people & destiny
PEOPLE & DESTINY
Before the wall young West German men migrated to Berlin as a legal way to avoid conscription. It was a haven for rebels free spirits, artists, musicians and anarchists. East Berliners enjoyed the funkwaves of west tv, and were in constant tune with the signs of the times.
Kreuzberg used to be the 3rd largest population after Istanbul and Antalya, and has since 2007 succumbed to yuppified urbanisation of ethnics and artists being removed or replaced by entrepeneurs and rising rent zones...Originally there was South East 36 and 61, both in the American zone, divided by the canal and Kottbusser Damm.
Schönberg was and still is the gay scene, and a mix of upsters and down and outers. Hundreds of years ago Schöneberg was the city border where the vege gardens were.
Mitte was an adventure playground from 1990 to 1995, being the artistic epicenter of underground arts and music scenes. The Auguststr was squats and creative street art. Basements were bars, and empty lots were occupied by housetrucks and builders bauwagen.
Tacheles was a madman´s zone of freestyle sculpture, graffiti, every wall was painted or pissed on, and there wasn´t much empty space surrounding, except the skyline, and the grass in the yard.
Tempelhof was a dump with a noisy inner city airport, and Neukölln was the poorest suburb of West Berlin, with Wedding and Reinickendorf.
Kurfürstendamm was the main drag for the west, the King and Queen of Nepal used to go shopping in the KaDeWe before they were assassinated, and superstars built chiccy mickey villas at Wannsee.
Top shops moved to Friedrichstr after the wall came down, and in the early 90´s one could by a farmhouse residency or a palace in Brandenburg for 30,000 dm or euros.
East Berliners discovered new fruits like bananas and döner kebabs.
Foreigners started moving in and within 10 years the foreign population had established itself as an integral structure of the faces of Berlin.