Marzahn, Berlin, Germany

Marzahn is a neighborhood in Northeast Berlin.  If you mention to anyone in the center/main areas of Berlin, they will look at you with an "ooooh, you don't want to go there" look/statement.  Even my host mother said the same.  But this past Friday for one of my classes we took a field trip there and learned that - once again - only actually visiting and learning about a place while there can you truly understand/judge the place appropriately.

Our tour of the neighborhood was led by a community representative - a typical position for communities throughout Berlin (they help gauge residents' opinions on new buildings, community happenings, etc).  He has lived there for over 40 years (so, half the time it was the GDR).   The area is comprised of almost entirely GDR "large scale housing estates".  Those are the massive and efficient prefabricated housing units built by the GDR throughout the country (for their efficiency).

When taking the train (there is only one metro line that goes to Marzahn) it looked like this:

Those taller large scale housing estates are at the inner border of Marzahn, but the rest of the neighborhood (it's more like a town) has long, shorter (6-11 story) ones.

After walking around for a few minutes, we realized (and confirmed this with our professor and our guide) that Marzahn is a totally safe place for anyone to walk around by themselves, even at night.  The streets are cleaner than some of those in Mitte (the [wealthy] city center), I saw no one begging (unlike in Mitte).  There were a lot of families - many of non-German origin - people walking dogs, young students walking home from school, etc.

We asked our guide and our professor several times to explain to us why on earth everyone discourages people from coming here.  They told us that it's simply because this is a lower-class area, so it's seen as "yucky".  Every student in my class agreed that it is the equivalent to a standard middle-class neighborhood in the States.  The outer ugliness of the GDR-style architecture is really the only thing that would turn any of you away from wanting to live there.  If I lived in Berlin and didn't mind riding an extra 20 minutes to get to the city center, I'd totally live in Marzahn, as a single girl.  (Heck, you can get a 2 bedroom apartment for around €400 [that's $530]!

After us repeating the above conversation many times, our professor reminded us that "this is Europe.  Here the lower class usually lives at about where your middle class does".  That could not have been more clear after this field trip.

This man-hole cover really hit me as being a huge reminder of the actuality of this having been a different country, society, etc.  It's amazing.

Although Marzahn is a relatively poor area, they really have their crap together as far as community goes.  As I said, they have community representatives, and accompanied community centers for residents to make use of.  We walked by a bunch of guys spray painting a wall, and our guide stopped and said hello to them.  Surprised, we asked if that was legal.  Our guide replied that yes, since everything in Marzahn was grey (because that's how the GDR built things) many murals are being spray painted on the plethora of concrete slabs around the city to brighten it up.  How cool?

Lastly, we visited a coffe shop, which had a children/teen "club" underneath on the 1st floor, and a hotel on the 11th floor.  The wonderful ladies who ran the coffee shop also ran the kids club (where they'd come after school), and together with these kids, they ran the hotel.  She explained that this was to give them something to do so that they're not unattended at home (schools end around 2pm here; many parents are still working), and to teach them responsibility/give them skills that they could use in life.  Therefore, with guidance from these women, they learn all the aspects of managing and running a business.  (The hotel itself is a stunning 2 bedroom apartment with a balcony, a view out of Marzahn into Brandenburg [see below], etc. And, it's very cheap!).

All in all it was a great field trip, so educational, and I'm so glad that I went and saw the area/how nice it was for myself, versus taking Berliners' word for it.