There's a world wide bicycle movement called Critical Mass which aims to draw attention to cyclists, their rights and infrastructure.
Naturally, in Berlin, as a big city that loves a good demonstration, the Critical Mass movement is popular here too.
Taking place on the last Friday of every month, I went along in August 2015 to check it out. Critical Mass feels like a movement I can get on board with, since moving to Berlin cycling is my main mode of transport,
An interesting thing about the way Critical Mass is organised, is that is pretty much
isn't. All there is are set dates and meeting points. What happens after that seems to be pretty organic. This decentralised approach has lots of unstated advantages, but one of them is that 'we' needed register the event with the police - which is what you would normally have to do when running a demonstration.
So I went along to the meeting point, Heinrichlplatz in Kreuzberg, at the specified meeting time - 8pm. I was a bit nervous, not really sure what was going to happen, and sat on my bike amongst other similarly nervous looking people. Some cops were around, but that feels normal anyway in Berlin.
Just after 8pm, a few 'leader' took off down the street, including a pied piper like guy with a stereo system blaring from his bike. Slowly some of the waiting crowd, including myself, went with them. This led us the short distance down the street to the Mariannenplatz, which actually is a better meeting point. There were lots more people here. We waited in this place for about 15 minutes. I wasn't really sure what was going on, but with no clear leader I guessed the crowd was waiting for a peloton to break free to follow.
The first steps are the hardest. I tried to take my cue from two guys that had excellent stereo systems blaring. When they moved, I'd go too. If they were that prepared then surely they would know what was going on. The thing was, these guys didn't budge, so eventually a group did break free, people followed and we were off!
I followed this guy as his stereo blasted a live set of The Prodigy. Later on I found that a stupendously loud truck horn sound was actually coming from his boom box trailer set up. Handy for warning everyone, onlookers and cars that we were there - though hardly hard to miss.
His system, and that of many others, put my two-light extravaganza to shame!
We rejoined the Heinrichplatz waiting cyclists and then together flooded the Orianenburgerstrasse. Hard to tell how many people were taking part...I was guessing a few hundred at that point. The pace was fender to fender and a bit frustrating at first.
Up around Moritzplatz, where I saw the first example of 'corking'. Corking is where other cyclists deliberately block the traffic to allow safe passage of the rest of the riders. You can see the yellow shirted guy in the middle of the picture and two by his side blocking the roundabout for our benefit.
We got nicely free-wheeling after Moritzplatz and through to Checkpoint Charlie,
I especially appreciated our takeover of Leipzigerstrasse on the way to Potsdamer Platz. This is a street where cyclists are totally marginalised and can be quite a tricky road to navigate. This is where the Mall of Berlin has been built, which resulted in a couple of years of roadworks that forced cyclists into the path of traffic. Sharing that environment with big trucks, impatient taxis and the generally clueless has never been fun. Here a man in a DHL van was getting pissed off because of the blockage. Fuck him, I thought, I usually have to put up with 'your' traffic and worry for my safety. For one night you can just suck it. I kept myself in check thought - that mentality is not a good one and can lead to excess feelings of superiority, and altercations with motorists..,which happened later on. (not me!)
At the victory column I think there was a bit of confusion as to which exit to take. We took over the roundabout, circling it a couple of times before the police funneled us up towards Ernst-Reuter-Platz.
It took me a while to read what this girl's backpack said...
Eventually we ended up at Bahnhof Zoo, completely blocking the underpass in what felt like 'a moment' for the group. People were happy and it felt like a job well done.
I thought the ride might have ended, but after something of a regroup we were off again down around the Ku'Damm.
The ride took us out of this bright lighted area and into Wilmersdorf...which is a yawn of a place, but good, wide, and not too busy streets to take over. Corking was going on at every intersection.
Some of the altercations were starting to get a little more prevalent, with delayed motorists vocalizing their annoyance. It isn't really necessary to get 'up in someones face' but some people seem more up for it than others. As happened in this case where a cyclist and motorist engaged in a face off. A passing motorbike was called over to sort it out. I was surprised that the calls of 'Hey Bulle' were actually heard and acted on by the copper.
The same cop, after sorting out that kefuffle, then sped ahead of me to join his colleague. I could hear him shout to his mate in German "This is so shit without radios". I felt sorry for them, they are just trying to do a job amongst unorganised peaceful chaos, and apparently without radio!
This is where is fell apart for a while. By Rathaus Friedenau the whole cycling group paused, seemingly confused as to where to go. I don't think the poor cops helped, as they blocked the oncoming traffic, and some of the riders, causing a big blockage!
Which shut down the road for a while. The motorists had no choice but to wait.
Somehow the confusion got resolved and the movement pressed on, including a rare chance to ride through the Bundesalle vehicle tunnel...wooo hooooo.
By now, particularly after the Rathaus Friedenau confusion, I had enough. My saddle was sore, but I wanted to stick it out. Eventually, after three hours of roaming Berlin, we hit the victory column again and made our way up the Strasse Des 17 Juni towards the Brandenburg Gate. It's always a powerful ride with that monument in your sights, regardless if you are alone or with a huge group...which by now I think must have numbered over a thousand, but you just can't tell.
The Brandenburg Gate was the final assembly point, some milling around, and triumphant 'bike lifts' followed by a group clap at our efforts, signaled the end of a fascinating night.
I found the experience to be something extremely surreal and special. The group, by sheer number, exerted such a powerful force across Berlin that normal road rules no longer applied (which they should!!) and had the police chasing around after us in a strange cat trying to protect the mouse game.
As I wrote earlier, there is a false sense of superiority that you gain by being in the group. Sure, you do gain safety and visibility in numbers, but this isn't an opportunity to be reckless, law breaking or an excuse to be a fuckwit. If those things happen, then Critical Mass will get a bad reputation, and do more harm than good for cyclists - there very opposite of what it hopes to achieve. Having said that, from what I saw, the crowd was there for the common good and have once again managed to successfully assert the rights and power of cyclists in Berlin.
More information and future ride dates can be found at the Critical Mass Berlin website:
Update 30 August 2015: The twitter feed for Critical Mass posted this map of the route taken during the ride. You can see the southernmost route, which is Rathaus Friedenau, where I thought it kinda fell apart for a while!
