The urban stroll is a long-standing tradition in Berlin. A journey through places where Döblin, Hessel and Kästner once strolled.
Mitte is a place between up and down. Whilst cumulus clouds in the sky are tickled by the crown of the TV tower, a good 400 metres below, orange-coloured underground trains squeak their way through the belly of the city. Up above, a winged Nike watches over the entrance to the old Schlossbrücke; down below, idlers sneak past the Prussian marble cherub. They are the reincarnations of the eternally familiar: workers, strollers, witnesses to fleeting moments of happiness. One should walk through the centre – past the new Franz Biber heads, past new houses and old buildings.
Between the beach bar and the National Museums: those who head towards the centre encounter extremes
Then you’ll feel the poetry of the city under your feet – hopping from café to café along the Unter den Linden boulevard, from left to right, from the Lustgarten down to Alexanderplatz. The fresh air, as the professional flâneur Anton Kuh once quipped, is something you simply have to put up with when strolling. But the price is never too high: whoever walks through Mitte walks through all extremes. Through high and low; from yesterday into today. In Mitte, you are always right in the thick of it.
