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Hier verfahren wir nach dem Motto: One world,
one language! Ein bißchen Englisch muß schon sein, sonst wird der
Horizont so klein ;-). Der folgende Text wurde im Sommer 2000 geschrieben,
hat aber von seiner Aktualität noch nichts eingebüsst.
Since beginning of June 2000 we are living and working here in
Sondernheim, a little "suburb" of Germersheim/South Germany. We
strongly feel, that the decision to leave Berlin was a good one.
It's a (new) way
of life to live at countryside and we enjoy it very much.
A lot of people have been asking, how could it be possible to leave
such an "interesting" and "vivid" town as Berlin after more than
20 years living there. Well, any explains here would probably exceed
your hard-disc's space, as there have been a LOT of reasons. Just
a quick note about the most important ones:
I moved to Berlin in 1979 because I didn't want to be forced to join
the German Army, as many people in my age did.
Yes, Berlin was an interesting town and VERY vivid these days and-
looking back- I surely had a great time, very freaky, but only until
November 1989. Since then and without the wall Berlin grew to an
agressive, busy and expensive town (probably as every big town
in the world with more than 4.000.000 residents). This change happened
very quick, not that you could get used to it, it happened in the
night 10. November, 1989.
Within one year Russian and Polish businessmen took over the Kantstrasse,
where our gallery was located, and opened shops with cheap im- and
export stuff. Not only one shop every hundred meters. Hundreds of
shops every kilometer.
Russian mafia started blackmailing "for protection" and soon the
first cases of death appeared. As you can imagine there have been
very few customers visiting the gallery, but a lot of other folks.
East German and Czech glass blowers invaded, not only the gallery
but the whole glass associated markets all over (West)Germany, stealing
designs, copying, and bringing it for sale for incredible prices.
We closed the gallery in 1998, five years too late, as we hoped for
better times coming (which never came) and as we had put a lot of
money in.
Simultaneous with the fall of the Berlin Wall, racism started to
grow in the town's surroundings and this has not stopped until today,
even increased.. It seemed (seemes) that 10 years of reunification
have been (are) not enough time for our (former East) German "brothers
and sisters" to deal with liberty and democracy. If you take a metro
in Berlin today and, let's say you are looking a bit "oriental" or
probably have dark skin or -worse!- you are black: don't try to take
a ride round the town at night, even during daytime the chance that
there will be "trouble" is rather high. (unfortunately this counts
not only for Berlin's surroundings.Yes, being a foreigner in some
German parts has become a bit more risky than 10 years ago.)
Presently the uneployment is at ca. 18% in our capital, that
means that every 5th has no job. A fact, that makes earning
money with designing glass not very easy under such circumstances.
Another important reason to have left Berlin is my son. Born 87.
We didn't dare to let him go to the Berlin playgrounds alone, as
they are occupied either by junkies or streetgangs or other strange
individuals. (Well, again: this is surely not a Berlin problem, happens
definetely in any big town).
As I said above, there are much more reasons of course. You have
read the most important ones (kind of..). |
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