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photo: Harald Hauswald
We all know the stigma: True Berliners are grumpy people. People who directly speak their mind, could not care less about unnecessary chit-chat and definitely have a strong problem with, well, for simplicity reasons, let’s call it hipster culture. Despite stereotypes being generally untrue, it doesn’t really take you long to see that person right in front of you, does it? But is there a reason for all the grouch? Has anyone ever dared to ask when you saw one of these rare True Berliners? It feels like in Berlin there is this ongoing, unspoken, not clearly defined tension pressing under the surface of the city; an unverbalized conflict between these who came and those who were already here. The “Neuberliner“ vs. the “Urberliner“.
In search of an answer for all this bad mood, we, the “Neuberliner“, need to go back in time. As finding the cause for these temper issues is just not that simple. This text is one approach, but of course there could be one hundred other reasons for grumpy Berlin people being grumpy. But let’s try…
Since the time when someone really clever decided to build a wall right through one of the biggest European metropoles, Berlin was not really known for groundbreaking change. In both of its parts, Berlin became quite slow, at least on the surface. An excluded democratic island on the one side, left alone in the midst of the grey Soviet workers’ and farmers’ state.
Both East and West Berliners who were born in this time grew up in this construct, this concept of slow change around them, and got used to Berlin being just the way it was. Yes, some punks might have put on a riot here, a few youngsters tried to start a revolution there, David Bowie produced some albums, and electronic music started roaring under the surface of the city – but the Berlin everyday stayed pretty much the same for thirty years.
photo: York Berlin / CC
Then, after decades of this bad joke being actual reality, suddenly, Germany got reunited, and West and East Berlin had their long-estranged sibling back. Still, for another decade, change stayed bubbling in the underground – illegal techno raves are not something the every man or woman recognizes as apparent change. But when the new millennium hit, apparently, the word had spread and the whole world had decided to make Berlin its new playground. Berlin – where there are cheap rents, and spaces to think, grow and explore. So, the creative people came; the artists, musicians, designers, bloggers… – the royal global hipness gathered, and everyone who felt like they belonged followed. They came, in waves, and brought along their vegan ice cream, soy lattes, vinyl stores and overpriced vintage shops. And suddenly Berlin, this torn apart, maltreated sleeping beauty, wakes up and behaves like she did too much speed at once.
When you’re used to steady but slow change in your city, your Berlin, this new doped-up version can be quite the shock. For most “Urberliners” it must have been exactly that. Suddenly, the place that you know, better than anyone, the place you grew up in, moves at a different pace, gets a new vibe and puts on a new face. But it’s like no one bothered to give you the memo. You want to move, but you can’t as it is your home and social background. You are stuck in a place that you identify with, while you don’t, and all you are left with are questions, like: “Who are these people? And could they NOT open up Brooklyn-style cafés in Neukölln – THANK YOU!”
And then, “we” came and still do, in wave after wave, all the “Neuberliners”, promoting gentrification, and basically being the reason for everything bad an “Urberliner” could see. From rents in Prenzlauer Berg being twenty-five times what they were in 1990, the city landscape being disfigured by new unnecessary buildings, and basically every neighborhood becoming an epicenter of a weirdly interchangeable urban yuppy culture – until the last resort is moving to Spandau!
Yes, it’s us, all the Hipsters with their Jutebeutel, Club Mates, black clothes and asymmetrical hair styles. It’s all our fault – while it’s not, which is the focal problem of this dispute, because we came to Berlin with a totally different mindset. While this stereotyped “Urberliner“ understandably does not want Berlin to change at all, we expect it to, we want it to, as we came from all over the world to call one of the most thriving metropoles our new home.
So, what it comes down to: There are two Berlins – sharing nothing more than a place and a name. Now, there is no border, no wall separating the two, still, it doesn’t seem like it makes communicating between the citizens of the cities that much easier. The one side seems to get grumpier and grouchier, while we, on the other side, just keep on dancing in circles like lunatics with a hedonistic “whatever” attitude. Truth is, you cannot contain change, and you never should. It’s just a bit overwhelming and frustrating for some that it happened in that breakneck speed in Berlin. And this beauty might actually need some tranquilizer from time to time.
This city is tough for all of us. For them, the “Urberliners”, it’s the basic fact that there is such a thing as rapid change, for us it’s desperately trying to keep up with this rapid change (or giving up and moving to Leipzig).
If a group of weirdly dressed youngsters went wild in front of my door step all of a sudden, and wouldn’t stop for the next couple of decades – well – I’d have my grumpy moments too. So, true grumpy Berliners definitely have their reasons. But, in the end we all live here now. We’re all Berliners. This city is a crazy bitch, and will be. Let’s all just try to deal with that somehow and smile a bit more. The sky is grey enough already.
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Text: Andy
Andy D. studies communication and film studies at the Freie Universität. He is a classic Neuberliner: born close to Düsseldorf he got drawn to this crazy city like a moth to the flame. He is a part-time music maniac, wannabe film expert and aspiring writer, always eager to find new stories in this inspiring whirlwind of a city.
Berliners always have been grumpy. Kurt Tucholsky already wrote about it 100 years ago. Good book in German: “Berliner Orte. Westend bis Köpenick.”
I’m sad that a topic like that is literally pinned to the Berlin Wall, wiped off with a Jutebeutel, blurred by an asymmetric haircut. Recommendation: Go, read the newspapers and magazines of the last 150 years, read Tucholsky, Fontane, Hessel, Brecht, Benjamin, Eisner, Kracauer and their take on Berlin and the Berliners. Then, next, go out and just watch and keep your eyes open. Maybe, one day, you’ll understand.
Yours truly, a no-nonsense Berliner (gut reaction: “Issn dit für ne Grütze … “)
most “urberliners” aren´t really grumpy but very tolerant and honest. the biggest problems with “neuberliners” or “expats” they are having is that many of them aren´t able to speak german with them. and also very many of the expats aren´t really interested to get to know “urberliners” but rather other expats 🙁
yeah. Things were pretty sweet before the mob turned up and turned this city into a big overpriced and overrated hipster-disneyland. I loved our provincial ways – and there was no pretense, living where noone else wanted to. I mean – pluuuuhzzz – underground and avantgarde was *before* y’all came over. this is mainstream now. go and find another edgy playground, leave us provincial slobs alone. Thank You. Sincerely, an UrBerliner.
I have only been in Berlin for a few years, but I work and socialize with lifelong Berliners every day. I don’t find them to be grumpy at all. They are all proud of their city, and most are excited by the opportunities that being the center of Europe and a world city can potentially bring. Despite the influx of hipsters who only see Berlin as their own personal playground, I have found native Berliners to be among the most welcoming and unpretentious people I have ever had the pleasure of living with. It is not that Berliners are grumpy, it is that it is not easy to impress them, and they are not shy about brushing you off if they think you are wasting their time. This is a very important distinction that a lot of people miss.
What’s the purpose of this text? To discredit all so called “Urberliner”? Andy, I really wonder, have you ever met any of those you are talking about or is this just your prejudice opinion, because most “Urberliner” are not a bit impressed by a hipster lifestyle? This text underlines an arrogant attitude from a self-appointed hipster-avantgarde that seemingly do not und
erstand the city at all. The pictures are really, really good, though!
I came to Berlin from the overly friendly city of Dublin four years ago. I stayed because I liked the freedom Urberliners’ no bullshit attitude allowed me. I will take their perceived grumpiness over many Neuberliners’ pretentious indifference, any day.
But at what time was “Berlin” ever a singular personality?
United “New” Berlin – 27 years.
Divided “Walled” Berlin – 29 years.
Postwar “un-Walled” Berlin – 16 years.
“Nazi Berlin – 12 Years”.
“Weimar Berlin” – 14 years.
“Imperial Berlin” – 43 years. <— so there it is! *That* is how far back you have to go to find some kind of "mythic time" when Berlin had always just been "the way it was". And even then it was a time of tremendous change. In many ways similar to the change Berlin is experiencing now, actually.
In some ways you can say Berlin is "back on track" to the trajectory it *should* have been on, had things not become a bit .. er .. "complicated" in the 20th century.
my first visit to berlin,was in 1970.stayed in the Grunewald,and worked by the Olympic Stadium..i found that there was always,a little bit of a magic feeling in the air,when the Commie’s,were just a stone’s throw away,over there.I returned to Berlin in 1993,lived and worked in,what was the old D.D.R,east side.stayed until 2004,but,for me,the magic had gone..the older generation,were pretty much the same..However,the younger people were showing far too much influence,from the American way of life,pity.
Real Berliners couldn’t be more bored by all the theories, new Berliners come up with. Be it the young kids coming from provincial west german villages who get super exited about themselves here as soon as they take a small breath of the Berlin style and attitude. (And no – gentrification is not caused by you Hipsters… it is caused by either your parents, who pay your rents and wannebe-lyfestyle, or it’s caused by people with real jobs, who come here temporarily and leave again quickly, leaving back the next step of a rent increase… that’s outside of the hipster crowd). Or be it the international hipsters, who mistake the fact that no one cares about them here, for a lack of eductation about just how important they think they are. Berlin never was in need for any of these self-overwhelmed people. And that’s a hard pill to swallow for many of them. But see Berliners don’t care. Never did, never will. And they will let you know and ground you in a heartbeat. Because they have the heart just where it needs to be. In a real place.
Thanks for the article, was an interesting take on Berlin. I also find the comments interesting, especially about being on the outside of hipsters — they’re an easy target, and are probably not the only reason for things being the way they are.
I’m originally from Australia and came here to live, and to have an experience in a different country. I’ve been quite shocked to find some people not even speaking a word of German, despite having been here for years — for my wife and I, it was a give that we’d learn the language. Why wouldn’t you? I’m not perfect at it by any means, but it just makes you feel like you belong here.
Actually, most of the Berliners I’ve met, including my German teacher, are lovely people. Direct, sure, and that’s the Berliner way, the grumpiest people I’ve seen are usually outsiders (not even from other places in Germany). People walking down the street, in shops, scowls on their faces, pushing around. Why? Why the animosity towards other people?
I think the “hipster” time has certainly come and gone — only people who can afford to pay loads of money for rent stay here — I’ve seen a lot of people come and go now.
Some people used to tell me that Berlin has changed so quickly, even over 10 years, but it’s also interesting to hear that in some ways, and on some sides, it really hasn’t 🙂
Maybe it looks on the outside like that. I feel it’s the other way around. Just consider your environment, don’t park your bike in the middle of the way and don’t block the doorway on the subway. I mean, come on.
It’s so cute reading these UberBerliner comments about how they want expats to leave Berlin alone. Can you name a city that has anything good about it that isn’t completely flooded by immigration? Look at New York, London or Paris. Seriously, grow up! It’s happening, you can’t stop it.
Try living in Sydney, where there are the world’s most beautiful beaches, incredible weather, some of the best food in the world, friendly people and super high salaries. Every time I meet a German person they are like “what the fuck are you doing here, Australia is paradise.” It is, sure! It’s also completely loaded with English, German, French, Chinese, Brazilian….oh wait, it’s just like Berlin. Except that immigrants and tourists still think of Australia as a prison colony so they make sure that they get disgustingly drunk, piss in public, and generally behave like lunatics when they visit, leaving trash on our beautiful beaches, getting into fights and causing trouble. So you can see, it goes both ways. The difference is that Australia enjoys multiculturalism and progress. Maybe Germans don’t. Some of the stuff on the news seems to prove me right.
Please, just because you live in a city or were born there, doesn’t mean you own it. Also doesn’t mean you have any right to tell people to go home. Perhaps it’s time to understand that cities change and it’s less frustrating to accept it than to fight it with a big miserable frown on your face.