Stickers, street art, political posters and ephemera, and anything else
Another Thor Steiner reference to what has been attributed as neo-Nazi politics (see post from 11.03.09).
I also just came across a post by John Collins on The Weave entitled Fascists-For Real, in which he discusses contemporary fascist politics in Spain during his year-long sabbatical. I wonder if he’s come across anti-fascist street art to the extent I have in Berlin. John’s analysis on various topics is always spot on.
The dominoes fell, and so did I. A rainy night, hundreds of people, and umbrellas everywhere made it difficult to see the ground, and I slipped off a curb. I now have a Botero foot and knees–puffy! It was okay. The crowd was chaotic.
Berlin was absolutely fantastic. I met up with Ollie at the Hatch Kingdom and hope very much that I can show my sticker exhibition there next spring. It will need to be updated since the exhibition originally showed at SLU in 2006. It was also really nice to hang out with SLU alum, Spencer Homick. I told him he has good sticker stamina (unlike someone else I know!) 
Each day, I gave myself a goal to travel to new neighborhoods, which usually involved negotiating trams and subways that require tricky cards that vary by hour or day and have to be authenticated before you board. It was interesting to see how sticker content varied from one area to another. Kreuzburg especially focused on issues of race/ethnicity and immigrant populations. Antifa stickers everywhere. Several stickers at the Neurotitan entrance focused on anti-US politics. I can’t wait to go back next spring. Berlin has a great sticker and street art scene, more so now than NYC, which is too bad since I get to NYC quite often.
I’m still trying to get a handle on the concept of antifa. It seems like it covers so many different issues. Maybe antifa could be equated with the notion of resistance and class struggle in general, beyond anti-fascism in Germany, though it’s not all that useful to describe anything like this “in general.” Dunno. I’ve now bookmarked International SPIEGEL to keep up more closely with German politics.
The street art scene in Berlin has been superbe this week. I’ve collected at least 250 stickers, even re-visiting a few streets to find new stickers after a day or two. There will be much research to do when I get back home. Neal at the Hotel Greifswald helped yesterday to provide historical and cultural context to some of the political stickers. David, I wish you were here!!!
This place in Kreuzberg had a bunch of original antifa stickers:
Keeping track of where I was, is, and will be. Yesterday I walked a loop from Greifswalder, right onto Danzinger, right onto Landsberger Allee, which turned into Platz de Vereinten Nationen, whch turned into Mollstrasse, which turned into Greifswalder again. Lots of political stickers, mostly for antifa demonstrations, one for Warmlaufen fuer den Widerstand – Atomkraft Kaltstellen! One for a demonstration on November 12 in Berlin that says “Freiheit statt Angst, stoppt den uberwachungswahn,” which translates into “Freedom not Fear, Stop the Surveillance.”
I found one sticker referring to a controversy regarding Thor Steiner clothing that you can read about on Wikipedia. The manufacturer’s label included two Norwegian runes, and various authorities have identified wearing Thor Steiner clothing as a sign of neo-Nazi membership. The label is not allowed in certain government buildings or football stadiums. The sticker shows a fist clenched in front of two clothing labels and reads “Stop Thor Steiner, gegen Nazi-mode!”
I spent a good deal of time yesterday doing research on the Berlin stickers. In so doing, I’ve come across a new topic regarding the politics of football in Germany and other European countries. Some of the stickers I gathered refer to football teams that oppose the nationalist politics of the sport and to audiences that promote racist and fascist politics. I think I’ve got that right. There is quite a lot of information on the Web at anarchistsoccer.org and other sites.
I’ve been archiving the stickers I liberated from my recent trip to Berlin, and I’m still not done yet. I’ve pulled all of the political stickers, however, in order to scan them this week and prepare a proposal for a 2010 CAA session on the Berlin Wall pre- and post-1989. The city was covered with antifa stickers, with one that says, “Does Germany Have a Right to Exist?” Many other topics to explore….
I saw a lot more antifa stickers on this trip than ever before, as well as stickers about capitalism, consumerism, GM, AIG, NATO, Afghanistan, and a sticker that said Stasi 2.0. Plenty of research to do after this trip.
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