A new commercial ‘entertainment district” may threaten Berlin’s reigning techno mecca Berghain, as planned development centers around the district’s Mercedes-Benz Arena.
The news comes, as reported by several Berlin newspapers, that the space opposite Berghain will include a mall, a multi-lane bowling alley and “a full range of other wholesome family-oriented businesses”.
What is truly concerning is that this seams to be just the beginning of a multi stage development strategy that could change the entire city for the…worse (my opinion). Berghain, however, is not unfamiliar with this sort of concern, as its predecessor, Ostgut, ironically was forced to move location based on the construction of, what is now, the very same Mercedes-Benz Arena.
Let’s hope that Berlin doesn’t fall down the same path as the likes of London and New York, where once thriving cultural meccas become plastic playgrounds for the world’s 1%. Berlin’s appeal is very much in its aesthetic and the multi-ethnic collection of bohemians who continue to call the German capital home. Something gentrification and capitalism simply have no business interfering with.
Source: Berliner Woche
