AREAS & NEIGHBOURHOODS
Schöneberg
The traditional gay village of Berlin, of the classic activist genre, with the density of rainbow flags going up the closer you get to Nollendorfplatz.
Mitte
If elsewhere all roads lead to Rome, in Berlin they end up here and the tour buses ship in the fanny-packed, camera-touting tourists, well, by the busload.
Neukölln
An area with metal detectors at schools but now seeing interest from artists, hipsters trying to escape themselves, and homeowners looking for the next big up-and-coming neighbourhood.
Charlottenburg-Ku’damm
The centre of West Berlin before the unification, Charlottenburg is now bearing more resemblance to its silver-haired population: refined and affluent, but also a bit dull.
Kreuzberg
One of Berlin’s most thriving and diverse cultural areas, full of anarchic punk types clamouring to be heard amongst the newcomers who’ve set up some of city’s coolest shops, bars and art spaces.
Friedrichshain
The city’s answer to New York’s Lower East Side and London’s Shoreditch. Abandoned warehouses are being snapped up by developers and converted into night clubs and luxury loft apartments.
Prenzlauer Berg
The epitome of everything arty-farty about Berlin, Prenzlauer Berg is both one of the most village-like neighbourhoods as well as one of the most tourist-friendly boho centres.
Tiergarten-Potsdamer Platz
Government buildings and embassies, and as if there weren’t enough wieners to be found in town, the nude sunbathers in the park never seem fail to excite visitors.
Treptow
Home to Berlin’s most radical right wingers, this isn’t quite yet the new Prenzl’berg, but the area is definitely upwardly mobile.
Wedding
Unless you’re doing an anthropological study of proletarian Berlin then there’s little reason to attend this one.
