German punks launch ‘invasion’ of holiday island favoured by elite

Photograph: Aktion Sylt said it aimed to make ‘safe retreats for fascist subsidy collectors, tax-evading Nazi heirs and backward world destroyers things of the past!’ Photograph: Fabian Bimmer/Reuters

Punks from across Germany have set up a summer-long protest camp on the North Sea holiday island of Sylt to demonstrate against economic exclusion, environmental degradation and the presence of the far right in one of the country’s most exclusive areas.

For the third consecutive year, the young leftwingers with mohawks, torn T-shirts and facial piercings began descending on Sylt at the weekend, mainly by train, to disrupt the seasonal repose of the elites.

The Aktion Sylt pressure group said it aimed to make “safe retreats for fascist subsidy collectors, tax-evading Nazi heirs and backward world destroyers things of the past!”

Their presence has been registered with the authorities, who have ordered the encampment’s residents to sleep in tents, use chemical toilets and dispose of their own litter until the site is dismantled by midday on 6 September, said Hans-Martin Slopianka, a district spokesperson for North Frisia.

Appointed stewards wearing security vests or white armbands must be visibly present and enforce the agreed rules. The punks launched an online donation campaign to fund the additional facilities.

“We assume the protest camps will remain peaceful,” Florian Korte, a Sylt administration spokesperson, told the news agency dpa. “The talks with the police, the North Frisia district and the regulatory authorities have been very constructive.”

Marvin Bederke of Aktion Sylt said he expected up to 300 participants – the agreed limit – at the improvised campsite near the local airport, where private planes bring the rich and famous of the EU’s top economy to enjoy the island’s windswept charms.

The protesters have agreed to move to another field just to the south after a week.

The protests began in 2022, when Germany introduced a €9 (£7.60) monthly ticket for unlimited public transport across the country in an effort to curb soaring inflation while cutting carbon emissions.

The punks seized the opportunity for a summer “invasion” of Sylt, to the horror of its well-heeled seasonal residents, which was gleefully documented in the tabloids.

The remote island became easily accessible by car to city dwellers a century ago with the construction of the Hindenburg causeway connecting it to the mainland. Its reputation as a playground for the upper classes grew rapidly, driving up prices for housing and pushing out many longtime residents over the decades.

Activists criticise the “gentrification” in the community’s small villages, meaning that most people who work at Sylt’s designer shops, restaurants, bars and private clubs often can no longer afford to live on the island and have to commute.

Then in May, some partygoers were caught chanting a Nazi slogan at an upmarket Sylt club, in a video that went viral.

The clip showed the group drinking and dancing together to the 2001 song L’amour Toujours by the Italian musician Gigi D’Agostino, with some singing the ultranationalist slogan “Germany for the Germans – foreigners out” in place of the song’s apolitical lyrics.

The images struck many commentators as a chilling revelation of how far-right ideology had penetrated bourgeois circles of German society.

A small group of punks gathered on Sylt soon after with a banner reading “loud against the far right” and promised a strong mobilisation for this year’s protest camp.