Atonal music to drive the homeless away
Deutsche Bahn is planning to play atonal music at the Hermannstrasse S-Bahn station in Berlin-Neukölln in a pilot project to drive away homeless people and drug addicts. The German Music Council is outraged.
In an age of acoustic pollution, Deutsche Bahn is using music as a weapon, explains Christian Höppner, Secretary General of the German Music Council. Instead of providing sufficient staff to enforce the house rules and ensure safety, people are being overstimulated by continuous sound and thus kept away.
The claimed "perceived gain in security" is a farce and the eviction of homeless people and drug addicts has already not worked in Hamburg. This attempt to instrumentalize music in public spaces is unspeakable and discriminates against composers, regardless of the style.
The German Music Council is calling on Richard Lutz, Chairman of the Board of Deutsche Bahn, to put an end to this sound bombardment.
