Protesters rampage through Friedrichshain after the Liebig 14 commune is cleared by police

This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

There have been bitter clashes between police and demonstrators protesting against evictions from one of east Berlin's last former squats.

Police said 82 people were arrested when officers forced their way into the Liebig 14 commune.

Twenty-two people were charged and 61 police officers were injured, said Dieter Glietsch, president of Berlin's police force.

After the commune was cleared, protesters rampaged around the streets of Friedrichshain, a former working-class district that has become more expensive and fashionable since German reunification 20 years ago.

They attacked a department store near the Ostbahnhof train station and vandalised an O2 mobile phone shop on the Oberbaumbrücke double-decker bridge, which during the cold war marked the border between east and west Berlin. The windows of various banks were smashed and black-clad demonstrators threw bottles and stones at a passing bus.

Up to 2,500 police officers were drafted in from Berlin and surrounding states to deal with the threat of violence. A police helicopter hovered over Friedrichshain and water cannon were on standby. Police cars blocked off Frankfurter Allee, the district's wide main thoroughfare, which was called Stalin Allee during GDR times.

At one point about 2,000 protesters gathered in Boxhagener Platz, one of Friedrichshain's most gentrified squares. Many had covered their faces. Berlin police claimed a quarter of the crowd were violent.

At the eviction the local green MP, Hans-Christian Ströbele, supported the commune, saying that such alternative living projects were one of Berlin's trademarks. But other politicians disagreed, even from his own party.

"There is enough space in this city for a variety of lifestyles but not for criminals who damage the property and cause others physical harm," said Erhart Körting, the Berlin interior senator from the SPD party.

Renate Künast, a well-known green politician who hopes to become Berlin's next mayor, defended the eviction as legal.

Liebig 14, a former squat occupied shortly after the Berlin wall fell, was one of the last remaining communes in the city. Twenty-five people lived there communally, paying minimal rent. Its tenants and their supporters argue that gentrification of the area is forcing poorer people out of the city centre.