Musical protest against freeway expansion without a blockade

Created: 08/04/2022Updated: 08/04/2022 18:22

The police lettering is on an emergency vehicle.

© Christoph Soeder/dpa/symbol image

With an unusual action on the Autobahn, activists wanted to mobilize against more and more streets.

But things turned out differently.

Berlin - Under the motto "Make music instead of concreting", around 100 musicians and choir singers in Berlin-Friedenau protested against the further expansion of the city motorway.

However, they had to reschedule their concert on Thursday at short notice: instead of on the autobahn as originally planned, they performed their musical program on a bridge over the autobahn.

Shortly before, the police prohibited the planned blockade on the A103 at the Saarstrasse junction.

The reason given by a police spokesman was the full closure of the 115 motorway further west due to the forest fire in Grunewald.

In order to avoid additional traffic chaos, the A103 must remain free as another important route to downtown Berlin.

The organizers of the "Lebenslaute" initiative were offered two alternative locations.

After internal consultation, they reluctantly decided on one of them, namely the Friedenauer Bridge over the A103 at the Saarstrasse junction.

Although this bridge is normally used by many cars.

But the traffic obstructions as a result of the street concert were significantly less than in the case of a blockade of the motorway.

However, according to the traffic information center, a bus route had to be temporarily suspended.

A spokesman for the initiative criticized the actions of the police and spoke of "arbitrariness" and "breaking the law".

"We reserve the right to take further - including legal - steps," he said.

Days before the protest concert, there had been gossip between the organizers and the police.

Because it was originally supposed to take place on the A100 between the Tempelhof and Oberlandstraße junctions.

Because the police expected even greater traffic obstructions there than on the A103, the new location was determined.

The action in Friedenau on Thursday was not the only one of the group "Lebenslaute".

In the early morning, the musicians started the day with a previously unannounced action.

Several dozen of them occupied a motorway construction site near Treptower Park for a few hours.

They played music, construction workers listened, and the atmosphere was relaxed and peaceful, their spokesman said.

The construction work was interrupted during the action.

According to the police, those responsible for the construction site reported a breach of the peace.

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The group "Lebenslaute" has been active nationwide since the mid-1980s and primarily plays classical music in what they consider to be "human-threatening" places.

The actions in Berlin, which were supported by a Berlin alliance against the A100 and the "Sand in the Gears" initiative, were primarily directed against plans by the Federal Ministry of Transport to extend the A100 in the east of the city, but also against the Federal Transport Route Plan and "petrified transport policy” overall.

The A100 between the Neukölln triangle and Treptower Park is currently under construction.

The Federal Ministry of Transport is planning further construction from there in the direction of Lichtenberg.

dpa