Klaus-Jürgen Rattay
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Klaus-Jürgen Rattay (born December 6, 1962 in Kleve on the Lower Rhine ; † September 22, 1981 in West Berlin ) was a German squatter who was involved in a police operation planned and carried out by Interior Senator Heinrich Lummer to clear eight squatted houses at the same time died in Berlin. The course of the incident remained in question because of a controversial exclusion of eyewitnesses.
The event led to a renewed solidarity with the occupying movement, which was disintegrating into factions, and in the long term to greater willingness to talk and an increasing willingness to negotiate under the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Richard von Weizsäcker .
youth
After dropping out of vocational training and moving out of home, Klaus-Jürgen Rattay joined the Berlin squatter scene in 1980. Before that, he had hitchhiked across Europe for three months; Only in Berlin, according to an ARD interview, did he find a climate that appealed to him: “It's just fine how people live together, shared apartments, in the occupied house, really optimal [...] because there is a lot more going on in Berlin , than anywhere else in Europe, because I feel more comfortable here, because there is no compulsion. ”In view of the imminent evacuation of the house in front of which the interview was filmed, he stated:“ I'm scared at the same time and I'm also at the same time Courage to fight. "
death
After eight squatted houses had been cleared as part of a large-scale police operation on September 22, 1981, Interior Senator Lummer gave a press conference in the previously vacated building at 89 Bülowstrasse. In front of the building, around 200 people began to protest against the presence of the senator. Due to a police operation, the group was first pushed onto the other lane on Bülowstrasse and then driven onto Potsdamer Strasse. According to general reports, the traffic stopped there due to a red phase, but a little later, among other things, a BVG bus pulled up , hit 18-year-old Klaus-Jürgen Rattay on the lane of Potsdamer Straße below the elevated railway and dragged him to death under the left front wheel .
The bus was only stopped by a crowd in front of the Commerzbank headquarters and reversed. After violent arguments surrounding the vehicle, the police stayed away from the scene until an ambulance from the fire department picked up the lifeless body. The police then occupied the intersection and a water cannon cleared the square soon after. There was no trace recording.
A report that a police officer had been stabbed to death, which was distributed in the afternoon by the press agencies AP and Reuters and only generally denied in the Tagesschau , fueled the mood dangerously.
Towards the evening of September 22nd, thousands flocked to the scene (the press wrote of 10-15,000 participants). After a long silent meeting, after the changeover by the police, widespread acts of violence continued until the early hours of the morning.
The street section, which was set up as a place of remembrance, repeatedly became the scene of clashes and police clearances in the days and nights that followed. On October 1st, after increasing quarrels, the vigil moved to the excavation pit at Potsdamer Straße 130. The evacuated occupiers of Bülowstrasse 89 occupied the nearby house at Pohlstrasse 59 on September 29, but the police cleared it again the following day.
There were solidarity rallies in numerous German cities and also in Amsterdam .
The course of the incident was immediately hotly controversial, especially in the press. The versions ranged from Rattay's attack on the bus and the self-negligence of his death (police report) to the portrayal of witnesses that the bus drove into the crowd without consideration. Photos were also printed in the press, which, according to the head of the Berlin State Security, Manfred Kittlaus , were supposed to prove that Rattay was identical to a photographed demonstrator who set fire to barricades with gasoline immediately before the evacuation in Winterfeldtstrasse and was a dangerous violent criminal may be. Rattay's official corpse accompanying document even contains the entry “professional chaos” in the “Profession” field - a fact that Lummer himself criticized in an interview in 1993, 12 years after the events.
The gradually published further photos and the Super 8 film (a second followed later) were able to clarify some aspects of the incident - especially the fact that the bus had not been attacked before the collision - but there are none of the exact moment of the impact Image documents.
The governing mayor Richard von Weizsäcker took over the political initiative on September 24th and invited all social groups to a discussion “about ways to inner peace”. The SPD demanded that squatters and mediators also be involved, which turned out to be difficult.
Three weeks after Rattay's death, an "independent commission of inquiry" was formed which, among other federal constitutional judges, a. D. Martin Hirsch , Professor Uta Ranke-Heinemann and Pastor Jörg Zink were members.
The representations in the press and literature
Press and journalism
While the representations of the newspapers of the Axel Springer Verlag ( BZ , picture ), citing the first police report, claimed an attack by Rattay on the bus
"According to the police, the 18-year-old jumped on the front bumper of the bus in order to smash the front window of the bus driver that had already been destroyed by stones. The demonstrator slipped and got under the front wheels. "
was in the Tageszeitung (taz) the death with the previous police operation in front of the house in Bülowstr. 89 shown,
“Which drove the bystanders to the intersection of Bülowstrasse / Potsdamer Strasse, where at that time the traffic was jammed. [... The approaching] bus grabbed a fleeing young man on the front driver's side, gave full throttle according to the witnesses and dragged the man along about 50 meters in front of the driver's side. "
other media, including public service broadcasting, cited different variants:
The investigation committee at Mehringhof and the lawyer for Rattay's parents, Wolfgang Meyer-Franck, were looking for witnesses and, above all, “trail photos”. It could be proven that there was no attack on the bus on the southern side of the elevated railway bridge to Kleistpark. The collision could only have happened under the bridge. The star , who contributed a picture to the application for the reopening of the proceedings in February 1982, quoted a witness who appeared to him to be credible:
“While Rattay stood on the road for a few seconds to check on the police officers who were advancing, a BVG bus drove at full throttle directly towards the clearly visible man. He noticed the bus shortly before the impact, turned to him and raised his hands defensively. The bus hit Rattay with the left side head-on. The window shattered. "
In 1997 Der Tagesspiegel published an excerpt from the autobiography of the former police chief Klaus Huebner , "Einsatz", in which Huebner directed sharp attacks against those responsible in the background: above all the union for education and science (GEW). His contribution was countered by an article in which, according to the author, the shock after the incident put both sides on the path to a solution. He considered the GEW to be insignificant in the context of the squatting and concluded with the conclusion that "The squatters' movement in the fight against the 'redevelopment' in parts of West Berlin [has] saved the historic cityscape."
Literature and documentation
In a series of publications, some with chronological intent, some with the character of a diary or also in a novel-like narrative, attempts were made to depict and reflect on what was happening. What they all have in common is that the course of the incident is never described with absolute certainty, but the extent of the literature already indicates that September 22, 1981 marked a decisive date in the history of the squatting in Berlin.
This importance is also underlined by the fact that in the ARD TV series 60 × Germany with a corresponding number of episodes on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2009 (supplemented by the events in the GDR up to 1990) the squatting only on the occasion of the death be thematized by Rattay in the article 1981.
The judicial proceedings
"1. After the death of K.-J. Rattay was initiated ex officio on September 22, 1981, an investigation against the victim for dangerous interference in road traffic .
2. In the following weeks, by mutual agreement between the police and the public prosecutor's office, an investigation was conducted for a breach of the peace . "
Regarding the second case, the lawyer of the parents of Rattays and the sister of the incident victim, Wolfgang Meyer-Franck, said: “With the investigation against a dead person, the authorities went beyond their legal mandate and the authorities carried out a procedure for which they were not legally required Had basics. According to Section 206a of the Code of Criminal Procedure, proceedings must be terminated with the death of the accused, since death represents an absolute procedural obstacle in the criminal procedural sense. " should be]. Objective of the investigation: inter alia: Has K.-J. Rattay carried out an attack on the bus ?. "
The death investigation (1.) was discontinued on December 3, 1981 ,
“Because there is no sufficient suspicion of third-party negligence. It was not possible to prove to the bus driver that he had not adapted his driving style to the traffic situation. [...] There is no objective traces of evidence, since 'immediately after the incident, the usual evidence of fatal traffic accidents did not take place'. "
On February 15, 1982, attorney Wolfgang Meyer-Franck requested at a press conference that "based on the materials now presented, the investigation be resumed and charges brought against those responsible."
“With a previously unknown Super 8 film, new photos of the trail and 14 other witnesses, the lawyers want to prove the causal connection between the police operation against demonstrators and Rattay's death. [...] According to new reports, the police and the BVG bus driver have “criminal responsibility for the death” of the young man. [... It is possible ...] to reconstruct the exact point of impact of the fleeing demonstrator Rattay on the front sheet metal of the bus. "
The Berlin public prosecutor's office resumed the investigation on February 22nd, 1982, but the indictment was again rejected on April 22nd, 1982, because "a third-party culpability in Rattay's death could not be proven based on new testimony and photo documents."
Judging by the police report of September 22, 1981, which alleged an attack by Rattay and a hail of stones where there was none, the actual course of the legal proceedings could be largely clarified, but a lawsuit against the bus driver was ultimately prevented.
Attorney Meyer-Franck brought about a hearing before the 2nd Criminal Senate of the Berlin Court of Appeal on March 21, 1983 with a lawsuit enforcement procedure with reference to a traffic report . On April 22, 1983, however, the Court of Appeal decided to reject the motion to compel the action.
Even if the efforts to have the fatal incident resolved by judicial channels were unsuccessful, the elaborate preparation of the proceedings resulted in a large number of witnesses and extensive photographic material. This was also important because, according to attorney Meyer-Franck, 18 witnesses
"[Were] wrongly eliminated from the public prosecutor's office without further examination of the content. The only criterion for this was that they could not localize the incident in accordance with the trace image. If it is taken into account that the intersection was in full motion and the bus involved in the incident was in motion when it was hit, it is difficult to locate the incident correctly, especially since the expert found at least 5 to 10 m between the junction and the end position of what was caught by the bus . "
In addition, due to the lack of evidence, the public prosecutor's office could not determine the exact point of initiation.
This criticism of the selection of witnesses was recognized by the Kammergericht, but it did not see it as sufficient reason to re-admit the proceedings.
As a result, there were still proceedings before the Berlin Administrative Court , which ruled on January 25, 1984:
“The police operation in the Bülowstrasse and Potsdamer Strasse area on September 22, 1981 during a visit by Heinrich Lummer to the house at 89 Bülowstrasse, which had been vacated shortly before, was illegal. [... At that time] around 300 people had gathered in front of the house at Bülowstrasse 89 to protest against Lummer. The evacuation by the police was illegal because the crowd in front of the house was a 'spontaneous meeting' according to Article 8 of the Basic Law, the presiding judge explained in the judgment. The dissolution of such an assembly is only permissible if public safety or order is jeopardized or if less drastic measures to maintain security are not sufficient. The evidence showed that the crowd behaved peacefully and did not press the police security forces. The head of operations of a stand-by team who had come to support the security forces requested that the area be evacuated. Many demonstrators then ran in the direction of Potsdamer Strasse, some of them fleeing. The officers from the cordon chain in front of the house had persecuted people who did not run away fast enough using baton. The court found that there was no other option than to flee in the direction of Potsdamer Strasse. Contrary to the statements of a police chief, the court came to the conclusion that the area in front of the house up to Potsdamer Strasse should and has also been cleared. This was also confirmed by radio recordings from the police, explained the presiding judge. It would have been enough, the chairman continued, to reinforce the barriers in front of the house. A dissolution of the meeting was not necessary because stones or objects would have been thrown out of the crowd. Most of the witnesses, including police officers, did not see anything like this. If there were individual litters - but the court was not able to determine that with certainty either - it could only have been insignificant incidents. "
"The appeal that Police President Huebner had lodged against the judgment at the Higher Administrative Court [...] was withdrawn [...] on March 20 of this year [1986] [...]."
Since the court proceedings dragged on for years, the most diverse variants of the incident remained in public, but they soon fell behind the political evaluation of the event.
Short term effects
On Sunday, September 27 [1981] around 25,000 demonstrators moved from Fehrbelliner Platz to Dennewitzplatz not far from the scene of the incident. "Most of the banners demanded Lummer's resignation in different variations."
On Monday, September 28, the Berlin House of Representatives rejected the Alternative List (AL) motion of censure against Interior Senator Lummer with the majority of the ruling parties CDU and FDP: "The SPD was only able to abstain from voting because of internal party disputes, [...] three SPD members voted with the AL. ”A minority in the ruling FDP party also abstained.
The discussion group convened by the governing mayor of Weizsäcker on September 26, 1981 and which the BZ received with great advance praise was only made up of representatives of the traditional parties and associations. " Orlowsky , the Kreuzberg building city councilor , informed Weizsäcker in writing that he could not take part in the conversation, because once again 'only those who are at stake' will be discussed, 'instead of with them'." The meeting adjourned to October 7th.
A "counter event" by the squatters took place with 1,500 participants on September 29th in the Tempodrom . However, it was mainly about understanding yourself.
Although the “discussion group” did not last in its original form, the ice was broken - it was now a matter of the prerequisites for acceptable solutions: “We are still in favor of an overall solution and against a split into 'good and bad'”, wrote the occupiers , while "SPD and FDP spoke almost identically of a 'serious willingness on the part of the Senate to enter into a comprehensive dialogue'". The minority senate under Richard von Weizsäcker tried to find negotiated solutions. The Evangelical Church, whose parishes at the district level were often in contact with squatted houses, played an increasingly important role.
Communication process and long-term effects
On Richard v. Bishop Martin Kruse responded to Weizsäcker's initiative with a letter “to the Protestant Christians in Berlin on October 8, 1981”: In the introduction he made it clear that he was not making a “public statement” but “to older and younger Christians Christians as squatters, as godparents, as policemen, as politicians, as homeowners and apartment hunters, as parents ... "to find the way of understanding in conversation."
Kruse did not address the initiative directly, his agent, lawyer Rainer Papenfuß , did so in a report in May 1984:
“In the autumn of 1981 […] the Governing Mayor Dr. von Weizsäcker called a so-called 'peace round', in which, in addition to the parties, representatives of the churches and trade unions, the state youth council and other associations were invited. In the context of these discussions, the Governing Mayor asked the church for factual contributions to the solution of the squatting conflict. […] In a conversation between pastors, church workers and occupiers, the idea arose to create a new agency that would act as a mediator between the apparently irreconcilable groups. He should not pursue his own interests, work with consent and on behalf of the residents in the houses and, serious and knowledgeable enough to be accepted by the administration, clarify legal, financial and structural issues with the administration. "
Obviously, it quickly became clear that the association Netzwerk Selbsthilfe (Network Self-Help ) could be approached as a mediator , an independent organization of the 1968 movement , which “(had) experience in the legally correct and financially clear handling of alternative projects and [..] in the scene of the Squatters at least (was) tolerated. ”(Papenfuß, Stattbau 2, p. 30).
See on the development of the peace process: Legalization of occupied houses in Berlin
In the first year there were fierce internal disputes in almost all areas: in the government, the Senate, parties and administrations, within the network and in the squatter movement. Adversaries in the government were Interior Senator Lummer and Building Senator Rastemborski, negotiators and non- negotiators among the occupiers . In May 1982, Netzwerk founded the redevelopment agency Netzbau , which was disbanded by the founder in protest against Lummer's surprising evictions. Werner Orlowsky , Kreuzberg City Councilor, and the architect and city planner Hardt-Waltherr Hämer also gained increasing influence, the latter through the International Building Exhibition 1984/87 (IBA) and the concept of cautious urban renewal developed with lecturers and students from TU departments , that too politically and legally the methods of area rehabilitation could be opposed. In March 1983 the alternative redevelopment agency was re-established under the name of Stattbau and in the same month the cautious urban redevelopment as a guideline for urban renewal in Berlin was "approved" by the House of Representatives.
Despite further counter-actions by the Interior Senator , Stattbau was able to start its work and ultimately carry it out successfully: Over 60 occupied houses were renovated and legalized according to a model project in Kreuzberg around Block 104 (Berlin) and are still under the self-administration of the Luisenstadt eG cooperative .
See also: The squatters and construction .
The experience that Stattbau and craftsmen, helpers, city planners and, last but not least, the squatters had together qualified the company after the fall of the Berlin Wall to the point that it became one of the two leading redevelopment agencies (the second was Hämers Gesellschaft für bewutsame Stadternerung mbH S · T · E · R · N ) for the preservation and redevelopment of the East Berlin old building district.
Afterlife
The singer Heinz Rudolf Kunze dedicated the song “Regen in Berlin” to Rattay in 1982, which captures the dejected mood among the squatters after the fatal incident.
The refrain "Clink windows and you scream - people die and you are silent" from the song "Septemberblumen" by the group "Sorgenhobel" from Berlin also became known.
The Berlin band ZSK commemorates Rattays in their song "Good luck" from the album Herz für den den thing with the following line of text: "Hey Klaus-Jürgen Rattay and Silvio Meier , we won't forget you!"
The women's band AUSSERHALB (1980 to 1985) produced their LP of the same name in 1983 with a song called "Mahnmal" about events on September 22, 1981, the death of Klaus-Jürgen Rattay and the murder of a woman by her husband in front of the women's shelter.
Removal of the memorial stones in 2017
The memorial stone slab laid out in 1981 for the deceased on Potsdamer Strasse and the corner of Bülowstrasse in front of the Commerzbank headquarters was destroyed in November 2017 during a repair of underground lines commissioned by Stromnetz Berlin .
annotation
- ↑ Kruse's arguing letter is documented in: Stattbau informs , Volume 2, Stattbau Stadtentwicklungs-GmbH, Oktoberdruck , Berlin 1984, pp. 17 to 22. Volume 2 of Stattbau informs includes reports and minutes of the persons and authorities involved, a variety of press articles and important contracts. Volume 1 secures official and general briefs, agreements, internal papers, calculations, organizational and technical elaborations.
literature
- Irene Lusk, Christiane Zieseke (eds.): Stadtfront: BerlinWestberlin . Elefanten Press, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-88520-100-3 .
- Michael Wildenhain : The cold skin of the city . (Roman), Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt 1995, ISBN 3-596-12358-5 , foreword and 1st chapter
- Investigation Committee in Mehringhof (Ed.): Cleared? . 8 houses cleared ... Klaus-Jürgen Rattay dead. PDF, Berlin 1981.
- Klaus Hübner: Commitment, Memories 1969–1987 . Jaron Verlag GmbH, Berlin 1997, ISBN 978-3-932202-23-0 .
Movie
- Houses, hatred and street fighting : The film (first broadcast on the RBB on September 25, 2006) reports on the course of the "squatter movement" 25 years later and contains passages from the panorama interview with KJ Rattay one day before his death. The film team also visited KJ Rattay's father and let him tell us more about his life and his son.
- Super8 film Tod Rattay , 3 min., Excerpts from news programs and in full length in the report about the evictions in Panorama on September 29, 1981. In: 50 years Panorama . [The broadcast about the death of Rattay is no longer included].
- The Super 8 recordings about the circumstances of the incident were combined into a short film in connection with a depiction of the press campaign running in the first few days about the alleged perpetration of Rattay and used by the film distributor Gegenlicht with 15 copies in 1981/1982 for a counter-representation.
- September 22, 1981 Politics, West dead during demonstrations , 2.10 minutes, berlin-mauer.de. [Before and after recordings].
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ see also: Death had sharpened the eye for the standards. In: Der Tagesspiegel , September 14, 1997, p. 10.
- ↑ Interview in Panorama , broadcast by ARD on September 29, 1981.
-
^ The houses: Winterfeldtstrasse 20, 22, 24, Bülowstrasse 89, Knobelsdorffstrasse 40/42, Dieffenbachstrasse 10 and Hermsdorfer Strasse 4
In: Zitty , No. 21/81, Ute Büsing, Subject: Die Räumungen, p. 8. - ^ Process documented in the Super 8 film , in: Panorama , September 29, 1981.
- ↑ the daily newspaper (taz) September 24, 1981, p. 4.
- ↑ taz of October 2, 1981, p. 22.
- ↑ taz of October 1, 1981, p. 16.
- ↑ taz of September 24, 1981, p. 3.
- ↑ BZ September 23, 1981, p. 5.
- ↑ Bild Berlin , September 24, 1981, p. 1.4.
- ^ Houses, hatred and street fighting. The revolt of the Berlin squatters , TV documentary by Eckart Lottmann , RBB 2006.
- ↑ Der Tagesspiegel September 25, 1981, p. 1.
- ↑ See Commission wants to clarify death upon eviction in Berlin. In: Frankfurter Rundschau , October 13, 1981.
- ↑ BZ (Berliner Zeitung), "The Death of the Masked", September 23, 1981, p. 1.
- ↑ taz: September 23, 1981, p. 16.
- ↑ stern: "Embarrassment for the Public Prosecutor", 10/1982, March 4, 1982, p. 306.
- ↑ Der Tagesspiegel: "An apolitical victim", August 29, 1997, p. 13.
- ↑ Der Tagesspiegel: "Death sharpened the eye for the standards", September 14, 1997, p. 10.
- ↑ ARD, 60xDeutschland. http://www.60xdeutschland.de/1981-jahresschau/ (June 3, 2013)
- ↑ Press release RA Wolfgang Meyer-Franck, February 15, 1982, p. 2.
- ↑ Press release RA Meyer-Franck, February 15, 1982, p. 2.
- ↑ Der Tagesspiegel: "Death of Rattays remains unexplained" December 4, 1981
- ↑ press release, p. 3.
- ↑ Volksblatt Berlin: "New Evidence in the Rattay Case", February 16, 1982, p. 11.
- ↑ taz: "Public prosecutor's office resumes investigation", February 24, 1982, p. 15.
- ↑ Der Tagesspiegel: "Rattay proceedings discontinued", April 23, 1982.
- ↑ Press release, p. 87.
- ^ Taz: "Police President gives up", April 3, 1986, p. 20.
- ↑ taz, September 28, 1981, p. 16.
- ↑ taz, September 29, 1981, p. 4.
- ↑ “Tomorrow at 10 o'clock! The new big date in Berlin history. ”, BZ, September 25, 1981, p. 1.
- ↑ taz, Diepgen as the only representative of the youth? , September 28, 1981, p. 16.
- ^ Taz title: "A slide evening of movement", October 1, 1981, p. 16.
- ↑ taz, Nothing exactly you don't know , October 1, 1981, p. 16.
- ↑ You stand with your feet on it . In: Friday , September 22, 2006
- ↑ The musician and the squatter - sidewalk memorials and stumbling blocks in the south of Potsdamer Strasse potseblog September 11, 2012
- ↑ Nobody feels responsible Monument was a pile of rubble by Sophie-Isabel Gunderlach, TAZ November 29, 2017
- Jump up ↑ Renewing Squatter Memories , by Karen Noetzel, December 21, 2017
- ↑ In 1981, overrun by a bus, construction workers simply pave the plaque for squatters , by Martin Klesmann, Berliner Zeitung April 27, 2018
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Rattay, Klaus-Jürgen |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German squatters |
| BIRTH DATE | December 6, 1962 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kleve |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 22, 1981 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | West Berlin |