Steadily rising rents, housing shortages, gentrification. Three buzzwords of a complex that is as commonplace as it is debilitating for many people. What specifically to do when there is no more affordable housing?
#besetzen is emblazoned in large white letters, in a purple box, in front of a panoramic shot of the Berlin skyline at night. And thus reminds aesthetically a bit of one of the numerous image and marketing campaigns of the city from recent years. The associated website bundles traces of a social movement in 2018, the most visible manifestations of which are the “Spring of Occupations” as well as the “Autumn of Occupations.” “We will occupy (again).”
In addition to an extensive press review on the topic, there are multilingual tips, legal information and mobilization materials for the fight for “The City from Below! The prelude for the “autumn of occupations” was the temporary occupation of the so-called “Google Campus” in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district, discussed in this podcast of the daily newspaper “taz” , among others.
“We have,” the activists write on their homepage, “nothing to lose but the next rent increase.” And inform wonderfully sober:”… that we as self-determined Berliners will no longer accept the unreasonableness of vacancy in a city with housing shortage, poverty and displacement and will take houses in the future.”