Category: Room 7

Urban development in Berlin has always been the subject of intense debate. Participants have in­cluded not just planning professionals, politicians and the administration, but also representatives of civil society and commerce. The debates have been about targets, instruments, institutions and funding. And so also about parties with and without influence. Even Greater Berlin itself was divisive. After 1920 new battlefronts emerged: districts versus municipal authorities (Senate) and Greater Berlin versus Brandenburg. In the 1970s and 1980s the urban conflict reached its climax. The fall of the Wall was an occasion for ferment: Berlin equals protest! Today the organisation of the relationships between the districts and the senate, between Berlin and Brandenburg, and sometimes even between ­Berlin and the federal government, remains on the ­agenda. So too is the creation of bodies, plans, and platforms to regulate growth – always in dialogue with representatives from civil society and the economy. The capacity for action that gradually brings about stability must be developed.

Gustav Böß,
mayor of Greater Berlin from 1921 to 1929
Berlin Today, Berlin 1929

Georg Haberland, on his seventieth birthday on 14 August 1931. As director of one of the most influential land companies in Berlin, the Berlinische Boden-Gesellschaft (BBG), Haberland developed entire districts, such as the Bayerische and the Rheinische Quarters. As an entrepreneur, politician, and author he was without doubt the most important representative of private-sector urban development in Berlin. A lesser-known fact is that, after the First World War, he was also active on a large scale during the period of local economic development, but only on behalf of others. The projects included the Neu-Tempelhof housing development, a big residential quarter south of the Südwestkorso, the Karstadt Building on Hermannplatz, and Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Tempelhof, and the BVG tram stations. Following his death in 1933, ­Haberland’s firm was ‘Aryanised’ step by step, and his son Kurt was ousted from the board of directors, imprisoned in 1941, and murdered in the Mauthausen Concentration Camp in 1942.

Martin Wagner, around 1930. Wagner was a pas­sionate advocate of municipally managed urban development even before he became head of Berlin’s planning and building control office in 1926. Once in post, he sought the participation of private investors. However, his commitment to building new housing, a car-oriented city, the expansion of the Wannsee Lido, and a radical conversion of Berlin’s old town were only partly crowned with success. He witnessed the failure of his work, in particular in the years towards the end of the Weimar Republic, and not only because of the economic crisis. After 1933 he tried to adapt to the new rules of urban development being introduced by the National Socialists. For example, in 1934, writing under a pseudonym in the Deutsche Bauzeitung, he called for the appointment of a State Commissioner for the Renovation of the City of Berlin and a Führer of the City of Berlin. Martin Wagner left Germany in 1935.

Albert Speer, around 1938. As General Building Inspector for the Capital of the Reich, Speer was responsible for the planning of Greater Berlin from 1937 to 1945. He had special powers, such as access to financing, and could ignore the wishes of local authorities or even the Reich capital itself. The boundaries of Greater Berlin were irrelevant for him. His plans extended to the outer reaches of the orbital motorway. The general building inspector’s plans for the new centre of Berlin were notorious. The largest project on the out­skirts, the so-called Südstadt running along the southern axis, is less well known. Out of all the leading figures during the Nazi dictatorship, he most embodied a public-sector urban development that was premised on blocking municipal autonomy and the unflinching expropriation of private property. His plans rendered him jointly responsible for the crimes committed under National Socialist rule.

Districts versus Municipal Administration/Senate

A map of Greater Berlin published in 1931. From the outset, the gigantic city was divided. Its 20 districts reflected the political and spatial developments before 1920. Among them were the six inner districts of the old town, the internal boundaries of which were neatly drawn. However, during the final negotiations, the division of responsibility between the municipal administration and the districts was left unclarified, so as to guarantee a majority in the Prussian State Assembly. This lack of precision remains a problem today.

Down with High-density Development in Tempelhofer Feld!

Hermann Jansen’s plan for Tempelhofer Feld, entry to the Greater Berlin Competition 1908–1910. Behind this evocative plan a fierce quarrel raged; the issue at the time was the development of the western side of Tempelhofer Feld. The parties involved were the Military Treasury – the owner of the parade ground – the City of Berlin, the Municipality of Tempelhof, the District of Teltow, the Province of Brandenburg, and some large banks and land companies. The subject of the dispute was not just the question of who would gain the upper hand, but also what level of density the new development should have. The project therefore formed part of the arguments over the direction of Greater Berlin’s urban planning. The Military Treasury prevailed, implementing a high-density built area, which contributed to a high sale price in 1910. But its victory was pyrrhic: after the First World War, a suburban development policy was adopted.

For Greater Berlin!

Poster with a drawing by Käthe Kollwitz, 1912. The idea of Greater Berlin was the subject of a bitter disagreement long before the First World War. One of the parties involved was the Propaganda Committee for Greater Berlin. Their poster, seen here, announced an assembly to raise objections to the drastic housing shortage in Berlin. The police commissioner had the poster banned because of its accusatory motif.

Down with Rent Increases!

Rent strike in Köpenicker Strasse, 23 September 1932. The tenants protested under the motto ‘First food, then rent’. They hung banners featuring the hammer and sickle, as well as the swastika, from rear-courtyard windows. At the end of 1932 the whole of Kösliner Strasse, the reddest street in Wedding, the reddest district, was on strike. The less-than-successful rent strike towards the end of the Weimar Republic was the biggest protest of its kind in the history of Berlin.

Down with Wholesale Urban Renewal!
West Berlin

Poster: ‘Self-help in Kreuzberg SO 36’. In addition to posing a threat to the old building stock in Wedding and other districts of West Berlin, the wholesale urban renewal of the 1970s and 1980s represented a challenge to the lifestyles of the residents. As more and more streets were demolished, an un­pre­ce­dented protest welled up, supported by a broad alliance of those directly affected, political initiatives, and intellectuals. At the same time, many initiatives such as self-help projects were established and filled the endangered buildings with new life.

Down with Wholesale Urban Renewal!
East Berlin and Potsdam

Poster for the exhibition ‘Find the Best for the City’, 1989. In East Berlin and other cities of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) – like Potsdam – protest against the decay and demolition of pre-Second World War buildings increased in the 1980s. It reached its peak in 1989 and was a major factor in the collapse of the GDR. Held in summer 1989, the ‘Find the Best for the City’ exhibition criticised the deterioration and threats to knock down of the second baroque city expansion. It was shown again in 2019 at the Potsdam Museum. This exhibition, three decades later, did not receive the attention it deserved in Berlin.

Down with the Car-oriented City!
Western Tangent Citizens’ Initiative

Demonstration of the Citizens’ Traffic Policy Committee (known as the Western Tangent Citizens’ Initiative since 1974) in West Berlin on Kurfürstendamm, July 1972. This protest was the first large-scale demonstration opposing the destruction of the city in the framework of the planning for a car-oriented Berlin. The focus was the fight against more city motorways, with the Western Tangent on the front line.

Sink the Mediaspree!

‘Three Cheers for the Investors’ campaign, July 2008. The protests in Berlin continued after the Reunification. They were increasingly organised in opposition to rent increases, as well as a more automobile-­friendly city. A highly professional protest which influenced later social confrontations concerned one of the most influential development regions in the new Berlin in the 1990s: the eastern Spreeraum, the region around the River Spree. The Sink the Mediaspree (Mediaspree versenken) group took a stand against various private investors for developing the river banks. But in spite of a successful local referendum in 2008, their demands were only partially implemented.

For Better Streets and Squares!

Advertising for a party on Bundesplatz, the centre­piece of Bundesallee, from October 2015. The celebration was initiated by the Initiative Bundesplatz and supported by the Council for European Urbanism Deutschland. Bundesallee is not just any street and Bundesplatz is not just any square. In addition to their distinctive names, they comprise one of the most striking urban-developmental features in ­Berlin’s layout. These two locations – along with the city motor­way – are the most emphatic witnesses to the conversion of West Berlin into a car-oriented city. Since 2010 the Initiative ­Bundesplatz, one of the largest citizens’ initiatives in the German capital, has campaigned for the revival of the square as a place to spend time, the limiting of traffic and, in the medium term, the shutdown of the tunnel that slices the square in half. Des­pite verbal assurances, the campaign has achieved only limited success.

We’re all Staying!

Brochure by Kotti Coop e.V., 2019. In the last ten years, rent increases and tenant evictions have led to a broad-based protest movement in inner-city Berlin, mainly in the district of Friedrichshain-­Kreuzberg. Kotti Coop was founded in 2015 by residents of the Kottbusser Tor neighbourhood, who are pushing for ‘the development of both social rents and the district’. The association is part of a rainbow coalition in the neighbourhood.