Water Cannons on Black Thursday - Mittlerer Schlossgarten
On Thursday, 30 September 2010, police turned water cannons, batons and pepper spray on largely peaceful Stuttgart 21 protesters in this park beside the main station, injuring more than a hundred people and leaving one engineer almost blind; five years later a court ruled the whole operation unlawful.
About this place
The Mittlerer Schlossgarten, the middle section of Stuttgart's palace gardens, begins right behind the main station, whose 56 metre tower by Paul Bonatz has carried a rotating Mercedes star since 1952. Today much of this end of the park is the vast construction site of Stuttgart 21, the underground through station with eight tracks that is meant to replace the 16 track terminus; work began in 2010 and is still not finished. On Thursday, 30 September 2010, the park became the scene of the day Stuttgart still calls Black Thursday. Police arrived to clear it so that the first trees could be felled, and crowds of opponents, among them several hundred school students, sat on the paths and climbed into the trees. Officers from five German states and the federal police used batons, pepper spray and water cannons. By the police count the Red Cross treated 114 people on site and sent 16 to hospital, while protest groups counted several hundred injured, and 34 officers were hurt. The engineer Dietrich Wagner, then 66, was hit in the face by a water jet and lost almost all of his sight, and the photo of him bleeding from the eyes became the symbol of the day. That night the first 25 trees came down. The 380 criminal complaints against officers produced only a few fines and suspended sentences, the case against two commanders was dropped against payments of 3,000 euros each, and police chief Siegfried Stumpf accepted a penalty order of 15,600 euros for negligent bodily harm in office. On 18 November 2015 the Stuttgart administrative court ruled that the entire operation had been unlawful.
Key facts
- 114 people treated — Treated on site by the Red Cross on 30 September 2010, by the police count, with 16 more taken to hospital; protest groups counted several hundred injured.
- 15600 euros — The penalty order for negligent bodily harm in office that police chief Siegfried Stumpf accepted in March 2015.
- 56 metres — Height of the main station's tower by Paul Bonatz, crowned since 1952 by a rotating Mercedes star five metres across.