Urban development | Urban center: Slapp lawsuit against criticism

In February 2025, Norbert Rheinlaender, chairman of the Gleisdreieck Action Group, and Matthias Bauer, operator of the website gleisdreieck-blog.de, received a letter from the Berlin Regional Court. The Luxembourg fund "Urbane Mitte Besitz S.à.rl" had filed lawsuits seeking an injunction against their criticism of the planned high-rise buildings in Gleisdreieck Park. If the lawsuit was successful, they faced fines of up to €250,000 or, failing that, six months' imprisonment if the criticism continued to be expressed publicly.

The fund plans to build seven office towers, each up to 90 meters high, on the edge of the popular Gleisdreieck Park. Bauer and the citizens' initiative have been campaigning against this project for years. They are gathering information, preparing expert opinions, informing the public, organizing petitions, and presenting their arguments to the House of Representatives and the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg District Council (BVV). There, they were particularly successful: After more than a decade of approving the plans, the BVV abandoned the construction project for the first time in 2024.

Since June 2024, the fund has been pursuing cease-and-desist actions against the initiative. The initiative was to be prohibited from making key statements regarding potential impacts on the urban climate, impairments to the quality of life in the park, disregard for nature and monument protection, land speculation, and issues of safety in the event of a disaster. In all cases, the initiative responded with a comprehensive statement but did not issue a cease-and-desist declaration. Now, the courts have been called.

The case is part of a worrying trend: financially powerful companies are increasingly using legal means to intimidate critical voices. In 2024, the European Parliament and the European Council established a framework for identifying and containing such so-called SLAPP lawsuits (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) with Directive 2024/1069. According to the EU, SLAPP lawsuits aim to prevent or restrict public participation by exploiting financial and structural power imbalances. "NoSLAPP," a nationwide counseling center supporting those affected, has also analyzed the lawsuits against Bauer and the citizens' initiative in detail and concludes: The combination of unfounded allegations, repeated pursuit of the same issues, targeted intimidation of individual actors, and power imbalances indicate a case of SLAPP within the meaning of the EU directive.

In its resolution passed at the end of March, the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg District Council also spoke of SLAPP lawsuits with the aim of "preventing criticism of the massive construction plans. The owner is using the well-known means of financially attacking the weakest link in a chain of critics." The attempt to silence critical citizens "through legal proceedings" is also seen as an attack on the owner, "because the District Council has also always clearly expressed its criticism of the construction project . Not least because it is based on a completely outdated framework plan from 20 years ago." Shortly before the meeting, Urbane Mitte Besitz S.à.rl attempted to prevent the resolution with a "statement" to the District Council members. The accusation of a SLAPP lawsuit is "clearly rejected," it states. However, since the activists of the citizens' initiative "show no insight" and "illegal statements continue to be spread," they will seek "judicial assistance."

"We have the facts on our side."

Matthias Bauer Gleisdreieck Action Group

But the attempt to dissuade the BVV from its resolution failed. Instead, the work of the citizens' initiative was explicitly recognized. Gaby Gottwald (Left Party), co-author of the motion, received broad support when she said at the BVV meeting: "We expressly express our solidarity with the Gleisdreieck Action Group and the author of the Gleisdreieck blog and thank them for their years of dedicated and fruitful cooperation . We hope that we can continue this in the future."

And the defendants? Matthias Bauer and the initiative are undaunted. Detailed responses have now been submitted, refuting the investor's allegations with expert opinions and verifiable facts. "We have the facts on our side," Bauer told "nd," "and our statements are protected by freedom of expression." He is confident that this lawsuit—like previous attempts to silence the critics of the Urbane Mitte—will fail. A court date is not expected until the fall at the earliest.