Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE LOVE PARADE
Nowhere was the spirit of unity and excess in a newly self-confident post-
Wende
Berlin celebrated
as hard as at the
Love Parade
, an annual Techno-fest that grew into a 1990s institution, before
becoming a victim of its own success. The event spawned copy-cat parades around the globe -
including Leeds, Vienna, Tel Aviv and Cape Town - and elsewhere in Germany.
The event began modestly enough in 1989, as an extravagant birthday party for local DJ
Dr Motte
, who, as co-founder of the Ufo club near Schlesisches Tor, had already been
instrumental in bringing techno and acid house music from Chicago to Berlin. He played
records from a float followed down Berlin's streets by a hundred or so of his friends who
chanted “Friede, Freude, Eierkuchen” (peace, joy and pancakes), bemusing onlookers. Later that
year the Berlin Wall fell and somehow the event captured the mood of the time, gathering
unbelievable momentum in subsequent years. By 1995 attendance was up to 300,000,
gridlocking city-centre streets for an entire weekend. In 1996 the crowd doubled and the
parade rerouted to end in the Tiergarten: a natural home for pill-poppers gyrating to the thud
of a €15 million sound system and indulging in generous amounts of no-holds-barred sexual
activity of all types. Annual cancellation rumours were no more than that until 2004, when the
organizers couldn't find the money demanded by the city for the immense operation needed
to clean up the aftermath of a million loved-up ravers. The parade reappeared in 2006, but that
was Berlin's last. The event carried on in other countries until the 2010 Duisburg parade, where
the death of 21 people in a crowd surge prompted the organizers to cancel all further events.
hip image, helping firms to lure skilled workers here so that both can benefit from the
city's relatively
cheap real estate
. A clutch of small fashion designers have moved in
around the Hackescher Markt and the banks of the River Spree have become the base
for Universal Music, MTV and other media firms, including scores of tiny tech
startups. Meanwhile information technology parks in the southern suburbs have
grown fast, as has the research and development sector, thanks largely to the presence
of three universities in the city.
Tourism
has also become a major growth area, with
Berlin overtaking Rome in terms of visitor numbers (22 million annually: making it
third in Europe after London and Paris).
International Berlin
Berlin's economic green shoots and the doubling of visitor numbers over the last decade
have helped ignite its
property market
since 2006. Some Berliners grumble about
Russians buying up much of ritzy Charlottenburg; others bemoan the influx of hip
young Europeans to bedraggled districts like Kreuzberg and Neukölln, with all the
consequent changes in atmosphere, rent increases and general gentrification (see p.129).
All these growing pains seem part of the general process of Berlin turning itself back
into a key world city, but they have also stimulated older frictions. Among them are
complaints from the disadvantaged in the former east who blame foreigners for their
plight and are attracted to right-wing extremism and neo-Nazi ideals. Just as
disadvantaged and angry are many descendants of Turkish Muslim “guest workers” who
arrived in Berlin in the 1960s and preferred to settle rather than return home. But in
truth Berlin's problems with gentrification, racism and radical Islam remain minor by
world standards. his is still a comparatively
safe
city whose tolerance, unrivalled
creativity and increasingly anglophone nature will no doubt assure it a bright future.
2011
2013
Six thousand people march on Neukölln's streets to
protest rent increases; a large anti-capitalist festival in
Lunapark protests Berlin's growing internationalization.
Demonstrations at the East Side Gallery
highlight the threat developers pose to
Berlin's heritage.
