JUGENDFARM MORITZHOF
by Stephan Metzner
Jugendfarm Moritzhof - an oasis for children and young people - is located right in the middle of Berlin, between the districs of Prenzlauer Berg and Wedding. It lies on a piece of land where the Berlin Wall ran until 1989, and where today the cock crows, horses neigh and pigs grunt.
When the Berlin Wall came down on 9 November 1989, a large piece of land bordering the district of Prenzlauer Berg was freed up. This was essentially no-man's land between the Berlin Wall and its secondary parallel wall, where the watchtowers stood and where concrete slabs and sandbags defined the space. But people in this densely populated area were keen to see more green space, so they turned the space into a recreational area for the residents. This was done informally and spontaneously: now we might describe what happened as "grassroots activism".
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