Stories about gentrification are usually sad because they involve people being pushed out of their traditional neighborhoods. Many stories like this have been told in Berlin in recent years. Old people were evicted from their apartments, investors allowed entire houses to fall into disrepair so that the tenants could finally move out. Daycare centers, bookstores, old people’s homes and birth centers were given notice of their rooms in order to rent them out more profitably. The stories rarely end well for those affected, but sometimes there is something like a happy ending. In Kastanienallee in Prenzlauer Berg, for example.
There is a dilapidated house with a colorfully decorated facade, which has been home to a queer housing project since the 1990s, the oldest of its kind in Berlin. The “Tuntenhaus”, as those who lived there called it, was sold three months ago, and it was quite clear what would happen now: renovation, conversion into property or higher rents. For the people who had not only lovingly prepared the Tuntenhaus over the decades, but also hosted all kinds of events and ran a soup kitchen in it, this meant that they would probably have to give up their project.
But on Thursday it became known that the Tuntenhaus can continue to exist. The responsible district of Pankow announced that it had exercised the right of first refusal, i.e. brought the property into municipal ownership. The Tuntenhaus is now being taken over by a non-profit foundation whose aim is to make real estate available to community housing projects. This not only secured affordable housing, said the district’s responsible planning councilor, it also secured a housing project for a particularly vulnerable group. Because they are queer people, even in tolerant Berlin. Last but not least, it was institutions like the Tuntenhaus that established Berlin’s reputation as a liberal and open city and thus made it interesting for people from all over the world.
“Three months full of blood, sweat and tears have been endured!” says an initial statement from the Tuntenhaus. In fact, the residents had been organizing protests in and in front of their house for weeks, were in the Berlin House of Representatives, and made politicians aware of their cause.
Whether the right of first refusal could be applied was up in the air until the very end. A municipality may enter into purchase contracts for real estate if this is in the public interest. But this instrument from building law, which for a long time enabled Berlin districts to snatch the houses they had bought from investors in order to protect tenants from displacement, was cut down by the Federal Administrative Court in 2021. Houses can only be pre-purchased in a few exceptional cases: for example, if there are “urban development problems”, i.e. the property being sold is very dilapidated.
This is the fag house. That’s why it now needs to be extensively renovated. This will be done by a cooperative on behalf of the foundation, which will then take over the house under leasehold. The Tuntenhaus is the second property in Berlin to be preserved under the new right of first refusal. Tenant advocates now hope that the case will catch on and that the districts will continue to try to preserve affordable housing in this way. “We now need 3, 4, 5, 1000 more pre-emption cases,” says the Tuntenhaus.