Berlin Case Study - Cities Institute

As a cultural tourism destination, Berlin is rich in arts,
heritage and entertainment with its museum island,
17 national museums, 300 galleries (200 private), the
Bauhaus Archive, 150 theatres, three opera houses,
eight orchestras, and the 76,000 seat Olympic
stadium completed for the 2006 World Cup.
The number of day-trippers also increased from 2003
to 2004 by 64%. From a total of 123 million day-trippers
in 2004, 25.6 million were business travellers (Berlin
Tourist Board, in Berlin Partners, 10/2005). According
to a report from the International Congress and
Convention Association (ICCA) and the Vienna Tourist
Office, Berlin is the world’s fourth most popular
city for congresses and trade fairs, after Singapore,
Barcelona, and Vienna (Berlin Partners, 07–08/2005).
The German capital already tops the league table
of venues for medical conferences. In May 2005 the
city hosted the biggest ever Metropolis Congress,
including city mayors and five hundred guests from
80 cities around the world (Berlin Partners, 6/2008).
Further international events, fairs and conferences
include the World Cup in 2006, annual ECHO
CEREMONYS, IFA, POPKOMM 1 , Buch! (Book Fair)
Berlin, WOMEX Music Fair, ITB Tourism Fair, and an
international design festival now in its third year,
Design Mai (see below), and fashion fairs such as:
Bread & Butter, Premium and Spirit of Fashion. The
10 day Berlinale is one of the most prestigious film
festivals, with 40 screens in 13 cinemas and with
over 13,000 seats, attracting nearly 400,000 ticket
buyers in 2005 (tickets cost €7 to €11). In 2006 this
will incorporate the 3rd Turkish Films Week (Turkish
language films with German subtitles). The first
Art Biennale held in 1998/9 attracted over 80,000
visitors, now several times that number attend;
Berlin also hosts the annual Transmediale festival
for art and digital culture, now in its 19th year.
The Berlin Fashion Week held in late-January
attracted over 60,000 visitors in 2006. In 2009 Berlin
will host the World Athletics Championships, the
third largest sporting event after the Olympic Games.
The €30 million culture programme in the build
up to and during the 2006 World Cup has featured
football in Fashion Week and in art galleries – the
upmarket Martin Gropius-Bau gallery filled with
football shorts, videos, fan memorabilia and a
mini-pitch laid out in the main gallery. The World
Cup promotion is being used to lever a larger image
campaign, including an exhibition of 70 artists from
20 countries, a football opera, business campaigns
and worldwide football road shows, and the first
ever Olympic-style opening ceremony to the World
Cup itself.
1.6 Urban regeneration
In recent years, economic difficulties, increasing
poverty, and outward migration of the middle classes
have caused changes in the social structure of some of
Berlin’s districts, often worsened by ethnic problems.
EU Structural Funding
Berlin has been allocated €1.2 billion between 2000
and 2006 from European Structural Funds (ERDF).
The funds are managed by the Senate Department
for Economy, Labour and Women. Berlin also expects
further funding from 2007 to 2013. 70% of the
funding is used for the structural improvement of
the former eastern half of Berlin (€0.72 billion). 11.5%
of the funding is used for the economic and social
transformation of districts with structural problems
in parts of West Berlin (€ 0.4 billion), whilst 12.3%
of the funding is used for the modernization of the
education and vocational training systems and for
promoting employment parts of West Berlin (€0.19
billion).
In addition, the European Union finances Community
initiatives (small-scale support programmes) such as
URBAN II (Sen WiArbFrau, 2006) and LEONARDO (see
Appendix A – Volicity).
The URBAN II EU Community Initiative supports
run-down towns and neighbourhoods. The
current funding programme runs from 2000–2006.
The programme aims to invigorate local areas
economically and socially to enable urban development.
Funding of €20 million is provided 75% by the EU and
25% by federal and city funding.
The URBAN II location in Berlin is a 425 hectare
area around Ostkreuz, situated 5km south of the
city centre. Comprising 4 neighbourhoods in two
districts of Lichtenburg and Friedrichshain, these
include large housing estate of Frankfurter Allee-Sud
and the area around Weitlingstrasse with a mix of
pre- and post-first world war tenements. On the
Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg side is the predominantly
original nineteenth century residential area
1 Echo rivals the Brit Awards as the music industry’s second most important accolade after the Grammy;
IFA – is the trade fair for experts in the European and international consumer electronics industry as well
as increasingly the IT and telecoms sector; POPKOMM – international business and communication platform
for music and entertainment industries.
Berlin Case Study/part one
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