From Preservation to Social Unrest
Shouldn't preservation be a genuinely conservative concern? "Conserving" old stuff, what could be possibly more conservative? So it surprised sociologists, urban designers, community activists and preservationists alike that in 2009 and 2010 up to 45,000 people took to the streets of Stuttgart, Germany to preserve parts of a station building and some old trees in a park. Marching in the streets with banners and slogans hadn't been a conservative trademark before.
The faces of the demonstrators were not those of the young and "the unwashed" as stereo-typically associated with protesters worldwide. The TV showed faces from the middle class, elderly people as one would meet them in expensive restaurants, the symphony hall or in the bank line. Stuttgart police didn't get the message and attacked the demonstrators ruthlessly with water cannons and tear gas. The images from the "Stuttgart 21" battle were so impressive, they went around the world. Preserving an old train station and fixing it up for high speed rail had become a