Rote Flora has a long history of squatting and has been a hot topic among local Hamburg politicians.
Rote Flora was built in 1888 and was originally a theatre called Tivoli. Later it was used for operas and concerts. It got closed during World War II but reopened again, and used as a cinema in the 50s and 60s, before it got turned into a grocery store.
When the store got closed in 1987, music producer Friedrich Kurz came forward with plans of turning it into a musical theatre again. However, his plan was met with massive negativity and protests from the Schanzenviertel's shopkeepers and inhabitants, many students and artists, fearing that the presence of a theatre would change the area and increase the apartment and shop rents.
But despite the protests, parts of the building was demolished in 1989 to make way for the theatre, resulting in violent encounters between protesters, militant groups and the police. Eventually it urged the investors to abandon their theatre plans.
Locals wanted to renovate the now vacant building and surprisingly the City of Hamburg gave them a lease on the building, which then was renamed Rote Flora. However, the lease turned out to be very short-lived (only three months) before it got declared obsolete by the City of Hamburg. This was in November 1989.
And that's when the squatting begain.
The City wanted the Rote Flora to be torn down to make way for new apartments, and ordered the squatters out. They refused. Police were called in, but the occupation continued. During the 90s several negotiations between the city and the squatters and sympathizers were held but fell through. Rote Flora became a hot political topic and used in elections in Hamburg.
It was only in 2001 that the conflict was defused, when Klausmartin Kretschmer bought the building from the City of Hamburg. Kretschmer then declared that Rote Flora would remain in the hands of the squatters.
Today Rote flora is used for clubbing and blockparties, but also for art exhibitions and fleemarkets, as well as cultural and political meetings of course. The front of the building is used as a billboard for political messages, which change every few weeks. It is completly cluttered in graffiti, endless scribbles with black markers and paint, and new and halftorn old posters stapled over even older posters. read more