What do the sausage and the wall have in common? Two ends (pictured: one end of the wall in the village of Moedlareuth)
Photo: IMAGO/Funke Photo Services
“Everything has an end, only the sausage has two,” is a claim made by the pop singer Stephan Remmler in the 1980s. The problem is: it’s not true. There are things that have no end. Who are always there. That never disappear. You find them everywhere. In nature, in art, in architecture. And in Berlin-Neukölln. I can prove it.
Water for example: water was always there. If capitalism were to end, it would not end. (Now that large corporations have been busy privatizing all water resources worldwide for years, it is of course only a matter of time before it disappears and only reappears for cash payments, but this column is not about that, which is why we are discussing the topic here don’t want to ventilate any further.)
Or think of the so-called pig picture on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. That was always there too. At least for the past 45,000 years, which is really a very long period of time. So far you haven’t had to wait that long for the bus, even in Berlin. Which is why in this case I’m allowed to use the term “always” somewhat casually: the “pig image” was always there.
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Quick explanation for those who have never heard of it: It is a prehistoric mural, one of the oldest works of art known to exist in the world. It shows a pig and two hands that look like they aren’t approaching the pig with the best of intentions. (I would like to point out that I am not responsible if someone thinks of Friedrich Merz when they hear the previous sentence.) The fact that the amazingly well-preserved mural, which has proven to be indestructible over so many millennia, will soon cease to exist is not to go out.
Another example of tough durability: the Göbekli Tepe (German: “bulgy hill”) in Turkey, the oldest known temple complex in the world, built at least 11,000 years ago. Has always been there since then. It probably won’t disappear into thin air any time soon.
These are things whose existence never ends: water, art, important buildings.
Speaking of important buildings: The great poet Peter Hacks once wrote a poem in 1998 about the Berlin Wall, which had two ends even though it was not a sausage. (Which, but only in passing, convicted the aforementioned Stephan Remmler of a second lie.) The poem says: “Who can outshine the pyramids? / The Kremlin, Sanssouci, Versailles, the Tower? / Of all the palaces, fortresses, cathedrals / The most beautiful wonder on earth was the wall. / With their beautiful towers and strong gates. / I think I’ve lost my heart to her.”
But the wall met an early end. She was barely older than Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. Like them, she was killed at the peak of her career. Whereas for the other buildings mentioned by Hacks, it is not expected that their existence will end for the time being.
What also has no end: the construction site on Karl-Marx-Strasse/corner of Schönstedtstrasse in Berlin-Neukölln. It’s always there too. And probably never disappears. From an inconspicuous little dent in the pavement, in front of which a lonely traffic cone was placed, it has developed over the years into an impressive collection of construction vehicles, construction fences, metal signs, barriers, warning lights, construction pits, holes in the ground, clods of earth, piles of tools, chunks of concrete and exposed pipes molted, which, like an unpredictable and treacherous organism, develops in a disturbing and rhizomatous manner spreads out in all directions.
Granted, it’s currently less than 45,000 years old, but to someone who lives in the area, it feels like it. The Neukölln construction site still has something in common with the Indonesian cave on whose wall the pig picture was painted: human life has not been found there for a long time. And in a certain sense it is also a “bulgy hill”. If it continues to develop as it has so far, it cannot be completely ruled out that in 11,000 years it will be mistaken for the remains of a temple complex. But let’s remain modest: it currently has a good chance of exceeding the lifespan of the Berlin Wall.
I’m not sure what kind of memorial the corner of Karl-Marx-Straße and Schönstedtstraße will be in a better future: one that commemorates the terror of the automobilized world, or one that commemorates the dysfunctionality of the Berlin version of capitalism.
But I remember the wonderful sentence that Lee Clare, a consultant for prehistoric archeology at the German Archaeological Institute, said in an interview in which he spoke of the place where Göbekli Tepe is located: “No matter where you are “If you dig a hole on the site, something great usually comes out of it.”
The same cannot be said about Karl-Marx-Strasse in Neukölln. That much is certain, anyway.