply the world of the next generation? In any case, it is a world in which climate activists do not want to leave unchallenged what they consider to be a disaster, the unchecked continued business as usual on the streets with all the emissions.

In one of the large, white tents that are used for group meetings, workshops and lectures, a young man, 21, sits cross-legged on the grass and talks about his group, the “Siblings for Future.” He founded it because he also wanted to address the concerns of his younger siblings, his being 19 and ten years old. Everyone who is a child today is particularly affected by the climate crisis; they will experience that it will be unbearably hot on many days. Does he want to say his name? He pauses, digs out his cell phone, swipes and types and thinks out loud: Shit, what did I call myself again? Ah yes, his name is in the press release, Max Markmüller. He laughs.

You can hear a muffled sawing coming from the neighboring tent. The other “siblings for future” stand and squat there and cut off wooden slats. Some are tied together at the edge of the tent, Max Markmüller takes a bundle outside and demonstrates what the eight slats become when they are screwed together: a “walking kit”. One the size of an SUV. They want to take the frame, which takes up almost twelve square meters, out onto the street to demonstrate how much space a normal car needs, which usually only one person can drive from A to B. Max Markmüller doesn’t yet know that the operation with a dozen “walking witnesses” will fail the next day: the police intercept the van with the packages of slats.

Max Markmüller says his vision is to make Munich a bicycle city, like Copenhagen or Amsterdam. He also thinks the media should emphasize the positives that come with transforming cities. In this way you can motivate people to participate much more than if the focus is always on problems and dystopias.

In Luitpoldpark, the catastrophes of the present, forest fires, floods, hail, seem very far away. It’s idyll here. The camp uses two meadows, with large trees providing shade all around. They organized this for six months, reports Vanessa Probst, one of the speakers. She praises the cooperation with the district administration department, which is very pleasant.

There are more every day, the camp is registered for 1,500

A banner is stretched above the large circus tent that they use for Plena: “Air to breathe.” A small, colorful round tent is the first point of contact for everyone arriving; 400 are already there that day, including the 120 cyclists who cycled through half of Germany to Munich. There are more every day, the camp is registered for 1,500. Now the area is being expanded to have more space for the many small private tents. They stand close together in specially marked areas, like on a campsite, and depending on the perspective they form a colorful hilly landscape, blue, green, gray, yellow, silver.

The organizers want to treat each other with care, a concern that is characteristic of the generation of young climate activists. They have an awareness concept with which they want to prevent discrimination. They strive for a “more harmonious coexistence” than is usual in society, “to achieve this we demand a learning and open attitude from everyone,” it says on a poster.

Open detailed view

As relaxed as the atmosphere appears, the political objective is clear and confrontational: “Our overarching goal is a global climate-friendly and social mobility transition, which we can only achieve if we overcome our current capitalist economic system, which serves the profit interests of a few. We need a system change.” They want to start by breaking down barriers that usually exclude many people.

There are rest areas and a care tent where people in wheelchairs should be able to change undisturbed. In a tent, communication and presentations are only made in sign language. They put up posters with the sign alphabet for hearing people and an alarm plan for deaf people. There are lights installed throughout the site that glow in different colors when danger is imminent. Red for fire, yellow for storms, blue for “danger from police”.

The fact that “Max” doesn’t want to give his real name is no exception

This is reminiscent of the usual points of friction at such camps. The fact that “Max”, the walking gear maker, does not want to give his real name is no exception in the camp. Many people don’t want to be photographed and many only give their first name. They are apparently worried about ending up on police lists and being officially labeled as climate activists. Whether the fear is justified, who knows. But the fact that this fear exists among young people who get involved, sometimes on the verge of legality, sometimes creative, sometimes cheeky, sometimes disruptive, says a lot about the climate in Munich at the time of the second IAA.

“Criminalization.” You often hear this keyword in camp. Also from a young woman, she only reveals her first name. Nina says that she and three male companions were stopped and checked by the police the evening before, around eleven. They were on the way back from a kebab shop in Schwabing when police cars drove next to them and finally stopped them. The three young men were also physically searched; the police decided not to do so because there were no female officers there. Nina assures us that they didn’t find anything that was forbidden and that the whole thing was over after twenty minutes. Word quickly spreads about what happened in the camp, which for many is another indication of “criminalization.” In response to SZ questions, the police said that such checks were part of the operational concept.

Unannounced protests have been announced for the weekend

Thomas Lechner knows stories like this. He is a city councilor for the Left and the official meeting leader; he already had this role at the camp for the last IAA. There was a lot of bickering back then, with the KVR and with the police, who surrounded the camp with a lot of personnel carriers. Now Lechner is sitting on one of the many beer benches and says he doesn’t even know where to start with his praise. “Competent, approachable, mediating,” is how he experienced the KVR employees. The police are also much more cooperative this time and are sticking to agreements. And the controls? Lechner is relaxed: “We can’t prevent the little harassment.” But nothing compared to the last time; this year the controls are “at a very low level” for Munich standards. The main thing is that the thread of conversation doesn’t break, he says, as that prevents escalation.

Open detailed view

In the camp they are preparing for the weekend, where unannounced protests have been announced, followed by the final demo on Sunday. The groups represented in the camp are called “Sand im Gear” or “No Future for IAA”, the latter with a burning tire as its logo. On Friday and Saturday they want to disrupt the IAA with unannounced actions.

In a tent, activists are spray-painting yellow safety vests with their group’s slogan: “Smash IAA.” A poster reads: “IAA? We’re keen!” You can see a goat taking a car on its horns. There is a black cloth on the ground in front of the tent to protect the lawn, a woman is painting the letter t in white paint, at the end the banner could say something like: The street belongs to us. A contrast to the IAA, which uses so many streets and squares in the city center.

Two years ago the camp was on the gravel of Theresienwiese, fenced in because of the Corona requirements. This time the area is open and permeable, and “walking customers” also come along on the footpaths and cycle paths, says Vanessa Probst and laughs. One of the “walking customers”, an older gentleman, parked his bike on the path between the tents. He collects a few materials in the information tent, for example the “Red Climate Map” against new highways. His name is Horst Metzger, 79 years old, former headmaster. “I’ve never experienced anything so serene.” He says this as if he were judging the behavior of a school class, translated into a grade his praise would be a straight A. He is thrilled with the young people, no screaming, no pushing, everything is so calm. It’s getting close to dinner, you can hear music coming from the speakers, but discreetly. Horst Metzger says he lives right next door and would be happy if this camp became an annual event.

There was concern in advance that the young people could damage meadows and trees. Anyone watching them gets the impression that the park couldn’t ask for better protectors. Gisela Gerstner, 72, also from Schwabing, watched the camp for a while from a park bench, and she too was impressed: “I like that there are still young people who are committed to the climate. Because the old ones don’t, unfortunately.”