X Properties – Zur De-/Finanzialisierung der Stadt X Properties – on the de-/financialization of the city

Berlin is changing. The gentrification and displacement caused by the city’s real-estate boom have long been an issue, with a broad-based tenants’ movement now demanding the right to the city for all. But how do the new landlords – real estate groups, investment funds, and countless anonymous owners and offshore companies – gain access to the social good of accommodation? Who are the actual players behind the economic exploitation of urban space? And how can their actions be politically and societally restrained, controlled, and crossed?

The nGbK research project X Properties addresses the changes to urban space wrought by the financialization of Berlin’s real estate market, contrasting this increased presence of financial capital with a collectively developed vision of a desirable city. A practice of joint learning in workshops, guided tours, talks, and performances links research and the production of desires. This process is accompanied by the publication of an issue of the Berlin Journals—On the History and Present State of the City.

The research carried out by X Properties focusses on linkage of the financial and real-estate sectors, their impact on local neighborhoods, and the global transformation of urban space. Involving urbanists, activists, and artists, the project discusses the ways financial capital effects the social and cultural production of the city, its forms of relationsships and subjectivity, and looks at ways of realizing a de-financialized city to counter this impact. Based on the resulting insights, the group aims to develop forms of resistance to the abstract economization of urban life.

Following the sale by Berggruen Holdings of the building at Oranienstrasse 25 to the Luxemburg-based Victoria Immo Properties V S.à r.l., the nGbK itself is now effected by this dynamic. In the immediate vicinity, on Prinzenstrasse near Moritzplatz, a business park is being built to market Kreuzberg’s “creative flair” at high prices. Nearby is the Otto-Suhr-Siedlung, a social housing project that has been taken over by the real-estate group Vonovia SE following its acquisition of Deutsche Wohnen.

The new alliance between real estate and financial capital is evident in all of Berlin’s districts. At its root lies a transformation of the global economy: since the 1970s, the financial sector has taken over from production as the decisive economic force, as ever greater amounts of money circulate worldwide in search of lucrative investments. Cities have proved to be ideal locations for the spatial fixation of this capital: as well as being a safe option, investments in urban real estate also generate profit via direct exploitation and via specific real-estate-based financial products. Through political measures and these new products, small investors and those saving for old age also become players in the financial markets. When apartment blocks are nothing but an investment, conventional notions of the responsibilities associated with real-estate ownership no longer apply. Although a long established trend in many places around the world, this financialization of the real-estate market was late to arrive in Germany.

The structural violence resulting from the privatization of social housing, and the related rent increases for small businesses, tenants, and leisure spaces, ultimately leads to socioeconomic segregation and large-scale displacement. In this process, financialization appears as an inscrutable external factor – as a seemingly inevitable part of the system. This sense of being at the mercy of a development that can be neither grasped nor influenced is an obstacle to self-determination and the development of alternatives.

At the same time, debates and struggles are taking place around capital-driven displacement, most recently in the form of Deutsche Wohnen & Co. enteignen, a successful campaign to bring large privately-owned housing portfolios back under the control of Berlin’s municipal authorities. Many tenants’ initiatives focus on the identity and liabilities of new landlords. Due to a lack of transparency legislation, it is hard to identify the investors behind the real-estate investment trusts – those who drive and profit from excessive rents, delayed repairs, forced evictions, and speculative vacancies. And thus there is also a lack of strategies for preventing such one-sided value creation, for organizing campaigns of action, and for developing a city that offers acceptable quality of life for all.

In the issue of the Berlin Journals—On the History and Present State of the City edited by the members of the X Properties project group, global perspectives on urban transformation in Brazil and Britain are brought together with cases studies of financialization from various Berlin contexts.

The program of accompanying events features performances in public space. knowbotiq mirrors infrastructural impacts on extended physicality in a financialized urban environment, in which Pablo Torres intervenes with sound traces. On a five-part banner, coop disco outlines visions of a diverse focus on the common good. Ines Schaber and Kathrin Wildner explore an area in Berlin’s Wedding district where five apartment blocks belong to Albert Immo Properties, a company linked to Victoria Immo Properties V, the new owner of Oranienstrasse 25; Ines Schaber and Kathrin Wildner observe, gather stories, and use two walks to discuss whether financialization is visible and which other signs of history, change, and resistance we can detect. A workshop with activist Lorena Jonas addresses the issues of land value and owner tracing, with further detail in a talk by geographer Susanne Heeg. In a radio feature, the activists and communicators Wouter Bernhardt, Jenny Goldberg, and Sandy Kaltenborn discuss languages, images, and utopias in the tenants’ movement and in city planning, while Louis Moreno, Alexis Hyman Wolff, Achim Lengerer, and Yves Mettler examine urban and social geographies of financialized urban development in London and Berlin’s Europacity.

Events:

Sunday, 11 September 2022, 14:00–18:00 (de)
In public space
Meeting point: Leopoldplatz
Urban Walk “Von Albert bis Victoria – oder: Kann man Finanzialisierung sehen?“ with Ines Schaber und Kathrin Wildner

X Properties examines the impact of financial capital on the social and cultural production of the city. Traces of an urban transformation in the course of financialization, i.e. the increasing presence and significance of financial capital in the real estate market, are investigated.
In the first event of the project, urban ethnologist Kathrin Wildner and artist Ines Schaber survey a neighborhood in Wedding in which five apartment buildings are located that belong to Albert Immo Properties. The company is associated with Victoria Immo Properties V– the owner of Oranienstrasse 25, where the nGbK is located since 1992. Kathrin Wildner and Ines Schaber will observe, collect stories, and discuss in two urban walks the issue of whether financialization is to be seen and what other signs of history, change, and resistance we can perceive through our examination of space.
The group will be accompanied in their walk by Christoph Casper, who has investigated the entanglements and planning of the two special funds Albert Immo Properties and Victoria Immo Properties with inquiries to Berlin authorities, Joerg Franzbecker, part of the project group Im Dissens? Neighborhood, Gentrification and Artistic Engagement in Oranienstraße and Julian Zwicker, resident and co-founder of the house group AmMa 65 and the initiative Häuser Bewegen.

Thursday, 15 September 2022, 17:00 (de)
In public space
Meeting point: Miami / Dragoner-Areal, Obentrautstraße 19-21, 10963 Berlin
Demonstrative walk “Embrace spatial diversity of the commons – Ein tragbares Quintichon“ by coop disco

X Properties is inviting to demonstrate together with coopdisco from the Rathausblock to the nGbK at Oranienstraße 25: The definancialized city of the post-crisis era is a site of cooperation, which in the self-determined use of its habitants captures, overgrows, appropriates, rebuilds, includes and communalizes the ruined monuments of financialization. The concrete-utopian concepts of the early socialists, constructivists, modernists, situationists, community designers, squatters, careful urban renewers, syndicalists, and architectural anarchists serve as models that inspire transformation. Let’s play.
coopdisco is a cooperative of architects who are committed to urban development for the commons.

Thursday, 15 September 2022, 19:00 (en)
nGbK event space 1st floor, Oranienstraße 25, 10999 Berlin
Lecture “Twilight City Today, or how the whole of the future was sacrificed for a piece of the present“

London’s capital restructuring is the backdrop and theme of the 1989 film Twilight City by Black Audio Film Collective. Moving between fictional elements and interviews with Gail Lewis, Homi Bhabha and Paul Gilroy, among others, the film mirrors their subjective experience of Londons transformation under Thatcherism.
In his talk, Louis Moreno uses clips from Twilight City to discuss what happened between then and now, and how it helps us to think about the relationship of architecture, racism and urbanism to financial capitalism, the city and urban renewal, but also the space of political possibility (utopia).

Sunday, 09 October 2022, 16:00 (de/en)
In public space
Meeting point: nGbK, Oranienstraße 25, 10999 Berlin
Demonstrative walk “Embrace spatial diversity of the commons – ein tragbares Quintichonby” by coop disco and activation of urban space Action “Z vier Doppel X: Contact. Jane (Remote) – eine patrimoniale Dystopie” by knowbotiq

X Properties invites participants to carry the portable quintych Embrace spatial diversity of the commons together with coopdisco, demonstrating for the vision of a definancialized city in a post-crisis age as a site of cooperation which in the self-determined use of its habitants captures, overgrows, appropriates, rebuilds, includes and communalizes the ruined monuments of financialization. The tour begins at Oranienstraße 25, where the nGbK may only remain until mid-2023, and moves several blocks east to Oranienstraße 6. There, participants will be greeted by Z vier Doppel X: Contact. Jane (Remote) – a real dystopia inserted into urban space by the artist group knowbotiq. At eight further sites in the Luisenstadt neighborhood, the female avatar ENAY speaks of the often invisible techno-political and techno-aesthetic histories of these places. Based on urban researcher Jane Jacobs, the figure is activated in its digital remoteness via smartphone. She warns us not to abandon the social and emphatic qualities of the urban to the visions and models of a neoliberal “predictable city”. ENAY calls for the human and nonhuman, the organic and technological materialities of the city to merge into sensitive bodies.

Sunday, 16 October 2022, 14:00–18:00 (de)
In public space
Meeting point: Leopoldplatz
Urban Walk “Von Albert bis Victoria – oder: Kann man Finanzialisierung sehen?“ with Ines Schaber und Kathrin Wildner

X Properties examines the impact of financial capital on the social and cultural production of the city. Traces of an urban transformation in the course of financialization, i.e. the increasing presence and significance of financial capital in the real estate market, are investigated.
In this walk, urban ethnologist Kathrin Wildner and artist Ines Schaber survey a neighborhood in Wedding in which five apartment buildings are located that belong to Albert Immo Properties. The company is associated with Victoria Immo Properties V – the owner of Oranienstraße 25, where the nGbK is located since 1992. Kathrin Wildner and Ines Schaber will observe, collect stories, and discuss in two urban walks the issue of whether financialization is to be seen and what other signs of history, change, and resistance we can perceive through our examination of space.
The group will be accompanied by Christoph Casper, who has investigated the entanglements and planning of the two special funds Albert Immo Properties and Victoria Immo Properties with inquiries to Berlin authorities, Naomi Hennig, member of the project group Im Dissens? Neighborhood, Gentrification and Artistic Engagement in Oranienstraße (2019) and Julian Zwicker, resident and co-founder of the house group AmMa 65 and the initiative Häuser Bewegen.

Sunday, 16 October 2022, 18:00 (de)
In public space
Meeting point: Leopoldplatz
Demonstrative walk “Embrace spatial diversity of the commons – Ein tragbares Quintichon“ by coop disco

X Properties is inviting to demonstrate with coopdisco’s quintych from Leopoldplatz via U8 to the nGbK at Oranienstraße 25: The definancialized city of the post-crisis era is a site of cooperation, which in the self-determined use of its habitants captures, overgrows, appropriates, rebuilds, includes and communalizes the ruined monuments of financialization. The concrete-utopian concepts of the early socialists, constructivists, modernists, situationists, community designers, squatters, careful urban renewers, syndicalists, and architectural anarchists serve as models that inspire transformation. Let’s play.

Sunday, 16 October 2022, 20:00 (de)
nGbK event space 1st floor, Oranienstraße 25, 10999 Berlin
Journal presentation and discussion “X Properties – die Recherche, das Berliner Heft und die eutopischen Aussichten“ with the project group and guests

In cooperation with the nGbK and produced on the occasion of the homonymous nGbK project, the 11th issue of the Berlin Journals—On the History and Present State of the City, X Properties, is published recently.

Following the presentation of the issue, participants from Syndikat bleibt! and the campaign Volle Breitseite für die Oranienstraße 25 will speak about how they encountered non-transparent ownership structures in their search for new proprietors of their houses and thereby became drawn to financial products. In the second part of the evening, Kathrin Gerlof from the business journal OXI will discuss utopian concepts of a non-financialized city, and the architects’ collective coopdisco will show textile handicrafts as an activist approach to making such concepts visible and tangible in urban space. The talks will be enriched and framed by readings from X Properties.

The book examines the impact of financial capital on the social and cultural production of the city, its forms of relationality and subjectivity. It is also published as an e-book from EECLECTIC. The texts by Christian (Syndikat-Kollektiv), Christoph Casper, Joerg Franzbecker, Jana Gebauer, Kathrin Gerlof, Naomi Hennig, Katrin Lompscher, Louis Moreno, Raquel Rolnik & Isadora Guerreiro & Paula Freire Santoro, Pheli Sommer and Florian Wüst, as well as images by Kim Bode, combine case studies from Berlin with global perspectives on the de-/financialization of the city.

Friday, 28 October 2022, 18:00 (de)
nGbK, Oranienstraße 25, 10999 Berlin
Demonstration “Embrace spatial diversity of the commons – Ein tragbares Quintichon“ by coop disco at Oranienstraße 25

X Properties invites to demonstrate with coopdisco‘s Quintichon for the possibilities of a city and that of the house Oranienstraße 25: The definancialized city of the post-crisis era is a site of cooperation, which in the self-determined use of its habitants captures, overgrows, appropriates, rebuilds, includes and communalizes the ruined monuments of financialization. The concrete-utopian concepts of the early socialists, constructivists, modernists, situationists, community designers, squatters, careful urban renewers, syndicalists, and architectural anarchists serve as models that inspire transformation. Let’s play.

Friday, 28 October 2022, 19:00 (de)
nGbK event space 1st floor, Oranienstraße 25, 10999 Berlin
Lecture “Finanzialisierung und Bodenfrage“ by Susanne Heeg (geographer, Goethe University Frankfurt) and discussion with Kathrin Gerlof (OXI)

Moderation: Naomi Hennig

How do the continuous rent hikes and spiraling prices on Berlin’s real estate market come about? In her short lecture, Susanne Heeg discusses the connection between land, price and valuation. Central questions are what factors influence land and rental prices and what this has to do with the financialization of the city.
After that, Kathrin Gerlof will talk about the complex phenomenon of price and the common confusion of price and value. In a joint discussion, concrete options for action and strategic arguments for mobilization against financialization will be reflected. Can and must counter-resistance start with the issues of land, price and value? Which political, legal and social structures and which conceptions of “value“ are needed to enable a fairer distribution of housing for all?

Saturday, 29 October 2022, 14:00 (de/en)
In public space
Meeting point: Bona Peiser | Sozio-kulturelle Projekträume, Oranienstr. 72, 10969 Berlin
Urban spatial sonification of knowbotiq’s “Z vier Doppel X: Contact. Jane (Remote)“ with Pablo Torres

The tour starts in front of the project space Bona Peisa in the Otto-Suhr-Siedlung. At four stations, the participants are offered short installative settings by Pablo Torres, who sonifys the human and non-human, organic and technological materialities of urban bodies and extends knowbotiq’s Z vier Doppel X: Contact. Jane (Remote) expands.
Their real dystopia, set in urban space, has meanwhile also been launched online and can be walked through by oneself. At nine buildings and squares in the Luisenstadt, the female avatar ENAY speaks of the often invisible techno-political and techno-aesthetic histories of these places. Based on urban researcher Jane Jacobs, the figure is activated in its digital remoteness via smartphone. She warns us not to abandon the social and emphatic qualities of the urban to the visions and models of a neoliberal “predictable city”.

Saturday, 29 October 2022, 16:00-18:00 (de)
nGbK event space 1st floor, Oranienstraße 25, 10999 Berlin
Workshop “Bodenpreis und Eigentümer-Recherche“ with Lorena Jonas

Lorena Jonas is a housing activist involved in initiatives including Bizim Kiez and 23 Houses Say NO. In this two-hour workshop, she will use the concrete example of her research in Wrangelkiez to explain how the respective ground values in Berlin’s neighborhoods emerge, and how they affect real estate sales and rental prices. Participants are invited to research their own neighborhoods during the workshop using the basic knowledge and research tools provided. You’re welcome to bring your own laptop.

The goal is to better understand the causes of local real estate prices and to define possibilities for more effective price regulations at district, city and state level.

Thursday, 24 November 2022, 18:00 (de)
In public space
Meeting point: Otto-Weidt-Platz/Heidestraße, 10557 Berlin
Demonstration “Embrace spatial diversity of the commons – Ein tragbares Quintichon“ by coop

X Properties is inviting to demonstrate with coopdisco’s quintych from Otto-Weidt-Platz in the Europacity to Neue Nachbarschaft // Moabit in Beusselstraße 44: The definancialized city of the post-crisis era is a site of cooperation, which in the self-determined use of its habitants captures, overgrows, appropriates, rebuilds, includes and communalizes the ruined monuments of financialization. The concrete-utopian concepts of the early socialists, constructivists, modernists, situationists, community designers, squatters, careful urban renewers, syndicalists, and architectural anarchists serve as models that inspire transformation. Let’s play.

Thursday, 24 November 2022, 19:00 (de)
Neue Nachbarschaft, Beusselstraße 44, 10553 Berlin
Discussion and collective reading “X Properties + Am Rand von EuropaCity“
Reading from two issues of the Berlin Journals — On the History and Present State of the City and discussion with Alexis Hyman Wolff, Achim Lengerer and Yves Mettler

On the Border of EuropaCity discusses the real estate venture that has emerged over the past decade to the north of Berlin’s central station: the huge urban development project on former Deutsche Bahn land is being realized by private investment companies in close partnership with the Berlin Senate and represents a neoliberalization of the city that erodes existing neighborhood structures. Like X Properties, the publication edited by Alexis Hyman Wolff, Achim Lengerer, and Yves Mettler aims to better understand and negotiate the social, economic, and cultural geographies of financialized urban development. The discussion will supplement the reading of fragments from both books and link their content with personal experiences, ideas, and practices for a city for all. The event begins with the screening of some of the videos produced for X Properties by knowbotiq, Z vier Doppel X: Contact. Jane (Remote).