Mall of Berlin: Built on exploitation

A Video Collage

Mathias Fiedler

The ›Mall of Berlin‹ was opened in September 2014 and is located in Berlin-Mitte. Principal and investor of the shopping centre at Leipziger Platz is Harald Huth. The three videoclips document the protest of Romanian construction workers against their exploitative treatment by the subcontractors Metatec Fundus GmbH & Co. and Openmallmaster GmbH. The workers, who were employed by the construction company Fettchenhauer Controlling & Logistik GmbH (FCL), have been cheated out of their wages. Until today, they are still fighting for receiving them (see also the interview with Bogdan Droma in this issue). The footage was shot by Mathias Fiedler using a hand camera and has later been edited into a newsreal-like short film. The complete video is available at labournet.tv.

While it is shopping as usual inside the ›Mall of Shame‹, activists are protesting in front of the building. As a voiceover we hear parts of a speech by the former construction worker Bogdan Droma (see also the interview with him in this issue).
Workers and supporters have organised a demonstration, leading them – among other places – to the bankrupt construction company FCL. It went out of business right after the opening of the Mall of Berlin.
Elvis Iancu explains how he slept in a container during the protest at the construction site, because the whole group of workers was homeless at the time. Later, the mantled frontage of the mall is shown, which has not yet been completed at the time of the shooting.
  • Volume: 3
  • Issue: 1
  • Year: 2017

Mathias Fiedler ist Soziologe und Kulturanthropologe. Er erforscht Migrationsmanagement und richtet sein Hauptaugenmerk auf die Überschneidungen von Humanitarismus, Arbeitsregimen und Asyl. Er ist ein aktives Mitglied bei der Forschungsassoziation bordermonitoring.eu.

Creative Commons Lizenzvertrag Dieses Werk ist lizenziert unter einer Creative Commons Lizenz (4.0: Namensnennung - Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen).