Occupation of the pot and sons site in Erfurt
The occupation of the Topf and Sons site was a squat on the disused factory site of the JA Topf and Sons company in the Thuringian capital of Erfurt . The occupation began on April 12, 2001 and ended on April 16, 2009 with the evacuation of the area by the police . Especially in the last months of the occupation there were repeated demonstrations and actions in Erfurt that drew media attention, such as the “kidnapping” of Bernd dem Brot .
background
The company JA Topf und Sons was an oven manufacturer that was founded in Erfurt in 1878. At the beginning of the Second World War , the company ran into financial difficulties, which is why a collaboration with the Reich Main Security Office was agreed in 1941 . As part of this cooperation, Topf and Sons produced crematorium ovens for the concentration camps Auschwitz , Buchenwald , Gusen and Dachau as well as components for the gas chambers in Auschwitz , in which a total of more than a million people were murdered or their bodies were burned. After the Second World War, the company continued to exist as VEB Erfurter Mälzerei- und Speicherbau EMS in the GDR and ultimately belonged to the combine progress agricultural machinery . After the company was spun off as a GmbH in 1990, it went bankrupt in 1994, with the result that the company premises were closed.
The company premises were then owned by the Landesentwicklungsgesellschaft Thuringia , which sold it to Domicil Hausbau GmbH from Mühlhausen in 2007 . She planned to rebuild the site with residential and commercial buildings.
occupation
During the occupation of the site, which lasted more than eight years, the occupiers held information events and guided tours through the factory premises. This was intended to advance the processing of the company's history and its involvement with the National Socialists. The factory halls had largely been preserved in their original structural condition until the end, but were empty.
In addition, the occupied house was used as a meeting place for the left-wing autonomous scene and for events. Towards the end of the occupation, around 30 people lived permanently on the site. On February 4, 2009, a fire broke out on the premises, causing property damage but no injuries.
Demonstrations and actions against the eviction
When the site was sold to a private investor in 2007, fears of the imminent evacuation of the area increased among the occupiers. The first major demonstration to preserve the occupied house took place on October 10, 2008, followed by more on November 22, 2009, with over 1000 participants, and on April 16, 2009.
On January 21, 2009, some activists stole a plastic figure of Bernd the bread that was placed in front of the Erfurt town hall . On February 1, 2009, the sculpture was found on the site of a former barracks in Nohra near Weimar and brought back to its original location.
eviction
On February 13, 2009, an eviction suit was filed against the occupiers. Thereupon they tried to occupy another area in the north of Erfurt, which was unsuccessful. On April 3, 2009, the Erfurt Regional Court issued a judgment that ordered the occupiers to vacate the site. After they refused to leave the premises, a large-scale police operation took place on April 16, 2009, during which the premises were cleared. Several hundred police officers were involved in the operation, which took place in the early morning hours and cost around 1.2 million euros. The police action was discussed in a public plenary session on May 8, 2009 in the Thuringian state parliament .
Immediately after the site was cleared, the complete demolition of all buildings with the exception of the former administration building began. In 2011, the Topf & Sons memorial site was opened in the administration building, which also shows an exhibition on the company's history.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Press release of January 24, 2009
- ↑ Spiegel report on the occupation and kidnapping of Bernd dem Bread
literature
- Karl Meyerbeer, Pascal Späth (eds.): Pot and sons - occupation on a perpetrator site. Graswurzel-Verlag, Heidelberg 2012, ISBN 978-3-939045-20-5 .
