Battle of Mainzer Straße
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| Battle of Mainzer Straße | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Mainzer Straße in June 1990 | |||
| Date | 12–14 November 1990 | ||
| Location | Mainzer Straße, Friedrichshain, Berlin | ||
| Caused by | Eviction | ||
| Methods | Rioting, protests, barricades | ||
| Resulted in | Police victory | ||
| Parties | |||
| |||
| Number | |||
| |||
| Casualties | |||
| Death | 0 | ||
| Injuries | Over 160 | ||
| Arrested | 417 | ||
The battle of Mainzer Straße took place in Friedrichshain, East Berlin between 12 and 14 November 1990. It was a major incident in the history of the city, following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The magistrate of East Berlin decided to evict a row of squatted apartment blocks and the autonomous movement resisted the eviction for three days, until the buildings were all evicted by the police. One person was wounded by a ricochet 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.
In the 1980s, the run-down buildings on Mainzer Straße in Friedrichshain were scheduled for demolition and by 1989 the residents had been decanted. However, the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 put the demolition plans on hold.[1] The apartments at 2–11 Mainzer Straße were squatted in May 1990.[2]
Soon there were about 250 squatters living on the street.[3] House number 4 was occupied by gays and queers.[2] Number 5 hosted an infoshop, number 6 was a pub and there was a community cafe at 7 and 9.[4] The squatters were mainly from West Berlin and connected to the left-wing autonomous movement.[3] In this time frame, there were over 130 squatted buildings in East Berlin.[5]
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 Berliner Linie. This meant new squats would not be permitted.[6] Knowing that the eviction was approaching, the squatters barricaded the street.[7]