photo: Valerie-Siba Rousparast
The “Berliner Schnauze” is not a term by accident. Berliners are well known all over Germany for their rough tone, their unique way of expressing their anger, antipathy and impatience. In all this verbal roughness, there is also a very honest authenticity and directness that most people come to appreciate really quick. If a Berliner tells you something nice, you can be sure that it is not out of politeness, but a true compliment.
The city itself is rough as well. Even though most parts have been heavily renovated and lost some of their historical charm, there still are those buildings from the past that show signs of their GDR history. Those brown and grey facades, still coloured by the coal production. The “Plattenbauten”, those industrial looking, box-shaped houses that were initially meant to serve a lot of living units after the war, are still characteristic for many of Berlin’s districts.
photo: Matthias Planitzer /Finding Berlin
They are charming in their rough look, just like the old Ubahn stations, unused spaces in between new building complexes and those shabby bars that belong on every other street corner. In the end, even the people of Berlin have their own rough look to them. It is not only the way they talk, but sometimes you can observe the roughness on their faces and looks even long before you get to talk to each other.
photo: Matthias Planitzer /Finding Berlin
The city is very big, winters here are cold and the long distances don’t really make anyone happy. So sometimes, living here can become really exhausting, especially when people don’t have enough of the essentials: love, friends and of course also money for a living. Getting used to the pace and the rough winter nights, getting lost over and over again, can make anyone look a bit rough. Nevertheless this is part of the special look of Berlin, where unlike other metropoles, the realness, struggle and roughness aren’t being polished or displaced, but included. We love you, rough Berlin.
