Manifest der freien Straße

For over seventy years, private cars have dominated public space in German cities. In the Manifest der freien Straße, a creative-academic alliance fundamentally challenges this status quo, highlighting the forgotten and unrecognized characteristics of streets and the opportunities they present. In doing so, the alliance focuses on a communal spatial resource that we, in times of climate change, digitalization, and social inequality, urgently need to learn to use differently. Through images, comics, graphics, and succinct scientific insights, the Manifest der freien Straße points the way to a future full of exciting possibilitiesand demonstrates that our streets should be more than just a route from A to B.

The Free Street Alliance is a creative-academic cooperation of three Berlin-based actors with different focal areas. Think-and-do tank paper planes e.V. came up with the project idea and holds responsibility for the conceptual work, the images of the future, and the communications around the project. The Research Group Digital Mobility and Social Differentiation of the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB) enriched the project with their academic expertise and ample experience with transitional processes in sustainable city planning. The Department of Work/Technology and Participation at the Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin) fostered the involvement of citizens in the project and ensured their contributions were reflected in its outcomes. The project is funded by the Mercator Foundation.