Lost Places in Munich’s Northern Neighborhoods

By Hanna Sophia Hörl

Supervisor: Dr. Gesa Lüdecke

Considering people’s fascination with lost and often exuberantly overgrown and forgotten places, I wondered if I could document any such green gems in my hometown. Combining my interest in photography with capturing the stories of a neighborhood that I myself grew up in seemed to allow for a more hands-on and creative way of documenting changes in Munich’s urban environment, of visualizing places where nature and the city intertwine and compete, and of showing how a city forcefully and painfully loses more and more of its hidden sanctuaries that are meaningful to the local people and an essential part of its “green lungs.”

Protest Poster in a backyard in Apian Street (2020): “Land clearing for profit and greed – This must not happen!”

My photography project captures green gems in Munich’s northern neighborhoods, within easy reach of the RCC, which have developed into natural biotopes over the course of time. My photographs aim to visualize the city’s ongoing struggle against urban redevelopment projects driven by profit-hungry real estate companies whose only aim is to tear down and replace old buildings, redensifying existing structures in the process, or replacing them altogether with high-end apartment blocks. Too often, local people who lived in these areas their entire lives are evicted and forced to leave their old existence and memories behind, eventually making way for gentrification by high-earning urbanites, who are far from having a heartfelt relationship to the place.

The pictures of places captured in this photo essay are meant to shed light on urban surroundings in which nature is gradually reclaiming its space, but whose future is mostly uncertain. I explored the history of Alter Nordfriedhof, an abandoned cemetery refunctioned for recreational use, several backyards in Schwabing at risk of being redeveloped and replaced with high-density housing, a neglected art deco building in Maxvorstadt, and hidden places around the Olympia Park area, such as the disused Pressestadt local train station and the highly disputed abandoned neighborhood of the Eggarten-Siedlung.

 
An afternoon escape in Alter Nordfriedhof (Summer 2021)


The disused S-Bahn Station “Pressestadt” (Fall 2020)

A close-up view of 48 Agnes Street: overgrown bay window and balcony of an art deco building

The lost places I documented capture nostalgic and at times distressing sights marked by wildness and decay, as well as buildings subject to repurposing, which in some instances display a clash of ideas and values concerning environmental protection and economic growth, but in one case there is also the peaceful coexistence of urban and natural environments. Documenting such places, some of which will soon disappear, may give fellow students and Carson fellows insight into how Munich’s urban environment is changing in rapid and noticeable ways, as more developments take place, at the same time as subtler and less obvious changes are occurring that require one’s attention in order to be seen. These changes show just how easily nature reclaims its place in the city if it is only left to do so. For each of the places I chose to portray, I wrote a story about its history, present, and probable future. Telling the stories behind the pictures will surely not keep some of these places from being lost, but it will hopefully raise awareness of the history of these “green gems” and their great value to the city and its people.

Paradise Lost! An abandoned home and protest notes on a
noticeboard in the Eggarten-Siedlung neighborhood (Fall 2020)