A house for everyone 

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This sta­tion was fun­ded by: Kul­tur­amt der Stadt Frank­furt am Main

Here we are in the Grün­der­ro­der­straße, in front of the house num­ber 5. Here, a group of acti­vists occu­p­ied a house in Decem­ber 2022. In the months that fol­lo­wed, poject.shelter the Ada can­teen and the coll­ec­tive »Frei­räume statt Glas­pa­läste« used it. This house and the con­flict around it exem­plify the situa­tion in Frank­furt and in the Gal­lus dis­trict — espe­ci­ally the situa­tion of migrant and poor peo­ple. They are pushed to the mar­gins in the tough housing mar­ket, they have no way to get housing. Project.shelter has been dra­wing atten­tion to this topic for a long time (see the sta­tion of the tour to the Para­dis­hof),  and the inter­de­pen­den­cies bet­ween resi­dence sta­tus, poverty, and oppor­tu­ni­ties on the housing mar­ket become par­ti­cu­larly clear.

When you are stan­ding in the street you will no lon­ger see the house, in June 2023 the house pro­ject »Gündi« moved to Höchst to Pal­les­ke­straße 31–33.

We docu­ment the state­ment of the groups of the house project:

»Gründi 5« — one house togeh­ter in solidarity 

The Begin­ning

In Decem­ber 2022, acti­vists from the coll­ec­tive »Frei­räume statt Glas­pa­läste« occu­p­ied the vacant house at Gün­der­ro­der­straße 5, affec­tion­a­tely cal­led »Gündi 5«. The occu­pa­tion is inten­ded to make defi­cits and strug­gles that mar­gi­na­li­zed mem­bers of Frankfurt’s society expe­ri­ence on a daily basis visi­ble: racist exclu­sion, home­l­ess­ness, capi­ta­list logics of explo­ita­tion ins­tead of a housing policy based on soli­da­rity. The occu­pa­tion fol­lows years of strug­gles for a city for all, which remained lar­gely unans­we­red by the Frank­furt city government.

A safe place 

Sur­pri­sin­gly, ins­tead of a quick evic­tion, a usage agree­ment can be nego­tia­ted with the muni­ci­pal real estate and pro­perty com­pany KEG. At the invi­ta­tion of the coll­ec­tive, the col­la­bo­ra­tion with the Ada can­teen and Project.Shelter beg­ins to face the new chal­lenges tog­e­ther. Both groups have been active for seve­ral years to improve the con­di­ti­ons in which peo­ple arrive, work, live and sur­vive in Frank­furt. From these years in the struggle against poverty, dis­cri­mi­na­tion and exclu­sion, there is alre­ady a lot of know­ledge in terms of expe­ri­ence and net­works. It quickly beco­mes clear that such free­dom is urgen­tly nee­ded: In the six months of the occu­pa­tion, a total of 35 peo­ple, most of whom were pre­viously home­l­ess or house­l­ess, moved in. In the Gündi 5 house pro­ject, they have found a safe place to sleep and retreat, but also a com­mu­nity of soli­da­rity and support.

To build the alternative

In August 2023, Gündi 5 was demo­lished, but it was clear to ever­yone invol­ved that they wan­ted to con­ti­nue the pro­ject no mat­ter what. The­r­e­fore, at the begin­ning of June 2023, the joint house and resi­den­tial pro­ject moved into the for­mer FES site in Pal­les­ke­straße in Frank­furt-Höchst. Our pro­ject is sup­ported by the coll­ec­tive « Frei­räume statt Glas­pa­läste«, the Ada can­teen and project.shelter, among others. The house pro­ject here in Höchst wants to be more than just a roof over their heads for peo­ple who other­wise don’t have one. They want to create an atmo­sphere where peo­ple help each other and are there for each other. They see them­sel­ves as poli­ti­cal and orga­nize tog­e­ther against empty hou­ses, high rents, racial exclu­sion and dis­cri­mi­na­tory con­di­ti­ons that block people’s social par­ti­ci­pa­tion, housing, legal secu­rity and access to sup­port structures.

The alter­na­tive con­cept is lived — ins­tead of a con­fron­ta­tion, a soli­dary togetherness!

The goal is not only to imple­ment this in Pal­les­ke­straße 31–33, but to be effec­tive throug­hout Frank­furt, the sup­port of many peo­ple in the neigh­bor­hood in Gal­lus, in Höchst and in the wider city society is a moti­vat­ing start. »Gündi West« remains resistant, as a space of coexis­tence and as a place of orga­ni­zing bey­ond that.

For a city for all, for the good life for all.

More on the topic:

More about the Ada canteen

Press release

dis­course, 05.02.2022

taz, 21.01.2023

Here you can see a short ver­sion of the film »ein Haus für Alle — was wir brau­chen, was wir kön­nen« (2023, 46 min.) by Medi­en­kol­lek­tiv Frankfurt.

You can find more infor­ma­tion about the film and show­ti­mes at

https://www.mkf.fm/kinofilm

Die Sta­tio­nen