Berlin’s wasteland
April 7, 2011Berlin’s Mitte is almost done but a short walk from Museum Island and you’ll find yourself in a wasteland once again. The land is former death strip territory that once paralleled the length of the Berlin wall. For the past 20 years builders and investors have been busy filling in the empty space left in Berlin’s city center though there are a few swathes of land that the construction cranes haven’t made it to yet. This strip features a sign assuring us that the wasteland we see now will be transformed into luxury condos by this time next year. I didn’t take a picture of the sign but I did take a picture of the dumpster sitting on the edge of the property. It looks like it has been there for a while and this isn’t any old dumpster either. This dumpster features a satellite dish on its roof and windows on the side. I took a picture because I fear that a year from now it won’t be there any more, as is the case with so many things in Berlin. This is the most unsentimental city I know of. The only constant in Berlin is the destruction of what came before. But that means there will always be something new to come.
The property was surrounded with a fence, which is why I couldn’t get any closer to the dumpster and knock to see who was inside. Perhaps I would have found the first of many condo owners staking his claim to beat the rush.
I lived as a foreigner in the DDR, and while you might be right, the magnitude of what you’re saying is rather misplaced in comparison. Honecker’s wall was evil personified.
Even the “Arm aber Sexy,” a reference West-Berliners gave themselves was the object of derision for their arrogance and self-absorption, their Schnauze: the BRD paid a fortune to keep people from leaving west-Berlin for west Germany. They were many things, but “arm” they were not. They were freer in the island than anyone in west Europe.
that is Berlin, so much gaps and breaks, in architecture, in culture… therefore more and more come to Berlin;o)