Portal:Hamburg/Selected article/Week 49, 2009

Hafenstraße is a common German abbreviation of St. Pauli-Hafenstrasse, a street in the St. Pauli quarter of Hamburg, Germany. Hafenstraße is known as a former squat.

The initial squat was started in 1981 by people squatting empty flats in houses in the streets St. Pauli-Hafenstrasse and Bernhard-Nocht-Strasse. Today, Hafenstrasse consists of 12 houses owned by a cooperative administered by the residents. Although referred to as a squat, during its history various contracts existed between the occupants and the buildings' former owner, the City of Hamburg. Between the initial occupation of the squat and 1992 there were often riots and militant conflicts between the squatters and police forces or groups of fascists mixed with hooligans. They have been referred to as helping originate the Black Bloc.