In London Orbital, Iain Sinclair writes vividly of the way former prisons and asylums have been turned over to developers. In Hans im Glück—Berlin Playground, a recent Berlinale premiere, we see the same thing happening. The protagonist visits a former GDR prison in which he spent quite a few months. It’s now a row of apartments. (Why do my fingers move automatically to type “luxury apartments”—has the advertising seeped into us that much, their catchphrases actually catching?)Or, rather a “campus”. Berlin Campus. University. Creativity. Esteem. Cloistered?
Asylum seekers were here last. The walls still bear their wallpaper. The homely touches of the hopeful itinerants. Floral wallpaper and crumbling walls. Asylum seekers have taken over the asylum. A grotesquery in the months after the fall of the Wall, before this place was packaged up, marketed and sold—by the devilish Treuhand, I suppose.
There is a striking similarity in this to the developments Sinclair (and, earlier, Ballard) details in London. See it in the brochure puff: “the area offers a wide variety of attractions for residents, including trendy bars and restaurants and the famous parks of Treptow...”
...with their triumphant Soviet monuments and detailed anti-capitalist friezes.
“This area is developing a reputation as the leisure and media centre for Berlin. The new headquarters for Universal and MTV are located in this area in addition to the new O2 Arena. The project is less than 20 minutes from Schoenefeld International Airport which is being redeveloped into one of the most impressive modern airports in Europe.”
So don’t worry, there are bars and restaurants. (Has anything worth anyone’s time ever been spruiked as “trendy”? Is there anything less trendy than the word “trendy”?) Sports. Leisure. Global media headquarters. An enormous airport. A global somewhere. A node to call your own. Node sweet node.
Where am I, again?
“All the apartments have been completely re-developed from the original 19th century red-brick buildings.”
All the inmates have been completely re-developed and renovated, repurposed and reassigned.
“This is a unique opportunity to invest in a prestigious building, charged with history in a vibrant district of one of Europe’s greatest cities.”
Mysterious—charged and vibrant, prestigious and 19th century. History. Softly. Sells. Buy yourself a padded cell.
2 comments:
Humorous post. Did you see that the Treuhand appears to have morphed into another guise? Interesting how they've set that table for six -- maybe that's how many the cells used to house...
Ah. It's a tough sell (cell?) in this market. But thanks for the link. Might pick up an office in Saxony and a weekender in Rostock, just in case I need them.
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