I’ve been meaning to do this for a while–try to document the reasons why Berlin is the best city I’ve ever lived in and certainly in the top 10 I’ve ever been to. This is maybe a weird place to start for most people, but I wanted to start with the climbing gym in my neighborhood, Der Kegel (which means “the cone”).
First, there’s the cone itself: It was as far as I know an above-ground bunker in which bombs were tested in the 1930s called a Winkelturm (named after the guy who invented the design, but Der Kegel was actually designed by Paul Zombeck). They found that testing bombs above ground distributed the shock waves without as much damage to surrounding structures from groundwaves and allowed for more accurate measurement of blast forces. Given that its walls were built to withstand bomb blasts, there was no way to demolish the thing, really, so in the spirit of German ingenuity, they turned it into a climbing tower, complete with summit book! It has what look to be some pretty moderate routes on it (as well as hard ones), but I haven’t climbed it b/c I don’t know anyone here who lead climbs; I just boulder on other walls at the Der Kegel gym.
A side note here for any climbers reading: Der Kegel has been retrobolted quite nicely, but the red arrow in the picture indicates what I believe was formerly the lone ring-bolt protecting the roughly 30-foot-high wall section of the cone. Typical old-school German ethic here: they tended to drill pro very sparingly, just enough that you (probably) wouldn’t die in the unforeseen event of an eagle attack or something. If you couldn’t do the climb without falling, you shouldn’t be on the climb, or you should expect a broken ankle–that was the ethic. They were very into three-points-of-contact, etc. etc. In short, an extremely conservative style with X-rated protection. Naturally, things have changed with the internationalization of the climbing scene, thus the retrobolting….
Then, there’s the district around Der Kegel: RAW Gelände. This was a former railway sideyard that was colonized by squatters during reunification. Then, it was turned into a protected cultural site by the city, with its own self-governing board. It’s got some important street art as well as several galleries. A couple of cool clubs like Astra Kulturhaus cropped up; there’s a skate rink as well, and a load of late-night döner and beer kiosks, etc. At night it’s a huge party area, but during the day it’s sort of a calm spot in the chaos around Warschauer Station. I love to stop and get a cappuccino at Kult after I finish up at the gym and sit in the sun and look at this big, gorgeous poplar tree across the alley.
If I tried to convince any of my friends from the States, however, that they were safe in there with all the grafitti and weeds and last night’s beer bottles, I think I’d have my work cut out for me. But I do feel safe there, and that’s the first thing I love about Berlin: it’s a city where not just one way of living or one kind of person is welcome. Lots of different folks can go their way doing their thing as long as they don’t make other people unsafe in the process. I’m not saying it’s utopia; I recognize there are social problems in RAW Gelände and that I haven’t lived in the neighborhood long enough to understand them all. I’m just saying personally as a woman I’ve never felt safer making my way in a big city than I do in Berlin.
The Rookery 