Zurich Is Burning - Bellevueplatz
On the night of 30 May 1980, a protest on the Opera House steps against a 60 million franc renovation exploded into Zurich's biggest street battle since 1968, raging around Bellevue until dawn and sparking two years of youth riots under the slogan 'Züri brännt', Zurich is burning.
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Today Bellevue is Zurich's elegant front room: trams glide in from every direction, the lake opens up beside the Quaibrücke, and the vast quartzite expanse of Sechseläutenplatz leads the eye to the pale facade of the Opera House. But on the night of 30 May 1980 this was a battlefield. The city had just approved about 60 million francs to renovate and extend the opera while young people's demands for an autonomous youth centre had been ignored for years. As the opera opened the June festival, a few hundred youths occupied its front steps, unaware that riot police were waiting inside the foyer. When the officers burst out behind them, boards, paint bags and eggs met tear gas, water cannon and, for the first time, the city police's rubber shot. Fans streaming in from Bob Marley's only Swiss concert at the Hallenstadion swelled the crowd, and the fighting raged around Bellevue until the early morning. 'Züri brännt', Zurich is burning, became the slogan of two turbulent years that ended with hundreds injured, thousands arrested, and a city that finally made room for alternative culture.
Fatti principali
- 60 million francs — The Opera House renovation credit that lit the fuse, approved while calls for a youth centre had been refused for years.
- 10500 concertgoers — Fans at Bob Marley's only Swiss concert that same night; hundreds of them later joined the riot.
- 2 years of unrest — The Opera House riot opened two years of street battles, with hundreds injured and thousands arrested.