Dozens Arrested in Berlin Amid Protests Against Pub's Eviction Order

Police in Berlin made dozens of arrests, local reports said, during protests on August 6-7 against the enforcement of an eviction order against a bar in the south of the city.

The Syndikat bar in Neukoelln has been a focal point for Berlin’s growing anti-gentrification movement since its lease was not renewed in 2018.

The bar’s management and the Tagesspiegel newspaper traced the building’s ownership via a Luxembourg shell company to the London-based William Pears Group, which owns thousands of Berlin properties through a network of companies, they said.

Leander Jones shot this footage of police knocking one person to the ground, and wrestling another. Jones told Storyful that “the police responded very aggressively.” He decried what he said was “police violence against peaceful demonstrators”.

The Berlin Police on Twitter said officers were attacked in Neukoelln overnight.

Berlin Police spokesman Thilo Cablitz told Berlin Spectator that there had been 40 arrests since the protests began on Thursday night.

Local reports and people at the scene said protesters planned to reassemble outside the pub on the evening of August 7. Credit: Leander Jones via Storyful