Berlin Wall to be torn down for luxury flats
Published: 26 Feb 13 12:26 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20130226-48197.html
Berliners are outraged at plans to demolish part of the world-famous East Side Gallery, the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall, to make way for luxury apartments and a pedestrian bridge across the River Spree.
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Meanwhile, several petitions circulating online demanding an end to the project have collected thousands of signatures.
"The longest remaining part of the wall on the former death strip, along with the public river bank would be completely and permanently destroyed," read one petition, placing the blame squarely on developers of luxury flats.
The East Side Gallery is a 1.3-kilometre stretch of the Wall marking the former border between East and West Berlin. Now covered in murals by artists from around the world, it is the second most popular visitor attraction in the German capital after the Brandenburg Gate.
Some estimates put the average number of visitors at 1,000 a day, while up to 10,000 people are thought to walk along the former death strip on the banks of the Spree River on sunny days in summer.
Several years ago, a 50-metre segment of the Wall was removed to provide access to a boat landing area for the o2 arena opposite, and moved so that it now stands between the water and the rest of the Wall.
Now, construction is due to begin this spring on "Living Levels," a 63-metre-high tower to be built on the narrow stretch of land between the Wall and the river bank.
Several further concrete segments will be removed to provide access to the 36 new private luxury flats, which will be sold for anything between €2,750 and €7,000 per square metre.
But, said Schulz, the segment of Wall also needs to go so that pedestrians can make use of a new bridge to be built across the river connecting East and West Berlin.
Work is expected to begin in 2015 on the new "Brommybrücke," which will connect Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain for cyclists and pedestrians. It will be built on the site of an old vehicle bridge of the same name which was destroyed by bombing in 1945.
Tearing down part of the Wall, Schulz told the paper, is the only "way to link the planned Brommy bridge over the Spree with Mühlenstraße."
Vocal protests from citizens groups against the plans to develop the Spree bank have been backed by nearby giants of the Berlin clubbing scene, including Kater Holzig, Sage Club, Watergate, Tresor and Lido.
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Your comments about this article:
Smooth, The Local. Smooth.
"Click here for The Local's property listings"
That link, in that location is beyond stupid!!
Next to non-existant.
I'm not saying that someone greased the gears in Berlin, because that would be libelous, but...
I wonder how long Berlin will survive in this mode of spiting itself?
Berlin doesn't have what the other great capitals of Europe have as a destination, for better or worse it's USP is it's war time history, the cold war history and the alternative scences that sprung up there, including the Graffiti. I really regret that I didn't get there 20 years ago, but I visited several times recently and you can still taste a little of that atmosphere.. but only just.. take away the few remaining squats and derelict sites and the interest is gone, no big reason to visit any more, there are better places to go. If I want to see crappy shiny apartment blocks there's always my next trip back to Birmingham where they made a similar mistake. And btw there are millions of sqm of empty property in Berlin which are being sat on by the government, they couldn't release all the empty property onto the market because then the prices would collapse. Berlin property is a long term managed bubble, although this is common in many cities, but be careful if you are investing.
So many tourists (regardless of rich or poor) pushing to make Berlin adjust to their comfort rather than enjoy it for what it is.
If this kind of senseless rebuilding persists, you can probably count on it being like New York, where the once artistic districts thrived with wonderful life is now nothing but a money enforced over sanitized insensitive population of rich people.
Weather people are coming here to get wasted for the weekend or shop for property, I think they need schooling on what Berlin is really about to prevent Berlin becoming like Las Vegas.