Germany’s open-air drug market remains a vibrant community space. What can Philly learn from it?

BERLIN — When I arrived in the German capital this summer, anxiety was boiling over a violent, open-air drug market that sounded oddly familiar to my Philadelphia ear.

Görlitzer Park had become the subject of a fierce public debate after a 27-year-old woman was raped by several men in July. For years, some said that leaders in Berlin had stood idly by as drug dealing, violent crime, and lawlessness enveloped the park. And Görli, as the locals call it, had now become a place to avoid, according to people quoted in the Berlin press.

Given that description, part of me was bracing for a German version of Kensington. When I arrived at the edge of the massive 35-acre meadow in Berlin’s trendy Kreuzberg district, for a second, I thought it fit the bill. Groups of dealers openly hustled cocaine, heroin, and weed at the park gates.

But the Philly déjà vu only lasted a few seconds.

The Philly déjà vu only lasted a few seconds.

Inside Görli, scenes of summer life blossomed: immigrant families barbecuing, kids playing pickup soccer games, punks clinking pilsners on the grass, and (because it’s Berlin) no less than two random DJs spinning techno to anyone who would listen.

It was a neat microcosm of the international life and social tolerance for which the German capital is famous. But to my Philadelphia brain, it also felt like a daydream — something unimaginable in Kensington, where a billion-dollar drug trade had long upended the social order in places like McPherson Square, a six-acre park in the heart of the neighborhood.

Visiting Görli, I can’t help but wonder: What about Berlin’s approach to its notorious open-air drug market has enabled it to remain a vibrant community space? And what lessons might there be for Philadelphia?

For one, like other European regions, Germany treats substance abuse and addiction as a public health crisis, dedicating far more resources to harm reduction practices and inpatient treatment options than the U.S. does, thanks in part to the nation’s universal health-care system.

But the specific question of public space — of what is tolerated and what is not when it comes to parks, playgrounds, and recreation centers — is one that sits more squarely in the hands of the local government. And there, too, Berlin seems to have Philly beat, despite rising anxieties over crime in Görli.

Drugs have been a near-constant presence in Görli, and over the last decade, the underground market has evolved in tandem with the 2015 European migrant crisis. Many immigrants who are barred from legal work in Germany — many of them from West Africa — instead take jobs as low-level dealers.

Görli is now one of seven designated crime hot spots where police have the authority to conduct “stop-and-frisk”-style searches — a legal zone critics have said gives law enforcement carte blanche to racially profile people of color in the park. But as in Philadelphia, police crackdowns have proven incapable of addressing the root problems.

The Berlin park’s philosophy remains one of tolerance, even as the city vacillates between law-and-order crackdowns and more open-armed cohabitation toward drug dealing. At one point, park stewards spray-painted “zones” to contain drug operations.

Still, Juri Schaffranek, an outreach worker in Berlin with the nonprofit organization Gangway, which operates in the park, told me that the situation remains far from one where Görli would be completely consumed by the drug trade and lose its cosmopolitan texture.

One reason? People have a stake in the public space. He pointed to the social institutions that anchor the park — a petting zoo, a traveling outdoor play area for families with children, and a social center that his organization operates out of an old train station building.

These groups communicate with the dealers, who Schaffranek said will pause or move drug sale operations during certain family events.

“We will always have some kind of antagonism toward what is happening with the drug scene, but if they don’t cut the funding for these [community-oriented] projects, we have a good chance of avoiding a Philadelphia or an American situation,” Schaffranek told me.

Still, many view Görli as too dangerous, especially for women at night. Berlin officials continue to debate public safety improvements, from adding video surveillance to locking the entrances after dark.

Despite familiar challenges with the drug market, Germany’s long-standing attitude toward people struggling with addiction offers a much starker contrast to that of the U.S.

German states began legalizing drug consumption spaces with little pushback more than two decades ago, providing facilities where users can consume drugs under medical supervision. Avoiding overdoses was the initial goal, but preserving public space remains part of the calculus.

And despite conservative gains in recent years, Germany is still relatively progressive on drug policy, from moving to legalize marijuana nationwide to funding testing sites where users can test their drugs for potentially dangerous impurities.

“Unlike the U.S., it’s self-evident that we can talk about drug testing as a public service just as we can other health services,” said Philine Edbauer, cofounder of My Brain My Choice, a volunteer group that advocates for progressive drug policies in Germany.

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, residents and policymakers have battled against drug consumption sites for years, worrying it would make conditions worse in hard-hit neighborhoods like Kensington. Last week, City Council voted to prohibit supervised injection facilities in most of the city.

Yet the Council-defined “humanitarian crisis” in Kensington persists. Some children live in fear of stepping on used syringes in parks. Librarians double as first responders on the front lines of an ongoing overdose crisis. Shootings erupt daily between the dozens of active drug corners nearby. And Kensington residents and business owners have called out the city countless times, saying that these conditions have made daily life a struggle.

There is no easy fix. Bill McKinney, the executive director of the nonprofit New Kensington Community Development Corp. and a 20-year resident of McPherson Square, said disinvestment in community institutions in Kensington over the years puts it at a disadvantage. Cohabitating with dealers and users in McPherson has proven increasingly difficult.

“We’re at a breaking moment,” he said.

» READ MORE: In election season, people care about Kensington. Then we become invisible again. | Opinion

Still, he told me City Hall could learn some lessons from Berlin. Most shootings in Kensington — let alone sexual assaults — don’t generate the public response the Görli incident did in Berlin this summer.

At a minimum, McKinney said, Philly officials could do more to prioritize equal access to public spaces. “If the standard is that we are cool about drug sales in parks, then they should be allowed in all parks,” not just those in Kensington, he told me. “That will push us towards solutions because that gets the attention of the people in power.”

Some feel that gentrification-driven private development in both Kensington and the Kreuzberg area around Görli could eventually displace the drug markets, but McKinney said that isn’t an excuse to sidestep other efforts or to neglect the existing communities that would benefit from stronger public safety today.

Just as Philadelphia can’t solve federal policy issues around health care and gun control, Berlin cannot unilaterally change immigration and labor laws that some say fuel its drug markets. But McKinney is right: Both cities should nonetheless always be looking for ways to help the people affected by them — more drug treatment, housing, and alternative employment for the people involved in the drug trade — rather than simply declaring victory if and when the problem moves next door.