Berliners rave against the motorway as extension threatens 20 cultural venues

Forget gluing yourself to the roadworthy successful protest. On Saturday Berliners demonstrated for the clime by blocking a main roadworthy with a elephantine rave.

Smoke machines, glitter balls and drinks stands were acceptable up amid the roadworthy signs and postulation lights, arsenic thousands of clubbers, clime activists and section residents turned a kilometre agelong of main roadworthy successful the eastbound Berlin territory of Friedrichshain into an outdoor dancefloor.

With the support of Berlin authorities, section night-clubs blocked the engaged roadworthy passim Saturday day and evening, pumping retired euphony from impromptu stages.

The ravers privation to halt Berlin's main motorway, the A100, being extended on this way and ripping done this cardinal municipality neighbourhood.

The six-lane motorway would destruct immoderate of Berlin's edgiest night-clubs including About Blank, Wilde Renate, Else, Oxi, Void and Club Ost.

Around 20 clubs and taste venues would beryllium demolished, arsenic good arsenic immoderate homes.

"It would beryllium a implicit nightmare. It makes maine truthful bittersweet and angry," says Selina, a clubber who lives adjacent and goes retired regularly here.

"So overmuch of Berlin's civilization would beryllium lost. It's conscionable not indispensable to person a motorway successful the centre of the city. We person specified bully nationalist transport."

Amperes, a DJ astatine About Blank who performed astatine the rave, says the protestation is not conscionable astir the demolition of the clubs but besides astir the environment.

"The road would bring utmost sound and contamination to the city. Honestly this is going to harm everybody. It's a nonsense task nary substance however you look astatine it."

Critics reason that the clubs are lone determination due to the fact that the country has been earmarked for the A100 hold for decades, meaning thing other was built here.

Germany's transport curate Volker Wissing and Berlin's politician Kai Wegner privation to widen the motorway to woody with the city's increasing colonisation and a rising complaint of car ownership.

They accidental it volition assistance postulation travel astir the metropolis centre alternatively than done it.

But activists constituent to studies indicating that much roads simply pb to much cars.

They reason that extending the A100 into eastbound Berlin would bring adjacent much postulation into an already congested centre.

The five-kilometre agelong of road volition outgo an estimated €1bn ($1.08bn; £806m) and they privation that wealth to spell to nationalist transport, motorcycle paths and amended pavements.

"Most radical my property successful Berlin deliberation it's a truly anserine idea," says Clara, a 21-year-old pupil and spokesperson for Fridays For Future.

"This is the astir costly motorway task successful Germany.

"For that wealth you could physique a bicycle lane from Berlin to Beijing. It's wholly insane to put successful this project."

The A100 is 1 of Germany's busiest motorways and encircles overmuch of cardinal occidental Berlin, and the hum of postulation is simply a changeless inheritance sound successful immoderate occidental districts.

Building the road started successful West Berlin successful 1958, erstwhile the metropolis was divided betwixt capitalist West and communist East - initially with the anticipation that it would 1 time beryllium a ringing roadworthy if Berlin was ever reunified.

The Autobahn was portion of West Germany's utopian post-war ideology of a modern capitalist metropolis: the car would beryllium king and factual highways would creaseless implicit the scars of a metropolis traumatised by war.

After German reunification successful 1991 Berlin had the situation of bringing unneurotic the transport systems of East and West and readying connected this hold began successful 1999.

The ravers warring motorways with euphony accidental this is nary longer the 1990s, fto unsocial the 1950s.

The protestation is portion of a ferocious ideological conflict implicit the car successful Berlin.

Conservative, wide and far-right politicians privation amended roads and much rights for drivers.

Greens and left-wingers accidental this undermines clime alteration goals and that Berlin is retired of measurement with different occidental cities, which are trying to bounds not promote car use.

"This conflict represents the tensions successful the metropolis and wrong German politics," says Elisabeth Steffen, spokesperson for About Blank, 1 of the clubs threatened by the motorway.

"It's a combat betwixt progressives forces and immoderate aged achromatic men successful suits who inactive person not accepted that it is simply a antithetic clip present and that they request to physique cities for the radical who unrecorded successful them."

Saturday's rave was not conscionable astir keeping Berlin cool. Many Berliners spot protests similar this arsenic a combat implicit the aboriginal of their city.