Wem gehört die Stadt?

This film essay documents protests against the eviction of two iconic establishments of the vibrant Berlin that existed right after the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. In the 1990s, the city was a huge playground with cheap rents and vast amounts of creativity. Come 2010, the harsh realities of a globalised property market started to transform the very fabric of "poor but sexy" Berlin. A decade later, things got worse for the owners of small businesses like the Kisch & Co bookshop in Kreuzberg's Oranienstraße. The Luxembourg property fund which by then owned the house in which Kisch & Co was operating demanded rents far beyond what a small business could afford. Following an eviction order, owner Thorsten Willenbrock was on the verge of closing down in 2021. Also at the beginning of the 2020s, the legendary SYNDICAT bar in Berlin was also evicted. A pub collective had run the bar in Weisestraße for around 30 years. The film documents protests against the bar's eviction. Postscript: After filming was completed, a large German property group showed some generosity to market themselves as a good Samaritan. It offered Kisch & Co owner Thorsten Willenbrock a location just a few doors down from the old one, at an affordable price and for 11 years. A happy temporary end to a grueling struggle to stay. The collective that runs SYNDICATa also got lucky in the end: after a 3 year break of operations, they found new premises in Berlin's Neukölln district on Emserstraße, not too far from the old location. It was relaunched in January 2023. Just like in the first 30 years, the bar collective aims to create a place of solidarity for everyone. SYNDICAT bar and the Kisch & Co bookshop - two examples of the difficult conditions that force small, independent businesses into a permanent struggle for survival. Yet it is precisely these small businesses that make up the flair of Berlin. The fact that a good solution was ultimately found for the two projects shown in the film after much and loud protest is not the rule. Even in 2024, the fundamental problem of exorbitantly rising commercial rents remains. It was only in October 2024 that the Friedrichshain bookshop “Lesen & lesen lassen” in Wühlischstraße had to close. The reason: an excessive increase in rent.