Ulrich Gutmair - The First Days of Berlin

1 Cover

2 Title Page THE FIRST DAYS OF BERLIN The Sound of Change Ulrich Gutmair Translated by Simon Pare polity

3 Copyright Originally published in German as Die ersten Tage von Berlin. Der Sound der Wende © 2013 Klett-Cotta - J.G. Cotta’sche Buchhandlung Nachfolger GmbH, Stuttgart. English edition published by arrangement with Michael Gaeb Literary Agency This English edition © Polity Press, 2021 The translation of this work was supported by a grant from the Goethe-Institut Polity Press 65 Bridge Street Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK Polity Press 101 Station Landing Suite 300 Medford, MA 02155, USA All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4731-9 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Control Number: 2021938641 The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate. Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition. For further information on Polity, visit our website: politybooks.com

4 Dedication Dedication For Tal and Amalia

5 Acknowledgements Acknowledgements My heartfelt thanks to everyone who told me their stories and also to those who contributed their memories but were not named in the text: Bettina Ellerkamp, Florian Zeyfang, Jörg Heitmann and Jutta Kunde. I also owe a debt of gratitude to Alexandra Corell, Annette Maechtel, Gabriele, Hannelore and Werner Gutmair, Henriette Gallus, Martin Hossbach, Maximilian Dorner, Micz Flor, Ronald Düker, Silvan Linden and the folks from Sourcefabric.

6 Preface to the English Edition

7 1 How Long is Now?It reeks of Bitterfeld The man who sat by the kiosk outside Tacheles The vacant plots vanish

8 2 The Year of AnarchyThe Mitte Temporary Autonomous Zone The buried past The GDR is like a predigital Facebook The neighbourhood policeman The end of the VEBs From squatting to temporary licence

9 3 Occupying the Government DistrictThe night the Wall came down West-Berlin, Westberlin, Restberlin In the mouse hole: Stadtmitte underground station A community of squatters

10 4 At the Elektro, Mauerstrasse 15‘Full Customer Satisfaction’ In bed with Mo Anti-money-grabbing

11 5 The Nineteenth-Century ‘Founders’ of BerlinThe bulldozer moves in The crash of 1873

12 6 USPAll things are possible – Berlin is free

13 Bibliography

14 End User License Agreement

1 Map of Locations Figure 1Hotel Clou and the Wino store in Mauerstrasse 15. The picture was taken on 17 Feb… Figure 2Map of Berlin showing locations mentioned in the book (© Studio Cocurio,…

2 Chapter 1 Figure 3Children in Auguststrasse, May 1979 (© Hans Martin Sewcz) Figure 4Wrecked car in Auguststrasse, 1990 (© Ben de Biel)

3 Chapter 2 Figure 5Living room at Kleine Hamburger Strasse 5 in early 1991 (© Ben de Biel) Figure 6View of the backs of the buildings at Kleine Hamburger Strasse 3–5 (© Ben de Bie… Figure 7Looking for discards in Linienstrasse, 1990 (© Ben de Biel) Figure 8Breakfast at Kleine Hamburger Strasse 5 in 1990 (© Ben de Biel)

4 Chapter 3 Figure 9The WMF building on the corner of Leipziger Strasse and Mauerstrasse. The pictur… Figure 10The Friseur at Kronenstrasse 3 in August 1995 (© Landesarchiv Berlin, F Rep. 290… Figure 11Entrance to the Favela behind Mauerstrasse 15 (© Andreas Muhs)

5 Chapter 4 Figure 12Mo Loschelder and Julian Göthe DJing (© Ulrich Gutmair) Figure 13Party at the Elektro, with Jeff Mills and Electric Indigo in the crowd (© Tilman… Figure 14An Elektro flyer announcing the Säkhö Group (© Daniel Pflumm)

6 Chapter 5 Figure 15Demolition of the building at Mauerstrasse 15, filmed by Daniel Pflumm (© Daniel…

7 Chapter 6 Figure 16The back of Tacheles, 1991 (© Ben de Biel)

1 Cover

2 Table of Contents

3 Title Page

4 Copyright

5 Dedication

6 Acknowledgements

7 Preface to the English Edition

8 Begin Reading

9 Bibliography

10 End User License Agreement

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