This article originally appeared on VICE Germany.Kottbusser Tor is basically a roundabout surrounded by high-rise buildings with an overground metro line cutting through its centre. Some call it the Colosseum, but most Berliners call it Kotti. It has shops, kebabs, bars and many people live there, but it’s also associated with drug offences, thefts, and assaults – making it one of the seven most “high-crime” areas in Berlin.
Advertisement
Despite public opposition, a police station opened there on the 15th of February in the hope of establishing more control and surveillance over illegal activities in the area. But according to local photographer Manuel Lossau, the station could disrupt the social fabric of the neighbourhood.Lossau has lived in Berlin for 12 years and has a special bond with Kotti. During his first year in the city, he did voluntary work at Fixpunkt, a drop-in centre for people with drug addiction in the area, where he handed out food and supplies to drug users. He later worked there as a social worker, too. This connection to the neighbourhood brought him to develop a series capturing the faces of the people who live and work in Kotti for his final project at the Ostkreuz School of Photography.
According to Lossau, heroin has been in Kotti for a while and the increase in crack use is causing damage to the neighbourhood. “People are becoming more and more aggressive,” he says. But Kotti is not just a drugs and criminality hub, so it was important for Lossau to give a face to its locals. “Kotti always seems chaotic and overwhelming at first,” he says. “But if you spend enough time there, you can find beauty amongst the grey.”
Advertisement
The photographer describes Kotti as a place where different people are squeezed in together – that’s what makes the neighbourhood interesting. “People in Kotti simply have different problems,” he says. “They don't gloss over anything, it's not about maintaining a facade.” Besides taking their pictures, Lossau often hangs out with people in the neighbourhood. “It was exactly these hangouts that created the closeness I needed for my pictures,” he says.
For his project, Lossau decided to mainly shoot “those who are always there” – not the people who only come to eat a kebab during their lunch break or change metro lines. "I was interested in the people who have Kotti at the centre of their life,” he says.Lossau shares many residents’ opinion that Kotti’s new police station will change the face of the neighbourhood and push some marginalised people out. This means his photos have an archival purpose, too. “I want people to look at my photos in ten years and see the people who used to live there,” he concludes. “It’s for people to remember people.”Scroll down for more photos of Kotti: