Almost everyone knows it: the sense that
nothing can really be done about the course of
world events, or the burning crises of our times.
Ohnmacht* is a sobering and paralyzing feeling
that can be overpowering – but there is seldom
opportunity to talk about it, and ideas on how to
deal with it are few and far between.
To address this situation, in 2023 FORUM
STADTPARK renames itself “Fortress Ohnmacht”
and puts forward a number of possibilities for
action. Birke Gorm’s “Ohnmacht Monument”
invites visitors to reflect on the topic, while in
“Archive for Ohnmacht”, it is possible to listen
to experiences of Ohnmacht and ways to deal
with it, gathered from activists working in a wide
range of contexts. A “Cellar for Leftist Preppers”
uses dark humour to deal with the motif of
fortification in response to the threat of total
societal collapse, while in “Hotel Bellevue”, guests
will spend all night discussing the question of
how to “prep” in order to avoid landing in a future
defined by bunkers and fortresses.

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A series of events titled “Café End Times” casts
a melancholy and critical gaze on the fading
present-day and future worlds that will no longer
come to be, while an “Ohnmacht Zine” sums up
strategies and builds bridges between theory and
concrete action.

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“No Hope No Fear” confronts Ohnmacht with
both humour and bitter earnestness, asking
the question: how might we come to grips with
feelings of powerlessness and expand our frame
of view to consider forms of collective power
and action? Perhaps the doctrine of hope will be
replaced not with resignation, but with a new,
fresh courage.