An unidentified person sleeps on a lawn in the middle of Berlin’s upscale Viktoria Luise Platz as a fountain plays in the sunshine in the background.

By Haiko Prengel

Berlin is not only considered one of Europe’s coolest hipster destinations: it is also home to more destitute and homeless people than any other German city. Berlin’s number of homeless residents has increased steadily since the collapse of communism in 1990, and now it is possible to take a tour to see how government agencies and charitable organisations work to help ease their plight.
There are a dozen homeless day centres spread across Berlin where the city’s destitute population go for a free breakfast, shower or in winter simply to escape the bitter cold, explains tour guide Carsten Voss.  “Homeless day centres are an important part of a homeless person’s life,” he says before leading the 30-strong group through the Schoeneberg district towards Viktoria Luise Platz.
Voss is no ordinary tour guide. Just a few months ago, he was reduced to sleeping on park benches himself. Now the 54-year-old spends his days giving his popular “homeless show you their Berlin” tour.
The idea is the brainchild of the “Querstadtein” homeless support group. During the 90-minute tour, costing around $12, Voss explains how people end up homeless and where they can sleep if unable to secure a bed in a shelter.
Dressed in khaki-coloured shorts and leather shoes, Voss does not look like a man who has spent part of his life on the streets.
The business graduate previously worked as a manager in a fashion company before suffering the psychological illness that Germans call burn-out. Suddenly, he was no longer able to work and slowly began to lose all his social contacts. Unable to pay his rent, Voss was evicted from his apartment and stayed in a summer house on a friend’s garden allotment before finally ending up on the streets. Voss returned to Viktoria Luise Platz where he had previously lived, but this time his bed consisted of the park bench.
“Many people who become homeless remain in their local areas,” says Sally Ollech, one of the co-founders of the Querstadtein project.
The group’s objective is to highlight the plight of the homeless within society. “We hope that the participants get another view of Berlin,” says the 30-year-old. Querstadtein co-operates with different social support networks and and Ollech is keen to point out that the project has nothing to do with so-called slum or misery tourism.
According to the latest estimates, there are currently around 10,000 people living in Berlin in need of accommodation, 4,000 of whom are classified as homeless. The number is expected to rise in the future, not least because more and more impoverished East Europeans are travelling to the German capital.
Not every homeless person is destitute or suffering from addiction issues. Many of the city’s homeless would not be recognised as such at first glance, says Voss, who has since found an apartment and is in receipt of social welfare payments.
 “I want to have my eyes opened,” says Jutta Bluemel, a hospital counsellor who read about the Querstadtein project in a local newspaper and immediately signed up for a tour.
 “Poverty and homelessness are major problems in Berlin and it would be great if more people made efforts to try and tackle the issue by volunteering to work in soup kitchens or bringing food to collection points,” says Bluemel. “There are so many possibilities.”
The tour group finally arrives at Zoologischer Garten train station where many of Berlin’s homeless population congregate, not least because it is the location of the city’s first 24-hour supermarket, reveals Voss.
Homeless people can also sleep on park benches in the nearby Tiergarten public park or seek help from the railway “mission,” a religious charity which deals with around 700 visitors daily.
Zoologischer Garten is not only the first port of call for Berlin’s homeless who have nowhere else left to go. Most eventually find their way here, explains Voss.
“For many it is also the last place where they end up.” – DPA