“Adenauer SRP+”: Command Post Of Civil Society

Since January 2025, an exceptional vehicle has been a talking point: an extensively converted prisoner transporter, the “Adenauer SRP+”. What is behind it is an artistic-political project by the artist collective “Zentrum für Politische Schönheit” (ZPS, Political Beauty). The aim: to draw attention with over 2400 pieces of evidence for the anti-constitutional stance of AfD and through effective technology to the “overwhelming burden of proof” and bring about a prohibition of AfD.

For ZPS, the Adenauer SRP+ is far more than a means of transport. It is a stage, exhibition, protest – and serves a wide range of purposes: firstly, as a stage and to support the civil protest, secondly as a mobile TV and streaming studio, and thirdly as a tool to disrupt extreme right events. Sometimes the Adenauer acts as a mobile protest stage or it receives politicians, sometimes it disrupts AfD events with fact projections, sometimes it streams live on social networks. What remains are images: of encounters, debates, resistance. And a message that remains imprinted on the mind and has been taken up by leading media.

The Adenauer SRP+, originally planned as a temporary project until the federal election, soon became a symbol of active and determined resistance against right-wing extremism. In view of the still increasing popularity of AfD, it will now be transferred permanently to “regular duty”. This has been made possible by over 10,000 people who supported the project through crowdfunding – and can continue to do so on www.der-adenauer.de.

The vehicle’s route is determined by the community. Suggestions for use are gathered by “Adenauer Reisen” (‘Adenauer Travels’) and are followed on that basis – always where democracy is under particular pressure. Not always without resistance: During the first months there were repeated conflicts with the police, who seized the SRP+, controlled it and sometimes even put it out of action.

Despite this, the vehicle remains on the road. With over 15 police controls and five full technical MOTs within a short space of time, ZPS speaks of the “most tested vehicle in Germany” and a “systematic obstruction of protest and massive interventions into artistic freedom by the Berlin police”. “The Berlin police wanted to find things that are prohibited,” according to Arne Heyen from ZPS. “But it always led to the same finding: Everything is in order.”