Hellersdorf

Country: German Democratic Republic (today Germany)
Year founded: 1986
Planned population: ca. 100,000+
Current population: ca. 95,000
Purpose: created in response to growing housing demand
Special feature: Marzahn Recreation Park with Gardens of the World, Kienberg hill, parts of the Wuhletal valley, and the Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences

Built from 1985 on Berlin’s eastern edge, Hellersdorf was the GDR’s last major housing estate—a socialist “garden city” of prefabricated blocks and open green corridors. After reunification, depopulation and disinvestment left empty spaces and fragile communities. Yet from this periphery emerged new forms of collaboration: gardens, art spaces, and collective projects such as the Place Internationale, where residents and artists experiment with community life and ecological renewal on Berlin’s evolving margins.

Avtor: New Towns New Narratives Network

Kraj: Hellersdorf