Streets in Berlin: Weserstrasse

I still remember the first time we were in Neukölln. It was in November, we were meeting our friend Elisa in Hermannplatz because she wanted to show us the neighbourhood. I can certainly remember her explaining us how Neukölln was becoming the new cool spot of the city. She said that first it had been Prenzlauer Berg. Once the prices had raised enough there, Kreuzberg became the new trendy area. As expected, it happened again and as a consequence people are now moving to Neukölln. During our walk with her, we got to know Weserstrasse, the street we like there the most which is located in the so-called Kreuzkölln (Kreuzberg vs Neukölln).

Many immigrants, several children, a few hipsters, some old Berliners, numerous young students… these are the people you can find in Weserstrasse and in the whole neighbourhood. This mix of population is a proper case to study. However, this is no the only contrast. There’s another one you can easily perceive: the difference between daytime and nighttime. While the sun shines, the street has some charming cafés where you can eat a piece of cake. At night, the crowd of people might not let you in many of its bars.

Maybe because of these genuine combinations, Neukölln is the place to be right now. In less than a year, many things have changed there. There are new cafés, new restaurants, new shops,… and probably new prices for the living. The raise of rents in this zone is not a new topic anymore. So who knows what’s next?

In any case, we were there some days ago. We walk through the street during the afternoon and we wrote down the names of the best cafés we found. These are some of them: Bully’s Bakery, Piccalilly, the Gay Bar, Nathanja & Heinrich, Ratzeputz, Ä, Tier.

Text and pictures by Silvia Conde.