As idyllic as this place seems today, it certainly wasn’t like this in December 1980. Just imagine: On December 12th of that year, fierce street battles raged right here at Fraenkelufer. Cobblestones flew, batons whizzed through the air, and tear gas hung heavy in the atmosphere.
The combatants: the police and squatters.
Two hundred injured, 66 arrests—and an event that would go down in Berlin’s history as the “Battle of Fraenkelufer.” This is where the squatter and autonomous movements in West Berlin began.
Their goal? To save the old buildings from demolition. But on that particular day, everything spiraled out of control. The fighting spread as far as Kottbusser Tor, where shops were looted. The very next day, the fury moved on—reaching all the way to the Ku’damm. Shop windows shattered, and businesses were ransacked.
On December 14th, the squatters successfully moved into the building at Fraenkelufer 48—without any police intervention. In the months that followed, 165 buildings were occupied across the western sector of the city. Negotiations with the Senate began—only to be repeatedly interrupted by the squatters in an effort to force the release of those who had been arrested.
During this period, Berlin became a magnet for punks, political activists, and anyone seeking freedom and adventure. Yet the violence exacted a heavy toll: In September 1981, a squatter was killed after being run over by a bus during a police operation.
Richard von Weizsäcker, the Governing Mayor at the time, opted for a strategy of de-escalation. The wave of occupations gradually subsided. Starting in 1983, a policy of “careful urban renewal” was implemented—marking the first time that local residents, and even former squatters, were actively involved in the planning of construction projects. Today, here at Fraenkelufer, hardly anything remains to remind us of the street battles—and yet
this place marks a turning point, the moment when Berlin began to fight for its buildings—and for
its soul.
Image 1: Own work
Image 2: Own work
Image 3: By Tom Ordelman (Thor NL) – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4245854
Image 4: By Kurt Jotter – Kurt Jotter, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11609273
House Squatting in the 1980s
from the audio walk Berlin Like You’ve Never Heard It Before – True Stories & Secrets
254:05 min Audio
8
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Other stops on this audio tour:
A Brief Excursion into Berlin's History (7:59 min) • St. Nicholas' Church / St. Nicholas' Quarter (2:49 min) • Newspaper District (4:28 min) • Checkpoint Charlie (1:55 min) • Former Gestapo Headquarters (2:57 min) • Former Tempelhof Airport (3:46 min) • 7 Wannsee Conference (4:45 min) • Walther Rathenau Memorial (2:34 min) • Olympic Stadium / 1936 Olympic Games (5:36 min) • Commune 1 (2:27 min) • Benno Ohnesorg / Student Movement (2:16 min) • Rolf Eden (1:54 min) • Café Kranzler (2:08 min) • Kurfürstendamm (3:03 min) • Zoo Palace (3:47 min) • Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (2:22 min) • Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg (3:28 min) • Schöneberg Town Hall (2:33 min) • Former Sportpalast / Sportpalast Speech (5:12 min) • Bendlerblock/Stauffenberg assassination attempt (4:47 min) • Kroll Opera House / Enabling Act (3:09 min) • Reichstag Building (4:14 min) • Reichstag Fire (4:28 min) • Brandenburg Gate (2:52 min) • People's Court (3:08 min) • Potsdamer Place (2:58 min) • Former "Führerbunker" (5:06 min) • "Tresor" (Safe) (1:43 min) • Popular Uprising in the GDR (2:11 min) • Reich Chancellery / Hitler's Seizure of Power (5:11 min) • "Die weiße Maus" (The White Mouse) (2:57 min) • Friedrichstraße Station / "Tränenpalast" (Palace of Tears) (3:46 min) • Humboldt University (1:56 min) • Berlin Palace (5:04 min) • Red City Hall (2:30 min) • Alexanderplatz (2:30 min) • Otto Weidt's Workshop for the Blind / Anne Frank Center (2:05 min) • Hackesche Höfe (5:21 min) • Rosenthaler Platz (2:58 min) • St. Sophia's Church (3:03 min) • Sophie-Gips Courtyards (2:08 min) • Koppenplatz (3:16 min) • Clärchen's Dance Hall (3:54 min) • New Synagogue (2:19 min) • Berliner Ensemble (3:55 min) • Friedrichstadt-Palast (4:02 min) • Dorotheenstadt Cemetery (2:25 min) • Bloody May (2:18 min) • Humboldthain Flak Tower (5:17 min) • Chris Gueffroy and the Victims of the Wall (1:28 min) • Tunnel 57 / Egon Schultz (2:40 min) • AMIGA (1:37 min) • Bernauer Street (4:07 min) • Former Bornholmer Straße Border Crossing (3:26 min) • Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn Sports Park (3:43 min) • Mauerpark (4:07 min) • Arkonaplatz (3:03 min) • Zion Church (3:44 min) • Prenzlauer Berg Fire Station (3:18 min) • Hirschhof (2:41 min) • Freya Klier (2:28 min) • Prater (2:28 min) • Oderberger Straße Municipal Baths (3:36 min) • Oderberger Street 2 (1:58 min) • Currywurst (2:16 min) • Konnopke's Snack Bar (2:43 min) • Gethsemane Church (2:09 min) • Museum in the Kulturbrauerei (1:06 min) • Kulturbrauerei (3:24 min) • Frannz-Club (2:31 min) • Husemann Street (1:58 min) • Jews' Passage (3:32 min) • Prenzlauer Berg Water Tower (2:37 min) • Rosa Luxemburg Square (4:34 min) • Mont Klamott (1:43 min) • Samaritan Church (2:23 min) • Former Stasi Headquarters / Stasi Museum (2:48 min) • Berlin-Karlshorst Museum / Unconditional Surrender (2:54 min) • East Side Gallery (2:59 min)
