Our city is changing. As long as we’re loud enough, it can change for the better.
My body is still sobering up from excessive new years celebrations when I leave my apartment on Karl-Marx-Allee on this frosty Thursday morning. I might feel like trash, but stepping through the elegant row of columns guarding the gates to the monumental ‘Stalin-palaces’, I live in, just gives me something grand each time.
I’m on my – semi-thought-through – mission to keep it that way: I’m buying my apartment! – I’m 25, I just finished my studies, and my savings got me as far as a new MacBook… Turning around the corner to Ostbahnhof, nervously fiddling with the pile of signed documents in my right hand, I ask myself: Have I gone mad?
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by Andy | People, Stories
One motif recurring in all kinds of Berlin-related memes is the metamorphosis one is supposed to go through after living in Berlin for a certain amount of time. The emphasis is usually on the stark contrast between the person’s initial chastity and beauty and the result of the transformation – most often symbolized by an ugly mess in some form.
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by Michalina | Stories
photo: Rowena Waack / CC
The year is coming to an end in just a few days; there is often a sense of relief in the atmosphere, as if we are truly excessively happy and grateful for the new year; it seems that every year there are some of us who will claim that that specific year has been horrible either because of personal mishaps or rather due to unfortunate developments that affected the entire world. Along with the good-riddance vibe many of us feel like making new resolutions, setting goals, promising to themselves that they will finally lose that extra weight, start learning mandarin, take more yoga classes or make their wildest dreams come true etc. It is, as if we automatically reset ourselves becoming concurrently confident that it will be different this time, we will not forget our goals and remember that we neglected them as soon as the following year comes to an end as well.
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by Nikos | Stories
photos: Alexander Steffen
Should you ever talk to people who have lived in Berlin for decades, there is no chance that they won’t underscore how much the city has changed through time. Unfortunately, they are not pleased with what Berlin has turned into and while each of them might have a different account of what exactly the core of the problem is and who is to blame, they would all agree that gentrification has exacerbate the situation. Without intending to initiate another debate on how to tackle this alarming phenomenon, I would like to raise awareness for a beautiful photo project by Alexander Steffen. Having grown up in West Berlin, he started the project Vanishing Berlin in 2009 by taking pictures of transient landmarks all over the city. Wastelands, storefronts and brick walls are central elements of his work. While some of the photographs seem to have been captured decades ago, they were all taken in the last seven years. Alexander’s focus doesn’t lie on the past, but on the process of change instead. In October 2016 the book was officially released and can be ordered online here. On September 8th 2017 Alex will open his new exhibition revisiting his Vanishing Berlin series.
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by Nikos | Photos, Products
