Sounding Out the Symptoms of Gentrification in Berlin

Abstract

Scholars of gentrification often study the visual results of socioeconomic structural change in urban environments, including graffiti removal and historical reconstructions of façades, turning “ugly” factory ruins into charming residential loft spaces, etc. This article examines the gentrification of Berlin’s former working-class neighborhood Prenzlauer Berg in terms of sound. We present the Knaack Klub as a sonic case study symbolizing the erasure of the voices and culture of Berlin’s long-term residents and argue that contestations over sound, brought on by West German migrants in what can be considered a “hostile takeover” of parts of East Berlin, are a key driver of gentrification. Mining visual material including photographs, police reports, court verdicts, real estate advertisements, and street maps for acoustic clues, we are able to synthesize sight and sound, ultimately allowing us to move beyond the surface—in this case, building façades—to study the visual and sonic penetration of a gentrifying neighborhood’s intersecting public and private spaces. The study of the sonic heritage of neighborhoods or even single buildings helps us to move beyond Wilhelmine façades and the surface of courtyard living to reevaluate the relationship between urban space and community, between architectural history and policy.

ENTERTAINING GERMAN CULTURE: Contemporary Transnational Television and Film

“…71. Here we can also point to German Netfl ix series like The Billion Dollar Code (2021), which depicts the origins of Google Earth by framing German IT nerds and hackers in the ranks of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, and is set against the background of the 1990s Berlin techno scene; the multilingual trans-European dystopian future fantasy Tribes of Europa (2021-), which draws on the narrative tradition of fi lms such as The Hunger Games (2012-15) and Maze Runner (2012); the Vienna-based crime mystery series Freud (Marven Kren, 2020-), which strongly references Albert and Allen Hughes's From Hell (2001); and the drama series The Empress (2022-) on the early years of Elisabeth of Austria (Sisi) which employs musical and fashion anachronisms similar to Sofi a Coppola's Marie Antoinette (2006) and Netfl ix's own Bridgerton (2020-). 72.…”

“…However, marking the process of transnational absorption and reabsorption, Deutschland 86 and Deutschland 89 are also infl uenced by the ways in which these productions adapted tropes from Deutschland 83. This multi-nodal approach allows us to understand not only the impact that previous depictions of the Cold War exercise on Deutschland 83, but also how Deutschland 86 and Deutschland 89 as well as series such as Der Palast (2021), Kleo (2022), and Spy/Master (2023) come to be in creative dialogue with modifi ed tropes from the series' own fi rst season (inward reabsorption).…”

“…Beat cast members were well known in Germany, but while some had already had international success, especially Alexander Fehling (Goethe!, Inglourious Basterds, Homeland), most were still developing international profi les, including Jannis Niewöhner, Kostja Ullmann, and Karoline Herfurth, who had also appeared in You Are Wanted. Niewöhner has gone on to star in Netfl ix's Munich-The Edge of War (2021), suggesting Beat was an important career move into international streaming dramas. Many scenes in Beat were fi lmed on location in Berlin, making the most of internationally famous but recognizably local club spaces like Watergate, the venue Kraftwerk which shares a building with the club Tresor, as well as the steel and glass architecture of German government facilities along the Spree.…”

“…Beat is set up as a queer character when he fi rst walks into Sonar, in a scene that resonates with hedonist parties in queer fi lm and television from Coming Out (1989) to It's a Sin (2021). After a few establishing shots of a full club, Beat kisses a woman in the crowd.…”

Methodological challenges of researching an emerging scene: Experimental electronic music in contemporary Manchester

“…Autonomous, or quasi-autonomous spaces, independent to varying degrees from the profit-seeking spatial enterprises, the nightclubs, 'superclubs', arenas, commercialised 'warehouses' that are an integral part of the mainstream electronic dance music industry, are also crucial to any viable DIY scene, although such places are often picked out in negative relief as it were, in narratives of regeneration and gentrification that highlight their erasure after the fact (Costa, 2015;Feiereisen and Sassin, 2021;Lamontagne, 2021;Lena, 2012;Schmisek, 2020;Thompson, 2016). Although the producer, sound engineer and performer Rainy Miller told radio presenter Gilles Petersontwice in the same interviewthat the supporting 'infrastructure' available in Manchester was a key reason for moving there from his hometown of Preston, his second use of the term -'there's the infrastructure there, there's places like The White Hotel and Soup Kitchen' (BBC Radio Six, 2022),makes it clear that he is talking about performance spaces and not technical resources beyond the laptop.…”