Berlin Friedrichshain Nightlife
Hip nostalgia in Berlin's clubs
By Sunshine Flint
The increasingly hip Berlin neighborhood Friedrichshain is home to
both students and slackers, as a cracking night life has sprung up in
the shadow of the Ostbahnhof, the former "Hauptbahnhof", or main
train station in the former "Berlin - Hauptstadt der DDR", better
known as East Berlin.
Seperated from western berlin by the River Spreeand, until 1989, the
Berlin Wall, this part of Friedrichshain was lucky to avoid the fate
of other East Berlin swathes that were razed and rebuilt with
"Plattenbau", the communist era concrete-öslab apartments. Prewar
buildings and narrow, cobblestone streets give it a neighborhood feel.
But history is never far away. Visitors can indulge in nostalgia for
the days of the German Democratic Republic (DDR) by viewiung the
longest remaining section of the Berlin Wall at the East Side Galery,
along the Spree. It includes the famous portrait of Erich Honecker
and Leonid Brezhnev in a passionate clinch. Despite sporadic attemps
to preserve it, much of the masonry is weathering and defaced by
graffiti.
Friedrichshain is the kind of neighborhood Berlin's night life has
been colonizing since 1989. There's still room there for illegal
clubs and the geheimtipp, the "in place" usually a club or a bar that
opens in an abandoned building or courtyard for a month or a week,
even a night. But permanent bars have made the scene too.
As in most neighborhoods on the cusp, though, the original residents
and the scenesters never meet. The "Ossis" ( East Berliners) stay in
the neighborhood dives, while the invaded hipsters frequent the new
stylish bars.
Prices in F'hain are even lower than in the already cheap rest of
Berlin, where nightlife has an egalitarian ( say it baby: a LIBERAL!)
tradition, and there is rarely a velvet rope or a bouncer passing
judgment on who gets in. Some of the dance clubs charge entrance
fees, raging from about 8$ to 25$.
Things are at the swingingest between 10p.m. and 2a.m. at the bars,
while the dance clubs go till the wee hours.
At Habermeyer, a dragged out DJ in a red-sequined dress does her
thing while the bartender charges €1 deposit on pint glasses, to
deter pilfering.
The '70s mod design - low couches and round plastic stools - isn't overdone.
Astro-Bar ia a smoke filled spot on the neighborhood's main drag.
Monstrous Eat German computers hang from the walls near the bar, and
customers line up to ply old-fashioned pinball machines in the
back.
The Lee Harvey Oswald Bar is the best bar ihn the poorest taste. Mod
red and white strips go around the small bar while a dozen
televisions a continous loop of Oswald's arrest, and his death at the
hands of Jack ruby. Djs play American music from New Wave to '60s
soul to rythm and blues.
Watergate Club, across the Warschauer bridge, on the Kreuzberg side
of the river, is a two-story industrial club that packs people in
with big-name Djs from across Europe. The second floor, or "Water
Floor" overlooks the river and the skyline of eastern Berlin.
Last years hotest club, Ostgut/Panorama Bar, has opend in new digs.
Ostgut was known for it's gay/straight mix and techno parties that
drew a liberated, body-conscious crowd.
more about Sunshine Flint
source: International Herald Tribune
