Anatopia was a land squat near to

Papenburg Papenburg (; East Frisian Low Saxon: ''Papenbörg'') is a city in the district of Emsland, Lower Saxony, Germany, situated at the river Ems. It is known for its large shipyard, the Meyer-Werft, which specializes in building cruise liners. Geo ...

, in the north west of

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

from 1991 until 1995. An

anatopism An anatopism (from the Ancient Greek , "against," and , "place") is something that is out of its proper place. The concept of anatopism is less widely familiar than that of anachronism, perhaps because much that is anatopic is also anachronistic ...

is something that is out of its proper place. Similar protest occupations included

Runway 18 West Runway 18 West (German ''Startbahn 18 West'') is a 4000-meter-long runway that runs from north to south on the western edge of Frankfurt Airport. A small northern portion of the runway is located in the Frankfurt district of Flughafen, while the ...

and the Free Republic of Wendland.

Occupation

The site was squatted on 4 July, 1991, as an environmental protest action. Local people were concerned for the rare plants and animals, since the

Daimler-Benz The Mercedes-Benz Group AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufactu ...

automobile company (

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquarter ...

) intended to build a test track (12 km long, 3 km wide). The squatters lived

off-the-grid Off-the-grid or off-grid is a characteristic of buildings and a lifestyle designed in an independent manner without reliance on one or more public utilities. The term "off-the-grid" traditionally refers to not being connected to the electrical gr ...

without running water and heating with woodstoves. There was an

infoshop Infoshops are places in which people can access anarchist or autonomist ideas. They are often stand-alone projects, or can form part of a larger radical bookshop, archive, self-managed social centre or community centre. Typically, infoshops offer ...

and

small-scale agriculture A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technology ...

. They also lived a

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. ...

lifestyle, eating communally every night.

Eviction

The site was evicted 7 January, 1995 after a long struggle. It became the focus of anti-Mercedes protests throughout Germany. Solidarity actions were carried out in Berlin, Bielefeld, Bremen, Frankfurt, Greifswald, Hamburg, Hannover, Lübeck, Oldenburg, Osnabruck, Stuttgart and Wuppertal.

References

{{coord, 53.0560, N, 7.5163, E, source:wikidata, display=title Squats in Germany Former squats Advocacy groups in Germany