Blindfolds for Beethoven and Co. - climate activists protest in Bonn

by Christopher Hensgen

In Bonn, climate activists campaigned for less economic growth and more climate protection with an art campaign on Wednesday. They put blindfolds made of white fabric on several Bonn statues.

In the middle of the night, the small group moves quietly towards the Beethoven monument on Bonn's Münsterplatz. The women and men carry three parts of a large scaling ladder to the statue.

A little later the ladder is leaning against the composer's back and Luis climbs all the way to the top. There he blindfolds the statue and hangs a cardboard sign around its neck.

Earth Overshoot Day is the reason for the protest action.

Luis and his fellow campaigners are climate activists. They belong to the groups "Extinction Rebellion" and "Scientist Rebellion". "With our campaign we want to denounce the blindness of politics and society to the climate crisis," he explains, while two young women paint the letters "XR" and "SR" on the base of the Beethoven monument with white paint.

"Don't worry - the paint is easy to wash off, we don't want to damage anything," says Luis.

The reason for the action is the so-called Earth Overshoot Day. According to calculations by environmental organisations, this falls on August 2nd and marks the day on which mankind has used up all the resources that the earth's ecosystems can produce within a whole year.

Blindfolds also for Macke monument, Ernst Moritz Arndt and Kekulé statues.

In the early 1970s it was still December 25th. This year's Earth Overshoot Day for Germany, on the other hand, was already on May 4th. If everyone lived like in Germany, say the climate activists, people here would not need just one, but three earths to live on.

The Münsterplatz is not the only goal of the group that night: the Macke monument on the Hofgartenwiese, the Ernst Moritz Arndt statue on the banks of the Rhine, the Adenauer head on the B9 and the Friedrich August Kekulé monument in front of the Chemische Institute of Bonn University in Poppelsdorf get blindfolds.

Campaigns for more climate protection also in other NRW cities

The Bonn activists are calling for what they see as an urgent need for political and social transformation. "To do this, we should focus on alternative forms of economy that enable everyone to live a good life, beyond dogmatic growth constraints," says Elmar Keul from Extinction Rebellion Bonn.

"Because on an earth with limited resources there can be no 'eternal growth' anyway." Actions by climate activists are also taking place in other cities in the country - for example in Essen and Soest.

Epilogue: Jaded and hopeful: climate camp started in Bochum | more

Lawyers estimate: Does the "last generation" have to pay millions of euros in damages? | more

First published at WDR News Rhineland, August 2, 2023