Metadata
- Title
- SummaryRandale Mainzer Straße, squatters
- ShotlistClearing Mainzer Straße: broken glass in front of the shop, street cleaner; burnt out car; smashed Trabbi; street sweepers sweep cobblestones, etc. together; barricade; camera is torn down; fight in the off; it should not be turned; discussion continues; young man distributes leaflets; overturned car; discussion round of citizens in Mainzer Straße; What night have you been through? Woman: fear of death; almost suffocated; memories as a child in war; ...Gas grenades smashed into the room; eyes still tearing; called the police and placed themselves on the balcony with a white cloth; police could see that they were there; was "banged on and on"; chaotic people were on the roof and in the house; others than the houses were trying to repair; you could talk to them, but the strangers were pushing the situation up; Police have moved in and out again; always in such a way that there was time to recover; when barricades were built, one should have intervened, but without a uniform, but strategically; time of speechlessness; different categories of chaos; differentiated handling necessary; do not understand it; extinguish fire; Barricade in front of residential building, onlookers; street torn open; residential building; barricade leading to Frankfurter Allee; entrance to house delivered with pallets; open street, cobblestones, passers-by; facades of occupied houses; commentary by a man: bin von "Bürgerinitiative Mainzer Straße", have collected signatures from 85% of the residents in May; so don't just speak on my behalf; people pretend they're only interested in cheap living space; had nothing against it; residents provided furniture; the first squatters were peaceful; became more massive and violent from day to day; now turned to all parties and nothing has happened; annoying that PDS and Alliance 90/Green are teaming up with these people; squatters have been proven not to care about cheap housing; is clear; district mayor (Mendiburu) has offered squatters housing; have not been accepted; in Rigaer Str. 8 apartments were given out; usually young people from the former GDR accept these offers; but these people here want nothing more than chaos and anarchy, and that's what they write to the houses; and the newer the facade is, the better to smear on it; have opened illegal shops, sold vegetables; have leaflet collection with appeals to anarchy; are not concerned with apartments; have turned St. into a fortress; we are besieged here; Another man's comment: the squatters have nothing under control; mayors have put a dog outside the door; some want to contain violence; others do the opposite; first man: police have a placatory tour on it; politicians have to answer for that; nobody positions himself or says how the problem should be solved Squatters take violent action against citizens; Frankfurter Alle, Barrikade at entrance to Mainzer Straße; How did it start here yesterday? Construction workers: police were there, chaotic people; police were in the street; squatters started breaking windows at night; houses should be cleared and then bricked up; broken window panes, crowd in front of them, broken pane; entrances of occupied houses; Mainzer Straße; broken front door; Mainzer Str. from above in haze; missing roof tiles on renovated residential house; squatters at the fire in Mainzer Straße; thrown-over car, excavator, open road, haze; squatters distributing leaflets; slogan on building container: "Long live Mainzer Straße - defend occupied houses! Squatters from above between rubble and passers-by; squatters by the fire on the street between rubble and barricades; Frankfurter Allee from above, swing to Mainzer Str. and the visible traces of the past battle; squatters in front of the house, barricade; Comment of a local resident: Squatters actually stayed quiet; roadblocks, police presence with 50 cars; broaching machine; police started, squatters defended naked existence; solidarity with squatters in Lichtenberg and Prenzlauer Berg, where houses were cleared; people on roofs who wanted to look, pupils, also squatters who wanted to defend themselves; normal; should be left alone; There's a lot of bricks missing on the roof over there! Comment by a local resident: Must have been tonight to defend herself and scare police away; broken window; sign "Mainzer Str."; sign "Mainzer Str." & "Frankfurter Allee"; broken window pane of shop; burnt car; Trabbi with broken panes; Mainzer Str. Puddles, barricades; stones, broken bricks on the street; resident in green costume from a window: always had something left for squatters; but since then no longer how they behaved on the roofs; the chimneys cut us off, where we have to heat with them; have no heating; I don't understand; wanted to get into the apartment doors; there is no such thing as that; Why understand squatters in the beginning? People are looking for a flat; there is a lack of flats; have just sat down in houses; our flat is also damp and wet because of rain gutters, because 40 years nothing has been done; everything is broken in the house; wind comes through in winter; flat is closed since last year; but nothing has changed; looking for a flat; older neighbour is welcomed: "They still live?"- "Until now yes!". - "Oh God, I feel really bad"; we were all afraid in the house; older people live too; I'm sure we'll go on today; the state won't put up with it; reinforcements will come; Guilty are squatters themselves, because they were so riotous; youth is riotous; you can see it on 10-year-old boys; broken weapon shop; turbulent Mainzer Straße, Barrikade, passers-by; barbed wire and junk on Barrikade, container with large cobblestones; sign "Please use pavement opposite!Sand heap barricade, car; sand heap barricade with SPD election poster stuck inside "Berlin gelingt's"; excavator, overturned car, shopping cart, stones on road, construction wagon; burnt out Trabbi, garbage truck comes, truck drives past; Shop windows are newly installed, toys in display; remains of a barricade on the street; camera runs towards burnt-out Trabbi, past it towards men sweeping cobblestones off the street; shopping trolley with cobblestones turned over; What impressions do you have? Comment of a young woman: for the first time in her life she was really afraid; come here, there was war in full swing; wanted to go to the SPD electoral office, where you can phone to get out; why this is happening here at all; couldn't get out; it was said not to be evacuated; then why water cannons and tear gas?normal people live; gas creeps in everywhere; if the police had entered and left, there would have been peace; the sight of the police frightens one; it's not possible to find out who started; that's not the point either; the matter itself bothers me; the city administration had decided that political solutions should be found and that police violence should not be used; it's witless; the mayor stands here as a puppet and can't do anything; it's his district; he's beaten by citizens for the action and can't help it; when houses are emptied, nothing happens to them anyway; there is a lot of emptiness in Friedrichshain; nothing is done to houses; when people realize that police are rolling in here on a scale that is no longer beautiful, then of course people are attracted who really want riot; is logical; Kreuzberger have come who want noise; the whole action shouldn't have been necessary; saves fear; is something that happens over the heads of the district and nobody can resist it; Mainzer Straße should be made headquarters of the European autonomous scene! A woman's comment: I don't know; I don't have to identify with squatters; I'm talking about citizens who live here and none of them has any benefit from the action that took place here yesterday; Discussion of squatters, residents and editors about press, negative reporting; Spiegel TV, backgrounds; young man, squatter: had seen that tear gas grenades were shot into the street after demonstrations; barricades were built, the situation swung up; police operations were intensified by evacuation vehicles; squatters were now also using force; mayors tried to settle the situation; police in Scharnweberstraße wanted to evacuate occupied houses during this time; squatters tried to prevent this, further escalation, although it was discussed with mayors that police should withdraw; as a result, there were intensified operations with water cannons, evacuation technology; What do you mean, police should pull out? Mayor wanted to get police to leave in order to bring peace back here; street barricades were not yet there in the massiveness; mayor did not know where the police came from, who gave the order; police could not be talked to; The interests of squatters beyond riot? Want to live in the houses; renovate houses on their own initiative; do projects; Who lives in the houses? Mostly students; yesterday support came from Kreuzberg, where scene is different than in East Berlin, more radical; Man asks squatter: You said there'd be a promise that the road won't be cleared. Squatters: we want them; Discussion between residents and squatters; Squatters willing to renovate are gone. Will majority riot? People who want riot are becoming more and more conspicuous; this is reported in the media, not about the others; therefore it seems as if the majority want riot; 90% of the occupying body consists of people who want to achieve something; Tendency? In the houses there are few with such a radical point of view; were against throwing stones at the police from the beginning; at some point everyone goes crazy; eyes watering, water in rooms; elderly man: residents are also affected; they have no sympathies here; should have made one: Reconnaissance work; Squatters out of windows with GDR flag; squatter in disguise at window; Mainzer Straße; barricade; squatted house; broken window panes; glass broken out with stick; shards of glass
- Tagssquatter; riot; restlessness; Berlin; housing market; demonstration; police; riot
- Decade1990
- Production Year1990
- Release date
- Genre
- Country of Production
- Actors
- Personalities
- Director
- Producer
- Camera
- Original Clip IdentifierQ6UJ9A00AIUH
EN (US)