Run, Man, Run! — An Attempt to Escape from a Place of Annihilation
At the end of January, Rainer Loehnert attempted to escape from a forensic psychiatric institution. Unfortunately his attempt failed, and since then he is detained in the isolation unit inside the closed psychiatric facility; thus, a prison within a prison.
Rainer is 53 years old and he is imprisoned for more than 28 years, currently in a forensic psychiatric institution in Bedburg-Hau, a small town in the north-west of Germany, near the German-Dutch border. But he doesn’t give up the fight for (his) freedom!
Rainer had participated in a solidarity hunger strike for the prisoners’ struggles in Greece (more info: en, gr, de).
And now he has acted according to his own motto: “Anarchy and total liberation is not for free!” (from a letter of Rainer, at the end of January 2015). So, he has once again faced up squarely to the “pigs in white” and took his life in his own hands. He didn’t want to await another humiliating psychological assessment, which certifies his “dangerousness” and “mental illness” at regular intervals. And this happens whether he is playing by their rules or rebelling against the “treatment” in captivity. A part of this perverse assessment says that the state/society deems it proper to lock Rainer away even for life: “You are a dangerous man, Mister Loehnert!” Also the filling with medicines is extremely important to the fascistic masterminds behind the scenes and to the nursing and medical staff. The harmful side effects (of the medicines) are “good” to be integrated into the “therapy,” or they are again treated with other medications. It is not surprising that he writes again and again that he doesn’t know for how much longer he will hold on or survive. As recently as January, shortly before his attempted escape, there was another dead person in this forensic psychiatric clinic: “nursed to death”!
For more than one month now, Rainer is held in isolation, and this means:
– being isolated from other inmates 24 hours a day (he only gets to see nurses);
– no walking in the yard (and even if he’s allowed to go to the yard, then only in handcuffs and legcuffs);
– his personal belongings were confiscated, and the remaining food items were trashed;
– own clothes are forbidden, just the hospital gown (known as “angel gown”) on the body;
– one cigarette three times a day;
– only one felt-tip pen, paper;
– restricted postal mail (he has to apply to the administration in advance, if he wants to receive a parcel);
– four surveillance cameras in his cell, at night with infrared;
– ceiling-mount loudspeaker;
– in mid-February, he wrote that he has received at least a couple of books.
Rainer will have to face a further trial, but he keeps his head up. They don’t get him down! And with his letters he puts a smile on our lips again and again, and encourages us. In his latest letter he continues: “… it’s a long way to go until a group is causing a revolt or an insurrection; in Germany the system and the psychological and economic constraints are really deep down inside people, it takes time, [but] it is possible[;] I know that!”
Still, we won’t leave Rainer alone. We want to fight together against this shitty and truly sickening prison-society. If you want to join the effort, you can write to Rainer, send him some money, annoy/attack psychiatric institutions and/or other forms of prison or whatever comes to your mind to sabotage this civilization that’s hostile to every living being.
His address:
Rainer Loehnert
Bahnstraße 6, 47551 Bedburg-Hau (Germany)
Solidarity and powerful greetings to Rainer!
Freedom for Rainer!
Freedom for all!
Death to every authoritarian society!
– anti-authoritarian accomplices –
Below is a text (see German version here) about Rainer’s situation. He is currently held in isolation in a forensic psychiatric institution in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Last summer, he participated in a solidarity hunger strike for the prisoners’ struggles in Greece. He recently attempted to escape from the psychiatric facility.