1980 Swiss Opera House Riot

Opernhauskrawalle is the Swiss German term generally used for the youth protests at the end of May 1980 in the Swiss city of Zürich, a municipality in the Canton of Zürich. Also called Züri brännt ("Zürich is burning"), this even marked the 'rebirth' of the Hippie movement in Switzerland in the 1980s.

Background

A three-day celebration of the Zürich Opernhaus and the opening of a festival was celebrated on 30 May 1980. Uninvited, about 200 protesters demanded an autonomous youth center. The communal Stadtpolizei Zürich and state Kantonspolizei Zürich police corps were informed before and stationed in the foyer of the opera house. As the youths occupied the stairs, the demonstration degenerated into a street battle between the demonstrators and the police, who were equipped with water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets. A public referendum contributed to the riots, as the city of Zurich planned to grant CHF 61 million to the opera house of the rich Zürich people for a renovation and an extension of the building, but nothing to the planned Rote Fabrik in Zürich-Wollishofen, on the other side of the Zürichsee lake shore. The demands of the young people to have their own cultural center had been studiously ignored for years. Their reaction was now "long pent-up anger" as a newspaper headlined. "Züri brännt" is a household word, and is originally a punk song of the band TNT. Andreas Homoki, director of the opera house, described the situation in the "hot summer of 1980" as explosive, and in fact "there was not enough room for a youth culture", and that the then astronomical subvention on the one hand and on the other hand, the lack of commitment for the youth by the then conservative government of Zürich.

Thus, the extremely high subventions, but lacking of alternative governmental cultural programs for the youth in Zürich, occurred the so-called Opernhauskrawall, meaning riots or youth protests at the Zürich Opera House (German: Opernhaus). The youth protests culminated on 30/31 May 1980, at the present Sechseläutenplatz square in Zürich, but also in the whole city, spreading to others municipalities in Switzerland in 1980 and again in 1982. The youth protests mark the beginning of the modern youth movement in Switzerland, maybe started a hype of the alternative and former Hippie movement.

Aftermath

A first political compromise was the so-called AJZ (a shorttime youth centre at the Zürich main station), and the establishment of the so-called Rote Fabrik alternative cultural centre in Wollishofen in late 1980. Rote Fabrik still exists, and claims to be one of the most important alternative cultural places in the greater Zürich urban area. The most prominent politicians involved were Sigmund Widmer and Emilie Lieberherr, then member of the city's executive (Stadtrat) authorities. The Swiss newspaper WOZ Die Wochenzeitung exposed in 2006 that even an undercover police officer saw action in 1980 – in October 2016 a book about Willi S's double life as revoluzzer and police officer was published.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opernhauskrawalle