Berliners Strongly Dislike the Olympics: A One-Hour Photographic Study
Roger Horn February 20, 2014
In October of 2013, while in Berlin studying I heard rumors that the people inhabiting the city were not particularly fond of the Olympic Games for a number of relatively interesting reasons. On the 26th of the aforementioned month I found myself walking the streets of Berlin alone and slightly chilly, wishing that I had worn a more weather appropriate jacket when I stumbled upon a site (empty park in Kreuzberg) which offered me more than enough evidence to conclude that the rumors I was hearing around town about Berliners and their strong dislike of the Olympics were mostly true. The photographic evidence I collected is presented in the
following
pages
accompanied
by
text
(generalized
observations recorded while being harassed by an overweight child eating an ice cream cone) I noted at the site or obtained from the Internet to loosely support my claims.
Photo #1: Empty park bench with multiple discarded pages from an Olympic magazine, some sort of empty cookie packet, and a pair of sneakers (or trainers) depending on where you are geographically located.
Photo #2: One of only two photos found of the Winter Olympics (See photo #16). Berliners seem to mirror the rest of the world in their lack of interest in all things winter Olympic related (excluding Canada and a couple of Scandinavian countries).
Photo #3: I am fairly sure the man above is from Berlin. Like most Berliners he was not interested in the Olympics and as punishment for a petty crime he committed was forced to stand in front of this Olympic banner for 10 hours a day without his pants for the duration of the games.
Photo #4: Berliners not only dislike the Olympics, but also the color red…or any color. If you are going to be in a public space in Berlin it is mandatory that 90% of your garments are black. *no information available on clothing requirements within the home
Photo #5: Berliners find wrestling to be particularly offensive due to the lack of forward thinking in design that has gone into wrestling tights over the last century. It is rumored that many also feel the tights should include a long fuzzy tail.
Photo #6: Equestrian - 2nd most successful Olympic sport for Germany. No real horses were spotted while taking photos, but a woman (clearly a tourist) had a ruby encrusted horse shaped brooch pinned to her slightly oversized light brown trench coat.
Photo #7: Another Equestrian photo (proof that while Berliners strongly dislike the Olympics, the rest of the country seems to be exceedingly supportive of horses jumping over objects).
Photo #8: Text mentions Americans (no further translation available). The only thing Berliners dislike more than the Olympics are American braggarts.
Photo #9: Guns are frowned upon in Berlin. It is my belief that a passerby strategically placed the leaves in this photo.
Photo #10: No information available.
Photo #11: Berliners seem to lack the ability to see projects through to their completion and feel threatened by images of total concentration such as the one above. *Germans appreciate discipline, mechanical engineering, and small yellow objects.
Photo #12: Berliners are even more serious about wearing black in the pool than they are about wearing black on the streets (See Photo #4). The guy above was the unfortunate recipient of some sort of yellow ball to the face for violating Berlin’s black swim caps only in the pool rule.
Photo #13: Clearly the placement of these photos is meant to be some sort of hipster political statement, but like a majority of the things hipster related…abandoned caption.
Photo #14: Black swimming trunks? Awesome self-water splash photo? Jealous guy in smaller picture off to the left side? *Being handsome is not an official Olympic event
Ja (Yes) Ja (Yes) Ja (Yes)
Photo #15: An Olympic sport? Really?
Photo #16: The other Winter Olympics photo (See Photo #2).
Photo #17: Berliners dislike the Olympics so much that the page above seen lying in the grass was not deemed fit to go into the rubbish bin (or garbage can if you are in the United States).
As you have just seen and read there is no disputing the evidence that clearly points to the fact that Berliners dislike the Olympics. This study is the first of its kind and will not doubt anger the residents of Hannover as they are also rumored to dislike the Olympics, but I cannot be concerned with their feelings anymore as my wife no longer lives there and I did not have an hour free to travel there and take photographs. *Any comments or questions about this one-hour photographic study should be sent to anyone that was born in or has visited Berlin for more than three days.
All photos taken by Roger Horn October 26th, 2013 - Berlin, Germany. iPhone 5 Hipstamatic (Tinto 1884 + OG + Jolly Rainbo 2X)
Roger Horn 2014