Part 1: Heritage Preservation and Urban Development

Much-visited by tourists and generally avoided by Berliners, the site has faced growing conflict over plans to develop a hotel, Hard Rock Cafe and museum. This first part details the historical importance of the empty plots at the former Cold War border crossing and reflects on wider debates about heritage, tourism and urban development.Find out why urban emptiness can have heritage value.

Our studio guest:

Christoph Sommer is completing his PhD in geography at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU Berlin); using Berlin as case, he is exploring how conflict-prone urban tourism is (un-)governed. He is co-founder of the Urban Research Group New Urban Tourism at the Georg Simmel Center for Metropolitan Studies (HU Berlin) and recently co-edited the book Tourism and Everyday Life in the Contemporary City.