Agency Report –
Some 700 police officers were deployed in Berlin early on Thursday morning as police conducted a large-scale search operation at a partially occupied building in the city’s popular Friedrichshain district.
The goal is to identify the building’s current residents, the police announced on X. They said they had obtained court-issued search warrants at the request of the owner.
The building, at number 94 Rigaer Strasse (Riga Street), is considered one of the last strongholds of the far-left scene and has been the subject of legal disputes and numerous police operations for many years.
Police spokesman Florian Nath said 13 flats were searched and the personal details of 26 people were recorded.
Nath said the building, which is painted colourfully, had been double barricaded, with a second solid door installed in front of the rear courtyard behind the locked and reinforced entrance gate.
Officers used battering rams and saws to enter, with technical specialists assisting in the effort.
Most of the flats in the building also had to be opened by force because people did not seem to want to open the doors willingly, the spokesman said, adding that walls between some flats were also broken through.
An illegally dug tunnel to a neighbouring house, which had been discovered years ago, was found to still be blocked.
Nath said the residents, who were of various nationalities, seemed surprised by the police operation, but that everything proceeded without violence.
The residents are currently being allowed to remain in the building.
The building’s owner has been attempting for years to evict the current residents through legal action, arguing that they do not have tenancy agreements. Numerous eviction notices were issued years ago.
Police were called in because residents, some of whom are organized in an association, would not allow the owner into the building.
Residents call for resistance
A few days ago, the residents issued a call to protest on their website, saying: “Our goal is not to make a deal or buy the house, but to achieve the best conditions for our struggle outside the courtrooms, against the state, capitalism and oppression.”
Many houses were occupied by left-wing and far-left groups in the eastern part of Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In the years afterwards, several buildings were cleared and some were legalized, with the squatters given rental contracts.
A police spokesman stated that other locations in the city, including the Berlin Regional Court and the offices of the building’s owner, were also secured.
Numerous police operations in previous years
Former tenants of the building with valid rental contracts are said to have moved out long ago.
In previous years, there were numerous police operations at and inside the building. Police officers in the street were repeatedly attacked at night with bottles or stones. Recently, however, the situation had calmed down.
By Andreas Rabenstein and Alexandra Kiel
