Action Alliance against Housing Shortage and Urban Degradation, Newsletter 160
“Rich people are looking for a home”
The housing activists of ‘Recht auf Stadt’ and other friends of satire like the ‘Pappnasen Rotschwarz’ will march through Cologne-Marienburg on Saturday, October 21, in search of a worthy home for the poor rich in Cologne. Because the cathedral city lags in the competition with other metropolises far behind: Where owner-occupied apartments cost in Paris to 25 million euro, in London to 170 million and in New York even over 200 million dollar, the most expensive Cologne dwelling so far – a Penthouse in the crane house – for Schlalappe 8 million euro went away. Kalle Gerigk of ‘Recht auf Stadt’: “It is a scandal that the really rich have not been able to find a world-class home in Cologne so far. We want to change that!”
And indeed: In Cologne Marienburg there are quite a few villas of the premium class that have been vacant for years and have the potential to change hands for much higher sums in keeping with their status: For example, in Lindenallee – or Parkstraße, known to many from Monopoly.
The satirical action is an idea of the housing activists of ‘Recht auf Stadt’ in cooperation with the alternative carnivalists of the ‘Pappnasen Rotschwarz’ and Attac Cologne. Together they offer money fever inoculations to profiteers with an oversized solidarity injection – and a drop-out program for the super-rich. Katharina Just-Hahn of the Pappnasen Rotschwarz: “As an agency for the resocialization of the rich, we recommend, for example, our course: ‘Finding an apartment without money and connections.’ In other Cologne neighborhoods, after all, that also works – not.” The activists will also put the rent cap on a “rent shark” and symbolically dredge coal in front of the Marienburg villas: “Here, where it is really stored!”
On October 21, 2023 at 11:11 am, it starts at the final stop of bus 106.
Meeting place in front of the kiosk Emma at Südpark 1.
In addition four comments of Ulrike Herrmann, Gregor Gysi, Heinrich Heine and Bernie Sanders: :
Ulrike Herrmann: Cash & Crash
Rich people believe that their money will always increase.
But they have made the calculation without the climate crisis
https://taz.de/Archiv-Suche/!5963322&s=Ulrike%2BHerrmann&SuchRahmen=Print/
Gregor Gysi on the relationship between poverty and wealth
Looking upwards
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM0AIh3buig
World run
If you have a lot, you will soon
Still much more in addition.
If you have only a little
Even the little will be taken away.
But if you have nothing at all,
Oh, let yourself be buried –
For a right to live, Lump,
Have only those who have something.
Heinrich Heine
“Invest more with billionaires!”
Taz: The title of your book is “It’s Okay to Be Angry at Capitalism.” Capitalism, simply put, is the root of all evil. We really don’t seem to be on the way to overcoming capitalism – do you still see a chance to solve the world’s problems?
Bernie Sanders: Not only are we not overcoming capitalism, we’re not even putting it up for discussion. If my book is about one thing, it’s about the two realities that currently exist: Things are getting worse for ordinary people in Germany or in the United States. Budget cuts, loss of income due to inflation, in my country health care is a disaster. But on the other hand, and this is an important point, far too few people are saying it: For the people at the top, things have never been better in all of human history. In the past three years alone, two-thirds of newly created global wealth has gone to the top 1 percent. They are doing incredibly well! And with their wealth, they have power. That’s the argument we’re in: How do we take away their power, how do we shape an economy for all, a truly democratic society? This is truly not easy. But we have to at least understand that that’s the fight that has to be fought.
https://taz.de/Bernie-Sanders-in-Berlin/!5963717&s=bernie+Sanders/
OMZ – Homeless with a future
The SPD has submitted a lead motion on housing for the 10/26/2023 City Council meeting. It states:
452. 13. empower self-managed initiatives:
We are committed to the
453. empowerment of self-managed initiatives, as we are firmly convinced that this will
454. are, that thereby a lasting improvement of the living conditions
455. can be achieved. Of course, this cannot be done without professional
456. social work support and the certainty that one can remain in the place
457. can and does not have to leave the building again. In the case of the OMZ, there had
458. lacked sufficient social work support, and the location was never
459. was never secured.
Messages, broadcasts, news
Old and homeless
https://www.buergergeld.org/news/alt-und-obdachlos-folgen-der-altersarmut/
Klaus Jünschke on homeless people in custody
“Apartment keys instead of handcuffs”
https://www.ksta.de/koeln/koelner-innenstadt/wohnungsschluessel-statt-handschellen-koelner-autor-ueber-inhaftierte-obdachlose-665733
“Yet fate is not always in one’s own hands”
The Höhner sing “Alles verlore” (All lost)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZyVjJ7kAxo
“Alles verlore” by the AG Arsch Huh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gsnn93XSzSY
Eviction in Berlin: “To resist is good for the soul”.
Berlin police enforce eviction in Kreuzberg despite resistance
https://www.nd-aktuell.de/artikel/1177003.zwangsraeumung-raeumung-in-berlin-sich-zu-wehren-tut-der-seele-gut.html
Homeless: fate or a fundamental social problem? Theater Oliv” traces the phenomenon of “homelessness” in a research project in Mainz.
https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/swr-kultur/obdachlos-mit-dem-theater-oliv-dem-leben-auf-der-strasse-nachspueren/swr/Y3JpZDovL3N3ci5kZS9hZXgvbzE5MzkyNzM
Cologne among the most expensive cities: Shared room rent rises to up to 750 euros
https://www.report-k.de/koeln-bei-den-teuersten-staedten-wg-zimmer-miete-steigt-auf-bis-zu-750-euro/
A homepage provides information about the development of the planned Parkstadt Süd district:
https://www.parkstadt-sued.de/
Asta Cologne offers free emergency accommodation for students
https://www.ksta.de/koeln/koeln-asta-bietet-kostenlose-notfallschlafstelle-fuer-studierende-an-665354
Lukas Siebenkotten is president of the German Tenants’ Association. Why he still wonders about the color of his party card after more than 45 years in the SPD and why he would like to see a government without the FDP, he tells in our podcast.
https://vorwaerts.de/artikel/lukas-siebenkotten-oberste-mieterschuetzer-deutschlands
Price increase for building materials – cement almost 42 percent more expensive
https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/verbraucher/baumaterial-baupreise-energiekosten-100.html
Almost no European country has as many tenants as Germany
https://www.handelsblatt.com/finanzen/immobilien/immobilien-fast-kein-europaeisches-land-hat-so-viele-mieter-wie-deutschland/29332338.html
Opening of the exhibition “Home Street Home – Ways out of Homelessness” by Debora Ruppert.
https://www.rbb-online.de/rbbkultur/radio/programm/schema/sendungen/der_tag/archiv/20231017_1600/kultur_aktuell_1745.html
Dates
Oct. 21, 2023, 11:11 a.m.,. Rich people looking for a home. Satirical demo on vacant mansions in Marienburg, together with the Pappnasen rotschwarz.
21.10.2023, 2 p.m., #IchBinArmutsbetroffen, Breslauer Platz.
23.10.2023, 19:30, Ebertplatz – what’s next? At the Dom Forum
https://www.bda-koeln.de/
10/24/2023, 7pm, For a green redensification of inner cities, Haus der Architektur https://www.hda-koeln.de/
10/26/2023, 3:30pm Council. Also in livestream
https://www.stadt-koeln.de/artikel/71199/index.html
10/27/2023, 5-7 p.m., Machbarschaft Petershof – Open courtyard to get to know each other
https://petershof.org/
10/29/2023,3pm, Opening of the DRAUSSENSEITER exhibition, Alfred-Schütte-Allee 4.
31.10.2023, 11 a.m., Urn burial of Lothar Schmieding, South Cemetery
Nov. 01-10, 2023 Prison Days: homelessness/jail/homelessness https://www.aktionstage-gefaengnis.de/bundesweite-aktionen/aktionstage-2023/
04.11.2023, 12:30 – 17 Uhr, “How can the heat turnaround in housing be socially designed?” Bürgerschaftshaus Bocklemünd, Görlinger-Zentrum 11-15, 50829 Cologne, Germany.
https://www.linksfraktion-koeln.de/termine/detail/ak-avrdigitales-7-1-3-6-1/
16.11.2023, 3:30 p.m., Social Committee
05.12.2023, 7 p.m., Werner Rügemer: Who owns my living space. Friedensbildungswerk
For a city without homelessness
For a city without evictions
For a city without drug deaths
For a city without violence against women and children
For a city without deportations
For a city without poverty
October 21, 2023
Klaus Jünschke and Rainer Kippe
https://wohnungsnot.koeln
PS
Call for donations
To further improve our public relations we need money:
Donation account MachMit! e.V. IBAN: DE53370501981011342704
Intended purpose: Aktionsbündnis
Who wants to get involved with us: we meet every first Monday of the month with “Right to the City” at 7 pm in the Open Meeting of the Civic Center Alte Feuerwache. The next date is on 6.11.2023.
Translated with DeepL
