Also on this New Year's Eve were attacks on the police in various cities in Baden Württemberg. The highlight this of them was in Freiburg, where young people from a working-class neighborhood set up barricades and shot fireworks at the arriving cops.
Prior to this, a massive media propaganda campaign in Baden Württemberg and all other parts of Germany had stoked fears of large-scale riots on New Year's Eve. This bourgeois propaganda campaign served the political interests of the German bourgeoisie very well. Hand in hand with the media, the rulers pushed ahead the reactionarization of the state. Interior Minister Faeser announced in advance that there would be a "crackdown" on New Year's Eve and the police forces deployed on New Year's Eve were increased accordingly. In Baden Württemberg, too, several hundred additional officers from the so-called police headquarters were on duty on New Year's Eve in addition to the police officers on regular shifts. The Baden Württemberg Ministry of the Interior did not want to give exact figures. With these increased forces, the city centers in many cities were literally occupied like under a military occupation. The media played their part and legitimized the whole thing with their propaganda of the comon big Riot. However, the large-scale riots that were feared in the bourgeois press did not materialize, at least as reported. What did not fail to appear, however, was the resistance of the masses, who in fact increasingly and openly confronted the security forces of the state.
Freiburg played a special role this year. The Freiburg police reported that barricades were built in the Stühlinger district that night. Stühlinger is a rather mixed district in terms of class relations. While the majority of Stühlinger is a petty-bourgeois district, where many students and academics live, two streets, the Ferdinand Weiß Straße and the lower part of the Fehrenbachallee in the south-western part of Stühlinger form a kind of neighborhood in a neighborhood where mainly the lowest and broadest masses live.
Ferdinand Weiß Straße in district Stühlinger. Source: SWR
When the police were called about these barricades and arrived at the scene with several officers, they were then attacked by a group of about 80 youths and targeted with fireworks. According to the Badische Zeitung, the attacks mainly involved youths from the neighborhood. The cops had to call for reinforcements and were only able to push the crowd back after they arrived. They also arrested one person and took the personal details of others. One policewoman was injured during the fights due to blast trauma.
At the same time, there were also attacks on the cops in other cities in Baden-Württemberg. According to the police, there were attacks on police officers in three different locations in the Esslingen district. In Esslingen, three unknown persons have fired a New Year's Eve rocket at police officers who were about to take a report for another offense. In Weilheim an der Teck, firecrackers have first been fired in the direction of a residential building. When the cops arrived, a group of around ten people opened fire on the officers with fireworks. Several people were then taken into custody by the cops. In Wernau, several people from a group threw firecrackers at a police car. The people involved were then able to retreat without any problems. In Mannheim, where another person was recently murdered by the cops, there were also attacks on them. According to reports, pyrotechnics were used specifically against the cops. A total of three cops are said to have been injured there on New Year's Eve. . There were also further attacks in the early hours of New Year's morning. In Rheinfelden in the district of Lörrach, a police patrol was allegedly shot at with fireworks from a crowd during a people search.
The resistance of the masses is becoming more and more apparent. The contradiction between the masses and the state is becoming so sharp, that more and more young people are ready to fight the police on the streets. The resistance and rebellion of the masses are justified. They show the cry of the masses for change. But it is the task of the communists to lead this growing resistance of the masses and to give it a perspective of a red classless Society.
