History of Europe

Red Flora:Unruly for 30 years

by Wolf-Hendrik Müllenberg, NDR.de

Outside, the autumn wind blows around the walls of the Rote Flora, while inside, a Deichkind beat rattles out of the speakers. "Riot and Remmi Demmi!" the hip hoppers rap there. But in the bar of the left-wing autonomous cultural center in Hamburg's Schanzenviertel, nothing reminds you of what is being sung about here. A disco ball hangs from the ceiling, and the word "love" is written in large letters on the wall. Young people sip their beers. There are also guests here who are not part of the Flora collective and wish to remain anonymous. One says:"The ruling capitalism needs an alternative. I'm happy to support that, because that's what Flora is fighting for."

The "Red Florists" have been fighting this fight since they were occupied on November 1, 1989, always with the option of using violence to achieve their goals - and that in a house without a lease and without a caretaker. The Rote Flora is Germany's longest occupied building and a symbolic place with an eventful history.

It begins in 1889 with the opening of the building as the "Society and Concert House Flora" - a magnificent variety theater in which many performances are shown up to the Second World War. In the post-war period there are hardly any productions because they are too expensive. As a result, the owners change and the building on Hamburger Rückenblatt is used, among other things, as the "Flora Filmpalast" cinema, before a branch of the "1000 Pots" bargain store moves into the premises on the ground floor of the house in 1966 and sells DIY supplies until the end of the 1980s.

"Phantom of the Opera" in the Flora?

In 1987, an investor plans to turn the former magnificent building, which is increasingly falling into disrepair, into a musical theater. "The Phantom of the Opera" should run on the shoulder blade, according to the idea of ​​entrepreneur Friedrich Kurz. He and other investors are planning around 450 parking spaces for Hamburg's new tourist magnet, plus 220 bus parking spaces. A plan that the city is enthusiastic about.

Things are very different for the people who live in the Schanzenviertel. The flyer from a citizens' initiative lists the main points of criticism:"Increased traffic volume due to tourist cars and buses, resulting in much more noise". "The residents and traders were afraid that they would be evicted," recalls Hans Martin Kühnel in an interview with the Hamburg Journal and NDR.de. Kühnel has been a "red florist" from the very beginning and, as a 29-year-old student, was one of the older activists who wanted to build a non-commercial cultural center instead of the musical temple.

First street battles

The Senate, led by the SPD and FDP, is trying to reassure people that nobody will be pushed out of the Schanzenviertel. But the political climate is becoming more radical. Street battles break out between opponents of the project and the police. Because of the months of protests in the district and the occupation of the construction site by demonstrators, the investors are withdrawing from the project. A new house is being built on Holstenstraße:the Neue Flora, where musicals are still being played today.

1. November 1989:"The Red Flora is alive!"

In August 1989, the city allowed the activists to set up a temporary cultural center in the Flora. After the period of use has expired, the protesters expect to be evicted. Therefore, on November 1, 1989, the building was declared occupied. It is the hour of birth of the Red Flora. Initially, the "red florists" mainly focused on the local residents and offered a so-called popular kitchen and breakfast for the unemployed. At the first press conference, the occupiers sing "While fighting and eating Voku / Forward and never forget / The Red Flora is alive!"

Hans Martin Kühnel, still active in Flora today, did not experience the first night of the occupation in the former variety theater. Instead, he stands in front of a nearby police station and observes whether an eviction is being prepared there. "In the event that something happened there, we organized a telephone chain," says the 59-year-old.

Story café and kitchen for everyone

At the beginning of the 1990s, the "Rotfloristen" succeeded with their autonomous cultural center in what the city actually wanted to achieve with the construction of the commercial musical theatre:a place that has supra-regional appeal and is also a part of the city. The motto is "Flora for everyone". In the first years of the occupation, Flora activist Kühnel and others organized a storytelling café for local residents and a coffee gossip for pensioners.

Schanze becomes trendy quarter

The squatters want to protect their district from commercialization through major events and luxury renovations. Initially, this ensures acceptance in the neighborhood. But that changed in the late 1990s, when the drug scene increasingly shifted from the city center to the Schanze. The Flora then made a statement on the city's drug policy and set up a "pressure room" for heroin addicts. But local residents and traders complain about the conditions in the district. The city wants to drive out the junkies with police operations - the "florists" respond with riots. When the "fixed star" was closed on the shoulder blade, there were hardly any drug addicts left in the Schanzenviertel. The district changes, which the "red florists" always feared.

Activist:"Flora lost battles"

Socially disadvantaged people have to give way in favor of wealthy tenants. Apartments are being renovated and moved into by people who appreciate the alternative charm of the district. The Schanze has become a "scene district". The Rote Flora cannot do anything about it either. "One has to say that Flora has lost battles," says Flora activist Andreas Blechschmidt in a podcast for the daily newspaper "taz".

Flora as part of gentrification

The Rote Flora, which was once intended as a declaration of war against gentrification, has itself been a location factor since the early 2000s at the latest. Nevertheless, the illegal occupation remains a problem for the Social Democratic Senate, which it tries to solve in 2001:it sells the property to the cultural investor Klausmartin Kretschmer for 190,000 euros. The purchase contract contains conditions that oblige the new owner to tolerate the "florists" and prohibit resale or commercialization. The then mayor Ortwin Runde (SPD) called Kretschmer an idealist - the entrepreneur was banned from the house by the Flora activists.

When Kretschmer, plagued by money worries, wants to sell the Rote Flora to a private investor, the city buys back the house in 2014 - for 820,000 euros, on the initiative of Mayor Olaf Scholz, for whom three years later - at the G20 summit in Hamburg - the red flora becomes a problem.

G20 riot:hotbed of leftist violence?

In July 2017 there were heavy riots for days, also in front of the doors of the Flora. Masked people loosen flagstones from the ground and injure police officers, who in turn also crack down on them. Flames blaze in front of the facades of the houses in the Schanzenviertel. Dark figures plunder shops and burn cars. Residents barricade themselves in their apartments for fear of the black block. After the excess of violence, it was said from Hamburg City Hall that the "red florists" were the first to bring the riots into the city.

CDU demands eviction

The Hamburg CDU is demanding that the Flora be cleared - and at least Olaf Scholz is no longer ruling out the Flora being cleared. But this does not occur. The special committee tasked with investigating the G20 riots came to the conclusion that the violence mainly came from foreign extremists. The local structures would have helped you, but there was nothing criminally against Hamburg's autonomists. "If we had had something in the police bright field, I would have said it now," said Soko head Jan Hieber in the special committee.

In September 2019, the Senate put its G20 balance sheet into perspective in an answer to an AfD question. Accordingly, the majority of the suspects come from Hamburg and the surrounding area.

Rote Flora wants to stay uncomfortable

In the last few months it has become quiet around the Rote Flora. May 1st and the Schanzenfest, otherwise occasions for riots, remain peaceful. From Senate circles it is said that in the future one would like to see a similar development for Flora as in the Ganges quarter, which was also illegally occupied at first and whose future is now secured thanks to a contract.

So far, however, the "red florists" have refused any offer to put their project on a legal footing. A rental or purchase contract contradicts their self-image of questioning capitalist property relations. The cultural center has been managed in trust by the city's Lawaetz Foundation since 2014 - nevertheless, the demand for an eviction has been raised again and again. However, Hamburg's Mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD) sees no reason to close Flora.

Activist Kühnel naturally sees it the same way. For him it is clear what the Flora should remain in any case:a place where left-wing debates are held and which is also uncomfortable. "We remain a thorn in the flesh of those in power."


11/08/2019 1:50 p.m

Editor's note:In an earlier version of the text, the information was missing that the Hamburg Senate put its G20 balance sheet into perspective in September 2019.