kassel_graffiti epitome of incomprehensibility At a tram stop, on top of an army recruitment poster: "Scheiß auf die Bundeswehr" and the army logo crossed out. (Word for word, it'd be something like "shit to the army," or more colloquially "fuck the army") 230523 ... e_o_i (Why is my eszett appearing as an Arabic k? This is hampering my noble project of writing "shit" in German. Scheiẞe?) 230523 ... e_o_i Okay! Finally the right symbol. "Scheiß auf die Bundeswehr" is what it said. 230523 ... e_o_i "SWAG" and "YOLO" on a ticket machine. 230525 ... e_o_i Was I looking out the window on the tram instead of studying for my test today? A little. ... -"FIND DICH SELBST ODER FIND DICH AB" On a rock; "find yourself or come to terms"? with what? Google Translate would be slow slow slow to load here, so... -On the pinkish brown-grey outside wall of a building, the white outline of a cannon or tank -On another building, "WIMP" in yellow letters -On yet another building: "Cut Off Your Fingers" next to a smudge like a fingerprint. The weird thing is, I've described a certain kind of bad feeling - feeling upset that I can't do anything, when there's something tragic outside myself - as feeling like my fingers were or could be cut off. Feeling helpless, I guess. I don't know if this is a metaphor in some language or other, but it's not great literal advice. Do NOT cut off your fingers. You might need them. -"Refugees Welcome" (side of a fence or wall leading to a bridge) 230530 ... e_o_i My last note about this was from a few days before I left. All of this graffiti was found "in the domed, circular pavilion, the highest point of Schöne Aussicht." And it gets fairly multilingual. All the young dudes proudly present: vandalism! (In four drawings, a mouse evolving into a moose.) -cubitum eamus? -what? -nothing! [Google tells me this is from a book called The Secret History] CLUB DER ROTEN DICHTER*INNEN [club of red poets] "ONE EITHER HAS TO BE A WORK OF ART, OR WEAR A WORK OF ART" -THE OSCAR (a white outline of a hand) NoTcH SARS! ACAB hola HOPE for the rest of us ¡¡ni jaulas, ni prisiones!! [no cages, no prisons!!] REVOLUCIONIZE (at least twice, one with a stencil of a fist) BRAZIL 2022 LULA PRESIDENT ZION 141 (with a star of David underneath) Pagaille BLEUE [BLUE mayhem/mess/shambles] chai GANSTA BICHE Stream #SUPERSIZE out now! human Life doesn't really matter that much (with a sketch of what looks like a cartoon Minion) TU_MAINI [as one word, this is a version of the verb for hope, believe or expect in Swahili] 230715 ... e_o_i Also, on the way to school: Don't play with psychos! [on a wall] and Free Lina! [various places] The second one showed up outside Kassel, too, and I idly wondered about the story behind it. I was surprised to actually find out: in my teacher's hometown, when she visited, there were protests over this Lina's arrest and sentencing, so she (the teacher - Lisa, not Lina) told us about it. Lina had been part of an Antifa group that had organized beatings and/or intimidations of people known for being actively racist. Anyway, the police seemed to be paying more attention to this than to the hate crimes she was fighting against in the first place - so while I wouldn't necessarily agree with the methods Lina used, I think the protestors had a point. 230715 ... e_o_i Also, it's interesting how contentious political topics in one place aren't necessarily the same ones in another. In Kassel, there were people crossing out and writing over each other's graffiti about Latin American politics and about whether Germany should or shouldn't get involved in the Ukraine war, but nobody had sought to argue against support for Israel (something else I saw specifically had the country's name, too). Perhaps it was just when I happened to be in that gazebo - in Berlin, I saw pro-Palestine stickers on construction tunnel walls. Regardless, and thinking back to some things Lisa said, I put up a theory: despite what Netanyahu has been up to lately, there could be the thought that doing anything to the star of David symbol would seem antisemitic - because, well, German history. But even without that, leaving the star alone makes sense: it's associated with Jewish religion and culture in general, not just the state of Israel. So I don't think I'd ever cross it out, even if I wanted to comment on words I disagreed with. But is that me being fair, or biased because of family/friend connections? I mean, it has positive associations for me, but seeing it in certain contexts might be painful to people oppressed by the Israeli government... The only thing I can conclude is that I'm not the best person to write political graffiti. I'd be way too wordy about it. 230715 what's it to you? who go blather from