Monday 17, April
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Mitte charges organisers of tank protest €806.20 for use of road
It was a provocative and controversial protest. At the end of February, Enno Lenze and Wieland Giebel – the two men behind Berlin Story Bunker – were finally able to bring a symbolic act of defiance to Berlin, installing a wrecked Russian tank directly outside the Russian embassy building on Unter den Linden.
Mitte had initially blocked the plans on the grounds that they were politically insensitive
The installation of the ruined vehicle followed a long dispute between the organisers and the district of Mitte, who had initially blocked the plans on the grounds that they were politically insensitive – and it seems that the two parties still don’t quite see eye to eye. Mitte is now asking the two organisers to pay for the use of the road during their protest. The tank with its surrounding exhibit took up 42.08 square meters of road, resulting in a payment of €806.20.
This fee goes back to the original disagreement between the organisers and the district. Mitte representatives did not want to allow Lenze and Giebel to set the destroyed tank outside the Russian Embassy. They were only permitted to do so because they described the action as a work of art, rather than a protest. But in this latter case, no fee would have been required.
