Who owns what

The old-timers still call the 26 identical four-storey apartment blocks in my neighbourhood the “American Estate”. There are 750 flats, 750 stories. Rents range from €8 to €11 per square metre. A lot of the world in a very small space.

One way in is through the aesthetics of the everyday. Whose laundry is hanging from the washing lines in the communal drying areas? German, Albanian, Sinti, Italian, Nigerian, Iraqi, Syrian, Egyptian, Afghan. And in which flat is the rose-patterned bedspread lying on the bed?

Someone has written on a wall: “RMD 16 – we rule here.” Nobody rules here, in Munich’s 16th district. Things seem to work perfectly well without anyone in charge.

In the car park, young men in tracksuits and gold chains lean against large, expensive cars. Their haircuts and patter have something of the rapper Haftbefehl about them. No photographs, please.

Karl-Heinz and Christa sit at a camping table playing Skip-Bo. Their cacti are lined up against the wall, getting some air. “We Germans have long been in the minority,” the elderly couple reckons. “At least 70 per cent have a migrant background or are foreigners.”

At weekends, as many as 50 Romanian men play boules in the park. Kosovars practise kickboxing alongside Serbs. Sinti families barbecue. A Turkish-German investment adviser polishes the alloy wheels of his Audi A8 while his unemployed cousins watch enviously. Doris, from Nigeria, makes herself look nice, even though life as a single mother is hard. Nearby, Lebanese families are celebrating something.

You don't have to travel far to see the world. Sometimes 26 blocks are enough.

¹ The “American Estate” in Munich-Ramersdorf was built in 1949 on behalf of the US occupying authorities to house Air Force personnel involved in the Berlin Airlift. After the Americans left in 1964, civil servants and Siemens employees moved in. Today, vacant flats are allocated by Munich’s Department of Housing and Migration.