Cities 37 (2014) 126

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Cities
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City prole

City prole: Berlin

Biljana Arandelovic a,, Dushko Bogunovich b
a
University of Nis, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Aleksandra Medvedeva 14, 18000 Nis, Serbia
b
Unitec Institute of Technology, Departments of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, 1 Carrington Rd, Mt Albert, 102 Auckland, New Zealand

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Berlin is a German city and federal state, situated in the heart of Europe. It has been the capital city since
Received 27 February 2013 1991, and is the largest city in the country with around 3.4 million inhabitants. This prole explains Ber-
Received in revised form 5 October 2013 lins historical development and emphasizes changes which took place during the 20th century (the Wei-
Accepted 26 October 2013
mar period in the 1920s, followed by the Nazi takeover in 1933 and the citys destruction during World
Available online 6 December 2013
War II, then the division of the city into West Berlin and East Berlin, until its nal reunication in 1990
after the Wall fell down). After reunication, Berlin experienced a new period of urban redevelopment in
Keywords:
which many new buildings were constructed. This prole also outlines some recent positive changes in
Post-Wall Berlin
Berlin
terms of Berlins economic growth and its transformation into the capital of innovative new companies in
Reichstag the digital, culture and media industries.
Potsdamer Platz 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Memorials
Creative City
East Berlin
West Berlin
Urban history

Introduction of them are nanced through public subsidies, though it is impor-

Berlin is the city that best portrays the unication of the two
Germanies, both visually and physically. It has always been a place
of political power and a legendary symbol of survival. A political
division of more than 40 years during the Cold War period and a
physical division of more than 30 years imposed differences be-
tween the Western and Eastern parts of the city. Berlin is a combi-
nation of new with the old, where abandoned factories in unused
areas along the former Wall are still to be found. Berlin is a city
where every corner is telling a story, a city that narrates its multi-
ple histories, the only place in the world where the center is empty
(Till, 2005). The 20th century was full of dramatic changes, starting
from the revolution of 1918, followed by the Nazis taking power in
1933, then the post-war city division from 1945, the erection of the
Wall in 1961, followed by life in the divided city and then reuni-
cation in 1990. All these events are turning points in the citys
political life and have shaped its built environment. The citys pres-
ent borders were assigned in 1920 with the inclusion of adjacent
small towns, agricultural land and lakes and forests, not by the in-
ner city enlargement process.
It is a dynamic city of culture and one of the UNESCO Cities of
Design. As a capital city, Berlin is rich in cultural institutions. Most
Corresponding author. Tel.: +381 691279692.
E-mail address: biljana.arandelovic@gmail.com (B. Arandelovic).
tant to emphasize that Berlin is equally famous for its non-subsi-
dized arts scene and creative industries. One of the results of
Berlins division is its duplication of cultural institutions. As the ci-
tys cultural center was in the Boulevard Unter den Linden, which
fell on East Berlins side, the West German government compen-
sated for this by creating new institutions. The Deutsche Oper Ber-
lin in West Berlin was equivalent to the State Opera. Mies van der
Rohes New National Gallery (part of the Kultur Forum complex)
served as counterpart to the old national museums, and Hans Scha-
rouns State Library was West Berlins answer to the old Berlin Li-
brary. All of these institutions stayed after the unication and
today Berlin has three opera houses, four opera ensembles, eight
large orchestras, including Berlin Philharmonic Hall, and ten cham-
ber orchestras (OECD, 2003). During the Weimar Republic, Berlin
gained entertainment metropolis reputation, which holds to this
day. The unied German capital also embraces a great number of
corporate buildings, a new federal government district, a recon-
structed regional transportation system and gentried neighbor-
hoods. Its historical district has also been renovated, while
suburban settlements are still growing. Berlin is rich in large public
spaces, particularly at the waterfront and in its green urban parks
(which cover more than 40 % of the city area). It is the European
city with the highest density of green space (Berlin Senat Depart-
ment for Urban Development) (see Figs. 14).

0264-2751/$ - see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2013.10.007
2 B. Arandelovic, D. Bogunovich / Cities 37 (2014) 126
The history of Berlins urban development
Berlins early history
A dense network of villages appeared on the territory between
the rivers Elbe and Oder during the 12th cenutry. These villages
had similar structure, and were all concentrated along a road with
a green area at its center. Even today, the outline of the green area
can still be seen in some Berlin districts. At the end of the 12th cen-
tury, two separate settlements sprang up from these villages, Clln
and Berlin. These two settlements kept separate identities until the
18th century, though they even shared a town hall for one period
and were often communally referred to as Berlin. In 1709, these
two settlements nally ofcially unied. During the Middle Ages
these settlements spread minimally but with no signicant archi-
tectural shapes. Indeed, in the area of urban development Berlin
denitely stayed far behind other grandiose capitals in Europe like
Vienna or Paris. Berlin started developing during the Baroque per-
iod under Friedrich Wilhelm the Great Elector (Cobbers, 2011).
Berlin before the 20th century
A new chapter in the architectural history of Berlin started at
the beginning of the 1700s when a line of new districts was set
out on the west side from the remains of the previous medieval
city, under the rule of Prussian King Friedrich I. This development
continued under Friedrich Wilhelm I, when Berlins intense grid
Fig. 1. Current edition: Berlin Land Use Plan (FNP Berlin) published November 12th, 2009 (Ofcial Gazette (Amtsblatt) p. 2666), last modied March 7th, 2013 (Ofcial
Gazette (Amtsblatt) p. 432).
patterns were formed. The south-western district was named
Friedrichstadt (today part of Mitte and Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg
districts). The 1737 expansion advanced the idea of the new city.
Three major gates were built with public spaces around them
the Hallesches Gate on the south, the Brandenburg Gate which
formed a square on the north, and the Potsdamer Gate which
was the city entry from the road to Potsdam. This development
of the city was directly inspired by the reconstruction of the center
of Paris by Louis XIV. The Potsdamer Gate had special signicance
and was marked as the royal gate from Sans Souci, the beloved
kings country palace (Balfour, 1990).
The son of Friedrich Wilhelm I, Frederick II, (known after his
death as Frederick the Great) ruled Prussia from 1740 to 1786, dur-
ing which time Berlin became a European metropolis famed for its
architecture and culture. The fame of Berlins architecture at that
time was connected with Karl Friedrich Schinkel, who dominated
the architectural scene of Berlin for more than half a century. In
the 18th century Berlin also gained a reputation as a major city
for crafts, and during the 19th century, it became the largest indus-
trial city in Germany and one of the largest cities in Europe. Berlin
already had 56,000 inhabitants in 1710. The city had 265,000 citi-
zens in 1834 and 826,000 in 1871. At the end of the 18th century
this number was still growing, which led to 2,040,100 citizens in
1905 (Cobbers, 2011) (see Fig. 5).
One of the most important periods in Berlins history was the
Founders Period (Grnderzeit), the period just before and after
Germanys 1871 unication, which was a time for big changes
and the start of the development of German industry. During the
 B. Arandelovic, D. Bogunovich / Cities 37 (2014) 126 3

Fig. 2. Map of Berlins districts (Bezirke). Source: d-maps.com.

Fig. 3. Mies van der Rohes New National Gallery and Alexander Calders sculpture Ttes et Queue. Source: Arandelovic (2012).

period from 1860 to 1890, Berlin, together with the greater metro-
politan area, increased its population more than threefold. With
the aim of handling this population growth better, the Prussian
government organized the annexation of the closest suburbs to
Berlin in 1861, many of which were already sites of industrial
expansion. With this, the citys area was enlarged by two-thirds.
Parallel population growth continued and in the 1890s the govern-
ment tried to annex additional suburban areas to Berlin, but with-
out success. The wealthier suburbs rejected the annexation and the
larger suburbs became independent cities. The state invited Berlin
and its neighboring municipalities to form a regional administra-
tive body, but the wealthier suburbs were persistent in rejecting
further consolidation.
Berlin at the beginning of the 20th century
The Weimar Republic was declared in 1918, and the integration
of all settlements into Greater Berlin started. The merging of eight
cities, fty nine towns, and twenty seven agricultural regions into
Greater Berlin happened in 1920, which then became the biggest
city in Europe at that time, with over four million inhabitants living
in an area of 880 square kilometers. The core of integrated settle-
ments stayed intact and became part of the Greater Berlin urban
fabric. Even today, some of Berlins current administrative districts
date from this municipal division (Strom, p. 40). In 1925 Berlin was
the center of the entire German securities market and in 1929 was
the largest industrial city in Germany. The branches of 37 banks
4 B. Arandelovic, D. Bogunovich / Cities 37 (2014) 126

Fig. 4. Hans Scharouns Berlin Philharmonic Hall. Source: Arandelovic (2012).

Fig. 5. The oldest map of Berlin by Johann Gregor Memhardt from 1659 (North is on the left). Source: Bodenschatz (2010).

could be found there. According to Lethen, a twelfth of all German
industrial concerns had settled in the city, bringing with them a to-
tal of 297,771 ofces and 1,770,140 employees (Lethen, 1978).
The Prussian government appointed engineer James Hobrecht
in 1862 to draw up a plan for the recently annexed city areas. In
some aspects, his work was compared with Haussmanns plan of
Paris as Hobrecht laid out a new street grid. Previously, Berlin
had been known for its industrial areas with their characteristically
large blocks, but one of the results of Hobrechts general zoning
plan was building large residential districts for the workers. This
made Berlin the worlds largest barrack style rented city. Hobr-
echts plan (Fig. 6) was created for a city of four million, and the
population of greater Berlin at the beginning of the 20th century,
including all suburbs, amounted to almost 3.8 million (Kleihues,
1993).
The land was bought by real estate rms, who built housing
units there as densely as possible. These housing units (built dur-
ing the industrialization period of the early 20th century), known
as Mietskaserne, are still one of the main characteristics of these
neighborhoods in Berlin. Mietskaserne are street facing buildings,
usually housing middle or lower middle class families. These units
were followed by a sequence of rear buildings where factories were
located or even cheaper apartments. In many city areas, Kreuzberg
for example, the density of Mietskaserne was reduced during the
1970s. After the years of progress, hyperination came, with one
American dollar worth 14 billion marks at its peak in November
1923 (Webber, 2008). The years after brought the Great Depres-
sion and world economic crash, which inuenced the situation in
Germany and led to the next and the darkest period in the history
of Berlin (see Fig. 7).
Hitlers fantasy of Berlin
When Hitler gained power in 1933, there were around 170,000
Jews in Berlin. By the end of World War II the number was about
5000. Today, there are around 9000 Jews in Berlin, mostly new
immigrants coming from Eastern Europe (Goldberger, 1995).
With the inauguration of Adolf Hitler as chancellor of Germany
in January 1933, a 12 year regime of National Socialism started,
along with the megalomanic planning of the new capital city,
guided by Albert Speer as Hitlers main architect (Whyte, 2007).
Hitler was inspired by Rome and dreamed of a monumental city
for future centuries. The court architect, Albert Speer, translated
his desire into architectural models for Germania, the new capital
of the Thousand Year Reich. Monumental triumphal arches and
government halls took a central position in the plan (Fig. 8). To
 B. Arandelovic, D. Bogunovich / Cities 37 (2014) 126
Fig. 6. The Hobrecht Plan. Source: Claus Bernet, Urban History.
make way for new grandiose areas for boulevards, plazas and
buildings, the old Berlin was to be demolished (Helmer, 1980).
The Olympic stadium and Tempelhof airport, both designed by
Speer, are the two structures that remain from that era.
Divided Berlin
Berlin suffered enormous destruction during World War II. One
third of Berlins housing was destroyed, resulting in 75 million cu-
bic meters of rubble in the city center (Till, 2005). The most dam-
aged area was the central district of Mitte, where 54% of the
dwellings were destroyed (Cobbers, 2011). In 1949, two German
governments were constituted and separated the country into East
and West over the next forty years. The capital of East Germany
was in East Berlin in the area of Soviet occupation, while in West
Germany the capital was moved to Bonn. With this the English,
French and US sectors in Berlin became an isolated island, both
physically and politically. Accordingly, both East and West Berlin
became places for demonstrating power and prestige.
West Berlin was situated around 120 miles inside the German
Democratic Republic and was a zone of Western military occupa-
tion, with French, British and United States military bases
(Fig. 13). These occupying armies started making the temporary
illusion of a new reality by the spring of 1946. On the West side,
in one of the corners of Potsdamer Platz, which was considered
as the division point, diverse commercial activities started, for
example, promoting and selling luxury products like watches, jew-
elry and porcelain. East Berlin responded by erecting gigantic mur-
5
als on their side, representing their idea of a healthy and vigorous
life, presenting a standpoint totally opposite to the West and
materialism.
Tension between West and East had its peak in the Berlin block-
ade, which led to the construction of the Berlin Wall. The Berlin
blockade started on 23rd June, 1948 when the Soviets blocked all
links from the Western zones (rail, road, canal, energy supply
and telephone) with the aim of excluding the West from Berlin.
This action was their answer to Western currency reforms. With
this, two and a half million Berliners in the Western sector were
blocked in, which provoked a response from the other side in the
form of the famous Berlin Airlift. The Airlift started with the aim
of bringing basic supplies (more than 4000 tons of supplies daily)
for people in the Western sector. The Berlin Airlift lasted eleven
months, until 12th May, 1949 (Feversham & Schmidt, 1999).
The Berlin Wall
The Russians did not want to accept West Berlin as an exterri-
torial entity. This led to Khrushchev demanding that the Allies
leave. He gave them a six month deadline in 1958. As the West re-
fused his demand, the Russians fully sealed off the Western sectors
of the city and began building the Wall on August 13th in 1961
(Balfour, 1990). Berlin was the symbol of the Cold War, and the
Berlin Wall was the best physical demonstration of it, erected to
separate two sides of one city and to divide the people of one
nation.
6 B. Arandelovic, D. Bogunovich / Cities 37 (2014) 126

Fig. 7. The Greater-Berlin area around 1914. The plan shows the dense inner-city ring around the city center and the expanding neighboring areas. Between are green areas.
Source: Hofmeister (1985): Berlin. Beitrge zur Geographie eines Grostadtraums.

In the period between 1949 and 1961 the GDR lost almost 10%
of its population, reducing it from over 19 million in 1949 to 17
million in 1961. An enormous exodus happened between January
and June 1961 when over 100,000 left (Schmidt & von Preuschen,
2005). The situation was even worse in July and August when over
1000 people left every day. The problem was bigger than just an
economic crash. It was about the political system and was further
negative propaganda for the GDR. The Soviets saw the physical
barricade and sealing the border as the only possible solution for
the situation. The Berlin Wall was actually the guarantee of stabil-
ity during the Cold War, both sides were aware of that. The West
accepted the Berlin Wall. Interfering would present a major risk
(Loeb, 2006).
There were extreme differences in how people experienced the
Wall because West Berliners were allowed to interact freely with
it, while East Berliners were not permitted to approach it. Even
the name of the Wall had different versions, simply Die Mauer
(Wall) in the West, while it was known as Antifaschistischer Schutz-
wall (the antifascist protection rampart) in the East. West Berlin-
ers could touch it and write or paint grafti on it while on the other
side, anyone showing interest in approaching the Wall was consid-
ered suspicious (Feversham & Schmidt, 1999) (see Figs. 9, 10 and
12).
With this, the city was cut in half, both physically and politi-
cally (Biswas & Kumar, 2000). On the tourist map of East Berlin,
the West was marked with just traces of lines showing major roads
and the city rail system (Fig. 15). The ofcial Senate map of West
Berlin could be described as total fantasy, with no acknowledg-
ment of the Wall, and trolley cars running empty through Potsd-
amer Platz. The Wall, the symbol of the Cold War, was guarded
by 260 watchtowers along the border ring. The ring around West
Fig. 8. Central part of the Speer Plan, view towards the north, model made ca. 1940.
Berlin was 102.5 miles in length and divided East and West Berlin Source: Helmer, Stephen (1980): Plans for Reshaping the Central City Developed by
for 28 years, from 1961 until 1989. Concrete slabs topped with Albert Speer.
 B. Arandelovic, D. Bogunovich / Cities 37 (2014) 126 7

Fig. 11. East Berlin couple overlooking the border area at their wedding in 1970.
Source: Die Berliner Mauer heute.

pipe formed 65.8 miles, while another 34 miles was constructed

Fig. 9. Nearly 1000 people were killed while trying to escape. One of the rst who
died while trying to cross the Wall on August 17th 1961 was Peter Fechter. Source:
Die Berliner Mauer heute.
out of stamped metal fencing. Balfour explained the Wall as a ma-
chine that drives a passage through history that divides a city, a na-
tion, and a culture (Balfour, 1990).
The border between the two halves of Berlin was a synonym for
the most guarded and difcult to cross border in the world. After
the fall of the Wall, the section on Mhlenstrasse, parallel to the
S-Bahn line between Ostbahnhof and Warschauer Strasse, was
saved from destruction and was transformed in the 1990s into
the East Side gallery, carrying more than a hundred murals by
international artists. This section is still here today, although in
poor condition due to vandalism and the problem of ownership
(Whyte, 2007) (see Figs. 14 and 16).

Fig. 10. Keith Haring painting a section of Wall near Checkpoint Charlie, 1986. Source: Die Berliner Mauer heute.
8 B. Arandelovic, D. Bogunovich / Cities 37 (2014) 126

Fig. 12. The moment of division of East and West Berlin at Potsdamer Platz in 1948. Source: Berlin: a critical view: Ugly realism 20s70s.

Fig. 13. The black line is the border between East and West Berlin; 1 Leipziger Platz; 2 Potsdamer Platz; 3 Brandenburg Gate; 4 Checkpoint Charlie; 5 Hallesches Gate. Source:
Balfour, Alan (1990): Berlin: the politics of order; 17371989.
 B. Arandelovic, D. Bogunovich / Cities 37 (2014) 126 9

Fig. 16. Gerwin Zohlens copper strips have marked the course of the former Wall
since 1999. Source: Arandelovic.

Fig. 14. The British, US, French and USSR sector border of Berlin. Source: Die
Berliner Mauer heute. Denkmalwert und Umgang.
East Berlin
The inuence of Soviet urban planning was evident in East Ber-
lin. Priority was given to the rebuilding of industrial areas, while
housing development was considered to be less important. The
building process was fast and low-cost and the creation of new so-
cialist housing centered around industrial conglomerates was
essential. Wide boulevards and grandiose plazas dominated East
Berlins center, designed for the purposes of parades and other
mass happenings (OECD, 2003). The highest structure in Berlin, a
television tower, was erected in Alexanderplatz in the 1960s, with
the important aim of challenging people from the other side of the
Wall. It was not possible to miss these high structures from the
west side of the town as it had mainly low-rise structures. In the
1950s, in East Berlin, the neoclassical 2300 meter Stalinallee was
constructed (formerly Frankfurter Allee and today Karl-Marx-Al-
lee), directly inspired by Moscows grandiose Gorki Street boule-
vard (Fig. 19). The critics in West Germany compared this
boulevard to the designs of Speer, due to its monumental dimen-
sions (Till, 2005). Most housing construction in East Berlin took
place on the citys eastern edge, where entire new urban settle-

Fig. 15. Map made by East Germans with West Berlin as a void. Source: Die Berliner Mauer heute. Denkmalwert und Umgang.
10 B. Arandelovic, D. Bogunovich / Cities 37 (2014) 126

Fig. 17. The symbolic Alexanderplatz Television Tower (Fernsehturm) in the background. Source: Arandelovic.

Fig. 18. Alexanderplatz. Source: Arandelovic.

ments were constructed, some of them in the districts of Marzahn
or Hellersdorf (see Figs. 17 and 18).
West Berlin
The commercial city center, before World War II, stretched from
Potsdamer Platz in the west to Alexanderplatz in the east. After
World War II, this area was soon intersected by the border. With
this, a big part of the traditional city center, together with numer-
ous historical buildings, found themselves in East Berlin. For this
reason, it was necessary to make some kind of compensation for
their absence, but to do it carefully because West Berlin did not
want to suggest that they saw the division as permanent. Berlins
centuries old development trajectory had been a continual move-
ment westward. Kurfrstendamm was developed into a represen-
tative Boulevard during the 1920s after becoming a leading trade
and entertainment center. This area was built at the beginning of
the 20th century as an upper class residential district with some
of the highest land prices in Berlin. After the division of Berlin,
and even more so after 1970, Zoologischer Garten train station
 B. Arandelovic, D. Bogunovich / Cities 37 (2014) 126
Fig. 19. Today Karl-Marx-Alle, previously Stalinallee in East Berlin (left).
Fig. 20. Hansaviertel (Hansa District) in West Berlin (right). Source: Bodenschatz
(2010).
and the Kurfrstendamm area, became the center of West Berlin,
with numerous businesses and entertainment services. Also, this
area had great public transport connections (Balfour, 1990).
11
Fig. 21. Walter Gropius Haus in Hndelallee in Hansaviertel (Hansa District).
Source: Arandelovic.
Hansaviertel (Hansa District), an area in the northwest part of
Tiergarten, was the showcase of German design in West Berlin at
the Interbau 1957 International Building Exhibition (in deliberate
contrast to Stalinallee). Oscar Niemeyer, Arne Jacobson, Alvar Alto,
Walter Gropius and Willy Kreuer are just some of the famous
names of modernist architects whose buildings can be found in
Hansaviertel (Fig. 20). The Hansaviertel residential complex is an
important testimony to the modern architecture and urban plan-
ning of the 1950s. The designs for 45 different architectural struc-
tures were proposed then, of which 35 were implemented in the
end. Most of the buildings stand as solitary blocks (Cobbers, 2011).
Also, there was a need for creating new cultural institutions to
replace the old ones that had stayed on the east side. The West
government wanted to ll the empty space near the border and
to make it visible from the east side. Architect Hans Scharoun
was appointed in 1956 to design the Kulturforum (Cultural Forum),
consisting of a major music hall, library, and arts museum (Web-
ber, 2008). The most important project that represented West Ger-
manys Berlin was Hans Scharouns Philharmonic Hall from 1963, a
modern building with symmetrical surfaces and curved roofs. The
other buildings forming the Kulturforum complex are the State Li-
brary (Staatsbibliothek), the Chamber Music Concert Hall and Mies
van der Rohes New National Gallery (see Fig. 21).
Berlin after the fall of the Wall
The fall of the Berlin Wall started on November 9th, 1989, and
in 1991 the German government voted to move the capital from
Bonn to Berlin. Since then, Berlin has witnessed radical and monu-
mental changes. In the years after unication it appeared possible
to reach the position of Paris or London.
It also happened that social housing urban development grants,
in both parts of the former divided city, were withdrawn and the
companies responsible for social housing construction lost their
inuence. Onto the stage came private investors whose priority
12 B. Arandelovic, D. Bogunovich / Cities 37 (2014) 126

Fig. 22. The Central Station of Berlin (Berlin Hauptbahnhof). Source: Arandelovic (2012).

Fig. 23. Pariser Platz. Source: Arandelovic (2012).

was the construction of ofce buildings (conditions for investors
were extremely good). Many existing buildings that had housed
the bureaucratic units of the GDR were ready and waiting for
new uses. The center of Berlin drew all the attention from the pub-
lic and experts, which left aside other important urban develop-
ment tasks, such as modernizing the tenement house districts or
building new suburbs.
Urban development after the fall of the Wall can be separated
into three main phases. The rst phase is the period 19901995
and is emphasized by the reunication euphoria after the Wall
came down. These are the years of huge speculation and the plan-
ning of major projects for the empty city center. Almost all major
projects featured ofce buildings.
The second phase happened in the period from 1995 to 1999
and is underlined by the realization of the euphoric projections
planned during the rst phase. Many projects started in the rst
phase were completed in this period. The result of this was the
overproduction of ofce space. The last important phase in the
post-unication period happened after 1999, a period marked by
the clear stagnation of urban development, resulting from the gen-
eral economic situation in the whole country. The urban develop-
ment continued, but with much less euphoria, while no plans or
projects took a capital role (Bodenschatz, 2010).
Endless tracts of social housing blocks, called Plattenbau, were
built during the Communist period in Marzahn and Hohenschn-
hausen (East Berlin districts). The question was raised after unica-
tion of how to treat them and transform them for use in the New
Berlin. The communities living there were too deeply rooted to
even consider replacing their homes with a kind of westernized
version. Also, this would be too expensive. The nal decision was
 B. Arandelovic, D. Bogunovich / Cities 37 (2014) 126 13

Fig. 24. Potsdamer Platz in the 20s as a business center and in the 60s as empty land. Source: Berlin: a critical view: Ugly realism 20s70s (left).

a visual one: to change Plattenbau facades and try to give them a
more Western face. According to Regine Leibinger, the surface re-
mains the easiest way to simulate, appropriate, or develop a new
image of how the city could or should appear (Leibinger, 2002).
Among the many new projects since unication, some of the
most important are the new parliament buildings and federal gov-
ernment complex, the reconstructed historical Reichstag, a number
of new embassy buildings located between Potsdamer Platz and
the Zoological Garden in the so-called Embassy District mostly
completed between 1999 and 2003 (the modern complex of the
Nordic embassies is just one small part of it) and extensive nan-
cial and corporate headquarters in the Mitte district. In addition to
these, the Berlin Hauptbahnhof (the Central Station of Berlin) was
completed in 2006. This high-tech train station is located close to
the federal government complex in the central city district of Mit-
te. The area north of the Hauptbahnhof will be the subject of future
development (see Fig. 22).
New simplicity
In 1991, the Berlin Senate created a new position called city
architect for which Hans Stimmann was appointed. His task was
to make and control expert panels that judged the architectural
and urban development competitions in Berlin. During his 15 years
in this position, Stimmann gained enormous power over visual
development in Berlin. He became known for his critical approach
to reconstruction, also known as the new simplicity. Some of the
projects developed and reconstructed under his guard are the Par-
iser Platz (just next to the Brandenburg Gate) and the shopping
avenue Friedrichstrasse. According to Goldberger, some people
saw him as a citys savior and coolheaded master builder who
has reconstructed Berlin with speed and conviction while others
called him an empire builder whose absolutism has wasted an
unparalleled opportunity for modern city planning. He supported,
in order to evoke memories from Berlins past, traditional ve to
14 B. Arandelovic, D. Bogunovich / Cities 37 (2014) 126
Fig. 25. Business and entertainment center Potsdamer Platz today. Source:
Arandelovic.
six storey buildings made of stone, while high-rise constructions
with glass and metal facades were rejected. For Stimmann and
all others who shared his views, the aim of central city redevelop-
ment must be a critical reconstruction of the existing urban fabric
Fig. 26. Potsdamer Platz today. Source: Arandelovic.
rather than the kind of radical restructuring that has been favored
by modernist architects. He directed projects covering more than
1830 ha and was known for being afraid that uncontrolled devel-
opment would produce a forest of skyscrapers (Goldberger, 1995)
(see Fig. 23).
Potsdamer Platz
The area of Potsdamer Platz has always had importance through
history, and even more so after unication, not just as urban space
but also as a stage for political activities. Potsdamer Gate was the
city entry from the road to Potsdam and one of three major gates.
The next important function of this area was in the 19th century
when two of the main railway termini were built the Potsdamer
Bahnhof and the Anhalter Bahnhof. During the Weimar Republic
the cosmopolitan Potsdamer Platz was an economic center of
power, but also a bohemian center (Fig. 24) which was sometimes
compared with New York. Later, Potsdamer Platz was the National
Socialists center of power. In World War II the area was heavily
devastated, and soon after it became a black market area. Postd-
amer Platz was constantly used as a stage for political confronta-
tion, an example of which is the Berlin workers demonstrations
which took place in 1953, and were crushed by Soviet tanks. After
1961 the area of Potsdamer Platz became a deserted strip in the
middle of the Berlin Wall, often called no mans land (Fig. 24)
(Caygill, 1992).
Potsdamer Platz was, in 1993, an empty space before emerging
as Europes biggest construction site in 1994. Just after the Wall
came down, Daimler Benz decided to locate its new service divi-
sion, Debis, in Berlin. This was the rst major international com-
pany to choose Berlin for its headquarters since before World
War II. Soon after, Sony bought land just next to Debis to build
its new European headquarters (the complex was nished in the
summer of 2000).
The main aim of the government was to attract powerful inter-
national rms, even if it meant lowering the price of the land. The
expectations were that these wealthy rms would start bringing
thousands of highly skilled jobs to Berlin. The Debis complex, fea-
 B. Arandelovic, D. Bogunovich / Cities 37 (2014) 126 15

Fig. 27. Potsdamer Platz today. Source: Arandelovic.

Fig. 28. The memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe. Source: Arandelovic (2012).

turing 19 buildings, was the rst to be realized in October 1998. It
included 50% ofce space, 20% housing, and 30% retail and enter-
tainment facilities (Huyssen, 2003) (see Figs. 2527).
Memorials
According to Andreas Huyssen, Germany has engaged in a
memory mania of truly monumental proportions. Since the
1980s there have been several hundred plans for Holocaust memo-
rial sites all over Germany (Huyssen, 2003), the most famous of
them being Berlins Holocaust Memorial (Fig. 11). Its construction
began in 2002 in a large empty space on the western edge of the
historical district and the east side of the large city park, Tiergarten.
The location is in the residential district of Berlin Mitte in the for-
mer East, between the Reichstag and Potsdamer Platz, south of the
new American Embassy and just next to Brandenburg gate. Berlins
Holocaust Memorial construction was nished in 2005. Designed
by American architect Peter Eisenman, this eld of 2700 concrete
stelae of different heights (from about one and one-half feet to
about ten feet tall) is set up in a grid pattern on a 19,000 square
meter plot. The memorial is open to the public day and night
and consists of two parts, an underground informational center
and grid patterned concrete stelae (Glazer & Mark, 1987). It at-
tracts around 10,000 visitors per day and has thus turned into an
important tourist sight in Berlin (Richter, 2010). If it had been lo-
cated on a less sensitive site the effect would have been softened.
By being located so close to the Reichstag, it became a silent remin-
der of the past and events better not forgotten (Jodidio, 2005). The
information center was designed by Dagmar von Wilcken. The
space contains a Room of Names with Yad Vashems database of
all known names of Jews murdered in the Holocaust, a Room of
Fates with photographic stories and a Room of Sites. Being at this
location with no formal place of entrance or exit, visitors are in-
vited to nd their own way in and out of the eld, which may
evoke rethinking of the past.
Another example of Berlin memorials is the Jewish Museum
designed by Daniel Libeskind, a museum dedicated to the history
of Berlin Jews located in the vicinity of Potsdamer Platz. The mod-
16 B. Arandelovic, D. Bogunovich / Cities 37 (2014) 126

Fig. 29. The commemorative site is located at Bernauer Strae. The steel installation is raised in a body of 7-m tall walls which spread to a length of 70 m and follow the path
where the Wall used to be. Source: Arandelovic (2012).

ern silver building of the museum, organized around three inter-
secting axes and ve spatial voids, was opened to the public in
1999, and at that time was merely a building without exhibitions.
The unusual building with angular walls and an irregular shape
immediately gained the attention of visitors. In spite of its de-
nition as a museum, the architects intention is that, in its sym-
bolic centre, the building remains empty. The building
represents in architectural form the architects message about
the irreparable absence of murdered human beings and their cul-
ture (Sewing, 2004). In order to enter, visitors must rst go
through the old Berlin museum, located in a yellow 18th century
baroque building, the last standing structure of its time. The three
intersecting axes symbolize the axis of exile, the Holocaust axis
and the axis of continuity. According to Karen Till the Jewish
Museum is created of voids and voided voids, empty spaces that
can be seen but not physically accessed (Till, 2005) (see Fig. 28
and 29).
Federal government complex
After unication, the land north of the Reichstag was planned
for a new government complex. A whole series of plans was made
for this location through the rst part of the 20th century, such as a
government complex plan similar to the Federal Triangle in Wash-
 B. Arandelovic, D. Bogunovich / Cities 37 (2014) 126 17

Fig. 30. Wrapped Reichstag by Christo and Jeanne-Claude in Berlin 1995. Source: Wolfgang Volz; Fig. 22.

Fig. 31. The Reichstag today. Source: Arandelovic.

ington. The Reichstag building is now the epicenter for a new gov-
ernment complex, designed by the architects Axel Schultes and
Charlotte Frank from 1997 to 2000 (Whyte, 2007). Their task was
to reconstruct the whole area around the meander of the Spree,
previously destroyed during WWII. This complex includes the Fed-
eral Chancellery, a monumental Federal building that contains the
Chancellor and state Ministers ofces as well as conference and
cabinet rooms. The Paul Lbe building and Marie Elisabeth Lders
building (right across the river) host the ofces for parliamentari-
ans. Two pedestrian bridges over the river Spree connect these two
buildings, both situated alongside the river.
The symbol of German reunication, the Reichstag, left dome-
less after the re in 1933, was renovated in 1971 by architect
Weingarten after being heavily damaged in World War II. The most
recent renovation was by Norman Foster and Partners after they
won the second stage of a competition for the Reichstag recon-
struction in 1992 (Fig. 31). The main attraction of the recon-
structed Reichstag is a glass cupola, a physical source of daylight
18 B. Arandelovic, D. Bogunovich / Cities 37 (2014) 126

Fig. 32. Paul Lbe building. Source: Arandelovic.

Fig. 33. The Reichstag cupola, inside view. Source: Arandelovic.

to the building interior. With the opening of the glass dome, people
could look down at their elected representatives. The aim was to
show a modern and transparent Germany. Tourists are allowed
and welcome to enter the building and to take a lift up to the roof
terrace and glass dome. The Reichstag building is, with three mil-
lion visitors per year, one of the most popular tourist sites in Berlin
with about 30% of its area available to tourists (Richter, 2010).
The veiling of the Reichstag by artists Christo and Jeanne-
Claude happened in 1995 (Fig. 30). They covered the entire Reich-
stag with 100,000 square meters of silver polypropylene fabric for
fourteen days. Being temporarily invisible, this event raised a city
above usual cares and had transported it to another plane (Biswas
& Kumar, 2000). Andreas Huyssen described it as serenely and at
times uncannily beautiful and noticed that the public discussions
about the history and meaning of the Reichstag were never more
intense than during the debates in parliament and in the public
about the quality of Christos project (Huyssen, 2003). At that mo-
ment, the Reichstag was more visible than ever (see Figs. 3237).
Demography
Today, Berlin is the capital city of Germany, and with approxi-
mately 3.4 million inhabitants (40% of Berlins population is youn-
ger than 35 years, many of whom are newcomers) and 892 km2, it
is the largest city in Germany. Berlin is a very dynamic city. Figures
from the Berlin-Brandenburg Statistical Ofce show us that
147,769 people moved to Berlin in 2010 while at the same time
130,951 moved away. Young people make the majority of new-
comers and in 2010 as many as 68% of all the new arrivals in that
year were people younger than 33.
The 23 former districts of Berlin merged into 12 in the year
2000. According to the Senate Department for Urban Development
and the Environment statistical base from 2012, Berlins entire ur-
ban area population density is 37 p/ha, while in the city center,
within the Inner Rapid-Railway Circle (S-Bahn), the density is
111.5 p/ha (the inner city districts Tiergarten, Wedding, Mitte,
Prenzlauer Berg and Kreuzberg/Friedrichshain had their greatest
 B. Arandelovic, D. Bogunovich / Cities 37 (2014) 126 19

Fig. 34. The Reichstag cupola, outside view. Source: Arandelovic.

Fig. 35. Chancellery building and Eduardo Chillidas sculpture, Berlin. Source: Arandelovic.

population density in 1910 of 312 p/ha in 1910). According to the
City Mayor Statistics table rank from 2007, Berlin (with 3759 peo-
ple per square kilometer) is denser than New York (2050 people
per square kilometer) and Chicago (1500 people per square kilo-
meter) (see Fig. 38).
Migration to Berlin
A few districts in the Western part of Berlin have a high level of
immigrant inhabitants. Kreuzberg, for example, has more than
34%, while the percentage of immigrants in all Eastern districts re-
mains low, with no more than 5.7% (OECD, 2003). Around 13% of
Berlins population is made up of foreigners, which is approxi-
mately 458,000 people (Statistic, 2010). Foreigners made up 15%
of the overall population in West Berlin in 1989, while at the same
time the percentage of foreigners was only 1.6 in East Berlin. After
reunication, foreigners affected both city parts and accounted for
9.9% of the total population of the reunited city in 1991. The num-
ber of foreigners rose in 2004, reaching 13.4% of Berlins
population.
The Turkish community, as the largest foreign community in
the city, has affected Berlins urban structure to a great extent.
Mass immigration dates back to the 1960s with the arrival of guest
workers (Gastarbeiter) mainly to West Berlin, predominantly from
Turkey and the former Yugoslavia (by the end of the 1970s the pro-
portion of foreigners had risen from 1% in 1960 to 9%). Those immi-
grants were concentrated predominately in old working class
districts planned for urban renewal. German inhabitants had al-
ready moved to other residential city districts and many of these
tenements were standing empty. The decision of the city
20 B. Arandelovic, D. Bogunovich / Cities 37 (2014) 126

Fig. 36. View from Norman Fosters glass dome at the Reichstag towards the Berlin Mitte district. Source: Arandelovic.

Fig. 37. The new Parliamentary and Government Quarter development areas integrated into the historical city. Source: Photo Falcon Crest GmbH, DSK Deutsche Stadt- und
Grundstcksentwicklungsgesellschaft 2006 (Senat for Urban Develpment).

government was to house new immigrants in those districts. Thus, Tourism

the city districts of Kreuzberg and Wedding were the rst to be-
come predominantly inhabited by foreigners. These ethnic districts
have remained their home and are home also to the second gener-
ations and to new immigrants as a result of good ethnic networks.
Also, a change in urban renewal policy planned for these districts
contributed this process. Plans for demolition were predominantly
stopped, and the process of renewing and maintaining existing old
tenements began without relocating their sitting inhabitants or
guest workers (Gastarbeiter). Also, after reunication and changes
in the housing market in Berlin, non-German inhabitants had a
chance to move into areas with increasing numbers of vacant
and cheap apartments. The consequence of this process is the
creation of new foreign neighborhoods in Berlin with 3555% of
foreign inhabitants (for example in Reuterkiez, Britz or
Rudow neighborhoods in the Neuklln district) (Neill & Schwedler,
2006).
Berlin is the most visited tourist destination in Germany and
has reached the top three most visited places in Europe, after Paris
and London. Berlin has the international reputation of being a con-
ference and trade fair center, and now, the east part of the town is
experiencing a boom regarding its newly built hotel capacities. In
2008, for the rst time, 8 million arrivals and 18 million overnight
stays were registered, meaning that the number of tourists arriving
in Berlin has more than doubled in the last 10 years (Richter, 2010).
With approximately 20.8 million overnight stays as well as 9.1 mil-
lion guests, the city has broken its own record. Statistics show 9.5%
more arrivals of guests and 10.2 % more overnights than in 2009
(Statistic, 2010). Even more recently, the Berlin-Brandenburg Sta-
tistics Ofce reported that tourists spent 2,432,428 nights in Berlin
during October 2012, which is an increase of 8.5% for the same
month in 2011 (www.visit.berlin.de).
 B. Arandelovic, D. Bogunovich / Cities 37 (2014) 126
Fig. 38. Map of Berlin Population density (2012 edition). Data base: Urban and Environmental Information System (UEIS) Berlin Department for Urban Development and the
Environment.
Socio-economic conditions
By the end of the 50s the big companies had left Berlin for safer
investments in other cities. Consequently, both East and West Ber-
lin were subsidized to a great extent during the 40 years of Cold
War division, since they had become a geopolitical playground
where each side aimed to showcase its own cultural progress
and development. For that reason shopping districts, alternative
scenes and cultural institutions were subsidized, though eventu-
ally, these subsidies were greatly reduced. Prior to unication, Ber-
lin was isolated from major global economic structural changes,
but after the Wall came down the effects of the economic situation
were felt. East Berlin rms were not competitive enough for na-
tional and international markets due to their out-dated technolo-
gies. Parallel to this, most of West Berlins rms were no longer
competitive either, experiencing recession since then. Both parts
of the city have been hard hit by job losses.
Economic restructuring since the unication has resulted in
200,000 workers from East Berlin and the area surrounding Bran-
denburg commuting to jobs in the west of the city. By 1997 Berlins
unemployment rate came to over 17 %, which is one of the highest
in Germany and much higher than the national average. Between
1989 and 1997 the manufacturing core fell 41.2 % and one in
twelve citizens received some kind of social help in 1997. Since
the 1990s, more than 250,000 jobs have been lost, despite high
post-unication expectations concerning Berlins economic
growth. In reality, it has been much below the national average.
Looking at the period between 1991 and 1999, the German GDP
grew by 11.7 % while in Berlin, growth was only 6.4 %. Berlins total
21
GDP in 2001 was only 3.7 % (72.7 million Euros) of the German na-
tional gure (Strom, 2001). Hundreds of billions of dollars have
been spent on the citys reconstruction since the 1990s. For more
than two thousand building sites in 1994, $ 25 billion was spent
on construction investments (Till, 2005).
Karen Till writes about post-unication economic development
strategy and explains how city ofcials had to create an economy
from scratch by using marketing and planning tools outside usual
public sector channels to encourage private investments. The aim
was to attract high level commercial investors who, in particular,
build corporate high rise centers (mostly ofce spaces but also lux-
ury apartments, shopping and entertainment districts). City plan-
ners and marketing experts played an important role in the
process of reconstruction after unication (Till, 2005). The unem-
ployment rate escalated from 10% in 1991 to almost 19% in 2003,
while the number of inhabitants depending on public social assis-
tance almost doubled during the 90s (Krtke, 2004).
The situation in Berlin has changed in the last few years. Today,
Berlin still has a high level of debt (more than 60 billion euros) and
an annual prot and spending of more than 20 billion euros.
According to Berlins Senate Department for Finance, Berlin is
heading towards a balanced budget through ambitious spending
cuts. The citys nancing decit plan has declined from 2.7 billion
Euros in 2011 to 300 million Euros in 2015. Also, in 2011 the citys
municipalities (all together) managed to accomplish a surplus of
19.3 million Euros (Senate Department for Finance).
Figures from the Federal Employment Agency show that Berlins
gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 15.3% in 2011 compared to
2005, which is stronger than in Germany as a whole (9%). Berlins
22 B. Arandelovic, D. Bogunovich / Cities 37 (2014) 126
Fig. 39. An example of old-new fusion in Mitte is a ve-storey building of Koch
Oberhuber Wolff Gallery in Brunnenstrae, built in 2009 (this area of Bru-
nnenstrae was the rst area to be reconstructed after the Wall came down).
Source: Arandelovic.
GDP was long down after the fall of the Wall but in the last few
years Berlin has constantly been among the regions with the high-
est growth rates in the country. There was also a 13.5% increase in
new jobs in Berlin for the period from 2005 to 2011, higher again
than in Germany as a whole (8.55%). According to the Berlin-Bran-
denburg Statistics Ofce, Berlin export grew in 2011 by 5.8% com-
pared with previous years. Berlins industrial sector is going
through a period of big structural changes which have brought IT
and creative industries into a leading position. Thanks to the
beBerlin city marketing campaign which has the aim of promoting
the city as an investment location, Berlin has had more new busi-
ness start-ups than any other German state in the last few years.
Also, the unemployment rate in Berlin is correspondingly falling
(Berlin-Brandenburg Statistic Ofce, 2012).
Creative City Berlin
UNESCO awarded Berlin with the title City of Design in 2006.
With this Berlin was the rst and until 2011, when Graz joined
the network, the only European city with this status. One of the
benets of being a UNESCO City of Design is the creation of an
identiable visual identity in the world (Arandelovic, 2012). The
concept of a city of talents and a Creative City is related to Richard
Floridas work on The Rise of the Creative Class (Florida, 2002).
Recent economic restructuring in Western Europe and North
America shows the tendency that creative industries have the po-
tential to become an important basis for a prosperous urban
Fig. 40. Ohne Titel art work at Checkpoint Charlie by Frank Thiel. Checkpoint Charlie
was the best known border-crossing in the divided city and it served as the main
entrance as well as the departure point to East Berlin for non-Germans, diplomats
and journalists who were allowed to enter the Eastern part on a day visa. On one
side of the box is an American soldier and on the other a Russian, symbolizing the
borderline and historical place of separation. Source: Arandelovic.
economy. The notion of creative industries applies to people en-
gaged in science and research, design, visual arts, media, engineer-
ing, various cultural productions or the music industry, thus
making a force with great potential, especially in cities suffering
from a fall of their traditional industrial base, such as Berlin
(Krtke, 2004).
The creative industries sector plays a signicant role in Berlin
today with around 30,000 companies and a staff of over 220,000
people, making 10% of Berlins working population and bringing
an annual prot of around 20 billion Euros. Figures from Business
Location Berlin show that Media and IT clusters have around
17,000 companies with over 170,000 staff (Rosenthaler Platz in
Berlin Mitte district has become the center of IT start-ups over
the past years). One-fth of the existing 3400 advertising and PR
agencies were founded after 2000 and more than 8000 companies
that are practicing in the domain of design, architecture and adver-
tising create an annual prot of 1.6 billion Euros. Berlin has become
an important center of the music scene in recent years and home to
Universal Music Germany, Sony Classics and Sony Music Entertain-
ment, EMI and others. Around 2100 companies with more than
16,000 staff bring an annual prot of almost 700 million Euros.
In 2007, the Berlin State Investment Bank established a capital
fund for the creative industries, VC Fonds Kreativwirtschaft Berlin.
Recent developments of start-ups in the web and social media have
placed Berlin in some of the leading positions in Germany. Since
2004 Berlin has become attractive to the young IT creative scene
and in 2005 an initial master plan for an IT Location Strategy in
Berlin was made. Today it has about 12 technology parks and 29
start-up centers (according to Location Strategy Berlin the software
industry estimates around 3600 companies with approximately
27,000 employees). Google, eBay and the Wikimedia Foundation
 B. Arandelovic, D. Bogunovich / Cities 37 (2014) 126
Fig. 41. Today, this wide open space at Tempelhof is used as an urban park, with a playground and picnic areas. Source: Arandelovic (2012).
have opened ofces in Berlin in the last few years (Business Loca-
tion Berlin).
Berlin has emerged as a famous pull for younger generations.
Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg took a leading position among artists
as new centers of Berlins creative industries in the early 1990s.
The reason why they went to Mitte was its optimistic spirit where
everything was possible. The whole squatting movement and the
alternative scene moved there, at the place where east met west.
Prenzlauer Berg had the same spirit and that is the reason why this
process happened there spontaneously. There is a huge ow of
international creative entrepreneurs coming to Berlin, especially
from Europe, other parts of Germany and North America. Numer-
ous independent creative initiatives emerged after the fall of the
Wall, some of which were small independent theatres, different
informal artistic groups or various art workshops. This was possi-
ble thanks to affordable living and workings costs rarely found
elsewhere. In this way, the alternative art scene emerged and many
empty spaces were restored into creative studios.
Today, Berlin has the title of European art center and has Eur-
opes largest gallery concentration, with more than 500 galleries.
Figures from Business Location Berlin show that around 2000 exhi-
bitions take place in one year on over 50,000 square meters of gal-
lery space, and about 12% of all design studios in Germany are
registered in Berlin. The artists social security fund (Knstlersoz-
ialkasse) gives its services to more than 6100 Berlin based artists
(Doreen, 2009: 87). According to the 2008 cultural economic report
(Kulturwirtschaftsbericht), 20,000 artists live in Berlin (see Figs. 39
and 40).
Current development
Berlin is characterized by a considerable growth in importance
during the last 10 years. Recent reports on Berlins media industry
recorded a particularly pronounced growth in the subsector of
multimedia rms and in the music industry. As a result of this
growth dynamic, which has been accompanied by the relocation
of leading companies of the music industry like Universal Music
23
to Berlin, the city is now frequently labeled as the music capital
of Germany. The multimedia rms, for example, display most obvi-
ous local concentrations in the East Berlin city center, which ex-
tend to the inner-urban district of Prenzlauer Berg. Within the
East-City, multimedia rms are particularly clustered in Chaus-
see-Street, which in Berlin has acquired the name Silicon Alley.
A similar pattern of spatial organization is visible in the inner-ur-
ban local clusters of the music industry. The strong growth of Ber-
lins culture and media industry cluster is related to the fact that
within the German urban system Berlin has regained its position
as a prime location for the creative class in terms of Floridas con-
cept (2002). This particular locational factor attracts the music
industry as well as other branches of cultural production and the
media industry. Furthermore, this attraction power also applies
to a whole range of knowledge-intensive industrial activities (like
the software industry, the life sciences sector, etc.) which rely on
creativity in terms of technologically innovative capacity Florida
(2002: 7). In Berlin, the creative class seeks out locations in the
sub-culturally shaped districts that offer the best opportunities
and places to meet other creative people; these are also the dis-
tricts that members of the creative class use as an extended stage
for self-portrayal in their leisure time. While Berlin is still not an
economic center with global control capacities, it is a rst-rank
global media city. Thus, we might say that in this particular subsec-
tor of the economy Berlin can be placed among the leading centers,
and its economic development policy can build on this strength
(Senate Department for Economics, Technology and Research).
Over the past few years, much of the debate in the city has been
related to the problem of rising rents. Figures from DIW (DIW Ger-
man Institute for Economic Research) show an increase in at rent
from January 2007 to September 2012 of 72.5% with an annual
average of 9.9%. The strong price increase can be in part explained
by the relatively low start for such a metropolis. Also, there was
stagnation of prices for a long time. This trend of rise is expected
to continue in the future. In central Berlin areas, rent prices are
projected to catch up to the levels of some of the most expensive
German cities like Munich and Hamburg (at the end of 2011 rents
24 B. Arandelovic, D. Bogunovich / Cities 37 (2014) 126

Fig. 42. Mediaspree-Panorama. View for the bridge Oberbaumbrcke. From left Universal Music Germany, NH Hotel, MTV Central Europe, Labels buildings and Molecule Man
sculpture. Source: Arandelovic (2012).

Fig. 43. Molecule man with Oberbaumbrcke and Television Tower (Fernsehturm) in the background. Source: Arandelovic (2012).

in Berlin reached an average of around 7.00 euros per square me-
ter, while in Munich they were 12.30, and 10.90 euros in Hamburg)
Kholodilin and Mense (2012).
Tempelhof aireld
The city center reconstruction has not been completed yet. The
design of the large complex on the waterfront of the river Spree in
the east part of the city is still the subject of controversy. Today,
there are new urban challenges in the city. One of them is the
former airport, the open space at Berlins Tempelhof airport
(Fig. 41). Tempelhof airport was built during the National Socialist
period and was where Western ights landed during the Berlin Air-
lift in 194849. It was closed a few years ago, leaving an open
space of over 300 ha, which has been open to the public since
spring 2008 and used as an urban park and picnic area. The City
of Berlin bought this land in 2009 with a plan to integrate it into
the city structure as an inner city district. Currently, the Grn
Berlin organization is responsible for handling events there (Open
Space for the City of Future www.tempelhoferfreiheit.de).
 B. Arandelovic, D. Bogunovich / Cities 37 (2014) 126
Fig. 44. Badeschiff. Source: Arandelovic (left); Hettlage (2004) (right).
Berlin Brandenburg airport
The discussion about a convenient airport for the new capital of
Berlin started just after reunication. The accepted conclusion was
that Berlin needed a modern airport and as a result, planning for
the new Berlin-Brandenburg airport started in 1996 and construc-
tion in 2006. The opening was planned for 2011 (it was originally
meant to open much earlier), but due to frequent delays has been
postponed as it is still not functional. Berlin had three small air-
ports: the Tempelhof (which is now closed), Tegel, which is used
today as the main city airport until the new Berlin-Brandenburg
opens and which served as the airport for the three western Allies
in West Berlin and Schnefeld in the eastern part of the city which
served as the airport for East Berlin. The location of the new Berlin-
Brandenburg airport is in the Schnefeld district, just south of
Schnefeld airport. The new Berlin-Brandenburg airport has been
built for a capacity of around 27 million passengers per year.
Media Spree (Berlin Harbor City)
Starting as a private sector marketing company in 2002, Media
Spree, located in the industrial areas of Friedrichshain, was trans-
formed in 2005 into the non-prot company Media Spree Region-
almanagement. Media Spree now represents 19 large estate
companies and property owners, including local and federal gov-
ernment owned companies. The old industrial areas of Friedrichsh-
ain were handed to a large investor who renovated them and then
let them to high-prot creative and service companies. An example
of this is the Osthafen warehouse on the east harbor on the Spree
river front in southern Friedrichshain that today hosts the Univer-
sal Music German headquarters, and has done so since 2002. Both
25
Universal Music and MTV Networks Germany are largely subsi-
dized by the Berlin government. Another example is Oberbaum
City, also a part of Media Spree, a former large light bulb factory
built during the Industrial Revolution in the 1920s. This complex
now features ve individual buildings, rented mainly to service
companies, with a total of 83,000 square meters of reconstructed
usable space. The BASF Shared Service Center set up ofce there
in August 2005 (Shaw & Porter, 2009).
The Media Spree development project includes all the buildings
mentioned here. This project is an area 3.7 km long, covering
180 ha, reaching both sides of the Spree River from Jannowitzbrcke
to Elsenbrcke. This area stretches along Friedrichshain/Kreuzberg
and Mitte city districts. Indeed, the waterfront development project
is eight times larger than Potsdamer Platz and is considered to be the
largest urban development project since reunication. With this, the
city center is going even more eastwards. Also part of the Media
Spree complex are the O2 World multifunctional arena opened in
2008, the Panorama bar/Berghain, Watergate, Fritzclub im Post-
bahnhof and the Radialsystem (Doreen, 2009). There are big devel-
opment plans for the future of this area.
However, the Media Spree development has created big pro-
tests among the public, not only because of the dislocation of
non-prot usage in favor of extremely commercial businesses,
but also due to the privatization of public space at the riverfront.
The citizens initiative Media Spree Versenken, was founded and
started collecting signatures in 2007 in order to stop further com-
mercial businesses development. They demand a wider public riv-
er front of 50 m with no new skyscrapers and a car ban for the
planned new bridge.
Time will reveal what the future decisions of the city govern-
ment will bring into this historic area (see Figs. 42 and 43).
26 B. Arandelovic, D. Bogunovich / Cities 37 (2014) 126
Bathing Ship (Badeschiff)
One of the modern projects in Berlin is Badeschiff (Bathing Ship)
by Susanne Lorenz, a 32  9 m oating platform located on the riv-
er Spree at the very center of the Media Spree development on the
border between the two Berlin districts of Treptow and Kreuzberg
(Fig. 44). It was opened in the summer of 2004 with the intention
of animating the abandoned area along the river Spree shore. This
new swimming pool with a water depth of 2 m is one of the land-
marks of this part of Berlin. It is often visited by young people in
the summer period while in winter it is covered and operates as
a wellness center (Hettlage, 2004).
Conclusion
Berlin is many cities. Berlin is, among other things, many types
of architecture (Schultes, 1995). Berlin is denitely not a complete
city yet. Since the fall of the Wall, Berlin has seemed like a huge
architectural exhibition, with things changing very fast. According
to Paul Goldberger, unlike every other great metropolis in the
world, its future form is uncertain. London is London, Rome is
Rome, Tokyo is Tokyo, but Berlin is a question mark. The New Ber-
lin, whatever form it takes, is still far from being realized. The city
has lost, not gained, jobs since the wall came down. With the sput-
tering economy, real-estate developers have few tenants for their
fancy new buildings (Goldberger, 1995). Berlin is rich in space.
Even now, 20 years after the fall of the Wall and after the golden
years of urban development, there are still empty places to be used,
redeveloped and made functional. For Andreas Huyssen the major
concern with developing and rebuilding key sites in the heart of
Berlin seems to be image rather than usage, attractiveness for tour-
ists and ofcial visitors rather than heterogeneous living space for
Berlins inhabitants, erasure of memory rather than its imaginative
preservation. (Huyssen, 2003). According to Alex Schultes, the de-
bate about stone versus glass, solidity versus high-tech, and aridity
versus delight in invention draws attention away from the real lack
of planning in Berlin and from constructive criticism (Schultes,
1995). For Sabine Eckmann the permanent state of being in the
making creates on the one hand, states of uncertainty and vacancy
and, on the other, endless possibilities (Eckmann, 2007).
Today Berlin is ranked as the fourth world city in terms of its
political power after Washington DC, Beijing and Brussels accord-
ing to the Global Cities Survey (2013). Figures from DIW show that
in the last few years its GDP growth has been higher than in any
other German city. Yet, it still has a level of unemployment almost
twice the national average (14.1%) and is still the only capital in
Europe poorer that the country itself. Berlin has a big chance as
the city of talents with huge potential for becoming the regional
leader in the eld of new technologies, culture and media indus-
tries. However, Berlins potential in science, research in new tech-
nologies as well as in the eld of culture, art and media, need to be
preserved and carefully monitored if such a development path is
the citys vision. Berlin needs to dene its role for the future. Berlin
is an ever changing city and at this moment, it is hard to predict its
future. To know the future of Berlin is a pure illusion.
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