Today, the errant young artist may ask his, her, or themselves where they would want to call home. A home is as much an address, a domicile, as it is a muse. There are many concrete and intangible factors that go into anybody choosing a place to call home, but an artist is certainly more sensitive to certain aspects of a location’s culture that may not feature on an average person’s list of must haves. For this reason, Berlin is standout among a crowded list of cities for a young creative looking to make their mark on the world, for a variety of reasons
- Cost of living. Compared to other famous cities, Berlin’s economics feature heavily into its attractiveness. Compared to other bastions of the art world, namely, New York, Paris, London, and beyond that any major Western city, housing alone is at least half if not a third as expensive. A studio apartment in central Berlin, steps from a(n) U-Bahn station and a couple of blocks from parks and entertainment will run you $850, and those are the renovated ones. A comparable set up in New York, even in one of the outer-boroughs, will easily start at $2000. Hands down, housing alone in Berlin will be a fraction of the price paid in any other major European capital.
- Quality Art Institutions. Berlin has no lack of world class art institutions. Dating back to a collection of antiquities begun by the Prussian kings in the 18th and 19th centuries, Berlin’s museums house treasures of global renown. The Ishtar Gate and the Altar of Pergamum draw tourists from around the world, and cement Berlin’s place among the “must-sees” of art. Moreover, the co-location of Berlin’s numerous museums on Museuminsel (museum island) helps to foster a city-wide culture of art consumption with a dedicated art space in the heart of the city. A young artist or art historian would do well to find work at any of the fine institutions in and around the city.
- Counter-culture. Stretching as far back as the dawn of the 20th Century, Berlin has always been a city that has attracted a certain set of avant-garde, left of center, counter-culturists. The word kulturkampf (culture struggle) was coined by the competing ideologies that ran through the cities intelligentsia, and in many ways still do. Also, the concept of Berliner unwille also helps to sum up the general non-conformity of the cities inhabitants, perhaps one of the few things they gladly have in common. Artists would find many like-minded and tolerant citizens willing to boldly chart hitherto unforeseen artistic and social boundaries.
- Communication. Most Berliners born shortly before the fall of the wall are fluent in more than one language, usually English. The rest of the inhabitants are Wessie transplants from the parts of formerly West Germany, who speak English, or former East Germans who would be glad to help you with your Russian vocabulary. The contemporary art world mostly deals in English; therefore, communication would be nary an issue for a young, aspiring artist.
- Transportation. Berlin’s public transport system, while not as robust as say London’s or Paris in terms of density, more than makes up for its lack of extensiveness with ease of use and practicality. So while the metro proper, or the U-bahn may only have 9 lines compared to Paris’ 14 or New York’s 24 lines, it is reinforced by the S-Bahn. The S-Bahn is an urban commuter railway network that forms a perimeter around the city, as well as crisscrossing the city in the four cardinal directions. These two networks interface seamlessly to get a person from one end of Berlin clear across to the other side in a matter of minutes. To think, crossing from east to west berlin is as easy as passing through the Friedrichstrasse station, when 30 years ago, that same commute would have been unthinkable. Beyond the cheap, frequent, and reliable service of the trains, Berlin is a city that has embraced the bicycle. Bicycle paths have painted lanes and even their own traffic signals at the busier intersections. Budget conscious artists would be wise to rely heavily on Berlin’s well-developed mass transit options.
- Quality of life. Berlin may be the capital of the biggest economy in Europe, but it remains quaint and almost village like at times. Its complex history has left many parts of the city less densely built out than its other European counterparts. So while a young artist has all the trappings of urban life at their fingertips, green areas are abundant and close by. Berlin’s café culture mirrors that again of its western European counterparts, but also sees a unique blend of Turkish coffee culture.
Lists run the risk of being endless, but perhaps with this small sampling of Berlin’s best assets, young creatives can feel more comfortable giving one of the world’s most dynamic cities an honest shot at being their next heimat, or home.