ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role of Frankfurt as one of the chief financial centers in Europe and its implications for urban social movements. It details the emergence of a diverse anti-capitalist movement called “Blockupy” that has used Frankfurt strategically as a stage, target, and symbolic site for a series of protests and educational actions after the world financial crisis in 2008. The chapter explores the specific conditions for the contestations of the Blockupy movement, with a nod to Frankfurt’s history of social struggles since the 1970s. Blockupy is a broad German national political alliance with transnational network ties that was founded in reaction to the German and European crisis management in early 2012. Since 2012, Blockupy has, even if not primarily focusing on urban issues and grievances, become part of Frankfurt’s long-standing tradition of urban-based social movements by using the historical and ongoing global city formation to articulate its protest against the German and European austerity regime.
