ANARCHY!

This is the symbol for the anarchists of Berlin. It appears on the wall visible opposite from my balcony in Kreutzberg from my first floor apartment. Last night at around 245am, I woke up to explosions. At first I dismissed it as fireworks as I had heard earlier in the evening, but then--from my open window, I smelled the smoke. I sat up and thought "ooh, bonfire," but taking a closer look, realized that their was a Mercedes SUV aflame about 30 feet from my window in the backyard. Confused (and tired) I got up and walked into the hallway. There I was distracted by a bright orange glow coming from my living room. When I looked out the front of my apartment, I found a second car burning on the street 30 feet the other side of my apartment.

I took the first photo from my living room and the second from the front door of my building. This car burnt so heavily that it completely destroyed the car next to it and damaged two others. As we worried about gasoline explosions, the cars tires and windows blew out in extraordinary bangs. Within 10 minutes the firetrucks and police vans arrived, but the experience was jarring. We evacuated and all of us NYU'ers were awake and confused by the excitement. Turns out, anarchist car burnings are a regular occurance in gentrifying neighborhoods of Berlin.

This map shows the (incomplete) spots where car burnings have occurred around Berlin over the past couple years. Apparently the Berlin Police chief sparked controversy when he warned people not to park their fancy cars in Kreutzberg. I won't be pulling my Mercedes up anytime soon.