After 1989, a number of anarchist groups settled in the Todesstreifen – the so-called “death strip”, or piece of land that ran the length of the wall, overseen by watchtowers, and only accessible to the VoPos (the members of the GDR national police) – who saw this liberated territory as a suitable place to develop alternative lifestyles to capitalism and western consumerism.
The Wagenplatz – wagon and trailer settlements – have organised the space in this urban void, and still survive today as places that regularly provide the city with a number of social and cultural services. The choice of living with the minimum trappings of comfort, in a completely self-managed way, is one of the fundamental principles of these settlements, which other forms of activism and political awareness (the fight against sexism, veganism/vegetarianism, environmentalism) associate themselves with.

However, the future for these communities is uncertain: property development schemes in the areas where they have settled poses a continuous threat of eviction, which is a regular occurrence and makes it necessary for the squatters to move their wagons and trailers to zones where no planning projects have been envisaged. One of the most controversial is Media Spree, the Media City, which, over the coming years, will occupy up to 180 hectares of the Todesstreifen, and will radically transform the image of what has traditionally been one of the city’s most anarchic areas.