A video showing urinals allegedly installed in German public transport generates thousands of views online. The recording arouses a lot of emotional comments, but also disbelief that something like this is possible in Germany. Well, it isn't.
At the beginning of December 2024, a rather peculiar recording was shared on social media: inside a carriage – a subway, passenger or suburban train – next to the entrance door you can see two metal urinals placed in view of potential passengers. “The Germans have installed urinals in public transport” – one of the users of website X described the video entry of December 6 this year viewed over 130 thousand Internet users. “Meanwhile, in the 'progressive' German metro they are installing urinals…” – it was repeated in entries on X of December 9 and 10.
Entries about urinals in the German subwayx.com
Some commenters asked about the purpose of such an alleged “innovation” in German trains. “Why? A cultured person does not satisfy his physiological needs in such places”; “Is Germany already the third world?”; “Why? I don't understand this idea. They shouldn't install it on trains,” they wrote. However, many Internet users did not believe in the truthfulness of the video. “I don't believe it. This is fake, right?”; “Is this a joke?”; “This is some joke, right?”; “Fuck you, what is this?”; “Is this real?” – they asked in the comments (original spelling of all entries).
So we show where the recording comes from.
The 'digital artist' behind the video
In fact, there is a message in German on the recording. The interior of the carriage is typical of suburban trains (German: S-Bahn). operating in Hamburg. However, another element is key: the Instagram icon and the account name “Hati.hati.mas” displayed on the side of the video. The name is pasted on the glass visible above the alleged urinal.
Just enter it into the Google search engine to find it accounts with this name on various social media. Their owner identifies himself as a “digital artist” and creator of “computer-generated imagery” (CGI). In his works, he superimposes computer animations and graphics on real recordings related to public communication. That's how the urinals recording was made.
On his accounts on Instagram and TikTok you can find the video in question with the caption: “'Hygienically useful': this is the verdict of the people responsible for inspecting the newly installed Trash-Toiletts on S-Bahn trains in Hamburg. The urinals are very popular among passengers and have been very well received. This is so exciting! Which innovation will #HatiHood introduce next?
“Criticism of change in large international cities”
In silhouette on the Affenfaust gallery website in Hamburg – which exhibits the works of Hati.hati.masa – we read that in the works of this anonymous artist “simple iPhone recordings of Hati's natural environment – train stations, train platforms and tracks – are transformed using 3D software into anarchist, in 99 “9 percent legal love letters to his personal nemesis.” The gallery explains that the artist's works are “artistic vandalism” and “leading philosophers of art interpret his work as a clear criticism of soulless structural changes in large, multi-ethnic cities.”
The video incorrectly signed on the Polish Internet as “The Germans installed urinals in public transport” is not the only work by Hati in which he used this element of bathroom fittings. In another piece, urinals were superimposed on the wall of a suburban railway station in Hamburg. However, the main motif of the artist's work are other animations: abstract shapes, eyeballs or three-dimensional graffiti applied by computer to various elements related to public communication.
Main photo source: x.com