Tours · Frankfurt · opera_house
Riot at the Fountain - Alte Oper
On the night of 18 to 19 July 2020, a pandemic party of about 3,000 people in front of the Alte Oper turned into a riot when police breaking up a brawl at the Lucae fountain were pelted with bottles, leaving five officers hurt and 39 people detained.
About this place
The Alte Oper is Frankfurt's grand old opera house: designed by Richard Lucae, opened in 1880 in the presence of Kaiser Wilhelm I, burned out by bombs in 1944 and left for decades as 'Germany's most beautiful ruin', until citizens raised the money to bring it back as a concert hall in 1981. Its motto, carved across the facade, reads 'To the true, the beautiful, the good'. On the night of 18 to 19 July 2020, the square in front of it told a different story. With clubs closed by the pandemic, the Opernplatz had become the city's open air party zone, and about 3,000 people were celebrating that Saturday. Around 3 a.m. a mass brawl of 25 to 30 people broke out at the Lucae fountain. When police stepped in to help a man who was bleeding heavily, they were pelted with bottles while onlookers cheered and applauded. At least five officers were injured, police vehicles and bus shelters were damaged, and 39 people, mostly young men, were detained. The police president said that in both nature and scale it was something he had never experienced in Frankfurt. Within two days the city ordered weekend parties on the square to end at midnight, and in February 2021 prosecutors charged seven men with aggravated breach of the peace and assaulting police officers.
Key facts
- 3000 partygoers — About 3,000 people were celebrating on the Opernplatz that Saturday night, with the city's clubs closed by the pandemic.
- 5 officers injured — At least five police officers were hurt when bottles rained down from the crowd around 3 a.m.
- 39 people detained — Police detained 39 people that night, mostly young men; seven men were later charged.