Season 1 | Episode 3

Capital B - Wem gehört Berlin?

Society, Germany 2023

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EPISODE 3: West Berlin's upper crust around Mayor Diepgen and his right hand Klaus-Rüdiger Landowsky cemented their power in the mid-90s, celebrating themselves at festivals in the concrete cathedrals of the city's many major construction sites. But the capital city boom everyone had expected failed to materialize. While in the East Berlin districts of Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg, long-time residents are being displaced by investors, sways of newly-built office buildings remain empty. Real estate sharks and major investors have gambled away their money. Not even companies with deep pockets dare to come to Berlin. It's a bitter truth: in the mid-1990s, Berlin is not a global hub, but the capital of kebab shops. The city is poor and rough. Districts like Kreuzberg, Wedding and Neukölln are left behind and threaten to degenerate into ghettos with their mostly migrant and unemployed populations. Crime and gang fights are the order of the day. Right in the middle of it all: Savas Yurderi aka Kool Savas, who will soon become the most influential rapper in Germany. Berlin's only commercial success story is techno, the first youth culture trend that is neither East nor West - just German. Born in the dishevelled empty spaces abundant in Berlin at that time, it quickle becomes a mainstream trend. The Love Parade and clubs like Tresor conquer the hearts of European youth from the center of Berlin. The number of visitors to the Love Parade doubles from year to year. Meanwhile, Diepgen and Landowsky do not give up. They want to force the boom and put all their eggs in one basket: Berlin should now not be an industrial city, but the German financial center - and soon rival London and New York. To this end, a new bank is being founded with the city's finances, burning billions with an untrustworthy Ponzi scheme. The beginning of a great catastrophe for the city: the biggest banking scandal in German history is taking its course. This episode covers the years between 1995 and 2001, approximately.
53 min
HD
FSK 6
Audio language:
German
Subtitles:
English

Awards

German TV Awards 2024 Best Editing Documentary Annette Muff

More information

Director:

Florian Opitz

Editor:

Annette Muff

Sound Design:

René Peltsch

Original title:

Capital B - Wem gehört Berlin?

Original language:

German

Further titles:

B comme Berlin - Une capitale se réunifie

Format:

16:9 HD, Color

Age rating:

FSK 6

Audio language:

German

Subtitles:

English