Berlin/Brandenburg

The bdla Berlin/Brandenburg is concerned about the escalating dispute over the fencing planned by the Senate for Görlitzer Park. It is calling for an expert dialog in preparation for a landscape planning competition with integrated participation before a fait accompli is created.

Görlitzer Park. Foto: Gunnar Klack, Wikimedia. Lizenz: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

The Senate, the governing coalition and some local residents on the one side - and the district, the opposition parties Bündnis 90/Die Grünen and Die Linke as well as another section of local residents on the other side - are apparently irreconcilable. In principle, they all want the same thing, namely for Görlitzer Park, one of the most important inner-city green spaces, to become a fear-free area that is used for public recreation. The Senate now sees the remedy in a fence, for which almost €2 million has been budgeted.

However, building a fence does not address the actual problems, but at best shifts them. Social problems first and foremost require socio-political solutions.

The debate also neglects the fact that Görlitzer Park is currently not only a place of fear at night, but also during the day. Its design, which dates back to a time when Kreuzberg was on the outskirts of West Berlin, encourages criminal activity. A revision of the parking concept is therefore urgently needed.

Fencing off Görlitzer Park may be part of the solution - in other countries there have been some good experiences with closing off parks at night. However, the decision on this should only be made as a conclusion and not as the beginning of a process involving all stakeholders.

The Berlin/Brandenburg regional group of the Association of German Landscape Architects (bdla) is therefore calling for an expert dialog in preparation for a landscape planning competition with integrated participation before creating a fait accompli.

Görlitzer Park has great potential as a place of recreation for local residents and as a green link from Kreuzberg to Treptow, but it also currently has many problems. In addition to the high crime rate, these include the poor state of maintenance and the planning from the 1980s, parts of which are no longer up to date.

Eike Richter

Chairman of the bdla Berlin/Brandenburg

With extraordinary speed, the Senate Department for Mobility, Transport, Climate Protection and the Environment has commissioned the state-owned Grün Berlin GmbH to invite tenders for a planning contract for landscape architecture firms, which only includes fence construction and gate systems. Implementation is planned in the short term for summer 2024.

Under the existing time pressure, neither a serious analysis of the existing situation, the deficits of the park, nor the path relationships and interdependencies with the surrounding area can be carried out. The usual variants in a planning process are not at all desirable. This is indicated, among other things, by the fact that the early planning phase of the preliminary planning with its variants is not part of the invitation to tender. Planners and construction companies are in danger of being 'caught between two stools' in view of the charged atmosphere on site. Urgently needed financial resources for the renovation and maintenance of the park are being rashly invested in the construction of a fence.

Lioba Lissner

Managing Director of bdla Berlin/Brandenburg

Eike Richter adds: "Before you build a fence, you should analyze the park as a whole, both its current condition and its architectural history and interrelationships. Without considering the uses on the edge of the park, such as the Spreewaldbad, the sports fields and playgrounds, the listed wall and the important crossings for the city as a whole, such as on Glogauer Straße, serious planning is not expedient. It is also unclear how the planned streetcar route is to be routed through a fenced-in park."

The bdla Berlin/Brandenburg is therefore calling for a specialist dialog involving international experts to be carried out before a fait accompli is created, which should serve as preparation for a landscape planning competition. A regulated competition procedure also offers the opportunity to involve local residents in targeted participation, as is currently being successfully done in Kreuzberg in the Lausitzer Platz competition.

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