Berlin

Way back in the 15th Century an ambitious bunch of megalomaniacs using the familial name Hohenzollern began to transform a series of towns into a city and raise armies in order to establish an Empire. They were a temperamental, organized and determined crew, but they fit in pretty well with the other inbred sadists masquerading as divinely ordained nobility of the day.

The city of Berlin that they founded and resided in for centuries has had a turbulent time during its five centuries. Some of the more dramatic phases were-

Losing half its population due to the horrendous war caused by the protestant reformation, seeing armies come and go for 30 blood drenched years.

Becoming a center of religious tolerance during a time when that wasn't common in Europe, leading to a mental blooming of brilliance on par with any other.

Prussian Armies marshaled here under the Hohenzollern banner unify Germany in a daring and dashing campaign that forged a nation; not to mention being the first modern military campaign.

The city was a cultural orgy during the Roaring 20's and at that time one of the largest cities earth had ever had on its surface.

As the epicenter of the Nazi Reich, the city saw many monumental building projects, most of which were promptly blown to smithereens.

The population was compelled to hide underground like moles for a few years as English speaking Valkyries perfected the murderous art of aerial bombing.

When the Russians finally made it to the gates of the city, an apocalyptic battle took place involving millions of men and thousands of tanks- arguably the biggest brouhaha of all time.

Following the devastation the city was divided militarily in half with the occasional tank standoff and soldier or civilian dying at the fortified border between east and west. Premier Khrushchev once said, "Berlin is the testicle of the West. When I want the West to scream, I squeeze Berlin."

Once all this drama was over the city of Berlin was a living breathing historical mutant. Too strange to be copied and too rare to ignore. Its most recent phase is decidedly less violent, but every bit as captivating.

Today Berlin has a staggering 890 square kilometers of urban forests, parks and other green space (they alone are almost 9 times the size of Paris), making it the least city like metropolis in the world. The late Kaisers hoped it would become the greatest city of all time and thus designed it on a plan that would theoretically accommodate 30 million people. This probably would have happened too if Wilhelm II and/or Adolf Hitler hadn't been such insatiable savages. I however am glad it only ended up housing a mere 3.4 million, for this has made it a spacious and livable place.

I ended up living in the 8th borough, Neukoelln, during most of my stay here. Ironically, this is firmly in what was once the American sector of the city, and today is half populated by people who are not ethnically German; primarily Turks, Arabs and Kurds. It is a lively and sometimes gritty, but also frequently peaceful and picturesque part of the city that I have learned to love in a way I never expected to love any urban setting.

I recently found out that the castle like fortress/barracks that I frequently ride my bike past once housed the armies of the Prussian Kaisers and then was the Gestapo headquarters in which the Final Solution was plotted and perpetrated. This happens to be right next to the decommissioned Tempelhof airport used in the Berlin Airlift and which is now the biggest park I've ever seen. In a typically Berlin drama the place was planned to be sold and developed after it was closed in 2008, then it was promptly squatted, then the city decided to open up to the public, when some developers talked them into letting them build some shit, the public got pissed off at this, and then the city voted to keep it as it is. 

For me it will always be the city that fostered the brains of Humboldt, Hegel and Marx. The streets that witnessed the dastardly murder of Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and their Spartacist brethren. My neighborhood that once saw political street battles led by the likes of Olga Benario as Commuinsts desperately fought the spread of Fascism street by street and brain by brain.

A place of Anarchist squats, spectacular museums, utterly distinct neighborhoods, unsurpassed nightlife, more cultural diversity than you can shake a consciousness at and so much nature that you can easily forget concrete chaos any time you want. A city in which Communism and Capitalism smashed into each other at great historical velocity, and some how came out the better for it.

I think Jean Paul was right when he said some time ago that "Berlin is rather a part of the world than a city." David Bowie was perhaps even more correct when he commented that Berlin is "The greatest cultural extravaganza that one could imagine."

I feel truly honored to have been able to call it my home for part of my life and hope to return many times to see what this sprawling mosaic of humanity is up to.