“There Are Other Ways”: Reunification & Radical Imagination as Resistance

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SQUAT, or the Radical Community Builders of Reunified Berlin

Maya Green

6 episodes

9 months ago

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 is known around the world as marking the triumph of the West and the fall of communism. However, when we zoom into the neighborhoods surrounding this infamous concrete structure, we see a different story... of radical young people who squatted empty buildings to explore alternatives to capitalism, express queer identities, and claim agency in a time of massive global change. With the help of a dynamic cast of former squatters, punks, and dreamers, Maya Justine Green integrates academic theory and personal narrative to tell a story of what people built for themselves in a city's "empty" spaces — and what it might teach us about how to navigate the world’s current crises.

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“There Are Other Ways”: Reunification & Radical Imagination as Resistance

SQUAT, or the Radical Community Builders of Reunified Berlin

44 minutes

1 year ago

“There Are Other Ways”: Reunification & Radical Imagination as Resistance

In this episode, we dive deeper into the fall of the Berlin Wall, examining how a moment of such geopolitical significance was felt at the neighborhood level. Through interviews, Maya explores the frustration and anger that German reunification inspired and how squatting emerged as a tactic to both resist the status quo and imagine new ways of living.

Citations:

Fire and Flames: A History of the German Autonomist Movement by Geronimo (2012)
Metropolitan Preoccupations: The Spatial Politics of Squatting in Berlin by Alexander Vasudevan (2015)
"East and West Squatters in Berlin: Experiences Before and After the Collapse of the Wall" by Hermine De Soto (report for National Council for Soviet and East European Research, 1992)
"Urban Renewal and the End of Social Housing: The Roll Out of Neoliberalism in East Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg" by Andrej Holm (article in Social Justice, 2006)
"Squatting and Urban Renewal: The Interaction of Squatter Movements and Strategies of Urban Restructuring in Berlin" by Andrej Holm & Armin Kuhn (article in International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2010)
“The Transition from People’s Property to Private Property: Consequences of the Restitution Principle for Urban Development and Urban Renewal in East Berlin’s Inner-City Residential Areas" by Bettina Reimann (article in Applied Geography, 1997)
Globalization and Germany, Spring 2023 (Stanford in Berlin class taught by Wolf-Fabian Hungerland)

Access episode transcripts and more SQUAT content at mayajustinegreen.com/squat!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.