The Gängevier­tel in Ham­burg has pro­duced a lot of media cov­er­age in the last couple of years. The Gängevier­tel used to describe the nar­row alleys between densely built build­ings in the old (and some new) parts of Ham­burg. So nar­row in fact that most of these quar­ters were torn down at the end of the 19^th cen­tury. Too many dis­eases and a lack­ing infra­struc­ture made it impossible for the grow­ing pop­u­la­tion to find a san­it­ary home. The last massive demoli­tion was accoun­ted for in the 1960s.

But: the area around Valent­in­skamp is still some­what in tact. When in 2009 many artists and cit­izens occu­pied the build­ings to protest in peace against a planned demoli­tion by a for­eign investor (prob­ably to make space for a new super-mall or some­thing), they achieved a monu­mental suc­cess: the city bought back the area and is cur­rently plan­ning a com­plete re-do. The aim is to make the area, nowadays a cul­tural hub for Ham­burg, an afford­able part of the city for artists, full on with apart­ments and monu­ment pro­tec­tion to keep it the way it is (and poten­tially mak­ing it better).

This suc­cess should interest Ber­liners too. What about Tem­pel­hof? What about all the run­down build­ings that are now the tar­get of big investors who want to build town­houses and offices? What about Medi­as­pree? Same story, dif­fer­ent day. Gentri­fic­a­tion issues and demo­graphic changes are omni­present. Will it always work out this way? I doubt it. But the story of the Gängevier­tel — nev­er­mind the fact that there is still a long way ahead for every­one who is involved — is a good example for why these protests are most def­in­itely worth it. One might object that there are many dif­fer­ences between Ber­lin and Ham­burg. Ham­burg is a wealthy old lady that has the pocket money to fund a pro­ject like this. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Besides: ideo­logy and value don’t come with a price tag. The people of Ber­lin have made quite a few accom­plish­ments in the past years, des­pite all the changes. This is where it gets ugly, too. More rapid trans­ac­tions are going to take place in the future, and it’s going to be dif­fi­cult to keep track of them. I’m a romantic per­son, I like to believe that if every­one stands up for only one thing they love, then Ber­lin may stay lov­able for many gen­er­a­tions to come.

So what’s the status quo of the Gängevier­tel? Well, many parties, exhib­i­tions and read­ings have been held since the takeover three years ago. There’s now the ever last­ing ques­tion of fin­an­cing the prop­er­ties and the organ­isa­tions. Fund­ing, man, is always an issue. But after the redevel­op­ment of the Gängevier­tel, everything involved with it will be in the hands of the Gängevier­tel Gen­os­senschaft to self-regulate the build­ings uses. As men­tioned before, the Quart­ier is sup­posed to become an exclus­ive place for art and cul­ture.

By the way: there’s a sim­ilar use-case cur­rently to be found in Wed­ding (that’s a bold state­ment, but hear me out).The ExRo­taPrint pro­ject is a self-regulated archi­tec­tural mas­ter­piece (a former print­ery) that has been in the hands of an artist col­lect­ive for a while now. They’re try­ing to react to the rising rents of the city. Profit and eco­nom­ical growth are used to keep the place a safe haven from the usual polit­ical get-go. It’s an easy model*: take the prop­erty out of the rota­tion, no more Buy, Sell, Revalu­ation, Gentri­fic­a­tion. Artists, crafts­men, teach­ers, every­one should be able to afford the facil­it­ies they need for their work. And don’t mix it up: ExRo­taPrint, unlike the Gängevier­tel, is not sup­posed to be “arts and cul­ture” only. It’s a sta­bil­isator for social struc­tures, not a new hot­spot for Fine Art Gal­ler­ies and what­not (so the Gängevier­tel is prob­ably going to be more along the lines of the Hack­es­che Höfe, although prob­ably afford­able and there­fore a com­bin­a­tion of both mod­els). What unites both ExRo­taPrint and The Gängevier­tel is the simple ideas that people some­times have. Ideas that become move­ments and move­ments that become new norms. These pro­jects can be game changers in the long run. They need sup­port, sure. But they’ll give the people some­thing essen­tial back: a pre­ced­ent on how things could work out­side the sys­tem and still be part of it.

Our friend Caro, who is cur­rently trav­el­ling a lot for our favor­ite magazine iGNANT, has paid the area a visit and came back with some stun­ning visual impres­sions. We’re very grate­ful to pub­lish some of her pic­tures exclus­ively here. For the rest, go straight to iGNANT.

*It’s def­in­itely NOT easy. The idea is easy, but get­ting through with it? It’s a massive load of work to get found­a­tions to sup­port your plans. And Ger­man laws are an under­growth of para­graphs. The ExRo­taPrint pro­ject works on the Erb­baurecht, which pretty much means that the facil­it­ies are only leased from the city but with an imman­ent secur­ity of the way it’s used. Read about it here.