Overview
- The city ordered police to clear a municipal commercial property on Tornowstraße 40 after about a week of occupation, and officers removed remaining occupiers on Friday without reported physical resistance.
- Authorities said roughly 20 to 21 people had been living in the formerly commercial building that has stood vacant since 2023 and that about half left voluntarily after a deadline expired.
- Potsdam officials and building inspectors say the property is zoned and conditioned as a commercial site so it cannot legally be converted to housing under German building law, a key reason the city refused a tolerated short-term use.
- The city filed criminal complaints for trespass, secured the grounds to prevent reoccupation, and announced plans to demolish the empty structures and push ahead with a new apartment development on the plot.
- Local Left politicians called the eviction disproportionate and stressed housing need, while the mayor and Brandenburg’s interior minister defended enforcement; the case highlights tensions over protest tactics, legal limits on reuse, and Potsdam’s pressured rental market.