The Danger Zone Mystery - Spielbudenplatz

À propos de ce lieu

Spielbudenplatz, the broad square on the south side of the Reeperbahn named after the eighteenth century show booths of St. Pauli's entertainers, sits at the centre of one of Hamburg's most disputed police stories. In the tense winter of 2013, after the Esso houses at the eastern end of the square were evacuated over fears of collapse and a huge demonstration for the Rote Flora cultural centre ended in clashes, police reported that around 40 masked people had attacked the Davidwache at the western end of the square on 28 December, seriously injuring an officer. A week later, on 4 January 2014, police declared St. Pauli, parts of Altona and the Sternschanze a 'danger zone' where anyone could be stopped, searched and banned from the area without any suspicion. Then the story cracked: the police conceded that the badly hurt officer had been injured in a scuffle with nightlife visitors about 200 metres away, and no attacker from that night was ever identified. St. Pauli answered with toilet brushes, after TV footage showed riot police confiscating one from a young man, and with a pillow fight on the Reeperbahn. After ten days and 990 people checked, the zone was lifted on 13 January, and in 2015 Hamburg's Higher Administrative Court declared the law behind such zones unconstitutional. Today, between the theatres, the open air stages and the evening crowds, it is hard to imagine that this square was once the heart of Germany's most talked about danger zone.

À retenir

• 990 people checked — Stopped and checked by police inside the danger zone in just ten days; 195 of them were banned from the area.
• 200 metres — How far from the Davidwache, as police later conceded, the seriously injured officer had actually been hurt.
• 10 days — The danger zone lasted from 4 to 13 January 2014 before police lifted it amid mounting protests.

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