http://in.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-50836320100813
Aug 13, 2010
By Sarah Marsh
BERLIN (Reuters Life!) - Txus Parras, who has been squatting in the
Tacheles building in downtown Berlin since the wall fell two decades
ago, says he won't leave it without putting up a fight.
Tacheles is one of many forums for alternative culture in the German
capital facing eviction from quirky historical properties which
property developers want to transform into luxury flats, hotels and boutiques.
"Berlin is changing in a negative way, and it's not just about
Tacheles, there is a force out there trying to destroy the this
city's freedom," said 47-year old Spanish-born Parras at his atelier
in the former bombed-out department store.
"I am part of the artist resistance," he said, sporting clothes died
with symbols for love and peace, nose and lip piercings and
lime-green felt earrings.
"I am going to make things very difficult for these people."
Artists from all over the world have been drawn to Berlin since the
end of the Cold War, attracted by open spaces, low rents and the
charms of a city Mayor Klaus Wowereit once described as "poor but sexy".
Parras, who has taught street art worldwide but keeps getting drawn
back to Berlin, says Tacheles once housed 200 artists with 130 nationalities.
The five-storey building was occupied by artist squatters shortly
after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and has since become a
rabbit's warren of open ateliers, theatres and grungy bars. Walls are
sprayed in layers of graffiti and plastered with posters, while a
hint of marijuana lingers in the air.
"When you come in, it's a bit intimidating but I'm happy I did," said
Italian tourist Fabrizio Biole, 33. "It's unique."
Tacheles -- meaning "straight talking" in Yiddish -- has become a top
tourist site, yet it remains a symbol of Berlin's edginess and
anarchic creativity.
PETITIONS
Tacheles is threatened with extinction, with its squatters locked in
a drawn-out battle with property developers who want to build a
massive residential and commercial complex on the prime real estate
site in the heart of Berlin.
Visitors are asked to sign a petition stating "I support Tacheles"
and posters protest the encroaching "grey men".
Tacheles is not alone. Just down the street, photography forum C/O
Berlin is struggling to extend its lease in an ornate former post
office which a new investor is keen to revamp.
Further along the Spree river, a sprawl of clubs and venues for
alternative culture such as the Young African Art Market based in a
former bus depot are staging lively demonstrations against plans to
build offices for media companies there.
"The whole neighbourhood is being changed," said Heinrich Buecker,
56, whose "anti-war Coop cafe" in the former East German district of
Mitte serves as a meeting point for artists and organizers of
Berlin's alternative scene.
"The alternative scene had its roots here," he said. "But now it is
being pushed out to districts further out."
Many locals and visitors have rallied to the cause, while others
protest that the buildings legally belong to new investors who are
injecting much-needed capital into a city that has long teetered on
the verge of bankruptcy.
"I'm not signing any petitions because western society and all our
freedoms are founded on property rights," said Erik Higgins, an
18-year old student from Canada, as he perused artworks on sale in Tacheles.
"It's a beautiful place ... but you do wonder why they have to do
something like this on land that is not theirs."
Given that Berlin is 60 billion euros in debt and has a high
unemployment rate, it cannot afford to buy buildings like Tacheles or
to push away investors, said Berlin's state secretary of culture Andre Schmitz.
CITY PLANNING
Tacheles' motley crew of creatives argue however they have been
looking after the building for decades and are responsible for
regenerating the entire area.
"We have been here for 20 years, taking care of this building and
making it into the third most visited place in Berlin," said Parras,
as tourists streamed past his studio along Oranienburger Street which
now buzzes with restaurants and bars.
They say they offer a free space for culture, without charging any
entry fee or receiving state subsidies -- unlike official cultural
venues such as museums.
"The city should be thankful to us and support us," he added. "And if
the city wants an alternative art culture, it should buy these
buildings for us."
Organisers' of Berlin's alternative culture scene foresee a drastic
fall in tourists if it is forced to retreat into venues further out
of the city centre in the face of gentrification.
"Over 50 percent of tourists in Berlin are under 30 years old," said
event organiser Lotar Kuepper at the Coop cafe.
"That means either city planning policy will be changed to relieve
the pressure on the subculture, or the only real working industry in
Berlin will collapse -- as will half the tourists."
Schmitz says he is relaxed about the alternative scene's future given
how many empty spaces and buildings remain.
Critics say however that even if it reinvents itself elsewhere, it is
the very the eclectic socio-cultural mix that forms Berlin's allure
which is under threat, as gentrification pushes artists and people
with lower incomes out of the centre.
"It is a very free city, the social milieus are porous -- New York
was like this in the 70s and 80s, very relaxed, but it became
expensive, clean and orderly," said C/O spokesman Mirko Novak,
sitting in a half renovated room crammed with books.
"Berlin just needs to be careful if it wants to keep its image of an
open and creative city."
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