Praying for peace at Petriplatz

A house for 3 Religions. At the site, where once stand the Petri Church, a house for 3 religions will be built in Berlin. Christians, Jews and Muslims will share a space. In the frame of this interreligious dialog project representatives of this 3 religions met last Sunday under the shadow of a tree at the Petri Square to pray for peace in Israel & Palestine. Other religions groups like the Sikhs, Bahai & Sufis joined. It was also a nice gesture to remember the suffering of people in other conflict areas like Syria , Iraq, Sudan, Mali, Ukraine, etc.

Kreuzberg Diaries: Noon and Evening at the Ohlauer Street

Although the situation is supposed to be over, I got the impression that it was only postponed, and that we will keep hearing more about the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Schule.

Today in the morning was very clam. A security firm guard the school and don't let anybody else get inside. 6-8 police cars are park on the street

In the afternoon a demonstration came to the street. The police was well prepared and immediately blocked the Ohlauer Strasse with their wagons.

A few minutes later everything was over and they cleared the street again.

Kreuzberg diaries: the calm after the storm

Yesterday there was a very aggressive atmosphere at the Ohlauer Street. There were a lot of Policemen.

There were also a lot of people watching.

With the time it got darker and people and police started to leave.

And suddenly I heard music. Rap and Contrabass.

Today in the morning I was surprise to see that most of the police wagons were gone. The street was still blocked by the police. Some activists have spent the night there. They were tired and some of them were still sleeping. The sun shine and someone started playing music. There was a chill-out atmosphere..

Kreuzberg diaries: the Police and the Maiden

The Wiener Street was also blocked by the police today. The news were telling that the police would clear the school building today.

In the afternoon the Wiener Street was opened again to the traffic and some units start leaving the area. However the Ohlauer street stayed blocked to the public. Protesters sat in front of the barriers, while the police stayed behind.

I love this image. She sitting quite on the floor, hardly moving dressed in black, looking quite too elegant for a demonstration. The policemen behind the barrier. The news said that nothing will happen today.

Kreuzberg diaries

The area where I live, Kreuzberg, in Berlin very often makes the headlines of the national newspapers.

This time the Ohlauer Strasse was blocked by a huge amount of policemen. You will think they were after some terrorists, or kidnappers, but they were there because of only 40 people living in an empty former school building asking for the right to stay in Germany.

As I read  in the today newspaper, they might be able to stay in the school building, however, the right to stay in Germany will still not be granted. The police will go away and the headlines will be gone too. That kind of news, showing people's struggle to escape misery is not good for the government that prefers not to deal with the issue of asylum seekers.