8 May 2006
Written by Seb
Anarchist Group turns Hamburg into Sherwood Forest
What’s that about Germans and altruism lately? Seems like people are developing some very creative approaches towards it. A group of anarchists calling themselves “Hamburg for free” is raiding delicatessen shops for food and drinks – for the better of the lads that are stuck on the dole or in brainless, underpaid internships, as they claim in their mission statement. To keep their identities disguised, they are dressing up like comic super heroes and call themselves “Spider Mum” or “Santa Guevara”.
“Without the powers of super heroes, surviving in the city of millionaires is impossible”, their credo is. Their raids usually aim for your average stylish delicatessen shop where the star TV chef meets the ambitioned yuppie hobby cook for a glass of champaign at 10 am. Last time they stroke, they took a bunch of the most exclusive and expensive items available in the store (three kilos of kobe beef and a couple of cases of champaign, amongst other goods). After posing for a group photo, they fixed their bill by handing the lady at the till a flower bouquet.
The police immediately initiated a trace with 14 cars and a helicopter involved, but hasn’t been able to get hold of them – for as long as a couple of years now. They are very conspirational, and only very little it known about the group itself. The Bundesverfassungsdienst, a sort of secret service for internal affairs, estimates the number of members to the core group at about 30. They assume it has derived from a student organization that keeps close relations with the autonoms, an ultra leftist political network. One spokesman classifies them as “fun orientated with a political background”.
Raiding top notch shops to feed the poor is just one part of the group’s activities. A year ago, they looted a buffet in a first class restaurant, armed with larger than life sized knifes and forks and shouting the parole “The fat years are over”. Seeing this, even the police inspector on the case can’t help but smirk: “After all, they are exposing themselves to a high personal risk to make their point”, he says.
While the group’s activities might have the one or other fan in the police force, the ultra leftist scene is criticizing the group and their protest actions as being “not the slightest bit anti-capitalistic”. The whole thing was nothing else but “begging for being exploited in ordinary work force environments”.
categorised as » Current Affairs, Germany
ShortURL for linking: http://lime.rahina.info/?p=15
2 Comments currently posted.
Jakob says:
Seb says:
I just checked out their blog (german unfortunately). Apparently they managed to identify an undercover police officer amongst their fellow super heroes like two years back. They have published a profile of the guy including his last known addresses, phone numbers, photos, email addresses… and it’s still on the web like two years later. No mention if they managed to get a hold of him though.
So what is this telling us? Even if we’re wearing funny dresses and acting out strange, Germans still can be serious. ;-)
Fantastic! Does that mean I can dress up like Wonder Woman and raid Bubble Brothers in the Market? We should certainly start a franchise operation, al-Qaeda style (but without the religion and fanaticism).
Amazing how the land that brought us lederhosen and David Hasselhoff fan clubs also can bring something as charming and endearing as this.
Die fetten jahren sind vorbei!