Building Spree: Developers and Dreamers Battle Over Berlin Identity
Politicians, residents and investors are embroiled in a fight over the banks of Berlin's Spree River. Part of the issue boils down to the fundamental question of whether it will be citizens or the...
View ArticleUnwelcome O2 Debut: Protesters Crash Berlin Arena's Opening Party
The German capital put on a big display Wednesday night to herald the opening of its new O2 Arena. But as celebrities gathered inside, protesters clashed with police outside, fearing not only rising...
View ArticleTroubled Times for Tacheles: Landmark Berlin Squat Battles Eviction
It is a classic Berlin faceoff: the squatters against the investors. Usually the latter win, but property at the landmark Berlin art squat Tacheles is under receivership and the fate of the site is...
View ArticleStraight Talk for Tacheles: Iconic Berlin Squat Receives Eviction Notice
For years, the bomb-damaged squat in the heart of Berlin known as Tacheles has been a magnet for foreign tourists. Now, though, the owners of the building have told the artists currently occupying the...
View ArticlePatching the Scars of Communism: Berlin Debates Revitalization of City Center
It used to be the center of Berlin. Then it became the center of communist East Berlin. This week, officials in the German capital began a public debate about the future of the Rathaus Forum, the bleak...
View ArticleSquatters Take on the Creative Class: Who Has the Right to Shape the City?
Hamburg has been trying to woo the much-coveted "creative class" for years in a bid to secure its future. Now the city has become the front line in a bitter conflict over gentrification, with artists...
View ArticleGentrification in Hamburg: Can Ikea Save a Run-Down Neighborhood?
Plans to build a new Ikea store in the Hamburg district of Altona have divided local residents. Supporters of the project, which would be the first of its kind in a downtown area, claim that it will...
View ArticleGentrification Strikes Again in Berlin: Renowned Photography Gallery Faces...
The thriving real estate market in the center of Berlin is both a magnet for investors and a curse for cultural centers. The latest victim of the gentrification process is the renowned C/O Berlin...
View ArticleHamburg's New Quarter: The Challenge of Making HafenCity Feel Neighborly
Hamburg's new quarter is one of the largest urban development projects underway in the world today. But will it be successful? City planners are hoping that their application of an academic field known...
View ArticleCounterculture Vs. Capitalism: Iconic Berlin Squat Fights Its Last Battle
Twenty years after it was squatted by a group of artists, Berlin's legendary Tacheles arts center faces the threat of closure. The building, which became famous as part of the city's heady 1990s...
View ArticleInterview with Harvard Professor Svetlana Boym: 'Ruins Are at the Core of...
Berlin's iconic Tacheles arts center is threatened with eviction despite becoming a city landmark and major tourist destination. In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, Harvard professor Svetlana Boym...
View ArticleFighting Skyrocketing Rents: Activists Bring Flashmob Tactics to War on...
A group of Hamburg-based activists have started holding spontaneous "Fat Rent Parties" at the viewings of apartments they consider too expensive. The flashmob-style protests are part of a wave of...
View ArticleAdvent Activism: Hamburg Protest Group Counts Down Days To Christmas
Activists in Hamburg have created what could well be Germany's largest Advent calendar. They have decorated the doors of 24 vacant properties across the city with Christmas baubles to raise awareness...
View ArticleGentrification's Victims: Berlin Fears Rise of New Slums
Cheap rents and urban glamour have attracted trend-seekers from around the world to central Berlin neighborhoods such as Kreuzberg and Neukölln. But it is the current residents who are paying the price...
View Article'Help, the Tourists are Coming!': Berlin Neighborhood Fights Invasion of the...
Berlin's Kreuzberg neighborhood is famous as being a home of alternative lifestyles and immigrants. But the locals' reputation for tolerance is being put to the test by an influx of tourists....
View ArticleNeukölln Nasties: Foreigners Feel Accused in Berlin Gentrification Row
In the last few years, Berlin's gritty Neukölln district has become a hotbed of the creative class and nightlife, attracting students, artists and bourgeois bohemians. But some worry that the...
View ArticleArson in Berlin: Car Burnings are a 'Precursor to Terrorism'
The last three nights have seen an unprecedented wave of car torchings in Berlin, but police are not sure who to arrest. Politicians on the left and right warn the attacks could lead to more dangerous...
View ArticleBerlin's Gentrification Row: Locals Rage Against Rising Rents
Berlin's Kreuzberg and Neukölln districts were once known for cheap rents and diversity. But their edgy urban charm has attracted both affluent residents and international investors, jacking up rents...
View ArticleA Victim of Its Own Success: Berlin Drowns in Tourist Hordes and Rising Rents
Berlin is struggling to maintain its identity as its popularity soars. Budget tourists are flocking to the German capital, eager to sample the famous nightlife, while Scandinavian investors are...
View ArticleA Ghetto for the Jet Set: Munich Faces Dark Side of a Housing Boom
Munich has the highest rents and real estate prices of any major German city. Luxury renovations are changing the face of entire neighborhoods, while lower-income residents are being driven out of the...
View ArticleEasy Living on the Spree: As Rents Rise, Some Berliners Find Refuge on the Water
As rents continue to rise in Berlin, many young people are finding it harder to afford apartments on land. Some have opted instead to build their own houseboats and moor them along the city's Spree...
View ArticleGuggenheim Lab Cancels Berlin Project
The "BMW Guggenheim Lab" is supposed to find new solutions for urban living. But some residents of Berlin's scrappy Kreuzberg district weren't happy about the project coming to their neighborhood. The...
View ArticleBerlin Night Clubs Under Threat From Gentrification
Berlin's famous club scene is under threat from residents complaining about the noise and investors bent on converting venues into posh apartments. Now local politicians plan to set up a fund to rescue...
View ArticleGerman Press Review on Guggenheim Lab Relocation in Berlin
Organizers of the BMW Guggenheim Lab recently abandoned its original location in Berlin amid fears of violent protests by anti-gentrification activists. They have now announced that the project will go...
View ArticleBerliners Protest Against Plan By GEMA to Raise Music Performance Tariffs
Thousands of Berliners demonstrated on Monday night against a planned increase in music performance fees that the club community says could sound the death knell for many nightclubs in the city. The...
View ArticleRetirees Occupy Community Center in Berlin with Stasi History
The building was once used by the Stasi, East Germany's dreaded secret police. But, more recently, it has served as a popular activity center for seniors in a high-rent neighborhood. When local...
View ArticleBerlin Artists' Squat Tacheles is Cleared After Legal Disputes
An era ended in Berlin on Tuesday when bailiffs cleared Tacheles, a derelict artists' squat. The graffiti-smeared, bomb-damaged building was a major tourist attraction because it gave visitors a taste...
View ArticleReal Estate Boom Threatens to End Dream of Affordable Life in Berlin
Berlin was once an exception to the rule that cool cities have high property and rent prices. But those days are quickly ending. A new wave of private investors has led to skyrocketing prices, forcing...
View ArticleGerman Renters Pinched by Rising Costs and Decreasing Supply
The exploding costs and dwindling supply of urban housing are slowly pushing Germans of average means out of the cities. As September's national election approaches, politicians are jockeying to find...
View ArticleGentrification Row in Berlin Reveals Tensions over Disparities Between States
Newcomers from all over Germany have been flocking to Berlin since reunification in 1990. One politician argues that too many people from southern Germany's Swabia region have been landing in the...
View ArticleGülbol Family Eviction Sparks Protests in Kreuzberg
Violent protests broke out in Berlin's Kreuzberg neighborhood on Thursday after a Turkish family was forced to leave their apartment for refusing to pay higher rent. Cars were set ablaze and...
View ArticleProtesters Halt Dismantling of Berlin Wall Section for Luxury Condos
In 1989, the crowds yelled for the Berlin Wall to come down. But, on Friday, hundreds of protesters stopped workers from dismantling part of the longest remaining stretch of the Wall so that a luxury...
View ArticleArchitecture in Berlin: An Urban Planning Disaster
Klaus Wowereit, Berlin's mayor since 2001, has watched his city become one of world's coolest artistic meccas. But under his guidance, the city has devolved into a backward-looking architectural...
View ArticleStasi Suspicions: East Side Gallery Developer Hinkel Past in Question
Maik Uwe Hinkel, the controversial investor behind the luxury apartment complex that has displaced parts of Berlin's East Side Gallery, is a staunch socialist. There is also evidence that suggests he...
View ArticleResident Groups Form to Fight Evictions in Germany
Skyrocketing rents in many German cities are pitting residents against real estate developers and landlords. The recent death of an elderly woman forced out of her apartment has emboldened alliances to...
View ArticleNazi References Used in Anti Swabian Berlin Gentrification Feud
It may have begun as a joke, but with the adoption of slogans used by the Nazis, an ongoing feud pitting long-time Berliners against newer residents from southern Germany may have crossed a line.
View ArticleAlleged Apartment Shortage in Germany Is Limited to Trendy Areas
For Chancellor Merkel and her opponents, the housing shortage in many German cities is becoming a campaign issue as elections draw closer. Often, though, it is picky renters who are to blame for the...
View ArticleHipsters Fuse Food, Fun and Shopping in Temporary Container Parks
Welcome to "Frau Gerold's Garden," a leafy urban oasis in Zurich made out of shipping containers. Such temporary hipstervilles, which combine trendy shops with food, music and urban gardening, are...
View ArticleCar Sharing Increasingly Popular in German Cities
As collaborative consumption becomes increasingly mainstream, many young Germans are starting to see vehicle ownership as inconvenient and old-fashioned. Keen to keep up, the auto industry is turning...
View ArticleBerlin Cracks Down on Estimated 18,000 Vacation Rentals
Last year, Berlin passed a law banning unregistered vacation rentals in the city because of a shortage of residential housing. A sharp increase in tourism and the popularity of renting private...
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