Facebook
XING
LinkedIn
Flickr
last.fm
People in Berlin are generally very friendly when you meet them in bars etc., especially to me as I guess I am exotic being a foreigner and people like to practice their English. However I have noticed a certain abruptness when walking the streets and a general unwillingness to give way or let you pass if there is little space get by (this happens a lot when you have twins), also Berliners don’t seem to ever say ’sorry’ if they bump into you, serve you the wrong dish in a restaurant or do something that in most other European cities would be regarded as out of order. There is a certain arrogance at play which I find hard to accept as I have lived in London most my life (which should have an enormous attitude) and also for a short while in New York (which definitely was a little abrupt) and never encountered anything quite like it. As for the subject of queuing in Germany…well that’s another post to come!
2 responses so far ↓
1 Cordelia // Nov 22, 2007 at 6:50 am
I like your comment, the same is true for Düsseldorf! We moved from Paris to Düsseldorf a couple of years ago (and Parisians aren’t especially friendly either); myself being German, I at first was unwilling to believe my French husband when he complained about people running him over in the streets, people rushing into shops and ignoring the existing queue (if there happens to be one) etc. Till the other day when I was forced to open my eyes as a 2 year old (accompanied by her mother) jumped into the bakery and managed to buy her roll in front of all the other customers crowded in front of the counter, the mother being apparently too feeble to react in time…
2 Geoff // Jan 12, 2008 at 4:25 pm
I dont think you can really compare Düsseldorf and Berlin. I lived for many years in Cologne and Düsseldorf (being the fashion center of Germany,) is simply full of people too caught up in themselves to notice whats going on around them. The “polite” people you are meeting in bars are generally not from Berlin. What you are talking about is the famed “Berliner Schnautze.” It is, in my opinion, a result of Berlin generally being treated as the rest of Europes toilet since WWII, despite the Nazis having originated in Münich. If you look a bit closer, you will find that rudeness is generally accompanied by a smile or a wink, and is just something one has to get used to as a guest in this city. The “right” to an “attitude” should not come from material accomplishment nor sheer size but rather suffering, and few cities in western civilisation can touch Berlin on that note, one might take NYC into consideration (post 2001,) but that was in my humble opinion, long overdue. BTW I dig the vibe of your firm, good luck, i’ll be watching!
Leave a Comment