How can Berlin be explored as a city of culture – and what role do the spatial distribution, use and preservation of cultural venues play in this? The students on the ‘Berlin.Kultur.Stadt.’ course, led by Prof. Dr Friederike Landau-Donnelly, explored these questions. The aim of the block seminar was to provide interdisciplinary perspectives on Berlin as a ‘creative’ city and its structures relating to cultural and urban development policy.
Student Cultural Mapping with the Kulturkataster
The spatial exploration of the city ranged from street art and other cultural practices in public spaces to institutionalised infrastructures such as museums, theatres and creative districts. The course did not merely examine the city from a theoretical perspective, but also provided practical training in using the Kulturkataster. The students thus developed their own research questions and investigated neighbourhoods, cultural sectors and types of space of their own choosing. A key foundation for this was the collaboration with Kulturraum gGmbH, which developed the Berlin Kulturkataster. During the seminar, students learnt about its history and practical application, whilst also using it as a concrete research tool. The neologism ‘kulturkatastern’ ("cultural-cadastering") became established in the seminar to describe the use of this large open-source data source for political and academic work.
Working in groups, the students mapped various cultural spaces and offerings in Berlin. This not only yielded their own research findings but also generated constructive proposals for new entries and categories in the Kulturkataster. On-site explorations also sharpened their awareness of the density and diversity of Berlin’s cultural landscape. For example, in Schöneweide, the students tracked down previously little-known cultural venues and street art sites.
Exhibition and Fishbowl Discussion
The seminar concluded with a public event on 29 May 2026: ‘Berlin.Kultur.Stadt. – Exhibition and Fishbowl Talk’, held in the lecture theatre of the Zentrum für Kulturtechnik. The poster presentation gave the students the opportunity to present their findings to a wider audience and discuss them together. In the concluding fishbowl discussion, representatives from politics and public administration, as well as civil society actors, came together in a productive atmosphere of dialogue. Contributions from Dr Janet Merkel, Dr Bastian Lange, Tobias Schmidt-Pathenheimer and Notker Schweikhardt shed light on future challenges and the need for an empirically grounded cultural (spatial) policy for the city of Berlin. In addition to the regular panellists, an ‘open seat’ allowed for direct audience participation. This opportunity was actively taken up by students and other guests to contribute their own questions and perspectives to the discussion.
It became clear how important cooperation between the independent arts scene, cultural administration and cultural policy is – particularly in times of political and budgetary strain – in order to address the acute shortage of space for artistic production and presentation through new models of ownership, operation and funding.
The course, including its closing event, was funded by the Office for Public Engagement and Knowledge Exchange with Society at the Zentrum für Kulturtechnik as part of the programme ‘Learning and Teaching with Society: Transdisciplinary Course Programme’.
