Founded in 1990, shortly after re-unification, Liebig14 is one of Berlin’s oldest established squats. As a quick glance at the ‘Chronology’ page on their website will show, their history as a home and venue has been one of continuous legal uncertainty and negotiation with various landlords: the current property owner, Suitbert Beulker, has secured an eviction date of February 2, so it’s do or die time for those who would like to keep this important free space alive. There are various ways you can get involved and show your support.

There is a fourteen day festival of concerts and demonstrations in Berlin, currently taking place in a variety of venues and locations, including several other of the city’s leading squats: you can find more details on the Liebig14 blog
( http://liebig14.blogsport.de/2011/01/17/14-days-festival-for-liebig-14/#more-165 ). This began on January 17, and leads up to the scheduled evictions on February 2, which will undoubtedly be greeted with a great deal of resistance from the residents and their supporters.

A demonstration against the evictions was held outside the German embassy in London on January 14: although this has been and gone, it’s worth taking a look at the event page on Facebook ( http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=146145795440357 ) which has some useful background on the ideological context. Liebig14’s philosophy is summarised as follows: ‘Liebig 14 is proud to be a part of a long history of autonomous spaces in Berlin and around the world. In working against capitalism, social hierarchy and discrimination, autonomous spaces take small but concrete steps towards wider political emancipation and self-determined living.’ This is also a good description of the value of squats in general, and the reason that they make good homes for underground and independent music.

So, if you live in or near Berlin and want to show your support here’s what you could do: get in touch with Liebig14, get yourself to as many of these events as possible, and find out from the people at the centre of events how you can best support them. If you’ve harboured a desire to visit Berlin, now’s a good time (and the snow’s clearing up)! If you turn up around the beginning of February and express a desire to help oppose the evictions, you are unlikely to have any trouble finding a place to stay, and you will definitely make some friends. If you are a DIY musician, friends can mean gigs, and access to new networks of like-minded music fans.

Liebig14, and places like it, represent an incredibly valuable cultural resource, and a physical home for the global counterculture which finds it progressively harder to find a place in our over branded, corporate world: you have a chance, right now, to take action in support of this, and make a real difference. Even if the squat is closed down, the more resistance there is, and the more attention drawn to it, the better. All the information you need can be found in the following links:

http://www.wix.com/liebig14/home

http://liebig14.blogsport.de/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Liebig14-bleibt/142412742451310?v=info

http://twitter.com/liebig14