I immediately despised Berlin. The taxi I took from Tegel Airport to the Penzlauerberg neighbourhood when I first arrived on a rainy day wound through a sizable area of industrial streets that were home to the kinds of factories, warehouses, and square concrete residential slabs you'd expect from the Soviet Union's Cold War frontline.
I hadn't planned to visit Berlin on this trip. I left the country intending to unwind in Spain, but it turned out that flights from JFK to Germany were far less expensive than those from NYC to Madrid. I was confident that after just one or two days in Berlin, I would leave for Seville.
I ultimately stayed for a month.
While waiting to check in at my accommodation while meandering through that gloomy city, I made the decision to kill some time by snapping some photos. It didn't seem very appealing to take a hundred photos of some of the most hideous buildings in the developed world, so I began to concentrate on the city's constant street art. There was some good graffiti even in this somewhat unhip neighbourhood. As I continued to explore the city, I noticed that the seemingly unending rows of Soviet apartment buildings frequently gave way to stunning, centuries-old arches that led to lovely courtyards that had somehow survived the war.
By the time I unpacked at my hostel, Berlin had me completely captivated.
A City in Partiality
I ultimately arrived in Spain, where I ran into a Berlin traveller while chatting with a friend from back home. We spoke for a while about his home, and during that time he casually said that Berlin was "half-finished," which perfectly captures what makes Berlin so unique.
While East Berlin continued to grow under Soviet rule, West Berlin still roughly resides within its original bounds. The Soviet Union continued to construct additional factories and homes on their side of the wall, much exceeding the capacity of Easy Berlin in the 20th century, probably as a narcissistic display of dominance.
After the Wall came down, there were countless fully operational, completely empty buildings as a result of all this senseless industrial muscle flexing. Since the 1990s, Berlin has seen a true influx of young, unemployed, artistically inclined people eager to fill them full.
or at the very least, hide them.
Beautifying socialist construction
Before any of the city's other charms were obvious, Berlin's profusion of street art piqued my curiosity, and to this day, the most treasured recollections of my time there are adorned with these tags, murals, and flyers.
Given that street art practically covered every possible surface in every area of the city that was populated, I initially believed it to be allowed in Berlin. I didn't find out until much later that creating graffiti, tagging, or any other type of street art including painting or otherwise semi-permanently defacing a structure carries with it a heavy fine of 1,000 Euros for each infraction.
Berlin's street artists used the law creatively rather than submit to the fine. As they reasoned, there is nothing illegal about posting paper wherever the hell you want if companies and clubs are allowed to flyer the city every day with their advertisements. Law had to concur. The carefully drawn and expertly cut posters that Berlin street artists started to concentrate on producing swiftly spread throughout the city.
Not only are the artists in Berlin incredibly talented, but they are also quite intelligent and knowledgeable about legal matters. After decades of living in a repressive police state, there is a widespread dislike of surveillance and anything that is seen as an assault on civil freedoms. Given Berlin's vastness and its residents' propensity for protest, most of the city's minor civil laws—such as those prohibiting smoking in bars—are completely unenforceable, allowing the creative class to essentially act whenever they like. And that's advantageous.
Everything and everywhere is being reused.
If I told you Berlin was nothing more than a haven for anarchist artists constructing a brand-new hyper-localized universe inside city bounds, I'd be lying. Additionally, Berlin has American Apparel stores, Starbucks locations, and a tonne of tacky restaurants with a tropical motif, replete with fake palm trees and drinks served in plastic coconut shells. However, Berlin's abundance of abandoned Soviet-built structures means that anytime a district undergoes gentrification, the artist squats simply move a few streets over to the following stretch of pristine concrete blocks.
However, twenty years after the fall, that is what their utilitarian designs house, frequently hidden behind dark doors left blank to maintain the scene's "underground" aesthetic. The Soviet Union obviously didn't design these neighbourhoods and factories with an eye towards enabling a ruthlessly creative global party culture. Some of the places that have been renovated that I really liked are:
Der Berghain. The most well-known nightclub in Berlin, occasionally referred to as "The Greatest Club in the World." The Berghain, which originally served as a power station, now uses the enormous caverns of the structure to create a unique dance floor that beats to minimalist house music. The Berghain may be best known for its weekly ongoing dance party that begins late on Friday night and finishes around noon on Monday, which is enforced by a large German with a U-Boat jacket and a face covered in barbed-wire tattoos.
Doctor Pongs Who knows what this still-dilapidated structure was used for before, but it currently houses a little barely-a-bar with a full DJ setup in one corner playing American 60's soul music and a solitary ping pong table in the front room, surrounded by regulars playing an endless cycle of games.
Kino Litchblick Litchblick presents every contemporary indie and foreign film you could ever want in a 30-seat screening room built into an ancient storefront. You'll find regularly scheduled classics interspersed with showings of the best international film, like Litchblick's monthly Saturday night 12:00 a.m. screening of Casablanca.
An Actual Global City
While it may seem strange to spend a Saturday night watching one of the most anti-German movies ever while surrounded by Germans, doing so in Berlin seems completely natural and spontaneous. Berlin today gets a lot of its personality from its growingly international population. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, foreigners from all over Europe and Asia have flocked to East Berlin to help reconstruct the city, making it home to more than just German artists.
When I had supper at a Korean restaurant close to my accommodation on my first night in Berlin, I immediately saw how diverse the city was. Korean food just so happened to be there, and the pricing was reasonable, even though I wasn't specifically looking for it.
The subsequent month saw more instances of this scene. I was starving, the grocery stores were closed, and every popular food truck, deli, or restaurant I came across served food that was definitely not German. In Berlin, I ate a lot of sausage, ham, and sauerkraut, but I always specifically sought out these foods from retro restaurants. Foods with a large portion of, or all, of their origins in other parts of the world dominate the city's street food scene.
Take a look at Berlin's top two street foods:
The backbone of the Currywurst is a German sausage, but additional ingredients like ketchup, mayonnaise, French fries, and a variety of non-European spices broaden the dish's culinary history. Berliners are so deeply associated with the Currywurst despite its diverse culinary inspirations that a museum was dedicated to it.
The second is the doner kabab. It was born in Turkey and is a cousin of the gyro. While the Doner is available throughout Europe, only Berlin and London offer it in the same quantity and quality. Additionally, Berlin is the only city where I have ever seen the magnificent sight of a 40 kg Kebab cone.
One of the coolest global cities available
One of the most vibrant and liberating artistic movements in the world has emerged in Berlin. To find the excitement, you'll need to look beneath the Soviet-designed surface; if you're looking for Romantic passion, look elsewhere. But with some searching and the help of a few local guides, Berlin will consistently surprise you in new ways. One of the most thrilling experiences ever is this one.
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