Berlin – “This is the new wall! Twenty years after and this is the new wall!”Berliners don’t like barbed wire fences. While the fence surrounding Tempelhof Airport’s green space is clearly no Berlin Wall, thousands of demonstrators Saturday seeking to climb the fence were met by a heavy police presence that seemed equally unbeatable.
In the course of the day, about 102 protestors were arrested around the perimeter of the airport, FOCUS online reported. 21 police were lightly injured.
Police successfully defended the defunct airport with teams of armored officers stationed about every 30 meters of the airport’s perimeter. A police officer told Radwechsel that Berlin police were being assisted by Baden-Wütternberg, Brandenburg and Bayern police.
In addition to stationed guards, police were reinforced by mobile units in the area. In the early afternoon, demonstrators threw stones at police, which let to a 4 p.m. police barricade at the intersection of Columbiadamm and Golzener streets.
At around 7:25 p.m., a brawl erupted at the corner of Columbiadamm and Platz der Lufbrücke in which protesters threw glass bottles at police. Police responded with force, arresting at least three people at the scene. Shortly thereafter, riot police rolled in large water cannon tanks to control the crowd, but never used them.
By 10 p.m., most of the protesters had either dispersed or gone to Volkspark Hasenheide, where about 1000 people gathered.
The action was part of left-wing activists’ opposition the city Senate’s efforts to develop the historic Tempelhof Airport into commercial and residential properties by staging a mass-occupation of the grounds Saturday.
The initiative “Tempelhof for All” advocates the removal of the fence currently surrounding the airfield, to promote public use of the airport grounds and a stop to the “privatization, commercialization and gentrification of the city.”
Opened in 1923, Tempelhof was, as of its closing on 31. October, the oldest commercial airport in the world, which was operating at losses between 10 and 15 million Euros each year. At the time, Der Spiegel reported that Mayor Klaus Wowereit intended to build a new city airport on the site of Schönefeld Airport with the name Berlin-Brandenburg Airport; the new construction carries a price tag of an estimated 2.2 billion Euros. Berlin-Tegel airport would close upon its completion in 2011.
But the question of what to do with Tempelhof remains. Wowereit’s solution to the vacant 386-Hectare lot began with Projekt-Aufruf, an attempt to draw international and local ideas for market-oriented development of the airport.
On 15. May 2009, the city announced that it had narrowed its choices to three German, British and Scottish landscape designers: the Berlin-based company Urban essences Architektur, together with Lützow 7 Landschaftsarchitektur; the German architecture firms Graft Architekten and Kiefer; and London-based Chora Architecture, together with the Scottish company gross.max landscape architecture.
All three companies’ designs call for the construction of a mixture of commercial office buildings, high-rise apartments and green space. The current structures will be rented to the fashion fair “Bread & Butter.”
A website affiliated with the anti-development cause offers its own ideas for noncommercial use of the grounds, which include gardens, cultural centers, museums, barbecue areas, theaters and cheap living spaces.
The movement, known as “We all remain” also claims success in the campaign “Spree for All” against the developer MediaSpree, which sought to develop land along the Spree River in Berlin into condominiums and office buildings.
It remains uncertain what exactly will become of the Tempelhof grounds.
Until Thursday, the Green Party supported the Tempelhof protests. Franziska Eichstädt-Bohling, the party’s parliamentary leader, told the Tageszeitung that “we do not want to also be arrested for such acts of violence.” However, she said the party offers support for the peaceful protests on the airfield.
A member of the group Antifaschisten Aktion, who declined to be named, thought the protest's police force was excessive.
“(The police presence) costs a lot of money, no matter what the second or third background reasons are. Politics are always behind it.”
Photo Dan Antonaccio
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