The Slow Death of Berlin’s Nonconformity
Alida Browne / Nov 1 / Gentrification
On Friday the 9th October, a thirty-year-old squat known as Liebig34 located on the street of Liebigstrasse, in the neighbourhood of Friedrichshain, was cleared of the fifty residents who had been living there. Over 1,000 police from around Germany conducted the evacuation of Liebig’s residents. The evacuation was met with resistance not only from residents but also from protesters outside the building as it was evacuated.
To understand the frustration of the protesters, residents, and public, it is important to understand the symbolic history of what the squat was and what it represented. Liebig 34 was originally squatted on 30th June 1990, shortly after the fall of the Berlin wall, as it and many other buildings had been left empty. As an area, Riager StraBe itself has long been known in the city for its squatting history. Many students, young people, and queerfeminist anarchists moved into Liebig 34.
The owner decided not to renew the lease 2 years ago and has since commenced court proceedings to evict its residents. It is also important to note that the owner of the building owns several hundred homes in Berlin, and has been accused of allowing his properties to deteriorate in order to renovate them.
The situation with Liebig 34 is emblematic of the wider problem of increased gentrification that buildings like this face; not only in East Berlin but all over the world. As these areas are now considered ‘trendy’ by students and professionals, usually with substantial amounts of money, this gives property owners the incentive to ‘take back’ homes and cash in on soaring house prices. This leaves the people who had lived there priced out of their own neighbourhoods. This situation has transpired in Liebig 34, forcing people out as they can no longer afford to pay rent, and robbing many of a place they had called home.
A Safe Space
Liebig34 is a ‘legal squat’ which became a self-organised, exclusive space for people who identify as anarchist, queer, feminist, and antifascist. It provided a safe and tolerant space away from cis-gendered men and has served as a place of refuge for people wanting to live outside the confines of patriarchal, capitalist society; which is exactly why the need for spaces like this has stayed alive for all these years.
In the western world, where capitalism is the dominant economic policy, there remains very little space for people who do not want to conform to these norms. With capitalism highly ingrained in patriarchal societal systems, where cis-gendered men hold power, political leadership leaves people who identify as queer, feminist, anarchist and antifascist marginalised and discriminated against. In turn, these communities have grown a general distaste for being made to conform to mainstream society. Included under this is the belief that property should not necessarily be owned or paid for, especially when the ‘owners’ of such property are making money from those usually less wealthy.
Spaces for affordable and alternative ways of living, especially in major cities, are becoming few and far between, as housing becomes increasingly more expensive and unattainable. Spaces such as Liebig 34 are therefore crucial for the safety, security, and for a sense of belonging for the people who ‘don’t fit’ in heteronormative society. Liebig became a symbol of the left-wing scene and has housed women, trans and intersex people since 1999. It provided safety from the violence and discrimination that members of this community are subjected to in mainstream society. Despite legal efforts to prevent the eviction of the residents and keep one of the oldest buildings occupied by squatters, the residents were evicted. These evictions happened with resistance, during a global pandemic; which raises even bigger questions into the rights people have to their home and just how far financial gain trumps human safety and security. Taking away people’s homes and leaving fifty people homeless, while buildings remain unused seems inhumane and affects both physical and mental health. The loss of home and safe private space would be detrimental to anyone’s mental health; but for a community that is already vulnerable to prejudice and marginalization, the loss can be devastating.
Housing projects such as Liebig 34 offer crucial safe spaces and freedom outside of capitalist and heteronormative life and should be protected and celebrated. It is important not to forget that the right to adequate housing is a basic human right that has long since been recognized by international law, despite the fact this is often masked by the capitalist agenda of for-profit housing, “The new verdict does not come as a surprise; here, once again, the court is acting in the interests of the owner and his capital interests, negotiating a living space as an object of speculation”. All too often the human experience is quantified into numbers without regard for the lived experience of the people affected.
The rights of the residents of Liebig 34 have not been respected and the evictions exemplify how increased authoritarianism is delegitimizing ways of life that oppose capitalist structures. This mentality is dangerous, as it becomes more and more clear that there is no protection for those who can’t afford it or do not want to conform to the way of life pushed by capitalism and patriarchal society.