The Red Island

Around 1880, the “Red Island” emerged on fields surrounded by railroad tracks south of Berlin, next to the town of Schöneberg. Here, gas was produced in a coking plant and soon stored in several gasometers. Next door, waste was incinerated in a waste-to-energy plant; the military maintained a military train station here, and soldiers trained on an engineering corps training ground. Those who lived here didn’t have much money.

Since the turn of the millennium, this once-neglected district has been transforming into a diverse and interesting neighborhood. The large Südkreuz station was built nearby.

A private owner is purchasing and developing the area around the former gasometer into the EUREF Campus, which will provide 6,000 jobs, and the city’s gas utility is relocating its headquarters here. Car repair shops are making way for a new park. On the former pioneer site, boules courts, beach volleyball courts, and restaurants are taking shape. In the new development area Schöneberger Linse, some plots are being allocated preferentially to environmentally sustainable and social projects. This is how things can work when the district, municipal utilities, investors, as well as citizens and citizen initiatives get involved in a neighborhood.

On the tour, you’ll get to know the neighborhood and hear about its famous residents: Marlene Dietrich, Hildegard Knef, Hans Baluschek, Heinrich Naumann, Annedore, and Julius Leber.

IN GERMAN