Welcome to the Walkshop “Remaking Berlin”– a walk along what was – before 1920 - border between cities of Berlin and Charlottenburg to explore sites of urban infrastructure

Infrastructure for a Greater Berlin

First, we need to grasp the significance of the creation of Greater Berlin on 1 Oct. 1920&nbsp;Prior to 1920, Berlin was tiny: from Zoo to Ostkreuz.&nbsp;Overnight, municipality grew over 12-fold in size, becoming second largest in world.&nbsp;Population doubled to 3.8 mill. (third largest).

Amalgamated into Berlin were 7 other cities, 59 smaller municipalities and 27 landed&nbsp;estates

More than just act of territorial enlargement:&nbsp;Political project to make whole urban area more equitable and efficient

Pre-1920: Massive disparities in wealth and living standards; each municipality providing&nbsp;own services, setting own tax levels

Creation of Greater Berlin was project of socialist and left liberal parties to rectify&nbsp;these imbalances in a unitary city – made possible by revolution 1918.

Infrastructure systems used as instruments of urban unification.&nbsp;Unifying services across enlarged city by uniting utilities, service areas, tariffs etc.&nbsp;Also: enrolling infrastructure in other fields of municipal policy: housing, welfare,&nbsp;local economy, municipal finances

Fascinating: How apparently mundane, basic services used to unite and modernize a city.&nbsp;This recognized and promoted by city politicians, officials and managers in 1920s

A political history of infrastructure.&nbsp;So, there’s more to infrastructure than meets the eye.&nbsp;More than just providing water, power, gas, sanitation.

The walkshop will explore this ‘more’, using artifacts of infrastructure along former border to reveal multiple political purposes to which was put over past 100 years

Focus not on engineering or architectural significance of buildings, but on them as manifestations of infrastructure politics, policies and practices.

Deliberately taking story up to present day, covering 100 years since creation of Greater Berlin. Fascinating to see how infrastructure systems – renowned for their obduracy – did or did not change across diverse political regimes… ranging from fascism, state socialism to various enactments of democracy

 
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Ottopark, Alt-Moabit

Unifying urban infrastructure systems

Wastewater management illustrates best the difficulties of uniting Greater Berlin, 1920+:

Pre-1920: over 50 entities responsible for wastewater across 8 cities and 59 other municipalities: responsible for collecting, transporting, treating, disposing of wastewater.

Needed to be amalgamated under the umbrella of Greater Berlin

Complicated by 20 new boroughs keen to protect some modicum of self-government.

Not just organizational, but also technical challenges:&nbsp;Over 80 sewer systems operating in isolation, pre-1920

Diverse systems of wastewater collection (combined in centre and separate outside)

Difficulties in balancing needs of sewage disposal, sewage farms and agricultural production

· &nbsp; For sewage disposal, irrigation was needed continuously

· &nbsp; For food production, irrigation needed only during growing season and when low rainfall

Huge achievement of unitary sanitary authority of Greater Berlin to integrate sewer system by 1924

Ambivalence of an icon to municipal modernism

James Hobrecht’s radial system of sewage disposal has been widely celebrated – to this day

Built from 1870s on to remove liquid wastes from city to outlying areas via a radial network of pressure sewers

Here we are at one of pumping stations – no. VIII – built in 1890-91 to pump sewage out of the city

Where did sewage go? Out to huge sewage farms well outside city limits, where it was irrigated on fields used to grow crops and feed livestock

Berlin owned company – Stadtgüter – that in 1920 operated 31 farms irrigating Berlin’s sewage on 8,440 hectares of land

On one hand, this system instrumental in resolving wastewater disposal crisis, pumping wastewater away from city, improving public hygiene hugely, using sewage to grow produce on irrigation farms.

On other hand, symbolic of asymmetrical relationship between Berlin and Brandenburg: Berlin used latter as sink for its waste products, creating “belt of stench” beyond city.

Legacy of this relationship still visible today

Echoes of wastewater reuse today

Today, even treated sewage is no longer irrigated on former sewage farms.&nbsp;Instead, treated in biological STPs, located mostly at end-points of pressure sewers, that are still operating

What to do with the land on former sewage farms?&nbsp;Some have been used for urban development.&nbsp;Others remain, with problems of soil contamination made worse by ending of irrigation.&nbsp;This is what they look like today, with the original channels still recognizable

At the same time, growing interest in using them to help retain water resources in the region in response to drought events

EU, too, is keen to promote reuse of treated wastewater as means of combatting effects of climate change

· &nbsp; In 2020, new EU regulation introduced on reusing treated wastewater, providing further political stimulus

Recently, research and pilot projects have explored creative ways of using former sewage farms:

· &nbsp; To sustain local groundwater resources

· &nbsp; For landscape development and biodiversity

· &nbsp; To produce biomass for energy

An intriguing example of the long-lasting impact of infrastructures, but also of their adaptability to changing needs.

 
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Sewage pumping station

A symbol of municipal self-government

Standing in front of amazing array of electricity generation architecture, dating from early 20C to present day

Can see original ornate power station from Kaiserreich, control room in modernist style of Weimar Republic, a boiler hall from 1950s between them and huge denitrification plant to left from 1980s

I start my book with this panorama of energy architecture and the symbolism of a linear trajectory of technological progress which it imparts.

The original power station – in centre – is also a symbol of municipal self-government: not of Berlin, but of Charlottenburg

Was built 1899-1900 when Charlottenburg one of wealthiest cities of Prussia.

The architecture reflects the importance of power generation to this urban neighbour of Berlin

With each municipality developing own electricity system prior to 1920, the result was huge variety in services: re voltages, currents, tariffs and levels of access.

Creation of Greater Berlin, 1920, brought all municipal power stations under control of Berlin power utility – Berliner Elektrizitäts-Werke, later Bewag.

Within a decade, Bewag had created a unitary system of interconnected power generation and distribution across ca. 80% of city

· &nbsp; Leaving only few private utilities in operation

Invested heavily in modernization of local grid and power generation plant, such as this one in Charlottenburg

Sustaining the insular West Berlin

Power station at Charlottenburg became one of stalwarts of electricity supply in West Berlin during and after blockade

Blockade of West Berlin actually began with power supply to Western sectors being cut by Soviets.

Plunged West Berlin into power supply crisis.

This crisis compounded by requisitions by Soviets in 1945

· &nbsp; Before Western Allies arrived, stripped power stations of valuable plant, shipping turbines etc. to USSR

· &nbsp; Made sure most of reparations taken from Western sectors, not their own in East!

So, West Berlin during blockade had not only no access to national grid, but also massively reduced generation capacity.

Led to stringent rationing of electricity (only 2 hours per day)

Allied response was the airlift to West Berlin, transporting not only food and clothes, but primarily coal and even parts for power plants.

West Berlin authorities aspired to achieve full autarky in electricity generation, so as to avoid dependence on East German or Soviet authorities

Goal of electricity autarky achieved, late 1950s

-&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; (in contrast to sewage system)

What is intriguing about this strategy is that it created opportunities for combining heat with power generation.

Having so many power stations located within the city of West Berlin (12) meant the heat produced could be used for heating local homes.

W Berlin had one of the largest district heating networks in Western Europe – as a direct result of its electricity island status

 
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Charlottenburg power station

Pioneering power generation for the ‘elektropolis’

These silos until recently stored steam to power turbines for generating electricity.

Situated at the back of the Charlottenburg power plant, this so-called Ruths steam storage facility was erected in 1928/29 to enable a rapid response to shifts in peak demand and to cover for power failures.

It needed only 30 seconds to be fully functional, providing 73,000 kWh for up to three hours.

This made it ten times the size of existing Ruths batteries.

At the World Electricity Conference in 1930 it proved a sensation.

Despite its novelty, the Ruths storage facility operated without fault in 1920s and 30s.

After the war and division of the city, it proved even more important for managing electricity loads when W Berlin no longer had recourse to the national grid.

It is a true edifice to Berlin’s pioneer status as “electropolis”

An early case of energy storage

From today’s perspective, the Ruths plant is intriguing as a very early example of storing energy to balance fluctual demand and supply.

Today, we are struggling to find ways of dealing with highly volatile levels of electricity supply from renewables, but also of demand.

Building flexibility into an energy system is, however, not as new as we might think.

The Ruths plant was designed as a direct response to a survey of energy consumption practices in 1928 that revealed the need to accommodate sharp surges in demand for, especially, household appliances at peak times.

So, the plant may no longer be in use, but the issues for which it was created are highly pertinent to today’s energy transition.

While all the talk today is about power-to-gas, power-to-heat etc., we are standing in front of a plant representing “power-to-steam” that is over 90 years old.

 
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Ruths steam storage facility

Manifestation of Berlin’s water table

Berlin draws most of its water supply from local groundwater sources, fed by aquifers and rivers passing thro the city

Groundwater is so close to the surface that it could be accessed by relatively short wells: 882 in 1880

So, this manual water pump is supplied not by some water mains, but by groundwater directly.

Berlin’s groundwater levels are not static: they fall and rise according to the amount of water we extract

· &nbsp; In times of economic growth, more water is extracted and groundwater levels decline, sometimes dramatically

· &nbsp; In times of economic recession or low water use, groundwater levels recover

This correlation between urban development and groundwater levels was known as early as 1930s

· &nbsp; the hydrologist Julius Denner described groundwater levels, indeed, as the mirror image of economic growth

· &nbsp; rise of groundwater levels in Inflation, Depression and in later stages of war

He and his colleagues were using groundwater levels as a proxy indicator for urban growth, highlighting the problems created by both low levels – dried up wells – and high levels – permanently flooded cellars.

Wonderful illustration of the interdependence between a city and its water infrastructure

A ‘redundant’ technology lives on!

Water pumps like these might look like quaint relics from the past, but they have proved remarkably adaptable to changing needs.

The fact that this one clearly dates from the post-war era should alert us to this.

Originally built for general water supply, they continued to serve those without access to public mains (1853+); then for watering draught animals (horses); always as a fire hydrant.

They were used as an emergency source during water supply crises (war and blockade).

In post-war era for washing cars; today for watering trees suffering from drought (BUND).

So, this technology has not been written off, but reinvented itself to meet new challenges.

 
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Street water pump

Town gas ‘made in Berlin’.&nbsp;We are standing in the middle of what was once a huge gas production complex.

This was the site of one of Berlin’s largest gas works.&nbsp;Little is visible today, except for the old water tower.&nbsp;Berlin has a strong tradition of locally produced gas from coal.&nbsp;This so-called town gas was cheap to produce.&nbsp;It generated various by-products for local market: coke for …, tar, ammonium sulphate, benzene.&nbsp;It also provided thousands of local jobs: ca. 7,500 at Gasag in 1920s

Above all, locally produced gas assured municipal control over supply – a crucial factor.&nbsp;Berlin successfully resisted pressure to import coal gas from the Ruhr throughout the 1920s and 1930s.&nbsp;It succumbed to external pressure only during the Nazi regime, when a long-distance pipeline was built from HGW in Watenstedt to Spandau.

City officials had warned that this pipeline would be highly vulnerable to aerial bombardment and – sure enough – it took several major hits during the war that seriously disrupted the city’s gas supply.

Gas in the insular city

The local production and storage of gas became even more critical for energy provision in West Berlin following division – just as with electricity.&nbsp;Energy security concerns of the Cold War reinforced the strategy of self-provision for gas too.&nbsp;But storing sufficient reserves of gas and coal proved a real headache.This was partially resolved by shifting the production of gas from coal to oil, 1970s.

This made gas supply more flexible, enabling a faster response to sharp shifts in demand once gas increasingly became used for heating.&nbsp;But it proved hugely expensive, coming as it did at the time of the oil crises.

As a result, the Berlin’s gas utility Gasag ran up massive debts that could only be covered by subsidies from the Federal government in Bonn.

Shift to natural gas

By the mid-1970s, the limits to energy autarky in West Berlin were becoming glaringly obvious:

· &nbsp; inner-city air pollution

· &nbsp; huge costs of producing gas from oil

· &nbsp; collapse in the market for by-products

· &nbsp; physical limitations to gas storage

West Berlin began thinking the unthinkable: exploring options for importing gas thro the GDR:

· &nbsp; from FRG

· &nbsp; from GDR

· &nbsp; natural gas direct from USSR

Energy security was dependent on storing gas to minimize dependence on outside interference (wounds of blockade not healed)

The discovery of a huge underground natural cavity in 1970s proved a game-changer.

This porous geological layer, located 500-860 metres below Spandau, provided the opportunity to store up to 1 billion cubic metres of gas underground.

This was enough to keep West Berlin supplied for at least a year – a precondition for the Western Allies agreeing to gas imports

Negotiations with the Soviet Union, the FRG and GDR proved long and laborious, reflecting the deep distrust of the Cold War

It was only in 1983 that contracts were signed.

In 1985, a piece of the Berlin Wall was temporarily removed in Rudow to allow the pipeline to be laid connecting West Berlin to the East European natural gas network.

This marked the end of local gas production in Berlin &gt;&gt;&gt; the Charlottenburg gas works were subsequently closed down.

What has taken its place – in this rather unassuming concrete building – is one of two transformer stations used to convert the pressure of natural gas before being supplied to our homes.

The Charlottenburg gas facility – once so prominent in the city landscape – has become almost invisible to the passer-by.

Only a closer look reveals the richness of its legacy.

 
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Gas works and distribution facility

Now that you’ve heard my take on urban infrastructures encountered on this walk, why not try to spot some infrastructures on your own?

Have a wander through the allotments and see what you can detect. Look out for things like manhole covers, rainwater butts, solar panels, waste containers, compost bins. Think how they might differ from infrastructures near your own home. Take pictures of any traces you can find.

After you’ve uncovered some infrastructure in the allotment gardens, venture out to the residential area around Mierendorffplatz. See if you can find the old gas lamps and the modern power charging points. Continue to take photos.

The next time you walk around your own neighbourhood, consider the following questions as you encounter the city and its infrastructures:

1. &nbsp; Which infrastructures look new and which ones seem to have been around a long time? What does this mean in terms of the adaptability of urban infrastructure?

2. &nbsp; How do the infrastructures you see – big or small – define, shape or obstruct urban form?

3. &nbsp; How do they influence the way we use resources in the city? Do they encourage sustainable or unsustainable forms of living?

 
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Garden allotments

Exploring a city through its infrastructure? Not as nerdy as you might think! The power cables and water pipes under your feet can teach us a lot about the past, present and future of a city —you just need to take a closer look…&nbsp;&nbsp;

Urban historian and infrastructure scholar Tim Moss has created a guided audio tour along the pre-1920 border of Berlin to visit exciting examples of infrastructure which shaped the unification of Greater Berlin 100 years ago. You will visit five sites of energy and water infrastructure and hear stories about how these systems were used as a tool for urban expansion, unification and modernization in the 1920s. You will also learn how these examples can be relevant to current-day efforts to render energy and water systems more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable. Tim draws on his book ‘Remaking Berlin. A History of the City through Infrastructure, 1920-2020’ (MIT Press, 2020) which captures Berlin’s turbulent history over the past 100 years and reinterprets it through the lens of urban technology.

 
Credits 
Audio tour&nbsp;developed by Timothy Moss and Pauline Münch,&nbsp;"IRI THESys"&nbsp; 
Images by Timothy Moss and Pauline Münch

Infrastructure that shaped Berlin

Ottopark

Wastewater Pump System

Berlin

The End of the Tour

You have come to the end of the tour!&nbsp;

I hope you enjoyed exploring and learned something new to share with your friends.

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Berlin

Infrastructure that shaped Berlin

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