Dear Reader,
Walking by the squares in Friedrichshain, I wondered where the culture is coming from in Berlin. I heard multiple languages—Italian, French, German, English, and Danish—and the buildings were a mix of communist blocks to terracotta roofs with walls painted blue, pink, yellow, and orange. The history makes for a darkened past, genocide and anti-semitism streaming through the blocks. But there is the air of rebirth and change.
With so much needing to be rebuilt, Berlin is bustling with a newness that coincides with the old. Cash is mostly used at stores and yet electric cars scatter the streets connected to apps that anyone can use for a ride. Art and tech are the two big scenes, both industries of creativity and nuance that work towards innovation rather than stagnation.
New York relies on what it has had for a century. Music and plays and art and dance all engulf the city at any moment and they’ve been there for a while. The city doesn’t have to try, it simply presents what it has to offer and you don’t have to go searching for an element of your cultural desires.
But Berlin is more quaint and some neighborhoods will only have access to a shopping mall or office building. It’s through the grit that one finds the best Berlin has to offer—nightclubs and a weekend party scene. Nothing is a scene to be watched. Graffiti walls cover most of the city and bottles are stacked neatly besides trashcans for recycling. Even grocery stores will be open for 24 hours.
Places can rebuild just like people can go through periods of rebirth. The bones are still there and maybe a trauma occurred but on the other side something starts to grow. Maybe it’s something better than what you had before—a new way of being or thing you’re known for.
You can’t escape change,
S.E. Dillard