Cornelia Brelowski: Culture of Change

TEXT & PHOTOS: CORNELIA BRELOWSKI

I’ve got an update for you on the ‘bear of resilience’, aka Lastenbär story. On November 9th, exactly 35 years after the fall of the Berlin wall, a 76-year-old member of the famed GDR band “CITY” gave a benefit concert at the Zionskirche church, a historical place of resistance during both fascist and GDR times.

Georgi (‘Joro’) Gogow and his co-musician Thomas Putensen gave a heartwarming performance to raise further funds for the sculpture “WHY I BEAR / GROSSER LASTENBÄR” by Stefan Rinck, which I first wrote about in March. Much to the grief of the organizers and residents, it is now facing removal after all. “Why I Bear” springs from a group exhibition in 2022 at the Zionskirche church that took place during the pandemic, giving hope to several thousands of visitors (see www.discovergermany.com/cornelia-brelowski-bear-of-resilience).

LASTENBAER BENEFIT CONCERT, Thomas Putensen (l) and Georgi Gogow. – © Matthias Reichelt

Stefan Rinck today is an internationally renowned artist who has just sold a sculpture to a US client at a high market price of several hundred thousands. However, the Berlin authorities seem oblivious to the fact that they have been offered a gift, as the presence of the bear, which means so much to the community, does not align with local heritage laws. Constanze Kleiner of KleinerVonWiese gallery argues: “If there can be a memorial sculpture for (theologian and resistance figure) Dietrich Bonhoeffer and a memorial plaque for the Umwelt-Bibliothek (GDR resistance center) on the heritage grounds, why can’t the Lastenbär be the third, so as to commemorate the hardships the community suffered during the pandemic years?”

LASTENBAER BENEFIT CONCERT, from left: Thomas Putensen, Georgi Gogow, Constanze Kleiner. – © Matthias Reichelt

The Zionskirche has seen many concerts during its lifetime, including an ‘Element of Crime’ concert in 1987 which sadly was raided by skinheads, bringing the topic of GDR Neo-Nazism to light for the first time. The church is currently a construction site, which gave the recent benefit concert an unlikely backdrop created by construction foil and chipboard walls, very much mirroring the culture of change that is – and will possibly always be – an intrinsic part of Berlin history.

However, bureaucracy and change do seldom go together, and even over a thousand signatures have as yet not changed the mind of the local authorities, who limited the bear’s residency to two years, ending on December 31st. “If I have to hoist the sculpture on a wagon and drive it around town until it may return, I will do it” says Kleiner, who is organizing every action around the Lastenbär out of sheer idealism. She is by now helped by a small army of volunteers, including the two musicians who delivered a funny, memorable mix of songs for a pittance, punctuated by old CITY hymns such as ‘Am Fenster’.

The concert WILD ETUDES & TENDER SONGS may have covered part of the cost for the sanding and interim absence of the heavy sculpture made of Elbe sandstone, but the call for its return is not over yet. Much-needed signatures are still being collected at www.lastenbaer-berlin.de – a website designed by one of the “quiet heroes” of the campaign, the church janitor – who is also known for quietly removing the construction fences from the sculpture when necessary. And such are the small acts of resistance that still happen in Berlin, even 35 years after the fall of the wall.

You can still visit the Lastenbär until December 31st, standing in its spot in front of Zionskirche.