Berlin's Vonovia Housing Stock Traces Back to GEHAG and Architect Bruno Taut

A substantial portion of the 130,000 Berlin apartments owned by the real estate corporation Vonovia can be traced to the Gemeinnützige Heimstätten-, Spar- und Bau-Aktiengesellschaft (GEHAG), founded in 1924 by socialist-inspired trade unions. The GEHAG was established to remove housing construction from private profit-seeking and to create affordable living space for broad segments of the population. Architect Bruno Taut was associated with the GEHAG, whose housing stock once represented a utopian model by withdrawing real estate from speculation. The current debate over the expropriation of large real estate corporations, known as Vergesellschaftung, centers on 211,000 apartments in Berlin; 130,000 of these belong to Vonovia. In 2021, 59.1 percent of Berlin voters supported the expropriation measure. The initiative has recently stirred emotions among the political center. What is largely overlooked in the current discussion is that a significant part of today's Vonovia portfolio originates from the GEHAG. The expropriation would represent a return to democratic roots, according to the source. The article appears in the publication Der Freitag.