On the square in front of the Red Town Hall, confetti flies over the ground, flags in yellow and purple wave in the air. You know these colors here in Berlin. It’s a day of hope for people in the capital, says Carolin Blauth from the “Initiative Deutsche Wohnen & Co expropriate” into the microphone. They won’t stop until the city belongs to those who live in it. Clap, more confetti.
A few minutes later, on the other side of the street, in the town hall, the reason for joy is handed over: the final report of the expert commission for the socialization of large housing companies in Berlin. Whereby the report here, with the black-red state government, should probably not trigger any great feelings of happiness.
“It was not our job to make a political assessment.”
The central message on the approximately 150 pages, which Commission Chairwoman Herta Däubler-Gmelin is now handing to Governing Mayor Kai Wegner from the CDU, can be summed up in one sentence: the incorporation of large housing companies is legally possible. The Basic Law permits a corresponding law, and the State of Berlin also has the power to pass it. Or as the initiative puts it: The expropriation of real estate groups is proportionate, legally secure and affordable.
Housing is a sensitive topic, and there has been a lot of discussion about it in the capital in recent years. About the referendum, about the commission, about the question of what happens when a state government is in office that rejects the request. Herta Däubler-Gmelin, former Federal Minister of Justice from the SPD, therefore made it clear right from the start that the focus had been on legal issues. “It was not our job to make a political assessment of the decision or the initiative.”
Berlin’s Mayor Kai Wegner thanked Herta Däubler-Gmelin for the work of the expert commission – he was probably not happy.
(Photo: Wolfgang Kumm/DPA)
But of course the report that the Commission has now presented remains political, if only because of its history. The core of the referendum is the demand for the expropriation of companies that own more than 3,000 apartments in the city. The living space thus transferred to common property is to be managed with the participation of tenants, and the real estate companies concerned are to be compensated – well below market value, if the initiative has its way.
Socializations are the wrong way, says Wegner
In the vote in September 2021, one million Berliners voted for the idea. As a result, the then incumbent red-green-red Senate set up the expert commission. A lot has happened since then, there have been new elections, a change in the Senate, and inflation has gotten worse. And even if the Commission did not agree on all the detailed questions, it largely confirmed the goals of the initiative with the report. And now?
“We want affordable rents for all Berliners,” said Mayor Kai Wegner on Wednesday and thanked the commission for their work. He wants legal security for tenants, but also for construction companies and the housing industry. According to Wegner, socializations are the wrong way to go in his eyes. “We will now go into the examination for a social framework law.” The CDU and SPD had already agreed on this path in the coalition agreement. The law aims to establish a legal framework and objective criteria for legal partnership. The coalition agreement is hardly more specific at this point, but then comes a crucial sentence: “The law will come into force two years after its promulgation.”
In other words, it may be years before there is a legal framework for expropriations, possibly longer than the current legislative period. With the “Initiative Deutsche Wohnen & Co expropriate” one sees an attempt to delay the implementation. A framework law, as planned by the Senate, is completely superfluous.