The buffet on the beer tent set is richly laid out. Potato salad stands next to spinach puff pastry snails and cheese and grape skewers. The sun shines on the small pavilion tent. Next to it, a woman is sizzling sausages on the gas grill. Each of the tenants in the neighborhood brought something to the neighborhood festival. The mood is perfect – actually.
There are wooden beams on the lawn three meters from the pavilion. These will soon be installed in the houses in the district. The houses are on Adlerflychtstrasse and Hermannstrasse in the north end. They were built in the 1950s and have to be secured with supports because ceilings are not structurally safe enough. This is the result of a report commissioned by the owner and asset manager Aberdeen, which has owned the houses for a year.
Aberdeen is a hot word at the celebration. The tenants are convinced that the new owner wants to evict them, demolish the houses and build a new neighborhood. "I can understand that from an investor's point of view: It's a piece of cake. Except that the houses are old, the tenants have long-standing rental agreements and there is environmental protection," says Ralf Geissel.
He has lived on Adlerflychtstrasse for 14 years. A year ago, the real estate company Aberdeen bought its residential building and four other buildings on Adlerflychtstrasse, Oeder Weg and Hermannstrasse from the Federal and State Pension Fund (VBL). There were already structural problems in one of the houses. In the building on Oeder Weg, defects were noticed for the first time in 2016. In 2018, the building with 34 apartments had to be evacuated within one day. “At the time, we all asked ourselves whether we were safe in our homes,” says Geissel. They were assured by the VBL that everything was fine in the other buildings with their 116 apartments. However, the tenants do not know what came out of test drilling in the concrete ceilings.
Then the buildings changed hands. Aberdeen demolished the empty building on Oeder Weg, which was in danger of collapsing. A new residential building is currently being built there. Aberdeen also announced that it would examine the other buildings and drill samples from the ceilings. To do this, experts uncovered several concrete ceilings in the buildings.
In their report from April 2026, they wrote that the ceilings examined were “not stable” because the concrete supports of the ceilings examined were too thin and made of inferior material. “Security measures must be taken immediately throughout the building,” they conclude. The safety measure: supports that are installed one above the other in each apartment and support the ceilings. The metal supports stand on a one meter long and 14 centimeter high wooden threshold. There is a beam on top of them that extends the entire length of the room.
The supports are already in place in the basements and will be installed in the apartments during September. Aberdeen previously measured the apartments and calculated where the supports needed to be installed. The supports will be in the middle of the rooms, in some apartments in the bathroom between the toilet and shower. Older tenants who drive through the apartment with their walker then have to overcome 14 centimeter high wooden thresholds. For the Geissels, for example, they will be in the middle of the children's room. “Two children and a 40 centimeter thick beam, that’s a tight space in the room.”
The problem: There are currently cupboards, tables and chests of drawers where the supports are intended. If Aberdeen has its way, the furniture will be rebuilt elsewhere in the apartment. “We don’t have any space to put the furniture back,” says Geissel. He suggests to the Aberdeen project manager that they move the furniture to the unoccupied neighboring apartment. She reacted openly. But then the company no longer responds. Only when Geissel threatened that he would not allow anyone to install the supports in the apartment did the property management react. Geissel says they agreed to all demands. The movers will come shortly and move the furniture.
Because the tenants can no longer fully use their apartment with supports, their rent is reduced. Geissel says he was offered a 30 percent reduction, but he asked for more. Before he agreed with Aberdeen, he spoke of 50 percent. He is no longer allowed to say what is in the contract. Therein, confidentiality is agreed. Tenants were also offered €5,000 if they moved out before the supports were installed. Some have accepted the offer.
As of October, only half of the 18 apartments in Geissel's house are still occupied. He certainly knows that two other tenants are also looking for a new apartment. But he and his family don't want to move out. “We’ll stay until the bitter end.” The family enjoys living in Nordend and the children go to school here. “Everything we could afford would be outside,” says Geissel. The family currently pays eleven euros in basic rent per square meter. He sees a “seven percent chance” of renovating the building, and that’s what he hopes for.
Many of the tenants who came to the summer festival don't believe in it. They are convinced that Aberdeen will demolish the buildings one way or another. They trust the owner to do almost anything. A tenant said at the summer party: “They deliberately destroyed the concrete beams.” The damage that can be seen in the report only occurred during the investigation when the concrete ceiling was exposed. Another tenant says: “If they want, they will already have building samples in the laboratory somewhere that will then be defective.” This would allow Aberdeen to justify demolition. A tenant says that a foreman who demolished the building on Oeder Weg told her: "We know. Everything will be demolished."
An Aberdeen spokesman says the question of demolition does not currently arise. “The focus is initially on examining whether and how the existing building stock can be renovated technically and economically.” All supports should be installed in the buildings by October. Aberdeen is checking at the same time. A decision should be made later this year as to what will happen next with the buildings.
In the afternoon, three tenants sit together at the neighborhood party. "They want to give me a 30 percent rent reduction. That's not why I'm doing it," says one of them. "What? They only offer me ten percent," says another, puzzled. The neighborhood festival is also there for such an exchange of information.
