15 October 2011 - Another (not quite) typical Saturday in Frankfurt

("We're not gonna take it" by Twisted Sister)

Today started like any other day - an anim

al nosing me awake followed by a quick look at email, Words with Friends and the Financial Times on my iPhone. In addition to a fascinating piece in the FT of a lunch interview with Mitsuko Uchida (who knew German was her second language?) which I highly recommend reading, there was mention that the Occupy Wall Street movement / protest / demonstration or whatever it is called was spreading beyond the United States and there were planned "occupy" events in financial centers around the world today. Including one certain city that happens to be home to both Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank and a certain European Central Bank. That's right - potential unrest was coming to Frankfurt! Soooo exciting!!

Of course the article didn't give specifics on where the action was going to be in each of the cities and it wasn't as if it was announced in the papers either and I'm not all that plugged into that type of social media (which likely would have required a greater command of the German language than I have), but Frankfurt's not that big of a town, so I just started walking towards the city center.

Along the way, I happened across two interesting things. The first is the flea market along the Main River that happens monthly, I believe. I have never seen anything there that I want to buy (usually a lot of old junk and strange clothes), but I enjoy wandering through it and doing some people-watching of vendors and shoppers. And I am quite enamored with the little booth that sells fresh waffles with powdered sugar. So tasty on a sunny, crisp autumn today as today was. (Would have been perfect football weather, but if I start thinking about that I am going to get distracted by thoughts of my Badgers - which would then distract me thinking about the honey badger video on YouTube.)

The other interesting

thing was on the other side of the Main - demolition of a building or series of buildings. I haven't seen an active building rip-down in Germany, so it was fascinating to watch. I was particularly surprised that A) they were working on a Saturday and B) they had not taken the doors out of the elevators before they began demolition. Seemed odd. Anyway, I was not the only one fascinated by this scene of destruction

(though most of the others ogling this were little boys tagging along with their dads).

Given recent coverage of and conflict over the Eurozone, I thought that the European Central Bank would be a good place to start looking for the demonstration. There were a few police officers around, but otherwise quite typical of a Saturday morning (other than the odd guy walking his ferret). Hmmm.... I was thinking of heading to the Deutsche Börse building when I heard drums in the distance and noticed the drummers and people wielding banners approaching. So I followed them and found a large group forming near the Zeil area. I wandered around taking some pictures of some of the signs I saw and just trying to take in the mood.

I admit that I wasn't quite sure what I expected to find, so what I saw didn't overly excite or disappoint. Generally, everyone seemed to be in good spirits, rather than full of anger. There were homemade signs (both of the on-a-stick and sandwich varieties) in both English and in German as well as more professional-looking printed banners from organizations. While most focused on the financial crisis (both in terms of bankers as well as the Eurozone), there were also people there protesting Stuttgart 21 (the new train station) as well

as nuclear energy, for example. I wandered around for about 10 minutes and then noticed that the crowd was starting to move. So I followed along, on what became a rambling walk (calling it a "march" would lend more of a sense of a unity and common purpose than may have been the case) to the European Central Bank. You can see a bit of difference between the first and second pictures, even though not even an hour separated the two.

I have never been involved in a protest of any kind, and would only say that I observed this one. But I would have expected it to be louder. While there were some drummers, as noted earlier, for the most part the only noise were some peoples with whistles, a few with noisemakers and the regular hum of people talking. I expected more chanting or something. Then wondered if it was difficult to get people to chant along in unison in German because the words are so long? The only chant I really heard was near the end where the chant was in English, which I captured a bit of in this very homemade iPhone video (and in which you can see a fascinating U.S. flag where the states have been replaced with corporate logos, which I think is actually interesting commentary sheerly from the perspectives of the Citizens United decision that allows corporations essentially unlimited campaign donations).

Once everyone was gathered around the ECB, some speeches began. It was a very homegrown type of event. There was a little station wagon that was serving as the "headquarters" of sorts, with two large speakers mounted on top and a small stage behind it with a microphone. There seemed to be a youngish guy organizing things and there were a few people with prepared speeches, none of which I recognized but, again, I'm not a member of this dissident community, so....

While of course my understanding of the speeches was limited both by the poor audio quality, loud audience and my limited German, it seemed like they were discussing topics much more broad than those that seem to be the focus of the U.S. Occupy Wall Street efforts. Not surprisingly, there was a lot of discussion about the Eurozone and questions over why Germany was essentially underwriting weaker countries rather than paying attention to domestic issues. But there were also mentions of the US and I don't think they were entirely positive - more that the US bankers and housing crisis had forced this on the rest of us around the world. There were also mentions of the Arab Spring, which I'm pretty sure was not a focus in the U.S. All in all, though fascinating to watch and to see the reactions of the crowd to the message. I should note that it was an interesting cross-section of the population - certainly a lot of young people, but also more people in their 50s and beyond than I might have expected and hardly any children.

Once they turned over the microphone to anyone who wanted to speak, I lost interest and wandered back home. Fortunately or unfortunately, nothing interesting happened on the way home. But I am glad I made the trip to find some well-controlled and respectful unrest in Frankfurt.