Year Of Debauchery: Berlin

NEW YEAR in Berlin has to be seen to be believed, honestly! It’s pretty much Aramageddon with champagne; I’ve never seen (or heard) as many fireworks, bangers, explosions and fuck knows what else going off at the same time, all for a new years celebration. Over one million people gather in the Tiergarten (park) and go mad at the same time. Absolutely incredible! Still – what a way to finish off the Year Of Debauchery.

I’d spent lots of time convincing SusiQ that the Prague Weekend was the last in the series, and the finale for our wonderful Year of Debauchery, but she wasn’t buying any of it. Still, I continued to hold to the lie so I could surprise her with a weekend away in Berlin to see in 2007 but unfortunately she was doing something similar for me, and we kind of outsmarted each other

Berlin went ahead and we managed to rearrange SusiQ’s surprise for me (thankfully) - but more on that later in the month. We had just enough time to take in some excellent walking tours of the history of the city itself, the Third Reich related items, Zoo, Aquarium, some retail therapy and more. Then of course we sampled the best the city had to offer in the evenings as well as the insane New Years (or Sylvester as they call it) celebrations itself. Absolute madness and chaos – not exactly a romantic break but a hell of an interesting one nevertheless.

So – what of Berlin then? Well I guess the best way to sum it up from my perspective is to say it’s a strange, confused and bankrupt place, worth the visit – if only for the history stuff – but I’m not sure I’d be rushing to go back in 2007.

Why strange? Well it’s got no heart, no soul in the city at all. It’s essentially a series of districts and the locals are fiercely territorial about their own districts, so they tend to socialise within rather than without. Even when the wall came down things didn’t change that much. The City Council decided to build a fab new high-tech area in the city which they hoped would become the ‘heart’ of Berlin (known as Potsdamer Platz) about ten years ago, but Berliners wouldn’t be caught dead there unless they work there or are entertaining tourists, so apart from the hordes of visitors queueing into the OV (Original Version) cinemas and IMAX theatres… it’s just not really happening.

Why confused? The whole east vs west thing is still very much alive. The wall may have come down but it’s still there in the minds and attitudes of the local Berliners. It may take decades for them to finally integrate and I suppose moving on from the territorial beginnings will also help. There’s all kinds of issues raised whenever the City wants to do anything (for example the monument to the Jews was to be located in a ‘central’ part of the city, but ended up on the former East side - the geography of which caused ructions. Then the whole ‘why just the Jews, why not the homosexuals or other factions?’ argument erupted and on and on it goes). Berlin hasn’t yet ‘found itself’ a cultural identity, but it’s still struggling to do so. Berlin is desperate for tourism and is getting good amounts of same, but they haven’t quite figured out how to treat them yet (service is patchy to say the least).

Why bankrupt? Berlin is basically a large building site which has run out of money and is incomplete. There are (and have been for quite a while) massive infrastructure projects focused either on reconstructing the past (such as the surviving buildings from war or since the walls came down) or on developing the future (such as Potsdamer Platz). Problem is the city has run out of money so lots of these glorious buildings are half way done, and covered in scaffolding as a result. A perfect example of this is Museum Island (no – it’s not a Disney attraction) where restoration work on one of the museums ‘ran out’ of funding earlier this year, so half of the stonework has been restored whilst the other half looks like shit and is completely run down.

Overall I have to say I enjoyed the weekend there, but mostly because of what I learned from a historical perspective. The city itself does nothing for me, particularly because it’s so disjointed. Still, I’m glad we went there and it was a great way to close off the wonderful, amazing and well worth every cent Year Of Debauchery. Let’s hope 2007 is just as interesting (but not quite as expensive!!)