Abstract

"Schoeneweide- Reinventing Berlin's industrial heartland"

Thomas Irmer, Berlin School of Law and economics (info@thomas-irmer.de)

Based in the southeast of Berlin, the Schöneweide industrial district was one of the most important industrial regions of the metropolis and one of the heart chambers of the German electrical industry. Like hardly any other industrial area in Berlin, this region has been characterized to this day by processes of reinvention during diverse crises, including those associated with political and economic system changes, among them different economic and political crisis developments after the two world wars or the transformation crisis after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Today, too, the region has to face new challenges.
In my contribution, I want to take a closer look at the different actors of reinvention. The focus is on the history of electrical industry companies, exemplified by the history of a building, the so-called “Peter Behrens Bau”. This complex was built during the First World War to house an automobile factory for electric cars. In the GDR period, the most important factory for television electronics was established there. During the transformation after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Schöneweide's industrial history came to an end. Since then, attempts have been made to attract new service industries.
Who were the actors in these various reinventions, who or what decided their success and failure? These and other questions will be discussed in particular on the basis of the role of women's work, since women played a central role as workers in the electrical industry.