what a prodigious lot of bittersweet work by you peter
i trust you are fine anyway
do take care tho
as our amplifiers & reflectors are set on high here you know
--- In
BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com, "Peter Smaardijk"
<smaardijk@y...> wrote:
>
> Some time ago, I copied some stories on the Lenné triangle from the
> internet. All those links are dead now, but I have translated one
of
> those stories into English for you. It used to be at
> http://www.dtv.de/bestand/36149_lese.htm .
>
> (
)
> Shortly before five o'clock, minutes before sunrise, the forces of
> the state advanced with nine hundred men. Policemen with protecting
> helmets jumped out of the vans and encircled the area. Special
forces
> were preparing to cut through fences. Water canons got into
position,
> armoured vehicles rolled on to clear away barricades. Loudspeakers
> summoned the occupiers to leave the area.
> Most of them complied, but in a most unusual way. They climbed over
> self-made ladders and piles of metal grids to the top of the wall
and
> landed on the concrete pipe, four metres above the ground,
> unattainable for the guards of law and order in the west. "Stay up
> there. Don't jump off just yet", a border guard yelled.
> On the East Berlin side, army vehicles approached, and soldiers
> spread out jumping mats. "Now", ordered a man in uniform. Then they
> jumped off, one after the other. They totaled 182 persons, as
counted
> by the crew of a British military helicopter. It was July 1st,
1988.
> A memorable day: for the first time in the history of the divided
> city, Berliners and allied forces witnessed a massive escape from
the
> west to the east.
> "The whole thing lasted perhaps twenty minutes", recalls Stephan
Noé.
> He was one of those who didn't run away. The GDR, "a repressive
> state" in his eyes, had issued a refusal of entry against the
> Alternative Liste members of Charlottenburg district council. Noé
> waited to be arrested by the West Berlin police. But they were wise
> enough to leave the official spokesman of the AL fraction in the
> Berlin house of representatives alone. "This annoyed me really
bad",
> he says, looking back.
> Noé expected that they would pick out his person because of his
> function. He was the spokesman of the occupiers of the Lenné
> triangle, a colourful bunch of environmentalists, "alternatives",
> punks, and "autonomists". At times there were more than 300 of
them,
> camping for five weeks on the four hectare big "no man's land"
> between east and west. "Many thought it ridiculous to have such an
AL
> twerp", says Noé, "but I was one that had a way with words and knew
> the right people." So he became the liaison man with the media,
with
> the politicians, and partly also with the police.
> The area, that was picked by the young people for their action, was
a
> strange place in the four sector city. Situated only a couple of
> hundred metres away from the Potsdamer Platz, it was part of the
East
> Berlin district of Mitte. It stuck out as a sharp triangle, the
front
> sides being formed by the Lennéstrasse and the Bellevuestrasse,
into
> the West Berlin district of Tiergarten. When the wall was built,
the
> GDR had left this spot out. It stayed, legally as part of the East
> Sector, on the west side of the wall. This way it became a
wasteland,
> a biotope with a multitude of rare plants.
> For years, the Senate had tried to buy this dead corner to the west
> of the "anti-imperialist protection wall" from the GDR, one of the
> reasons being the intention to build a motorway along the
demarcation
> line through this area. But the deal was only made in March, 1988.
It
> was declared that, as part of a broader agreement on the exchange
of
> territories, the Lenné triangle would belong to West Berlin as of
> July 1st.
> The GDR border guards had only just torn down the fence around the
> area, as on May 26 environmentalists and members of the civic
> initiative group Westtangente moved in, in order to prevent the
plans
> of the Senate taking place. "It was a mixture of ecological
> consciousness and deliberate provocation", Noé describes the
> motivation back then. But along came also people that were less
> concerned about the protection of flora than they were about the
> demonstration of an "alternative way of life", and about a protest
> against the capitalist system: anarchists, "autonomists", activists
> from the Kreuzberg scene. "For many of them it was an adventurous
> playground".
> At first, the GDR guard had crossed the border installations and
had
> tried to force of the first occupiers. But soon afterwards, they
left
> these people alone. Even when they started to erect tents and huts
> and to plant vegetables. "The border guards were standing on their
> ladders against the wall and watched how things were", Noé
> says. "There were also troops that took pictures or filmed." For
the
> rest, the communication was limited to short, unimportant chatting.
> Right from the start, the politically aware campers had renamed the
> territory. The Lenné triangle, named after a Prussian garden
> designer, became the "Norbert Kubat triangle". This was the name of
a
> young "autonomist", that had been arrested during riots the year
> before, and had committed suicide in prison.
> "If you fancy summer, life, laughter, or discussion", the occupants
> advertised in a leaflet, "so come over to us, so that we can keep
> this place." The call was duly answered. Day after day,
reinforcement
> from the leftist-alternative scene appeared. Not only from Berlin,
> but also from West Germany. Amongst them were people of no fixed
> abode. But also those who left every morning to go to work.
> Noé: "Despite of all the differences, there was one minimum
> consensus: this land belongs to us. We don't want to leave."
> Step by step, the camp was turned into a sort of fortified village.
> For fear of neonazis and police, the occupiers dug out ditches
around
> the 30 or so dwellings, made earthworks and erected barricades.
There
> was a soup kitchen (later on), a "Rudi Dutschke House", and a path
> with the name of "Pest Tangent". Above the settlement, which also
had
> a watchtower, the black pirates' flag was flying.
> (
)
> The CDU and FDP Senate was watching these developments for a while,
> unable to do anything about it. As long as the agreement on the
> territorial exchanges was not in force, no West Berlin policeman
> could enter the Lenné triangle. "Not having any grip on things,
being
> played about by the occupiers that was a problem for the members
of
> the government in Schöneberg city hall", admits Noé. Especially
> because the way the building materials were obtained was not really
> above board. The reproach that there were some criminal things
going
> on could not really be denied."
> Senator for the Interior Wilhelm Kewenig was convinced that the
> majority of the occupiers weren't environmentalists but "enemies of
> the constitution", so he ordered, two weeks after the beginning of
> the occupation, that the Lenné triangle would be fenced in. The
story
> was that it was suspected that there was ammunition from the Second
> World War on the land, and the people shouldn't be put at risk. The
> real reason was to make the extension of the camp and the growth of
> the number of occupiers more difficult.
> (
)
> The more the police increased its presence around the area, the
more
> militant the mood in the occupiers' village became. The
peaceful "eco-
> freaks" tried to no avail to keep the "brainless stone-throwers"
from
> resorting to violence, like pelting the uniformed with cobblestones
> and steel balls. These replied by using their water cannons.
> Noé: "this escalated the situation."
> The clashes turned into a small war. At night, the police officers
> treated the occupiers on unbearably loud music. Nerve-racked, many
> occupiers left the area, to have a good sleep at home during the
day.
> Noé too has been to his home by then, to have a shower and change
his
> soaked clothes for dry ones. "You had to bring new clothes all the
> time."
> The stand-off became steadily severe and aggressive. The occupiers
> took to molotov cocktails, catapults, and fireworks, and the state
> powers used tear gas. There were wounded people on both sides.
After
> almost two hours of firing into the area, the Eastern border guards
> had enough of it. One officer, with a protecting mask on his face,
> ordered over a megaphone the Western police to "immediately cease"
> shooting into the sovereign territory of the GDR.
> The closer the date of July 1st, the more the occupiers realised
that
> the days of their "police-free zone" were numbered. Everybody knew
> that the Senate wanted to evacuate the village. "Next week, we'll
> come over to you", some shouted to the GDR border guards. "Put that
> out of your heads", the reply came promptly.
> Why the Eastern leaders finally decided to help the beleaguered
> occupiers, even Noé doesn't know. Maybe it was the chance to appear
> in the eyes of the general public as saviours in the hour of need.
> Maybe it was also the favourable occasion to depict the Senate as
> being responsible for a "repressive police force". "I definitely do
> not think that it was out of pure compassion."
> (
)
>
>
>
> Peter