Rosemarie F. lived in the northern Reinickendorf neighbourhood and had been fighting eviction proceedings for months. An attempt to get her out in February failed after 200 residents protested, but she was not so lucky this time around, the Berliner Zeitung reported.
On Friday some 300 protestors gathered at her former apartment to remember the senior and to protest forced evictions.
An exact cause of death is expected to be determined from an autopsy. She died on Thursday evening at the “Warmth with a Heart” homeless shelter in the nearby Wedding neighbourhood.
The retired woman went downhill fast, according to Zoltan Grasshoff, the founder of the homeless shelter and one of the last people to see the woman alive. On Wednesday she vomited several times during a short walk and could only move very slowly. She lay down on Thursday morning and was found dead in the evening.
“She couldn’t take the pressure and the stress of it all,” Grasshoff said. ”We are deeply sorry and very shocked about what is going on in our country.”
According to the paper the woman lived with no heat, electricity or telephone in the last few months, as she could not afford those and took her meals at a charity canteen at a train station.
The apartment’s owner accused Rosemarie of arson and of harassing other renters, the paper said, charges which the woman denied.
Rosemarie was from the former eastern Germany and wanted the Berlin Wall to be rebuilt “as high as it can get” she told the newspaper in an earlier interview.
The paper said she reportedly had psychological problems, but refused any assistance from local social workers.
The Local/mw
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