The residents oppose this. According to them, this is the textbook example of what goes wrong in Berlin. “Gentrification and the rent increases and forced evictions that accompany it are on the rise,” residents said recently at a press conference about the upcoming eviction. “People are evicted from their homes every day. In the worst case scenario, they end up on the street. Berlin is becoming a city for the rich.”
Death threats
There is also criticism of the residents and their supporters. In their struggle they do not shy away from violence. The owner of the property has been threatened with death several times. In the run-up to the eviction, Liebig sympathizers attacked 34 police stations, cut tram cables and set fire to developers’ cars.
Residents of new-build homes in the area are intimidated, windows smashed and walls painted with death threats. “Yuppie scum die, shoot Yuppies in their knees,” it says.
Local politics is struggling with this. There is a left city council in Berlin that supports these kinds of projects and the fight against gentrification, but distances itself from the violence. The city council is accused of not being harsh enough against the excesses of this movement and that the “violence of the left” is being turned a blind eye.
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