A house on Gürtelstraße in Friedrichshain has become a construction site of tension as an investment company wants to demolish the house to build a housing complex. On Wednesday afternoon, two construction workers were injured by attacks from the building. The perpetrators poured urine on the men and threw glass bottles; one worker suffered cuts on his face.
A vigil took place soon after on the opposite side of the street to express solidarity with the building’s residents. The police stated that almost 70 people attended to express their displeasure. It was on Thursday evening that 200 police stormed the building. Officers broke open the front door with chisels, while a police helicopter circled over the house. “Through the successive demand of support forces, it was finally possible to calm the overall situation,” the police said.
Construction has been stalled for now. A police spokeswoman claimed, “In order to prevent further escalation and to finally ensure the safety of the workers, the police operations management ordered an immediate, temporary construction stoppage.” Extensive barriers were placed around the house to prevent potential suspects from leaving unnoticed.
The police say that six people were temporarily arrested and officers secured evidence including scare guns and bottles filled with urine and pyrotechnics. However, the police stressed that it was not an eviction; it was about enforcing a judicial search ordered by the Tiergarten District Court.
Until 2017, the building was the former Hostel Georghof, which had more than 200 rooms. For years, it was used as an emergency shelter for refugees. Since 2022 the property has been empty and two years ago, the house was occupied. According to Tagesspiegel, the building is owned by dBS Investment GmbH and the current residents are a group of punks who have been staying in the building – illegally, dBS Investment might add.
