Lying to the south of the River Spree in what was the trendy heart of West Berlin, the neighbouring quarters of Kreuzburg and Neukölln have collectively established themselves as the capital of the Berlin Hipster’s beverage of choice, Club-Mate. Beyond iced tea, these student districts stick to the counter-culture script that comes as part of the package with any metropolitan hipster district: militant veganism, bohemian cyclists and heavily politicised graffiti are all part of the Kreuzburg/ Neukölln aesthetic.

But there is something distinctively Berlin about this area that sets it aside from any other standard city hipster quarter. Kreuzburg and Neukölln are not only aggressively left-wing, but they’re districts that are incredibly angry about what they’re becoming: anti-gentrification movements have formed against the tide, targeting airbnb and the man who lives by the turmeric latte. Social cleansing is a disease that directly threatens the authenticity of an area that revels in being abstract, and understandably people are kicking up a right fuss about it.

A Night in Neukölln

This is certainly the impression I got when I visited these two areas last year, especially in Neukölln. I visited the aforementioned on a drunken night out that involved exploring what felt like the entirety of Berlin’s metro, with one of the stops turning out to be one in Neukölln. Luki, a friend of a friend and our local tour guide for the night, brought us here to get some drunk-falafel and to go to some lefty bars.

One of the these bars, Triesteza on Sonnenallee, was the haunt of choice. Although it was the kind of bar that definitely did make you feel like the group of English guys in the room, it was a sick experience that showed a different side to Berlin. This bar in particularly is apparently known for its radical queerfeminism and resistance politics more generally. Fit with gender-neutral toilets, its finely tuned to the paraded tolerance culture of Sonnenallee and Neukölln.

A Sober day in Kreuzburg

Kreuzburg, the more well known and tourisitified of the two quarters, feels a lot further down the gentrification line than Neukölln. From reading articles on the notorious social cleansing of Kreuzburg, it feels like the damage is near-fatal. The downtown district is famous for its immigrant population, with many from the middle-east and, in particular, Turkey, moving to Kreuzburg (and Neukölln) for new opportunities. But many of them face being misplaced by rising housing and living costs in Kreuzburg. The hipsters have chosen it as their haven of artisan coffee bars, and as a results it’s now the in-demand place to rent a flat in Berlin.

Attempts to sanitise Kreuzburg are particularly visible in Gorlitzer Park. Gorli, as its affectionately known by Berliners, is famous for its floating drug-dealers. Many asylum-seekers have taken to dealing in Germany as it’s their only way of earning an income (refugees aren’t legally allowed to work there), and Gorli is known across the country as their trading hotspot. As a way of ‘cracking down’ on Kreuzburg’s seedy image, the authorities have intervened and made it the only place in Berlin where it is absolutely illegal to have any amount of Marijuana in you possession (elsewhere in Berlin, you can hold up to 15g without the fear of being caught out).

When in Kreuzburg its easy to see that it meets up to its reputation for being pretty gentrified, but it’s still nurturing a big international community. Most streets have somewhere selling middle-eastern food, and there’s definitely more non-Europeans living here and in Neukölln than anywhere else I visited in Berlin. If you spend some time here, you’re likely to also see that its still got a lot of grit too. The crackheads are still stumbling about, and it (thankfully) lacks the sheen of Berlin’s central drags.

As it should be, Gorli is still ugly and rugged. It’s still got its graffitied concrete steps facing the Park café, which are a great place to sit and take in the atmosphere of the space.

Curry 36

If the treatment of Gorli has been treated as a symbol of the gentrification of Kreuzburg, so can the success of Curry 36. This fast food restaurant, known as a Berlin institution for its signature currywurst, is a sight that tugs tonnes of tourists across the Spree from Berlin’s centre.

Yeah, for sure, the Currywurst is pretty good, but the tourist crowds that this place attracts sums up why many Berlin resistance movements are so riled. Curry 36 was serving up sausage a long time before Kreuzburg’s rapid gentrification – it’s been in business since 1981 – but it’s commercial pull is entirely in sync with the growth of Kreuzburg as Berlin’s alternative hub. It’s sold as an edgy downtown of airbnbs where any young backpacker visiting the city should be staying in to get their fix of techno culture. Because of this prices are going up, and people are getting evicted from their homes.

Owner of the M99 ‘cornershop for revolutionary needs’ Hans-Georg Lindenau is one of the latest victims of Kreuzburg’s capital-driven ‘regeneration’. A property developer bought out the block in which Han’s anti-fascist materials shop is housed in 2013, and Hans looks set to be relocated. He’s just another in a series of tenants who haven fallen prey to the predatorial investment culture that’s taken hold in Kreuzburg.

The Conflict

The response taken by many anti-gentrification resistance groups is to target their frustration at young western backpackers and the middle-class professionals who are ruining their counter-culture vibe. For sure, it might be a bit of a dampener, but what’s better is to direct the anger at the system as a whole rather than those who just want to spend some time here. This is the line taken by the non-ironically named Hipster Antifa Neukölln (hipster anti-fascists), who condemn anti-Hipster rhetoric in Neukölln. Their organisation was founded in response to bars throwing hipsters out in the area, and even physical attacks on tourists.

Kreuzburg and Neukölln have deservedly earned a glorious reputation among the Left in Germany for resistance politics and direct action against the state and capitalism. As Hipster Antifa’s spokesman Jannek maintains, there is something fundamentally un-lefty about targeting the young rather than the broader capitalist powers at be. Sure, Berlin’s downtown might be changing, but isn’t it better to challenge the developers, executives and those responsible for ‘regenerating’ the area, rather than fighting amongst ourselves?