ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the dynamic relationship between housing movements and local government in Germany, and specifically Hamburg, from the historical starting point of the cooperative movement in the later nineteenth century until the present. The aim of the chapter is to extrapolate the historical sediments that constitute tenure forms and (co-)housing struggles today. On the one hand, bottom-up movements have been a driving force for putting housing needs and demands on the political agenda during various crises, and movements have thus initiated social and structural change. They have created new political opportunity spaces and eventually enabled changes in the legal system and provided the background for new forms of tenure. On the other hand, local government has at times been supportive of collaborative housing, making changes to the legal framework and providing financial support through subsidies and the non-profit provision of land. Against this background, movements for collaborative housing can be seen as crucial actors for pushing forward sustainable urban development discourses. The municipality, in turn, partly reacts to demands for more affordable housing and the integration of self-governance.
