Читать книгу 100 Favourite Places - Группа авторов - Страница 23

19

Baumhaus an der Mauer

KREUZBERG

The Berlin Wall was still slicing the city in half when Osman Kalin, a retired father of six from Anatolia, began eyeing up an unused plot of land from his apartment window in Kreuzberg. Covered in trash, the triangular plot officially belonged to the East, though it happened to lie on the Western side. After discovering there was no official owner, Kalin started to clear the trash and built – what else? – a garden.

For years, he cultivated onions, pumpkins, grapevines, and sunflowers directly under the shadow of the Wall, despite resistance from bureaucrats on both sides: at one point the East Berlin People’s Police (Volkspolizei) unceremoniously ‘decapitated’ his sunflowers when they threatened to grow too high. But his bountiful island of resistance grew, eventually encompassing a rickety shack ingeniously created from found materials and recycled furniture, which in some cases was – and still is – literally cemented to the street to prevent it from being carried away.

Today the little two-bedroom, two-story wooden house runs on electricity from a generator and boasts a veranda with views onto the striking St. Thomas Church, which officially owns the land and petitioned to allow Kalin to stay after the wall fell. No longer his main home, it remains a symbol of local innovation and lasting resilience. The adjacent garden, surrounded by chicken wire and dotted with old lawn furniture, wind chimes, and abandoned children’s toys, continues to bloom, and interested visitors are occasionally allowed a peek inside the house (try calling ahead on +49 (0)176 219 766 12). If you’re lucky, Osman’s son Mehmed may even take the time to give you a personalised tour of the complex, though do be careful not to tread on the cabbages.

Unfortunately this isn’t a working community garden, so don’t plan on bringing your pruners and marigolds. Right nearby, however, you’ll find the Gärten am Mariannenplatz / Ton Steine Gärten, a community-run urban agriculture project that may very well welcome your help if you call ahead and explain your intentions. PS

Intersection of Mariannenplatz and Bethaniendamm; S Ostbahnhof

Map: East F3

[no image in epub file]