Protesters stop Berlin Wall demolition – but for how long?
In a small victory for people power, protesters stall the demolition of a section of the East Side Gallery – the last remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall. But authorities say they will be back.
It is one of Berlin‘s cultural hotspots, and was recently restored at the cost of 2.5m euros (£2m).
But a section of the last remaining part of the Berlin Wall – now an open-air gallery decorated with colourful murals – is under threat of demolition after a decision to build a new luxury apartment complex nearby.
Construction workers guarded by police started to remove a section of the wall on Friday morning with a crane.
However around 300 protesters pushed themselves close to the wall and eventually forced workers to stop after they had removed just one section of around 1.5 metres containing a mural of another Berlin landmark – the Brandenburg Gate.
Demonstrators then wheeled in a mock wall section they had set up in front of the gap. One protester carried a sign asking “Does culture no longer have any value?” in bold letters, with “Die yuppie scum” written in smaller letters. Another sign read “Berlin, selling itself and its history”.
There were reports of arrests and some clashes with police in German newspapers.
Live from the crime scene. #EastSideGallery twitter.com/IrishBerliner/â?¦
— Spudnik Ó Fathaigh (@IrishBerliner) March 1, 2013
Postponed, not stopped
Many have hailed the move as a victory, but the authorities have said the removal will be postponed, rather than stopped altogether.
Despite its popularity among locals and tourists alike, a construction firm has been given permission to remove a section in order to build an access road to a new luxury apartment complex on the banks of the Spree river, according to local city district chairman Franz Schulz.
The wall is around 1.3km long, and the plan is for a 22 metre stretch to be removed and relocated.
The 36 new flats will be sold for up to 7,000 euros per square metre and under plans dating back to 2005, will be house in a 63-metre tower block.
The proposed demolition is a symbol of gentrification across Berlin in recent years, Anke Domscheit-Berg from the country’s Pirate Party told Channel 4 News.
“This has been happening for years. In this case, it’s not against one family forced out because of rising rents, but it’s against a cultural monument that belongs to all of us. It’s such an important thing,” she said.
“Nobody was asked about this…That’s a style of politics that we don’t accept anymore.”
We can’t build a functioning airport in time. But we can destroy a world-famous historic monument in one day. #eastsidegallery #beberlin
— Claudia von Salzen (@claudi) March 1, 2013
So, dismantling of part of #eastsidegallery will stop “until later” but what happens then?
— jennifer collins (@freejournalism) March 1, 2013
Pictures of freedom
Before unification, the section of the wall stood on the eastern side of the border strip built by communist East Germany. It was transformed into a gallery of murals after East Germany opened its borders on 9 November 1989, and around 120 artists from across the world came to make their mark on the wall and paint their impressions of freedom.
The murals include the famous image of the East German Trabant car that appears to burst through the wall, as well as communist kiss between Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and his East German counterpart, Erich Honecker.
It is not the first time a section has been removed: a few years ago, a section of wall in front of a new sports and concert arena was taken down.
Artist Thierry Noir, who painted a section of the wall that is likely to be removed, told the dpa news agency that the wall being torn down was “unbearable”.
And while protesters have managed to halt the demolition for now, the fight is not over. A Change.org petition has received just under 30,000 signatures, and the organisers – who drove people to the protest – are hoping for around 50,000 before presenting to Chancellor Angela Merkel and Maik Uwe Hinkel, the investor behind the apartment complex, reports The Local.
As Martin Hendrichs (@MartinHendrichs) said via Twitter: “After spending a morning in the #eastsidegallery. #Berlin achieved to stop the work of the crane.
“But tomorrow we have to keep pushing.”
The Local went down to #EastSideGallery last night to check it’s still standing. more pics to follow twitter.com/josieleblond/sâ?¦
— The Local (@TheLocalGermany) March 1, 2013
Photo above by Josie Le Blond (@josieleblond) for @TheLocalGermany. More photos from @IrishBerliner available here.