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Following story about the latest development in Berlin-Kreuzberg - the city district (similar like a "gu", such as for example Mapo-gu, Jongno-gu etc in Seoul) where I'm living since 20 years (except my years in Seoul^^) - was published some days ago in the German (bourgeois) magazine Der Spiegel:

MCDONALD'S IN ALTERNATIVE BERLIN
The French Fries are Coming - to Falafeltown!

In Berlin, of all places, a stronghold of the doner kebab, a bitter battle is raging over food culture -- a veritable clash of cuisines. The city's alternative Kreuzberg is gearing up to fight what would be the neighborhood's first McDonald's restaurant.

If anyone has the right to be worried these days in Kreuzberg, an alternative Berlin neighborhood, it's Hakan Sever. Sever, a man in his mid-30s, runs an establishment called Bistro Baghdad at the Schlesisches Tor subway station.

A doner kebab made of "pure lamb and veal" goes for €2.50 at his little restaurant, a mere two-minute walk from a small construction site that has been the cause of great controversy all across Berlin's many neighborhoods.

There isn't much to the site yet: a wooden fence surrounding an empty lot, graffiti-covered walls of abandoned buildings, a few wooden stakes in the ground and a sign, barely visible from the street, that sums it all up: McDonald's is building here.

But Sever is relaxed, almost maddeningly so. "It isn't a problem for us," he says, manning the rotating kebab maker in the Turkish fast food bistro his uncle started 24 years ago. He smiles and adds, self-confidently: "First they'd have to have our quality."

But the kebab seller seems to be the only denizen of Berlin's most alternative neighborhood who feels this laid-back about the issue. Kreuzberg enjoys a reputation for something it shares with practically only North Korea and Nepal nowadays: It's a McDonald's-free zone.

A Grassroots Movement against McDonald's

If a community group formed expressly to keep out the fast-food chain has its way, Kreuzberg will stay that way. And judging by the 100 or so local residents who attended its first meeting roughly two weeks ago, the group is already turning into a true grassroots movement -- an anti-burger movement, so to speak. The planned restaurant has become such a hot-button issue that everyone seems to be talking about it to the media. Franz Schulz, the district's mayor, is upset with the postal service, which sold the lot to McDonald's practically overnight -- and in violation of its own commitment to the city. Martin Stern, the head of the local school district, is worried about all the garbage and about the damaging effect the restaurant could have on the company that currently leases his cafeteria.

The movement opposing the new McDonald's even has its own Web site, KeinMcDoofinKreuzberg.de (NoMcStupidinKreuzberg.de), an e-mail mailing list and a high-profile political supporter, Hans-Christian Ströbele, a Green Party member of the German parliament, or Bundestag, who notes: "This is very unhealthy food."

"NO" to McDirt!!

"No McDonald's!" graffiti has already begun appearing on building walls in the neighborhood, while a MySpace page takes the anti-burger sentiment a few, more drastic steps further. It depicts a demolished restaurant with broken windowpanes and even issues a dark threat to the company's clown-like mascot, Ronald McDonald: "Look out, Ronald! Something's burning here." The tabloid Bild, sounding alarmed or alarmist, depending on one's point of view, interprets the clip as a potential terror threat.

But the clip and other voices opposed to the planned fast food restaurant are in fact sounding the alarm against a burgers-and-fries offensive in a neighborhood where culinary tastes are decidedly more Middle East than Mid-America. The battle over cuisine brewing in the neighborhood is especially ironic given Berlin's reputation as a bastion of greasy spoon fast food like the doner kebab. For the dreadlocked adolescents who while away their time sitting around Kreuzberg's Görlitz Park, and whose idea of a "Happy Meal" more likely includes humus and a water pipe, there is only one politically correct position: to resist the onslaught of the burger imperialists.

And how does the anti-burger crowd respond to the argument that Western fast food is no less healthy than the local Middle Eastern fare? Isn't falafel fried? A doner kebab delivers about 550 calories, compared to "only" 505 in a Big Mac. And wasn't there some report on the news about spoiled meat being used in doner kebabs? Who cares, they say. Super size Kreuzberg? Over our dead bodies!

The company's original plans call for the construction of one of its trademark rectangular boxes -- enough space for 100 guests and a drive-in window nestled under the familiar golden arches -- on Skalitzer Strasse, across the street from a high-school and not far from two other schools. The US-based company purchased the site from the German postal service five years ago, and local authorities have already issued a building permit. Construction could start tomorrow -- theoretically.

Heirs to the Legendary Kreuzberg Protest Culture

The anti-McDonald's community group met a second time last Wednesday evening to plan its next steps. The members of the fast food opposition movement are noticeably young. They are the heirs of the legendary Kreuzberg protest culture that was once behind the hoisting of a red flag -- absent the golden arches, of course -- on the nearby Georg von Rauch building. It was a movement that marched to the tune of a song by the band Ton-Steine-Scherben (Clay-Stones-Shards) titled "Macht Kaputt was euch kaputt macht" ("Smash the Things that are Smashing Your Life"). The band used to jam just around the corner from the current McDonald's construction site.

There is also some measure of tradition behind the clash of cuisines. In the past, protestors would toss fecal matter and plastic bags filled with paint into expensive restaurants, a practice that became far more deadly when someone decided to use a hand grenade instead in the early 1990s. But there is one big difference between the protestors then and now: While the bourgeoisie was once the target of their animosity, today's loathing of McDonald's has heavy political overtones -- especially in a neighborhood where overly zealous police activity (more...) leading up to the G-8 summit already has tensions running high.

For the Kreuzberg protestors, McDonald's is the prototype of the soulless, profit-maximizing, globalized giant corporation that exploits its workers, produces downtown trash in the form of food wrappers and containers and, by clearing rainforests and buying up the beef from vast, methane-farting herds of cattle, accelerates climate change -- not to mention the deleterious effects of fast food on an increasingly overweight German population. There is, or at least once was, some truth to all of these accusations.

But not everyone is as worried about McDonald's impact on the big picture. One couple that lives near the site is more concerned about the potential increase in traffic and the stench from the fast food joint's deep fryers.

The people at McDonald's are taking the signals from Kreuzberg seriously. Indeed, they are no strangers to opposition to their restaurants. When McDonald's first announced plans to move into the Chinese and Italian markets, local food aficionados predicted the demise of their own gastronomic cultures. Now it's Kreuzberg's turn.

For years the company has been providing consumers with detailed information about calories, ingredients and the origins of every pickle slice on its burgers. The company's main US Web site includes "testimonials" from Americans of African and Hispanic origin. Perhaps they'll add one soon about Kreuzberg's alternative culture. It wouldn't exactly be a first. McDonald's has already injected a dose of health consciousness into its menu by offering salads and yoghurt, and in England it even sells "halal" burgers -- the meat comes from animals slaughtered according to Islamic dietary rules. Capitalism is flexible.

According to Alexander Schramm, the company's German spokesman, who seeks to downplay the controversy and displays a willingness to engage in discourse, "we are interesting in talking to Mr. Ströbele and the community group." All controversy aside, McDonald's has apparently -- and wisely -- chosen to delay construction until at least after the G-8 summit.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,484170,00.html