ABSTRACT
Street trees have stood at the core of events that have shaped and characterised the evolution of the modern city. In European cities, comprehensive and systematic street tree planting organised by municipal governments began in the second half of the nineteenth century for hygienic and aesthetic reasons. Yet, despite their benefits, street trees have always been contested. This chapter focuses on street tree planting in West and East Berlin during the German division in the 1970s and ‘80s when bottom-up and top-down movements for tree planting and protection received increased attention due to environmental concerns around air and soil pollution. Various types of citizen protest, including the new genre of street tree art, in East and West Berlin both built upon and led to scientific research into trees’ vulnerability and resilience against soil and air pollution. In both cities, the state and fate of street trees created a discursive space contributing to the creation of an alternative (second) public sphere and counterpublic which in turn not only transformed public urban space through tree planting and care but also fostered and bolstered the opposition in the case of East Berlin against the German Democratic Republic’s dictatorship, ultimately contributing to its fall in November 1989.
