The team built a barrier at a DEKRA testing site in Neumünster near Hamburg in Germany with blocks that weigh 2.4 tonnes, similar to the ones currently being erected at Christmas markets.
The truck being used in the experiment was loaded to weigh 10 tonnes and driven at a speed of 50km per hour.
Also present at the test site were manufacturers and sellers of the barrier concrete blocks. According to Thomas Pampel, CEO of of the company Stoneland in Hamburg, no such tests have ever been conducted anywhere in either Germany or Europe.
And despite the fact that nobody knows whether these bollards are an effective safety measure, they have been deployed all over Europe as a counter-terrorism feature.
In Germany the blocks have been installed at Christmas markets in Magdeburg, Leipzig, Erfurt and in Dresden. In Dresden in 2016, some 80 000 euros were spent to cover the city in concrete blocks.
It turns out, shockingly, that these blocks – the heaviest available in the country, barely stop anything.
In the first test, the truck simply shifts the blocks, even at a low speed, to continue its path for another 50 metres. The damage to the front wheels actually only mean the driver is then unable to steer of brake the speeding vehicle.
This means that in fact a speeding truck could crash through the bollards and wipe out at least half of the Erfurt market while in Dresden the Altmarkt square is so small, that the speeding vehicle would wipe out the whole market.
Sadly, all other tests with different formations of the concrete blocks ended with similar results, even when the blocks were arranged in close proximity to one another.
This experiment revealed that the Merkel Blocks, or “Diversity barriers” were really just for show and they do not offer any protection to pedestrians at all.
In fact the blocks were shifted by the force of the impact in a similar way to billiard balls, displacing the kinectic energy so that the blocks themselves became moving projectiles.
Pampel himself admitted that his products were only a “pure placebo” for concerned citizens, while a DEKRA official noted that “This is more of a mental thing, reassurance for the visitors who sees ‘something is being done'”.
More shockingly, when Umschau approached the authorities of several cities about the tests, only Dresden accepted to view the results. The other cities refused to look at the footage.
The City of Cologne has meanwhile announced that they will hand out a “Respect!” wristband to each New Years’ Eve visitor. Mayor Henriette Reker introduced the campaign to the press.
Die Stadt @Koeln wird zu #Silvester eine #Respect-Kampagne starten und Armbändchen an alle Besucher verteilen. OB @HenrietteReker stellt das Projekt heute Mittag vor. #Koeln #köln #respekt #silvester2017 @ZDFheute pic.twitter.com/abInC6XkFC
— ZDF-Landesstudio Nordrhein-Westfalen (@ZDFnrw) December 13, 2017
According to Krone Zeitung, Reker’s plan was ridiculed on social media, similarly to comments she made shortly after the 2015 rape attacks calling on women to keep migrant men at “arm’s length”.
Other aspects of the campaign are: flyers asking to celebrate with respect in different languages. Especially French is important!
A series of controversial cartoons, encouraging people who can’t read German, to behave, have been described as particularly ineffective.
Visually the cartoons propose exactly the opposite of what they are supposed to convey. One shows a white woman being attacked by a fire cracker, while the campaign pretends that the cartoons are presented to “prevent” such attacks.