WIR – Demokratischer Alltag in Berlin

For the project "WIR - Demokratischer Alltag in Berlin" (WE - Everyday Democratic Life in Berlin), the artist conducted a series of interviews in 2020 with people who have helped shape political life in Berlin over the last decades and who continue to do so. In their interviews, Marianne Birthler, Hans-Christian Ströbele and Katalin Gennburg talk about their political work.

10 Articles on the topic WIR – Demokratischer Alltag in Berlin

Marianne Birthler | Wir – Gespräche zum demokratischen Alltag in Berlin

Marianne Birthler was born in 1948 and grew up in Berlin. Through her involvement in the Protestant church in East Berlin in the 1980’s, she became politically active and went on to co-found an opposition group. She welcomed the fall of communism with great euphoria and subsequently took on parliamentary posts for Bündnis 90 (the German Green party). For eleven years, she was the Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the former German Democratic Republic. She sees the opening of the files as a means of reconciliation with the dictatorship.

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Niloufar Tajeri | Wir – Gespräche zum demokratischen Alltag in Berlin

Niloufar Tajeri came to Germany with her family when she was five years old. Study and working holidays abroad convinced her to abandon the classic career path of an architect and to devote herself instead to architectural theory and questions of urban development. She moved to Neukölln in 2009 and has been observing the changes in this district ever since. After the plans for the reconstruction of the Karstadt building at Hermannplatz were announced, she founded a neighbourhood initiative to provide information about the background and consequences of this large-scale project for business owners and the neighbourhood and to demand a say.

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Hans-Christian Ströbele | Wir – Gespräche zum demokratischen Alltag in Berlin

Hans-Christian Ströbele, born in 1939, talks about his career as a lawyer and politician. He came to Berlin in the 1960’s and experienced a political awakening. He became politically active in the Socialist Lawyers' Collective and elsewhere before eventually being elected to the German Bundestag four times in a row for Bündnis 90/die Grünen (the German Green party). In the interview, he talks about parliamentary democracy, reunification and the German foreign mission in Afghanistan, among other things.

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Till Egen | Wir – Gespräche zum demokratischen Alltag in Berlin

Till Egen, born in 1983, came to Berlin ten years ago as a filmmaker. He became involved doing street work with refugees during the occupations of Oranienplatz and the Gerhart Hauptmann School. He later participated in civilian sea rescue operations. In 2019, he was a media coordinator on Carola Rackete's Sea Watch mission. Their ship floated off the coast of Lampedusa for 20 days before they decided dock without authorisation and bring the rescued people to safety.

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Christian Herwartz | Wir – Gespräche zum demokratischen Alltag in Berlin

Christian Herwartz, born in 1943, is a Jesuit. After his time as a neophyte, he studied theology and philosophy before moving to France to work, mainly as a temporary worker in various factories and other companies. After his return to Germany, he founded a community in Kreuzberg, where he lived together with homeless and needy people of various nationalities.

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Gülcan Nitsch | Wir – Gespräche zum demokratischen Alltag in Berlin

Gülcan Nitsch talks about her educational background and her work in environmental protection. A biologist and daughter of Turkish immigrants, Nitsch became interested in sustainability early on and got involved in various environmental organisations before founding Berlin's first Turkish-language environmental group. In her work, Nitsch combines nature conservation and migrant civil society and advocates for a holistic understanding of the world.

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Katalin Gennburg | Wir – Gespräche zum demokratischen Alltag in Berlin

Katalin Gennburg was five when the Berlin Wall fell. In her interview, she talks about the break that the event represented for her, her circle of friends and the social environment in her hometown of Weißenfels. She has been a member of the Berlin House of Representatives for Die Linke (German left wing party) since 2016. She is a member of the party executive and spokesperson for urban development, tourism and the "smart city". She talks about the rent cap law, the rental cap in Berlin and the logic behind squatting.

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