EXBERLINER Issue 164, October 2017

CHARLOTTENBURG
GENTRIFICATION
SAVING THE LAST CHEAP
RENTS IN THE WEST
The district everyone associates with Ku’damm bling and Savignyplatz bohème
is also home to some of Berlin’s most affordable working-class neighbourhoods...
but perhaps not for long. Franziska Helms talked to the Charlottenburgers who
are fighting big money to stay in their Kiez. Photos by German Palomeque
Just south of Charlottenburg’s
opulent Schloss is Klausenerplatz,
a leafy green square surrounded by
streets lined with typical Berliner
Altbau. There are small bakeries, cafés, fruit
stalls, an Asian supermarket, charity shops,
hairdressers, kindergartens, a school and
community institutions such as the Stadtteilzentrum,
a multi-generation house offering
free language classes and homework support
for kids. But don’t trust these idyllic first
impressions – there is a war going on.
The neighbourhood around Klausenerplatz,
along with that around Mierendorffplatz
to the northeast of the palace, was
built as a residential quarter for workers
and lower-level public servants in the late
19th to early 20th century. Until recently,
students, pensioners and families with
lower to medium incomes could still afford
to live there, with rents as low as €6.10 per
square metre. But those days might be soon
over: In the course of the past five years,
the average rent in Charlottenburg has
gone up by 27.6 percent and keeps rising.
On a walk through his neighbourhood, Martin
Hoffmann points out where gentrification
has hit so far. “That house has been bought by
a Swedish corporation named Arkelius. There
used to be a small shop in there, a carpenter’s,
but they kicked him out,” says the 67-year-old
pensioner turned local activist and blogger,
indicating an immaculately whitewashed
building in Nehringstraße. For now, the
downstairs commercial space is empty, its
brand-new shutters closed. Just around the
corner, in Danckelmannstraße, there is a shop
selling African arts and crafts. “They have
been given notice as well. On the other hand,
there is a new shop for children’s clothing
that sells ridiculously overpriced jackets.”
Social and cultural projects haven’t been
exempt, either – like the K19 Künstlerfabrik, a
former factory which used to hold a community
theatre before being converted into shiny
condos. “The city used to own the building,
but in 2009 they sold the entire thing to a
private investor for €300,000. Now it’s on the
market for well over a million. What a complete
waste!” Hoffmann worries that increasing
rents will also affect the multicultural
aspect of the neighbourhood. He explains
people can easily be intimidated by lawyer’s
jargon. “It is possible to fight landlords who
are trying to get you to leave, but it does take
a lot of resilience.”
GRASSROOTS RESISTANCE
A retired hospital administrator, Hoffmann has
been living here for a good 40 years. When he
walks down the street, he is greeted by friends
and acquaintances, families with small children
and young adults sitting in front of small cafés.
Most people know him because, at one point
or another, they needed his advice. For 15 years
he counselled tenants of city-owned housing
society Gewobag, whose tenant-unfriendly
money-making schemes have been one of his
perennial concerns. “The senate should be
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