There are two ways by which human beings can observe themselves.
If one wants to observe one's self, one needs difference.
The question “what I am like?”, can only be formulated in the following way
What makes me different from anything else I know?
How am I different from an animal?
How am I different from other human beings living in other societies?
As human beings, how are we now, compared to how we were, in the past?
We asks ourselves these questions because we want to understand ourselves.
It's a search for something that we're missing in our lives today.
Bring it lower. Ready. Now.
I really don't understand.
Is that granite?
Can someone please explain this to me?
This stuff here, we came across while boring too.
It's not Russian cement.
Were you aware at that time of the dimensions it would take?
Where would it lead to, dude?
Hey dude, I would say yes.
I guessed pretty early on.
Because one just has to walk through this space,
to recognize the unique spectacle or the possibilities it offers.
One's immediately aware as though hit on the head by an obvious fact.
How we landed up here is a long story
but the first time I came here,
it was with friends, girls and boys,
let's say it was 10 years ago,
we were searching for a good party location.
We were looking for a sand pit,
which we found, 2 km from here and driving down the highway,
quite by accident, we saw the hangers.
Our first reaction was
“Oh God! That looks insane. Its totally boring.
Let's please drive off!”
It had a military character…
which it naturally loses with time.
No, I wasn’t crazy about it from the start.
I was like
...it required some getting use to, certainly.
The original crew was a mixed bag of 10 people.
From amongst them, maybe 5 had been organising parties regularly.
But it wasn't really a crew or circle of people that belonged together,
rather individuals who got together.
After that actually, some more time elapsed.
We drove out here again, recalling this place from memory,
because there was something about this place which we couldn't fathom.
In the end, we are quite amazed
by these surroundings here.
The airfield was divided into two, so that the layout we had there,
with its 12 hangars and commandant's area was replicated quite exactly here again.
It was a mirror image, with exactly the same annexes,
constructed in the same dimensions here again.
I'm curious how it’s going to be with the motor and all this ice slabs.
I think we should walk from here,
it's right there in front,
instead of getting stuck.
Yes, it looked roughly like this
when we first arrived at the airfield in 1995/96.
Everything trashed.
Everything that could be taken away was gone.
The construction is the same. Like our house over there.
Crazy.
Sometimes I've asked myself - would one do it again?
That one would plant oneself in a ruin,
totally ingenuously, and say,
“well, money is no star, somehow everything'll be alright,
we’ll make it happen, we'll just start,
there’s no electricity but we’ll just connect a few batteries together.
And one thing leads to another and then,
at some point comes the water,
then the windows and then the doors,
and then come new ideas
and then a wall is torn down!
Everything self made,
with the most minimal resources.
It feels like a time jump to 17 years ago.
I still recall that when I stepped into that house over there on the other side
you sensed it strongly
that it was creepy place.
That it had been put to military use.
And amidst this legacy,
now lying defunct and absolutely wasted,
we came across the airfield.
And in our imagination
it was the perfect example of a place
that had taken on a completely new definition.
It was ready made.
It's not as if we went looking for the worst premises and said -
“yes! It's exactly this ugly thing here that we'd like to transform into something beautiful!”
These grounds offered us different sorts of opportunities.
When we got here, we weren’t looking for real estate to invest in
but a place where we could organize an event,
conceived in accordance with what we'd imagined.
Eule and I…
for a long time,
we were in agreement.
Fuck, what's missing here is a mind blowing performance.
It has to be brought to the audience -
Boof!
Not your regular wishy washy fare
but a thrust in the right direction.
Something totally trippy.
To gather people in a place,
which they realize has a strange history.
But temporarily, they take part in a different kind of story.
In that moment, you're bringing two opposing forces into play:
on one hand, a freedom, to feel and to be who you want to be.
Totally contrary to what had existed here before
and you reflect it onto the old spaces now.
And on the other hand is a thing,
which doesn't exist in the present
but is a part of history -
it's only a thought perhaps,
but one that's occupied
and imbued with what's in existence now.
This airfield was well suited for parties.
Nature had reclaimed it for its own,
everything was overgrown,
it has it's own strange atmosphere,
of isolation.
But occasionally we found a path
or a parking lot still in good condition.
I think it was the very first
open air party.
Eule had a little equipment
and a sound system
and a few tents ready to go.
It was extremely chaotic.
And inevitably,
a catastrophe.
Because we didn’t know what one has to do,
what one needs and how to set it up,
so that everything works.
I still remember,
the first DJ,
I gifted him my pair of warm gloves
with the fingers cut off,
so he could work turn the disks on the table.
It was freezing cold and
no one had thought of the heating.
Such open air parties already existed, open airs
they were usually goa parties
or huge raves.
We wanted to do something similar
but with music that we liked
and with nice people.
Celebrate.
Somewhere
it's fucking cool.
There were sand pits
or factory halls,
in which we wouldn't have been allowed to do anything
because they could collapse any time.
The techno business has been infiltrated by opportunists
eager to make a killing.
Most parties have deteriorated into copy paste rituals,
with long forgotten highlights
where admission ticket prices are rising in direct proportion to the fall in quality.
We’ve had enough of mediocre parties,
in which the turn-on factor has in fact
become the turn-off factor due to a series of contradictions.
That's why we've started organising parties ourselves,
parties which do not merely exist to maximise profits.
The project is called U.Site Sound System.
The head is round
so that our thinking can change its direction.
After 20 years of political work
in the undogmatic, autonomous left-wing scene,
suddenly one realizes
“hmm, isn't there something else besides,
which doesn't necessarily cast doubt over the work one's been doing,
but can still broaden one’s horizons?
Then came Techno
and it opened up a completely new universe for me.
Bring on the beautiful life.
And from the start, hedonism wasn't a contradiction for me.
Yes, our decision was very controversial at the time.
There were many in the political arena,
who feared that the comrades would fall like ninepins to the wave of hedonism
and bid adieu to the political struggle.
I think that’s why I took to dancing,
because it helped me understand what I want.
It helped me pin point the areas
I wanted to be active in
and ascertain which direction my life should take.
We live in a society in which a lot of things are not accepted.
What do people in our surroundings expect from us?
What does the media want? What does society at large expect?
It's all about looking good and being in control.
It's about creating a good impression,
where one dare not break down or cry, nor sweat.
It leads to people being out of touch with their bodies
and functioning very much with their heads.
And parties are an expression
of how little one is allowed just to be,
without having to be a certain way.
It was in the early 90's that I started going to techno parties.
And I experienced a great sense of freedom
because of the way people behaved with each other.
It was very different to what I'd experienced
in other left-wing scenes in Hamburg.
It left a strong impression on me, I had been in search of it dearly.
It was clear pretty quickly that U.SITE was the field which interested me the most.
They organised the interesting parties,
were working in interesting directions.
Where I fit in, better than in any other field actually.
One can be politically active without letting it become one's only interest.
There are people in our network who’ve made a similar choice, who've said
“well, naturally I do as I please, I want change in our society,
I oppose and struggle against the harsh realities of our society
but that's not my only identity
and that is not my only reality either.
The concept was that no one person was singly responsible.
“Oh! artists from Hamburg?"
"Okay!"
"We didn’t know about them."
"Why didn't someone inform us?"
And we were like “Really, didn’t someone tell you?"
"It was announced all over.”
Who is the organiser of this huge fete?
The police shrugs, implying 'we don't know as yet.'
The participants are informed through an info-line of the Hamburg Techno-scene.
Yet, officer Frank, the head of police security, says
“law and order authorities have refrained from interfering
due to a lack of personnel
and with a view to avoid an escalation.”
The impression given by the authorities was that
“these are a bunch of wild people.
To spoil their fun,
specially in a situation when there isn't enough personnel, isn't worth it.”
We were far more radical than others in our treatment of the administration.
And that's what lent us our flair.
That's what made it so exciting,
fascinating,
specially for people who'd heard about us
but had no access to the parties.
I remember the feeling myself,
from the days when I first started going to techno parties
“there's something going on, I don't know what,
I can’t simply join in because someone needs to take me there”.
And that’s what really tickled my imagination.
One needed to publicize it. That there's a party.
I did it gladly. There were people who worked diligently at the task.
But one had no choice. One wanted people to come.
We'd visit places where we were most likely to meet people
who we felt were our soulmates.
And there we'd approach them with flyers.
And they were always delighted to receive a flyer.
The flyers were hand distributed. It was exhausting,
each flyer was handed out individually.
More or less to nice people.
Due to this tactic, there built up an elite group-
the 'those who know'.
They'd managed to get special access to an event.
An event which was incredible,
which you wouldn't find replicated elsewhere.
Competition, exclusion, commercialization, isolation
these are phenomena which increasingly define our society.
Caste aside in the process are the following:
solidarity and socially responsible action,
work without the motive of financial gain,
as also those realms of art and culture
which cannot be marketed easily.
This description does not preclude subcultures
and electronic music with its various offshoots.
That needs to change.
The first party here at the airfield?
How it was?
I'd say, it was concentrated around a small area.
Our backstage was behind the Tubebox.
We sat out in the open, we'd assembled a few stools and tables.
Yes, to drive out here, build up the backstage.
At that time, it was Eule's bus. A tarpaulin and a table.
And believe it or not, there was only one stage
in front of the Mainstage.
An electro ambience chill was playing somewhere but I don't remember exactly where.
I'm guessing there were about 600 to 700 people.
Since the weather was good, they seemed to have a splendid time.
It a very small and cozy party.
And it included assembling the aerotrim in the hangar.
The first time.
And afterwards we removed everything, dismantled it all.
An open air party.
We were at the inception of...
for convenience's sake I'll call it our “party movement”.
Due to the location and the feeling which prevailed here,
it felt as though a new world had opened up before us
And it was obvious that if we established ourselves here,
we could turn the conventional party framework on its head.
The idea of the fusion festival hadn't occurred to us as yet.
It was conceived the winter after.
Eule mentioned it,
and I thought to myself “what's this guy about?”
We have a space which fits the bill
and where we can combine our different interests.
To move away from an exclusively trans/techno concept
to one which is more open.
Which also appeals to a wider variety of people.
Sometime or the other, we hit upon the name -
Fusion
I don't remember how.
I think it was old Bernd's gimmick.
Or Don's.
In any case, they came to me and said -
"Man, it's in fusion here, something is fusing together.”
In the beginning it sounded too flamboyant -
FU-SI-ON.
We weren't sure if it would work.
We were all quite skeptical and asked ourselves
“will people find it cool? do they want it? will we ever manage?
Because someone is against a particular thing, another against the next.”
More than anything else it was an experiment.
Saying to ourselves “Okay, we'll try it.”
Dear Listeners.
Shortly, you will be receiving a special broadcast about the Fusion festival,
which took place in Mecklenberg Vorpommern in March.
In this program we shall be documenting
the practical and theoretical aspects of an occurrence
which has never before taken place in this form .
During the first Fusion, the backstage was behind the Tubebox,
very small and compact.
And we'd gathered under a tent.
And thought, “Oh great! We can expand in the times to come. We can develop this in the times to come,
let's restructure.
So we shifted into this house.
It had no windows and no roof either,
it didn't have running water, nothing.
During the second fusion, we began to do up the house-
built windows, made it a little liveable.
Recall that the Russians had been gone 5 years.
The place was mouldy, their clothes still hung in the cupboards,
all of it had to be cleaned out.
The sanitary works were installed during the next Fusion.
Hey, go slower!
What?
It should be pointing in the right direction.
Why?
Then we paved the paths
because we had to move with heavy equipment from one place to another.
And then we undertook the finishing touches.
Between then and now, from the time we put in the first windows
to prevent a the cold draft from entering
and nailed the first planks into the doors,
an unbelievable amount of work has gone into the enterprise.
I seldom come here often but when I do,
it always strikes me that
it's a huge amount of work that's gone in here.
The hard work of many people.
of many people.
It was not our intention and neither did it impose itself upon us .
It was more like
okay, there's this festival.
And then there's an attempt to make it grow,
to make it more than just a festival.
And it became pretty obvious that we're investing all this work and money into this space
and if we don't buy it, we're stupid and that somebody else will sooner or later.
And then we'll have to move out.
And our efforts, the work and the lifeblood we'd invested, would come to nought.
That's how we decided that one of our most important goals was to secure the land.
An inspection visit by the cultural committee of Mecklenburg Vorpommern.
One cannot say we're commercial, in the sense that we are a Non Profit Organisation.
We're professional in the sense that in the long term we want to facilitate activity
in other smaller segments like cinema and theatre,
independently and apart from the main festival.
But we're not commercial in the sense that we, as the organisers, want to work commercially.
But since you want to buy it, you'll need finances.
Buying is only one aspect.
The other aspect is translating our plans into action and the costs that will be incurred thereby.
That'll be enormous. You'll have no choice but to work commercially if you want to cover your costs.
Covering one's cost doesn't imply that one is working commercially.
The aim is that if we're earning something here,
it should also be reinvested.
For starters, the festival will help us make ends meet,
without which we wouldn't be able to do anything here at all.
I think one can't rely only on cultural funding to develop this space commercially.
Can't we go somewhere we can get something to eat?
That in the end
it turned into a purchase and a project of this scale!
And maybe these developments could only have taken place in those times.
5 or 10 years later, neither would we have been allowed
to acquire land for this purpose,
nor would the people or bureaucracy display the openness,
which was a key factor that they did at the time.
It was a singular point of crystallization of events.
And that's how we were able to walk away
with a piece of the pie that so many others had been eyeing for 8 years .
All those who'd thought that they could enrich themselves,
cut a quick deal, cheat or steal from under people's noses -
they got pushed out.
And totally unexpectedly and unintentionally,
we could secure the land for ourselves.
The carnival of cultures already existed.
Here, we'd made a wagon.
To advertise Fusion.
By this time the Fusion was already quite big.
It wasn't any longer a small
underground circus.
Projects like Fusion, although they are a collective creation,
nevertheless incorporate differing individual positions,
specially in regards to the evolution of the project,
from U.SITE to the present discontent,
differing motivation and thus the adoption of diverse work practices.
This was 1997/98.
The Fusion was already so big that it couldn't be nurtured by airy fairy sentiments alone -
“oh, its so much fun and we love each other!”
Eule did really need
a strong team
which he could trust and that could work together.
Whatever that means.
And one is more ...
... motivated, hardworking, ambitious ...
... or even ...
... fearful.
And the other not.
The Nazi's built this, to protect their jet planes
against bombs and espionage.
Even the dates are still visible.
Graffiti was popular with the Russians even in the 70's.
It's 20 years since the Russians left this place and
75 years since the Nazi's built this airport.
From the Russians to us,
there is a kind of continuity and development.
And, it would've been strange if this place hadn't changed in these 20 years.
Because in the normal course of things,
so much new stuff comes into being.
But looking at this part of the airfield,
you're reminded of the change even more starkly,
because this part has remained unchanged.
In the Wall came down, the history of this place
was deliberately bashed away
by the narrative of the capitalistic system
Nobody spoke about communism , everything about it was bad.
And to interject precisely there, and to say
“we're going to take it up once more and even transform it into pop”,
that's what always tickled us.
And the more dogmatic or conservative or adverse people were,
the more it excited us to refer to it.
We're controversial too.
Even before the ticket with Lenin wearing headphones
and a plank hung before his eyes came out
we'd created controversy.