Berlin district joins wave of opposition to Germany's policy of welcoming refugees
As Germany becomes a haven for refugees, rising far-right populism fuels opposition to asylum seekers in the former communist east
There is little to break the monotony of communist-era apartment blocks stretching across Marzahn-Hellersdorf, an east Berlin satellite district that has gained national notoriety for a spate of anti-foreigner protests.
Week after week, hundreds of residents here have angrily rallied against plans for a new centre to house refugees seeking asylum on a stretch of parkland now ringed by wire-mesh fence and watched by security guards.
As Germany confronts a rise in far-right populism, with "anti-Islamisation" marches drawing thousands in the eastern city of Dresden, this bland corner of the sprawling capital, a district home to almost 300,000 people, has become another flashpoint of resentment and xenophobia.
"I have nothing against foreigners, I've been around them all my life," Fritz Siebke, 91, said at a district community centre.
"But since we've accepted refugees into Marzahn-Hellersdorf, things have changed in the neighbourhood. My gardening tools were stolen from right outside my house. In the past, that wouldn't have happened."
At first glance little has changed in Marzahn since the Berlin Wall fell 25 years ago.
With one in five residents unemployed and the area suffering neglect, the drab district is a world away from Berlin's more cosmopolitan and diverse centre - and, analysts say, fertile ground for the far-right protests.