A report by the local government in Berlin and leaked to Berliner Zeitung has found that the capital has space for 249.000 new flats without encroaching onto Tempelhof Park. However, Mayor Kai Wegner is still determined that the park be developed.

Berlin has land for thousands of new flats

According to a report from Berliner Zeitung, which has seen a leaked report from the state government in Berlin, there is enough space in the city to build 249.000 new houses and flats without building works seeping into the locally cherished Tempelhof public park.

The report proposes new residential areas be developed at the site of the former Tegel Airport, a former railway yard in Pankow and at Siemensstadt in the western district of Spandau.

This means that the land which Tempelhof occupies does not have to be built on for the government to develop the 222.000 units of housing it needs by 2040 to keep up with the city's needs.

Kai Wegner still wants to build on Tempelhof

Despite the findings of the report, Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) has said that he still wants to build on Tempelhof and is pushing for a second referendum in which Berliners could vote on whether the edges of the park should be developed. Back in a 2014 referendum, around 65 percent of participating Berliners voted to keep the field free from building development.

Wegner argues that circumstances have changed since then. Speaking on February 26 during the first in a series of meetings titled “Kai Wegner vor Ort” (“Kai Wegner on-site”), where the public is invited to pose questions directly to their mayor, he said that not building on Tempelhof is “not socially just” since the city needs more social housing.

Parallel to his justifications expressed “vor Ort”, Wegner has historically voiced scepticism of Berlin’s Deutsche Wohnen Enteignen campaign and 2021 referendum, in which 59,1 percent of participating Berliners voted to expropriate 240.000 houses and apartments owned by large private property companies. 

"It is no secret that I have always been sceptical about the issue of socialisation. I still am," Wegner said after the local government-appointed expert commission on expropriation concluded that the plan was constitutional and would not amount to financial ruin.

If you have a burning question to pose to Berlin’s mayor, check out here when the next public meeting will be held!

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