The First Days of Berlin

Berlin is a city where history is always on the move. Since my first days here, almost two decades ago, the rapid change of landscape - both visual and socio-cultural - felt like centuries. Some may say the city is going in the wrong direction - towards pronounced gentrification and middle-class blandless. I dare to say that that´s one of the misteries of change - to be inconvenient first, always unpredictable, dislocating habits but nevertheless never fully heading in the ´wrong´; it´s just us who are afraid of change.

The thing of growing up as an adult in a place you are not born to is that you cannot really have the feeling of the very old times without a little help from books. You have no memories or why and how things changed, so you need to fill those gaps in case you really want to be aware of the full picture. 

And when it comes to Berlin´s first years of its new life chapter, the reunification, I obviously have so much to learn. 

Cultural journalist Ulrich Gutmair filled those space with a book mostly focused on the alternative lifestyle built around Tacheles in Mitte. Once a no man´s land, at the border between two worlds, nowadays is one of the most expensive places to live and dine in the city. Old punks and hippies, the first clubs in ´occupied´ buildings, vacated after the unification: those are the signs, but the a society and life choices. Understading the German mentality, particularly in Berlin, is almost impossible without putting together all those pieces of the puzzle, which is carefully built in this book, through interviews with people involved in various local streams and the author´s own memories.

It´s a recommended read to anyone interested in a deeper and personal knowledge about Berlin, a bit different one that may hear and read about in the news.

Here are some old pictures from Tacheles that I took back in 2011, part of a blog post I´ve written at a time when I was super excited to explore courageously on my own everything about Berlin and beyond.

I´ve visited recently the place - and had an over priced Rhubarber and Poppy small piece of cake - horrible combination, if you trust my foodie blogger buds. The old Tacheles is mostly gone, the only memories still maintained are within the part of the building hosting Fotografiska art gallery. All those graffiti do bring a bit of life to the otherwise brutalist structurer. The rest of the space, whose modern architecture I don´t necessarily reject, is hosting startups and various offices.

Knowing the histories behind it make the visiting experience more interesting.

Fotos by me: 2024, 2011

Book Review: Berlin by Bea Setton

 

´Berlin is an easy place to start anew, as everyone seems to have just arrived´.

As the weather was generous with us, Berliners, in the last days, I took a stroll today, all on my own, through the famous Kreuzberg. The people are hanging out alone or in couples, eating outdoors or walking their dogs, conversing in English loud and funnily. The bikes are moving fast, long lines of families on two rows, requesting their slice of the road. This is a part of Berlin, the one you can see all round the day, no matter what time or day of the week. And when the day is over, this Berlin relocates to the underground, dancing as it is no tomorrow until the break of the dawn.

I had the taste of this Berlin too, at least for a short while or once in a while. I may nostalgically think about those times. But this Berlin is so unauthentic as an ad for beauty surgery. It lures you, it may promise you a life as extraordinary as a mushroom-induced dream. 

That´s the promise Daphne the main character of Berlin by Bea Setton, a British-French young girl, with a side for lying about herself and almost everything, dreamed about as she arrived to Berlin. She wanted to learn German, eventually do some graduate studies, enjoy life. Her parents secured her a monthly payment for her basic needs. She is free as a bird and ready to have some fun. But things are getting on the wrong side of fun: there is an ex she met - actually she was aware he is here therefore her choice of an escape; she got a stalker; made few friends but will lose all of them soon; is running as crazy around the Hasenheidepark; ´someone´ threw a stone into her rented apartment no. 1, then to the rented apartment no.2. Until the end of the story, she is becoming more and more psychotic and ends up leaving Berlin with her things in a blue IKEA bag.

I have no idea why I insisted to finish this book. There is no actual story, unless this unfolding psychosis, and some well-placed hints about what is supposed to happen. The only part which is really intelligent is the classification of people one may find on dating sites, but such articles one can easily find at the ´Dating´ section of any respectable glossy magazine.

Shortly, Berlin by Bea Setton is a psychotic projection of a Berlin that haunts the dreams of Western people whose life is in a point of no return. Unless you got completely on the wrong side and you take your IKEA bag on your shoulder embarking on the first cheap flight back home.

Rating: 2 stars