Twenty years spent in the shadow of the Wall have made Kreuzberg the bastion of Berlin’s counterculture, as much anarchistic as hedonistic. In this still bohemian but not yet bourgeois district, people come to party all night long.

The name Kreuzberg actually conceals several very different districts. The most famous of them is the SO36 part of Kreuzberg (named after its postcode), the bastion of Berlin counterculture since the 1970s.

Twenty years after the fall of the Wall, things have, in fact, hardly changed in Kreuzberg… Before the war, this industrial suburb, born in the 19th century and united with Berlin late in the day, already contained the heart of the Berlin SPD.

In fact, with its numerous small industries and craft workshops, the district had attracted thousands of workers from eastern Prussia. The explosion of this new urban population, moreover, rapidly led to the saturation of the notorious Mietskasernen (rental barracks), where families crowded together ten to a room. At the time, these people, forced by the industrial revolution to take to the road, were pejoratively called, Sachsengänger, “wandering workers”.

In the course of the Second World War, bombing destroyed this district which contained, along with the Mitte area, many institutions of the Third Reich. During the post-war reconstruction, the run-down, dilapidated housing that had survived provided accommodation for the famous Gastarbeiter: the Turkish “guest workers”, as they were called, were invited from the late 1950s to play a part in the German economic miracle. They were to settle permanently in Kreuzberg and – something which was impossible in Turkey at the time – set up their own businesses there, from the little stall selling Mediterranean vegetables to the company exporting kebab meat throughout Europe.

Kreuzberg was henceforth thought of as a veritable Klein-Istanbul (little Istanbul), where kiosks selling doner kebabs are open 24 hours a day. The Maybachufer Turkish market (every Tuesday and Friday) continues to be a high point of the week in the area.

In 1961, the building of the Wall, which surrounded Kreuzberg on three sides, helped to turn this district of the underprivileged into even more of an enclave. Those who were able to move further west were quick to do so, leaving even more room for others, dropouts and idealists of all kinds…

Starting with the artists, who gathered together from 1959 in the Zinke gallery in Oranien Strasse. The novelist Günter Grass was sometimes to be found here. All of these creators also benefited from the very low rents, and even squats, and above all from the distinctive structure of the Kreuzberg buildings, the Gewerbehöfe (“commercial courtyards”). Behind respectable façades, the latter combined apartments intended for modest and lower middle class households and countless backyards bringing together workers’ accommodation and, above all, craft workshops.

Still today, you have to stroll through these courtyards where all the façades are covered with green and white ceramic tiles. Here we saw one of the last examples of 19th century toilets, a little blockhouse made of red brick and wood.

The more commonly found old stables (as at number 15 Adalbert Strasse), dubbed remise in German, house the district’s rare cars behind their large wooden doors. In this hippie, “green” and, above all, penniless district (the unemployment rate is the highest in all of Berlin), people mainly cycle or walk.

Kreuzberg’s vitality exploded in the 1970s-1980s, when you could cross paths with Iggy Pop and David Bowie here. Forsaking his Ziggy Stardust costume, which was weighing heavy on him, Bowie moreover started on a musical asceticism in Berlin which led to one of his best albums, Heroes, a reflection of his fascination with German electronic music and his collaboration with another fan of Berlin, Brian Eno. Both regularly frequented a legendary club, the SO36, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Unlike the Wall, this venue is still standing despite threats of closure for disturbing the peace at night. Berlin’s extremely tenacious punk movement started out here, notably a group from Kreuzberg, Einsturzende Neubauten led by Blixa Bargeld, also a fellow traveller of Nick Cave, another former inhabitant of Kreuzberg.

Today, the programme of this club, which operates not as a business enterprise but as a non-profit-making organisation, goes from the gay, Turkish foam party (Gayhane, the last Saturday of each month) to pure rock, via techno and reggae. On Sunday evenings, Café Fatal transforms the great hall of the SO36 into a dance floor and plays host to professional and amateur ballroom dancers.

Another top spot of Kreuzberg’s cultural life, the old Bethany Hospital conceals behind its magnificent brick façades an artists’ residence, where previews that are open to all are frequently held.

As for the rest, Kreuzberg is the “laid-back” destination par excellence. Small cafés, restaurants of all nationalities, organic snack bars, second-hand clothes and streetwear shops, art galleries, alternative bookshops and cultural centres make for endless wandering…

Practical information

SO36

Oraninstrasse 190
U1 Kottbusser Tor

www.so36.de

Möbel Olfe (bar)

Reichenberger Str. 177

www.moebel-olfe.de

This is one of the most popular bars in Kreuzberg, especially – but not only – with gays. It is set in an old furniture factory beneath the large blocks of flats at the exit of the Kottbusser Tor underground station. No-frills service, good music, and beers at an unbeatable price.

Burgermeister

Oberbaumstrasse 8

10997 Berlin

Old street urinals in green cast iron, Parisian style, now house the kitchens that make the best burger in Berlin – real grilled steaks, onions, fresh salad and soft bread (from €3.20). You take your drinks from a refrigerated display, pay and wait your turn (by ticket number).

German National Tourist Office

PO Box 2695
London

W1A 3TN
Tel: 0207 317 0908
Fax: 0207 317 0917

www.germany-tourism.co.uk

Berlin Tourismus Marketing GmbH

Am Karlsbad 11

D-10785 Berlin

www.visitBerlin.de

www.visitBerlin.TV

Tel: +49 (0)30 25 00 25

Berlin Welcome Card

www.berlin-welcomecard.de

This card provides access to all public transport and reductions in all museums.

Hotel Riehmers Hofgarten

Yorckstraße 83

10965 Berlin

Tel. +49 (0)30-780 98 800

www.riehmers-hofgarten.de

Located in the western part of Kreuzberg, a few underground stations from alternative Kreuzberg, this hotel is set in a magnificent Wilhelmian building. It offers very large, modern rooms that are well soundproofed against the noise of Yorckstrasse. Some rooms look onto the famous Riehmers courtyards (Riehmers Hofgarten), a series of peaceful inner courtyards planted with trees, with a succession of richly decorated façades and neo-Renaissance gates. From here, you are only a few minutes away from Bergmanstrasse, the heart of elegant Kreuzberg, with a succession of cafés, restaurants, second-hand boutiques and bicycle sellers.

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Kreuzberg forever

Kreuzberg forever

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