Hip Berlin: Europe's Capital of Cool

DAWIN MECKEL / OSTKREUZ FOR TIME

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Out of this sometimes jarring juxtaposition of old and new is emerging an ethos of environmental correctness; this is a place where seemingly every second grocery store stocks only organic produce in a minimum of recyclable packaging, where new Mercedes owners apologize that they didn't buy a hybrid, and where the most used adjective is the word sustainable. There's even an acronym for this attitude, dreamed up by a consultant: LOHAS, which stands for Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability.

Whatever you call it, Christine Mayer has tapped into the zeitgeist brilliantly. She's a professional theater costume designer who made herself a jacket out of a recycled army tent. Someone tried to buy it off her in the street, and her retail clothing business was born. She purchases old Swedish army tents and NATO navy sweaters in bulk, and then cuts and tailors them into a range of jackets, pants and coats. Upscale boutiques from Hong Kong to Zurich stock her gear. In her own store in the heart of Mitte, stylized photos of sullen models look down at the rows of clothes, which next spring will include dresses made of recycled dishcloths. "There are a lot of creative labels here, so you don't stick out like a colorful chicken," Mayer says. (See a TIME Video on "A GPS Tour of the Berlin Wall.")

That sort of artsy fashion, plus the underground music scene, plus 170 museums and a host of renovated monuments have all helped fuel a surge in tourism. The fact that discount airlines like easyJet have made Schönefeld Airport, in the former communist East, their German hub has also given the city a boost. The number of visitors from abroad is up 2.5 times since 2003. Just as dramatic is the influx of foreigners moving to Berlin to live — they now make up almost 1 in 7 of its 3.5 million inhabitants. The number of non-German Europeans living in Berlin has more than doubled since 2003. There are now more of them than Turks, who long made up the largest contingent of foreigners. In Mitte, almost 30% of the population comes from abroad; before the Wall came down, the only foreigners were a smattering of East bloc diplomats. The new arrivals are literally rejuvenating Berlin's population: unlike the Germans themselves, whose birthrate is among the lowest in Europe, the foreigners are either bringing their children with them, or having them there. Mitte has the largest proportion of children under the age of 6. And that's not counting Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who show up from time to time with their gaggle of kids in tow.

Diversity, Mother of Invention
Toh Peng Sun arrived from Singapore via Antwerp. He's a fashion designer, and he now lives in a light-filled apartment along one of the city's many canals. "Suddenly I could breathe," he says. "This is a whole city of people who don't fit in anywhere else." Sun is still trying to figure out his own niche. He's been working with his sister on plans for a brand he's calling "Fashion for World Peace," though so far, it's just a logo and a promotional video. Watching him develop ideas is a professional business coach sent by the city to help Sun get his new brand off the ground. Berlin isn't rich — in fact it has a massive budget deficit — but it still spends lavishly on culture, including financing three separate opera houses. The city government is trying to encourage local start-ups, especially in the fashion industry. The authorities are thrilled by Berlin's new allure. "Our image here is completely decoupled from that of the rest of Germany," gushes Christian Tänzler, the spokesman for the tourism office. (Read: "Why the Berlin Wall Came Down.")

Developing Berlin without destroying its sometimes still subversive culture is a difficult balancing act. The city doesn't have set nightlife hours, so bars and clubs can open and close their doors whenever they like. That means Saturday nights usually start around midnight and at some of the best-known clubs — such as Berghain, which Britain's DJ Mag this year named as the world's best club — keep going until the following afternoon. There's always a risk that gentrification will spoil the vibe. One of the biggest haunts in the early 1990s was Tresor, a subterranean space near Potsdamer Platz. The club shut down when the area was turned into a giant shopping mall. The Love Parade, an annual techno festival that drew as many as a million people to the streets of Berlin every summer, took place for the last time there in 2006 because of a dispute over who should pay for picking up the mounds of trash. "There's a difficult relationship between the city and the club scene," says Michael Matuschek, who worked as a DJ at Tresor during its glory years. But the clubbers can and do get their revenge: Matuschek says several promoters specialize in throwing illicit parties wherever they can.

The Leisure Principle
It's 2pm on a Tuesday afternoon, and Davide Grazioli is sitting in a café with an Italian friend, Adalberto Andorlini, a producer who designs conferences. Tired of Milan, he and his family flew to Berlin and fell in love with it. "The kids didn't want to go back to Italy," Andorlini says. Life is very different from the pressure-cooker atmosphere he was once used to. "Here there's a community of people with a lot of free time to see one another," Andorlini says. "In Milan if you're not working at 8 p.m. you're not successful. I feel like I'm on holiday." The conversation quickly turns to comparisons. "Berlin is like Paris in the '30s," Andorlini says. "It's a place where artists gather and things spring out of nothing." Grazioli isn't so sure. "It's more like New York in the '60s," he says. "All those abandoned lofts in SoHo." (See a TIME video on the the words — and deeds — that brought down the Berlin Wall.)

It's an intriguing discussion, without an obvious right answer. But the fact that it's even a topic of kaffeeklatsch in a trendy café on a Tuesday afternoon is just one more sign that Berlin is back.

See pictures of the dangers of printing money in Germany.

See pictures from 1989.