Danni Blog part 2:
The Danni is many things and definitely more than just a forest. A protest-camp, press area, the kitchen, support structures in surrounding cities and villages and more. Here’s an overview of how the place looks and how its logistics work. If you come from the village of Dannenrod, which is the closest to the Danni, you’ll first see a big camp full of tents of various sizes. To your right is the so-called Mahnwache or MaWa. A Mawa is form of continuous demonstration to which it is always legal to come. For the past year or so, it was only a small caravan, with two benches and a phone, but now it’s surrounded by all kinds of other infrastructure. There is an info-tent, where volunteers provide you with support around all kinds of topics, from asking where to put up your tent to where the next plenaries are. There is also an action tent, with information on how to join actions and what the police is up to on a given day. Of course, there is also a Medical tent, several tents for donations of (building) material and clothing and even a tiny bike repair space!
To your left, on the old sports field, there is a tent, where you can get food 3 times a day, a container for valuables, a stage and a couple of other, bigger tents with varying purposes. There’s also loads of portable toilets.If you turn back toward the village and go left, you’ll get to the community kitchen. The absolute legends that live there have allowed the occupation to use their barn for storage and access to water and their front yard for the kitchen tents. You can get coffee and tea there and help with the preparations for the next meal(s), which is always really fun. Ever cut 100 onions? Here’s your moment! In the same house, the church has created a space, where you can rest at specific times in the week. And then there is the Danni itself of course. If you walk for 5-10 minutes from the camp, you’re almost at the first Barrio. A Barrio is a vague collection of treehouses, one or more compost toilets and one or more fireplaces. There are bigger ones and smaller ones, in some cases, the Barrio is just a name for a location with one or more treehouses. New ones are always under construction. Each Barrio has its own character, which constantly changes with the people who live in it. New people are welcome to participate in each of them.
For the ones close to the camp, there are people who go to the community kitchen daily to collect warm food for the Barrio. You can sleep in your own tent, on a structure that’s reachable by ladder, in a barricade on one of the roads leading to the forest or all the way up in a treehouse. You can learn how to climb, construct platforms, span ropes across trees, how to cook for hundreds, how to do press work, how to play the guitar and more. Whatever you want to contribute to the place is welcome!
If you want to learn more, read the first part of this series with some context and practical info.
Or read the third part with more personal reflection of what the experience in the Danni feels like and what it means for the wider movement.