In this interview, he talks to Abeera Atif about his life in East Germany and then in Berlin, tackling stereotypes and the future of cooperation between East and West Germany. Friedemann Bumblies. Source: Private. Berlin has always fascinated me since I was a little boy. I have an uncle and cousins here in Berlin, so that meant that I visited Berlin with family several times β and it was an absolute highlight, always!
I often came here with my brother and my friends when I was a teenager. There are so many aspects that I positively associate with Berlin β quite banal things like the pithy smell of the subway.
I studied in Bavaria, in the small Franconian town of Erlangen, and at the end of my studies I was commuting to Berlin almost every weekend. This contrast between cool personal encounters and feeling part of the neighbourhood and absolute anonymity is what totally excites me. I grew up in Gera, a town located in East Thuringia. I like my hometown β and I like being there regularly. Talking more on this point, through Give Something Back To Berlin I learned that you first have to have a positive attitude towards the city and decide that you like the city.
Then in most cases you voluntarily decide to go to Berlin and give something back to it. But my own experience in Gera is different. For economic reasons and lack of perspective, many people have left Gera β an absolute brain drain, if you will. It was clear to me as a teenager that I would leave this city after finishing school, and this naturally also influenced my attitude towards social engagement, having commitments, fostering longer ties and so on.
East Germany has a stereotype attached to it, where it is typically considered more racist than the rest of Germany. How does this hold up in your experience, and where do we go from here to defeat these kinds of stereotypes? The question provokes me a little. I would rather ask how existing structures can be better supported in their sometimes lonely fight against the right. Additionally, such a stereotype is constantly repeated β and perhaps rightly so.
