Case Studies  The Berlin Case Study: The Socially Integrative City.Wrangelkiez, Boxhagener Platz, Ostkreuz

Deindustrialisation and Cultural Industries today

Dramatic decline in industrial jobs left its traces in the area. The economic structure of the area is now dominated by small enterprises, mainly services, office uses, shops, trade, gastronomy, social and cultural facilities and medical aid. But the enormous decline of industrial production can hardly be overlooked: Until re-unification the eastern part was an important location for industrial production and suffered dramatically from deindustrialisation in the last 15 years. Three quarters – 12,500 in numbers - of the jobs in the former Volkseigene Betriebe VEB (“State Owned Enterprises”) with more than 500 employees in Friedrichshain were lost through re-unification. An example for this is the “Oberbaum City”, right in the middle of the area. About as much as 5,500 people – many of whom lived in the surrounding streets - had a job in this former light bulb company in the late 1980s. After re-unification, the company was wound up and rebuilt to a centre for services. With the boom of the new economy, a number of promising young companies moved here. However, after the crisis of the IT sector most of the premises are empty again. Other former industrial plants located in the eastern part of the area which did not survive re-unification are the “Knorr-Bremse” (1000 employees) and car part supply (800 employees). In companies taken over like MITROPA (1000 employees), the number of jobs were reduced to a third. Meanwhile, the area holds parts of the University of Applied Sciences for Mechanics and Economy.

Today, the culture industries take root in the area. The waterfront along the river Spree is developing into a lively location for music- and media industries. With Universal Music and MTV moving here, first successes of investment attraction can be seen. On a former industrial site close by, a cultural and leisure park with a huge arena is planned. The following map shows the overlapping and overlaying of both deindustrialisation and the change to a service/culture economy in the ENTRUST area.

1.The Research Area: its History, Location and Relations to the City of Berlin     Core Problem: Vacant Properties