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You may have come across urban art before (for example, here and here), but I bet you have never seen anything like the Kiefernstrasse in Düsseldorf.

"Most Colourful Street in Germany"

Where to find the Most Colourful Street in Germany

Today, the Kiefernstrasse – located a few hundred meters to the east of Düsseldorf’s central station and just around the corner from Kettwiger Strasse subway station – is known as the most colourful street in Germany …

"Most Colourful Street in Germany"

… but in the 1980s, it was one of the drabbest – and a notorious social tinderbox to boot.

The apartment blocks in the street had originally been built for workers of a near-by steel factory, but when the factory closed down in the mid-1970s, the original occupants went elsewhere, and the new municipal owners of the residential properties, undecided what to do with the apartment buildings but unwilling to invest, brought in migrants and state benefit tenants on short-term contracts.

The quarter quickly buckled under the resulting social and structural pressures, and the state of the building fabric deteriorated to the point where it did not seem possible to stave off demolition.

Eventually, the municipal government released a plan to tear the entire street down and turn the area into an industrial park, causing an outcry among the residents and left-wing activists.

As a sign of protest against these plans and with the intention of protecting the street from the wrecking ball, squatters from the alternative scene moved in and occupied the buildings.

What today appears to be a peaceful, quiet and almost idyllic urban neighbourhood …

"Most Colourful Street in Germany"

… was then a cauldron of political tension and the battleground for a hostile standoff between two seemingly irreconcilable enemies, the municipal authorities and the developers on one side and the residents with their left-wing allies on the other.

Peace eventually came to Kiefernstrasse through the efforts of urban street artists. They had begun to use the walls of a derelict carpet warehouse, now (sadly) torn down, as their favourite canvas, and an exhibition of their works in 1988 created a stir across Germany, turning Kiefernstrasse  into a national cause célèbre, the most colourful street in Germany

Suddenly, the municipal government began to see the street as an opportunity rather than a problem and started to invest money in the maintenance of the building fabric while providing the tenants with proper, long-term contracts.

The authorities also decided to tolerate the extension of urban art to the street’s residential building fabric, and then, after a while, even to encourage it – quietly at first, but since 2003, the city of Düsseldorf has been acting as the officially coordinator of the project.

"Most Colourful Street in Germany"

The spirit of revolt, meanwhile, survives on the concrete noise barrier, locally known under its ironic nickname as the “anti-capitalist protection wall”.

Here, young graffiti artists are free to experiment with new shapes and colours.

The Kiefernstrasse itself presents a happy mix of styles.

The whimsical …

"Most Colourful Street in Germany"

… rubs shoulders with a hymn to the austere beauty of geometry, …

… and works that concentrate on a single image …

"Most Colourful Street in Germany"

… stand next to paintings where you can lose yourself in reading and deciphering every little detail, as though studying a 19th century history canvas.

From the start, the involvement of the street’s residents in the artistic activities has been a key priority of the project. The inhabitants of Kiefernstrasse, this was the thinking, should never get the feeling that their street and their homes were handed over as a playground to art school students and eccentric types from the municipal office for culture.

This is why the residents were and are encouraged to make their own contributions – for example, through little sculptural arrangements made from discarded household objects …

"Most Colourful Street in Germany"

… although it may not always be easy to tell where the artfully arranged household objects end and where the fly tipping begins.

"Most Colourful Street in Germany"

Not only the house fronts are providing street artists with a canvas for their works: wheelie bins and bicycle shelters, too, have been integrated into this unique urban art museum …

… just like the many mobile homes that are parked in the street.

They all stand together cheek by jowl, complementing one another like the colours of a rainbow.

"Most Colourful Street in Germany"

The Kiefernstrasse, meanwhile, has mutated from an urban problem zone into a street that appears to have delivered a solution.

But would it be possible to apply this solution to similar problems in other urban areas, perhaps even – in a scaled-up version – entire cities?

How would a city look and feel like if not just one but every street defied architectural conventions in a similarly playful manner?

An architectural project in a different part of Düsseldorf – a few miles to the west – may provide us with some clues here.

More about this group of buildings and the architectural project into which it is embedded in next week’s post!

In the meantime, remember to experience the most colourful street in Germany on your next visit

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