With winter loosening its grip, spring is finally arriving in Berlin. And so in Görlitzer Park in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, the old routines are returning: A customer approaches a dealer, who signals him to wait a few steps away. The dealer walks along a sandy path to a marked spot, crouches down, digs into the soil with a spoon, and pulls out an aluminum ball. He carries it to the customer; money changes hands. The art of the deal, Kreuzberg style. The Berlin Senate now wants to put a stop—or rather several stops—to deals like this. Starting Sunday, the park will be locked at night.
This fulfills what Timur Husein, CDU leader in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, first put forward in a motion to the district parliament in 2014. His document DS/1413/IV demanded something previously unheard of: in the middle of the left-alternative, laissez-faire district of Kreuzberg, a public park was to be closed. Where during the day unleashed dogs, illegal barbecuers, and openly dealing drug sellers mingled, law and order would at least prevail at night. The predominantly Green-Red-Red district assembly members rejected the proposal—as expected.
Crime in Görlitzer Park increased rapidly
With his proposal, Husein was reacting to a worrying trend. In 2014, there were four attempted homicides and 178 cases of grievous bodily harm in the park, far more than in previous years. In 2012 and 2013 combined, there had been three attempted homicides and 184 cases of grievous bodily harm. Robberies increased (2014: 172, 2012: 99), and thefts had doubled since 2012. Drug-related offenses had risen from 119 (2012) to 390 (2014).
It had all begun so harmoniously. In the 1980s, Kurt Wansner worked for the Kreuzberg land registry office in West Berlin. The Deutsche Reichsbahn had transferred the area to the Senate, and it was to be turned into a green space. “I have never again experienced the same momentum with which citizens, the state, and the district worked together there,” he recalls.
Green space as a place of integration: From neighborhood project to political issue
“Nature was far away. The Wall was still standing, so you couldn’t just go to Köpenick or into the surrounding countryside. Residents urgently needed a park,” says the CDU member of parliament. “There were passionate debates about which bush and which tree should go where.” Like Wansner, who was born at Görlitzer Straße 71 on the edge of the park, long-time residents in the neighborhood still feel attached to the green space whose creation they could watch from their windows and during walks with their children. “The park was a place of cohesion and integration,” says Wansner.
It did not remain so. Instead, the park became an issue on which initiatives, district politicians and the Senate publicly sharpened their political profiles. A park council, for example, stood up for dealers who had fled from Africa. Activists argued that with a temporary residence status but no work permit, the men were practically forced to earn a living by selling drugs.
Drug dealing in Görlitzer Park spread into the Wrangelkiez
CDU senators Frank Henkel (Interior) and Thomas Heilmann (Justice) tried a hardline approach in 2015. But when police were deployed to the park under their zero-tolerance strategy, the dealers simply retreated into the adjacent Wrangelkiez. The neighborhood, where crack addicts now terrorize residents, has not recovered to this day.
The district, meanwhile, pursued a different approach. District Mayor Monika Herrmann (Greens), for example, opposed expelling drug dealers from the park. “Today it’s the group of dealers being sent away. Who will not be allowed in the park tomorrow?” she was quoted as saying in 2019. In May of that same year, the district’s park manager painted pink circles on the park asphalt: dealers were allowed to stand there and conduct their business, he decided. CDU politician Wansner later had to listen to a father say: “A dealer asked me if I wanted to buy drugs—in front of my children,” the man said. “Can you imagine how that feels?” In 2020, Herrmann admitted that heroin was now also being sold in what was once known as a cannabis park.
Fence construction in Görlitzer Park: Berlin invests millions despite criticism
From Sunday onwards, a fence and closing hours are now supposed to fix the problem. Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) revived Timur Husein’s 2014 idea in a speech at a party event in Lübars in 2023. Once again, politics linked its reputation to the fate of Görlitzer Park.
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Despite budget constraints, the Senate spent €1.74 million on the construction. The project is embedded in a €28 million security and addiction-assistance program for 2026/27 that extends beyond Kreuzberg. An additional €750,000 per year will go toward park security personnel.
David Kiefer, a resident and spokesperson for the Bündnis Görli zaunfrei (Alliance Görli Fence-Free), predicts that crime and drug dealing will simply be displaced into the neighborhoods around the park. “Then we’ll have the whole spectacle right outside our front doors.” Yet only a fraction of crimes occur during the hours the park would be closed—calling the measure’s effectiveness into question. In the first half of 2025, it was around one fifth.
How are residents reacting to the Senate’s measures?
Even if the gates close for the first time on Sunday night, the future of the fencing remains uncertain. As District Mayor Clara Herrmann emphasized on Wednesday, in addition to her district’s lawsuit, there is resistance from residents: “Many people will now turn to the courts.” David Kiefer, for example, favors an urgent legal procedure—with suspensive effect.
This article was originally written and published on the 26th of February in German. It was translated in English with the use of Artificial Intelligence.
