FRIDAY’S AT THE REICHSTAG
As agreed I met Uwe at Tiergarten S-Bahnhof. He had brought a selfpainted banner. „Parents for future“ read one side, the other side proclaimed: „Another world is possible!“, a quote from our song „9 YEARS TO SAVE THE WORLD“, which we had released just the other day. I was somehow touched to see Uwe standing there with this funny little banner, a high flying pop star in the truest sense of the word, now a father of two lovely girls, back to earth and trying to defend his little family from desaster in greatest humbleness and devotion. And what about me? The Carbon footprint of Alphaville is gigantic compared to an average person. Since 35 years we are flying around the globe to play concerts. And what about all the other bands performing on festivals protesting against the end of the world as we know it. And what about all these environmentally engaged people who are celebrating on these festivals? Were they the genuine fans of doom?

Now Uwe and me were on our way to be part of the big Friday’s For Future demonstration in front of the Reichstag in Berlin. On arriving we definitely belonged to the small part of older persons. But we had our banner „Parents for Future“ which shone a merciful light on us and gave us enough reason to stand here together with all those youngsters. Still, I felt somehow isolated. All these young people around me, they were fighting for a world and for a future which my generation had ruined. And now we came around the corner with an allowedly fucking great song and demanded to be part of the movement. I couldn’t help to have these thoughts going round in my mind. Sometimes thoughts are persons on their own who are thinking you. It is not always pleasing what they think.

There were lots of happenings going on around us, lots of speeches, performances and songs (played by „local“ artists!) rushed past me, lots of info I already knew and strategies I had already failed to follow so many times just to start all over again. Finally Greta Thunberg, under frenetic applause, spoke to the crowd delivering devastating statistics and facts about the future. But then Luisa Neubauer, the leading environmental activist here in Germany took the stage and I woke up. It was a brilliant speech, not only in a rethorical, manipulating way, it was a speech that, in a complete new manner, revealed the truth about what was going wrong here on Earth. It was an arousing moment that made the whole event complete. No doubt, we were right to come here. We were granted with something that gave us energy and strength and that together with all the others around us, would help to save the planet, well, maybe. And perhaps, with our song 9 YEARS, we would pass on a little bit of this strength. If so, then, from the bottom of my heart I like to thank everybody who is helping to save the lives of further generations… including mine and Uwe’s children. There’s only 9 years left. But it’s not too late.

Marian Gold