LAGeSo, later renamed the State Office for Refugee Affairs (LAF), gained a dubious reputation in the summer of 2015. New people were camped outside the authority every day, and the media latched onto the images of a failing administration. Both here and for the population as a whole, the pressure on the city’s social welfare systems was clearly noticeable. Nothing has changed to this day.

Every city is built on change. This is due also to the continuous struggle to find the ideal solution for resource distribution and fruitful coexistence. Several years of austerity policies have left their mark on Berlin, despite economic output consistently ranging above the German average since 2014. The everyday lives of large sections of the population are shaped less by the upturn than the sluggish refurbishment of public infrastructure such as schools and local transport, staff shortages and the resulting long waiting times in administrative offices, as well as government mismanagement, e.g. at BER airport. Nevertheless, administrations are struggling to maintain their scope for action and fulfil their duties. 

For LAF – which was spun off in 2016 – these are the registration, care and accommodation of refugees, which the state of Berlin is obliged to accept. The arrival of refugees becomes a stress test for an already overburdened system – and all too easily the refugees themselves are turned into scapegoats. As a result, public debates no longer focus on the obligation of those responsible – to ensure a functioning infrastructure for everyone – but instead question a certain group’s basic rights and entitlement to benefits. This also has an impact on how people in the quarters perceive their new neighbours.

The levels intermingle

The complaints arising from actually living together differ from the unfounded and prior prejudices. Another pertinent level is the universally valid requirements to maintain social welfare systems. In politically motivated campaigns, frustration over supply shortages is used to pit people against each other by blaming individual groups.

„There is simply no evidence that crime is on the rise around accommodation centres. Not in the crime statistics and not in the experiences of the police sections.“ (Monika Hebbinghaus, LAF, Press Officer, since 2017)

„At some point I heard that Lidl in Allende I had stated higher earnings since the refugee centre opened. But this information was never disseminated.“ (Dirk, volunteer, Allende 2 hilft e.V., 2014-2023)

„I believe that if the economic situation had been significantly worse, it would have been even more difficult. I don’t know if we would have always been able to get the money from the integration fund with such relative ease. But that is speculation.“ (Gregor Postler, Treptow-Köpenick Borough Office, Representative for Participation and Integration, since 2014)

„Nobody is deprived of anything and nobody gets everything for free. People in the asylum procedure are entitled to benefits under the Asylum Seekers‘ Benefits Act. It is slightly less than social welfare.“ (Peter Hermanns, Internationaler Bund, Accommodation Director, 2014-2021)

“The people who say ‘we don’t want refugees here’ are not all evil. They are just afraid that the system can no longer bear the burden. It’s not a debate about social envy, but rather the feeling that ‘the situation is already too tight and now there are additional people who also need support: school places for their children, appointments with the doctor. How is that supposed to work?’ This is why the long-suffering people feel so strongly about this issue.“ (Monika Hebbinghaus, LAF, Press Officer, since 2017)

„In our experience, it really doesn’t matter whether people are on the right or the left or something in between. Nobody wants to have accommodation in their neighbourhood. We have never experienced residents saying: ‘oh, that’s great. you should build the accommodation right here. Good idea. We also believe that people need good accommodation.’ We’ve never experienced that before. Not even in Kreuzberg.“ (Monika Hebbinghaus, LAF, Press Officer, since 2017)

“One accommodation after another was being built at the time. I remember when the container accommodation started, we opened the emergency accommodation in Rudower Straße shortly afterwards. Next came the gym in Glienicker Straße and so on. There were also other accommodations with not so many residents round about, and nobody was interested.“ (Gregor Postler, Treptow-Köpenick Borough Office, Representative for Participation and Integration, since 2014)

„There were situations in Adlershof where I was told: ‘why don’t you open accommodation in Friedrichshagen‘ and in Friedrichshagen: ‘why don’t you open accommodation in Adlershof?’ Of course that doesn’t work. People want to get rid of their problem, so to say, according to the St Florian principle.“ (Oliver Igel, Borough Mayor of Treptow-Köpenick, since 2011)

„Not on my doorstep – of course! I’m thinking of the people on Quittenweg with their houses and gardens. The ones who moved out there especially, although it’s not that easy to reach by public transport. If the ‚problems of the world‘ are then built directly on their doorstep, it causes them stress – and stress also makes people behave unfairly. I can at least understand the mechanisms.“ (Nils Hauer, LAF, Borough Manager Treptow-Köpenick, 2017-2021)

Florian Principle

The Florian Principle describes a pattern of behaviour in which challenges or potential risks are not actively overcome but passed on to others. Instead of solving a problem together, people try to keep it out of their own environment. Another name for the concept is NIMBY or ‘not in my backyard’.

Housing – between strategy and market logic

Since 2018, the General Concept for the Integration and Participation of Refugees has provided the framework for the Senate, boroughs and civil society to facilitate the arrival of people in the city. Following a survey in all boroughs, the 2024 Implementation Report identifies the lack of prospects in the depressed housing market as the most urgent problem. Even people whose asylum applications have been approved and for whom the housing market is open are forced to remain in state-owned accommodation due to a lack of affordable housing. Firstly, the accommodation does not offer sufficient space for privacy. Secondly, there is also a lack of space for new arrivals because people tend to remain there for prolonged periods. Ensuring sufficient housing in a tight property market is becoming a Herculean task.

“Integration works better in a city, but the integrative factor of housing is missing. You probably can’t ignore the fact that the international property market is the actual enemy.“ (Nils Hauer, LAF, Borough Manager Treptow-Köpenick, 2017-2021)

„You have to be careful that temporary buildings like these ones do not get in the way of fundamental development opportunities, as the entire infrastructure needs to grow in this city as well. This definitely includes schools, sports facilities and medical care etc. If you establish a temporary site, you need to be able to give it up again in the interests of general development.“ (Nils Hauer, LAF, Borough Manager Treptow-Köpenick, 2017-2021)

LAF on the hunt for property

The LAF maintains a portfolio of accommodation that needs to be continuously adapted. Long-term planning and short-term responsiveness are not mutually exclusive, but must be active political aspirations. The timing of the publication of new locations is the most difficult moment in the planning process. Too early can lead to blackmail when negotiating the price. Too late can cause citizens to lose trust.

“Politics and administration don’t always pull in the same direction. That’s the problem. The two areas sometimes have very different, conflicting interests.“ (Monika Hebbinghaus, LAF, Press Officer, since 2017)

Fast, faster, fastest. Controversial steel housing wins in a pinch. But when does a dwelling become a home?

Unnoticed by the public, the administration entered crisis mode in summer 2014. The number of arriving refugees had doubled compared to the previous year. The violent reality of political events had put paid to the previous forecasts*. The newly founded, interdepartmental „Emergency Accommodation Task Force“ (TFNU) was given a clear mandate: new accommodation places, as quickly and as cheaply as possible. 

Conceived as a bridging solution between the repurposing of gymnasiums and huge air domes on the one hand and the modular construction of flats with LAF occupancy control on the other, containers were by no means unusual. They had already existed in the 1990s, as well as currently in other places in Germany and Europe. But the TFNU wanted more and placed the emphasis on the residential container ‘village’: up to 400 people per site; high-quality outdoor facilities with children’s playground, pathways, benches, pavilion and bicycle stands, as well as a colourful façade design. The art of turning steel into a real home was then up to the respective operator of the accommodation. 

* Millions of people fled when ‘Islamic State’ entered the Syrian civil war. Unsustainable conditions in the overcrowded refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey prompted many people to move on to Europe. Nevertheless, they are only a fraction of the total number of Syrians who have been displaced.

Procurement and operation

“The LAF is the cook, we, the operators, are the waiters.” (Peter Hermanns, Internationaler Bund, Accommodation Director, 2014-2021)

“Containers were in great demand throughout Europe at the time and therefore difficult to procure. But once the overall concept was in place and the order was on the lorry, you could set it up in a very short time and connect it to the media, because of course there had to be electricity and water.“ / “Get started first, was the guiding principle.” (Nils Hauer, LAF, Borough Manager Treptow-Köpenick, 2017-2021)

“The Wi-Fi is often quite poor in refugee accommodation. Only measurements in the rooms and equipment with access points with a high probability of coverage can help. Steel containers are particularly difficult, as unpredictable conditions can occur due to reflections and damping. The residents move around the building while connected to the internet. So a solution is needed that allows transitioning from one access point to another without interrupting the connection. These technologies were rare and expensive at the time. That’s what prompted us to use the Freifunk developers.“ (André Schaal, b2social e.V., Board of Directors, since 2014)

‘Lego house’ (nickname used by children in the neighbourhood)

„To pinpoint an ‚inhumane‘ or ‚wrong‘ or other treatment of people based solely on an architectural or spatial form is completely oversimplified and wrong. What matters most is how the accommodation is organised and how people treat the people living there.“ (Dr Alexander Klose, Just Transition Center (JTC) Halle, cultural scientist, curator (and container researcher since 2001))

Community

„When we moved from the accommodation to a flat, my children said over and over again for more than a year: ‘it’s boring here, we want to go back to Alfred-Randt-Straße. We want to meet our friends and take part in the activities. It’s boring for us in the flat.’“ (Haitham, resident, 2017-2019; child and youth carer 2021-2023; Garden of Hope 2021-2025)

“Future planning should also consider that perhaps some things don’t have to be so perfect, but a sense of community needs to be developed.“ (Detlef Cwojdzinski, LAGeSo, Head of the Emergency Accommodation Task Force, 2014-2015)

Is it reasonable?

• „I’ve always advocated for us spending at least one trial night in the accommodation. Of course, this was never politically wanted or authorised. But it would be an approach to see: how loud is a house like this? What is the climate like? How does it actually feel to share a kitchen and a fridge?“ (Nils Hauer, LAF, Borough Manager Treptow-Köpenick, 2017-2021)
• „I can still remember that I called the city councillor at the time at some point and said: ‘it really is not much fun anymore’. Because we now had to support something about which had our reservations, namely that people should be housed in containers.“ (Gregor Postler, Treptow-Köpenick Borough Office, Representative for Participation and Integration, since 2014)
• „Steel is really not very people-friendly.“ (Dr Alexander Klose, Just Transition Center (JTC) Halle, cultural scientist, curator (and container researcher since 2001))
• „We always felt it was appropriate accommodation, otherwise we wouldn’t have done it.“ (Detlef Cwojdzinski, LAGeSo, Head of the Emergency Accommodation Task Force, 2014-2015)
• „I don’t think containers are so bad. The main thing is that there are no major restrictions, for example on where you can go.“ (Liza, resident, 2024-2025)
• „So living in a container for a short time is okay. But you had to see how you could move into a house or flat as quickly as possible, because a container is a container.“ (Naim, resident, 2015-2020)

From the idea to handing over the keys

1. A Europe-wide tender is held for the provision of containerised housing in accordance with the specifications of the Emergency Accommodation Task Force.
2. The Senate Department for Urban Development, Building and Housing launches a simplified planning procedure under the Building Code.
3. The Berlin-based Container-Handelsbüro Bonitz is awarded the contract for the construction of Alfred-Randt-Straße.
4. The Austrian manufacturer Containex supplies the modules, which are produced in the Group’s own plants in the Czech Republic and Slovenia.
5. In total, 367 containers are delivered in 184 lorry trips, 270 for Building 1 and 97 for Building 2.
6. There are eight weeks between erection of the construction fence and arrival of the first residents.

15 square metres for two people

One container was one room. Those who came to Germany alone shared a room with another stranger. Each person had a bed, a wardrobe and a chair. The fridge and table were shared. Several adjacent containers could be connected to accommodate families. Kitchens and sanitary facilities were outside the rooms and shared with everyone. The bathrooms were separated according to gender and purpose, meaning that one sanitary unit had either four showers or four toilets. The arrangement of the kitchens, each with four cookers, was calculated so that around 14 people shared one cooker. Depending on the building, the communal functional rooms were located on the same or a different floor. There was also a laundry room with eight washing machines and eight tumble dryers for the entire accommodation.

 “Of course, what was created there was a kind of technical utopia. It builds on a relatively simple basic unit, which in turn has a few relatively simple basic elements, such as the corner castings and the twist locks. But they are standardised worldwide and available everywhere, and then you can scale them to incredible sizes like here. And with the refugee accommodation, we are also at one end of this technical utopia, so to speak.“ (Dr Alexander Klose, Just Transition Center (JTC) Halle, cultural scientist, curator (and container researcher since 2001))

„Before the container accommodation, I lived in a basketball hall with 250 other people. For me, this meant progress. Many said: ‘living in a container is difficult, warm in summer, cold in winter.’ But everything was fine for me. I had fun. I could cook for myself, look after myself and only had to share a room with one person. Yes, of course, the showers and kitchen were shared, but that was ok. It was my first flat in Germany.“ (Haitham, resident, 2017-2019; child and youth carer 2021-2023; Garden of Hope 2021-2025)

“You can furnish a place like this, with the things people have here, for €500. This €500 includes all the furniture, the fridge, the washing machines in the laundry room and our offices.“ (Peter Hermanns, Internationaler Bund, Accommodation Director, 2014-2021)

Twist locks are closing devices that connect standardised sea freight containers to each other, downwards to the carrier vehicle or upwards to the lifting gear, the so-called spreader. The latch fits perfectly into the holes in the corner fittings.

Corner castings are the large three-hole blocks of Corten steel that form the corners of all standardised sea freight containers. The holes are standardised with a tolerance of just a few millimetres, ensuring their global compatibility.

• Container accommodation in Oberursel (Taunus), Hesse, 1990-2016
• Container accommodation in Titz-Opherten, North Rhine-Westphalia, 1991-2012
• Container accommodation on Waldmeisterstraße in Munich, Bavaria, 1993-2010
• Container accommodation on Wilhelm-Keil-Straße, Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, since 2017
• Residential container village 2.0 on Grünauer Strasse in Köpenick, Berlin, since 2025