Protesters March Through Bern to Save ‘Anstadt’ Squat from Demolition
Roughly 1,000 people took to the streets of Bern on Sunday, April 12, 2026, in a large-scale protest against the planned demolition of the Anstadt settlement. The demonstration, which took the form of a “mobile party,” served as a demand for the preservation of the site and the creation of more autonomous free spaces within the city.
The nighttime march featured fireworks and a dummy water cannon as participants moved through the city. According to reports, the crowd peaked at approximately 1,000 attendees during the event, which was organized to resist the removal of the Anstadt community.
Anstadt was established over seven years ago as a squatted housing and community project. Located in the city’s former gasworks area, the project is part of a long-standing tradition of socio-cultural initiatives in the district, following in the footsteps of the 1980s occupation of the Dampfzentrale and the “Freie Land Zaffaraya.”
The site currently operates as an autonomous space supported by various independent groups. The KRK association manages the former fire station hall, while the non-commercial event and rehearsal space known as Vakuum allows the site to be utilized year-round by people who do not reside there. Anstadt has provided temporary, non-commercial living and working quarters for various projects, including the Heitere Fahne, Zirkus Chnopf, and Zirkus Wunderplunder.
The conflict over the site’s future underscores a broader struggle for non-commercial, self-managed urban spaces in the face of city development and demolition plans.
