KREUZBERG BLEIBT UNHÖFFLICH: JUNE RIOTS ON MORITZPLATZ

Today in Berlin: 29 June, 1863

On this day in 1863 some of the most violent riots to take place in Kreuzberg before May 1, 1987 began.

The area of Moritzplatz Krawallen of 1863 with Oranienstrasse 64 marked in red (Hobrecht Plan 1863)

It started in Oranienstraße 64. The house belonged to one Schneidermeister (master-tailor) Steffen. In March 1862 Herr Steffen rented out the ground floor of the building as well as the flat directly above it to one Cafetier Schulze.

The two men signed a five-year-long lease at the price of 400 Thaler a month. Schulze must have been quite a promising tenant since the situation on the housing market was so bad that soon it would not be unusual to offer a maximum 3-month lease instead.

The extremely short leases, which in 1863 were, indeed, signed for 3 months only, worked as a threat and a guarantee of payment at once. The fact that due to this policy at the end of each trimester a staggering 49.6% of all tenants were either homeless or forced to search for a new abode, did nothing to improve the relationship between the landlords and the tenants. And the hostility was becoming more and more open.