Aller au contenu

Messages recommendés

  • Administrateur
Même les punks nous engueulent quand on enfreint les règles de circulation ! Voulant traverser une petite rue alors que le feu était rouge, en indécrottable Montréalais que je suis, un punk au look plutôt hard me crie : "Das ist ganz illegal !". Berlin a donc inventé le punk à l'esprit de flic...

 

hahahahaha

Lien vers le commentaire
Partager sur d’autres sites

Berlin est une de ces villes qu'on aime ou déteste...

 

J'y ai habité deux mois en alternant d'une impression à l'autre.

 

Première impression : la ville est plutôt laide. Beaucoup d'édifices gris, de fausse pierre en plâtre qui recouvre de la brique, une apparence d'improvisation urbaine dans une nature assez banale.

 

Deuxième impression : les Berlinois sont plutôt lourds, lourdement nourris dans leurs innombrables stands à saucisse, lourdement fiers de leur culture alternative qui m'a paru le comble du conformisme de l'anticonformisme, lourdement au volant de leurs grosses berlines allemandes, lourdement animés du sentiment de culpabilité allemande. Même l'architecture est lourde, tout ce style martial et prussien de l'île des musées, avec ces aigles de pierre qui surplombent les colonnes...

 

Que dire d'ailleurs de cette lourde discipline allemande. Même les punks nous engueulent quand on enfreint les règles de circulation ! Voulant traverser une petite rue alors que le feu était rouge, en indécrottable Montréalais que je suis, un punk au look plutôt hard me crie : "Das ist ganz illegal !". Berlin a donc inventé le punk à l'esprit de flic...

 

Voilà pour la mauvaise impression. La bonne ? La marque de l'histoire européenne. Le sentiment d'être aux portes de l'Europe de l'est, avec plein de Polonais, de Russes, etc. La culture intellectuelle et artistique, vivante, forte, impressionnante.

 

Tout ça était en 92. Depuis la ville semble avoir pas mal changé, au moins physiquement. Je devrais retourner vérifier...

 

I think you should return uqam, you would be amazed. I've seen photos and videos of Berlin shortly after reunification and it bears little resemblance to the current city. The last 20 years of continuous transformation- at a pace unseen on this side of the Atlantic- have made it so that I had trouble recognising many of the areas that I was viewing. Berlin is not beautiful like Paris, Rome, Barcelona etc., 60% of it was completely destroyed during WW2, half the rest was heavily damaged and then half of what remained was subject to communist architectural whim. Even the Western half was a victim of the same 1960's-1980's mistakes that Montréal made. It's a wonder that there is any attractive areas at all! But there are many.

 

I have to laugh at your mention of jaywalking! I was told the same thing before I arrived so I made a little experiment. I walked like a Montrealer- jaywalking at every opportunity- and was surprised that often, I didn't initiate it and I was never admonished for doing so even if I did. Don't get me wrong, no Western city that I've ever been to ignores traffic signals as much as we do (A good thing, I think. Nothing is dumber than letting a machine control you! No right turns on red helps to enable us..) but there was always a split between the young and old. The old would tend to obey the light and the young would not. I even made a video to show to the friend who had warned me of people jaywalking en masse at Alexanderplatz (it is stuck on a bad hard drive or I would post it).

 

I think that you would discover a big difference between the 'punks' that you met 20 years ago and Berliners, punks or otherwise, of today. Anyone who had lived in the East at that time (and you can identify themwhen you meet them) would still be heavily influenced by the communist rule under which they had grown accustomed. Today, anyone under 30 has no recollection of that time nor any feeling of German 'guilt' over WW2- there is no living person in their immediate family who took part in it. Not to say that they ignore it, they are reminded of it everywhere- Germany make no bones about taking responsibility for their past- yet they no longer carry the weight of guilt of their forbears. This is good, they had nothing to do with it, any more than modern-day Italians or Brits should feel shame over the excesses of their nation's past.

 

I recommend that you go back to Berlin. To me, it is the most amazing city! It shares the same 'outsider' status within Germany and Europe that Montréal has within Canada and North America. The history is fucked up like nowhere else in the world. The architecture and culture is completely whack, and I've never felt so free to do whatever I please at any time of day or night anywhere else in the world (it is a TRUE 24 hour city, not a semi 24 hour city like New York). Much like Montréal, it's a very unique place! We have more in common with them than most of the boring North American cities we are constantly comparing ourselves to. We need to become more like each other (Berliners would go nuts over BIXI, smoked meat, poutine and our ability to celebrate winter!).

Lien vers le commentaire
Partager sur d’autres sites

  • 4 années plus tard...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Invité
Répondre à ce sujet…

×   Vous avez collé du contenu avec mise en forme.   Supprimer la mise en forme

  Seulement 75 émoticônes maximum sont autorisées.

×   Votre lien a été automatiquement intégré.   Afficher plutôt comme un lien

×   Votre contenu précédent a été rétabli.   Vider l’éditeur

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Créer...