“CURRENTLY AS OF NOW NOT YET”
Follow-up to the Fusion Newsletter November 2025 and the thesis stated therein that former military properties are not safe from reconversion by the German Armed Forces for military use.
Bundeswehr confirms that it is reviewing an initial 200 former military properties – the Fusion site is, according to a press inquiry, “currently as of now not yet” included.
As the Handelsblatt reported on 27 October, the Ministry of Defence has suspended the conversion of former Bundeswehr properties for civilian use.
“The reason is the need for land arising from the planned expansion of the armed forces, the ministry announced on 27 October in Berlin. The moratorium initially affects 187 former military properties as well as 13 others still operated by the Bundeswehr. The areas are being placed into a ‘strategic property reserve’ so that they can be made available at short notice if required.”
This report prompted us to ask whether the site in Lärz, used for cultural purposes for 30 years and owned by Kulturkosmos for 25 years, is still safe from potential Bundeswehr access and expropriation by the federal government in the context of war-readiness efforts, rearmament, and militarisation.
What we dropped as satire in our newsletter was revealed with startling honesty by the Bundeswehr through a press inquiry from the Berlin Tagesspiegel on 27 November:
According to this, the Lärz site is “currently as of now not yet” part of the strategic property reserve. Consequently, anything must be considered possible.
This is how quickly satire becomes real-life satire.
We will leave unanswered here the questions posed to us by various major media outlets regarding the newsletter’s mention of Bundeswehr scouts allegedly already spotted in Lärz, as the Bundeswehr itself has publicly answered the central question we raised.
Our response — and we leave open whether it is satire, real satire, or polemic — has been stated clearly:
We will fight ‘to the last bullet’ for art, culture, freedom, and against war and fascism!
Create one, two, three, many Ritterbuschs*!
You will not get our site!
* In 2019, Neubrandenburg’s then police president, Ritterbusch, attempted to impose extensive conditions and a large-scale police deployment on the Fusion Festival, despite the absence of any substantiated threat. His demands — including a permanent police station directly on the festival grounds — were criticised nationwide as completely disproportionate. The conflict was later often cited as an example of real-life satire, as a security apparatus failed with over-dramatised scenarios while the festival itself has been considered extremely safe for years.
