An overview of – and extract from – a new 12-part multimedia series about Berlin…
Berlin has long captured the imagination of writers and beckoned as a home for creatives from around the world.
Letters from Berlin, a digital series published by The Pigeonhole, presents twelve weekly essays written by German and international residents of Berlin – including our very own Marcel Krueger. Each piece focuses on a different district of the city (Marcel’s covers his adopted Wedding neighbourhood) and includes multimedia content such as videos, artwork and music.
With contributors that include writers, journalists, translators, photographers, filmmakers, artists and theatre directors, Letters from Berlin aims to offer a multi-faceted, personal guide to the architecture, history, food, culture and people of the city.
The series launched on 20 July and begins with The Squirrel Principle, an essay about Prenzlauer Berg by Lucy Renner Jones. Below is an extract:
“Those same people who denounce the invasion of tourists that has taken over Prenzlauer Berg are generally incomers too, of course. The pecking order seen through the eyes of the native East German is as follows: the highest-ranking person is a bona fide East Berliner. He or she is allowed to complain about anyone and anything and blame everyone else for things not going right. For him, ‘tourist’ is a loose term of abuse for anyone who is not from East Berlin.
“Then come people from former Eastern Bloc states who lived here when the Wall was still up. Next come people from West Germany who have lived here since the Nineties, preferably those who squatted in a building in the Bötzowviertel and turned it into a café where a cappuccino is still under two euros. Then come Turks, usually those who used to live in West Berlin’s Wedding, and who hopped over the border after the Wall fell.
“Recently, I went into a mobile-phone repair shop to get a quote for my smashed iPhone display. The man, with a…