"It is a species that has lived in Europe for many centuries" "It has lived among humans for a long time, and it usually knows what to expect from them" "With the necessary precautions it settles in the city, right next to us" "Wild rabbit" " Oryctolagus cuniculus - also once inhabited Potsdamer Square in central Berlin" "After the Second World War there was not much left of the once vibrant metropolitan centre" "Food was scarce in the destroyed city" "The vegetable patches and farmers' fields at Potsdamer Square lured hungry rabbits from the whole city" "But the Square wasn't able to feed everyone" "The rabbits' access to food became more and more difficult" "One day on the meadow there appeared something." "It was something that would radically change the rabbits' fate" "The wire fences that up to now had kept the rabbits from reaching the vegetables began to grow and soon covered the entire area" "But these new fences were built, not just around the crops, but the entire meadow" "With time sturdier constructions came to replace the fences." "People gathered near the meadow in a panic, making noise and gesturing as though they wanted to convey something to the rabbits." "Day and night they stood there, sending their unintelligible signals" "The situation went on for quite a long time and people behaved even more unusually" ""Don't shoot to the Germans!"" ""This murder cannot be justified"" ""Anti-fascist barrier"" ""Nobody is going to build a wall"" "Rabbits are timid by nature Often they run away, "just in case"" "When they feel threatened, they will hide in their burrows" "This is how they survive" "After a while, the cacaphony grew quiet" "The rabbits' old familiar meadow had become unrecognizable" "It was a day just like today" "The sun wasn't shining, and I think the sky was cloudy" "I came here to take a picture of Fontan's tombstone" "Here you could see that the city was divided in half, because the wall went through the middle of the cemetery" "First I wanted to take pictures of angels" "Suddenly I saw a rabbit sitting over there" "And then I forgot about everything else" "I took pictures of the rabbit hoping he won't move" "Because he appeared like a sculpture sitting in front of those two tank barricades." "It turned out that, when the rabbits were sitting in their burrows on the other edge of the meadow another wall was erected" "The only thing they could do, was just move along the walls looking for an exit" "Soldiers were everywhere" "Dogs on chains didn't let them get anywhere close to the wall" "Rabbits traveled kilometers but the wall on both sides never ended." "On their way they passed structures of an uncertain purpose." "After few days they finally reached a place that looked familiar" "It was the place they had come from, Potsdam Square, their old meadow" "They thus understood that they were trapped on a strip of land, trapped between two walls" "On a strip that surrounded all of West Berlin" "When you stood for 8 hours on the tower and got bored then the only diversion was to watch the rabbits." "Beside that nothing else was happening here" "We had machine guns and every shot had to be reported" "Why shots were fired, if there was an attempt to cross the border, or whatever" "So you couldn't shoot at the rabbits" "Every shot would raise an alarm and immediately it would have had military consequences." "So nobody was shooting at least not at the rabbits." "I think that the refugees, who passed through here from time to time, would not have been a big problem to rabbits" "It wouldn't have interfered with their little world" "This was probably too rare an occurrence anyways" "If somebody would have passed here every 10 minutes, the rabbits surely would have left, they would say to themselves, "they distract us too much, we can't graze here peacefully"" "Slowly, the rabbits became accustomed to the new place" "They began to sense, instinctively, that the guards were here to look after their safety;" "that the double wall was to ward off the enemy, who remained outside, strictly segregated" "They didn't see enemies in us, or those, who want to catch them." "In fact it was a rather peaceful coexistence, the guards and the rabbits" "(We are the soldiers of the army of the proletariat)" "The rabbits had more and more trust in the soldiers" "(We from the forest, we from the cities)" "In time, they even got to know them from a different, private side" "(To protect the republic in every hour, our republic)" "(To protect the homeland/fatherland in every hour from the war)" "The rabbits finally understood that they were imprisoned for their own good" "From the rabbits' perspective it seems good" "They are safe from enemies here" "Neither cats nor dogs threaten them" "Everywhere here they have patches of short and beautiful grass," "As the color indicates- very juicy grass" "They have a place to hide too" "Everywhere here we have tank barricades, where they can hide, from the sun as well" "For a rabbit it's almost like a zoo, a well maintained zoo." "Rabbits are known for their reproductive capabilities" "The female becomes pregnant up to 5 times a year and in one litter she can give birth to even 12 bunnies" "Then I thought: man, how is it possible?" "It was exactly like in Australia:" "The first British came with two rabbits and after only 10 years there were millions of rabbits in Australia." "Here there were relatively many" "At the Potsdam Square, probably thousands" "At a glance, one could see one-hundred, two-hundred sitting rabbits." "The rabbits reproduced so fast, that within a few years they inhabited the whole 120km long strip of meadows between the walls" "The first thing I thought was, that the rabbits between the walls are stupid" "Because they allow themselves to be imprisoned" "They voluntarily went where nobody wants to be" "I think they are pretty clever" "Otherwise they wouldn't have hit on the idea, to hide over there, where nobody's going to hunt for them" "They move in such a way, that they look like as if they were naturally happy there" "It was a Rabbitland" "In the following years the rabbits had regularly-sown grass, to which all individuals had equal access" "Their basic needs had been answered" "Each rabbit family had their small but safe burrow with an entrance hidden in the shade of one of the tank barricades" "Settlements of identical burrows stretched along the whole strip of walls and there was no need to fight for better territory" "The life of the rabbits between the walls was close to ideal" "The developers of the rabbit meadow wanted to boast their deed" "They invited guests from around the world who all seemed fairly impressed" "Also, newcomers from the west wall were looking at the rabbit meadow," "But their expressions were as if they feared something" "Their misgivings about the violation of the rights of nature didn't get through to the rabbits" "Happy animals didn't have to do anything" "Having what they desired they seemed as if they hadn't a care in the world" "Bit by bit they became passive and apathetic" "They couldn't influence anything anyways" "This did not escape the developers' attention" "They appointed a new landowner" "A true animal lover" "He expressed it at every possible occasion" "Rabbits in particular, were the apple of his eye" "His first act was to raise the height of the wall" "Solid concrete blocks were put in place and every last crack was sealed." "there were new alarm systems" "More and more dogs guarded the rabbits' security" "Soon the lamps were turned on" "The rabbits could sleep peacefully" "The rabbits didn't feel like in a prison" "They had a lot of space" "They could move across the whole border zone" "It was almost as if they weren't imprisoned" "They could move freely were they wanted" "The new landowner did everything he could to make the rabbit meadow the best place to live." "He was just worried whether the rabbits, being animals, would be able to appreciate his effort" "I can imagine, that animals that are forced to survive single-handedly will have more incentive to develop their brain, than those that live in groups." "Therefore, animals who live in groups might be less intelligent than the others." "The population fully accommodated to life between the walls." "Despite that just one kind of grass was sown, it was nevertheless juicy and nutritious" "There were whole generations born here" "The outside world practically did not exist for them" "Years passed" "The rabbits went on in harmony, without major changes and threats" "The lack of predators and the abundance of food meant they survived easily, even in the winter time" "A state had been reached, which rabbits never experienced before in the entire history of the species." "I noticed that they have tunnels" "They were smart enough to dig tunnels under walls, that were built without foundations" "They passed to the west side and ate food that tourists had left behind" "Without knowing why, some rabbits began to tunnel under the wall" "The underground tunnel-systems that rabbits build can be very big." "The tunnels that were measured, spanned across the area of over 150m; they had in total 500m length and were 3-4m deep." "Nobody expected that among rabbits there would be individuals acting against the colony" "They were courageous, clever and fast" "I was young then, and I thought, that I'm just like them, so I'll paint a big painting for them, an homage to the rabbits." "It was quite encouraging to see, over and over again those brave little guys managing their life." "Back then I made a postcard for my friends with a rabbit, for Easter, of course" "Since 1972 we were organizing a children's festivity under the rabbit flag, and it was liberating for us" "Under this peaceable flag, together we could fight for our rights, which normally we were denied." "Therefore, what else should I have painted, if not the rabbits?" "Especially knowing they live just behind the wall" ""Once a rabbit always a rabbit!"" "The landowner was disappointed and upset that rabbits were running away" "So he decided to act:" "He began with a radical cleansing of the meadow" "The guards were observing the rabbits' every move" "They took up the grass, to track their flight paths on the bare dirt" "They infilled suspicious burrows" "They considered it their priority to keep the rabbits between the walls, at all costs" "Then I noticed that the guards are trying to eradicate the rabbits using something that they spray on the grass." "It was something red." "To remove the grass effectively they began using chemicals" "The only food of rabbits had been poisoned" "Epidemic was hanging in the air" "The rabbits were running under towers on the ground." "They were coming at night and we fed them" "After duty we were allowed to catch them and take them to the barracks" "We organized races and put on collars, so everybody knew whose rabbit it was." "Afterwards they were so agitated, because, after all, rabbits are stupid, and in the end we were secretly taking them home." "There was some western journalist," "I don't know if it was Loewe, who said, that the soldiers shoot at the refugees like at rabbits" "The old prohibition had been revoked" "Now one could do with rabbits whatever they wanted" "Imprisoned for their own safety, they lived in fear, like none before them ever had" "Years went on and it seemed that nothing could change" "One night, seemingly no different than in years before, at the old Potsdam Square, something unusual began to happen" "This time the rabbits didn't even know where to hide." "If Honecker were right and the wall would be standing for the next 100 years," "There might have been an evolution" "A new breed of rabbits would arise" "What would have happened, if the wall stayed longer?" "Surely there would have been an epidemic" "I think it's possible, because the rights of the nature were disturbed" "Suddenly leaving the rabbit meadow became possible and very easy" "They only needed to jump through a hole in the wall that nobody was watching" "The curiousity was stronger than fear of leaving the old enclave" "The rabbits saw those things for the first time, things that, for other rabbits in the world, were natural" "It turned out that humans are not only soldiers that besides their grass there were other tastes and smells that there were things that the rabbits had never dreamed of, because they didn't remember, that somebody had once taken it all away from them" "They felt now as though somebody had given it all back to them as a present" "When the wall fell, this whole Falkplatz was full off rabbits." "So, in the morning we went hunting" "We shot one or two rabbits, brought it up to the kitchen," "Well, how can you prepare a rabbit?" "In a sour cream sauce," "Or roasted, or the haunch" "At some point, after three weeks of eating rabbits over and over again, you couldn't stand the look of them" "The bones were stuck in your throat" "Hunt on for 40,000 rabbits." "Hunters with ferrets wanted." "Hawks from Tiergarten are going to get the rabbits." "In the face of 10,000 rabbits, even Simson the fox is helpless" "The deputy and the plague of rabbits" "Will the rabbits ruin the Tiergarten?" "The plague of rabbits in Tiergarten:" "what does the government have to say?" "Not only citizens file complaints" "It quickly became clear that there were too many rabbits and in the new world there wasn't enough space for all of them" "They became regular vermin again" "They were a disturbances everywhere and everywhere there were chased away" "Many rabbits missed the old meadow, the place that belonged to them" "Now they could only watch as the wall that had protected them was finally taken apart" "They saw old guards who didn't seem to respond to that" "They also dissapeared in the end" "If any animal in Berlin ever had a chance to start a new life, then these were the young rabbits" "They weren't as jaded as the old generations, they were more adaptable" "They are like that by nature and that is why they were able to build a new population which, given their reproductive capabilities, was no problem" "I think that now, all these living rabbits are actually the children of those young immigrants from behind the wall" "The old rabbit meadow at Potsdam Square has been developed for the needs of another species" "The rabbits had to find a new place for themselves" "To this day they watch it, just from a distance" "They returned to that life, harmonious with their own nature"