Berlin Logs July 2015

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2 Berlin Logs JULY CONTENTS 04 06 08 What’s New: Festival season, Wassermusik & more The Venturous Vegetarian: Ethical Eating in Berlin Column: The Case for Späti Drinking 16 18 20 Feature: One Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Treasure Discover Jyoti - A Berlin Start Up With a Fashion Conscience Paving the Way for Free and Democratic Schools T 09 Cultural Calendar: Your July Guide to Art and Culture 23 Tempelhof Airport: A Grand Berlin Tradition 12 A Risen Star: Gustavo Dudamel Conducts Berliner Philharmoniker 28 Liquid Lunch: Berlin Smoothie Bars 14 Interview with Minna Partanen, Front of House ET Berlin 30 Summer in the City: Guide to Berlin Lakes Team A Word Managing Editor: Daniyal Waseem Senior Editor: Linda O’Grady Editors: Conor O’Rourke Sarah Coughlan Art Editor: Hazel Rowland Office Manager: Karmijn Simons Berlin Logs. Habsburger Str 10, 10781. Berlin + 49 (0)30 982 942 02 info@berlinlogs.com www.berlinlogs.com Moving to Berlin can be an intimidating experience. Many of us arriving here have little grasp of the language, nowhere to live and no job. Such is the pull of Berlin that despite this, every year more and more people flood the city, eager to be part of Europe’s cultural capital. This issue deals with finding your feet in Berlin; learning the nuances of life here and building your own place among the multicultural milieu. For some that means finding a way to cling on to your vegetarianism in a city that loves meat (page 6), for others it’s a matter of understanding the grey economy at work on the Flaschenpfand and what that means for a modern European city (page 16). For others still, its about finding expressions of your own culture in your adopted country (page 10). Thriving here is a matter of carving out your own space, be it at the lake (page 30), at the theatre (page 14) or at a Späti (page 8). Willkommen in Berlin Logs. The Berlin Logs Team
Berlin Logs 3 What Should We Make Of The Rent Cap? By Sarah Coughlan There was much to celebrate for Berliners this month with the announcement that the local government has confirmed that housing in the city will be fully rent controlled. Although previously landlords were prevented from raising rents on old contracts more than 10% above market rates, this ruling means that this condition will now also be applied to new contracts. This is likely to prove hugely popular with the city’s long term residents, many of whom have been forced to remain in their rent controlled flats regardless of their changing circumstances. As of today, old contracts coming on to the market will be subject to rent controls, something the council hope will go some way to controlling rental prices in town. In a city which has seen the average per/m2 cost of renting go from €5.50 in 2005 to closer to €9 today, there is no doubt that Berliners are starting to struggle with rising rents. The ruling, which comes into force immediately, seeks to rebalance things in favour of the city’s renters who make up nearly 85% of all residents, as compared with 50% in London. In an effort to offset the effects of more than a decade of gentrification that has seen the city transformed, for better and for worse, the rent cap is a positive move for locals and newcomers to the city alike. But for whom is the ruling better news, the newbies or the natives? In the past two years the average rent in Berlin has increased 7.9% but this figure masks some of the sharpest increases which has meant that some areas are increasingly unaffordable (think Prenzlauerberg and Kreuzberg) for the majority of the city’s low and medium-income residents and are pushing locals out toward Wedding, Reinickendorf and Lichtenberg. This pressure on average-income residents to move out of the city centre was something that was one of the first indicators of a housing crisis for locals in London and Paris, and Berlin’s government has proved itself to be responsive to the needs of its residents with a desire to distinguish Berlin from other European big cities by putting renters first. In this way, both natives and newcomers will benefit from the ruling. But the rent cap raises other big questions: who is this for, what does this mean for the future of the city and will it slow the rising tide of gentrification? The short answer is no one knows: this is the first experiment of its kind in a Western European city, and, of course, Berlin is a special case. Insofar as there’s an undeniable shift towards relatively high rents, this looks set to stem the rising rent problem for now. But for many native Berliners, the reality is that the days of truly cheap rents looks to be finished, and in their place, affordable rents for foreigners looks set to continue. This, taken with the extreme housing problems in other European capitals (as well as places like Munich and Hamburg) means that in all likelihood Berlin’s march towards total gentrification looks set to continue, albeit at a slower pace – people just keep coming to Berlin. So the rent cap is very good news for newcomers, but little consolation to those already priced out of their local areas or stuck in flats that no longer fit their circumstances. Hence, in lieu of a commitment to building more, widely available, social housing, with rent controls and protection from privatisation, the comfort of the rent cap can only reach so far. For a real, implementable solution, a maximum price per-square-metre based around the mietspiegel (average price per-square-metre) offers an alternative that doesn’t require yet another expensive and inevitably over-budget building plan. And here we might finally have found something to redress the balance in favour of Berlin’s locals and hold back the gentrification of the city, at least for now.
Page 1: OUR GUIDE: BERLIN’S LAKES GENTRIF
Page 5 and 6: Berlin Logs 5 THE READER FORT GORGA
Page 7 and 8: Berlin Logs 7 “On all fronts my l
Page 9 and 10: Art & Culture 9 CULTURAL CALENDAR H
Page 11 and 12: Art & Culture 11 supporting are per
Page 13 and 14: Art & Culture 13 A RISEN STAR From
Page 15 and 16: PHOTO by Dominic Packulat Art & Cul
Page 17 and 18: 17 PHOTO: dpa translates. Just as b
Page 19 and 20: Startup 19 chain and its race to th
Page 21 and 22: Social 21 I went to Ting Schule, a
Page 23 and 24: Berlin Logs 23 TEMPELHOF AIRPORT: A
Page 25 and 26: Night Life 25 Like many Berlin club
Page 27 and 28: Night Life 27 CHAGALL: UNCONSCIOUSL
Page 29 and 30: Food 29 The Juicery - Eberswalder S
Page 31 and 32: Tips 31 and quiet, and on a sunny w

Berlin Logs July 2015

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