05/12/2019 In Berlin, hyper-gentrification has proved just how fast conflict-torn cities can change

Academic rigour, journalistic flair

Remnants of the Berlin Wall, 2019. Hanohiki/Shutterstock.

In Berlin, hyper-gentrification has proved just how fast

conflict-torn cities can change
November 8, 2019 2.31pm GMT •Updated November 11, 2019 10.28am GMT

Modern day Kreuzberg is one of Berlin’s most trendy and multicultural Author
neighbourhoods. Its central location, dynamic mix of cafes, shops and nightlife,
alongside residential streets and lucrative river views all fuse to embody a vibrant
urban lifestyle. Kreuzberg encapsulates many of the remarkable elements that make
Berlin one of the most attractive German cities to live in today, as well as a leading Jonathan Rock Rokem
tourist destination and a hub for the international cosmopolitan elite. Lecturer in Human Geography, University
of Kent

Over the past few decades, hundreds of thousands of people have chosen to settle in
the reunified heart of the German capital. From 2012 to 2017 alone, the city grew by
243,500 people – 81% of which were foreigners. As a result, the previously peripheral
and impoverished neighbourhood of Kreuzberg has, for some years, been undergoing an extreme
process of hyper-gentrification. This has meant that long-term but less affluent residents have been
priced out by skyrocketing demand for property, fuelled by global investors and wealthier locals. All
too often, it’s a process that occurs along lines of class, race and ethnicity.

Hyper-gentrification comes as a mixed blessing, especially in a city once torn by conflict, such as
Berlin. There are positive and negative impacts on local residents. But amid such complexities, it is
still regarded by ousted residents as social cleansing, as a stimulating neighbourhood life is lost to the

https://theconversation.com/in-berlin-hyper-gentrification-has-proved-just-how-fast-conflict-torn-cities-can-change-126413 1/5
05/12/2019 In Berlin, hyper-gentrification has proved just how fast conflict-torn cities can change

predatory practices of the real estate entrepreneurs. Berlin is an extreme example of just how rapidly
cities can respond when a new political and economic status quo asserts itself – and proof that even
during peace time, there is a need for urban citizens to unite and fight injustice.

The divided city

The border within Berlin was first imposed by the Potsdam Agreement in August 1945. But it wasn’t
until August 1961 that the Soviet Union installed the wall, over the course of just two weeks –
nominally to prevent “facists” from entering the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), but
also to stem the flood of outward migration. Until the border was sealed, some 2.7m East Germans
moved to the west.

Amro Ali
@_amroali

Beautiful pictures of #Kreuzberg in the 1970s and today.

interaktiv.morgenpost.de/kreuzberg-1970… #Berlin

8:28 AM - Apr 7, 2016

See Amro Ali's other Tweets

Today it’s almost impossible to imagine that, just 30 years ago, Kreuzberg was at the front line of the
conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States. Located on the Western side of the Iron
Curtain’s demilitarised border zone, the neighbourhood was a rundown frontier precinct. Sniper fire
from the eastern border guards was a daily reality, and at night the area would be floodlit to detect
defectors from the Eastern bloc.

Though poorly maintained, the neighbourhood’s cheap housing attracted migrant workers –
predominantly from Turkey – who settled in Kreuzberg from the early 1970s and who still make up a
significant part of its large and diverse immigrant population. This heritage survives today in the form
of some local shops and a famous Turkish food market near the Landwehr Canal.

Making history

https://theconversation.com/in-berlin-hyper-gentrification-has-proved-just-how-fast-conflict-torn-cities-can-change-126413 2/5
05/12/2019 In Berlin, hyper-gentrification has proved just how fast conflict-torn cities can change

The wall stood for 10,316 days, with military fortifications dividing and tightly sealing the streets and
public spaces that once formed the city’s civic centre. When citizens started tearing down the Berlin
wall on November 9, 1989, it marked the return of the original urban core. People flooded across the
defunct border to see the other side of their own city for the first time in more than 28 years.

The Fall of the Berlin Wall (PART 1) - East Germany opens the ga…
ga…

The powerful symbolism of this moment cannot be overstated. But the process of healing that came
afterwards was arguably just as significant. Both sides of the city benefited from community groups
coming together – with strong support from the federal government – to regenerate Berlin’s heart,
where the wall once stood. The rebuilding and renewal of the nation’s capital came to represent
postwar healing and remembrance, and Berlin became an international poster child for peace and
optimism.

Berlin’s urban transformation continues to foster hope for cities still divided by national conflicts:
Baghdad, Beirut, Jerusalem, Mostar, Nicosia, Kirkuk and Sarajevo – to name but a few of the most
widely known cases. Though there’s little chance of complete reconciliation in these cities under the
current circumstances, it’s nevertheless clear that, with the right political momentum, a rapid process
of urban renewal can take place.

Breaking down barriers

This hope is crucial, because walls can physically embed inequalities within the fabric of a city – from
restricting access to basic utilities such as water and electricity (like Lima’s wall of shame), to
segregating citizens by ethnicity, race or religion (like Belfast’s peace walls) and placing limits on
minorities’ control and development of (as in Jerusalem). And it’s concerning that, in the 21st
century, they seem to be becoming an ever more common feature of urban areas – for example, in the
form of gated communities.

https://theconversation.com/in-berlin-hyper-gentrification-has-proved-just-how-fast-conflict-torn-cities-can-change-126413 3/5
05/12/2019 In Berlin, hyper-gentrification has proved just how fast conflict-torn cities can change

Belfast’s peace walls. VanderWolf Images/Shutterstock

Yet bringing down the Iron Curtain overnight ended decades of bitter rivalry, which just days earlier
seemed a rock-solid fact. Though inequalities still exist, Kreuzberg’s pivotal shift from the front line of
the Cold War, to the centrepiece of a united and vibrant urban core, has shown that urban planning
and policy can be critical tools in designing an effective, attractive, functional city.

Of course, the issues caused by hyper-gentrification must still be addressed. But Berlin’s endorsement
of a grassroots push to renationalise homes from corporate landlords, as well as measures to limit the
purchase of flats for holiday rentals, seem to confirm that a strong urban planning system can work to
balance the interests of various groups (public and private) and communities within the city, under an
umbrella that protects the public interest, and allows the city to flourish.

Berlin is proof that divided cities can become whole again, within the course of a few decades. But
more than that, the city’s transformation shows how vital it is for governments and citizens to be
cognisant of new forms of injustice, to organise and use the tools at their disposal to confront the
unique and unprecedented political, social and environmental challenges of the 21st century.

 Cities Conflict Cold War Berlin Wall Gentrification Berlin You might also like
How the fall of the Berlin Wall 30 years ago resonated across Africa

Berlin Wall: how techno music united Germany on the dance floor

https://theconversation.com/in-berlin-hyper-gentrification-has-proved-just-how-fast-conflict-torn-cities-can-change-126413 4/5
05/12/2019 In Berlin, hyper-gentrification has proved just how fast conflict-torn cities can change

History didn’t end with the fall of the Berlin Wall – but only now is the new
battleground clear

Thirty years after the Berlin Wall came down, Germany is still working to meet east
with west

https://theconversation.com/in-berlin-hyper-gentrification-has-proved-just-how-fast-conflict-torn-cities-can-change-126413 5/5