Are Berlin’s Days as a Culture Capital Numbered?

Berlin’s new cultural affairs secretary, Tim Renner is worried that the city’s fast-moving economic development might force artists and other culture-creators out of the city by 2030, he told the Berliner Zeitung. As part of his entree into the role, Renner says that he sat down with key members of his new team to envision Berlin’s cultural landscape in 15 years. “The greatest danger that showed up…was that the culture could be completely gone from the city,” he says, “that the very thing, which actually brought about the [economic] recovery of Berlin and spurred migration to Berlin would be pushed to the margins.” Since the fall of the wall, and particularly in the last 10-15 years, culture has exploded in the city thanks to an abundance of space and, in turn, cheap studio and apartment rents, even in the very center of town. That real estate has exploded in value in recent years, leading to an increasingly speculative market and the migration of artists, musicians, designers, and others to the city’s further reaches… READ MORE