Battle of Ryesgade - Copenhagen Squatters Movement

Copenhagen Squatters Movement

The Copenhagen Squatters Movement first appeared as a political force when a group of young people moved in and took over an abandoned bread factory in Nørrebro. They demanded that the city council give them a house where the young people of Copenhagen could gather without charge. Furthermore, the house had to be completely self-organized and under the control of the youths, without the city council having any influence on the day-to-day running of the house. The action lasted only two hours before the police moved in and cleared the factory.

Over the next year or so the squatters multiplied, as did the tensions between them and the authorities. On March 6, 1982 the first seriously violent confrontation between squatters and police took place. Earlier that day, about 90 people had illegally occupied an old building. When the police moved in for the eviction, several of the squatters were wearing bandannas and ski masks to hide their faces. The police tried to break down the door, but their first assault was forced back by a bombardment of bricks and other building materials. They regrouped and brought in an armored car and industrial saw. When they did manage to get inside the building, they severely beat several of their opponents.

This event marked a turning point in the conflict. Where the evictions of other squats had been relatively peaceful, this was the first time that the squatters had actually attacked the police. During the first attack a toilet was thrown at the police. This act later became famous as a symbol of the end of the squatters' peaceful resistance against evictions.

After the confrontation in March, the squatters gained significant advances. They established many new squats in the spring and summer of 1982. The squats were mostly located in Nørrebro, and unlike before, the police did not move in and evict the squatters right away. This allowed the squatters to establish collectives. The houses included such now-infamous sites as Allotria, Bazooka, Den Lille Fjer ("The Little Feather"), Garternergade 14 ("Gardener Street 14"), Snehvide ("Snow White"), Safari, and many more. Allotria in particular became a popular place for alternative music. In Bazooka, the squatters even set up a housing service with records of empty houses and flats in the area. Those in need of a place to live could come to Bazooka. They were shown an empty house and offered a crowbar with which to break down the door.

As these types of activities grew, they drew more and more people into squatting. At this time, the squatters experienced great support from the people in the local community, many of whom saw the squatters as fighting for a noble cause. The squatters also took a harder line in their attitude toward the authorities. In the fall of 1982, a series of confrontations took place. Most famous of these was Endagskrigen ("The One-Day War") where the squatters violently resisted an eviction. This confrontation was the most violent street fight yet. The squatters set up improvised barricades in the streets and pelted police with building materials taken from nearby construction sites, Molotov cocktails, and stones.

In October 1982, the council caved to the squatters' original demands and handed over an old building for their use. The building was named Ungdomshuset ("The Youth House") and was located on Jagtvej 69 in Nørrebro. (The house was finally evicted on March 1, 2007, after the city council sold the building to a Christian sect.) With this gesture, the city council hoped that the squatters would abandon the other squatted houses and settle for the new building on Jagtvej 69. This did not happen. As a result, the city council and the mayor launched a wave of evictions against the squatters.

In January 1983 the police evicted Allotria. A force of about 1500 policemen had been mobilized, and the squatters realized that they stood no chance against such numbers. When the police entered the house, the squatters had already escaped through a tunnel dug under the street. The tunnel was seen by the media and the public as a creative stroke of genius. The police were ridiculed in the papers, and the general public saw it as victory for the squatters. The squatters didn't see it that way. To them, the loss of their homes was at best bittersweet. Over the next couple of days the massive police force evicted the rest of the squats in Nørrebro. Bulldozers then moved in and demolished the houses.