Metropolis in Change. An Erratic Walk through Berlin.

This article is from August 2011. I was asked to write a guest post about Berlin, and there was no question that I would like to write about my adopted home. But when I started to think about that project I realized that it’s everything else than an easy task.

3.471.756 people (and 108.784 (legal) dogs) are currently living in Berlin. They are spread over 95 quarters and 12 areas. Each of these areas is be a big city on its own, e.g. just in Berlin-Neukölln live 313.746 people. In 2010 457.806 foreign citizens from 190 different countries lived here.

Berlin has more than 2.500 public parcs (and 428.444 street trees) and 1.842 play grounds. There are 170 museums, 284 cinemas and 12.500 bars, cafés and restaurants. In 2009, 650 art galeries were counted in Berlin, there are certainly more today. In 2009 about 20.000 artists lived here and, I am sure, their number has certainly increased nowadays. According to a Berlin cluster study, 25.482 creative companies are based in Berlin with an average annual turnover of nearly 13 Billion Euros.

On the other side, 231.304 Berliners are unemployed (13,6%) and up to 440.000 people claim benefits (“Hartz IV“). And last but not least there are billions of guides for each target group which have already highlighted all interesting corners and exciting places of Berlin.

That’s why I asked myself: What should I talk about? Where to start and what to point out? After a short time of desparation I decided to dismiss the idea of a comprehensive description of places of interest and insider tips. Instead I would like to invite you to an erratic walk crosstown. I hope you enjoy it.

Lost in Berlin

I was 16 years old when I visited Berlin the first time. That was 1988, one year before the wall came down. Of course me and my friends stayed in Kreuzberg, and I kept on being amazed in view of all these awesome looking people dressed in punk or goth fashion. Not to mention the bars, the street hawkers, the buskers and street art. I saw the first Graffitis in my life, watched Wim Wenders Wings of Desire” (Der Himmel über Berlin, 1986/87) and danced all night until dawn to the music of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Einstürzende Neubauten or Sisters of Merci. From that visit on I was lost in Berlin and came back as often as possible.

As I said before, back then Berlin was still a divided city. Therefore it was not that easy to reach. You had to take the transit route across the whole GDR and to wait for hours at the border control. And if you got a bad break the border police picked your car in pieces.

The spirit of Berlin

After my first visit to the city 8 years had passed by. While Berlin became an undivided capital I had a baby and tried to ruralize. I gave up at this attempt 1995 and moved to Berlin. Since then we both – Berlin and me – have continued to change.

At the turn of the millennium Berlin dreamt the dream of the “New Berlin”. I remember a poster campaign that took place from 1998 to 2001: You could see terribly well-behaved young happy middleclass people in business dresses walking through new urban landscapes. The disputed Potsdamer Platz represents that dream at its best. But instead of becoming beautiful and young and successful, Berlin went bankrupt. All city-planning visions collapsed within short time. What was a nightmare for politicians and architects, became a great oppurtunity for young people, students, artists and creative people from all over the world: Berlin was cheap!

During my studies I occupied a 3 room apartment with 78 sqm in Kreuzberg and paid a rent of about 350 Euro per month (of course the living standard was equally low). This wide variety of cheap living space was one important reason why Berlin attracted artists from all over the world and became known as “poor, but sexy” – a statement originally uttered by our old and new Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit in a press interview in 2003. But low costs was not the only reason for the attraction of Berlin. The main reason was (and still is), I guess, the spirit of the city. Nothing else could better express that spirit than Charly Niessen´s and Hildegard Knef ´s poem Berlin, dein Gesicht hat Sommersprossen:

Berlin, dein Gesicht hat Sommersprossen,

und dein Mund ist viel zu groß,

nimmst du mich voller Selbstvertrauen

an dein verknautschtes Bärenfell.

Café/Bar in Kreuzberg, Artomat in Neukölln

Flying, walking, driving: Airport Tempelhof, Yorckbrücken, urban freeway