Eviction Of Mainzerstrasse Squatters In Berlin - 90.11.14 Before the most brutal police action in recent West and East German history on November 14th, the Mainzerstrasse in East Berlin was a culturally and politically vibrant center for the left in the city. Twelve houses - among them a gay house and cultural center,a wimmins' and lesbian house, a bookstore and an info coffee shop - had been squatted by over 100 people from East and West Berlin for more than six months. Several times, the houses had been targets of neo-fascist attacks because of their openly leftist and often radical politics. Like all the other 130 squats in East Berlin, the Mainzerstrasse was represented in squatters plenary which was negotiating with the city administration for contracts for all the squats. Despite rhetorical claims, the SPD/Alternative List senate refused to offer contracts for the houses in the Mainzerstrasse. Then, on Monday November 12th, heavily armed police forces evicted 3 other long-term squats in different parts of East Berlin in a surprise attack. They were not met with any serious resistance, since the general analysis had been that the city government would not evict any squats before the federal and city elections on December 2nd, 1990. When the inhabitants of the Mainzerstrasse learned about the evictions, which took place without any legal basis, some 50 people gathered for a spontaneous demonstration on a nearby avenue and a small barricade was erected to protect the demo from cars. The police took the demo as a pretext to drive through the Mainzerstrasse in full force, shooting CS gas and water blasts into squats and regular tenants' buildings alike as a premeditated provocation. After the departure of the police forces from the street, people in the Mainzerstrasse started to build serious defense barricades as a means to prevent imminent eviction attempts as long as possible in order to gain time for political negotiations. Over the course of the afternoon and that night, more than 1000 supporters gathered in the Mainzerstrasse while police forces tried to attack the street several times without being able to break through the barricades. At the same time, concerned neighbours and representatives of the ex-GDR's civil rights movement as well as parliamentarians from the PDS and the New Forum formed an ad-hoc round table in support of the squats and unsuccessfully tried to negotiate a political solution with the SPD/AL governing coalition. Tuesday saw a massive media propaganda effort by the Social Democrats and the police forces throughout the FRG, in order to criminalize the squatters and disclaim the legitimacy of their demands. West-Berlin's mayor Walter Momper (SPD) called the squatters "chaots willing to kill" and stated that the "lawless space Mainzerstrasse" had to vanish immediately. He denied that social problems, such as the fact that there are tens of thousands homeless in Berlin while in East Berlin alone 25,000 apartments remain vacant and rents in both parts of the city are skyrocketing, are at the heart of the conflict. At the same time, special police units - among them the infamous anti-terror commando GSG 9, the federal border protection service and others - were sent to East Berlin from around the FRG. It is interesting to note, that no ex- GDR police officers were deployed for these actions. Last minute negotiation efforts by members of the Alternative List, the civil rights movement and the Lutheran bishop of East Berlin failed - the responsible Social Democratic government officials simply refused to pick-up their phones or to make time. In the early morning hours of Wednesday, over 4,000 police sealed off the whole neighbourhood around the Mainzerstrasse. Shortly after 7 a.m. the police attacked the streets with yet another round of CS gas (which causes asthmatic attacks, vomiting, eye irritation and states of mental disorder), water tanks, eviction tanks, and police commandos that came over the roof-tops of neighbouring houses. Blend shock grenades and CS gas grenades were deliberately aimed at people on rooftops and on barricades. The police also used rubber bullets and live ammunition, injuring two squatters with so-called "stray bullets". For about three hours over 800 people defended the streets with rocks, molotov cocktails and barricades, then the police forces had broken through the last barricades and the remaining people gathered in the last two houses. Over 400 people were arrested and often brutally beaten during the arrests and in police custody. One womyn still remains in intensive care withe life-threatening injuries inflicted by police beatings. On Wednesday evening, more than 15,000 people gathered in East Berlin for a peaceful demonstration in support of the squats and in protest against the police brutality. The demonstration was later broken up by heavy police forces. For days now, the neighbourhood around the Mainzerstrasse has been turned into a military occupation zone with police forces everywhere. The street itself has been completely sealed off by police while construction workers are demolishing the houses. Support actions for the squatters have taken place across the FRG, and Western and Eastern Europe. In several cities in the FRG, demonstrations and nightly attacks on banks, department stores and police stations took place. In Copenhagen, the FRG embassy was attacked with molotov cocktails. In Milano (Italy) and in Prague, hundreds of people tried to occupy the FRG consulates. Over 100 organizations from the Left in the FRG have issued an appeal demanding that the houses are given back to the squatters, that the charges be dropped against all people who were arrested, that the city government offers contracts to all squats and that the mayor and the senator of the interior of West Berlin step down. The Alternative List left the governing coalition with the Social Democrats as a consequence of the police activities. Several reasons can be found for this indiscriminate use of military force by the administration: - The Social Democratic Party is desperately trying to gain votes for the elections on December 2nd by attempting to establish a "law and order" profile with the conservative voters. - The city administration wants to split the squats with the threats of police brutality and evictions along the lines of "good and non-violent" squats which might receive contracts if they bow to the government's conditions, and those "disobedient" squats fighting for self-determination, in the hope of pacifying the whole squatters movement. - The new standards for police measures against radical and militant leftist opposition which were set over the week are meant as a warning for the citizens of the ex-GDR whose social and economic conditions are deteriorating rapidly. They are supposed to understand quickly that any serious protest and resistance has to remain within the limits the system sets, otherwise they will be brutally punished. In short, the message is: any resistance against the new order and regime is fruitless. - The escalation of force by the police also sets new standards for future militant and social movements to be aware of. The FRG government is clearly afraid that the potential for social unrest during the coming transition period is growing. Therefore they want to destroy the existing basis and the structures of the militant left before-hand and split the left in general along the lines of "violence" versus "non-violent protest". - On a European scale, the FRG government and police forces are following the guidelines set by the TREVI-commission. TREVI stands for "terrorism, radicalism, extremism, violence, international" and functions as the West European counter- insurgency planning committee. According to the TREVI-commission guidelines, all squats in Western Europe are to be evicted by 1992. Any examples of self-determination and alternatives are being perceived as a threat to the New Greater Germany; the internal opposition has to be pacified or extinguished, especially in the designated capital. As one squatter said after the eviction: "It is not a coincidence that the state chose Berlin and this particular time to show its full force. In the Mainzerstrasse we attempted to create different living conditions with as much self-determination and solidarity as possible against the growing racism, neo-fascism and police-state measures. The state forces became clearly afraid of us because here people from different movements and ordinary citizens lived and talked with each other, and we were developing a new reality as an example for others as well. We always knew that ultimately we would not be able to win a military confrontation with the state forces, and we were trying to negotiate a political solution for months before the eviction. But it was also known that we would not give up our houses that easily or quietly. And the last 48 hours have also been an incredible experience in solidarity and struggling together." (from a comrade in West-Berlin 19/11/90)