Berlin: the uncapital

People often use 'Berlin' as shorthand for a powerful Germany. But in reality this is not a power center, economically or politically. And many people like it that way. 

I've been in Bonn, Germany the past two weeks, covering the UN climate talks. It's my first time in the former West German capital, and it's been a very eye-opening experience. 

I've been here working with Deutsche Welle, Germany's public international broadcaster (roughly the equivalent of the BBC World Service). When I tell people outside Germany that DW's headquarters is in Bonn, and Berlin has a much smaller satellite office, they're surprised. "Why wouldn't they be based in Berlin?" they ask. In fact, DW's situation is not unusual. Very few German media companies are based in Berlin. The TV stations and national papers are often based in Hamburg or Cologne, maintaining only small 'Berlin bureaus'.

Three different Berlins

My journey from Schöneberg to Neukölln to Prenzlauerberg.

Ever since going freelance in March of 2015, I’ve lived an itinerant life. In addition to keeping apartments in Brussels and Berlin and traveling between them, I’ve also gone traveling in the Southern hemisphere over the winters.

It’s been a fantastic and enriching experience, but today I’m reining it in. I’m on the train from Berlin to Brussels now, having given up my Berlin apartment. The back-and-forth was just getting too exhausting - I had to pick one city or the other. Professionally, that city has to be Brussels - at least for the moment. But that’s a subject for another blog entry.

Should Germans stop speaking English in Berlin?

A rising star in Merkel's CDU party has criticized Germans in Berlin for speaking too much English, calling them "elitist hipsters". Is he right to say the omnipresence of English in Berlin is exclusionary?

My continuing adventures with the German language

Germany's schlager superstar Helene Fischer

One year on, German continues to frustrate me.

It's been a year since I started learning German and wrote my first blog entry about the language, and some have suggested that I do an update. 

I'm reticent to do so because, to be perfectly honest, my German is really not at a level it should be for someone who started learning it a year ago. But my five-month long winter break in the Americas didn't really aid my process of German-learning. Though I intended to keep studying during my travels via an online course, once I got to Latin America I decided to do a short Spanish course while I was down there instead.

Needless to say, when I got back to Berlin in May and resumed my course, it was an overwhelming first day. I felt like I had forgotten everything from my elementary level class the year before and was starting from scratch. Particularly after having spent a few months learning a MUCH easier language (Spanish), I honestly felt like throwing in the towel. 'There are so many Americans here in Berlin that never bother learning German,' I thought. 'Why can't I be one of them?'

Gleisdreieck: the new Berlin wall

The old border between East and West may be imperceptible these days, but Berlin still feels like two different cities.

This week, after I had finished moving into my new apartment in the Neukolln neighbourhood of Berlin, I went to the annual re:publica conference nearby. It's an event focused on the politics of the internet - a subject close to German hearts. 

It is held at The Station, an extraordinary event facility housed in a former postbahnhof - a train station for mail. Today it sits under a dizzying intersection of several different train lines at Gleisdreieck Station - where U2, U1 and DB long-distance tracks converge. It has a beautiful outdoor area that faces Gleisdreieck Park. 

But this spot wasn't always so lovely. For decades this area was a barren weed-filled wasteland under and along the railroad tracks, separating the West Berlin neighbourhoods of Schoneberg and Kreuzberg.

The culture of volume

German expectations of respectfulness and order can make dining out a strangely quiet affair. 

I’m back in cold, cold Berlin after being away in Latin America for the winter and, funnily enough, it isn’t the weather that has required the biggest adjustment. It’s the volume. 

Last night I was out to dinner with a friend in Prinzlauerberg, and despite being in a fairly crowded restaurant, it was almost silent. Everyone was whispering. I had to lean in to hear what my German friend was saying. After spending the past weeks in Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil and Argentina, I’ve found the low volume in Germany to produce a ringing in my ears.

No, Brussels is not the new Berlin

People move to Berlin because they want to. People move to Brussels because they have to.

Given that I live in both cities, a lot of people have been asking me this weekend about Friday's New York Times article, 'Why Brussels is the New Berlin'. My first reaction after seeing the headline was to scoff. The article itself left me rather perplexed and annoyed.

These "________ is the new Berlin" articles are becoming a bad cliche. As Jon Worth pointed out in his blog today, this has been written about Warsaw, Leipzig, Zagreb, Krakow, Vilnius - the list goes on and on. The only prerequisite for the comparison seems to be that the city is cheap and has at least some artists in it. The Brussels-Berlin comparison is not itself new. Deutsche Welle did a similar article in August, although their piece had a more sensible focus on artists.

For the first time, I'm considering leaving Europe

Europe and America are both facing problems, but Europe's governing structures are more vulnerable and seem ready to collapse. It's left me pondering my future.

Since I first moved to Europe ten years ago, I've been surprised by how often I am asked one particular question - "will you ever move back to America?"

It always struck me as unusual, because I don't think a European who moved to America would get that question all the time. But in the four European cities I've lived in, people have seemed genuinely perplexed about why I'm here. Why would someone prefer to be in Europe rather than the United States? The question always annoyed me, and my answer was resolute.

"No, I'm not planning to move back," I responded. "I have a better quality of life here, I'm no longer in an American bubble separated from the rest of the world and, most importantly, I feel more hopeful for the future here than I did in the United States."

As we come to the end of 2015 I have to ask, is there reason for me to feel hopeful for Europe any more?

English in Berlin? Not as widespread as you might think

A new study finds Slovenes, Estonians and Poles all have greater English proficiency than Germans. 

One of the biggest adjustments for me moving from Brussels to Berlin has been linguistic. For one thing, I moved from a city where I speak the language (French) to one where I don't (German). 

But I'll admit it - even though I speak French I preferred to do most things in my native language when possible. In Brussels, this was most of the time. I only spoke French when I absolutely had to, either for work (a lot of French lawmakers don't speak English or are not allowed to), for dealing with Belgian administration, or socially if I was with a group of all Francophones (that didn't happen very often).

Rush Hour in Berlin

Due to a mixture of geographic and lifestyle factors, Berlin doesn't have much of a 'rush hour' to speak of.

I have a genuine question for Berliners - is there anything resembling a rush hour in this city? Perhaps it's the area in which I reside or the nature of my work, but after four months of living here I have yet to see any difference in traffic patterns or public transport ridership during the traditional commuting times of the day.

Maybe it just seems comparatively inactive because I'm coming from Brussels, which sees bumper-to-bumper gridlock throughout the city from 7h to 10h and 16h to 19h. I've noticed that it's only gotten worse since they closed Boulevard Anspach, the main thoroughfare in central Brussels, to pedestrianise it. During my Brussels weeks these past months I've seen traffic at an absolute standstill. I'm heading to Belgium tomorrow for another Brussels week, and I expect to spend much of the week sitting in traffic.

Coming home to the Brussels village

My 'Brussels weeks' feel a bit like coming back to my home village.

I’m on the train back to Berlin after a week in Brussels. Given that I’m now four months in with this dual-city life, I was naturally getting a lot of questions during this ‘Brussels week’ about how it’s going. 

So far so good, has been my response. The two cities are so remarkably different so it’s nice to shake things up every two weeks. The train has served me well as a sort of ‘mobile office’, and so far it hasn't felt too disruptive.

In Berlin, it's better to have a Belgian bank account than a German one

While banks in Germany rake in ATM fees from customers of other German banks, EU law forbids them from charging citizens of other EU countries.

It's a 'Brussels week' for me this week, I'm in town to shoot a few videos and moderate some conferences. As the Autumn draws on, I'm finding myself here more often than I'm in Berlin. But this is fine, since I have apartments in both cities. 

Strictly speaking, when I'm in Brussels I am "home". This is still my primary address - my Belgian phone is still my primary number, and I still use a Belgian bank account for all transactions. And actually, this last fact has made my life in Berlin easier.

Ich habe Deutsch gelernt

...well, level A1 at least. Now I'm going to improve my German through schlager music lessons.

This week I 'graduated' from my first intensive German course, finishing level A1 (elementary). I did pretty well on the final exam actually, so despite my fears about it being such a daunting language I think I'm doing alright. But, as I was warned, it is very challenging. 

It's been a very different experience from learning French at the Sorbonne in 2008 in Paris. For one thing, I started in July with absolutely no knowledge of German, whereas I had already taken French in high school. But even with this in mind, I found French to be a much easier language to learn because the sentence structure is quite similar.

Wandering the Wannsee

When it comes to parks and lakes, Berlin can't be beat.

One of the pleasures of living in West Berlin is that I am just a 15-minute train ride from the beautiful Wannsee, the beautiful lake in the West of the city. It boasts a beautiful sandy beach (the largest inland beach in Europe), stunning castles, breathtaking biking trails and even an island full of peacocks.

This is the Berlin I've dreamed about living in for so long.

"You guys, we're about to get deutsched"

The German obsession with policing other people's behaviour can be a bit tiresome, but after six years in Brussels it's nice to live in a place with a sense of society.

Is there life beyond Earth? That's the question a group of people I was with this weekend were asking themselves as we explored some crop circles that have recently formed in some wheat fields outside Berlin.

I was accompanying the group for a radio story I'm working on for Deutsche Welle, tying it in to the recent announcement of a new Stephen Hawking project to search for extraterrestrial life (it will air in the next few days on Inside Europe). It was a group of 15 or so youngish people from Berlin curious about UFOs, and you should have seen the looks we were getting as we walked through this small town in Brandenburg.

Perhaps the most alarmed look came as we emerged from the wheat fields. We had stopped to have a picnic within the crop circles, and when we were sitting down we were not visible from the road. Suddenly we all stood up, collected our things and started walking out of the field. I could see an elderly couple had stopped with their bikes and were staring at us, with a mixture of confusion and disapproval. "You guys, we're about to get deutsched," I told the group.

The nacktzone: why do Germans love being nude?

Northern Europeans, who live in some of Europe's coldest climes, never seem to want to keep their clothes on. How did this cultural penchant for disrobing come about?

I've splurged a bit and joined a very fancy gym here in Berlin - largely because it's the only chain to have locations I can use in both of my cities. The location here in Berlin is actually half gym and half wellness center, with four saunas, two hamams, a hot tub, an ice bath, a roof deck, and several rooms for "intense relaxation" (which as far as I can tell just means 'sleeping').

Yesterday while I was there there was a bit of a ruckus when a young Polish man became angry that he and his girlfriend were not being allowed into the wellness area with their bathing suits on. Like in any German gym, the wellness area is a 'nacktzone' - nudity obligatory. The young man started shouting angrily in English, "Why do Germans have to be naked all the time?"

First week in Berlin

So far Berlin life is great. But after six years living in a small city, it's amazing what an adjustment it is to be in a metropolis again.

I've made it through my first week in Berlin, mostly spending my time dealing with the practicalities of settling in. But now I've got my apartment all set up, my balcony full of flowers, and my phone full of a German sim card - I'm ready to go.

I've also been exploring my immediate neighbourhood - Schöneberg. It's central but quiet, the heart of West Berlin with some of the fanciest shops. While things in East Berlin have changed dramatically over recent years and continue to change, this part of West Berlin has remained roughly the same since I started visiting this city in 2002. There's something rather comforting about that.

A long move by train

Long-distance train journeys during record-high temperatures can take a bit longer than expected.

Over the past two months I've been going to and from Berlin by flight, but today, as I finally moved my things to my Berlin apartment, I decided to try out the train route. It will be my preferred way to get back and forth, because it's more comfortable and I can do work on the train.

But perhaps doing so with four suitcases, in the middle of a record-breaking heatwave, wasn't the best strategy.

I left at 10:30 this morning but am still on the train, 10 hours later. We're just pulling in to Spandau station though so it shouldn't be much longer. This journey is supposed to take 6.5 hours, but the intense heat caused lots of delays along the way.

I'm settling in Schöneberg

After some flirtation with the East, I've decided that my first home in Berlin will be in the West.

It's been an intense few days of apartment-hunting here in Berlin. By this afternoon I had it narrowed-down to two places - a two-month sublet in Prenzlauerberg, or a 7-month lease in Kreuzberg.

Neither apartment really thrilled me. The one in Prenzlauerberg was a bit short for the lease period, and it felt very far away. While walking around the neighbourhood, I couldn't shake the feeling that it was the Berlin equivalent of Park Slope in Brooklyn. There were a tonne of children, everywhere. It apparently has the highest concentration of children of any location in Germany. It was nice, but didn't really excite me.

Teutonic telecommunications troubles

As I've been discovering this week, German prepaid mobile plans leave much to be desired.

In 1999, when I moved from Boston to New York in order to transfer to a different university, there were a lot of logistical hassles along the way. I remember that one of the worst was changing my mobile phone.

Back then in the US, our mobile phone plans still had 'home ranges' outside of which you would pay a roaming surcharge to use your phone. This range was usually your state, or maybe a zone of three states. My mobile phone with a Massachusetts number would have been roaming in New York. So I had to change my phone plan. I also had to change my Massachusetts phone number to a New York one so that when people called me in New York they wouldn't be charged for a long-distance call.