Under the motto “No city without us”, around 500 people in Frankfurt protested against gentrification and the lack of affordable housing on Friday evening.
The occasion was the evacuation of the car park at the Ostbahnhof, planned for December 6, where around 20 people have been living in buses and caravans for more than a year.
The demonstration started at the Konstablerwache with speeches from various left-wing political groups and led to the Ostbahnhof.
In addition to Fridays for Future, the Seebrücke and the Die Linke party, a representative of the tree squatters in the Fechenheim forest was also present.
The demonstrators ran from the Konstablerwache across Lange Straße past the ECB to the Ostbahnhof, where a final rally was held in the presence of the police. A speaker from the “Ranzig am Danzig” initiative said that a space of solidarity has been created here, which should not simply disappear. A spokeswoman for the alliance “No city without us” called for “opportunities for freedom far from the compulsion to consume”. Occasional Bengali fires were lit, otherwise the demonstration was peaceful.
A hotel is planned on the property at the Ostbahnhof. The property owner, the hotel chain Premier Inn, has asked the squatters to leave the site by St. Nicholas Day. In the meantime, the owner has also obtained a demolition permit for the vacant station building.
About ten residents form the hard core of the car park.
They occupied the area more than a year ago to draw attention to the precarious situation on the housing market.
From their point of view, the hotel is a contribution to the rapidly advancing gentrification of the Ostend.
There are around a dozen construction trailers, caravans and converted vans on the property.