Activists Scale Rheinmetall Weapons Factory in Wedding to Protest Genocide
Activists poured red paint from the roof of the Wedding Rheinmetall factory, which went from making car parts to weapons.
Thursday, March 26
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, a small number of activists from the group Peacefully against Genocide used a rented ladder to climb up to the roof of the Berlin production outpost of German weapons manufacturer Rheinmetall.
They poured blood-red paint down the side of the building, waved Palestinian flags, and held up a banner that read: "Genocide in Palestine with German weapons".
"We don't want a weapons factory in Berlin. We don't want weapons produced here that are used to kill people. That's why we're here today," one of the activists who took part in the demonstration wrote in a statement on Instagram. "We're standing here because we all bear responsibility and refuse to be complicit."
We don't want a weapons factory in Berlin. We don't want weapons produced here that are used to kill people.
Across Germany, a number of factories are currently transforming from civil usage to manufacturing weapons as part of the so-called Zeitenwende, a historic shift in foreign and security policy prompted by the war in Ukraine. This has also seen the country reverse its longstanding refusal to send weapons to active conflict zones: something which has been of benefit to its arms industry. Rheinmetall is one of Germany's biggest arms manufacturers. Although the Wedding plant used to make car parts, the company recently decided to produce artillery ammunition there, making it the target of such protest.
As the activists held their ground, Berlin police deployed special high-angle rescue forces to the Rheinmetall roof. Four people were taken into custody and, according to Peacefully against Genocide, later released from a detention centre in Tempelhof.
