My idea was to offer a depiction of Hermannplatz, the central spot in my neighborhood. In the nearly six years I've spent in Berlin so far, my life has always revolved around this square. Socially, it is a contradictory place: to the west and north stretches the predominantly white and gentrified Kreuzberg, while to the east and south, the more migrant and poorer Neukölln resists. The opposing directions (Sonnenallee versus Urbanstraße, Karl-Marx-Straße versus Hasenheide) could hardly look more different, yet the square does not feel like a dividing line but rather a successful meeting point.

Hermannplatz is also a special zone of public administration: it is considered one of the crime-ridden areas in the city where suspicion-independent personal checks are possible, often serving as a gateway for racial profiling. The coalition agreement concluded at the end of 2021 also includes the use of surveillance through camera recordings. Therefore, Hermannplatz is also a quite stigmatized place. This cannot be sugar-coated, and the usual sirens are, of course, audible in the recording.

Beyond the unwanted media and political attention, the square is primarily a market and a train station for the residents. This creates the sounds that characterize this soundwalk (and my experience of the square over the years): below, the mechanical clatter of the U8 ride, the BVG announcements from the speakers, the automatic doors, the departing trains, the stamping machines; above, the street traffic, the market vendors and visitors; and everywhere, people on the move, conversing (in German, Turkish, English...), complaining, laughing, and so on.