In Berlin, a Grass-Roots Fight Against Gentrification as Rents Soar -
By CHARLY WILDERMARCH 18, 2017
BERLIN — When visitors want to experience this city’s much celebrated “alternative” culture, they often make their way to Heinrichplatz, a graffiti-covered square in the Kreuzberg neighborhood
that for decades has been a hub for independent arts, underground night life and radical politics.
This gap seems to be widening, the report says, “which generally raises concern for a real estate bubble.”
Johannes Novy, a prominent German urbanist, said Berlin’s affordability, mixed social makeup
and spirit of experimentation “are what made it attractive to begin with.” The recent regulation and grass-roots organizing are positive steps, he said, “but many of these measures have come far too late, and at this point it’s very difficult to stem the tide.”
What is at stake in the current debate, many say, is the very heart of the city.
Recent figures released by the German Property Federation show
that purchase prices on residential real estate in Berlin grew by 94 percent from 2010 to 2016, while rents increased by only 40 percent.
“They are the reason Kreuzberg is like it is.”
Late last year, the tenant collective learned that its landlord, Taekker, a Danish development firm, intended
to sell the building to private investors who planned a conversion to luxury loft apartments.