The Osnabrück anti-militarism initiative Rausmetall has teeth. Last Friday, in a guerrilla intervention, she redesigned Fernando Sánchez Castillo’s bronze sculpture Fountain of Wishes, a life-size policeman who has stood in the city’s Hase River for around 15 years, wearing body armor, a baton, a shield and a pump-action shotgun.
If the control device isn’t broken, the policeman pisses in a long stream. “Rausmetall” tied a mask to his helmet with a photo of the face of Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) on it. A massive plaster erection emerged over the original penis.
Pistorius gets excited about a painting that hangs in front of him, with battle tanks, grenades, explosions, soldiers. A sign was tied to the railing of the bridge, from which Osnabrück’s ex-mayor could be viewed particularly well: “‘War-crazy Boris’ – art installation, mixed media, 2026, anonymous.”
Rausmetall is not a fixed group, more of an action motto that many people use, some openly, others anonymously. It’s because of the plans of the arms company Rheinmetall founded, to take over the Osnabrück VW plant.
The police officer fits well with Pistorius, who was the police boss during his time as Lower Saxony’s interior minister. “And it is very martial,” an activist from Rausmetall explains the choice of location to the taz. “He almost seems like a soldier.” He keeps his name to himself: “Call me ‘member of the artist group Der war-horny Boris’.” The city probably won’t like the action, he predicts. “She’s not exactly standing out for her anti-militarist positions at the moment.”
The action is intended to “point out Pistorius’ perverse, warmongering political style.” In a statement, “Rausmetall” writes: “The world powers are ushering in a new colonial era and Germany wants to be at the forefront.” Osnabrück is also being “rebuilt to be ready for war”. One of the examples: Pistorius visits schools here. At the end of 2025, Pistorius was in the Graf Stauffenberg High School; it was about conscription.
Rausmetall has already shown a lot of bite in Osnabrück. At the end of 2025, the Heger Tor war memorial was anonymously redesigned with the message: “War-worthy? Not with us!”, also an allusion to Pistorius, who said in 2024 that Germany must “be war-worthy by 2029”. Non-clandestine forces from Rausmetall organize lectures, festivals, school strikes and demos.
When the taz visited war-crazed Boris on Friday afternoon, police officers were waiting for the fire department to remove his penis and mask: Boat? Waders? The mixed media sign has already been taken down. A man in uniform wonders how the taz knew it existed. He doesn’t seem to know that Rausmetall not only runs anonymous activism, but also a website with a contact telephone.
Non-clandestine forces from Rausmetall organize lectures, festivals, school strikes and demos
“The installed materials were removed and secured for further inspection,” wrote Jannis Gervelmeyer, spokesman for the Osnabrück police station, in a statement. They are investigating “on suspicion of damage to property as well as politically motivated insults/defamation crimes”. This is a case for state security, says Gervelmeyer.
None of this has yet reached the Osnabrück public prosecutor’s office. “I am not aware of any criminal charges yet,” writes Alexander Retemeyer, her spokesman. He assumes that “initially an unknown matter will be filed ex officio due to damage to the sculpture and insult to the detriment of the minister.”
However, not much is likely to happen when it comes to insults: in 2024, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that criticism of the state is part of freedom of expression. The state has “no protection of honor based on fundamental rights”.
There are currently no suspects in the public prosecutor’s investigation into Heger Tor, also for damage to property.
Update: The city of Osnabrück responded to the taz’s questions after the article was published. The “Fountain of Wishes” sculpture does not belong to the city, writes city spokesman Constantin Binder. “Basically, from the city’s point of view, protest stops where the limit to property damage is exceeded. It also doesn’t suit the peace city of Osnabrück that the actors act from anonymity – we prefer to talk and argue on an equal footing here.”
To Pistorius’s appearances Binder writes to Osnabrück students: The exchange between politicians and students is “basically welcome from the city’s perspective.” The city has “neither influence on the scheduling of the Federal Minister of Defense nor on the agendas of the Osnabrück schools.”
There is nothing new about the Heger Tor: “However, as was shown during the subsequent damage assessment, the paint could not be removed without also removing the gold-plated alloy historical inscription on the Heger Tor close.” This will now have to be laboriously reapplied, and the Heger Tor will have to be scaffolded for this. The restoration costs “many times over” the cleaning costs of 2,500 euros. Reports and cost estimates are not currently available.