Switch on Mehringplatz
Mehringplatz Anknipsen (Switch on Mehringplatz) is a digital atlas dedicated to the Südliche Friedrichstadt and the surrounding territories of Kreuzberg and Mitte. It collects and makes accessible data, memories and visions about the neighbourhood. It combines qualitative and quantitative data, personal narratives and public documents to provide a complex and nuanced representation of the local identity. The neighbourhood atlas maps local initiatives, actors, plans and policies, with a focus on processes of civic engagement, co-creation and social inclusion. Its elaboration started in 2016 through the EU funded Erasmus+ project EULER, as the outcome of a series of laboratories dedicated to urban reconnaissance, collaborative mapping and digital storytelling. It is currently implemented through the COMENSI project testing the digital atlas prototype to publish contents co-created with local communities.
Mehringplatz Anknipsen - German
German version of the atlas
An area of interest or defining administrative borders or policies
Locations that are recognised by the community or important reference points
Current projects, conflicts and initiatives - transformations taking place in the area
Formal and informal actors in the area
Document of material and immaterial heritage
Personal perspective and voices, oral histories, interviews and documentations.
Visions for transformation, unrealised projects and proposed hypothesis - representing alternative realities of the area
Connecting different elements in the territory in a geo-spatial experience, e.g. guided tours

Gutschow-Keller concentration camp
The early concentration camp ”Gutschow-Keller” was located here. The greengrocers Hermann and Paul Gutschow owned the imposing building in Wilheminian style in Friedrichstraße 17 on the opposite side of the street. Already in 1932, they placed their warehouse and basement at disposal of the ”SA-Sturmbann III/8". These rooms were located here in the second courtyard of the building in Friedrichstraße 234. From March to May 1933, the place was one of the first concentration camps in Berlin. Prisoners called it ”Blutburg” (castle of blood). Hundreds of trade unionists, communists, social democrats and Jews were seized in their homes, at their places of work and in the middle of the street and were then abducted to this place. Interrogations, torture and humiliation followed - often for days on end. As these torture chambers of the SA were placed in a large tenement block, the neighbourhood knew about the imprisonment and maltreatment, for the screams of the prisoners could still be heard on the street.
Document of material and immaterial heritage
Plaque

Axel Springer Verlag Neubau
Axel Springer AG is Germany's largest newspaper company and third-largest magazine publisher, known especially for its daily newspaper BILD.
After the Second World War, Axel Springer founded a publishing house and in 1966 built the Axel Springer skyscraper, which served as its headquarters, right next to the Berlin Wall in Südliche Friedrichstadt (SF).
The SF area developed into a newspaper district as early as the end of the 19th century - during the industrialisation of printing. More than 500 businesses in the printing industry were based in the area between the Landwehr Canal in the south and Leipziger Strasse in the north, Wilhelmstrasse in the west and Lindenstrasse in the east. The three major Berlin publishing houses Scherl, Ullstein and Mosse also had their headquarters here (two of them in Kochstraße).
The significance of the media and its role in the dissemination of information made the neighbourhood an important site of tensions and conflicts, such as during the two World Wars, May '68 or the Cold War As of October 2016, the new Axel Springer building - designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas - officially opened on 6 October 2020.
The new Axel Springer building is located in the immediate vicinity of the existing publishing house buildings between Axel-Springer-, Schützen-, Zimmer- and Jerusalemer Straße. It is thus located in the heart of the former newspaper district and on the former course of the inner-German border, which runs right through the building.
The new modern architecture symbolizes the Axel Springer’s digital transformation. Source: http://www.axelspringer-neubau.de/ and https://www.goethe.de/de/kul/med/20367736.html
Current projects, conflicts and initiatives - transformations taking place in the area

Berlinische Galerie
The Berlinische Galerie is a museum for modern art, photography and architecture and collects art created in Berlin from 1870 to the present day. Outstanding areas of the collection are Dada Berlin, New Objectivity, the Eastern European avant-garde and the art of the divided Berlin and the reunited metropolis.
The gallery was founded in 1975 as an association of committed citizens interested in art and has been a museum of the State of Berlin since 1994. Since 2004, the Berlinische Galerie has been housed in an old glass warehouse which was converted by the architect Jörg Fricke into a modern museum with around 4000 square metres of exhibition space, a large event hall, workshops, underground depots, office buildings and a café.
Locations that are recognised by the community or important reference points

Dragonerareal
The Dragonerareal is the largest property of Kreuzberg for new construction potential - but it is not a fallow area. From sculptors to nightclubs, various commercial and cultural institutions have existed there for decades. Last but not least, the Dragonerareal played a role during the November Revolution of 1918 in Berlin.
In the northern part of the town hall block, adjacent to Mehringdamm and Obentrautstraße, is the 4.7 hectare so-called "Dragonerareal". Traditional trade is based here - including a furniture upholstery, a marble factory, car workshops, artists, taxi school, the Club Gretchen and the LPG supermarket in an old gas station. The people working there are already filling the former barracks with life.
In August 2015, the Berlin Senate decided to prepare preparatory studies for the city hall block and the adjacent blocks to the north. The completion of these investigations in June 2016 resulted in urban development needs for the city hall block, which is part of the redevelopment area.
The area originally owned by the Federal Agency for Real Estate Tasks (BImA) was transferred to the state of Berlin by signing the capital financing agreement.
Thus, the state-owned BIM Berliner Immobilienmanagement GmbH takes over the administration and maintenance of the area.
Current projects, conflicts and initiatives - transformations taking place in the area
Info flyer model project city hall block

Urbane Praxis e.V.
Urbane Praxis supports the interests of urban practitioners building networks in which it connects civil society actors of urban practice, administration and politics through intermediate communication and networking, representation and responsiveness. It stores, bundles and conveys knowledge, takes up cross-departmental topics of the city and makes them visible.
It implements its own events and formats that demonstrate the transformative power of the field of action of urban practice. Conceivable formats include roundtable discussions, workshops, podcasts, and joint city exploration tours. More places of urban practice are to be found and new collaborations with the individual districts are to be initiated. The consolidation of already existing locations is to be supported. Active cooperation with other intermediary urban policy bodies (e.g. “Taskforce bedrohte Räume”) should take place.
Formal and informal actors in the area

Impact Hub
The "Impact Hub Berlin" is a co-working space at Mehringplatz and a place of social innovation. This space is created to help local individuals transform their innovative ideas into sustainable projects. As a member of the largest global network for social innovation (more than 90 hubs in 54 countries around the world), the Impact Hub team advises, trains and promotes the exchange of people with each other, so that their community currently comprises 17,000 members.
Formal and informal actors in the area

KMA Antenne
KMAntenne is a youth center in Friedrichstrasse 2/3. On the ground floor of the facility is the "Open Meeting Point" with its diverse offer for children and young people. In addition to the open area, the KMAntenne also offers free of charge courses and workshops, which include dance and music, bike workshops or school homework help. KMA is a reference point for many youths of the neighbourhood, especially with migration background.
Locations that are recognised by the community or important reference points

Victoria Versicherung Kreuzberg
Neo- baroque building.
Document of material and immaterial heritage

TAZ Neubau
Building site for the new building of the TAZ Newspaper.
New house for the Taz, die Tageszeitung, created through a common investment of its cooperative members to respond better to the changes of the new digital structure and organization of work, in order to improve the working conditions and at the same time secure the Taz’s company through a capital investment.
The design concept follows the idea of (quote) “a system without hierarchies”, where the network is the structural guiding principle.
It claims to be a (quote) “ living organism”: besides allowing all employees currently working in three different buildings to work together under one roof, it looks to its new role as part of the creative quarter’s project and wants to achieve openness to outside, addressing not only the past supporters of taz, cooperative members, founders, limited partners, subscribers and readers, but in general to all those who want to support the house project and participate in the cooperative.
Recently completed, is becoming operational

Besselpark Regeneration
Due to its poor condition, Besselpark will be redesigned in the coming months (March to September 2020). This project is taking place as part of the redesign of the redevelopment area. The aim of the planning is to coordinate the Besselpark, the playground, the Besselstraße and the open spaces at Charlottenstraße 98 to create an overall urban space.
The wishes and suggestions of the residents were included in the landscape planning selection process in the course of a citizens' survey. The selection committee took the comments into account and the office of Rehwaldt Landschaftsarchitekten took on the responsibility of adding this to the project. In May 2017, the design was presented again in the redevelopment advisory board and offers for young people were discussed. This has been incorporated into the further planning.

Supermarkt
Platform for digital culture, alternative economies and new forms of work. Organizes and hosts workshops and conferences, both in its space and in cooperation with other spaces. Own programme with an emphasis on Open Source Technologies, Freelance Work and Social Innovation. / eine Plattform für digitale Kultur, kollaborative Ökonomie & neue Arbeitsformen. Veranstaltet Workshops und Konferenzen, sowohl in seinem Raum als auch in Kooperation mit anderen Spaces. Eigenes Programm rund um Open Source, aktuelle Arbeitsmodelle und soziale Innovation.

Ela Kagel - Supermarkt
Interview with Ela Kagel, cofounder of Supermarkt.
Realised in the frame of EULER - Switch On Mehringplatz Erasmus plus program.
This video is part of a set of interview to local social, economic and institutional stakeholders realised as part of Mehringplatz Solidarity Curriculum, a neighbourhood atlas aimed at survey existing resources and potentialities of the Südliche Friedrichstadt. Recorded 13.03.2017 at Supermarkt by Vicky Kiefer and Lorenzo Tripodi
Camera and editing Manuela Conti - OginoKnauss
Personal perspective and voices, oral histories, interviews and documentations.

Quartiersmanagement am Mehringplatz
In 2005 the area around Mehringplatz has been targeted by the national Soziale Stadt program (Socially Integrative City), identifying this territory as a deprived neighbourhood in need for specific social support measures according to standards defined at Federal level. Soziale Stadt is a complex and comprehensive community-led local development scheme that combines a tight spatial focus, local participation, and the integration of policies and human and financial resources. This federal programme, jointly financed by European Regional Development Funds and national funds, decentralises decision-making, by delegating responsibility for small-scale projects to residents living in deprived areas selected by the Berlin Senate. The program establishes a local Quartiermanagement that manages different types of Neighbourhood Funds, each covering a different type of project and working with the direct involvement of residents. The Quartiersmanagement teams provide a platform for networking and interaction, enabling groups and actors to debate and identify local needs, values and responses.
An area of interest or defining administrative borders or policies
go to QM website

Metropolenhaus am Judisches Museum
PxB baufeld V - The project is composed by residential and commercial units - including green and recreational spaces.
The ground floor is intended to host four separable and combinable project rooms and artist studios, two restaurants and five small-scale shops; these should integrate local initiatives and facilitate ""exchange, networking, and urban co-existence""(quote) according to the spirit of the ‘intercultural mosaic’, with its orientation towards art, design and everyday life with a focus on exchange between oriental, Jewish and German culture. Additional support to this purpose should come from neighboring cultural institutions such as the Berlinische Galerie and the Jewish Museum.
- The cultural and commercial concept is funded on the economic backbone of cross-financing: the sale of apartments on the upper floors finances the construction of the ground floor space, and at the same time each owner of an apartment will in the future be a shareholder in these temporarily available facilities.

Donut Wedge with Two Balls
Large sculpture donated in 2010 to the city of Berlin by the San Francisco based artist Fletcher Benton .

Sanierungsgebiet Südliche Friedrichstadt
An area of interest or defining administrative borders or policies
Official website
Area

Vielfalt E.V.
Sozialpädagogische Familienverein und Träger der öffentlichen Jugendhilfe/ Social-Educational Family Association for public youth welfare
"Strave to a society fully supportive of the development of its younger participants -Support for children, teenagers and young people of all cultures with open dialogue and confrontation.Protect/strengthen/implementation of childrens and teenagers rights.
- Support of families with migration background (if necessary also in their language of origin) and promotion of coexistence in diversity. - Focus on help and advice on educational questions; assistance including: family therapy, social group work, child support, childcare assistance, family welfare counseling and intensive individual social care. "

Kiezstube Mehringplatz
The Kiezstube at Mehringplatz is a place for the neighborhood where everyone is welcome. Since 2015, it is a community canteen provided by the housing company Gewobag owning most of the property. It hosts the meetings of the council of inhabitants of the block of former social housing, together with being available to the citizens for social activities, courses, initiatives.The content should be based on neighbours' needs. Also, Kiezstube encourages community involvement in their district.
Initially, the Kiezstube was managed by Die Globale e.V., which was taken over by Gewobag after the renovation of the premises in 2017. Gewobag currently operates ten neighbourhood rooms in various quarters of Berlin.
In 2018 after a closing due to several months of urgent renovation the Kiezstube was reopened for everyone who wants to make a difference in the neighborhood.

Café MadaMe
Café MadaMe was born as an NGO providing social support and environmental education, but given its central position has become one of the key civic space of the neighbourhood. Cafe MaDaMe offers a range of gastronomic services, including a daily changing lunch menu, as well as various magazines on display, regular cultural events and the latest gossip from Mehringplatz. This is a place where ideas for Mehringplatz can be brought and discussed.

Die Globale e.V.
Die Globale eV was founded in 2007 and focuses on early childhood education as well as social integration and community work. For years the association has been active at Mehringplatz and in Donaukiez. In the area of ​​educational work, the association operates two learning workshops in Kreuzberg and Neukölln as well as three day nurseries that work with the concept of discovery learning. The offer of the learning workshops is aimed at children between the ages of four and 12 years. It aims to support the learning and learning motivation of adolescents and their interest in exploring their natural and social environment as an essential prerequisite for a successful educational process. The different offers take into account the different living conditions and lifestyles of the families in order to give the children a variety of access to educational processes. The work promotes the special interests and abilities of children and strengthens families as important educational partners for their children.
The second focus of our work is the development of neighborhood structures at Mehringplatz. As part of its offers, the club has established a good contact with the neighborhood. Through various activities (festivals, flea market, book rental), the association is known in the area and has already on numerous occasions supported residents to develop and implement offers for a neighborly gathering. From January 2015, the Neighborhood Commissioner will also be a permanent contact person for the residents of the neighborhood, with whom joint projects can be developed and implemented. The Neighborhood Café on Mehringplatz 7 also offers a public space where people from the neighborhood meet, articulate their needs and interests and use the place for encounters. The association is well connected with other social and cultural institutions and other organizations (Gewobag, Mieterbeirat, education network, tradesmen, AOK, Platzgärtner etc.) in the quarter. Through the daily presence in the square we know the existing problems, but also see the potential of the neighborhood, to whose development we would like to make our contribution.

ZLB - Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek
One of the two seats of the Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin (ZLB). It is composed by the sections for humanities and fine arts, the Artothek, the Cinemathek, the children's and youth Library with its learning center, the music library.

Karin Lücker - Café MaDaMe
Interview with Karin Lücker - Café MaDaMe. Recorded 17.03.2017 by Vicky Kiefer and Laura Colini
Camera and editing Manuela Conti - ogino:knauss
Realised in the frame of EULER - Switch On Mehringplatz Erasmus plus program.
Personal perspective and voices, oral histories, interviews and documentations.

Candy Hartmann - Quartiersmanagement
interview with Candy Hartmann
QM Mehringplatz // Kunstwelt e.V.
Recorded 14.08.2017 at Quartiermanagement
by Daniele Tognozzi, Paula Mangold
Camera and editing Manuela Conti - ogino:knauss
This video is part of a set of interviews to local social, economic and institutional stakeholders realised for the Mehringplatz Solidarity Curriculum, a neighbourhood atlas aimed at survey existing resources and potentialities of the Südliche Friedrichstadt in the framework of the EULER Erasmus+ project.

Urban Sketches: Victoria Versicherung
A short video about one of the few historicl buildngs surviving destruction in this area.
Script / Editing: Paula Mangold, Vicky Kiefer
Images by Paula Mangold, Vicky Kiefer
Realised in July 2017 with the support of the Erasmus+ EULER program
A series of short video postcards from Mehringplatz.
These audiovisual fragments are realised by the participants to the EULER - Mehringplatz Anknipsen laboratory. They experiment a simple and accessible format to capture an impression, report an observation or tell a story about the local identity. Complementing the collection of historical and analytical materials, they provide a layer of personal interpretation to the representation of the socio-spatial milieu.
Urban Sketches

Milieuschutzgebiet - Soziales Erhaltungsgebiet Südliche Friedrichstadt
Since 2017 the Südlche Friedrichsstadt is inscribed in the program of the City of Berlin for the protection of the social composition of a neighbourhood, the Soziales Erhaltungsgebiet. Referred to in the media as “Milieuschutzgebiete“ (social environment protection areas), these are legally established areas for preserving the composition of the resident population from displacement and expulsion connected with urban regeneration. As of January 2019, there are a total of 57 social conservation areas in Berlin. In the Südliche Freidrichsstadt it is established by a recent deliberation on the same area of the Sanierungsgebiet.
Legal basis
The legal basis is Art. 172 Federal Building Code (BauGB). Extracts:
• In a development plan or other statutes, the municipality may designate areas in which the demolition, alteration or change of use of building structures first requires official approval with the aim of maintaining the social composition of the resident population.
• The state governments shall be authorised to determine, by statutory order with a maximum validity of five years, that the establishment of condominium ownership or partial ownership (Art. 1, German Condominium Act) of buildings intended to serve residential purposes may not take place in whole or in part without prior authorisation for plots in areas located within the scope of a statute in accordance with Sentence 1 (2).
Ordnance of the Municipality

GSW Tower
Germany’s first ecological high-rise building was designed by Sauerbach Hutton and inaugurated in 1999. The construction of the 80-metre tall building was regarded as a political signal as it represented a departure from Berlin’s usual building height. One of the functions of the streamlined façade is to reduce energy requirements.
dpa Picture-Alliance / Wolfram Steinberg / picture alliance / Wolfram Stein

Neubau Franz-Klühs-Straße 3-9
The foundation stone for a new building was laid at Franz-Klühs-Straße 3, 5, 7 and 9 on 12 December 2017. Commissioned by the municipal housing association GEWOBAG, a 7-storey building will be constructed here, offering space for commercial and rental flats. Half of the flats can be rented by people with a certificate of eligibility for housing (WBS), but the other flats will also be available at reasonable rents. The newly created housing offer is to be aimed especially at families and single households, who would have the greatest need for housing at this location.
Source: Gewobag; Berliner Woche.

Path of Visionaires
The Path of Visionaries (German: Pfad der Visionäre) is a city art project promoted by Kunstwelt. Intended as landmark and symbol of European unity in cooperation with the embassies of the European Union member states, it foresaw 27 illuminated floor displays with quotes by "visionaires" from each country. It has been under construction since 2006 until 2017 when the plaques already installed have been removed due works for the regeneration of the area dismantled. In 2022 the plaques were made visible again. In the spirit of its eventful history, Friedrichstraße in Berlin receives a cosmopolitan, unifying idea through the PATH OF VISIONARIES and the commitment of the participating states.
Visions for transformation, unrealised projects and proposed hypothesis - representing alternative realities of the area

Friedrichstadt
Friedrichstadt is a historical neighbourhood of Berlin located south of the twin-city zone of Berlin and Cölln. Today, the northern part of the neighbourhood is in the borough of Berlin-Mitte, while the southern part of the neighbourhood is part of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. The border between the two boroughs runs along the southern side of Niederkirchnerstraße and Zimmerstraße. The official boundaries of Friedrichstadt extend from the Spittelmarkt starting between northbound streets Niederwall- and Oberwallstraße, along Behrenstraße west to Ebertstraße, and then south over the Potsdamer Platz, Stresemann- and Gitschiner Straße, ending at the Hallesches Tor, and then again north over Linden- and Axel-Springer-Straße, back to the Spittelmarkt.

Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek
The Stiftung Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin (ZLB) is the largest public library in Germany. Its two locations are the Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek (AGB) in Berlin-Kreuzberg near Mehringplatz and the Berliner Stadtbibliothek (BStB) in Berlin-Mitte.
The Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek is open weekdays from 10:00 to 21:00. The location specialises in humanities subjects and the "fine" arts. However, there are also a variety of books on other subjects and genres, as well as films, music and an art library. The children's and youth library with a learning centre is also located here.
Every Sunday from 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., the America Memorial Library is open and offers a programme of events that changes weekly. If you also have ideas for the programme or would like to offer an event item yourself, you can send an email to: sonntagsbureau@berlin.de.
In addition, the America Memorial Library offers a reading room with free newspapers and magazines as well as a piano room for making music.