Jonty Skrufff's Blog

Berghain (taken from Snuff Crew's video for God; click for more)

“A lot of times people move to Berlin for just three years or something and then they go back to America or Italy or whatever. But they bring the impact, the energy. That’s really good for the scene, because we have all these new people doing something, trying something. That’s why the music scene here is super dynamic.”

Chatting to US lifestyle guide Flavorwire.com in 2010, born and bred Berliner star Ellen Allien was positive about the hordes of incomers relocating to the German capital though added one important proviso:

“Rich people just visiting for the weekend, that’s what’s killing the city,” she warned, “but as long as people keep moving here, Berlin will remain cool.” (http://bit.ly/97ZU85 )

International DJs who’ve since gone include Made to Play’s Jesse Rose (who moved to LA this year) and Visionquest’s Seth Troxler (now based in London) plus Berghain resident Cassy, a Berliner for 8 years up until recently.

“The rent is cheaper than elsewhere, this of course is a very tempting factor for staying in Berlin but the world is big, there are so many places to look at and live in,” she told Sweatlodge Magazine last month.

“I wanted to live in a place where the food is amazing and there’s more life in the street, more energy,” she explained (Sweatlodge Radio; http://bit.ly/uL8SYy )

Styling by Steffa Superheilig: picture by Jannis Mayr for Proud Mag

That Berlin can be bitterly bleak on windswept wintry nights (and uber-cold; down to minus 20ºC) is certainly true though it can be equally sweat-drippingly hot in July and August when temperatures regularly top 30ºC.

In energy terms too, it’s searingly scalding, at least according to Wired magazine who recently branded Berlin ‘one of Europe’s hottest start-up capitals’.

German magazine Der Spiegel agreed too, reprinting Wired’s words plus another interesting assessment from leading US technology blog TechCrunch.

“It’s become the place where misfits in Europe — people who want to be artists and creators, people who don’t fit in rigid social structures of cities like London — flock to do what they want,’ Der Spiegel (Tech-Crunch) reported

“If London feels like a European New York; Berlin feels like a European Portland or an Austin or a Boulder. And perhaps one day a European San Francisco,” they predicted.

If London feels like ‘a European New York’, Berlin feels more like a retro New York, specifically the avant-garde, anything goes, ultra decadent lower East Side playground of the 80s.

Packed with clubbers, punks, gays, DJs, freaks, nerds and assorted global (and German) misfits, Berlin (or rather its three inner city districts of Kreuzberg, Friedrichshain and Neukoln) shares the same mix of graffiti tagged brownstone tenements, though unlike 80s era New York, it’s safe.

Remarkably so, in fact, despite the fact that every other street light is switched off after dark, as a budget saving device by cash strapped local authorities. And while it’s superficially menacing after dark, it’s also a surprisingly tranquil city, packed with cafes, parks and trees (Berliners will proudly tell you it’s the most tree filled city in Europe.)

It’s also full of cyclists and bicycle lanes; legend has it that hundreds were built after the second world war, both because so much of the old narrow street grid was flattened and because fuel shortages meant cars were beyond most people’s means.

Snuff Crew

Skrufff chatted to six Berliners who presently call the city their home: Steffa Superheilig (stylist, door selector at Renate, Kater Holzig and formerly Bar 25); German producers Snuff Crew and Axel Bartsch (Sportsclub), Brazilian incomers Pet Duo, Gutterslut (German) co-promoter Ralf Obergfell and Canadian producer Patrick DSP and asked them to share their insider tips for making the most of the city.

Ralf Obergfell's new series 'C U R R Y 6 6 6'

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