Spreefeld, Spreeacker, Teepee Land, Holzmarkt, WIEWEIL
The Spreefeld neighborhood with Spreeacker, Teepee Land, Holzmarkt, WIEWEIL and the emerging public Spree-Shore-Path, is one of the most dynamic areas in the city. Also home to id22. Whereas a “Mediaspree” plan proposed to bring in global investors and corporate headquarters, citizens’ groups have been fighting to maintain and increase public access to the Spree river, limit gentrification, develop and defend affordable housing. Now the last squats, beach bars and a variety of temporary projects are threatened by new office, hotel and housing developments. This tour moves through this unique situation and invites you to consider the opportunities for a sustainable future. Explore a range of urban gardening and farming projects, alternative clubs, old and new collaborative housing projects and much more.
The Spree Tour can be on foot, with a bicycle or even with a boat!
Kotti & Co
The tenants’ association Kotti & Co at Kottbusser Tor has come together to fight for their right to the city against the background of the history of migration. They emerged in 2011 in a heterogeneous neighborhood in Berlin Kreuzberg to fight against high rents (including in social housing) and racism. In 2012, the initiative occupied the space in front of their social housing at Kottbusser Tor (Kotti) with a self-built wooden house (Gecekondu) and since then they have been protesting, among other things with noise demonstrations and the Gecekondu, against the displacement of tenants* with low incomes from the inner city and the high rents of Berlin’s social housing. The housing policy background of their struggle is the (unsocial and unsustainable) system of social housing.
https://kottiundco.net/english/
VOLLGUT, ALLTAG, CRCLR
The non-profit Edith Maryon Foundation is expected to acquire a large part of the site of the former Kindl brewery in the Rollberg district in 2015. The aim of the site acquisition is to make one of the large industrial wastelands in Neukölln available and secure for social, creative and ecological uses in the long term. The site is to become an attractive place for work and encounters and contribute to a good neighborhood in the Rollbergkiez. It should also become a central place in terms of urban space that contributes significantly to identity in the neighborhood. Social compatibility, accessibility and diversity, environmental compatibility, resource conservation and waste avoidance are essential criteria for further development. The neighborhood development is to be carried out with the participation of the users, the neighborhood, the district and the interested population. Initially, two partial plots of land have been given in hereditary building rights to TRNSFRM eG, which will build the ALLTAG for social resident groups and services on the one hand and a Circular Economy House for laboratory-like thinking, management and living in cycles on the other hand in an experimental, modular wood hybrid construction and will let them to the future operator groups by means of a general lease agreement. The One World Center, projected by Berlin Global Village e.V., is also located on the site.
VOLLGUT – Stiftung Edith Maryon
Refugio
The basic idea of Refugio is to live, work and share together. For people with and without refugee experiences, and beyond. In Refugio Berlin, new and old Berliners live and work together on six floors. The first two floors are more for public life, with the Refugio Café and event venues such as the festival and conference hall, conference floor and catering kitchen. The private living and retreat areas of the residents are located on the three upper floors. Everything is crowned by a roof garden with a view of Neukölln. The buffer on the second floor is formed by the studio floor and the dance studio. To enrich the building, there are additional public welfare-oriented commercial tenants. Since summer 2015, people looking for a new home and a new life have been living and working in Refugio Berlin. Refugio is a project of the Berlin City Mission.
Haus der Statistik, Alexanderplatz
To prevent the sale of the Haus der Statistik to investors and the associated demolition, an art action was staged at the Haus der Statistik in September 2015. The initiative Haus der Statistik was formed, a civil society alliance of Berlin actors: Social and cultural institutions and associations, artist collectives, architects, foundations and societies. Since 2016, it has organized public networking meetings for people interested in the development of the Haus der Statistik. The impulse of the Haus der Statistik initiative to develop the area into a multifaceted place for culture, social affairs, education and integrated living was taken up by politicians. In order to have a legal form for a contractual cooperation with potential partners, ZUsammenKUNFT Berlin – Genossenschaft für Stadtentwicklung emerged from the initiative in 2016. Since January 2018, ZKB eG is the civil society part of the so-called Koop5. Together with the Senate Administration, the District Office of Berlin-Mitte and the state-owned companies Wohnungsbaugesellschaft Mitte (WBM) and Berliner Immobilienmanagement (BIM), ZKB is working on the public welfare-oriented development of the Haus der Statistik. The former headquarters of the State Central Administration of Statistics of the GDR was used after reunification, among other things, by the office of the Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service. The authorities remained there until 2008, since when the 45,000 m² building complex has been empty.
Prinzessinnengärten: Moritzplatz & Kollektiv
In 2009, the Prinzessinnengarten at Moritzplatz in Kreuzberg was founded, a community garden and learning space on a former brownfield site in the middle of the city. The nearly 6000m² area not only contained countless raised beds but also open workshops, urban bee colonies, a garden café, a learning kitchen for processing local harvests, and space for markets, workshops, and networking meetings of committed people interested in topics of participatory and sustainable urban design. In 2020, the Princess Gardens split into two stand-alone venues, organized independently of each other.
Moritzplatz
Prinzessinnengarten Moritzplatz Kreuzberg is run as a self-organized inclusive community garden, which is there as a common good for the neighborhood thanks to 100% volunteer work. Since February 2020, the tenant is the non-profit association Common Grounds e.V. Gardening, Kiezkantine and soup kitchen, workshops, concerts and diverse, cultural and political actions take place regularly.
Nachbarschafts- und Inklusionsgarten Moritzplatz
Prinzessinnengarten Collective Berlin
The Prinzessinnengarten Kollektiv Berlin has built a community garden on the New St. Jacobi Cemetery in Berlin-Neukölln, which invites people to garden with them and offers experiences of nature. The main goal of the project is to promote educational and participatory opportunities through open gardening days. Here, children, young people and adults can involve neighbors as well as interested laypeople in the design of the garden areas.
prinzessinnengarten kollektiv berlin
Möckernkiez Genossenschaft / Möckernkiez Cooperative
In 2009, the “Möckernkiez-Genossenschaft für selbstverwaltetes, soziales und ökologisches Wohnen eG” is founded. It buys the railroad site in Berlin, Kreuzberg in 2010. In 2018, the largest privately initiated cooperative project in Germany is completed with 471 apartments, some studios and about 20 commercial units in various sizes. The cooperative, which now has more than 1,400 members, combines sustainable economic activity with extensive participation by residents. It shows a way for self-determined, intergenerational, holistic living. Inclusion plays an essential role in this. The neighborhood is barrier-free throughout and free of car traffic. The entire Möckernkiez with 14 residential buildings is built to the passive house standard and according to building ecology criteria. The energy is supplied by a combined heat and power plant. The common rooms, roof terraces on all buildings as well as playgrounds, garden courtyards and areas can be used jointly by all residents. Neighborly togetherness is also promoted by the regular house group meetings as well as the various events. There is a self-organized cafe and various workshops. Contact and exchange are sought and offers are made not only within the cooperative, but also with residents, associations and organizations in the immediate vicinity.
