Senate of Finances Refuses Responsibility

At May 27th 2009 the inhabitants of a house project in "Berlin-Mitte" (central quartier in Berlin) informed that they received an official ultimatum date to leave the house which they fill for years now with life and arts. The letters with the ultimatum have been delivered to them at May 26th. The project, which is connected with a so-called "Umsonstladen" (a 'shop' where neighbours can change unneded things to needed without using money) now is in serious danger of being evacuated by the police at June 18th - which is the exact officially given date - or the days following this date (which inhabitants assume as possible due to the fact that the given date will be in the middle of the so-called "Action Weeks" in Berlin).

The evacuation danger is high, although a compromise solution seemed not impossible a few days ago: at May 25th the official speaker of the senate of finances in Berlin, Clemens Teschendorf, said that the owner of the estate, Manfred Kronawitter, might get a second chance to get a house in the Ackerstraße (not far away from Brunnenstraße), which Kronawitter long ago accepted as a solution. This compromise would make it possible for the inhabitants of the Brunnenstraße to buy the house from Kronawitter then. Until May 25th the senate of finances blocked this solution, claiming that a second interested person (the daughter of dress designer Joop, Jette Joop) is the only person who could be treated as a possible buyer of the Ackerstraße estate.

On June 25th 2009, Clemens Teschendorf said that Kronawitter might get a second chance to get the building if getting in contact with Berlin´s "Liegenschaftsfonds" with a concrete presentation of his project. Background: a few days before this Kronawitter mentioned that his project would definitely include more jobs that Jette Joop´s project for the Ackerstraße estate (Joop claimed that she plans 13 workplaces in dress design, Kronawitter plans 18-20 in social and health sector).

But so far Kronawitter made no real move to get in direct contact with the "Liegenschaftsfonds", instead the inhabitants of Brunnenstraße 183 got a fixed ultimatum date at June 18th.

The situation so far looks as leading to an escalation as a result of the inability of both conflict partners (Berlins Senate of Finances and Manfred Kronawitter) to lead their theoretical - or maybe only official claimed - will to change the so far only theoretical and only possible compromise option into real practical solutions.

As a result inhabitants and artists - needed also for the touristical value of the area, the Brunnenstraße is not far away from the well-known "Tacheles" - are weared out between both fronts.

Photo shows the "Umsonstladen" nearby the estate Brunnenstraße183 (left side of the blue Umsonstladen) after a pink-painting-solidarity action in the city park "Weinbergsweg", made by some artistic talented activists at May 11th/12th, 2009.