This
month marks 52 years since the night in August 1961 that the East
German government erected a wall that would encircle West Berlin,
cutting it off from the East of the city and East Germany.
The wall may have gone, but a small triangle of land in Bethaniendamm, a
street in West Berlin's alternative Kreuzberg district, is a lasting
reminder of that era. Flanked by two roads and close to a dirty canal,
the spot marks the victory of one man over the East German authorities.
When the wall went up, this scrap of East Germany ended up on the
wrong side. Marooned on the West but owned by the East, the area became a
dumping ground. West Berlin resident Osman Kalin seized the land in
1982 and spent weekends clearing it. On it now stands the home he built
from scraps of rubbish, and a garden that has become a buzzing tourist
destination.
Three decades later, the ramshackle building covered in brightly
coloured graffiti may not look like much to some, but it is on this
rough-looking spot that this original guerrilla gardener created his own
vegetable patch.
Kalin was unaware that the land he had proudly occupied belonged to
East Berlin. The pensioner now has Alzheimer's, but Detlef Kämmer, a
neighbour and a resident in the area for more than 60 years, recalls
that soon after Kalin started digging up the soil, he was visited by
East German border guards. They came through a door in the wall to
confront him about the tunnel they thought he was building to the East.
Kalin simply "gave them vegetables," as a way to placate them, says
Kämmer.
People were pleased with the towering flowers Kalin grew on the plot.
"There were sunflowers in his garden that hung over the top of the
[Berlin] wall," adds Kämmer. "He just cleaned away the rubbish and grew
tomatoes."
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