photos: Jan Rückert
My dearest Berlin,
you are loud, moody and exhausting. A city driven by hectic energy.
But you are also calm. This is why we come from all around the world.
We – the outsiders of norms. We – who love to go against the flow.
And here with you we can be free. No cages, no bars.
You are a city of freedom. I can’t think of a city that is more free. No rules, no limitations.
photos: Andi Weiland / CC
Berlin is a city that has suffered through a lot of difficult times. Just think of all those people that starved to death in the years of World War I, the terror and loss during the Nazi regime, the devastating destruction by bombs and fire in World War II, the years of the devision, the heartbreak of separation and all those killed trying to cross the Berlin Wall. The scars of these times run deep and are still visible. When times are tough Berliners will surely complain, be grumpy, be stubborn. But they always keep on going. They stick together.
Especially the re-unification, even though it was a process that took much longer than just the fall of the Berlin Wall, created a sense of togetherness that you can feel now more than ever. No matter how different they are from each other, if it matters they stand together, strong and unapologetic.
photo: Barbara
If modern politics were a telenovela, it would definitely have lots of avid fans, but also sworn detractors, who would wish to live just to see its cancellation. Yet, all of them would agree that the plot is not by far predictable or uneventful. Indeed, what is happening in the last few years in our privileged microcosmos called the West, is both scary and thrilling in the same way a traumatizing horror film would keep you at the edge of your seat or make you want to protect yourself behind your pop-corn. As fascism – or rather far-right conservatism to put it mildly – emerges steadily in countries that used to stand out for their respect and love towards life and its thrilling diversity, a gloomy pessimistic futures seems to lie ahead.
The most hurtful repercussions of this phenomenon seem to be three. Starting with divisiveness, we are all unconsciously grouped into squads based on our beliefs on social and political matters. We prefer standing exclusively next to the like-minded ones and right opposite the ones we disagree with. We constantly, proudly and fervently claim that there are way more differences than similarities among us. We have no love to give, only rants in support of our beloved “ideology”. This is exactly where the second consequence of the current affairs arises: powerful hatred and the urge to scream at everyone that might provoke us. To top that, fear lurks around the corner and renders us inactive and unable to cause any change that goes beyond the social media.
photo: Christian Schirrmacher / CC
Ever since I left Warsaw for Berlin, it’s become one of my favorite pastimes to mercilessly scrutinize Wikipedia to come up with names of artists that have once been just as excited as me to settle in the city on the Spree. I succeeded in many such cases, for example took a closer look at the immortalized in many sources exile of David Bowie.
But as it turns out, not everyone enjoyed their stay to the same extent. Vladimir Nabokov, who lived here in the long period between 1922 and 1937 reportedly wasn’t a fan of the city.
photo: Wojtek Mejor
Blogs like ours, as well as those of many of our dear colleagues such as Berlin Loves You, Finding Berlin, Stil in Berlin, Mit Vergnügen, überlin, Pieces of Berlin and the Berlin newsletter Sugarhigh are all about praising Berlin in all of its glory. We think Berlin is a great city worth all the praise and we won’t listen to the haters. But they are out there, those who despise our city and like to criticize every little bit of it and the people inside it. They like to blame us Berlin bloggers for accelerating the gentrification, for bringing in “the wrong people”, for inevitable changes in the city and for the general downfall of the Western civilization. We wondered, how would their blog bookmarks look like. If all the Berlin loving blogs were doing quite the opposite, how would that look like? Check out our imaginary list of despicable Berlin blogs after the jump…
We arrived pretty late at the release party of the 5th issue of the lovely HATE magazine. So most of the dance floors at Cargo were already empty. But that didn’t mean that we could have a some fun, so my girls gave me little posing contest with some nice results. Enjoy after the jump.
Birthday Party Berlin, photo: Marco Macrobi
Cargo seems to become a hotspot! I really can’t tell why. At the Lucky Strike party I quick-freezed and caught a cystitis! What else is new? Oh! The most beautiful doormen is leaving Berlin: Picknick-Flo says goodbye. He never meant to harm anybody, he just took his work really serious… Farewell my blond angel!
Take a look at the Horse Meat flyer, damn! It suddenly feels hot in here. Pew… The parties after you know where.
Update: Join our iHeartBerlin.de Facebook Group to get on the guestlist of the Vice Party tonight.
Last Saturday Hate Magazine celebrated the release of their 4th issue with a big party at Villa. And I can assure you that the guys from Hate are far from being haters. We took the liberty to make some snapshots which you can see more of after the jump.