Recap: New Urban Progress Explores Germany
Our first of two New Urban Progress delegation trips took our fellows to Berlin, Leipzig and the Ruhr Valley
A capital shaped by competing visions, an east German city in the midst of a comeback, and a sprawling post-industrial metropolis tackling 21st-century transformations head-on: The first of two delegation trips brought our New Urban Progress fellows to Berlin, Leipzig, and the Ruhr Valley – urban spaces in Germany that are defining the future of the city.
From staff at the United States Embassy in Berlin, to Fridays for Future organizers, to the Mayors of Leipzig and Wuppertal as well as the Berlin State Secretary for Housing, the New Urban Progress fellows will be able to apply a wide range of approaches and lessons-learned to their project work. Below, see how our trip as a whole was a transatlantic exchange on the future of cities by exploring the places we visited on a map, checking-out our day-to-day itinerary, reading the trip journals, and watching short videos from our adventures.
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Places
Our Trip: A Week in Germany
At the beginning of the delegation trip, the New Urban Progress fellows attended Innocracy 2021, a conference on democratic innovation.
New Urban Progress at Innocracy 2021: Democratizing the City
Cities are dynamic networks brimming with social, economic and political life. Yet, how inclusive and reflective are these spaces of everyday people’s interests and needs? During the Innocracy 2021 conference, New Urban Progress fellows Victoria Boeck, Julian St Patrick Clayton, and Richard Lawrence Jr. gave lightning talks on democratizing the city. The discussion was moderated by Diego Rivas, Project Manager at Das Progressive Zentrum.
Learn more about Innocracy here
After a free day of exploring Berlin on Saturday, the fellows toured places that were once future visions of Berlin.
Contrasting visions of Hansaviertel and Karl-Marx-Allee
When Berlin was divided between East and West, the cold war competition also shaped urban planning. Hansaviertel is a neighborhood where the West’s ideas about modernity were put into practice, with residential buildings from many of the most cutting-edge post-war architects such as Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer, Alvar Aalto or Walter Gropius. The Karl-Marx-Allee in the East presents a starkly contrasting vision: A grand boulevard lined with so-called “Arbeiterpaläste” (worker’s palaces), it was built as a show of strength towards the West. While visiting these unrealized visions, the fellows discussed why visions for a city are necessary, but also how visions can become a reality.
Current visions of the city: Innovation, Housing and Activism, Green Citizen Initiatives and Local Politics
To discuss Berlin’s current visions and how they are being implemented, the fellows focused on how actors in Berlin are making the city more innovative and more green.
- Innovation: Meeting with Adriana Groh of Sovereign Tech Fund and the New Institute, we discussed how cities can support innovation sustainably and the role of open source software in urban environments.
- Local Politics and a Green Community: We also met district councilwoman in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Julie Richier. A member of the Green Party (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) and previously policy advisor on climate and international issues to the Berlin Senate, on a walking tour of the neighborhood, Julie talked about current initiatives on how the district is trying to make housing more affordable and the community as a whole more sustainable.
Living the Transatlantic Relationship
At the core of New Urban Progress is strengthening the relationship between the United States and Germany. Our delegation met with other leading transatlantic actors to informally discuss the future of transatlantic relations and what role urban spaces could play in improving transatlantic ties. With representatives from the Atlantic Brücke, German Federal Foreign Office, US Embassy and more, an impactful exchange took place. Elisabeth Niejahr gave a keynote speech on the role of local democracies in the transatlantic partnership complemented by a second keynote by Olaf Boehnke on building alliances of liberal democracies.
On Friday, the fellows saw how a region struggling through a difficult economic transition can still successfully tackle the climate crisis.
Wuppertal Institute
The Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, and Energy is a research institute and think tank focusing on climate and sustainability issues. Located in the city of Wuppertal, its research areas span the energy transition, sustainable consumption and mobility. The New Urban Progress fellows learned how the Institute advises cities on how to manage the ecological transformation.
Lunch with Wuppertal Mayor Uwe Schneidewind
Uwe Schneidewind was director of the Wuppertal Institute for ten years before he was elected the city’s Lord Mayor in November 2020. A member of the Green Party (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), he is considered one of Germany’s foremost economists and a preeminent expert in sustainability research. Over lunch, he discussed with the New Urban Progress fellows the role of different actors in implementing change in an urban environment.
Walking through “Klimaquartier Arrenberg”
Arrenberg is a neighborhood in Wuppertal with a dedicated community, organized in the non-profit “Aufbruch am Arrenberg”. Aufbruch can be translated either as “new start” or “departure” and signifies the neighborhood’s commitment to proactively manage change, oriented at the United Nations sustainable development goals. A major initiative is designating the neighborhood as a “Klimaquartier” (climate quarters), aiming to make living in Arrenberg climate-neutral by 2030. The New Urban Progress fellows toured the neighborhood to see such projects in practice.
Discovering an Industrial Park in Duisburg
The coal and steel industry was not only the major source for the Ruhr Valley’s economic power. It was also the first trade to be liberalized in Western Europe in the Coal and Steel Community, an early building block of European integration that would eventually develop into the European Union. Duisburg, a city in the western part of the metropolitan region, soon realized that even after they closed, the industrial sites were still vital to the region’s culture. The Industrial Park in Duisburg (Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord) is a public park that was designed for the International Architecture Exhibition Emscher Park in 1989. Today, it is often ranked as one of the best urban green spaces, precisely because it preserves and integrates many of the old industrial sites as monuments to the city’s industrial legacy. The New Urban Progress fellows experienced the park at night, when the decommissioned industrial buildings are lit in spectacular colors.
Before saying goodbye, the fellows visited the Zeche Zollverein, an internationally acclaimed coal mine-turned-monument and cultural site.
Zeche Zollverein
The Zeche Zollverein is a former coal mine that was closed in 1986. In 2001, it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is one of the Ruhr Valley’s best known industrial monuments and hosts many cultural institutions, including the Ruhrmuseum and the Folkwang University of the Arts. Zeche Zollverein’s green spaces also have exceptional biodiversity. During their final day of the delegation trip, the New Urban Progress fellows toured the site and visited an exhibition focused on the life and economic contributions of the Turkish diaspora in Germany.
Rewatch the Highlights
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Trip Journals
Sunday, October 17, Berlin: Two Visions. Similar Challenges
Tuesday, October 19, Berlin & Leipzig: Transatlantic Conversations
Friday, October 22, Ruhr Valley: Industrial Legacy and Climate Transformation
Monday, October 18, Berlin: Transformations and the City of the Future
Wednesday, October 20, Leipzig: “ The future of cities. Not for granted.“
This was one side of the Atlantic – next year, we will see the other: In 2022, New Urban Progress will embark on a delegation trip through three US cities that are grappling with the urban challenges of today and tomorrow: Chicago, IL, Austin, TX, and Denver, CO. Until then, our fellows will continue meeting in digital working groups. Stay tuned for more!
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New Urban Progress is the joint metro initiative of Das Progressive Zentrum, the Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft and the Progressive Policy Institute. The project is supported by the Transatlantic Program of the Federal Republic of Germany and funded by the European Recovery Program (ERP) of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi).