OK, I don’t know if they are actually anarchists or not, but Flora Skatepark is being built behind a building called the Rote Flora in Hamburg, Germany that currently has strong ties with squatter and left-wing groups. Do right-wing squatters exist? The Rote Flora was one of the few theaters in Germany to survive WWII intact. According to Wikipedia, it was used as part of a department store from the 70’s until 1987. Here’s where it gets murky. For some reason there was an uproar by local shopkeepers and and “autonomous groups” (Anarchy!) when a producer wanted to turn it back into a musical theatre. There were clashes with police, and ultimately most of the building was torn down in 1988, only to be renovated and squatted in, leased and un-leased, made a focal issue in an election year, etc… The point is, most renegade concrete projects tend to be located in spots that don’t attract attention. Maybe this one will succeed in finding a permanent location precisely because the adjacent property has such a volatile “hands-off” history. The end result… Opening party for the first part of Flora Skatepark is June 30th, 2007. Thanks to Peter Diepes for the heads up.
6 comments
Paige
First indication of the faux anarchists: NO BMX! NO INLINE! NO GRAFFITI!
Kilwag
Are you saying straight edge (I mean anarchy) isn’t a set of rules?
Paige
To be an anarchist, you must own every Crass album, even 7″ releases and 10 Notes on a Summer’s Day, which sucks worse than everything else. Extra anarchy points for a Zounds album! My personal favorite is CONFLICT.
XanarchyX4XlyfeX!!!!!!!!!
brad
Paige, I love the Zounds. I have every Discharge 7″ and still play them alot. I was just telling someone the other day that when I first put on the Society’s Victem 7″ I thought my parent’s stereo was broken, the music was so fucked that I couldn’t figure out what speed to play it! You might dig Crisis, horrible name/great songs. I just found ’em, from the U.K 1982ish…
Paige
I have the Zounds double LP also, I really like it. I like Discharge and Broken Bones, too. I got to see Conflict last time they came to PDX five years ago with Resist and Exist. UK82 and the Scandanavian that has come out (Tampere SS, Appendix, Asta Kask, Riistetyt, etc) are really great, I just don’t like the boys in stretch pants with hair bigger than mine. The scene sort of sucks, the energy and music is still and will always be great. I’ll definitely check out Crisis, Brad. Thanks for the suggestion.
wymer
does anyone know how city officials feel about parks like this in germany?