Friedrichshain: The bohemian district of the former East Berlin

Large concrete blocks sprinkled with a myriad of rectangular windows quite distant from each other, often externally decorated with porcelain tiles, the buildings overlook arcades supported by columns, while balconies and balustrades define the details.

To see

Walking along Karl-Marx-Allee you meet the International cinema (currently functioning as a theater and cinema hall, as well as a gay club), the Cafe Moscow and Mocha milk ice cream bar three historic buildings with clearly socialist architecture that alternate along the avenue.

In the second phase of the reconstruction, the class choices were replaced by those of necessity and we moved on to Prefabricated building, the prefabricated. Thus, with limited expenditure and in a short time, numerous new homes were built for the population of East Berlin.

foto di Sven Hilscher via Flickr

An excellent example is that of the residential complex in Leninplatz, today United Nations Square (the building of the United Nations), composed of two buildings that oppose each other with concave and convex shapes, complemented by large windows within geometric color frames.

It was also decided to save a part of the nineteenth-century houses still standing and the renovation of the older buildings began, those that today have rental prices above the average and are inhabited by professionals, budding families and young people from all over. the world in search of a new life in the capital.

Vital center of Berlin nightlife

The neighborhood is currently one of the vital centers of Berlin nightlife, lined with bars, restaurants and clubs of all kinds. To do this, memorize the name Simon-Dach-Strasse, a road on which many people pour coffee, pub e restaurants, which Berliners and acquired foreigners love to hang out with. In a few minutes on foot, you will meet Boxagener Platz. The square, every Saturday from early morning until about 17:00 pm, hosts a lovely craft and food market, which on Sunday becomes a flea market, with widespread sale of used vinyls, and anything else you can imagine.

Friedrichshain district by day

During the daily hours, the scenario is enriched by craft shops and streetwear, vintage shops e secondhand, galleries and design studios. We are in the area between the Warschawer Strasse road, which starts from the large bridge where the urban railway lines of the S-bahn and U-bhan interchange, and the Ring Bahn railway that circumscribes the whole city and delimits the entire district. For sure, the most vital part of Friedrichshain and ideal place for those who want to be part of the Berlin clubbing. For one thing, this is where Berghain is based, a former factory that houses one of the most famous and coveted techno and electronic music clubs of the moment, in pure Berlin style.