Berlin: Scratching the Surface
Berlin is a blister of historical significance with it's future always lying just below the surface of the skin, waiting to erupt if you are willing to stay long enough to scratch it open. It is difficult, if not impossible, to explain to my friends and family what intrigues me about Berlin. Berlin captured me in ways other European cities I visited did not. I guess it's more of an unconscious sensibility I have about this place, than a full understanding of it's allure or it's potential as a city I might like to live in. I must come back so that I can properly identify the pull it has on me. For
one thing,
there is just so much I have yet to see and learn about this place. Yes, Amsterdam is very livable, a great place to work, ride and raise a family if I had one. Prague is certainly a city to visit for the arts, opera and ballet, for the shopping and the romance at Christmas time, but not a city for me to live in. Berlin has an ineffable romantic appeal for the young, intelligent, unmarried and childless creative professional. Economically speaking, Berlin is a great place to enjoy the social pleasures and consumer indulgences of a high middle class single person making working class wages. The city is full of young people (many internationals), attracted to the low rents, the struggling, cutting edge arts and nuances of a city once divided. It's a place where people turn to hip cultural trends in the shadow of city glamour that never arrives in full form. It is an intellectual city, deep in philosophic traditions (see the historical Humboldt Universitaet) and influences of the the critical theorists. Speaking of such, here I am standing with two of those "influences" at the Marx-Engels Forum, located on Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse and Spandauer Strasse in the Mitte. There is what seems to be a noticable bit of a"critical distance" in almost every German I have ever met and maybe it has influenced what I have observed about German men in particular –– their two sides. (NOTE: this is my experience; I am not making any claims to all German men of course). But does anyone else notice how some German guys have both a scrupulous, sometimes abrasive, mysterious exterior and a gentle loving and daring interior? Is it this simple ambiguity, or enchanting duality rather, that attracts me so to German men?
Anyway, coming from the working class that I do, there is a comfort knowing that the people walking around the streets in their fancy coats and shoes have worked hard, and earned their right to look good in their high fashions. Berliners do work hard and long hours, until 7 or later then out to eat by 8:00. And they eat well, REALLY well, in a city where tapas and turkish abound. Then it's out to the clubs till 3:00 or later. What they say in the guidebooks about this lifestyle is true! (As for me I went out three weeknights in a row with my hardworking friend Norman). The Jazz Fest was in full swing during my stay in Berlin so I caught one local jazz group at a place called Zosch located in an attractive stone cellar in Berlin-Mitte Tucholskystr. 30. Another night, we stayed out very late to see the Puppet Mastaz at Club Maria, a great puppet hip hop group - Aweseome! OH! And I must again mention Iva Nova, my heroins of Slovenian Folk Punk from St. Petersburg, Russia.
And also pictured here is the Volks-Buhne (People's Theatre) on Rosa-Luxemburg Strasse. This is a great area for arts and music, where further down the street is the Babylon which hosts the annual Jazz Fest and other great theatrical, film and music venues...
But the hard truth about Berlin, in a country suffering from high unemployment, is that it's financially bankrupt, so it does not attract the volume or variety of business needed to build a sound city infrastructure and sustainlable economic base. Instead, it thrives on on the influx of young and aspiring creatives that keep it alive through it's vibrant multi-media, communications and service industries -- Yet the good news is it's a great place for writers, photographers, and designers in the multi-media and communication fields. So I'm still rooting for you Berlin! And you have my full attention!
Go Berlin!
