Capital B. Wem Gehört Berlin?

November 1989: The Berlin Wall has barely fallen when the battles over the future of the newly divided city and the distribution of the newly created spaces and opportunities begin: Vain provincial politicians, enterprising real estate developers, and battle-hardened squatters from the West, but also freedom-seeking young techno pioneers from East and West. They all try to seize the opportunity and stake their claims among the derelict Wall sites, dilapidated old buildings, and abandoned industrial plants of a vanished country. For the subculture, it is a brief summer of anarchy in which anything seems possible, in which utopia and chaos lie close together. But the old power elites of West Berlin put an abrupt end to this in a major police operation. The dream is over.

In 1991, Governing Mayor Eberhard Diepgen is re-elected. Alongside CDU leader Klaus Landowsky, he dreams of restoring Berlin as a world metropolis. As East Berlin’s industry collapses and mass unemployment hits, West investors seek profit, taking big risks. Techno pioneers and squatters seize empty spaces for their utopias, while the Love Parade grows into a sensation. Berlin becomes the capital and bids for the 2000 Olympics. But the poor city’s citizens revolt, and the left-wing scene pushes back. Meanwhile, far-right violence rises in the East, clashing with the image of an international city. Still, politicians press on, casting their vision in concrete at Potsdamer Platz. Yet Europe’s biggest construction site can’t mask the storm clouds gathering over the new capital.

In the mid-1990s, West Berlin’s elite—Mayor Diepgen and Klaus-Rüdiger Landowsky—cemented their power, hosting lavish parties on vast construction sites. But the anticipated boom never came. Berlin wasn’t a world metropolis—it was the capital of kebab stalls. Districts like Kreuzberg, Wedding, and Neukölln, with high migrant and unemployed populations, faced neglect and the threat of becoming ghettos. Crime and gang violence surged. Amid the chaos rose Savas Yurderi, aka Kool Savas, soon to be Germany’s most influential rapper. The only thriving industry was techno, Germany’s first unified youth culture, now mainstream. The Love Parade and clubs like Tresor captured Europe’s youth, with Love Parade attendance doubling yearly.

"I'm gay and that's a good thing!" With the 2001 Berlin banking scandal toppling Diepgen and Landowsky, Klaus Wowereit brings a new tone to politics—charming yet calculating. The city, deep in financial crisis from 1990s missteps and shady Bankgesellschaft deals, needs saving. Wowereit finds a ruthless enforcer: Tilo Sarrazin. Together, they form a duo of friendly party mayor and cold-budget czar. Berlin’s rough, poor image is embraced by hip-hop artists like Kool Savas and Sido, turning street life into hard-hitting Berlin battle rap. Meanwhile, techno sees a revival. Bar 25 opens on the Spree’s industrial banks, igniting Berlin’s wild new party era. The city becomes “poor but sexy”—a slogan that works. Tourists and creatives pour in, but so do rising tensions.

In the past decade, capital takes over Berlin. While the world reels from a financial crisis, Berlin booms—finally. Klaus Wowereit's "poor but sexy" city attracts tourists and global investors, becoming a real estate hotspot. After years of stagnation, growth is rapid—but not without cost. Clubs are forced out, followed by residents, as gentrification takes hold. Citizens begin fighting for affordable living and against displacement. Meanwhile, Wowereit, now out of touch, becomes a global punchline over the failed airport project. Neukölln emerges as a symbol of failed migration policy and clan crime. Then, a global pandemic hits, shocking the now truly global city into stillness and change.