"The city doesn’t belong to anyone. We are all custodians."
Heskel Nathaniel was born in Haifa (Israel) in 1962. He studied management and business administration in London. He moved to Berlin in 1992 and works in the property business. In 2010 he founded the company Trockland Management GmbH, of which he is CEO and managing director. In summer 2022 Trockland opened Pier 61 I 64, a residential and office block incorporating a hotel, at the East Side Gallery. Nathaniel describes the controversial building in the former border strip as a testimony to the era in which it was built: The plans were made in 1992 when many people wanted to see the Wall gone from the city. He is sure that the project would not have been approved today. He sees negotiations and conflicting opinions as a necessary part of the democratic process and urban development as an arena for many equally entitled players.
"In 1990... people wanted the history to be erased."