Squatting in Hamburg

The modern political squatting movement began in Hamburg, Germany, when Neue Große Bergstraße 226 was occupied in 1970. Squatters wanted to provide housing for themselves amongst other demands such as preventing buildings from being demolished and finding space for cultural activities. The Hafenstraße buildings were first occupied in 1981 and were finally legalized after a long political struggle in 1995. The still extant Rote Flora self-managed social centre was occupied in 1989. Squatting actions continue into the present; more recent attempts are quickly evicted, although the Gängeviertel buildings were squatted and legalized in the 2010s.

1970s

File:Hamburg-Altona-Altstadt Neue Große Bergstraße.jpg

On 6 October 1970, thirty hippies squatted a derelict hotel on Neue Große Bergstraße 226 in Hamburg. They were immediately evicted by police and then the owner decided to rent out rooms to them for 60 Deutsche Marks each until the building was demolished. The hippies were again evicted by the police one month later on the grounds that petty crime in the area had increased and then occupied a house at Funkstrasse 18 in Altona.

Students squatted two houses in the Karolinenviertel in December and were evicted a day later. The Siechenhauses in St. Georg was occupied for four days and then evicted.{{cite book |editor1-last=Baer |editor1-first=Willi |editor2-last=Dellwo |editor2-first=Karl-Heinz |title=Wir wollen alles – Hausbesetzungen in Hamburg [We want it all – Squatting in Hamburg] |date=2013 |publisher=Laika-Verl |location=Hamburg |isbn=978-3-942281-18-8 |edition=1. Aufl}}{{rp|7–21}} The University of Hamburg owned buildings at Schlump in the borough of Eimsbüttel. It demolished some but was prevented from knocking down the Schröderstift building by a student occupation in 1971. A tenants group was formed and made a deal with the city council, which also wanted to preserve the monumental building.{{cite news |last1=von der Laden |first1=Alice |title=Besetzte Häuser in Hamburg: Diese Mauern tragen Geschichte [These squats in Hamburg carry history within their walls] |url=https://kiekmo.hamburg/artikel/stadt-verkehr/besetzte-haeuser-hamburg |access-date=19 January 2022 |work=Kiekmo |date=16 February 2021 |language=de-DE}}

In 1973, Der Spiegel reported that around 60 squatters had barricaded themselves inside Ekhofstrasse 39, in the Hohenfelde district. Participants had come from Berlin, Bremen and Frankfurt; the police and the owner decided not to react, hoping that the protest would dwindle.{{cite news |title=Blumen für die Dame [Flowers for the lady] |url=https://www.spiegel.de/politik/blumen-fuer-die-dame-a-875ab1de-0002-0001-0000-000042602674 |access-date=19 January 2022 |work=Der Spiegel |date=29 April 1973 |language=de}} The squatters were students, workers and members of the Proletarian Front (Proletarischen Front) who wanted to provide themselves with housing.{{cite book |last1=Amantine |title="Die Häuser denen, die drin wohnen!" kleine Geschichte der Häuserkämpfe in Deutschland |date=2012 |location=Münster |isbn=9783897711150 |edition=1. Aufl}}{{rp|10}} Karl-Heinz Dellwo took part in the Ekhof occupation and later joined the Red Army Faction.{{rp|290}} The occupation of Haynstraße 1–3 in 1975 was carried out by existing tenants and therefore was not strictly squatting, but the building was linked to the squatters movement and has resisted speculators for over forty years.{{cite news |last1=Wittershagen |first1=Michael |title=Haynstraße 1, Hamburg: Hausbesetzer mit grauen Haaren [Squatters with grey hair] |url=https://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/haynstrasse-1-hamburg-hausbesetzer-mit-grauen-haaren-1490433.html |access-date=22 January 2022|date=13 December 2007 |work=FAZ |language=de}}{{cite web |title=Mietergruppe Hayn-/Hegestrasse WP:SHOUTING|url=https://hayn-hegestr.de/?c=chronik |access-date=22 January 2022 |language=de-DE}}

1980s

File:Schanzenstraße 41a Hamburg-Sternschanze.jpg

During the 1980s, a squatters movement existed in Hamburg and had links to Berlin and also Amsterdam.{{cite book |last1=Owens |first1=Lynn |title=Cracking under pressure: Narrating the decline of the Amsterdam squatters' movement |date=2009 |location=Amsterdam |isbn=9789089640598 |page=79}} In order to prevent its growth, the state minister Alfons Pawelczyk decided that no squat in Hamburg would be permitted to last longer than 24 hours and thus many attempts at occupation were quickly evicted.{{cite book |last1=Prömmel| first1=Erdmann |editor1-last=Baer |editor1-first=Willi |editor2-last=Dellwo |editor2-first=Karl-Heinz |chapter=Hausbesetzungen in Hamburg [Squatting in Hamburg] |title=Wir wollen alles – Hausbesetzungen in Hamburg [We want it all – Squatting in Hamburg] |date=2013 |publisher=Laika-Verl |location=Hamburg |isbn=978-3-942281-18-8 |edition=1. Aufl}}{{rp|25}}

In 1983, the Hamburger Abendblatt recorded that 57 squatters had been arrested and were on trial for occupying a former police station at Billstedt in Hamburg-Mitte, the previous year. The squatters were fined.{{cite news |title=Geldstrafen für die Hausbesetzer von Billstedt |url=https://www.abendblatt.de/archiv/1983/article202690663/Geldstrafen-fuer-die-Hausbesetzer-von-Billstedt.html |access-date=19 January 2022 |work=Hamburger Abendblatt |date=18 February 1983 |language=de-DE}} Amongst the arrestees was a Grün-Alternative Liste Hamburg (GAL) politician.{{cite news |title=Auch Ebermann soll vor Gericht erscheinen [Also Ebermann should appear before court] |url=https://www.abendblatt.de/archiv/1983/article202687881/Auch-Ebermann-soll-vor-Gericht-erscheinen.html |access-date=19 January 2022 |work=Hamburger Abendblatt |date=8 February 1983 |language=de-DE}}

Schanzenstraße 41a was occupied in 1987, the first of many squats in the then run-down area of Sternschanze.{{cite web |title=Schanzenstraße |url=https://www.schanze-eg.de/projekte-auswahl/schanzenstrasse/ |website=Schanze |access-date=19 January 2022}} The squat was legalized and a housing co-operative was set up to run the 50 apartments. In 2007, the police attempted to storm the co-operative during the Asia–Europe Meeting after riots in the local district. Whilst doing so, 170 police officers tear gassed themselves by accident.{{cite news |last1=Appen |first1=Kai von |title=Die Polizei zu Besuch: Risiko Wohnprojekt |url=https://taz.de/Die-Polizei-zu-Besuch/!5163168/ |access-date=19 January 2022 |work=Die Tageszeitung |date=12 May 2009 |language=de}}

In 1989, Kleiner Schäferkamp 46a was squatted and evicted the same day.{{cite news |title=Schanzenviertel: Randale zum Hafengeburtstag [Schanzenviertel: Rioting on the harbour's birthday] |url=https://taz.de/!1813403/ |access-date=19 January 2022 |work=Die Tageszeitung |date=5 May 1989 |pages=21 |language=de}} The building was later reoccupied and became legalized as a housing project, with an infoshop on the ground floor called Schwarzmarkt. In 2019, the project complained that the police had illegally set up a hidden camera to monitor the house from across the street.{{cite news |last1=Fischer |first1=Martin |title=Wohnprojekt heimlich überwacht [Housing project secretly monitored]|url=https://www.welt.de/print/die_welt/hamburg/article188443817/Wohnprojekt-heimlich-ueberwacht.html |access-date=19 January 2022 |work=Die Welt |date=8 February 2019 |language=de}}{{cite news |last1=Herder |first1=Daniel |title=Linkes Wohnprojekt mit versteckter Kamera überwacht? [Left-wing housing project monitored with hidden camera?] |url=https://www.abendblatt.de/hamburg/article216388611/Linkes-Wohnprojekt-mit-versteckter-Kamera-ueberwacht.html |access-date=19 January 2022 |work=Hamburger Abendblatt |date=7 February 2019 |language=de-DE}}

= Hafenstraße =

File:Hamburg hafenstrasse von hafen aus.JPG

The Hafenstraße occupation began in 1981, when twelve buildings were squatted. They were to become extremely important symbols for the German squatters movement and for urban activists more generally.{{cite book |last1=Scheller |first1=David |last2=Larsen |first2=Henrik Gutzon |editor-last3=Hagbert |editor-first3=Pernilla |editor-last4=Thörn |editor-first4=Håkan |editor-last1=Gutzon Larsen |editor-first1=Henrik |editor-last2=Wasshede |editor-first2=Cathrin |title=Contemporary Co-housing in Europe Towards Sustainable Cities? |date=2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-45017-4 |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9780429450174-7/urban-activism-co-housing-david-scheller-henrik-gutzon-larsen |language=en |chapter=Urban activism and co-housing|doi=10.4324/9780429450174-7 |s2cid=213789454 }}{{cite news |title=Hafenstraße: Kampf um Hamburgs besetzte Häuser [Hafenstraße: The fight for Hamburg's squatted houses] |url=https://www.ndr.de/geschichte/schauplaetze/Hamburger-Hafenstrasse--Kampf-um-besetzte-Haeuser,hafenstrasse155.html |access-date=19 January 2022 |work=NDR |date=14 February 2020 |language=de}} The squatters then signed a three-year temporary use contract and argued they should be permitted to restore the buildings themselves. This led to conflict with the city council which repeatedly attempted to evict them.{{cite news |title=Der Kampf um die Hafenstraße – eine Chronologie [The battle for Hafenstrasse – a chronology] |url=https://www.ndr.de/geschichte/schauplaetze/Hamburgs-Hafenstrasse-Chronologie-eines-Konflikts,hafenstrasse153.html |access-date=19 January 2022 |work=NDR |date=5 December 2019 |language=de}} In the 1980s, Hafenstraße became a centre for autonomist and anti-imperialist politics.{{cite book |last1=Geronimo |title=Fire and flames: A history of the German autonomist movement |date=2012 |publisher=PM Press |location=Oakland, CA |isbn=978-1-60486-097-9 |pages=140–145}}{{cite book |last1=Karpantschof |first1=René |last2=Mikkelsen |first2=Flemming |editor-last=Katzeff |editor-first1=Ask |editor-last2=van Hoogenhuijze |editor-first2=Leendert |chapter=Youth, Space, and Autonomy in Copenhagen: The Squatters' and Autonomous Movement, 1963–2012 |title=The City is Ours: Squatting and autonomous movements in Europe from the 1970s to the present |date=2014 |publisher=PM Press |location=Oakland |isbn=978-1-60486-683-4 |page=189}}

In November 1987, a contract was signed at the last minute and the barricades were dismantled. Dohnanyi later received the Theodor Heuss medal for avoiding conflict. He had previously described Hafenstraße as a "wound in the city" ("eine Wunde in der Stadt"). In February 1995, the Hamburg Senate finally decided to sell the remaining houses to the inhabitants for around 2 million Deutsche Marks. The co-operative Alternativen am Elbufer (Alternatives beside the Elbe) took on the ownership. In 1998, The Independent newspaper referred to Hafenstraße as "the most famous squat in the world".{{cite news |last1=Gracie |first1=Sarah |title=From merchants to millionaires |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/from-merchants-to-millionaires-1200826.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220524/https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/from-merchants-to-millionaires-1200826.html |archive-date=24 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=19 January 2022 |work=The Independent |date=26 September 1998 |language=en}}

= Rote Flora =

File:Flora Schulterblatt Januar 2018 (1).jpg

The Rote Flora was squatted on 1 November 1989 and has remained squatted ever since. At the beginning the occupiers were very much focused on local struggles and as time went by, the Rote Flora has developed into a self-managed social centre connected to left-wing, anarchist activism, with links to similar projects in Amsterdam, Berlin and Copenhagen.{{cite journal |last1=Birke |first1=Peter |title=Autonome Sehenswürdigkeit. Die Rote Flora und die Hamburger Stadtentwicklung seit den späten 1980er Jahren [Autonomous Vision: The Rote Flora and Hamburg's urban development since the 1980s] |journal=Sozial Geschichte Online |date=2014 |volume=13}} The building provides a music venue, an infoshop, a social movement archive, a bar, a cafe, rehearsal rooms and a bicycle repair workshop. Following riots in the Schanzeviertel during the 2017 G20 Hamburg summit, right-wing commentators demanded that the Rote Flora was closed down.{{cite news |last1=Wüllenweber |first1=Walter |title=Macht kaputt, was uns kaputt macht! – Warum die Rote Flora weg muss |url=https://www.stern.de/politik/deutschland/rote-flora--warum-das-autonome-zentrum-im-hamburger-schanzenviertel-weg-muss-7538968.html |access-date=22 January 2022 |work=Stern |date=14 July 2017 |language=de}} The Rote Flora distanced itself from the rioters, with a spokesperson saying: "that a form of militancy was brought onto the streets which was intoxicated with itself, and we find that both politically and in terms of content wrong" ("dass hier eine Form von Militanz auf die Straße getragen wurde, die sich selbst berauscht hat und das finden wir politisch und inhaltlich falsch").{{cite journal |last1=Jones |first1=A |title='Militanz' and Moralised Violence: Hamburg's Roteflora and the 2017 G20 Riot |journal=German Life and Letters |date=2018 |volume=71 |issue=4 |pages=529–558 |doi=10.1111/glal.12212 |s2cid=165309877 |url=https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/282930 |accessdate=8 May 2019}}

2000s

= Gängeviertel =

File:Gängeviertel10.jpg

In 2003, a Dutch investor bought some dilapidated buildings in the city centre, planning to redevelop them. Six years later, a group of 200 squatters (mainly artists) occupied twelve buildings in the Gängeviertel and argued that the city should develop the buildings itself and preserve the area's character.{{cite news |last1=Stock |first1=Ulrich |title=Lesen Sie zeit.de mit Werbung oder im PUR-Abo. Sie haben die Wahl. |url=https://www.zeit.de/2009/37/WMIH |access-date=19 January 2022 |work=Zeit |date=3 September 2009}} The city bought back the area in 2010 and the following year acceded to the squatters' demands. The parties resolved to share the costs of restoration, which were estimated to be 20 million euros.{{cite news |last1=Twickel |first1=Christoph |title=Besetzte Häuser bleiben selbstverwaltet: Sektlaune in Hamburgs Gängeviertel [Squatted houses remain self-managed: Champagne mood in Hamburg's Gängeviertel district] |url=https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/besetzte-haeuser-bleiben-selbstverwaltet-sektlaune-in-hamburgs-gaengeviertel-a-784970.html |access-date=19 January 2022 |work=Der Spiegel |date=8 September 2011 |language=de}}

Recent

File:Hamburg Erotic Art Museum.jpg on Bernhard-Nocht-Straße, in 2006|alt=Exterior of building]]

After events in the European migrant crisis such as the 2013 Lampedusa migrant shipwreck, squats and social centres have mobilised to support migrants in Hamburg.{{cite news |last1=MacFarlane |first1=Key |title=Marshland: Hamburg G20 And The Return Of The Hanseatic League |url=https://www.societyandspace.org/articles/marshland-hamburg-g20-and-the-return-of-the-hanseatic-league |access-date=19 January 2022 |work=Society and Space |date=18 July 2019}} People from the Lampedusa in Hamburg group cook at the Hafenstraße Volxküche.{{cite book |editor-last1=Mudu |editor-first1=Pierpaolo |editor-last2=Chattopadhyay |editor-first2=Sutapa |last1=Borgstede |first1=Simone Beate |chapter="We are here to stay": reflections on the struggle of the refugee group “Lampedusa in Hamburg” and the Solidarity Campaign, 2013–2015 |title=Migration, squatting and radical autonomy |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=978-1-138-94212-7 |page=173}} New occupations tend to be quickly evicted.{{rp|15}} Squatters at the former Erotic Art Museum on Bernhard-Nocht-Straße were evicted on the same night the place was occupied in 2010.{{cite news |title=Rein-Raus-Spiel im Erotic Art Museum [In-out game at the Erotic Art Museum] |url=https://taz.de/!427480/ |access-date=19 January 2022 |work=Die Tageszeitung: taz |date=31 May 2010 |pages=24 |language=de}} As part of the Squatting Days festival in 2014, a house on Breiten Straße was briefly squatted.{{cite news |last1=Johanning |first1=Tobias |title=Squatting Days: Demo führt zu Hausbesetzung [Squatting Days: demo leads to occupation] |url=http://hh-mittendrin.de/2014/08/squatting-days-demo-fuehrt-zu-hausbesetzung/ |access-date=19 January 2022 |work=Mittendrin |date=28 August 2014 |language=de-DE}}