The Occupy camp situated in Frankfurt's financial district, at the foot of the European Central Bank, was cleared this afternoon in a lightning raid, approved by the city's Administrative Court. The police admitted they had chosen a moment when the majority of...
Our Crit in Frankfurt
UPDATED Occupy in Frankfurt – rally against eviction
UPDATE: on 31 July 2012 Frankfurt's Lord Mayor (Oberbuergermeister) Peter Feldmann (SPD) granted cautious support to the aims of the Occupy Camp insofar as these were about initiating a dialogue about the financial system. This effectively amounts to granting a stay...
Frankfurt as protest-free city? – hunger strike begins
With the swift decision to evict the Occupy camp that has spent nine months at the foot of the European Central Bank's Eurotower, the peaceful protest appears to be entering another juncture of resistance against the city authorities, who have once again shown...
“Wendland am Main” – Blockupy to return
One week after the Blockupy protests the Blockupy Alliance has concluded that the event was on balance a success - despite the ban. So much so, that the activists have announced their return to Frankfurt, and to turn it into what the German left call a "Wendland",...
Blockupy and The Politics of Crisis
The politics of crisis speaks among other things to the inherent crisis within the capitalist process. Nonlinear studies of capitalism, for example, take a far more honest approach to their subject matter. One can read the theology that is neoclassical economics and...
Blockupy Day 4: 19 May – against the politics of crisis and authoritarianism
22:10 CET: The centre right Zeit newspaper is less than impressed with the policing overkill: Taking the Blockupy events' expiration as a benchmark to assess the city's hard line, it is difficult to understand: even with a few more permitted events, with less security...
Blockupy Day 3: 18 May – German media: “Blockupy has already won”
23.38 CET: Napoleon once said: "you should never disturb the enemy when he is the middle of making a mistake". This seems to adequately describe today's Blockupy activities in which targeted and pertinent Blockupy action simply offered a leitmotif for the furious,...
Blockupy Frankfurt Day 2: 17 May – for the freedom of assembly
23;32 CET: We close today's blog with a link to the excellent photo slideshow of Sterneck. 21:58 CET: One cannot doubt the importance of today's protests and their successfulness. What occurred in the Paulsplatz in particular had been declared officially and legally...
Blockupy Frankfurt Day 1: 16 May – Frankfurt effectively in ‘State of Exception’
21:45 CET: as we enter an unseasonably cold night, thoughts turn to tomorrow's activism. We're going to sign off the blog for today. Thanks for reading. (above) Water cannon stand ready between Eschenheimer Tor and Hauptwache. 20:55 CET: there are now about 100...
Police unilaterally abandon all Blockupy personal exclusion orders
The unsustainable unconstitutionality of the total shutdown of Blockupy is beginning to manifest itself. This evening (15 May) the Police HQ in Frankfurt declared that all person-specific exclusion orders relating to the Blockupy protests on 16-19 May, which banned...
Right to a pleasant shopping experience trumps right to demonstrate
The Blockupy Alliance have indicated their intention to appeal the decision of the Frankfurt Administrative Court yesterday in which but for two exceptions the total ban on protest declared by the Frankfurt authorities for 16–19 May was upheld. “If you read the...
Administrative Court upholds Blockupy-ban
The Administrative Court in Frankfurt has today (14 May) confirmed the general Blockupy-ban issued by Frankfurt's public order councillor Markus Frank. Likewise, the Occupy camp in Willy-Brandt Platz may also be 'temporarily' cleared away. The court did provide for...
“We have fought hard to ensure that the event is prohibited”: Councillor Markus Frank (CDU)
"All Germans shall have the right to resist any person seeking to abolish this constitutional order, should no other remedy be possible." Basic Law Art.20(4). After a five-hour administrative court hearing today (Sat. 12 May 2012) Frankfurt am Main's Public Order...
As expected, Frankfurt Blockupy-ban used to clear Occupy camp
The activists must "temporarily" evacuate their camp in front of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt next week. The reason for this declaration of Frankfurt's Public Order Administration is the upcoming Blockupy protests - the one's the same administration have...
Authorities define “violence” as any restriction of capital flows
As debate spilled over into a shouting match in the Hessian State Parliament concerning the effective ban of Blockupy protests this 16-19 May in Frankfurt am Main, the administrative decision that effected this ban has come to light. The key finding being that: The...