Living in Berlin for some time now, I sometimes wonder - how did it become this crazy place?

Everyone who’s ever been knows what I’m talking about (I mean like properly been, not a three-day visit around Brandenburg Gate and some museums). Most cities have a “hipster hood” or two, but it’s just different here, for better or worse. Its raw, genuine, authentic energy is deeply ingrained into the city DNA.

Woodstock vibes of Görlitzer Park in Kreuzberg

Lazy afternoon in Prenzlauer Berg

What made Berlin this way? What gave it its unique character, which doesn’t just manifest in the well-known party life, but in the overall vibe, the quirkiness, the edge, the “anything goes and everyone is welcome” atmosphere?

The early days

The story starts over a hundred years ago. After the abdication of Wilhelm II in 1918, Germany was converted into an unstable democratic state known as the Weimar Republic. People suddenly felt more free, with less authority and restriction hanging over their heads. Drugs became a common thing, with Berlin leading the way, as opposed to the more alcohol-oriented places like Münich.

The upcoming Third Reich focused on the “intelligence over intellect”, as Joseph Goebbels put it. He had a particular problem with the so-called “Asphalt literature” and “Asphalt culture”, mostly referring to the urban progressive “big city” mindset, particularly found in Berlin. He wanted to distance the people away from intellectual thinking and towards traditional nationalist values, famously burning a ton of books in Berlin in 1933.

Berlin, guilty as charged, high on life and opioids, remained a thorn in their shoe. Hitler regarded it as “dirty”, a hotbed of communist, Jewish, liberal, and intellectual resistance, a center of “degeneration”. He even hired a guy named Albert Speer to completely raze it and rebuild it as a massive capital of his global empire, renamed “Germania” (some works already started, such as the relocation of the Berlin Victory Column… but most of them got postponed due to, well, other plans).

Berlin was already a hotspot for homosexuals at this time, another testament to its liberal mindset.

The cold war

After World War II, West Berlin was controlled by the USA, UK and France. East Berlin was controlled by the Soviets. One interesting event happened in 1949 - West Berlin completely removed the curfew, an effort by The West to show their progressive mindset. To this day, Berlin remained one of not that many cities in the world where most bars, not to mention clubs, go all night.

In 1961, Soviets built the famous wall to physically prevent the “brain drain” from East to West. With all this turmoil and shared custody, Berlin was economically struggling. It was poor. It was bad news for the aspiring middle class, but great news for aspiring artists and bohemians, who were completely drawn to it.

There was one particularly attractive part of Berlin - Kreuzberg / Neuköln. Placed at the very end of West Berlin, it was the poorest district that had everything: liberal mindset, access to drugs, and cheap rent. The dream. And it wasn’t just the artists and misfits and drug enthusiasts; as part of the so-called Gasterbeiter program, lots of foreign workers (mostly Turkish) also started flocking to Kreuzberg in large numbers. Other expats too - today, Kreuzberg hosts about 180 different nationalities. Speaking of statistics, it also boasts the highest incidence of STDs in Germany. The price of the Kreuzberg lifestyle.

I heard an anecdote that a lot of folks escaped Federal Republic of Germany (aka West Germany) around this time, in the fear of being drafted in the army, and they took shelter in West Berlin who was officially not part of it (it was controlled by the three Allies countries). As it often goes, many people who despise and therefore avoid the army often belong to a certain demographic, from intellectuals and artists, to anti-war protesters and LGBTQ+.

Fall of the Berlin Wall and modern times

When the Berlin Wall finally came down in 1989, there was a massive population shift from East to West. It left East Berlin neighbourhoods like Friedrichshain, Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg completely deserted. Guess what? More hippies / artists / party folks came in swarms, not just from other parts of Berlin and Germany, but the world, paying crazy cheap rents or living for free, squatting in deserted buildings, doing their art by day, and hosting underground techno parties by night (and also day). Kreuzberg and its bad brother Neukölln still continued to carry the torch for “crazy Berlin”, but a lot of it was spread out to these suddenly-popular boho areas of East Berlin.

There’s more to West Berlin, too. Take Schöneberg, a former residence of David Bowie and Iggy Pop, often proclaimed “the most LGBTQ+ friendly district of Europe” (feel free to Google that phrase). Or Wedding, the multi-culti, working class, “rough around the edges” spot that successfully avoids gentrification.

As a result, Berlin is a fun mix. And while some other parts undeniably lack the eccentric charm of the aforementioned ones, the overall “Berlin vibe” is pulpable across the whole city, decades and decades in the making.