Refugee struggle in Hamburg and other parts of Germany

Check also previous updates, here.
October 23rd

Nearly 50 activists gathered in front of Hamburg’s city hall to show their solidarity with refugees, while the Senate had a meeting inside. The activists displayed a banner reading “No one is illegal” and shouted slogans. After a short time police arrived and pushed the activists out of the so-called “no protest zone,” then gave them a restraining order for the location.

Later, the regular occurring Wednesday demonstration, which is self-organized by the refugees, had over 1,200 participants.

In Berlin, a demonstration of around 80 people for the right of refugees to remain was attacked by the police. The result was many injured people, one of whom was so severely injured that had to be brought to the hospital. As a response to this repression about 150 people assembled in the evening hours for a spontaneous demonstration, however the demonstration was quickly kettled by the cops. Outside of the kettle hundreds of people in numerous groups, both small and large, demonstrated on the nearby streets, some of them blocking a roundabout with building material from a nearby construction site. After the first demonstration was officially registered, and therefore authorized, police ended the kettle and the demonstration went on. More and more people joined the demonstration until there were more than a thousand people. During the march, small barricades were constructed and one Commerzbank was attacked. The second attempt of the police to stop short the demonstration failed, because the protesters were able to break away. At the police headquarters in Tempelhofer Damm the demonstration ended, however several hundred people remained until 2.30am to demand the release of the people who were detained earlier that day. There the police, once again, detained several demonstrators.

October 24th

In the evening, a spontaneous demonstration around Hamburg’s Barmbecker station consisting of around 150 people was stopped and kettled by a large number of cops only a few minutes after it started. However a later demonstration in Schanzenviertel, which started at 9.30pm, was able to make it all the way to its endpoint and the cops only started their usual militaristic activity when the demonstration was already over.

In Dortmund, antifascists hung eight banners from bridges to express their solidarity with the refugees and their supporters.

October 25th

In Hamburg at 8.30pm, directly after the FC St.Pauli home game, a demonstration organized by groups of FC St.Pauli supporters and other groups from the same district took place. During the football match many banners and a choreography in solidarity with refugees were displayed, and the fans invited the refugees to the football match. At the nearby Bunker, flares were lit up right after the game and 10,000 people marched from the stadium to the St.Pauli church, where the refugees currently live. Because of the fact that some of the refugees also participated in the demonstration, the demonstrators did not attack the police or make direct actions. The police were on the defensive, perhaps surprised to be confronted with many more people than they had expected. They only made laughable threats over loudspeakers that they would stop the demonstration because of the flares being lit up. At the same time activists occupied a big chimney in the Bleichstraße and unfurled a giant banner reading “No one is illegal.” Supporters of the action were attacked by the police with pepper-spray and batons, and two were detained. After the police twice cleared the street in front of the tower, they retreated until morning.

In the evening hours, many small groups clashed with the police over and over again in the Schanzenviertel, resulting in several broken windows of police cars. The mass media newspaper “the taz”, which frequently uses the word anarchy to describe chaotic situations, titled there article online “Riot after football match,” and knocked down the number of participants down to 5,000. After a portion of their left-alternative readers complained, the newspaper changed the article…

In Frankfurt, around 400 people took part in a demonstration in the afternoon. The local SPD office (Social Democratic Party of Germany) was attacked with paint.

In Berlin, windows of an office from the Junge Union (youth organization of the christian-democratic party) were destroyed.

October 26th

In Hamburg, a demonstration against the arbitrariness of the police and racial profiling started from the Achidi-John-Platz, in front of the Rote Flora squat. In this quarter of the city, a state of emergency was declared, which meant that there were more cops than demonstrators, while mounted police, obstacle-clearing tanks with bulldozer blades and water cannons were also deployed. During the demonstration a rally was held in Holstenstraße with the residents. In this area youths have been controlled by cops regularly, resulting in several days of protest and clashes. After the demonstration people gathered in front of the chimney which was occupied the day before; they were attacked and pushed out by the police with batons and pepper-spray. However, the chimney was not evicted, since the fire brigade didn’t give the necessary materials and personnel to the police. Later that evening, burning barricades were erected in the surrounding area, which were then cleared by heavy police vehicles.

In Munich, 400 people took part in the demonstration under the slogan “Learn from Lampedusa – open migration routes.”

In Kiel, 200 people demonstrated through the city, making pedestrians aware of the situation in Hamburg and of the miserable living conditions of refugees.

October 27th

The occupation of the chimney in Hamburg ended in the early morning hours, self-determined and without arrests.

October 28th

In Berlin, in the night between Sunday to Monday, the office of the SPD party was attacked with stones and tar. The Kurt-Schumacher-Haus is the residence of the Berlin’s state government and is also host to the district government of Berlin-Mitte.

During the same few hours the district court of Tempelhof/Kreuzberg, situated in Möckernstraße, was attacked with stones and paint. The “Action-Group for Free Flight” claimed responsibility for the action and described it as an act of solidarity with the struggling refugees/non-citizens, pointing out that a Fortress Europe, which saves its external borders at Lampedusa by systematic killings with the help of Frontex, is attackable in the heart of the beast. The communiqué concludes with the slogan: “Tear down Fortress Europe! For Anarchy!”

Active solidarity with the refugees on hunger strike at Brandenburger Gate in Berlin, and the Lampedusa refugee group in Hamburg… They are here to stay!