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SedanSunday lunchtime, shift change at Liebigstrasse 34: a fully occupied Einsatzhundschaft team van leaves the neighborhood and another arrives. The officers speak, some passersby pass by “Liebig 34” and take photos of the house. The destroyed barriers are stacked on the balconies of the house. Traces of the eviction as well as broken window glass. About 48 hours after the police removed the last of the 57 people from the occupied house, the Friedrichshain Kiez is quiet again. “Almost too quiet,” says a man who runs a café there. He doesn’t think the riots will end. “They are going to get the house back.”
The neighborhood and its neighbors have had restless days. And nights. First the evacuation of the “Liebig 34” on Friday morning, then the riots. A total of 19 policemen were injured, 132 people were arrested and criminal investigations were initiated against 37 of them for serious breaches of public order, resistance to law enforcement officers and material damage. And although the situation was calmer on Sunday, the police expect more riots. One was “sensitized to various actions” and “configured accordingly,” a police spokeswoman said.
Throughout the week it has been clear that Berlin has a lot to do this weekend. First, the Ringbahn arson, then burning cars, graffiti and repeated references to “Liebig 34”. The night before the evacuation continued: the burning of dumpsters, car tires and a terminal building at the Tiergarten S-Bahn station.
The actual evacuation of the “Liebig 34” on Friday morning was surprisingly smooth: When the police finally entered, only two of the 57 people who were taken from the house offered resistance. However, a different image emerged in front of the building: fights between masked police and protesters, stones were thrown, bottles were blown up. Around the Liebigstrasse / Rigaer Strasse intersection, officials counted around 1,000 people, some of whom massively protested the evacuation of the building. Late at night the scene changed. The left autonomists especially rioted in Berlin-Mitte. There were chaotic riots that damaged around 1,700 protesters in their forays from Monbijouplatz to Eberswalder Straße, specifically the windows of adjacent shops like “Motel Amio”, a pottery shop, or “Specs Berlin”, an eyewear store on Alte Schönhauser Straße. In addition, twelve cars were burned.
Overnight from Saturday to Sunday he continued with “isolated property damage,” police said. Burned vehicles in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg and Pankow. Initially, a direct reference to the eviction was not evident. In the meantime, however, police state security has launched the investigation, as a political background cannot be ruled out.
All in all, it was a reasonably quiet Sunday in the neighborhood. But it won’t stay like that, some neighbors fear. “It wasn’t that yet,” says the owner of the little café around the corner from “Liebig 34”. A woman comes out of her cafe and sees that several police officers are standing outside the front door at 15 Liebigstrasse. “Fuck off!” He says, approaching the uniforms and arguing. He then disappears into a diagonal entry in front of “Liebig 34.” The officers stay.
