Berlin: Ein Überblick

Well its early Friday morning and it doesn't seem like I'll be going back to sleep any time soon so I might as well write about some observations I had of Berlin as a whole. Like I've talked about before, Berlin is defined by World War II and the resulting division of the city. Because Berlin was bombed so thoroughly during the war nearly all the buildings in the city were built sometime during the 20th century. The plethora of modern architecture gives Berlin a different feel from a city like Vienna or Munich. Berlin is a city that clearly is interested in looking to the future and not staying stuck in the past. However, all of the museums in Berlin make it clear that the city does not want to forget the past. The Jewish Museum, which I visited Tuesday, shows how modern architecture can be used to convey vital information about the history of Jewish people in Berlin and across the world. The museum of German resistance (pictured on the right), which we were able to walk through for only about thirty minutes Wednesday night, also shows the importance of educating people about a painful era in German history. For a city that so clearly wishes to advance past the horrors of a previous time, Berlin obviously recognizes the value of teaching about the past in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

On another note, it has been interesting to see the role beer plays in the culture of Berlin. Currently there is only one major brewery in Berlin, which seems to be something that Berliners aren't necessarily ecstatic about. On more than one of our brewery tours the tour guide conveyed a feeling of disappointment that Berlin is home to only one major brewery. Perhaps this disappointment stems from a perpetual competition with Bavaria, where there are many more breweries. It seems that the Berlin brewing community will always be under the shadow of those from Bavaria. Examples are numerous of this feeling among Berlin breweries. For one, at the VLB we attended a panel discussion, which was led by three keynote speakers, each of which was born in Bavaria. The moderator, on the other hand, was not from Bavaria, and made sure to jokingly ensure the audience that one does not have to be from Bavaria in order to be a brewer in Germany. Granted it was a joke, but I think there was more than a grain of truth to the sentiment felt in his statement. Another example is that almost anywhere you get a beer in Berlin the beer menu will be dominated by Bavarian style beers such as weiß beers or münchen helles. I think that if brewers in Berlin wish to climb out from under the shadow of Bavaria they need to take risks and experiment with different styles. German brewers are notorious for being intensely stubborn in the styles of beer they produce, and if brewers in Berlin could branch out from the limited assortment of beers offered, then perhaps they could bring beer in Berlin up to the level (in terms of quality, creativity, and quantity produced) of Bavarian beer. We saw an example of a brewery that was prospering while experimenting with different styles of beer in Leipzig at the Bayrishe Banhof (the brewer was making an IPA with Cascade Hops! And a Gose Doppelbock aged in tequila barrels). Hopefully small breweries in Berlin will follow suit and create a brewing identity in Berlin that is all its own.