mumpitz, mountains and surviving the Berlin winter, with Michael

Originally from London, Michael became addicted to the history of ‘the definitive 20th century city’ - Berlin. This complimented with two years training as an actor brought Michael to tour guiding. How and when did you move to Berlin though? Did you visit much before you took the plunge? 

It was in July, 2008 that I forsook my island home and travelled across the sea, from the port of Harwich to the Hook of Holland, to The Continent. Although the overnight crossing was more expensive than a flight in both time and money, the sea journey felt more dramatic and final. I was also carrying the rest of my life with me and there was no weight restriction on board ship.
Dare it be said? I had tired of London. Struggling to meet my rent, to pay for that second pint, to get around the edge of my bed in my too small bedroom, also well into my thirties without having found traction in my life and tiring of London’s frenetic pace, I left.
I had thought of Italy, Basilicata or Calabria, where the sun shines and where the women are said to be very beautiful. I thought I might teach English there, as I had in London. As it happens though I met a beautiful woman in London, a German, who lured me to her native land instead.
I lived in Munich at first, because the mountains are near and my parents live there. They are EU migrants like me. However, my woman, Katja, could not find work in her line in southern Germany and so we were separated. I became despondent because I am a social animal and I was soon bored of Munich and lonely.
I had visited Berlin a number of times in the autumn and winter and didn’t really like it, but I missed Katja and decided that I had nothing to lose by moving north. To my great surprise and hers, Katja suggested we live together and find a flat to rent. I tried to play it cool but jumped at the chance.
We have been living together in Berlin for six years now, and have since been joined by two other Germans, Berliners indeed, our cats Polly and Franzi.

You are an avid climber. What do you think of Berlin's city climbing options? Have you ever climbed Humbolthain?

I am a below average rock climber in my spare time. I like to justify my poor performance on rock by seeing myself as an all-rounder, a mountaineer who can also ski and climb ice, albeit rather clumsily. However, Berlin’s geology presents the climber with a problem because Berlin is built on sand. About 16000 years ago and during the last Ice Age, a 1 kilometre high ice sheet (3 times the height of Berlin’s T.V. Tower) pushed through the Urstromtal flattening everything that was not flat already. Eventually the ice began to melt and was in retreat. The meltwater from that thaw is effectively today’s groundwater, on average just 3 meters or so below the surface. Inbetween us and the water is the glacial silt or sand that was groundup and pushed about by the ice sheet. 
So there is no rock for the rock climbers to climb. We make do with concrete boulders as at Volkspark Friedrichshain, the Magic Mountain climbing hall at Gesundbrunnen or the new German Alpine Club members’ hall near the main railway station. There are more surprising venues such as the north face of a former flak tower used for air defence in WWII in Humboldthain, but I find the routes too hard there. 

view from Humboldhain, theholesofmysoles.blogspot.de/ photo credit

Speaking of high places, what is you favourite vantage point in Berlin?

My favourite vantage point in Berlin is from my bed with a cup of tea with the curtains opened on a beautiful clear blue sky. Another was within a particular café with a view of a particular waitress. Of more practical interest to the reader might be the canteen of the Federal Ministry of Defence. This has an expansive view of the Tiergarten park, the Reichstag, the Victory Column, Potsdamer Platz et al. The canteen is open to the public at lunchtime from 1pm and from Monday to Friday. It is also very, very reasonably priced and is in the same building as the German Resistance Memorial and exhibition. 

The city is petitioning to host the the 2024 or 2028 Olympics. What is your opinion on this matter? 

Berlin should not seek (with Hamburg) to host the Olympics. First, Germany does quite well enough at sport already without making an extra effort. After all, they’ve just won the football World Cup again, what more do they want? Second, neither Berlin nor Hamburg are very good at managing big projects at the moment. Witness Hamburg’s Elbe Philharmonie fiasco, the debacle of Berlin’s restoration of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden and the scandal of the still unopened Berlin International Airport. Unless there are absolutely watertight proposals for an enduring economic benefit, and Berliners would take a great deal of convincing, it is too risky a venture for a city that has about 60 billion Euros of debt. Still it would be good for us tour guides wouldn’t it? 

On a lighter note, can you recommend some tactics for getting through these (last, hopefully!) months of winter? 

A sure fire way of getting through a Berlin winter is to leave now and then. Otherwise wear everything when outside and later hunker down with friends over meat and potatoes. Of course, during Advent and the Christmas season there is hot sweet wine (Glühwein) which is an essential at the Christmas markets. And the winter can be embraced with a spot of ice skating or such. Actually, it might even take counselling which saw me through the winter before last. Another good option are the saunas and spas in and around Berlin, but beware the Germans take all of their clothes of in such places and it is expected that you do the same. Well if you can’t beat them, join them! 

As a perpetual German language student myself, sometimes it is necessary to come at the challenge with a bit of humour.  What is your favourite German word? 

My favourite German word changes from time to time. For some reason or none I used to keep using the term ‘genau’ (exactly) when speaking German. My favourite word for a considerable time now is ‘mumpitz’ (nonsense) which appeals to me because I have a taste for mompitz anyway and it is even quite a fun, silly word to hear and say. 

Well then, thank you Michael, for all the practical, entertaining and purely nonsensical bits of this interview!

Jared, on anthropology, magic and dancing

Jared came to Berlin from Indiana where he studied Anthropology and Neuroscience.  The story of how he ended up moving here is one of my favourites from our guides; an entertaining example of one door closing and another opening.

In 2007, I was supposed to go to Africa to run a chimpanzee field research camp in Uganda for an anthropology/ primatology professor of mine, Kevin Hunt, but the expected funding didn't end up coming through and the site was shut down for a year a few months before I was set to depart. At the time, I was also doing a neuroscience degree and had been looking for further education in that direction oversees, or at least somewhere that still valued education as education instead of a lot of dollar signs and debt. Germany ended up being my next best thing, Berlin in particular. I lived in Berlin for about 1.5 years and then again after attaining my MS in neuro-cognitive psychology and some teaching and research in Munich. I had never visited Berlin before and my first reaction was bewilderment. Coming from essentially a suburban/rural satellite town near Chicago in Northwest Indiana, I had come to expect a bit of centralisation, a financial district, and lots of crime. I was initially rather disoriented, this city (Berlin), has no center, or rather everything is the center at once. Forget about a financial district, one can go to Frankfurt to see that. And as for crime, feel free to walk through a park or down a dark alley in the middle of the night and enjoy the scenery (for rates of violent crime in Germany see, http://www.civitas.org.uk/crime/crime_stats_oecdjan2012.pdf). As I grew more accustomed to the city I quickly fell in love, it's neighbourhood-centric organisation seems to fractionate Berlin into multiple Berlins - Berlin is many cities in one. If you can't find something for you in Berlin, it probably doesn't exist in the world. Berlin is a safe space (no assholes please), an inclusive space where ignorance and privilege are tolerated about as far as one could throw the TV tower. Feeling uppity and entitled? A bit of the old Berliner Schnauze (Berlin Attitude) will set you back in your rightful place with the rest of the human race. I love this place.
 
Germany, and Berlin in particular, has a rich scientific past.  Does living in this city affect or inspire your academic work?

I've studied a lot, from high school throughout all of my 20s. I started in American anthropology which has always been since its foundation under Franz Boas and Alexander von Humboldt (Boas' mentor and namesake of Humboldt University in Berlin) a relativist and holistic pursuit of culture, history, biology, and the human condition in general. It was through those studies that I came to neuroscience, via cognitive interests in our hairy cousins in Southeast Asia (orangs, gibbons) and Central Africa (bonobos, gorillas, chimps). Through it all, I've been interested in perspectives and bringing together diverse kinds of knowledge - from personal individual accounts to neuroimaging - as different elements of a possible description of the human condition. Berlin has definately been a muse in these regards, I don't know what I would have done without it. Berlins diversity, its comfort in states of change and dynamism has had me reexamine everything I do. I think Berlin helped me realize that we'll never have a complete picture of all of humanity, because someone is always going to react and break the mold, just because they can, just to try to do something beautiful. In short, I guess Berlin has really helped me to realize that normal is a myth. Magnus Hirschfeld is of particular interest to me in this regard, a gender campaigner and a human sexuality researcher before the term 'gender' existed, before Kinsey, and before Masters and Johnson. Hirschfeld, a self-identifying homosexual and Jew, lobbied and petitioned German society with vigour throughout the 1920s to show folks what might be possible and to chastise them for trampling folks underfoot that are, in the words of his clearly titled film on the topic, 'Different from the Others'. He got some things wrong, but he mostly stands out for me as an example of Berlin at its best and scientists at their best, keeping in mind the political ramifications of any scientific work.

photo by Jared, Berlin

Berlin is also rich in museums, with the range quite amusing and impressive.  Do you have any favourite institutions here, or is there an exhibition you have visited that stands out in your memory?

Hands down, the Pergamon Museum, but not for the Pergamon Alter. Rather, the gates of Babylon. Alexander the Great walked beneath those gates, and it's not so much the awe that might be inspired by Alexander. In truth he was a horrible despot who pressed multiple continents under his thumb and killed thousands upon thousands. It's the thought of this artifact coming from a time when the history we've recorded wasn't even history yet, it was myth and legend all bound up in one complicated mess. This gate is as close to magic as you can get in Berlin, which is a hell of a feat considering that magic doesn't exist. The Neues Museum is right up there too, the Egyptian collection, for precisely the same reason.

Speaking of magic, Berlin is notorious also for its range of free time activities, from its multitude of parks, to its clubs and galleries, all setting the stage for everything and anything.  Have you picked up any new hobbies since moving here?

I haven't really picked up new hobbies so to speak, but I've definitely been able to expand on all the old ones. I've been climbing for over 20 years and this city boasts a plethora of bouldering and climbing halls the likes of which I haven't really seen anywhere else in a big city. The club scene, I guess, would be my other great love in Berlin. This is probably the most inclusive and unpretentious of club scenes I've ever experienced. Dancing at Berghain you'll find a complete cross-section of Berlin in age, ethnic origins, sexuality, and physical ability (tip, if you want to get in, don't show up drunk, loud, macho, or nervous; wear what you want; and if you don't get in, don't fight about it). The music is world class, Berlin's DJs are definitely putting up their best on any evening you might chance to see them. Dancing in Berlin makes you feel like you've reconnected with your humanity. For thousands of years people have been pulling all-nighters, round campfires, drumming, singing, and generally having a good time; this is also possible in Berlin's clubs if you have the right attitude. Finally, I guess it's worth a mention that I absolutely delight in Berlin's parks on a Sunday afternoon in the middle of summer, you can't have a better time just lying around in the grass and listening to excellent buskers (if you hear pan flutes, run the other direction) giving it their all for money and just as often for fun.

Will you share your thoughts on the commemoration of the Fall of the Wall this past weekend.

The date is the 12th of November 2014, and I guess the one thing I and the revellers 25 years ago have in common is that we are both still recovering from the celebrations on a Tuesday. In all seriousness, the fall of the Wall was something I saw as a 7 year old shortly after Tiananmen Square in China. My parents had sat me down in front of the TV as events unfolded and the only thing I can really remember is a wall and a lot of happy drunk and high people dancing around on top of it with a giant gate in the background. My parents explained to me that these folks had been separated by their governments, and I couldn't for the life of me understand the sense of it. It's a surreal experience every time I see the Brandenburg Gate (the gate from my childhood) and think about what's changed from then to now. 25 years ago, I was 7, clueless, and had no Idea I would end up in this weird weird city Berlin relating anthropological, critical, and historical observations of Berlin, including the fall of the Wall, and showing folks some amazing things in the process. I celebrated at Bornholmer Straße, where the wall first crumbled, surrounding me, as I stood on the middle of the packed Böse bridge which once contained a checkpoint, I heard countless tales being related to friends and family about what people were doing on the 9th of November in 1989. I remember specifically a family, talking to their toddler age child, relating that they couldn't see any of their friends in the West for almost 30 years until that night 25 years ago. The child's response, "aber das macht keinen sinn" (German: 'but that doesn't make any sense'), made me think of myself when I was 7, and made me hope that we can get more people to think that way about all divisions and exclusions, I try to show people that child's profoundly and wonderfully naive perspective on all my tours, I think it's an important one.

Thank you Jared, Berlin itself is lucky that you found your way to this city.