An Extraordinary Saturday

As you would expect, my hometown of Ludwigsburg (a city of about 90,000 residents) has a central train station. But unlike what you would expect of a city otherwise rather attractive for tourists, what with its three palaces, extensive palace grounds, historic market square and other places of interest, said train station does not contribute to a positive first impression, nor will it create lasting memories to look fondly back to years after a visit.

Well aware of the station's many issues, a committee (called Bahnhofsrat, "Station Council") was established by the City. Its members were chosen from a pool of volunteers. After some ups and downs, the original 15 narrowed down to 7 members, me being one of them.

Now, what can a small group of volunteers with no official position within the City and no budget do to improve things? We can point out issues, get in touch with those responsible and nag them until something happens. We can also make things happen, and that's what we did last Saturday.

Separating the rail tracks and platforms from the central bus station runs a low building of roughly 100 m in length. It houses a variety of shops and will be torn down in a year or three, when the entire central bus station is to be rebuilt.

To most people, the back of the building was a nondescript dirty white wall. But to one of our members, it was a blank canvas, ready to be turned into street art. After we discussed the idea in one of our fortnightly meetings, the young man got in touch with everyone he needed to present his idea and get the necessary permissions. He met with approval and enthusiasm, and the idea got off the ground rather quickly.

The Master Mind

All day Saturday, various groups of people (such as an association of Turkish parents in Ludwigsburg, school children and of course the Bahnhofsrat) could be observed along Platform 1, armed with spray cans and working on segments of the formerly featureless wall. 

A street artist had been engaged by the City to help and make sure the series of single works of art was coming together in the end. The majority of those who participated had never before done graffiti, and so the artist's instructions were very welcome.

Our turn was the last shift from 3:00 to 6:00 pm, which enabled us to see what the other groups had done before us. We set to work, and after some trial and error - and of course with help from the artist - a 100 m long piece of street art came about.

The youngest of our group. She's only 13 but already more talented than the rest of us together!

Yours Truly in action

One of our segments at various stages of work.

These parts were done before we arrived.

The artist putting final touches to it all.

The back of the Kebap place has been nicely integrated.

We are quite proud of it, and although we are realistic enough to know that our graffiti does not actually change the overall problems in and around the station, we find that it does improve the atmosphere. Sometimes small changes can indeed make a difference.