(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
One day before Election Day the 24. In September, a young leftist activist group occupied the theater house Volksbühne in Berlin. As a result, theater tests at the house had to be canceled and the theater box closed. The background was that former cultural senator in Berlin Tim Renner of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) appointed Belgian museum curator Chris Dercon without theater experience to take over as new intendant at Volksbühne after the legendary Frank Castorf who had been in the chair for 25 years. This has created violent reactions and a two-year-long theater battle among the Berliners.
The theater occupation was primarily aimed at gentrification (displacement of residents due to housing speculation and increased rents) and the capitalist upheavals that are about to change Berlin. But it was also a political reaction against the right-wing populist party AfD – which took the German parliament in Berlin for the first time after the election – and the nationalist wave that is now swirling along the curbs on the River Spree.
Cultural struggle in Berlin. A battle has been broken out between two interest groups: On one side are those who want to preserve Berlin as an open and creative city that facilitates and preserves the free space and affordable premises with stable rent for all types of creative people. On the other hand are the forces that will turn the capital into an attractive city for neocapitalist interests where the price development of residential real estate is given free rein. Large investors from home and abroad want Berlin to be like most other German big cities. These days, for example, it has been revealed that German property investment firm Phoenix Spree Deutschland has increased rents on its rental properties in Berlin by 44 percent. The company uses "legal tricks" to avoid property taxes in its home country – it is registered in the tax haven island of Jersey and was mentioned in conjunction with Paradise Papers.
Berlin has held a special position in all years, both before and after the fall. Previously, the city was subsidized by old West Germany to maintain a capitalist island in the Communist GDR. After the reunification, property conditions were diffuse, and abandoned ruins were found in many places in the east and in close proximity to the death strip (the area between the wall and the fence). In the wake of the GDR collapse, this "urban anarchism" created new pockets of creativity; it was free for creative souls to occupy empty houses, dilapidated factory floors and moldy basements. Everywhere, small and large bars, shops, studios and concert venues popped up. Berlin became one of Europe's leading cultural cities. – Now the situation is the opposite: The city is growing by several tens of thousands a year, social housing is getting smaller and vacant space has become a rarity. It is this situation young people from the grassroots now revolt against. They want urban anarchism from the 1990s back.
The new curator at the Volksbühne Theater has got the feel of Berlin showing teeth.
Symbol-heavy theater. Volksbühne was the most obvious place to fight, because here anarchism has been embodied by Frank Castorf for a number of years. Over 40 signatures were collected as a protest against the profile change under the new curator, with a sharp reduction in the house's permanent ensemble. Chris Dercon has felt on the body that Berlin is showing teeth, and so far he has resisted pressure.
Prior to the shift of the commissioner, Castorf had laid stones in the way of Dercon. All communication between the then intendant and the successor went through the well-known Die Linke politician and lawyer Gregor Gysi, Castorf's long-time lawyer. Dercon was not welcome in Volksbühne as long as Castorf was the head of the theater, and was refused, among other things, to use the test scenes before he took office. Castorf told the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung in connection with the theater revolt that "this occupation is certainly the best thing that could have happened to my successor Chris Dercon, because now there is chaos in the house".
Dercon's critics are afraid that Volksbühne, under his leadership, will perish and turn into a banal "event". Current culture senator in Berlin Klaus Lederer represents the left-wing party Die Linke. He has been critical of Chris Dercon and said in the fall that he would review the position of curator. Leaders sympathized with the activist occupants, but were strongly criticized by the political opposition for their hesitant attitude towards the theater occupants. In retrospect, Lederer has been good for the contract with Dercon.
Civilized occupation. After the activists celebrated in an over 60-hour party in Volksbühne the first weekend, Dercon, in consultation with Klaus Lederer, came up with a compromise offer: Activists should be assigned the green lounge and pavilion outside the theater to run indefinitely. However, they were ordered to drop techno parties and air out the premises. The activists refused. Volksbühne is a symbol of the whole of Berlin, they claimed. The goal is to keep the capital as a vibrant and affordable cultural city for creative and small businesses. The activists would win more time.
The approximately 40 occupants who entered and stayed in the building for six days behaved exemplarily. Everyone had to help wash, clean, peel potatoes and organize general meetings. A separate "court" sentenced internal disputes. It was strictly forbidden to destroy or vandalize anything in the theater. Even the toilets were regularly washed.
When the employees at Volksbühne began to sit on their hind legs, the situation became strained. Asked by the activists if the actors at the theater could hold theater workshops for the activist contestants, they were met with the question "Do you have any money?" from one of the actors. The next morning, Dercon showed up with a police brief and issued an ultimatum: "Get out before 11.30:XNUMX." The activists responded by playing on brought instruments.
The activists were "carried" the same day. The grassroots rebellion ended on the lawn in front of the Volksbühne where Castorf's robber wheel – which symbolized the rebellious and anarchist basic principle of the Volksbühne – once stood.
