Three Weeks in Berlin

Exploring cities is one of my hobbies. Cities are living organisms. Some feel more alive than others. I fly in and start walking around. Without much of a plan or agenda. It helps that I have Lindy Newsletter subscribers ready to meet up and show me around, tell me things about the city and about their lives. It gives me an insider view that a tourist probably doesn’t get.

I just spent three weeks in Berlin. Longer than I usually stay in one city, but that’s ok, Berlin pulls in this eclectic mix of international people that you don’t really feel like an outsider at all when you’re there. It’s a very thin culture type of place.

Most visitors skip Berlin when they’re vacationing in Germany, they choose Munich’s glossy appeal or Hamburg’s polished, old-world charm. But Berlin is different—it’s an intentional place. It’s filled with people from other countries who come here for a reason. This shapes the identity of the city. At a time when places around the world are starting to look the same, Berlin still stands out. And that’s rare. It’s different because people want it to be different, like they’re collectively willing it into existence.

@jiggyjaya

Berlin summed up in one video 😭

So many artists in the 20th century were attracted to the city for this reason.

• Bourdain shot an episode of Berlin for his show.

• David Bowie recorded his best albums while living in Berlin.

• Techno and club music dominate the nightlife.

But Berlin isn’t for everyone. The people tend to look a bit ragged, and the streets are full of wandering souls. It doesn’t fit the traditional European definition of beauty. It’s a place you never have to really grow up if you don’t want to. You can stay 23 years old forever and no one will care.

Berlin Does Not Feel like Germany

One of the first things you notice about Berlin is that it doesn’t even feel very German at all. English is spoken more than German. For many Germans, Berlin isn’t a desirable place to live—it’s huge, dirty, and job opportunities are average at best. The city is notorious for things that just don’t work. Every other city in Germany has one identity. And don't get me wrong: I like those, too. But Berlin has a lot more going on.

Sometimes it felt like I never left America—except you’re struck by how little difference there is between people. In wealth, appearance, and attitude, everyone seems firmly planted in the working middle class, with none of the extremes you see in the U.S.

Berlin is one of the lowest-wage large cities in Germany, and if you took it out of the country, Germany would get richer, not poorer. Berlin’s the only capital in the OECD where wages are below the national average—that’s how dependent it is on federal subsidies. Much of the city’s tax revenue goes to service its state debt, a holdover from the Cold War when Berlin was heavily subsidized just to survive. Industry in West Berlin all but vanished, and only a few sectors hung on, propped up by government tax breaks. It’s not your regular capital city.

Here’s a Quick Neighborhood Guide

In case, you go keep in mind that in Berlin, each neighborhood is very different from each other. It is like 4-5 cities in one city.

1) Mitte: Mitte is where old-world Berlin clashes with the modernist new, a place where sleek art galleries and cold, minimalist cafes occupy spaces that once echoed with Prussian history. It's the neighborhood where tourists come for the landmarks and that is mostly what you see on videos. Upper middle class professionals live in it. It’s nice. There’s a big park called Tiergarten in it that is an urban forest.

2) Charlottenburg: Going to Charlottenburg is like walking back to Europe. Traditional architecture, streets that could pass for Paris if you squint. Picture rich, 70-year-old bohemians in vintage Porsches, dressing like Englishmen, taking bumps in the Paris Bar bathroom, and genuinely not giving a shit about much else.

3) Prenzlauer Berg: Home of hip middle aged dads. These are the people who “moved to Berlin” in their 20s back in the ‘90s to party, and now, at 50-something, they’re all “creative directors” living in massive apartments, supporting the Ukraine war like it’s another project they’ve just signed onto. The same people, just with bigger apartments and better wine.

4) Kreuzberg: Feels like I’ve been transported to Brooklyn but with an edge. It’s got that gritty American, or at least international, edge. Gentrification has crept in, with hipster cafés and organic markets squatting where punks once ruled, but the grime hasn’t been completely wiped off yet. I met one of my subscribers here, a nice guy fresh out of a master’s in Econ, just hanging around looking for a job. His buddy’s dad works at NVIDIA and bought him the top floor of a building. Yeah, it’s that kind of place now.

5) Friedrichshein: East Berlin. The heart of Berlin’s techno scene, perfect for bar hopping and eating out. Still has anarchists and punk rockers, left-wing activists squatting in run-down buildings, techno freaks and entry-level workers living on ramen. Still a younger demographic but a neighborhood full of energy. Gentrification is clawing its way in.

6) Neukolln: It's a fairly gritty old working class neighborhood with high immigrant population particularly from Turkey and the Middle East, which has become very gentrified with students and international kids moving there from all over the world in the last years. That said if you are someone who likes to have everything clean, neat and quiet this isn't the place

In This Newsletter

1) Seven Observations about Berlin

2) East Germany and Communism: Today we think of East Germany as the backdrop to one of the best movies ever made. But we tend to forget how important that country was. The communist GDR was one of the most significant experiments in human history. A country of industrious, hardworking Germans became the ultimate testing ground for Communism. In theory, it seemed possible, but the world needed the Germans to test it, to see if the system could really hold up under their efficiency and discipline. And they gave it the best shot anyone could. For a time, it worked—sort of. But in the end, even the GDR couldn’t keep it from collapsing.

Seven Observations about Berlin

1) Berlin is a Great City for Cycling and Driving but Not for Walking.

Cities can’t do cycling, walking, and driving all at once—it just doesn’t work. You have to pick two and let the third suffer. Berlin is huge and sprawling, perfect for cars and bikes, It takes 45 minutes to an hour to move from one neighborhood to the other.

Meanwhile, cities like Amsterdam or Copenhagen are great for walking and cycling, but a nightmare for cars. The streets are too narrow, parking’s a joke, and the speed limits make driving feel like a waste of time. The whole setup forces you to slow down, which works if you’re on foot or a bike but makes driving unbearable.

Then you’ve got places like Manhattan, Istanbul, or Chicago—fantastic to walk in, easy to drive around, but cycling is uncomfortable and dangerous.

2) Berlin Is Relaxed

The most apparent thing you notice in Berlin is that it is a relaxed city. This is not London or New York where you feel work in the air at all times. People are walking around Berlin at all hours, there seems to be a large population unemployed or barely employed who are mostly hanging out. 

It’s a city that feels tailor-made for artists, the kind of place where an alternative schedule isn’t just possible, it’s normal. There’s always someone out, no matter the time. No one’s in a hurry here, and that slow, deliberate pace feels like the city’s pulse.

3) Dating in Berlin is Weird

Subscribe to Premium to read the rest.