History

Altough referenced as a squat, during the history various contracts existed between the people living there and the former owner, the City of Hamburg.

During the time from the beginning of the squat and 1992 there were often riots and militant conflicts between the sqatters and police forces or groups of fascists mixed with hooligans.

To the sqatter movement of the 80th Hafenstrasse was a focus point, the solidarity with different social conflicts led to a growing conflict with the state. Big meetings were held at the end of the years 1984 to 1990, where up to 5000 people participated. Discussions ranged from sqatting, anti-NATO politics, anti-nuclear politics, the question of the political prisoners to international solidarity.

In 1987, after the first contract run out, barricades were built up to save the squat. A pirate radio station, "Radio Hafenstrasse", was set up month before to inform on the situation. After 8 days of barricades, a new contract was negotiated between the squatters, their supporters and the City of Hamburg.

1990 a campaign was started against Hafenstrasse, stating that supporters of the Rote Armee Fraktion are living there. A big raid with 1000 police men was initialised by the "Bundesanwaltschaft", the german General State Prosecutor, but no real evidence was found on this topic, although it gave a big drawback to the situation.

After the last contract run out the houses where sold to a cooperative to remove conflict potential between the residents and the state.

References