The battle of Mainzer Straße took place in

Friedrichshain Friedrichshain () is a quarter (''Ortsteil'') of the borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg in Berlin, Germany. From its creation in 1920 until 2001, it was a freestanding city borough. Formerly part of East Berlin, it is adjacent to Mitte, Prenz ...

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...

between 12 and 14 November 1990. It was a major incident in the history of the city, following the

fall of the Berlin Wall The fall of the Berlin Wall (german: Mauerfall) on 9 November 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, was a pivotal event in world history which marked the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain and one of the series of eve ...

in 1989. The magistrate of East Berlin decided to evict a row of

squatted Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

apartment blocks and the autonomous movement resisted the eviction for three days, until the buildings were all evicted by the

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

. One person was wounded by a

ricochet A ricochet ( ; ) is a rebound, bounce, or skip off a surface, particularly in the case of a projectile. Most ricochets are caused by accident and while the force of the deflection decelerates the projectile, it can still be energetic and almost ...

and 417 people were arrested in an operation of over 3,000 officers. Following the riots, the magistrate decided to concentrate on legalizing squats in Berlin.

Occupation

In the 1980s, the run-down buildings on Mainzer Straße in

were scheduled for demolition and by 1989 the residents had been decanted. However, the

in November 1989 put the demolition plans on hold. The apartments at 2–11 Mainzer Straße were

in May 1990. Soon there were about 250 squatters living on the street. House number 4 was occupied by gays and queers. Number 5 hosted an

infoshop Infoshops are places in which people can access anarchist or autonomist ideas. They are often stand-alone projects, or can form part of a larger radical bookshop, archive, self-managed social centre or community centre. Typically, infoshops offer ...

, number 6 was a pub and there was a community cafe at 7 and 9. The squatters were mainly from

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

and connected to the left-wing autonomous movement. In this time frame, there were over 130 squatted buildings in East Berlin. The squatter council attempted to negotiate with the magistrate of East Berlin in order to legalize the squats, but the magistrate had decided as of July 1990 to start its own version of West Berlin's . This meant new squats would not be permitted. Knowing that the eviction was approaching, the squatters barricaded the street.

Battle

On 12 November 1990, the

tried to evict the buildings at 2–11 Mainzer Straße, having already evicted squats at Pfarrstraße and Corneliusstraße in

Lichtenberg Lichtenberg () is the eleventh borough of Berlin, Germany. In Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it absorbed the former borough of Hohenschönhausen. Overview The district contains the Tierpark Berlin in Friedrichsfelde, the larger of Berlin's ...

, but were repelled by around a thousand people. After negotiations failed, the squats were finally evicted two days later on 14 November 1990 by over 3,000 German police officers from three federal states. The squatters had erected barricades and fought the eviction by throwing projectiles including molotov cocktails. The police used stun grenades, tanks, water cannon and live ammunition. One person was wounded in the foot by a

and at least 160 people were injured. In the end 417 people were arrested. The events became known as the "battle of Mainzer Straße" and it was the largest civil conflict since the

East German uprising of 1953 The East German uprising of 1953 (german: Volksaufstand vom 17. Juni 1953 ) was an uprising that occurred in East Germany from 16 to 17 June 1953. It began with a strike action by construction workers in East Berlin on 16 June against w ...

. Several members of the ruling Alternative Liste (

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

) party joined the protests in solidarity with the squatters, since the decision to evict contravened the law of the

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

. They were arrested and released without charge. The

Governing Mayor of Berlin The Governing Mayor (german: Regierender Bürgermeister) of Berlin is the head of government, presiding over the Senate of Berlin, Berlin Senate. As Berlin is an independent city as well as one of the constituent States of Germany (''Bundesländer ...

Walter Momper Walter Momper (born 21 February 1945) is a German politician and former Governing Mayor of Berlin (West Berlin 1989–1990, reunited Berlin 1990–1991). Whilst Governing Mayor, he served as President of the Bundesrat in 1989/90. He was at th ...

, said "whoever shows solidarity with them quatters shows solidarity for the wrong people" and Berlin's interior minister, , commented that the rioters had shown "unbelievable brutality".

Legacy

Following the eviction, there was a dispute between the ruling coalition of Alternative Liste (Greens) and

Social Democrats Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...

over police violence at the eviction and the Greens quit. The magistrate then decided to pursue more vigorously the process of legalization for other squatted projects. The squatters movement was also more inclined towards negotiation as a means to reach secure housing. Between 1971 and 2012, around 500 houses were occupied in Berlin and around 200 were legalized. West Berlin's longest running house without a contract (Marchstrasse) was evicted in 1996.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Battle of Mainzer Strasse November 1990 events in Europe Squatting in Germany Former squats Riots and civil disorder in Germany