Will Berlin Be Forced to Backtrack on the Görli Fence?
After years of protest, one anti-fence alliance is going the legal route to reopen Görlitzer Park at night.
Monday, March 16
When one door closes, another opens. As of March 1, after much public debate and protest, Görlitzer Park has officially been fenced-off from 10pm to 6am, with security officers and dogs sweeping the park to ensure nobody is left inside after the curfew. With this closure, one of the initiatives that has spent years fighting the fence can finally sue.
“After years of protest, we are now taking our fight against the nighttime closure of our park to the legal arena," a spokesperson for Görli zaunfrei! (Görli fence-free) wrote in a statement. “We are optimistic that we will succeed.”
The lawsuit, which the group will present at a press conference inside the park on Tuesday, was prepared months ago but is only permissible in the city’s administrative court now that the park is actually closed.
The anti-fence alliance alleges that the new system, which the CDU-led Berlin Senate announced back in 2023 in an effort to curb drug-related crime in Berlin’s most dangerous green space, isn’t the right solution for solving “even one of the existing problems” at Görli, and is “highly disproportionate.”
Beyond being a poor band-aid, the initiative says the closure is an issue of restricting freedoms. Local residents no longer have access to the park after 10pm and can no longer cycle through on their way home late at night — something that the group says “disproportionately infringes on the rights and freedom of movement.”
"This measure is completely unsuitable for solving even one of the existing problems."
Görli zaunfrei! isn't the only group hoping to drag out the fence fight in court. The district of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg already has a lawsuit pending against the Senate, filed back in 2024. "The district office considers the nighttime locking up to be expensive symbolic politics," a spokesperson told rbb in February.
Whether either legal action has a chance to reverse the new rules remains to be seen – but Berlin faces state elections come September that could shake things up. In the meantime, guards will continue to herd people out away from Görli at night, and the newly-installed metal turnstiles will only swing one way.
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