The attacks have been spreading across the city, and are influencing protest groups in other cities, like Hamburg, where there has been arise in car arson attacks, particularly on police cars. The choice of vehicle has also widened. Lorries belonging to DHL, the courier company, were recently attacked because they serve the German military in Afghanistan, as were German Railways' vehicles – in retaliation for its role transporting nuclear waste by train.

No single group is believed to be behind the attacks, although last year one calling itself Bewegung für Militanten Widerstand (Movement for Militant Resistance) – with the provocative acronym BMW – admitted responsibility for torching eight cars.

In a letter to a left wing publication, the group said it carried out the attacks in protest at the post-Berlin Wall"transformation of poorer districts", such as Neukölln , Kreuzberg and Mitte where it said "established residents", were being squeezed out by"acute gentrification".

Old flats and warehouses turned into luxury loft apartments have driven up rents and house prices beyond most residents' means. Since the fall of the wall more than 20 years ago, the process has changed the demographic profile of many neighbourhoods. Prenzlauer Berg, in the former communist East Berlin has undergone the most dramatic change, turning from a workers' district into an affluent quarter, which has lost around 60% of its original residents since 1990.

Anger felt by those affected by the influx of the "new bourgeoisie" extends to the disappearance of open spaces and a growing indignation among communities that they are not being consulted. The protest has recently spread to the disused runways of Tempelhof airport, which was closed two years ago.Authorities want to use to land for luxury apartments. Opponents would like it to be developed as a park.

"We have no voice in the way the city is changing," says Jan, 26, a graphic designer and a member of an underground anti-fascist movement in Kreuzberg. He sat in a cafe close to a patch of land where East German police used to patrol the border between East and West Berlin. "Until recently it was where I used to walk my dog and meet friends," he said. "Now look – they're building glassy apartment blocks there for rich yuppies to move into."

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