03.01.

And what had previously been media rumours was officially confirmed at the press conference held by the State Office for Health and Social Affairs (LAGeSo) on 20 October 2014: the state of Berlin intended to build six ‘residential container villages’ and, for the first time since the construction of the Marienfelde emergency reception centre in 1953, would develop the accommodation itself. The Alfred-Randt-Straße site in Allende II will be the first to be built.

20 October 2014: LAGeSo press conference, announcement of the site selection

“We were not involved at borough level. And our involvement was even formally required, as these decisions fall within the remit of the state. But to put it bluntly: we were supposed to do the heavy lifting in the borough, ensure integration and inform residents, although we were the last to be brought on board. That was and is unfair on the part of the Senate. Decisions are made at the top, but we have to live with them. We voiced precisely this criticism, and I continue to stand by what we said.“ (Oliver Igel, Borough Mayor of Treptow-Köpenick, since 2011)

From then, everything happened very quickly, leaving the neighbourhood and borough office in turmoil. They both felt that the Senate had presented them with a fait accompli, which prompted incomprehension, excessive demands and a defensive response. Aside from the finality and immediacy of the planned measure, particular criticism was levelled at the proximity to the existing accommodation for refugees on Salvador-Allende-Straße in Allende I. The Welcome Refugees! volunteer group that operates there, as well as several other local organisations, opposed the container accommodation in an open letter and an online petition, without seeking to protest against refugees themselves. Others took charge of this aspect: right-wing and far-right groups and parties quickly exploited their inter-borough and inter-state networks to mobilise smear campaigns and demonstrations. Left-wing groups and the borough’s Alliance for Democracy and Tolerance called for vigils and solidarity rallies to encourage an open mindset and voice support for the rights of refugees in opposition to these developments. Uncertainty, frustration, fear and hatred mingled to create an ominous mixture in which every piece of information – whether true or not – became a spark.

• 24 October 2014: Online petition by several local bodies and organisations protesting the accommodation

From contra to pro – An initiative finds itself (Part 1)

“It was simply said in the press: a container village will be planted here, and then the construction work began. Strip foundations were laid, trees felled and the first containers arrived relatively quickly. And it didn’t take long for a negative attitude to form. During the early weeks, we – so all the founding members of Allende 2 hilft – either signed a petition or expressed our views on it: ‘We don’t want this accommodation here in the Allende neighbourhood. What are you doing? You can’t simply build a container village here.’ So in the broadest sense, we were local opponents. But we did realise relatively quickly: ‘okay, we can do what we want. But the Senate has reached its decision, and there is nothing the borough can do. So how do we deal with it now?’ What it boiled down to for us was that there was no alternative other than to make the best of it and find a sensible way to integrate the container village into the neighbourhood.” (Dirk, volunteer, Allende 2 hilft e.V., 2014-2023)

• Protest letter to the Treptow-Köpenick Borough Office, 23 October 2014

“Quite a few people signed it. That’s another example of what the mood was like.” (Gregor Postler, Treptow-Köpenick Borough Office, Representative for Participation and Integration, since 2014)

The beginning of resistance, conversations and a construction site

• 3 November 2014: Anonymous leaflets with racist content in letterboxes 
• 9 November 2014: First so-called ‘picnic’ protesting the accommodation
• 11 November 2014: First Allende Neighbourhood II Round Table

“I watched from above as the trees were felled. Then the containers arrived at some point. There were so many of them. It felt like their delivery alone took a fortnight” (Anonymous, local resident)

• 14 November 2014: The felling of trees begins

“Some people pretended it was all about ‘nature conservation’.“ (Petra, volunteer, Garden of Hope, 2015-2022)

Hatred, frustration – and solidarity – emerge on the streets

• 15 November 2014: First so-called ‘citizens‘ demo’ against the accommodation

“The clocks had just gone forward, so it got dark early and was getting cold. I can still remember that it was already relatively dark at this one demonstration and then a really angry mob ran through the whole neighbourhood.” (Gregor Postler, Treptow-Köpenick Borough Office, Representative for Participation and Integration, since 2014)

“People say that the mood at the demonstrations was at boiling point. Because people just didn’t know: will it become violent or get out of hand? For example, one of the weekly demonstrations always took an unusual route, and I don’t think anyone knew why. But I had a hunch. Because it was supposed to pass near my flat.” / “There was a lot of hate in the world. There was a lot of hate on social media. And it’s still the same today.“ (Oliver Igel, Borough Mayor of Treptow-Köpenick, since 2011)

The first major demonstration against the home was held on 15 November 2014. Around 300 residents and 100 right-wing extremists gather for what they call a ‘citizens‘ demonstration’. Photo: Register of Treptow-Köpenick

“I showed my face during the demonstrations. I didn’t walk with them in lockstep, but at certain points I positioned myself so that they noticed me. Then I waited in Allende II, the demo was broken up in Allende I, and whoever came back, I know some of them, I took them aside and we talked for a while. Especially those in my age group who know that I used to be a punk back in the day. Or still am. I had the feeling that it was important for many people that I took a stand here.“ (Marek Bauer, BUDE multigenerational project, volunteer project manager, since 2007)

• 15 November 2014: Vigil organised by the Alliance for Democracy and Tolerance calling for ‘Solidarity with refugees instead of exclusion’

“There was a time I observed one of these Friday marches and listened to what they were saying. It wasn’t clear to me at first whether it was meant to be hostile or positive, because they said: ‘containers are not for refugees. They need permanent structures.’ So there were comments that you couldn’t necessarily categorise as bad straight away. It was just a bit strange. And all of this, these demonstrations, was new to Köpenick. I stumbled across it, I really did.“ (Verena, volunteer, social café and women’s meeting place, since 2016)

• 19 November 2014: First ‘Nein zum Heim’ (No Home) candlelit demonstration in front of the construction site

Not a day without communication. But what did it say?

Just one day after the LAGeSo press conference, the Borough Office founded an Office Network for Refugees to speed up coordination of welcome courses and daycare places, among other things. Together with the police, the borough’s integration officer visited daycare centres, schools, retirement homes, a bakery and a kiosk to identify local needs. The future operator of the accommodation, the Internationaler Bund, was actively involved in borough and local networks. An initial Allende-Viertel II Round Table gave residents the opportunity to ask questions, but it fell far short of reaching everyone. Other rounds of dialogue brought only the governing bodies of local facilities together. 

While the individual offices were busy organising themselves, an information vacuum developed in the neighbourhood, which was inevitably filled from other sources. Local residents sought answers and sometimes found them at right-wing demonstrations. But there was grass roots resistance to the lack of alternatives to right-wing positions. Neighbourhood locations such as BUDE provided opportunities for a frank exchange of opinions beyond political pigeonholes. A new initiative was founded here as well: initially modelled on its counterpart in Moabit as ‘Köpenick hilft’, but quickly renamed ‘Allende 2 hilft’. It became the most important platform for reconciliation and engagement. 

The Allende 2 hilft initiative becomes an actor (part 2)

“The early days of our initiative were about bringing a certain understanding to the neighbourhood and thwarting the ingress of right-wing ideas, because they had no place here. This was actually our idea. The second idea was that we tried to obtain information because all the founding members had some kind of contact in the borough or Senate. We were able to obtain some information off the record, which we then published on our website and Facebook page to set the record straight. People were really spreading malicious rumours here in the neighbourhood, making up wild stories, disseminating false information. So we worked as an initiative to stop it from taking root. This gave us a certain presence here in the neighbourhood. The bottom line is that we were the point of contact, even for the first operator, because they didn’t know what to expect here, either. They asked us, as one member put it so succinctly: ‘how does the Allende neighbourhood work? Explain it to us.’ And that’s what we tried to do.“ (Dirk, volunteer, Allende 2 hilft e.V., 2014-2023)

“Of course it was us, Ms Feierabend, City Councillor for Social Affairs at the time, our Integration Officer Mr Postler and I, who then made phone calls to schools, daycare centres, the police, clubs, in other words all the institutions that might be any way affected. We tried to find solutions, including with our school inspectorate and the Youth Welfare Office. Then came the protests. Our Alliance for Democracy and Tolerance was out on the streets trying to organise rallies with the message: ‘no, we are a tolerant city here, we support the container village’. It was a very intense, communicative time with lots of emails and phone calls.“ (Oliver Igel, Borough Mayor of Treptow-Köpenick, since 2011)

Vacuum on the ground…

• 24 November 2014: Letter from the Borough Office, invitation to information events

„If you look at the chronological sequence, six weeks passed between the announcement of the location on 20 October and the first residents‘ meeting on 1 December. Wild narratives emerged during this time, compounded by the assumptions and experiences from the refugee home on Salvador-Allende-Straße. Six weeks before the public authorities officially showed their faces on the ground and informed citizens. These six weeks were basically the problem: that nothing happened. Zero.“ (Dirk, volunteer, founding member of Allende 2 hilft e.V.)

• 20 November 2014: The first containers arrive at the construction site

“We immediately became the meeting place, of course, even for people with controversial opinions. And they were not shy: ‘imagine what might happen there and so on!’ Many people had genuine delusions. We didn’t make any bones about it and simply communicated with each other. We were willing to listen to people’s concerns. From my point of view, that was the only thing that really made sense.“ (Marek Bauer, BUDE multigenerational project, volunteer project manager, since 2007)

… and managers in permanent communication

„The head of the police section at the time also made a special and incredibly important contribution. He received information quite quickly and really made the resources in his section available, saying: ‚Mr Postler, I’ll give you what you need and I think it’s cool if you get boots on the ground to talk with people. That’s the only way we can win them over So that was amazing.“ (Gregor Postler, Treptow-Köpenick Borough Office, Representative for Participation and Integration, since 2014)

The two information events organised by the borough marked a clear turning point, with an initial meeting between politics and administration on the one hand and the neighbourhood on the other. The borough, LAGeSo, the future operator and the police were all under considerable pressure. Around 300 participants crowded into the primary school gymnasium. The atmosphere remained businesslike but tense. Other formats soon followed, gradually turning the tide. 

An ‘Advent singalong’ at the bus turning area was the first and extremely successful action by the new Allende 2 hilft initiative. It was organised in cooperation with the Round Table and helped to keep the right-wing demonstrations away from the future accommodation. Around 80 people came together at an inaugural helpers‘ meeting. And they were really enthusiastic to learn what the people who would soon be moving into the containers next door might need. A week later, the first residents arrived at their new home, despite the warning of a potential attack. According to the Senate Department of the Interior and the State Office of Criminal Investigation, the presence of people would reduce the risk of an attack. Four days later, they celebrated New Year’s Eve together with the operator and volunteers, and fortunately it remained peaceful. The vigils against the accommodation continued until April 2016. The Advent singalong continued as well.

The Treptow-Köpenick Borough Office personally contacted 5,041 adults registered in the residential area, notifying them about the project and inviting them to two information events. To prevent event tourism, especially from the far right, access was only granted to residents with an ID card. / Cover letter from Treptow-Köpenick Borough Office, 24/11/2014

• 1 December 2014: Initial information event at Müggelschlößchen primary school
• 5 December 2014: First Advent singalong initiated by Allende 2 hilft

The Advent singalong at the Müggelschlößchenweg bus turning area was initiated by Allende 2 hilft and the Round Table to prevent racist protest from reaching the accommodation. Photo: unknown

„And also the public information event, that was totally horrible. There was a huge police presence, it was a dark December night, we were in charge and I was relatively new in office. It was quite a lot of pressure. The atmosphere was sometimes very tense and there was a high potential for aggression.“ (Gregor Postler, Treptow-Köpenick Borough Office, Representative for Participation and Integration, since 2014)

„Of course you saw something on TV and then those strange demonstrations in Köpenick, where you couldn’t really grasp what was going on. But many people went to sing.“ (Verena, social café and women’s meeting place, since 2016)

• 10 December 2014: Second information event at Müggelschlößchen primary school

“They were very heated events. It was not at all about looking for solutions and instead finding arguments for why the accommodation could not work here. The felling of trees was one of the issues. People didn’t care if trees were felled for residential buildings. But it crosses the line when trees are felled for refugee accommodation. I came to the event with the exact list of trees planted to replace the ones that were chopped down, which ultimately put paid to any argument. Some truly despicable arguments were also put forward. I will never forget the time I was asked – because I did not have a proper answer – what was being done to stop the people there from having children. These were serious questions that were asked in front of an audience in the hundreds. Someone stands up and asks what is being done to prevent people from having children. In other words, people should ideally be sterilised. The question alone revealed the depths of contempt for humanity. I have to admit it was quite shocking.“ / „I always found it courageous when people stood up there and argued in favour of refugees.“ (Oliver Igel, Borough Mayor of Treptow-Köpenick, since 2011)

• 20 December 2014: Helpers‘ meeting at the Bethel retirement home
• 24 December 2014: Withdrawal of the online petition against the accommodation

In an interview with 1. FC Union Berlin on 12 December 2014: „It’s a difficult situation. At the moment, we are actually at a meeting every day to explain to the residents why things have turned out the way they have. Most of the time, politicians also speak out. Just the day before yesterday we had a large residents‘ meeting at which Health Senator Czaja explained why this had to happen so quickly. The borough has also been overtaken by events. So the Mayor and City Councillor for Social Affairs, with whom we work very closely, can only react, just like us. The fact is that so many refugees are coming to Berlin every day that the state is under immense pressure. You can argue about whether you could have known beforehand that there would be so many. There were estimates that proved inaccurate and too low. But we don’t want to go back, we want to look to the future now and try to get the residents on board.“ / „There are many concerns about social cohesion. But our aim is to organise activities that in some way will unite the local community and refugees so that they build something together. Because that’s the only way it can work.“ (Peter Hermanns, Internationaler Bund, Accommodation Director, 2014-2021)

• 27 December 2014: The first people arrive

The accommodation on 27 December 2014. Photo: unknown