History, Architecture
Ian Roderick
Berlin's Oldest Street

Archaeologists have unearthed Berlin’s oldest street, and it is actually pretty cool. Even though it was likely built in the 13th century, the wooden planks look surprisingly fresh.

Berlin's Oldest Street
Ian Roderick
Berlin’s Mietskasernen

From the 1860s through the Second World War, Berlin was notoriously crowded, with many of its working-class residents packed into suffocating Mietskasernen (“Rental Barracks”).

Berlin’s Mietskasernen
Ian Roderick
The Mainzer Straße Evictions

On November 14, 1990, approximately 3000 police from across Germany forcibly evicted several hundred mostly young squatters from 13 buildings along Mainzer Straße, in the eastern district of Friedrichshain.

It was one of the largest street battles in Berlin since the (failed) revolution of 1953, and had repercussions that continue to be felt.

The Mainzer Straße Evictions
Architecture, History
Ian Roderick
Containerbahnhof Frankfurter Allee

If, like me, you’ve spent a lot of time traveling Berlin’s S-Bahn ring, you might have noticed the large empty space directly to the east of the Frankfurter Allee S-Bahn station. It looks like any number of former industrial sites in the city: run-down, abandoned, with a few remnants here and there.

I was surprised to learn that this particular space wasn’t just a random factory: it was a so-called “Containerbahnhof,” where shipping containers could be on- and off-loaded to and from railcars.

Containerbahnhof Frankfurter Allee
Transport
Ian Roderick
Berlin's Radschnellverbindungen (Express Bike ...

Berlin has committed itself to building 100 kilometers of express bike lanes (Radschnellverbindungen) in the next 5 years or so. I made a deep-dive into one section of that network: the route from the Tiergarten to Alexanderplatz and beyond. What I found is very exciting, but construction is still a long way off.

Berlin's Radschnellverbindungen (Express Bike Lanes)

Kreuzberg

The Markthalle IX

Berlin has a lot of Markthallen - Market Halls. Like many other substantial changes to Berlin’s urban infrastructure (including the Central Slaughterhouse in the last third of the 19th century, the construction of market halls was undertaken to address the needs of a quickly growing city. Quite simply, there weren’t enough indoor, hygienic places for people to buy groceries and other food supplies.

Berlin's Ice Factory and Berlin's Future

The Eis Fabrik Berlin, or 'Berlin Ice Factory' on Koepenickerstraße is an abandoned (you guessed it) ice factory along the River Spree. According to Wikipedia (warning: German version), it's one of the oldest surviving ice factories in Germany, and churned out blocks of ice up to 1.5 meters long from its construction in 1914 until its parent company ceased to exist in the early 1990s. There have been plans to demolish it since at least 1995, but the building is still standing today and is currently controlled by TLG, a real estate management company in the city.

Rising Rents and Violence

The issue of gentrification isn't unique to Berlin. But what has been new for me is to witness the visceral, and sometimes violent, reaction of those who feel that their rights are being squeezed. In certain neighborhoods signs like "Go Home Hipsters!" or "Fuck You Yuppies" are common. I've walked past a few of these signs before, but the issue really popped for me a couple of weeks ago when a "Low Rent" sign was posted next to my apartment building, and when later that same day I walked past a new apartment building in Kreuzberg that had been vandalized. It was clearly not a random act of vandalism. Each window was smashed on the ground floor, paint was sprayed onto the upper floors, and "Hood Defense" was spray painted next to one of the windows. I've posted a few pictures throughout this post.