Hotspots in Berlin

Our first few days in Berlin were spent around our new neighborhood located on the eastern side of town. This area was East Germany before 1990 and the fall of the Berlin Wall. The neighborhood, called "Prenzlaur Berg" is full of funky cafés, ethnic restaurants, independent boutiques, small movie and dance theaters, art galleries and an assortment of other alternative businesses. It’s an interesting hotspot, as something is always happening around here.

The people who live here are mainly young Berliners. I find their personalities brighter and friendlier than I had imagined them to be. Throughout the day, they gather at café tables under the sun or stars, smile softly and converse quietly to one another. This calmness is reflected even in the bartender of the punk café down the street. Of course, not everyone fits this description, but, for the most part, I feel this calm energy on the streets or inside the cafés.

It’s my guess that this calm and friendly attitude surfaced on the faces of the people of Berlin several years after the collapse of the wall. They had suffered for at least one hundred and thirty years with war, poverty and hunger. We saw evidence of this suffering in the art of German artist Kaethe Kollwitz. Kollwitz pulls her figurative imagery from personal experience, expressing the pain and sadness of the working class, the poor and the down-and-out living around her in the early twentieth century.

The fall of the Berlin Wall took place less than 15 years ago. Since then, the young people who have stayed here have established what appears to be a positive, thriving culture of their own. They seem to appreciate their freedom but are taking it slow, step-by-step without rushing things. Perhaps the calmness I feel around them originates from this appreciation of their young and open freedom.

Lyn and I talk about how much we dig this neighborhood. We make the required outings to museums and art galleries outside of the Prenzlaur Berg district, however, we’re most at home in this Berlin hotspot. Here we can feel the positive energy and vibe coming from the living people, as opposed to the dull energy we feel when viewing historic monuments like the Brandenburger Tor or the many others that celebrate olden day war victories. Young Berliners are moving on.