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Full shelves: has the corona crisis produced countless preppers?
Photo: Jochen Tack / imago images / Jochen Tack
This text is an abbreviated and edited excerpt from the book: "Ready for Downfall: Prepper".
Security starts with a solid investment strategy, some gold and silver, a box with cash, a well-diversified stock portfolio, Oliver Hornung knows that. “I'm not the prepper you find in the media who hops through the forest doing military exercises ", he says.
It's Saturday afternoon, Hornung, a slender man with short brown hair who looks much younger than his 37 years, is sitting in his apartment in a prefabricated building complex in the Marzahn district on the eastern edge of Berlin.
To the author
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Gabriela Keller
, born in 1975, is an investigative reporter at correctiv.org. Before that she worked for the »Berliner Zeitung« and in the report and research department of the »taz«.
During this time she concentrated on East Germany, wrote reports about social marginalized groups and democratic disintegration.
Before that, she worked as a freelance reporter and correspondent for six years from countries such as Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Iran.
"Ready for Doom: Prepper" is her first book.
He says what many preppers don't have in mind are everyday, personal crises: losing one's job, for example.
Or disability.
“For example, I have a herniated disc and I'm out for a few months.
That's why my employer fires me, ”he says.
"Those are two problems that could have been provided for."
Hornung's answer to such risks is to save enough money to last six months.
You should have at least half of it at home in cash.
He also stores precious metals and has invested part of his money in securities.
In this way, provisions are made for all cases.
In prepperslang it says SHTF: ›Shit hits the fan‹ - when the shit slaps on the fan.
The term prepper is derived from the English "to prepare" and describes people who prepare for the day when nothing is as it was before.
In prepperslang it is called TEOTWAWKI, "The end of the world as we know it", the end of the world as we know it, or SHTF: "Shit hits the fan" - when the shit slaps on the fan.
When journalists report on preppers, they are mostly about paranoid bunker freaks, eccentrics camping out in the wilderness or politically confused Tag X strategists who bury food supplies in the ground.
Since right-wing extremist groups such as the “Nordkreuz” network in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania or the “Group S.” were exposed, the prepper has also come under the protection of the constitution;
and indeed, in parts of the scene there are ideological and personal overlaps with right-wing extremist milieus.
End-time militant warriors and neo-Nazis hoarding weapons have shaped the public image of preppers.
This circumstance makes a differentiated representation of the scene difficult, one that does justice to reality and captures its heterogeneity.
But if you only think of marginal figures wearing flecktarn with weapons depot when the term is used, you are falling too short: The movement has long been in the middle of society, and not just since the corona crisis.
There are preppers of all levels of education and income, many with academic degrees and an above-average income.
In America, where the phenomenon originated, trend researcher Gerald Celente identified “neo-survivalism” as a new movement as early as winter 2010: “Every new horror creates a new, different group focused on survival, and so the spectrum expands from paramilitary stereotypes and now includes concerned citizens on all socio-economic levels, «he writes.
»Survivalism«, so it goes on in his trend report, survival in emergency situations is advancing to mainstream.
In the USA, of course, the topic has a completely different dimension: prepping is a billion dollar industry there.
The corona crisis has made private crisis prevention a mass phenomenon in Germany as well: There is hardly a German household that did not at least set up a small warehouse with food and hygiene products in the first days of the pandemic.
The prospect of not being able to leave the apartment in the event of a quarantine also drove careless minds, who otherwise have little more in the fridge than mustard, butter, a half-empty bottle of gin and a pack of buffalo mozzarella, to careful storage.
Canned bread sellers reported a rapid increase in demand at the beginning of the lockdown in spring 2020, suppliers of convenience food and emergency equipment barely kept up with their orders, and the number of prepper groups on social media exploded.
"You really have to have everything there because, in an emergency, they'll buy everything empty and would probably beat each other to death."
Prepper Oliver Hornung
Oliver Hornung, born and raised in East Berlin, has been prepping for a good ten years.
But he stays to himself, he prefers to stay out of the prepper groups on social media, he says: “Because most of them are not only right-wing, but partly real Nazis.
Reich Citizen.
I don't want to have anything to do with people. ”In his cramped apartment he leans back on his couch, white Ikea shelves on light laminate are all around.
The trained wholesale and retail salesman works as an e-commerce consultant and runs his own web shop, through which he sells plastic-free packaged natural sponges.
On his blog “City Prepper” he publishes tips for crisis preparedness in large cities.
When the corona crisis began and he saw people in the supermarkets making frantic hamster purchases, he sensed that he was right with his precautions.
"I was very surprised by people's reactions because I thought: It's still nothing." He was particularly amazed by the people who became aggressive in the Rewe aisles and got into arguments because there wasn't enough left on the shelves Noodles were.
"I found it very bizarre and almost a little frightening how mindless people act," he says.
"Which shows me: You actually have to have everything there because in an emergency they buy everything empty and would probably beat each other to death."
Since the pandemic spread across the world at the beginning of 2020, the prepper scene suddenly appeared in a new light.
The New York Times ran the headline in March: “You have prepared for the worst.
Now everyone is a prepper «.
A headline in the Guardian read: “We laughed at preppers and survivalists.
Until the pandemic struck. «It was an exceptional situation that most people in Europe had never imagined before.
Images from the hospitals in Italy and Spain looked like scenes from an end-of-time film: overworked intensive care units, half-naked, artificially ventilated patients filling rooms and corridors, next to doctors in protective suits, nurses collapsing at their desks - suddenly it was all reality.
These impressions run deep and have shaken many people's feeling of security.
In addition to the fear of the virus itself, there were far-reaching restrictions on public life.
In the initial phase of the lockdown, it was also not clear to what extent the crisis would affect the supply situation: The media saw pictures of perplexed customers in front of empty supermarket shelves, desperate mothers looking for milk powder, and long lines of trucks stuck at the borders.
The newspapers reported of hamster purchases and delivery problems, everyday goods such as baking yeast or toilet paper were hardly available for weeks.
The generations born after the war had never seen anything like it.
In normal times, the only problem is choosing between dozens of variations of toilet paper.
But these weren't normal times.
Suddenly the concern about bottlenecks and temporary emergencies was real.
The days in February made it clear that the flow of goods in Germany is also stalling and temporary shortages can arise.
Preppers have known this for a long time.
more on the subject
Prepper: The deep longing for collapse by Christian Stöcker
Judgment against "Prepper" in Schwerin: Gun fanatic on probation by Wiebke Ramm
Prepper movement in Germany: Blums BunkerBy Peter Maxwill
Oliver Hornung has enough supplies to support himself, his girlfriend and his child for six months.
He's also written a book called Prepping.
One-year plan «.
In it, he describes how to build up a long-term supply within a year, which things belong in the bug-out bag, i.e. the emergency backpack that is always ready, and how to develop skills that could be helpful in a crisis: baking bread, dried fruit establish first aid.
"For many people, unemployment, natural disasters or other emergencies would cause fear and panic," he writes.
"But if you have supplies for your family and you know you could survive in an emergency, you don't have to worry."
Many preppers are constantly working
to improve
their crisis-relevant
skills
;
at Oliver Hornung it is mostly about financial know-how.
He taught himself how best to proceed when it comes to pensions.
He has watched YouTube videos on investment strategies for retail investors, listened to podcasts, and read guidebooks.
"That's one thing that isn't taught at all in our education system: financial education - that's completely missing," he says.
"But what if what happens then?" For him, it's not about a day or the collapse of all systems, but rather about temporary disruptions or supply bottlenecks.
That does not mean that he does not consider major catastrophes to be conceivable, such as meteorite strikes, super volcanic eruptions or lengthy power outages.
Most likely, however, is an economic crisis, he says: “That will come.
We are just at the beginning, I think.
The next year or two will likely be very challenging for many people. "
When the crisis comes, whatever it should be, Hornung knows what to do.
He wasn't going to stay in this apartment.
He has a second one that he is currently using as an office.
He would be there on foot in 20 minutes.
There he would barricade himself with his girlfriend, his child and the dog, barricade doors and windows and behave as inconspicuously as possible so that nobody notices that they are still there.
Looters or burglars do not worry him very much: "The good thing about these Marzahn apartments: They are already very safe," he says.
“They have security doors.
You can't just open it. "
"Preppers may think a little further than normal people."
Prepper Oliver Hornung
How did he get into prepping?
Hornung says that he was often out and about in the forest as a child and that he experienced two tsunamis while backpacking in Australia.
But none of that really explains why the crisis issue is so central to him.
He ponders for a moment, then says, “I would almost say: logical common sense.
That may sound arrogant, but preppers might think a little further than normal people who only care about themselves and the here and now. ”As Hornung sees it, many people give up responsibility for their lives, and when they face setbacks they give up put the blame on others and expect others to take care of their problems.
For him, the prepper is the active, prudent opposite of this dependent, wretched citizen.
Storage is also not as expensive as it might look.
In the beginning it takes some effort to collect the supplies, but now there is little more to do than regularly replenish the shelves and update stocks.
So lack of time is not an argument.
"The majority of people waste a lot of time, watch RTL in the evening, look at their cell phones, look at Facebook or Instagram and just waste time that can be used differently."
Oliver Hornung has worked his way up.
His family lived in poor conditions, the lower middle class, there was no financial planning, but debts.
At first he let himself drift, had what he calls a "Larry job" in the call center.
Only the birth of his child made him ambitious.
Today he is successful with his online business, business with natural sponges is going well, and his sales figures are even benefiting from the corona crisis.
But he still has a lot to do.
His goal is to develop the webshop into a plastic-free drugstore.
In the pandemic, the preppers feel confirmed
Hornung has already organized most of the prepping, his provisions are in place.
Nevertheless, there are still things that he wants to develop further;
he would like to develop his survival skills.
In the long term, he plans to buy a plot of land in the surrounding area.
Hornung says he is an introvert and that he does not feel comfortable around people.
His wish is to be able to grow fruit and vegetables himself, in other words: "a more natural life".
How exactly should that look?
"Little house, in the forest, by the lake, where you really have peace."
Now we are all preppers - or at least at the beginning of the crisis the impression took hold that it can be wise to prepare for tougher times.
Many of those who stocked up on tinned ravioli, pasta and dried meat in February 2020 had their supplies cleared just a few weeks later.
But the crisis has shattered many people's trust in the reliability of just-in-time supply chains, and the preppers, who were previously treated with ridicule and disdain, feel confirmed.
The pandemic has triggered some paradoxical developments: On the one hand, the prepper idea spread among the German middle class, on the other, the radicality increased on the outer fringes of the scene: conspiracy theories are mingling in the semi-public of the prepper chat groups on Telegram and hatred with fantasies of an approaching collapse of society - and sometimes also looking forward to the catastrophe.
In the first few weeks of the pandemic in particular, observers feared that right-wing extremists and militant prepper groups might see the time for a violent overthrow in the corona crisis.
As the Berlin Office for the Protection of the Constitution wrote in an analysis in spring 2020, crises "for constitutional enemies are signs of the flawedness of the democratic system". The "alleged weakness of the state" could "spark an uprising, a" day X "or other acts of violence represent «.
Sometimes it is just a step from telling stories about the coming system collapse to the active planning of deeds that are supposed to promote it - the mental games of the "Gruppe Nordkreuz" or the "Gruppe S." have proven that.
Most preppers aren't right-wing extremists.
More often, one encounters a mixture of libertarianism and an ecological back-to-nature ethos in the scene.
At the same time, however, the belief in the instability of our systems and the susceptibility of digitized, globalized modernity extends deep into majority society.
Prepping is always a form of analysis of the present, at the same time an expression of identity consumption and consumer criticism.
It is precisely with this particular dialectic that the preppers represent a pointed cipher for the contradictions of late capitalism. So it is worth listening to them.
Your preparations for collapse say a lot about the state of the world as we know it.
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