Fiona Laughton chats to Australian author Stuart Braun about his debut book…
Over the past century, Berlin has been a refuge for many different people. For those claiming political asylum, for example, but also economic migrants such as Greeks and Spaniards fleeing increasing unemployment, as well as privileged soul-searchers seeking a more affordable lifestyle.
When Australian writer Stuart Braun first visited Berlin in 1996, he was quick to observe how many of the city’s residents possessed a certain restless spirit, which he came to believe was fuelled by Berliner Luft – the term often given to the city’s mysterious capacity to attract people of all stripes.
In 2009, Braun relocated to Berlin. Four plus years of research and 40 interviews later, he now brings us City of Exiles: Berlin from the Outside In. Equal parts historical tome, memoir and reportage, Braun has combined his experience as a historian and journalist to examine the rise of Berlin as an urban sanctuary for Wahlberliner.
While it’s all but impossible to write a book about Berlin’s international residents without dropping the usual famous names, Braun has managed to balance the Bowies and Isherwoods with many of the lesser-known characters that surround us everyday: drag queens, Palestinian refugees, drug dealers, café owners.
Armed with these insights – and his own keen eye for detail – Braun penetrates deep into the underbelly of the city’s many subcultures to provide a fresh look at why and how Berlin remains a magnet for so many strays and dreamers of all kinds.
How did the idea for the book come about?
Arriving in Berlin to live in 2009, the city seemed to be full of people who were from somewhere else. I soon wondered: what are they all doing here? There were few jobs, it was freezing. But they kept coming. As I started to publish journalism about the city and read widely on Berlin, I soon realised that this wasn’t new.
Over centuries, Berlin had been an exile for persecuted Protestant minorities, for Jews, anarchists, Russians, English homosexual writers, German radicals avoiding the army in the Wall years, Turkish political refugees, and now a new transnational Lost Generation. Interestingly, many of these exiles were inspired by the city in similar ways. I wanted to know why. This was the challenge. It wouldn’t be enough to say that Berlin was cheap.
So over four years, much of the time spent in Berlin’s magnificent state library, I contemplated why this fathomless city built on sand has maintained its singular allure. I explored the lives of some 200 of its exiles across the centuries, and tried to tie their stories to Berlin’s peculiar architectural, political and cultural evolution. But it remains complex. Like Iggy Pop said in the 1970s, perhaps there’s simply something in the air.
The book is about how Berlin is the ideal City of Exiles — but aren’t all cities natural refuges in that way?
Cities are generally diverse places people have immigrated to to find work, to get away from their provincial small towns. My home city of Sydney is an immigrant city, and was a refuge for my Hungarian father. However I do not really see it as such a diverse place anymore – even if it’s very multicultural. If you want to live in Australian cities, you must abide by certain national ‘values’. You must assimilate.
Berlin is different. In this no man’s land, this interzone on the border of East and West Europe, identity is very fluid. Outsiders can come and create their own world on their own terms – often while barely speaking the language. And then they leave again and the cycle continues. It doesn’t matter what school they went to. But it does in much more established capitals like London or Paris.
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