Unser park in Volkmarsdorf

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June 2017

Recently the Stadtbezirksbeirat has voted in favour of the City buying the land, but this is neither legally binding nor likely to have any effect on the decision making of the City.  It has also become clear that funds to buy the land are available in the city’s two year budget, but the amount is not publically known.  

April 2017

In the meantime, the number of Trailers continues to increase week for week.  As long as the situation remains gridlocked, and property prices continue to climb, the more public money Leipzig will have to spend to buy the land, and the higher the risk that such a purchase will not be able to happen even if the Trailer Parks leave.

The DB Makler officially have interested and large private buyers for the Schulze-Delitzsch-strasse. They understand that, at the moment they plant the last tree for the Urban Forest, the City will no longer have a “right to buy” (Vorkaufsrecht).  This means that the City must persuade the DB to sell the area within the next months. Unfortunately, if the City has legally blocked itself from buying occupied land (as appears likely) it will not be able to do this as long as the Trailer Parks on the area continue to occupy the land.  As we have long feared, the scenario is now imminent that the DB plant the last tree on the area, lay a private sales contract on the desk of the City, and laugh as the City cannot refuse the sale.  

Executive Summary

Volkmarsdorf, the fastest growing area of Leipzig, is potentially one of the most at risk of social tension. It doesn’t have any public green space to release those pressures, to give people more opportunities to connect. Isn’t it fantastic that, in 2010, the city got  a once in a lifetime opportunity, to buy a large green space from the Deutsche Bahn for use as a urban forest and park?

The  Leipzig Stadtrat had the foresight to see the importance of this green space, and gave the City Administration the task of negotiating a purchase.

Seven years later, not only has no progress been made on the purchase negotiations since 2014, the risk that the city misses this opportunity has increased considerably.  Time is running out. The principle problem remains an illegal occupation of the land by two Trailer Parks. The complete lack of action taken to remove this obstacle, and the lack of communication and cooperation by the city administration,  have led us to the conclusion that the squatters will be used as scapegoats by the City Administration and the Deutsche Bahn should the land be sold privately after all.

The land the city could buy doesn’t just include Urban Forest, but 4000 qm of extremely valuable industrial space. If the City does buy the land it will be possible - in time - to create truly creative spaces here in Volkmarsdorf - by converting those 4000 qm either into pure park, playgrounds, or even community space for small businesses. It would even be possible to establish an official space for Trailer Parks!  All this, however, can only happen if the city is able to purchase the land. The alternative is horrible.

There are no certainties in this situation, but the single factor which prevents scrutiny being thrown on the plans of the City Administration, the single factor behind which all the involved actors are hiding, the single factor which represents a true legal hurdle to the city buying the land, is the illegal occupation of the land by the two Trailer Parks.  The most terrible thing about their actions, is that the Trailer Parks simply cannot win the right to stay in the short-term, they can only sabotage the will of the Stadtrat and the people of Leipzig by blocking a public purchase.

The only force which can cut through this Gordian Knot is, once again, the Leipzig Stadtrat - the only people who truly represent our interests in this situation.  The City cannot evict because it is not their land.  The Regular DB cannot evict because their railway tracks aren’t threatened. We have a suggestion for how the Stadtrat might choose to move forward.

This is the moment for Leipzig’s democratic institutions to hold its own administration to account, and demonstrate that the City’s democracy is not to be ignored by a minority to the detriment of the majority living here.  

Link to Table of Contents

Please send feedback and corrections to marianstreetly@gmail.com

The Urban Forest

Is there really any space left for a park in Volkmarsdorf?

The Deutsche Bahn own a large chunk of Volkmarsdorf.  In particular, it owns 27,000 square meters of land between Mariannenstrasse and Schulze-Delitzsch -Strasse in north Volkmarsdorf.  We’ll call this Schulze-Delitzsch-strasse Bahngelaende the SDB from now on. This area has been polluted wasteland for decades, having previously had ammunition sheds built there, train-servicing facilities, and (still) large underground bunkers for diesel fuel.  

The Deutsche Bahn don’t need the land, don’t want the land and don’t want to pay for a full-clean up. They have spent the last decade selling off land right-left and center.  It’s a great opportunity for the city to do something clever.

Who would benefit from an Urban Forest/Park in Volkmarsdorf?

A city district with a transient population, speaking diverse languages, often from war-torn backgrounds and lacking deep social connectivity, will have space for chance encounters and public occasions in a natural environment.  Everybody living in north volkmarsdorf will be able to reach a park without crossing a single arterial road (particularly important for the elderly, the infirm and those with children).

The eco-system around Volkmarsdorf will also benefit.  From the insects, birds and other small mammals to the quality of the air we all breath.

Thanks to an Urban Forest and Park, Volkmarsdorf will increasingly become a place people are proud to live, to stay, and to improve upon.

The City never thinks ahead!

The city did think ahead.  In 2010 the city asked the residents of Volkmarsdorf if they would like a kind of park or urban forest on the SDB. The answer was a resounding “yes”.  The city council held a vote in the same year and made a very forward thinking deal.  It has made sure that the SDB will be “greened” with trees and two strips of grass with “park-like” benches and bins.

So how did Leipzig managed to win new green-space so close to the city center?

You may have heard that the Deutsche Bahn (DB) built a city tunnel from north to south Leipzig underneath the city center.  To build this tunnel and the tracks and infrastructure leading into and out of the tunnel, the DB had to build over a lot of the city’s green space.

The DB has to swap green space it owns for green space that the city lets the DB build on.  One of these areas is the Schulze-Delitzsch-Strasse Bahngelaende (SDB).  

The DB is legally obliged to pay for transforming the SDB (as shown in the city planning below) into a kind of Urban Forest/park, and to pay for it’s maintenance for the next 25 years.  We will refer to this plan for the SDB as the E7 Massnahme from now on (the E7M).

Will Leipzig be able to hold onto this green-space for the future?

The city expressed its desire from the very beginning to also buy this land from the Deutsche Bahn, to secure it for the public and the long-term future of the city.

Thanks Leipzig! Go Democracy! So Volkmarsdorf does get a park?

Well, unfortunately the city never actually completed the buying process.  They started negotiating in 2010, and were still haggling over the details by 2014, when the negotiations suddenly broke off.  

The E7M will be completed, but it will not necessarily belong to the City and thus will not necessarily belong to the public.  If the area is not bought by the city, it brings with it different opportunities and risks - which are generally not in the interests of the public.

Why did the city stop negotiating with the Deutsche Bahn to buy the land?

The city have repeatedly said that they will only buy land which is not legally encumbered - e.g.  where it is clear who owns it and which is not occupied by squatters.  

In 2014, however, two different groups (Trailer Moon and Rhizomia) illegally occupied the Schulze-Delitzsch Bahngelaende (SDB) with Trailer Parks and have been there since.  

The problem the city has had in the past (and has right now in some cases) is that public money has been used to purchase and invest in properties and land, which have then cost far more than expected. Examples include pre-DDR owners suddenly appearing and sueing the city for the return of their assets, or the costs of evicting squatters exploding.

There was no immediate reaction within the community as very few (almost no) people were aware of the plans the city had for the SDB, nor that the Trailer Parks had put themselves right in the middle of a critical redevelopment process, risking everything.

The city and the DB then began sending each other lawyers letters as each tried to establish who was responsible for evicting the trailer parks.  It appears that the DB are legally responsible.

So the DB are responsible for clearing the SDB? Tell me again why the Trailer Parks are still there, and the city still isn’t negotiating?

By breaking off negotiations, the city probably wanted to apply pressure on the DB to clear the area (to remove the legal encumberment [link back]) before selling the land to the city.  

The city is now playing a waiting game.  They believe the DB has no choice but to clear the area.  A senior bureaucrat in Leipzig has shared the opinion with us that this will inevitably happen:  the DB workers preparing the E7M will not be able to finish the work by 2017 (when the DB budget for the work runs out) because the Trailer Parks are in the way.  This means the failure to complete the work will be internally escalated to a DB oversight committee.  The city seems to be betting that the DB oversight committee will then uncover the reason for the delay being the Trailer Parks, and give authorisation for their clearance.

Unfortunately, in the last five years, property values in North Volkmarsdorf have risen tenfold.  In the meantime, some parts of the DB may have other plans than to sell to the city.

Wait, the DB don’t have to sell to the city? They can sell privately?

Absolutely.  The E7M is a Planfeststellungsbeschluss, which is a very strong legal device forcing the DB to create the Urban Forest according to the plan [ref], but they are not obliged to sell the land to the City.  DB Makler can sell the land, for a higher price, to a private bidder.

Why would the DB sell privately?

The DB is one of the world’s largest and most complex organisations.  Let’s ask ourselves more precisely, what’s in it for the Deutsche Bahn Makler (the estate agents who have their own division in the DB). They are the ones responsible for selling the SDB. Let’s assume that the DB Makler get a provision - a percentage - of the sales price for the objects they sell:

The city’s estimation for the value of the SDB is around one million euros based on the official land price estimate of 40EUR per square meter.  

What if, hypothetically, the true value of the SDB land is higher than ten million euros?  Doesn’t that mean the DB Makler make ten times as much provision, or to get promoted?  Probably.

Why is the SDB potentially worth so much? Why would a private investor want to buy the park?

Included in that 27,000 square meters of the E7M on the SDB is 4000 square meters of Misch/Gewerbegebeit (B-Plan 2010: “gemischte Baufläche”) which currently has four businesses on it.  That’s 4000 square meters of land available for pretty much any kind of development, which isn’t restricted by the E7M. That’s prime land for a supermarket, a hotel, or a modern condo development, for instance. This land is only five minutes from the main train station by Taxi, and would be surrounded by green Urban Forest with expansive views over the city.  

Try the calculations yourself to see just how much this land could be worth in ten years!

How might rogue DB Makler be organising this?

An organisation the size of the Deutsche Bahn is run almost like a military, with a clear hierarchy and delegation of control, oversight and rules of engagement governing which actions can be taken by whom and when. DB Makler are free to sell whatever they can, for as much as they can, as long as they stay within the rules.

Regular DB security cannot just be asked to clear an area unless there is a direct threat to rail traffic, and there isn’t on the SDB as the area is nowhere near the modern-day tracks.  Such instruction can only come from higher-ups, such as a DB oversight board [link back].  

If one or more DB Makler can engineer a situation where the E7M can be completed without evicting the Trailer Parks, no oversight committee will be alerted to the situation, and no order to clear the area will be given.  

Why can’t the city just clear the area?

The city doesn’t own the land, so it can’t evict anybody on it.

But wouldn’t the city just use it’s legal “right to buy”?

The city has repeatedly said that it will not buy legally encumbered land.  If DB Makler can engineer the situation where they place a sales contract with a private buyer before the city, having completed the E7M but with the Trailer Parks still in place (encumbering the land) the city has a problem.

Some are of the opinion that the city would just have to execute an embarrassing climb-down, and buy the land with the Trailer Parks still on it, sorting out the situation later.  It may not, however, be that simple.

To understand the situation please refer to the following laws :

• Baugesetzbuch (BauGB) § 24 Allgemeines Vorkaufsrecht
• Baugesetzbuch (BauGB) § 25 Besonderes Vorkaufsrecht
• § 1a Ergänzende Vorschriften zum Umweltschutz                          
• §§72 ff. SächsGemO

As we see it these laws have the following consequence :

1. Because the sales negotiations were officially paused/ended between the city and the DB, the DB has a strong legal case to claim that the city has missed it’s window of opportunity to use it’s “right to buy” (Vorkaufsrecht).
2. The city tries to buy the land with the trailer parks, but runs into a serious problem with §24 I Nr.1 BauGB i.V.m. §1a III and §§72 ff. SächsGemO.  The §§72 ff. SächsGemO applies to Leipzig and restricts it’s right to buy legally encumbered land.  The city has repeatedly said it will not buy legally encumbered land, which increases the likelihood that it will be unable to claim the §§72 ff. SächsGemO does not apply to it. This new law has not yet been tested in court, but implies that the public statements of the city have not trapped it in a legal situation where it now really, truly, cannot buy the land through it’s “right to buy”.  The city loses. The public loses.

You’re saying the city might be walking into a trap?

It seems plausible that DB Makler are trying to organise a situation in which the Trailer Parks are used as Pawns in a game of chess to checkmate the City and block them from exercising their right to buy.  This would then allow them to sell to a private investor, probably adding on a healthy margin for the cleverness and skill with which they have organised the deal.

Is there any evidence for this?

Our suspicions are based on what we see as suspicious behaviour.  

According to our conversations with people from the trailer parks, the most frequent visitors to the SDB are DB Makler.  At least three recent events look suspiciously like a carefully managed process to keep the Trailer Parks in place long enough to implement a check-mate.

1. Demolition of the large industrial chimney next to the Trailer Moon camp could have provided sufficient grounds for a clearance due to the danger of using cost-effective demolition methods (such as tearing the chimney down or using explosives). Instead the chimney was taken down by hand, brick-by-brick, allowing Trailer Moon to stay where it was.
2. When the workers preparing the area around Trailer Moon were about to remove the last line of trees giving the camp some privacy from the houses on Mariannenstrasse, they organised a truly unspectacular action protesting the felling of the trees from an ecological perspective.  Very little support or interest was mustered.  Surprisingly, the workers were instructed to leave the trees as they were.
3. The Trailer Moon camp was originally parked in an area where the DB needs to plan trees, to fulfil the E7 Massnahme (E7M). The only way they can complete the E7M with Trailer Moon there, would be to move them to one of the side stripes (shown below), which is precisely what they did.  After some friendly conversations between the Trailer Parks and the DB Makler, the workers were instructed to prepare a special strip with gravel (good drainage for a Trailer Park) and Trailer Moon moved across within a couple of days - all fake ecological concerns for their trees forgotten (which were promptly removed in accordance with the E7M).

In early conversations with a member of Rhizomia (the second Trailer Park) we were informed that a similar deal had been reached with the DB Makler and they would be moving across to a cleared area to allow the DB workers to clear the large underground diesel tanks around which their camp is based.  Whether that is still the case is unknown.

Why haven’t the senior bureaucrats in the city seen and reacted to this threat?

We do not know.  Why not ask them?

Could the city bureaucracy have an ulterior motive?

Possibly.  Is it so unusual for deals to be made behind closed doors?  Aren’t there enough examples around the world of spaces being quietly exchanged with private investors in exchange for larger inflows of private capital in other parts of cities for other prestige projects?  

How incorruptible and trustworthy is Leipzig’s administration?  We hope that it merits the faith we have in it, as one of the most open and forward looking city administrations in Germany.

Unfortunately, the city is no longer responding to our questions - including questions posed in the public forum of the AK Ost in October 2016, which we were assured would be answered by a bereichsleiter of the ASW.  After posing these questions we were privately approached by several people, from various parts of the city administration, commending us for asking precisely the questions which needed answers.

Could an investor industrialise or otherwise build on the E7M/Urban forest in the future?

Institutional investors think long term, over decades.

After 25 years the land must no longer be maintained as an Urban Forest, although it remains an Ersatzmassnahme for the City Tunnel.  It is important to understand that an Ersatzmassnahme is not the same as an Ausgleichsmassnahme in German law, which means that an owner could assign another green-space as an alternative to the E7M on SDB, and then develop the SDB.

This could only be done if the SDB found itself zoned in such a way that development was possible, and if the Bundeseisenbahnamt could be convinced to allow the E7M to be moved elsewhere, but it is not impossible.  Nobody knows what the city will look like in 20-30 years, nor how it will be zoned, nor how high the value of that land and the pressures upon it will be.  Even the Urban Forest is a good “long-shot” investment for an institutional investor who can afford to spend the next twenty years lobbying to get what they want.

Who profits from a private investor buying the land?

Property owners in Volkmarsdorf will probably benefit.  Assuming that a private investor will want to recoup their investment, one of the first actions they will take can only be building objects on the 4000 square meters of Gewerbegebeit. It is not hard to imagine objects which bring higher rates of return than the scrap yard, plumber, car repair shop and sand blaster which are there now.  A supermarket, a hotel, or office blocks will all increase property values across north volkmarsdorf.

Who is disadvantaged by a private investor buying the land?

Maintaining the E7M will cost money and bring liabilities. There is nothing in the E7M preventing a private investor from simply fencing off the entire area from the public and waiting for continuing increases in land value.

The city’s planners have also said that, if the city bought the land, they would let the leases on the businesses in the remaining 4000 square meters expire - making it possible to turn those spaces into fully-fledged parks and playgrounds. If a private investor buys, this will not be possible.

If a private investor buys, would the Trailer Parks be able to stay?

The Trailer Parks are in no way compatible with either the E7M (which any owner must legally uphold) nor with the interests of the private investor (to make money).  Once any private investor owns the land, they will be able to start eviction proceedings immediately, and almost certainly will.

If the Deutsche Bahn doesn’t sell, would the Trailer Parks be able to stay?

The Trailer Parks are in no way compatible with either the E7M (which any owner must legally uphold) nor with the interests of the private investor (to make money).  Irrespective of who owns the land, once the E7 Massnahme is complete, any city council member can force compliance which means clearing the land of squatters.

If the city buys could the Trailer Parks stay?

No. The E7M is strongly legally binding upon whoever buys the land.  The Trailer Parks are incompatible with it’s legal requirements.  Some voices are of the opinion that the city might be able to turn a blind eye (and the Eisenbahnbundesamt too), however, this is nonsense.  The Stadtrat has the right and the power to see that democratic decisions are executed as agreed by the Stadtrat.  Only a single member of the Stadtrat needs to ask why the Trailer Parks are still there in defiance of the E7M, and the outcome of a clearance becomes inevitable.  The Trailer Parks do not have unanimous support in the Stadtrat, so it becomes an inevitable outcome hence the Trailer Parks have no perspective to be able to stay should the city buy.

If the city buys, would the Trailer Parks be able to leave and return, legally?

Well, it wouldn’t bring much.  

The CDU-Fraktion recently managed to pass a motion (18.03) in the city council which creates a basis for Trailer Parks to be legally recognised. This is relevant for Trailer Parks which are on city land unencumbered by prior developmental constraints (https://ratsinfo.leipzig.de/bi/vo020.asp?VOLFDNR=1004891), which is not the case here in Volkmarsdorf.

For the Trailer Parks to be able to return legally, a number of things would have to happen.  

First and foremost, the agreement of the local community ought to be sought, given that the Urban Wald (E7) was democratically agreed upon after asking the residents of Volkmarsdorf what they wanted (in 2010).  

The city council will then have to seek agreement to move a portion of the E7 elsewhere to make space for a potential Trailer Park(s). This means negotiations at the regional and national level with both Dresen, the Eisenbahnbundesamt, and the Verkehrsministerium - all of which would need to agree.  That is a massively complex, time-consuming, expensive, and politically demanding process, which will have the unintended consequence of opening up more than 250 other sites exchanged by the DB for the City Tunnel to fresh legal problems.

In order to move the E7 elsewhere, the city will first have to find a suitable piece of land from it’s stock, or buy one.

If, in the unlikely event that the E7 is successfully moved, the city would then also be forced by the previously mentioned motion to pay for the building of new infrastructure for the trailer parks including :

• Electricity
• Water
• Sewage

At this point, after spending hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of euros on administration time, appraisals, planning, architects and building firms, the trailer parks would be able to return.

Might the city administration be waiting for the Bahn to finish the E7 Massnahme so it can be forced to clear the land?

Given the situation with the City’s dubious “right-to-buy”, wouldn’t it be a very risky, even negligent, strategy to trust the integrity of the Deutsche Bahn’s Maklern? As detailed elsewhere, at the moment of completion, if the Trailer Parks are still on the land, there is a strong chance the DB Makler will be able to force through a private sale against the will of the Stadtrat.

About the Trailer Parks

Who are the people behind the Trailer Parks?

In their own words:

Unser Selbstverständnis [ist] als anarchistisch selbstverwaltetes Kollektiv.

[...] Unsere Art zu leben verstehen wir nicht als Grauzone, sondern als Experiment unserer Utopie einer befreiten Gesellschaft näher zu kommen.

[http://www.gso-le.de/2015/freiraeume-unerwuenscht-die-wagenplaetze-trailer-moon-und-rhizomia-wollen-mehr-als-alternativ-wohnen] - 03.07.2015

There are roughly 25-30 people with a median age in the twenties. They are not traditional travellers or gypsies, they are a political grouping of utopians.

What do the Trailer Parks want with the SDB?

They want to stay.  They want to live how they want to live, according to their own rules and nobody else’s. 

In their own words:

Wir hatten nicht vor, einen Platz zu mieten, zu pachten oder zu kaufen, da wir der Meinung sind, dass alle Menschen ein Recht auf einen für sie guten Lebensraum haben; unabhängig ihrer Zahlungskräftigkeit. Alle sollten wohnen, wo sie möchten und wo Platz ist und nicht, wo sie wohnen sollen oder es bezahlen können. Die Aussage, dass nunmal alles im Leben etwas kostet, nehmen wir nicht an. Niemand von uns hat sich entschieden, in einem kapitalistischen System zu leben, in dem sogar aus Lebensraum Profit geschlagen wird. Das heißt, niemand von uns hat sich dazu entschieden, dass Miete gezahlt werden muss, von der in der Regel unklar ist, wofür sie aufgewendet wird und die in vielen Fällen schlichtweg zur Bereicherung von Privatbesitzer_innen beiträgt. Wir möchten uns nicht in ein hierarchisches Lohnarbeitsverhältnis einordnen; uns Konkurrenz und Leistungsdruck aussetzen, um dann den „Lohn“ dafür in Dinge wie Miete zu „investieren“. Statt dessen stecken wir unsere Zeit, Lust, Energie und was uns sonst noch so zur Verfügung steht lieber in unsere kollektive Wohnform und in unkommerzielle Räume.

What would this mean for the public’s access to the Urban Wald on the SDB if the Trailer Parks stay?

The last time we took measurements trailer parks currently occupy roughly 30% of the E7M on SDB, which would be more like 40-60% of the available open space (without trees) planned for the E7M.  This means the public would lose free and unhindered access to around 60% of the open space they would otherwise have a right to if the city would buy.  Is that acceptable?

Would it be in the city’s interests to change the E7M and keep the Trailer Parks? Aren’t Trailer Parks supported by the City Charter?

Leipzig has signed up to a city charter.  It is worth reading in full [http://www.bmub.bund.de/themen/stadt-wohnen/stadtentwicklung/kurzinfo/inhalte-und-ziele-der-leipzig-charta/]. The charter lays out the main goals and direction Leipzig wants to follow, to become a viable city which does not depend on subsidies and can sustain itself and it’s people far into the future.

One of the central messages in the charter is for the city to avoid urban sprawl.  Any new living spaces should be built densely, and with high standards for energy efficiency.  Only in this way can the energy requirements per person be lowered (in the interests both of the environment and the economic performance of the city economy). This will, of course, require plenty of green space to keep standards of living from descending into an urban nightmare resembling a chicken coup. Furthermore, the charter recognises that a city is an economic entity, which to survive must generate its own revenues - this means that economically productive units should be favoured where possible.

Trailer parks are a classic example of low-energy efficiency and low-space efficiency sprawl. They are so space inefficient that each resident of the Trailer Parks consumes around 2000% more land area than a resident in any of Volkmarsdorf’s multi-story high-density houses.  

What isn’t dense high efficiency housing, ought to be preferentially used as space to generate income for the city. The trailer parks deliberately maintain themselves in an economically un-productive state for philosophical reasons.

In fact, the Trailer Parks do not align with the interests outlined in the city’s own charter.

What do the Trailer Parks think of the City’s political institutions?

In their own words:

Unser Selbstverständnis als anarchistisch selbstverwaltetes Kollektiv steht wohl nicht im Einklang mit der parlamentarisch hierarchischen Stadtstruktur...

Ironically, and perhaps dishonestly, the Trailer Parks also publically claimed in 2015 that :

Sowohl Stadt als auch DB scheuen sich davor langfristige Entscheidungen zu treffen und ziehen sich damit immer wieder aus der Verantwortung.

In fact, the long term decisions had already been made (in 2010). These decisions were being acted upon before progress was blocked by the Trailer Parks squatting the land.

Is it possible that the Trailer Parks will be able to stay, irrespective of who buys the land?

No. Whether the Deutsche Bahn holds onto the land, whether the City buys, or a private investor gets the property - as soon as the E7 Massnahme is complete the owner at that point will be legally obliged to remove the Trailer Parks.

So if the Trailer Parks are in a lose-lose situation - bad for them, bad for the city, bad for everybody, why aren’t they going?

Why not ask them yourselves?

How are the Trailer Parks responding to the situation right now?

Rather than continuing to campaign under the demand that the “Wagenplatz Bleibt”, the Trailer Parks have instigated a “grass roots” campaign called “Ein Park im Osten” to claim the park concept as their own. This promotes a particular type of park concept in which Trailer Parks would stay as an integrated and key component.

After more than a dozen meetings they have failed to garner any meaningful support among the wider population.  The campaign claims commitment from a long list of local voluntary groups, but the initial interest of various local actors has not crystallized in actual support, because the conflict of interest is so clear and present.

Why do you hate trailer parks?

We don’t.

Why do you think it is acceptable to expect the Trailer Parks to leave?

First and foremost - we believe the evidence (specifically, the E7 Massnahme) makes it inevitable that the trailer parks will be evicted. The only question is when and by whom, because that determines how much damage is done to the interests of the City and the population of Volkmarsdorf. We can only point out the futility of their position, and the likelihood the Trailer Parks are being used as pawns in a game of power politics.

This is also not an existential issue for the Trailer Parks. They are, by definition, mobile. They are able to continue their existence elsewhere.  In fact, over the last year, four members of the Trailer Parks have individually and privately approached us (privately, no doubt for fear of being mobbed if any of the others should find out) and made it perfectly clear that other alternatives exist for them.

Personally, we also see a distinction between temporarily occupying some unloved empty wasteland outside the strict letter of the law - and deliberately attempting to colonise somebody else’s land in the middle of a re-development process, which should be benefiting one of the poorest parts of Leipzig!

So what could the City Council do now?  What happens next?

The Stadtrat will have to decide if it wants this park for the people of Volkmarsdorf. If it does, it will need to force the administration into action, because the administration has now been more or less asleep at the wheel (if we are charitable) for the last four years!

The very first step might be for the city council to vote on a resolution calling for the administration to immediately resume sales negotiations with the DB.  If this does not happen, the administration will continue to try to ignore the reality of the situation.

With negotiations in progress, all parties will be forced to take the issue of the Trailer Parks seriously.  

As long as the Trailer Parks are there, the uncertainty surrounding the purchase is unacceptably high, whilst both DB, and the city administration will be potentially able to do whatever they like and then blame a private sale completely on the Trailer Parks.

We also see the cost involved in preserving the Trailer Parks on the SDB, and the associated loss of space which would otherwise be freely accessible to the public, as inacceptable.  

With this logic, it is necessary for the Trailer Parks to move on. What options are there then for the city to interact with the Trailer Parks, given that the city has no right to evict anybody from land they do not own?

• Appease: The city can talk to the Trailer Parks and offer them a better alternative - which the city currently refuses to do, probably because it looks like giving into blackmail and will encourage similar occupations.
• Threaten : The city can point out to the Trailer Parks how pointless and self-defeating their actions are and vow to undermine the Trailer Park movement in Leipzig as a whole if the Trailer Park movement undermines the City’s democratic processes. If the city loses this chance to purchase the land, it will not only be seen as incompetence within the administration and city council, but as a betrayal which pours oil on the fire for anti-trailer park elements across the city^[1].
• Escalate : The Stadtrat can approach upper management within the Deutsche Bahn and generate sufficient political disturbance to trigger the order for a clearance.
• Beg : The city can plead with the Trailer Parks to see reason and move on.
• Engage : The city an effort to inform the public about the situation to increase social pressure on the trailer parks - which could slip out of control into naked animosity towards the Trailer Parks (a situation we strongly feel must be avoided).

We recommend the Stadtrat works with it’s representatives in Dresden to politically escalate the situation within the Deutsche Bahn before the end of 2017, using whatever leverage the city can find regarding existing/future collaborations between the DB and Leipzig/Sachsen.

About Volkmarsdorf

What is Volkmarsdorf?

Volkmarsdorf is the fastest growing district in Leipzig, with more than 50% growth in five years^[2], and only five minutes from the city center by bike.  

It is the most international quarter in Leipzig, with a wide mix of people from different nations, ages, and economic strata.  

As it’s wonderful Grunderzeit buildings are renovated and people flood in, it will either become a ghetto, right on the edge of the city center, or a successful example for how people from all backgrounds can live together.

What does Volkmarsdorf need most?

Since the fall of the DDR, Volkmarsdorf has become known as a transit zone.  People arrive here, and then move on, quite rapidly (see the city’s Ortsteilkatalogen for more information). Our conversations with almost every single person to move into, and then out of, Mariannenstrasse (a street in Volkmarsdorf where the authors of this document live) have made it clear that those with children and/or the financial means to do so, leave because they want to be closer to one of Leipzig’s parks.

Volkmarsdorf itself has no park, no area where people can take a breath, chance upon each other and make connections, no slice of natural beauty which people can be proud of and which will help hold them here.   A park is something which Volkmarsdorf desperately needs as the population density increases dramatically.

Will Volkmarsdorf ever get a park?

In an established city, there is generally no room for creating large green spaces.  Volkmarsdorf, however, has a once in a lifetime chance to establish a large and public green space which in time can become a true park.  

It looks very much like this opportunity is slipping through the fingers of the city.

Leipzig doesn’t care about Volkmarsdorf?

It is true that Volkmarsdorf is under-represented, politically.  It doesn’t have a single resident in the city council. As the poor and transient tend not to vote, and tend to live in the east of the city, the entire area is also structurally under-represented. With the west of the city getting more votes, more money and attention heads west than east.

However, the City has recognised that it has a chance to transform Volkmarsdorf into an economically viable contributor, if it can make Volkmarsdorf attractive enough for people with jobs and businesses to stay longer.

Isn’t Volkmarsdorf being Gentrified?

Volkmarsdorf has famously had Leipzig’s highest density of empty and ruined buildings, so close to the center, for decades. People are not being pushed out, empty space is being re-activated (at great expense, born privately rather than by the city).

Volkmarsdorf is so close to the city center that it is an inherently desirable location for people to live, and who has the right then to say who may and who may not live where they choose?

What is happening in Volkmarsdorf is a normalisation, and a stabilisation.  Volkmarsdorf has the highest unemployment levels anywhere in the city (14,0% in Volkmarsdorf and 6,8% in Leipzig in 2015).  Such concentrations of the disadvantaged are good for nobody. Only as more people with disposable income live here is it possible for local businesses to open and sustain themselves, and in doing so to create jobs for local people. This is already, slowly, beginning to happen - but the recovery is fragile and needs support.

Table Of Contents

Executive Summary        1

About Volkmarsdorf        2

The Urban Wald        2

Is there really any space left for a park in Volkmarsdorf?        2

Who would benefit from an Urban Forest/Park in Volkmarsdorf?        3

The City never thinks ahead!        3

So how did Leipzig managed to win new green-space so close to the city center?        3

Will Leipzig be able to hold onto this green-space for the future?        4

Thanks Leipzig! Go Democracy! So Volkmarsdorf does get a park?        5

Why did the city stop negotiating with the Deutsche Bahn to buy the land?        5

So the DB are responsible for clearing the SDB? Tell me again why the Trailer Parks are still there, and the city still isn’t negotiating?        6

Wait, the DB don’t have to sell to the city? They can sell privately?        7

Why would the DB sell privately?        7

Why is the SDB potentially worth so much? Why would a private investor want to buy the park?        7

How might rogue DB Makler be organising this?        7

Why can’t the city just clear the area?        8

But wouldn’t the city just use it’s legal “right to buy”?        8

You’re saying the city might be walking into a trap?        9

Is there any evidence for this?        9

Why haven’t the senior bureaucrats in the city seen and reacted to this threat?        10

Could the city bureaucracy have an ulterior motive?        10

Could an investor industrialise or otherwise build on the E7M/Urban forest in the future?        11

Who profits from a private investor buying the land?        12

Who is disadvantaged by a private investor buying the land?        12

If a private investor buys, would the Trailer Parks be able to stay?        12

If the Deutsche Bahn doesn’t sell, would the Trailer Parks be able to stay?        12

If the city buys could the Trailer Parks stay?        12

If the city buys, would the Trailer Parks be able to leave and return, legally?        13

Might the city administration be waiting for the Bahn to finish the E7 Massnahme so it can be forced to clear the land?        14

About the Trailer Parks        14

Who are the people behind the Trailer Parks?        15

What do the Trailer Parks want with the SDB?        15

What would this mean for the public’s access to the Urban Wald on the SDB if the Trailer Parks stay?        16

Would it be in the city’s interests to change the E7M and keep the Trailer Parks? Aren’t Trailer Parks supported by the City Charter?        17

What do the Trailer Parks think of the City’s political institutions?        18

Is it possible that the Trailer Parks will be able to stay, irrespective of who buys the land?        18

So if the Trailer Parks are in a lose-lose situation - bad for them, bad for the city, bad for everybody, why aren’t they going?        18

How are the Trailer Parks responding to the situation right now?        18

Why do you hate trailer parks?        19

Why do you think it is acceptable to expect the Trailer Parks to leave?        19

So what could the City Council do now?  What happens next?        19

About Volkmarsdorf        21

What is Volkmarsdorf?        21

What does Volkmarsdorf need most?        21

Will Volkmarsdorf ever get a park?        21

Leipzig doesn’t care about Volkmarsdorf?        22

Isn’t Volkmarsdorf being Gentrified?        22

Table Of Contents        24

Who researched this document?        26

Who researched this document?

This document is the result of almost a year’s voluntary work, primarily by Benjamin Senior and Lukas Sturm who are both residents of Mariannenstrasse, supported by others in the community.