Walk along Berlin's divided city: past and present
Berlin, a once divided city, retains its history much like the layers of an onion - distinct, part of a whole, and sometimes make you tear up a little. Take a walk in the city to peel back the layers.
Full disclosure, Berlin is where I currently call home. It’s a city I hadn’t considered particularly appealing until a few years ago, through a series of travel plans, I stumbled into a week here. It was early December, grey, snowy, and dark, but something about the city seduced me over. A year later I found myself with two suitcases, an employment contract, and a new city to discover. Perhaps that’s why stories of the immigrant experience in this city really called out. On the other hand, I experience so little “German” life, I remain curious about the other side of this city. Filled with Berliners who have seen a wall go up, then a wall come down, and all the shades of grey (you’re not going to get a ton of color in this city) that it spans.
We ended up picking Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck as the book that features Berlin for a couple of reasons. The first is that Erpenbeck was born in East Berlin. It’s always great to get a perspective from someone deeply rooted to the city. The second, it that it narrates a story from the perspective of an East-Berliner, moving into today’s world with immigration as a humanitarian issue at the forefront. As a foreigner in Berlin who doesn’t speak German, I feel I crave narratives told from the perspective of locals. And in some ways, Go, Went, Gone let me peek into that window. Additionally, the novel speaks to these layers of history that permeate daily life in Berlin, something I found comforting - it didn’t focus deeply on narratives of the Holocaust, but rather focused on a more modern Berlin, a Berlin you can experience on a visit today.
From the west to east
1) 9 a.m. Crossing Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg is going through a radical transformation. Once a neighborhood on the edge of the West, transformed into a “poor but sexy” neighborhood, which is now hitting some major gentrification. This transformation recalls the narrative of the lower east side of Manhattan. Berlin has been trying to introduce regulation around housing and maximum rental costs, but it’s hard to know what the long-term ramifications will be.
Much of the novel highlights Oranienplatz as an intersection between cultures. It’s admittedly a beautiful park with a small pond at the edge. If you’re lucky, you’ll get to see the swans swimming about but it’s advised not to feed them, they can get a bit aggressive (I saw a young boy slap one on the head once they became a bit too accustomed to him feeding them bread). Regardless of the swan ferocity, feel free to grab a coffee at Bonanza Coffee Roasters, known for top notch coffee in Berlin. If you’re looking to poke around the neighborhood a bit more, I’d highly recommend you visit Werkbundarchiv, a small museum which displays everyday objects from German life during the 20th century.
DISCOVER BERLIN’s HISTORIC LANDMARKS
2) 10 A.M An Eastern WELCOME
As you make your way through Kreuzberg, you’ll find the Spree river along your path. Cross over into what was East Berlin. Here is much of the novel’s activity - both past and present. You’ll find S-Bahn Berlin Kundenzentrum on the edge of the river. As you make your way up north, you’ll fall onto Alexanderplatz where you’ll be a few feet from the Berliner Fernsehturm (otherwise know as the TV tower), Neptunbrunnen, and the Rotes Rathaus.
The Alexanderplatz area is known for its touristic vibe, which often means, you’ll have to walk a bit outside of the area proper to get a great meal. My personal favorites are Quà Phê for great Vietnamese food, or right next door there is a Banh Mi sandwich place where you get a vegetarian or meat option and that’s about it. Both options are quite top-notch. Although Vietnamese food might seem a bit odd as a recommendation in Berlin, it’s actually deeply tied to the city. When the city was divided, the Eastern section was part of the communist block and other communist countries could send their citizens for training programs to Eastern Germany. Many North Vietnamese came over for training and contract worker programs and ultimately stayed upon the reunification of Germany. At the same time, many South Vietnamese came over into West Berlin as refugees from the war. DW put together a great documentary of the Vietnamese experience (in addition to many other groups of immigrants) in Berlin.
3) 2 P.M. MAKING A MOVE TO MUSEUM ISLE
Once you’ve filled your belly with some delicious food, you can make your way back to the Spree, crossing the famous Museum Island. If it’s a particularly beautiful day, it’s quite a luxury to sit in the big parks in the Lustgarten as you cross over. Continuing on, you’ll reach the famous Humboldt University, where Richard worked as a Professor. As you make your way further north, you’ll reach the Friedrichstraße station where Richard would commute to for work. If your feet as speaking to you at this point, feel free to hop on the subway and make your way up to Gesundbrunnen station.
4) 6 P.M. Blueberries at Gesundbrunnen
This is the longest stretch of the walk without smaller breaks for landmarks. What is particularly interesting though is in this stretch, we’ll walk again between East and West Berlin. Most people think the division happened in a perfect line demarcating the space on the left (West) and right (East). But in this walk you’ll experience the sometimes confusing division of this city. The supporting map is great to have as an accompaniment to see when you’re in the former East and when you’re in the former West. You’ll end up at Gesundbrunnen station. Where Richard once would go to pick blueberries, is not a highly developed neighborhood. You may be feeling a bit peckish at this point, and although you may not have a beautiful blueberry bush to pick from, the Currywurst at a small place called Curry Baude is highly recommended.
Headed to Berlin? Read on …
