Save The Clearing Barrel

The Clearing Barrel – GI Coffeehouse in Kaiserslautern has been open for nearly 4 years now.
It is based on the idea of the many GI Cafés that existed during the Vietnam War.
The Clearing Barrel and the non-profit Military Counseling Network e.V. in Kaiserslautern are the only places of this kind outside the USA where US soldiers have space to organize and to get counseling and information, for example on conscientious objection.

Since the abolition of compulsory service in the German Bundeswehr, this help and information has also become increasingly important for Bundeswehr soldiers and people who are considering joining the military for purely financial reasons and in response to promises of a “career”.

More and more deployments abroad and the accompanying increasingly aggressive recruitment efforts on the one hand and the growing numbers of conscientious objectors in the Bundeswehr on the other, but also the foreseeable outcomes of these deployments, both for those who return home and their




families and ultimately for society as a whole, make the independent work of the Military Counseling Network irreplaceable.
The experience we have acquired with members of the US military and veterans over the past 13 years has shown not only that we can place our anti-militarist work on a broader basis but also, by cooperation and solidarity with critical members of the military, that we can create a framework in which they can contribute their criticisms as well as their own experiences. This support also offers them the opportunity to come to terms with their own experiences and to express themselves politically.

This work must continue and be expanded, and we urgently need your support, among other things to finance a Bundesfreiwilligendienst (Federal Voluntary Service) position.
We are urgently looking for people who can make regular monthly contributions.

Apart from the work of the Military Counseling Network, in recent years The Clearing Barrel has also increasingly become a unique meeting place and venue for many political groups and committed people of all ages.

Hundreds of events—readings, theatrical performances and political events — have been held at The Clearing Barrel. It is, however, mainly the many free concerts with international artists that have made this a unique venue, especially in light of the political background.


In order to preserve the Café and the location of the non-profit association in Kaiserslautern we are holding two fundraising events in Kaiserslautern and Berlin.
Among other things we will be holding an “auction” of prints from the current exhibition “War is Trauma“ in order to continue the work of the non-profit association.