I was interested to see that the Exberliner, Berlin's English-language magazine, is going to hold a Save Berlin exhibition in November to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. Their manifesto is simple:Mega-malls, fake Prussian palaces and luxury lofts are threatening to turn the city into a sterile global capital. Don’t let grey bureaucrats and investors lacking imagination shape our future. DO SOMETHING!
But as frustrating as this is, it is also both logical and inevitable. The historian Timothy Garton Ash put it beautifully when talking about the commercialisation of post-dictatorship countries, in Europe and elsewhere. "Every cloud has a silver lining," he notes. "But every silver lining also has a cloud." Up until now, the relaxed lifestyle and unrivalled underground scene constituted Berlin's siver lining, and the lack of work and pathetic wages were the cloud. Soon the gradual increase of pay, jobs and living standards as the money flows in will be the silver lining. The Alexa shopping mall, the monstrous 02 World and the Kreuzberg McDonald's are merely parts of the accompanying cloud.
What is remarkable is that Exberliner itself thrives on the changes occurring in Berlin. The city has become incredibly hip and attractive to English speakers, who are drawn to it in increasing numbers by its bohemian nature. But the more people move here, the higher the demand for apartments and the bigger the rent increases. Without all of these Anglophone neo-Berliners, Exberliner would not exist in the first place.
Anyway. How does the magazine propose we deal with this looming cloud?
Get your bold ideas – new buildings, urban planning schemes, targeted demolitions, annual events and festivals, performances – all kinds of “urban interventions” together and help SAVE BERLIN! Take the first step: send us your ideas in writing, about 50 words per idea, telling us: • what you'd do • why it's important to you • how you want to present it - through drawings and models, or through film, dance, music - any medium you want.
While their hearts are clearly in the right place, I'm not entirely sure how an abstract dance routine is going to save our city. And who is going to finance these grand new buildings and urban planning schemes? Nothing on the website suggests that the massive amounts of capital required are going to come from the magazine itself.
As usual, the better course of action is rather more difficult and a lot less glamorous. I'd suggest that it would be more productive to simply get involved with the various local German-language grassroots groups working hard at limiting the damage that commercialisation is inflicting upon the city we all love. The Media Spree project, the plan to line the riverfront with huge corporations and entertainment venues rather than nightclubs and beach bars, was successfully challenged and defeated in a referendum. (Although it now looks as though democracy may be swept aside and it will all go ahead as planned after all). Currently the extensions to the A100 motorway through central districts of the city, amongst countless other things, are being fought tooth and nail by residents.
The other, more straightforward thing that can be done is to simply support the existing squats, independent businesses and non-profit events taking place every day around the city. Berlin already has plenty of platforms for the talents of the English-speaking community. Put whatever artistic ability you have to use by playing solidarity gigs and inviting friends to show up, pay entrance and buy drinks to help the threatened local venues live to fight another day.
It would be wildly unrealistic and naive to think that Berlin can be 'saved' from the onward march of history. But if people really want to get involved, maybe they should just dust off those German dictionaries, roll up their sleeves and get stuck in where it really matters.
