Berlin

It is Sunday; the church bells are ringing again. My first two weeks in Berlin are over. Today, I am writing articles: a summary of my experiences.

I am staking out the direction of my activities for the coming weeks. I have reproduced enough prejudices and clichés. Using my strategy of the past week of getting as close to things as possible, of losing myself on the streets and in the metro, they have only multiplied.

I need to speak more with the people who live here. I brought along the book
The Xenophobe's Guide to the Germans / Kas ir vācieši
by two German authors (Stefan Zeidenitz, Ben Barkow), which draws the self-ironic and caricatured portrait of the “average German” as “sausage-eater.” One example: “Viewed by some as a nation of square-jawed robots whose language sounds like something awful in the drains, whose cars out-perform all others and whose football team seldom loses, the Germans seem unassailable. But behind the façade lies a nation distinctly uncertain about where it is, where it is going, even how it got there.”

The Latvian edition was published in 1999. A lot of time has passed since then. I will seek out new truths about the Germans. Who are the Germans in the year 2013? How is the Berlin identity defined? I will investigate the avowal that “Berlin is more than Currywurst” seen in the underground in real life.

I already arranged for my first interview. By coincidence, I became acquainted with a German psychologist at the theatre. After a few formalities, she began telling me about the post-war trauma of her generation, which still affects families. I asked her about an interview and she agreed. We entered the auditorium and found that our seats were in the third row, seats five and six. Well, that is a great city!




More entries from Undīne Adamaite’s Berlin Journal:

Berlin, 5.1.2013: Neither a False Tourist Nor Truly a Local
Berlin, 6.1.2013: Sunday Rest in the City
Berlin, 7.1.2013: The Berliners’ Lightness of Being
Berlin, 8.1.2013: At the Tagesspiegel
Berlin, 9.1.2013: A Monthly Portion of Courtesy
Berlin, 10.1.2013: A Play in a Foreign Language Remains a Façade
Berlin, 12.1.2013: At the Theatre in Knitted Caps
Berlin, 16.1.2013: Fired with Premium Fuel
Berlin, 19.1.2013: Blind Date
Berlin, 21.1.2013: Old Fashioned and In Demand
Berlin, 26.1.2013: Čus, Berlin!