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This Music Festival Housed in a Former Nazi Vacation Complex Is Getting Displaced by Gentrification

The Her Damit festival is getting pushed out of the infamous Prora complex—which is rapidly getting bought out in place of luxury apartments.

Gentrification is a hot topic in most major German cities these days—especially in downtown Berlin, Hamburg, and Leipzig. And while a rural village is probably the last place you'd expect to be caught in its capitalist grips, gentrification is infiltrating the countryside too—and not even the darkest chapter in German history can prevent it from happening. Prora—a former Nazi-era vacation complex located in the town of Binz, on the Baltic Sea island of Rügen—is being parceled up and sold off by real estate developers, and Her Damit—the electronic music festival it's been home to for the past three years—is about to get the boot. "Real estate sharks and luxury apartments have Prora in their clutches now," reads a recent Facebook post by the festival. Due to the location's impending sale to various buyers, Her Damit is taking place for the last time May 27-29 at the complex. This year's line-up includes popular techno acts like Kobosil, Recondite, DVS1, and Daniela La Luz, among others.

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Designed to house 20,000 Aryan vacationers, Prora was built in the 1930s by Kraft durch Freude (Strength Through Joy), a state-operated leisure association that provided workers with subsidized holidays after Hitler's rise to power. From 1945-59, part of the resort was commandeered by the Soviet Red Army, only to eventually fall back into the hands of East Germany's National People's Army, who used the gigantic complex as a military school until the fall of the Berlin Wall. The sprawling concrete complex—which spans 4.5 kilometers along the coast—was public property until 2004, when one of its five blocks was sold off for luxury apartments, hotels, and glitzy expensive private residences. Block 5 of the complex, which houses a youth hostel, is now the final section of the complex awaiting sale.

"We definitely expected to arrive at this point eventually, but since Prora is publicly owned, we didn't think it would happen so soon," says Robert Müller, one of seven organizers of the festival. The event, which took place for the first time in Prora in 2014 under the name Her mit dem schönen Leben, works in cooperation with the GDR History Center—a documentation center archiving the location's storied past—and the youth hostel. The festival occupies old spaces on and around block five, and you can take historic tours of the complex over the course of the three-day weekender. Sadly for many of the festival's fans, that feeling of discovery will more than likely cease to exist after this summer, when the festival will be forced to relocate. We caught up with Müller to hear more about the situation at Prora, the festival, and what exactly is going on with the historical site.

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THUMP: Why did you guys decide to leave Prora after this year's festival? Robert Müller: We've been watching changes in the developments for a while, as well as talking to various people who work and live on the site. The county it's located in is actively looking for an investor, and they potentially could find one tomorrow or the next day. Even if the eventual buyer was into our festival, this kind of event or culture it nurtures wouldn't even be possible, because of the location's transformation and potential noise-sensitive residents. So we no longer have the certainty we need to be able to plan the festival anymore, which means we need to say goodbye to Prora, for better or for worse. We're already looking for a new location.

What exactly is and was at stake for you guys, having put on the event at this location?We invested a lot in the location over the last years to make it possible to have a festival there. We built structures, huts, installations, and spacial elements. A lot of money also flowed into making the interiors usable, including the former barracks canteen, which hadn't been in use for 20 or 30 years. We had to put a lot of work in to make everything ready for a festival obviously, and making a profit hasn't been at the forefront of what we're doing. For us right now it's about avoiding the risk of putting more money and work into next year, signing contracts, and then the building getting sold in the middle of that all as our dance floor gets pulled out from underneath us. Otherwise, we would love to continue to do it at Prora.

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What does the location mean for to you?
Prora is very beautiful and has an interesting history. The complex was build by the Nazis and later was used by the Soviets and then the East German Army. So it lived through two German dictatorships. Obviously the festival weekend is about dancing and partying, but there's also a chance to get into a bit of the history.

Regardless, would there have been any possibilities of staying in Prora in 2017?
No. One of the other investors, who owns another block there, thinks our festival is good, but that doesn't give us any assurances. Ultimately, he's not the one living in the vacation rentals or apartments there.

And what about if you moved it onto the beach, the same way the Tag am Meer Festival has at Prora?
Well, of course you could look for a favorable location in other areas where the noise doesn't hit the buildings too hard. But even if we did that, it would just be a copycat of another festival, and that's not what we want.

Do you guys have the feeling that the festival itself may have brought about the sale?
We definitely contributed to valorizing Prora. It's a difficult place with a dark history. Our festival created awareness with the audience about how lucky we are to live in the times we live in. A lot of our guests would have never seen Rügen as a travel destination before coming. And also the young people who live on the island were thrilled to not have to drive anywhere to experience something. The island establishment is different to some extent of course. The Baltic Sea town, Binz, is oriented more towards another older target group. We're offering something different there.

How do you see the future of the complex?
After the renovations, Prora will be aimed at people with higher incomes. These people are lucky, because Prora is protected as a historic monument. That means the apartments are a tax write off here in Germany. It's sad that politicians haven't come up with an alternative to a sale. Its history was only convenient for looking for investors. The history of the location will be whitewashed with new facades, balconies, and pools, and they don't even want to maintain a single block with its original look. Thus, we're loosing a place of remembrance.

[Find more info on Her Damit Festival](This Music Festival Housed in a Historic Nazi Vacation Complex Is Getting Displaced by Gentrification [)