Photo: DPA

Hamburg street festival ends with riot

Published: 5 Jul 09 18:00 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20090705-20387.html

Anarchists from Hamburg’s autonomous scene battled police for six hours late Saturday and early Sunday in the trendy Schanzenviertel neighbourhood after a street fair. At least 67 rioters were arrested and 27 police officers injured.

Over 10,000 visitors visited the Schanzenfest street fair, but once it turned dark, over 1,000 young, masked anarchists came out to do battle, police said. The rioters threw bottles, stones and fireworks at police.

“The fusillade was extremely massive,” police spokesman Ralf Meyer told the daily Hamburger Abendblatt, who said the anarchists were more aggressive than in past years. For years, the Schanzenfest has often concluded with clashes between police and the left-wing, anti-fascist Autonomen, or “Black Bloc.”

Over 1,800 police officers were on duty at the event and deployed water cannons and riot sticks against the rioters. Many of the rioters were injured, though no specific numbers were available.

One police vehicle was torched by rioters, who also ignited trash cans and street barriers. Two of the arrested rioters traveled to Hamburg from Berlin to take part. They were taken into custody after pulling out a backpack that contained a timing device that looked like it could set off explosives.

Police around Germany have warned in recent months that the ultra-left-wing anarchist scene appears to be becoming more violent. On June 21, thousands of anarchists tried to forcibly occupy Berlin’s Tempelhof airport. Police said rioters at this year’s annual May 1 riots in Berlin used Molotov cocktails against police, an escalation from recent years.

DDP/The Local (news@thelocal.de)

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Your comments about this article:

18:58 July 7, 2009 by die englander
oooh no i wish i was there!! what a heavy bummer.

i bet it was really uncool an heavy
22:23 July 7, 2009 by eurovol
I can't get over the überschuss of "over" in this article.
22:48 July 7, 2009 by mlovett
water cannons??

two words: TEAR GAS.
07:40 July 8, 2009 by Frau4940
Tear gas is out. It could produce tears often indicative of emotion.
09:01 July 8, 2009 by die englander
yep the government need all the help they can get!!

having those drunken wasters ruin the show just isnt on is it? why cant they just work and pay to live like all the other sheep. damnation!!!
09:05 July 8, 2009 by Chocky
violence begets violence. amen.
09:21 July 8, 2009 by die englander
your right i just dont like the way some people here sound off!! you read what some of those posts say, sad very very sad they are in the right place just 70 years too late.
09:26 July 8, 2009 by lilplatinum
I always love the 'squatters rights' graffitti on the areas of schanze that haven't been reclaimed yet..
09:37 July 8, 2009 by die englander
yep its the dirt and ruggedness that attracts these posh types they love a bit a ruff. i come from hoxton in london originally and i watched these same clan that made shanze trendy with its over priced coffee shops destroy hoxton too.they love the character of the run down areas cause they are unchanged, but then they wanna clean it up and then move those awful annoying poor people off of their land.

orrible people fake,self indulgent,aloof,over paid, anal snobs!!
09:49 July 8, 2009 by lilplatinum
Yes how dare people have jobs and gentrify areas. Same thing happening in New York, pretty soon the drug dealers won't have a corner to stand on in Brooklyn, then what will they do?
09:52 July 8, 2009 by die englander
thats the spirit!!
10:02 July 8, 2009 by die englander
lets suppose people dont wanna be christians or jews or muslims? lets suppose people started thinking for themselves and realizing that governments arnt really elected but selected by bankers who are as corrupt as al capone.

who deal out shitty schools,shitty housing,shitty supermarkets peddling shitty food, shitty medical care and then create a bigger n bigger gap between rich an poor.

this is then used to measure success...ooh im doing better then u ive got ive got ive got.

some people dont wanna live that way. i dont know what u think but i think that spending money on weed and booze is better then spending money on tear gas and bullets to kill innocent people. so that you can maintain your death grip on a docile and contented herd of sheep who dont think.

and another thing those drugs were put here by bankers too!
10:07 July 8, 2009 by lilplatinum
Hey I prefer to spend money on weed and booze too, but if I have to pony up for rent at the beginning of the month before I can fund my substance abuse habits, then I certainly have no pity for people whining about how they shouldn't have to.

If the drugs were put here by Bankers, good for them, I had alot of fun snorting smoking and imbibing pretty much every one of them.
10:11 July 8, 2009 by perdido
Up with dope down with hope.

This would not happen if Hamburg had a legal opium den.
10:12 July 8, 2009 by lilplatinum
Its been my lifelong dream to be the proprietor of an opium den.
10:13 July 8, 2009 by die englander
and who do you think makes the laws that put you in prison for having that dope?

your from austin texas? ever heard of bill hicks?
10:15 July 8, 2009 by lilplatinum
Of course i've heard of bill hicks, and I am aware of the stupidity of drug prohibition, but I can separate that while still thinking anarchism is a juvenile political theory largely practiced by kids who like to light on fire and like the idea of being a counter-culture.
10:16 July 8, 2009 by perdido
Is he related to Tom Hicks? That guy was a dick...
10:20 July 8, 2009 by die englander
im not just talking about drug prohibition and kids goin through puberty
10:25 July 8, 2009 by lilplatinum
Is he related to Tom Hicks? That guy was a dick...
Seriously, what kind of self respecting Texan buys a soccer team.
10:26 July 8, 2009 by die englander
Gentrification (Wikipedia)
10:29 July 8, 2009 by lilplatinum
Gentrification can result from reinvestment efforts or neighborhood groups, which directs money to invest in crime ridden cities' infrastructure, …
Just terrible.
10:31 July 8, 2009 by die englander
nice editing

lets leave it there i realize that the education system really does churn out parrots. whats ya fav band talkin heads?
10:46 July 8, 2009 by lilplatinum
Says the guy whos disjointed ramblings about how gentrification is the tool of the man to keep poor people down are proven by a wiki link.
10:52 July 8, 2009 by die englander
where did i mention gentrification being anyones tool?
10:58 July 8, 2009 by lilplatinum
Well you didn't actually offer any analysis so I assumed you were continuing along the lines of the banks who select our leaders putting drugs here as a tool of control, I assume the illuminati is actually behind it all?
11:03 July 8, 2009 by die englander
no nothing that complex just snobs with a misguided sense of socialism. and also asumptions are the mother of the screw up
11:06 July 8, 2009 by lilplatinum
If you think schanze residents (that aren't squatters) are snobs, do yourself a favor and never set foot in Blankenese, your head would probably explode.

Assumptions are only made when one does not elucidate a point.
11:14 July 8, 2009 by die englander
ive been there and err its amusing every woman dressed like grace kelly and all the jocks 91210

i hope you reach where your going mr cosmopolitan

elucidate
11:27 July 8, 2009 by lilplatinum
I'd like to be going back to Austin but all the damn californians have been moving in and building condos there.

Perhaps if I start burning things they will leave.
11:30 July 8, 2009 by die englander
no dont do that theyll get the police to beat the outta ya. spray you with c.s gas and call you a punk. just shut up and take it!!
11:31 July 8, 2009 by perdido
I'd like to be going back to Austin but all the damn californians have been moving in and building condos there.

Perhaps if I start bu…
Takes more than that dude. Until something cheaper comes along that they can exploit they will never leave. Crazy thing is that they actually think they are doing you a favor.
11:34 July 8, 2009 by lilplatinum
idiots already bankrupted their own state and now moving down to do ours.

I'm torn between my love of capitalism and my hatred of west coasters.
11:36 July 8, 2009 by die englander
perdido this bloke is being sarcastic. he really thinks that poor people are just rats and that the upper classes ARE doin them a favour!!
11:37 July 8, 2009 by lilplatinum
Rats are mammels, poor people are more like cockroaches.
11:38 July 8, 2009 by perdido
idiots already bankrupted their own state and now moving down to do ours.

I'm torn between my love of capitalism and my hatred of west…
No worries I have pissed on my Craig Biggio poster many a times
11:47 July 8, 2009 by die englander
i dont mind capitalism at all, i just hate the biproducts esp the soma sucking brave new world tribe.

in a nutshell i just think that running people up and down the world with military style police forces shouldnt be just brushed off with daft comments like some of the posts on this thread.

we are in germany and after all its recent history does have a stain where police/military is concerned.
11:51 July 8, 2009 by lilplatinum
When a violent crowd starts lighting fires and throwing rocks and bottles the police have the right to get the situation under control.

When they start firing live ammo at the crowds I'll be right there with you crying foul.
11:57 July 8, 2009 by die englander
when a police force is the instrument of force of a currupt state im against them attacking my children with c.s gas and guns.

and believe me if that happens it wont be time to start asking questions its already too late.
12:09 July 8, 2009 by lilplatinum
So police are supposed to control a rioting crowd how? Or is it okay if your children are injured by a crowd of militant left wing (or right wing in the case of the rostock neo-nazis from the rostock-pauli game) rioters since they weren't government agents.
12:18 July 8, 2009 by die englander
think about what your saying instead of trying to win an arguement.

of course we need order, but not at any costs. to coin an american quote:Those who would give up Essential Liberty

to purchase a little Temporary Safety,

deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

are you saying that those that organize g8 protests etc have no case? those police forces could probably win some of those "punks" over if they enforced those laws on EVERYBODY!! not just the poor.
12:22 July 8, 2009 by lilplatinum
I'm actually talking about this particular riot. If protests are peacefull I absolutely oppose government using force to disperse them. I don't, however, find starting fires and throwing rocks and bottles an exercise in essential liberty.

I mean i've been caught in tear gas coming out of a club in austin in the middle of a riot, its sucks, but far less than being trampled by a herd of drunk angry sheep.
12:32 July 8, 2009 by die englander
im talking about cause and effect,corruption and aggressive war mongering governments are the cause and the effects are an angry, fearing for their future freedom, younger generation.

and if you think its going away it isnt its gonna increase many people feel that the government take the rank piss out of their taxes (have you seen whats going on in england lately)?

these same people run the police force and the armys of this world .. i think we should help those rioters!!!
15:01 July 9, 2009 by Chocky
yep its the dirt and ruggedness that attracts these posh types they love a bit a ruff. i come from hoxton in london originally and i watched these sam…
I remember that area in the 80s when it was still rough as anything, but it's not so much that the area has become gentrified that bothers me, it's the stupid hipster twats riding around on monkey bikes and childrens scooters.
Yes how dare people have jobs and gentrify areas. Same thing happening in New York, pretty soon the drug dealers won't have a corner to stand on i…
Move somewhere else, which is the inherent problem with your reasoning.
17:52 July 10, 2009 by finanzdoktor
In 1981, I made my first trip to Washington, DC as a college student on spring break. Couldn't get over how if you went one or two blocks from Pennsylvania Avenue it appeared to resemble a war zone. Now, the reclaimation of the downtown area (which kept the original fronts of the buildings and refurbished/reconstructed to interior), has really beautified the area. Too bad the same thing cannot occur in this area of Hamburg. It only takes the people to make a decision to do so.
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