Therefore, residents only go outside with several people
There is a lot going on on Limmerstrasse and in the kitchen garden on Saturday afternoons. Children ride around on inline skates and teenagers skate while adults do their shopping or sit in a café.
But already at 6 p.m. the situation in Linden changes. More and more police cars are on patrol on Limmerstrasse. Two officers are out in the kitchen garden. For good reason: three people were injured in a second stabbing at the kitchen garden in Hanover within a month. It was not until mid-September that four men suffered partially life-threatening injuries.
Monika Pussner (76) and Karl Klank (82) clear the bench on which they enjoyed the afternoon in the sun: “Alcohol is a very big problem here,” says Pussner. When vandalism and alcohol consumption increase, she would rather be safe at home: “When attacks happen, I’ll be in bed for a long time,” says the senior citizen. And attacks have recently been frequent. Knife attacks in particular have risen by 20 percent in Hanover, and the knife is drawn out again and again, especially in Linden.
“We only go out with several people”
Niki Heuer (26) and Leon Liebig (25) have grabbed a coffee on Limmerstrasse and walk past a smoking rubbish bin with it. You take a quick look and walk on, which is somehow normal in Linden: “It’s currently really badly tense,” says Heuer and Liebig agrees: “We actually only go out with several people in the evening.”
The two had recently been turned on several times for no reason, and were even involved in attacks: “At the Rewe, a bottle was pulled over my head and I was almost beaten to death on the fist,” says Heuer. He had already ended up in the hospital with a six-fold skull fracture. The reason for the attacks: “If you look at someone the wrong way, many will go crazy,” say the two. Only three months ago one of his buddies was attacked with a knife. The situation escalated far too quickly.
“Situation is really sad”
“The situation is really sad at the moment,” says Heuer. A while ago he was still regularly skating in the kitchen garden, but now he no longer goes there: “Much too stressful when 500 people hang out there in the evening and throw bottles around.”
Heuer and Liebig agree: “It’s when other rooms will finally be created to celebrate.” The situation in Linden has only worsened since the outbreak of the corona pandemic. The Ihme, the Limmerstrasse, the kitchen garden, but also the side streets – all of these are now party hotspots that would attract larger groups: “And those who flare up so quickly usually don’t come from Linden at all,” believes Heuer.
This is also the opinion of the kiosk owner Huseyin Yilmaz (46), who observes the hustle and bustle on Limmerstrasse from his kiosk window in Kochstrasse: “Since many other clubs in the city have closed or people have only let in with 2G, there has been a lot of chaos here,” says Ah. He understands that young people want to have fun, but he has no understanding for attacks or disturbing residents.
When party-goers sit in front of his kiosk and block the street, they even have to pull out a hose. When: “Some are so drunk, they don’t know their own limits anymore.” Yilmaz closes his kiosk at 10 pm: “So I can spend time with my family instead of not messing around with people who are too drunk, ”he says.
Moritz (6) and his brother Justus (9) also meet drunk people in Linden every now and then: “If we notice in the playground that someone is drunk, we go away,” says Justus. “Unfortunately, they always sit where the best play equipment is,” adds six-year-old Moritz. But mother Ann-Kathrin doesn’t care: “Life isn’t just Bullerby,” she says and alludes to Astrid Lindgren’s children’s book series, which focuses on the idyllic life in the country. Her boys could have a time slot until 8 p.m. to play: “And after that there is time for the grown-ups,” she knows.
And then it sometimes gets really crowded in Linden: “Oussama Rizk from the oriental snack bar” El Hadi “reports on the Limmerstrasse at night. He has always dealt with drunk customers: “If you have no enemies, they are not dangerous,” he says.
From Sophie Peschke