The final day of our research trip took us to Berlin’s East Side Gallery, the longest section of the former Berlin Wall still standing, and located east of the Spree in the Friedrichshain district of the city. Shortly after the Wall came down in 1990, a multitude of international artists were invited to paint murals on this stretch of upright concrete slabs, establishing in the process some of the city’s most iconic pieces of contemporary urban art. Itself an object of restoration and renewal, the outdoor, free-to-access Gallery underwent renovation around 2009. After years of unwanted graffiti, bits of the concrete wall flaking off, and general erosion, the outer parts of the Wall were restored and the original artists asked to return and re-paint their artworks. Whilst many did, a few refused the offer in protest (amongst other reasons) against the proposed regeneration, meaning certain ‘gaps’ (grey or white parts of the wall) emerged in the Gallery. In the years since this renovation work, the issue of urban regeneration around the Gallery and connected outdoor areas has continued to be prevalent.

As Emine noted, we had skirted around the former border between East and West Berlin across the few days of our visit, witnessing how the culture and economics of Berlin as an historically divided city affects urban regeneration and demographic changes across the capital today. It thus seemed fitting to end the trip at this central and pivotal location for the city’s story. I must have visited the East Side Gallery at least half a dozen times since my first trip to Berlin in 2011. Even as a tourist, the alteration of this urban space over 13 years is hard to miss. Between the Gallery and the river, the former no-mans-land separating East and West Berlin, several multistorey, high-rise blocks of Luxuswohnungen (luxury apartments) have emerged. In places, the entrances to these buildings (or their car parks) requires passing through gaps in the Gallery and former Wall. Just as the Wall functioned as both a container (for West Berliners) and a means of exclusion (to East Berliners), I couldn’t help feeling that these sorts of apartment blocks act in a similar way. Whilst they hardly recreate the violence or state-making functionality of the Wall, they are self-contained buildings unconnected to the immediate urban environment around them and present new forms of barriers in this previously open, accessible, and free space. The situating of these developments on a former borderland site raises questions on belonging and urban citizenship too: Who are these spaces for? What type of city do these types of apartments and buildings represent? Is this what the future of housing in Berlin will look like?

Our final stop on this morning is Berghain, perhaps the city’s most (in)famous and emblematic club. Although it’s midday on a Sunday, the deep thump of music can be heard from a few streets away. There is still a long queue of people, mostly clad in black, trying to test their luck with the famously strict and flippant bouncer. A handful of hopefuls gain entry, and many are sent on their way. As we stand around watching, someone exits the club and suggests to us (in German) that “it’s really uncool when people stand around and stare. Seriously.” As we head to Ostbahnhof station, we pass a building site next to the club. The concrete shell of a multi-storey building, adorned with cranes, has arisen here – again a new addition since my last visit in May. Planned is a mixed-use building of flats and offices. Whilst Berghain itself (as the East Side Gallery) may be protected, the area around it is not. We can see quite clearly then how the cultural capital of artistic or nightlife institutions is being turned, by the city and property developers, into someone else’s economic capital. What this development and the influence of these new neighbours will mean for the future of Berghain is to be discovered – but there will certainly be a few more people staring down at the Sunday morning queue once the building work is complete…