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Police officers in Hamburger Park: only theoretically paid attention to corona distances
Photo: Jonas Walzberg / dpa
I went tobogganing in Hamburg's Donners Park at the weekend with my children and my wife.
And with around 200 other hamburgers, who, given the wonderfully closed and tobogganable snow cover, would have had to bar the doors of their apartments and tie up their children in order to prevent what happened next: children screeching screeching across the meadow, which soon merge into one Fields transformed, adults became children and slid behind.
It was a big mess, after all nobody broke a leg.
But you have to admit that most of them only paid attention to corona intervals in theory.
What you should know as a non-Hamburg resident: The last time there was a closed snow cover for one day in 2018 was that you could go sledding.
So for our children it is very special when that happens.
That's why they started jumping for joy when the snowfall started on Friday afternoon and I waved that off with the remark that it won't stay there anyway, as always.
But it stayed.
And should we spoil their fun because of Corona?
This is not meant to be a justification, it's just that you don't expect to get into the national headlines as a result.
"Hundreds gather in Hamburg's parks" was the headline of the dpa news agency, the report made it into quite a few daily newspapers, and it sounds like a bunch of people who were up to evil.
At least one is shocked for a moment and wonders whether one has behaved as embarrassingly as one of those people about whom one reads again and again.
Like someone who throws a birthday party with 30 guests and then hides in the closet with their children from the police, for example.
Because the police actually came and asked to leave the park.
However, none of the toboggan crowd disappeared behind the next tree or raised a national flag, and the police officers were determined but very friendly.
And then people just shrugged their shoulders and went home.
At least one is shocked for a moment and wonders whether one has behaved as embarrassingly as one of those people about whom one reads again and again.
It was probably similar in the Schanzenpark, where the police came at some point and there was a camera team on site and then questioned the people, all of whom were remarkably understanding.
A woman said: “Oh yes, what a shame.
I'm sorry for the children, and for the policemen too, they're just doing their job «.
I found that very clear.
And it shows: In this jumble of rules and the contradictions that they produce, you can definitely find your way without becoming bitter.
These contradictions are perhaps even more apparent to parents than people without small children.
The schools are closed, but not really, the daycare centers too, but not really either.
And what do you think is going on in the afternoons in Hamburg's playgrounds and parks, even when there is no snow?
Of course there are tons of kids running around, not just in pairs, but in groups.
Where else should they go in the big city?
So you think to yourself that they are at least out in the fresh air and hope for the best and talk to every pair of parents you meet about how absurd that is, but well.
You shrug your shoulders and smile crookedly and keep your distance, at least among adults.
What do you think what's going on in the afternoons in Hamburg's playgrounds and parks, even when there's no snow?
You accept it, fish a little in the dark and feel your way through the fog of the pandemic.
Relies on his feelings.
Let's be honest: Basically, we all know what works and what doesn't.
Party with 30 guests: not possible.
Load the sledge into the car and take a few thousand people to the nearest low mountain range to toboggan there: not possible.
Tobogganing at home if you have children and haven't seen snow for three years: that's not possible either.
But you do it anyway, until the police come and remind you.
In an interview with SPIEGEL, a philosopher gave the impression that "the people" and "the media" would nip any criticism of corona rules in the bud with reference to conspiracy theories and adhere to every rule so strictly that they enjoy life is completely gone.
I don't know, is that right?
I do not believe that.
Unspeakable comparisons with a war situation
I experience people who are often insecure or confused, who long for more freedom and a beer in the pub and often don't know how to reconcile work and children, who sometimes feel left alone and who feel good, sometimes to complain.
But above all, I experience people who don't let the fun of life be taken away from them.
Perhaps because they know that these unspeakable comparisons with a war situation are nonsensical, that they are still doing well, also and especially in comparison to fellow human beings, whom Corona hits even more brutally than they do themselves. They discuss in many voices and often with many Discussions are tired.
And who take a little freedom when it is offered to them.
The philosopher says in the interview: "If the discussion were at least carried out in accordance with the principle of Frederick the Great - 'Reason as much as you want, but obey!' - this would be a significant improvement over our current standard." to come to Hamburg's Donners Park.
I didn't argue there over the weekend, but I went sledging unreasonably.
Then I went home sensibly.
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