Diverse neighborhood

Katrin Rohnstock was one of the winners of reunification. Her idea to document what people told her about their experiences of East-West German relations, and to publish a book of these insights, led to a successful writing and publishing career.

Looking out of the window of her spacious study in Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg, she can see a number of young creative types and latte-macchiato-sipping mothers walking along the beautifully restored streets around the Kollwitzplatz square.

Yet Rohnstock says that the apparent tranquility masks a certain social malaise. "When looking in from the outside or looking at photos it looks beautiful and wholesome. But there is a lot of loneliness here. A lot of people who live here are single and work from home," she says.

Every era has its atmosphere

Loneliness was also a concern back in 1985 when she first moved to Prenzlauer Berg, but mostly for the elderly. She points out that from today's perspective, most of the houses in the pictures look decrepit. "But then we've become more aesthetically demanding," she says.

Back then it was the bohemian atmosphere that was important. The large number of artists who lived there brought both creativity and a subversive frisson to the area. "People met each other at home and there were only two or three cafés," she says. "It was very similar to a village where everyone knew each other and you could soon find like-minded people."

The house she lived in then lies at the other end of the long avenue Schönhauser Allee, in a rougher area of Prenzlauer Berg. It's here that Michael Schaarschmidt runs a flower shop and café. From here the Prenzlauer Berg native has watched his neighborhood change over the years.

"It's not quite as easygoing as it was many years ago - some of the people here have become quite rude," he says. "Like the way cyclists sometimes speed around. It's just irresponsible."

New problems

The bike paths have almost become too narrow for the large number of cyclists jostling up and down Schönhauser Allee. There are frequent accidents with pedestrians - mostly involving the dwindling number of elderly people in the district, according to Schaarschmidt.

"A grandmother walking down the street with her poodle and her nylon apron is perceived as a foreign body today," he said. Rohnstock would like to see more such figures in Prenzlauer Berg. She calls them the storytellers of the past.

Another new phenomenon that gives Schaarschmidt a headache is the price pressure brought about by the tourism boom. "Berlin keeps boasting about its tourist industry, but mostly these are the people who fly in on cheap flights and then expect to spend very little money on food, drink and accommodation."

This makes him wonder, he says, why everything in the area has become astronomically more expensive.

The new bourgeoisie

He is also frustrated by some of the newcomers who have moved to the area. He gets the impression that they sometimes come to Berlin from quieter places just to go crazy - to do things that they wouldn't be acceptable in their hometowns.

To him, this is a little "bourgeois," a word he uses to describe much of what has been going on in Prenzlauer Berg.

Rohnstock also puzzles over what makes the new Prenzlauer Berg residents tick. She says they seem spoiled, and that with their wealth comes a certain smugness and superficiality.

"I think that a lot of people here feel they have to show off this way. But for me, if I have a fulfilled life, then I don't have to get upset if I can't get a particular type of milk," she says. "I'll take any kind of bread roll if I'm hungry and just be happy that the sun is shining."

Traditions from the east

Yet as a mother, she and lots of other women in Prenzlauer Berg have a big advantage, she says. "Lots of women come to Prenzlauer Berg from all over western Europe because they can profit from the old East German idea of womanhood - that it's normal to combine a career with raising children."

Schaarschmidt sees other remnants of the old East German culture being revived. People are again buying carnations and gerber daisies in his shop, once thought of as East German flowers and shunned by many customers after the fall of the Berlin Wall. But he says few of those buying Schaarschmidt's flowers are original residents, who have mostly been pushed out by the high rents.

Prenzlauer Berg is a densely populated area, which also means there are lots of problems. Despite the problems, Schaarschmidt likes living here. "This area is marked by so much diversity," he said. "You see so many people and people don't bother each other. That's rare in Berlin."

New directions

Rohnstock still loves the neighborhood too. "When I drive along Kollwitzstraße, I think how incredibly beautiful it is."

In her own children she sees that the old discussions of East and West Germany are being replaced by another. At their school there are kids with parents from Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Kosovo, Italy or Greece who will confront completely different cultural differences.

Maybe this will be the next great challenge for Prenzlauer Berg. Though that's only if the young people don't all move away, as some people fear they will, turning a trendy neighborhood into a retirement community.

Author: Kay-Alexander Scholz / ccp
Editor: Ben Knight