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Police forces in front of the house at Liebigstrasse 34 in the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district: eviction should take place on Friday morning as announced
Photo: CHRISTIAN MANG / REUTERS
The black banner on the house facade is huge: "Smash Patriarchy", "Fight Gentrification", "Defend Liebig 34" are the slogans that are emblazoned on it in large letters.
The house at Liebigstraße 34 is next to the house Rigaer Straße 94, one corner further and also partly occupied, for years the symbol par excellence for the autonomous scene in Berlin.
Left-wing extremists consider the street in the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district as their neighborhood.
Stones fly from roofs at police officers, cars are set on fire.
Autonomous people light campfires at the intersection, they call this place their "village square".
The owner wants to clear the house, called "Liebig 34" or "L34", on Friday.
The police are preparing for a large-scale operation, state security officials predict a "hot autumn".
What is the starting position?
The residents describe themselves as the "anarcha-queer-feminist house project Liebig 34".
You had a commercial lease through an association that ended two years ago.
The district court ultimately confirmed the handover of the house to the owner.
The bailiff has announced that he will take over the house at 7 a.m. on Friday morning.
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Resistance to the eviction has been called for on the Internet for some time.
"Decentralized actions" against the "infrastructure" of the police and the state are better than sit-ins, according to an entry on the left-hand platform "Indymedia".
There is also an "action card" on which targets for possible property damage are marked, including real estate companies, SPD offices, police stations and construction sites.
How is the latest development?
From a purely legal point of view, nothing stands in the way of the evacuation.
The Court of Appeal rejected an application by the residents' lawyer to suspend the enforcement of the eviction order for the time being.
The reason: According to the law, the interests of the owner have priority when weighing the case.
Special circumstances, according to which the interests of the tenants would exceptionally outweigh, "are neither presented nor otherwise evident".
The party Die Linke called on the police and Interior Senator Andreas Geisel (SPD) to postpone the eviction because of the corona pandemic.
"We are concerned about a foreseeable oversized police operation due to the rapidly increasing numbers of corona infections in Berlin," the party announced on Wednesday.
Compliance with the hygiene rules will hardly be possible.
Recently, there were minor outbreaks of violence near the building.
Rioters threw stones and paint containers on Rigaer Strasse on Thursday night, said a police spokesman.
A police car was damaged.
A group of around 20 people also placed tires on the street near the partially occupied house on Rigaer Strasse and set them on fire.
In the past few days there has already been a series of arson attacks and other destruction - among other things, S-Bahn cables, a police building and a court were affected.
Corresponding letters of responsibility were published on the Internet.
A demonstration of several hundred supporters through the streets around Liebigstrasse on Wednesday evening was peaceful.
Who is the homeowner?
The L34 belongs to Gijora Padovicz.
The 68-year-old is a large real estate investor in Berlin and earns his living renovating dilapidated houses.
In 2008 he bought the L34.
Padovicz lawyer Ferdinand Wrobel says a community of heirs has contacted us.
"The owners were harassed by the residents at the time."
Padovicz did the heirs a favor.
The new landlord signed a ten-year lease with the association.
The conditions: favorable.
Most recently, 4,807.32 euros per month were due for the approximately 30 apartments, plus additional costs.
The contract expired at the end of 2018, the residents should move out as planned.
Because they stayed, complained Padovicz.
At the end of August, the Berlin Regional Court approved the eviction.
The association can no longer prevent them through legal action.
Padovicz wants to accommodate refugees in the house in the future.
It is "the most likely scenario," says his lawyer Wrobel.
Talks are being held with possible new tenants.
What are the squatters planning?
At a press conference on Tuesday, a resident said: "We will not give this house away voluntarily."
For such places you fight "with all means, with all your might".
As anarchists and feminists, they lived "in conflict and confrontation with this capitalist state and its organs of repression".
The "Liebig 34" had to be preserved because it was "sand in the gears of increasing gentrification".
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Balcony on the L34: grids attached to shopping carts
Photo: CHRISTIAN MANG / REUTERS
A lawyer for the residents said the eviction was illegal.
The eviction notice is directed against an association that is no longer in the house but has long since subleted the apartments to another association.
The house is now partially barricaded.
Barbed wire and bars from shopping carts are attached to balconies.
"Let's create chaos, be visible and prevent the eviction of Liebig34," it said on the house's website.
The logistics of the police "must be disturbed and destroyed".
How will the police proceed?
The area around the occupied house has been cordoned off on a large scale since Thursday morning.
The police are expecting riots.
According to SPIEGEL information, significantly more than a thousand officials will be on duty, and special forces will also be ready.
The Berliners have requested support from other countries and the federal government.
A police spokesman did not want to give any information about the strength of the staff.
A number will only be communicated on Friday.
Since in the past police officers on Rigaer Straße were often attacked from above with stones or bottles, officers have already taken positions on the surrounding roofs.
The technical units that specialize in removing barriers and barricades are likely to become particularly important.
The police assume that people are entrenched in the house.
For example, windows were barred and broken glass cemented onto balcony parapets.
On the Internet, the left-wing scene has called on sympathizers to come to Berlin.
According to SPIEGEL information, the police have not yet had any knowledge of travel movements.
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With material from dpa
