Sielwall Bremen 2011 by Manfred Schloesser

Sielwall Bremen 2011, a photo by manfred schloesser on Flickr.

Saturday, 12 November2011: Today seemed to be a perfect day for sketching, blue crisp sky but cold. For Bremen the typical weather in November is rainy and cold and dark, this can make you depressive. This year November and October were unusually dry and warm.
I was sitting with an espresso in the coffee bar just on the famous Sielwall intersection. The coffee grinder was grinding for 20 minutes making a sound as if a cat was inside. The music coming from the loudspeakers gave the background drums and two girls were happily chatting some details of their life as I tried to concentrate on this sketch.
“He is so cute and intelligent and he is studying economy. Next year he is doing his master. We want to move together, but the rents here are much too high.”
Yes, the famous Ostertor quarters got really expensive in the 21st century. In the 1960s the Bremen city government planned to flatten the old buildings from the 19th century and to construct a super highway across the river Weser. That was the beginning of the first grassroot movement in Bremen. Some citizens were against this and they were successful. They could stop the bulldozers and now after 50 years this quarter of Bremen is one of the most expensive ones. As in many other places the people with low income cannot afford the prices and now some new rich people like lawyers, doctors and investment bankers fell in love for the historic buildings. This process is called gentrification.