35) Fanmeile

It is 1987 and part of the 750 Years Berlin anniversary celebration is hosted on a stage design built around the golden Victory Column; a rumor goes that also a reproduction of Brandenburger Tor is part of the structure. The anniversary celebration lasts six months and has West and East Berlin competing in shows and artifacts. In May Ronald Reagan holds a notorious speech directed to Mikhail Gorbachev in front of Brandenburger Tor. The climax of the anniversary is reached by June 6 when the stage for David Bowie’s Glass Spider concert is built in front of the Reichstag. The amplified music of the concert carries to the other side of the Berlin Wall causing a series of fights in the proximity of Brandenburger Tor between East Berlin students, police and BRD journalists.

In 1996 the Loveparade “We Are One Family” is transferred to Straße des 17. Juni. 750.000 people are dancing. This is the last time the brown owl shows up here. By summer ’99 the Loveparade becomes 1.5 million. The saturated party spreads free and open, the masses rave in the bush of Tiergarten. After many ongoing protests the Loveparade stops performing in Berlin and eventually escapes to other cities.

In occasion of the 2006 World Championship taking place in Germany, Straße des 17. Juni is fenced in, from Siegesäule to Brandenburger Tor, to be transformed in a Fanmeile, cramped with paying viewers. The screening of games resonates above the forest. Straße des 17. Juni, hugely broadened by the National-Socialists in 1934, is for this kind of initiatives an incendiary place. The Berlin Fanmeile becomes quickly phenomenal, roughly calculated for an audience of 100.000, it grows to 900.000. In lack of space the Siegesäule rotatory is also included for the semi-finale, when Germany brutally loses to Italy, and for the finale, when Zidane headbutts Materazzi.

Currently the circumstantial Fanmeile is transformed into a permanent “Festmeile” and hosts a large number of events, all year long. A parallel pathway in Tiergarten is turned into an asphalted road for the convenience of ambulances and police vehicles. The Berlin Senate plans to optimize Straße des 17. Juni are already drafted and include a new powerful lighting system, massive underground infrastructure for water and electricity to feed public viewing and general fairs, a tall permanent fence all around Tiergarten for crowd control, and loudspeakers to soothe the audience in case of mass hysteria.

It is 1987 and part of the 750 Years Berlin anniversary celebration is hosted on a stage design built around the golden Victory Column; a rumor goes that also a reproduction of Brandenburger Tor is part of the structure. The anniversary celebration lasts six months and has West and East Berlin competing in shows and artifacts. In May Ronald Reagan holds a notorious speech directed to Mikhail Gorbachev in front of Brandenburger Tor. The climax of the anniversary is reached by June 6 when the stage for David Bowie’s Glass Spider concert is built in front of the Reichstag. The amplified music of the concert carries to the other side of the Berlin Wall causing a series of fights in the proximity of Brandenburger Tor between East Berlin students, police and BRD journalists.

In 1996 the Loveparade “We Are One Family” is transferred to Straße des 17. Juni. 750.000 people are dancing. This is the last time the brown owl shows up here. By summer ’99 the Loveparade becomes 1.5 million. The saturated party spreads free and open, the masses rave in the bush of Tiergarten. After many ongoing protests the Loveparade stops performing in Berlin and eventually escapes to other cities.

In occasion of the 2006 World Championship taking place in Germany, Straße des 17. Juni is fenced in, from Siegesäule to Brandenburger Tor, to be transformed in a Fanmeile, cramped with paying viewers. The screening of games resonates above the forest. Straße des 17. Juni, hugely broadened by the National-Socialists in 1934, is for this kind of initiatives an incendiary place. The Berlin Fanmeile becomes quickly phenomenal, roughly calculated for an audience of 100.000, it grows to 900.000. In lack of space the Siegesäule rotatory is also included for the semi-finale, when Germany brutally loses to Italy, and for the finale, when Zidane headbutts Materazzi.

Currently the circumstantial Fanmeile is transformed into a permanent “Festmeile” and hosts a large number of events, all year long. A parallel pathway in Tiergarten is turned into an asphalted road for the convenience of ambulances and police vehicles. The Berlin Senate plans to optimize Straße des 17. Juni are already drafted and include a new powerful lighting system, massive underground infrastructure for water and electricity to feed public viewing and general fairs, a tall permanent fence all around Tiergarten for crowd control, and loudspeakers to soothe the audience in case of mass hysteria.