Berlin, we need to talk. Not about your public transport, your schools, or your administrative offices – we talk about those 24/7 anyway. No, today it’s about your self-image. That strangely defeatist hum that allows you to be both the coolest city in Europe and its biggest critic.
Berlin’s Self-Image: A Contradiction in Terms
Ask a Berliner, and they’ll tell you: “Innovations? Not here! We can’t even get a form online.” Berlin likes to certify itself as having the technological development level of a well-stocked calculator. Yet, all over the city, projects are emerging that are so modern, digital, and ambitious that they could easily be teleported to Copenhagen, Singapore, or San Francisco.
From Slaughterhouse to Smart Mobility Hub: DSTRCT Berlin
Let’s start where blood once flowed: the old slaughterhouse. Today, the area is called “DSTRCT Berlin,” and it’s developing urban mobility that has already received multiple awards – with its own bicycle parking garage and a car-free neighborhood concept. Sharing concepts, digital control, modern working environments – Berlin, this is not backward. This is real-time middle-class future.
The Smartest Cube: Cube Berlin
Or your smartest cube: the Cube Berlin. A building that recognizes users, regulates heat, distributes energy, guides visitors, and even learns. One might think you accidentally imported a piece of Silicon Valley. But you didn’t – you built it yourself. Next, to a project that hasn’t been built yet but is concretely planned: the Parkturm at Hackescher Markt. A parking garage that automatically sorts cars. It will be the first project of its kind in Berlin, but others are already in preparation, for example, at Platz der Vereinten Nationen in Friedrichshain.
Siemensstadt Square and EUREF Campus: Mega-Projects Redefining Urban Living
And then there’s the mammoth project Siemensstadt Square: designed for 35,000 people, a completely new, networked, energy-efficient district is being created that aims to integrate living and working, as well as research, production, and education. The Siemens Group is investing more than 600 million euros in the new district, and the Berlin Senate is reactivating the historic Siemensbahn in return. It sounds almost too good to be true, but concrete work is already underway.
Digital Road Construction and Geothermal Energy: Berlin’s Unsung Progress
Berlin, even your road and civil engineering are far more digital than you want to admit: machines controlled by GPS. Lines that are digitally documented. Construction pits planned in 3D. Berlin companies like Dalhoff show what modern construction processes look like. At the same time, a sustainable road surface has been developed, which was also recently presented as part of the “Neustart” event at the Gasometer in Berlin-Schöneberg.
Industrial Blight to Innovation Campus: A Tale of Transformation
Speaking of the Gasometer in Schöneberg: from monument to innovation campus, from industrial wasteland to success story. A Berlin location that proves how transformation can work without burying history – despite all the naysayers who wanted to prevent the conversion of the building for many years. Today, it houses office and event spaces, workspaces, and a rooftop terrace with breathtaking views over the capital.
Progress is also being made in Oberschöneweide, at many different locations: The “BE-U” project is one of several projects. It combines historic industrial architecture with future topics such as digital production – a place where past and future work together, rather than against each other. And the energy for the area is to be obtained from geothermal energy, and on a large scale. Significant investments are being made in this endeavor.
Such places are numerous in Berlin, existing and those that still want to become: The Adlershof Technology Park, the Buch Medical Campus, the “CleanTech Marzahn” quarter, the Humboldthain Technology Park. Europe’s largest timber-framed residential quarter is also to be built from next year on the site of the former Tegel Airport, with the first 328 of a future 5,000 apartments being constructed.
Not A100, Not BVG, Not BER: Berlin, Your Biggest Construction Site is Your Self-Esteem
Berlin, your biggest construction site is not the A100, the BVG, or the BER. It’s your self-esteem. You are not backward. You are in constant transformation. And that’s a difference.
And of course, there are problems that need to be addressed, first and foremost public administration, dilapidated roads and bridges, a lack of teachers in Berlin’s schools. However, these are problems that also exist in many other German cities. And there are positive counter-examples. Have you recently been to the Bürgeramt? Probably, because making appointments now works quite smoothly, digitally, and without long waiting times. How so?
The Bürgeramt Problem Solved, But No One Reports It
After more than a decade, almost daily reports in the capital’s newspapers (rightly so) about how untenable the situation at Berlin’s Bürgerämter was and how difficult it was to get appointments, it is now surprisingly quiet on the subject, because the Berlin Senate has obviously solved the problem without much fanfare. However, that is, of course, far too boring to report on extensively. Only bad news is good news; the old journalist’s trick still works particularly well in Berlin.
So Berlin, why so negative? Perhaps it’s time you started counting not only your problems but also your progress. Because the truth is: Berlin, you are more modern than you think. And much better than you give yourself credit for. Not always and everywhere, but more and more often.
Source: https://www.entwicklungsstadt.de/die-unterschaetzte-zukunftsstadt-berlin-deine-groesste-baustelle-ist-dein-selbstwertgefuehl/
