Berlin growth threatens freewheeling spirit

BERLIN — Berlin has long been a rarity among the great cities of Europe: exciting, freewheeling, beautiful — and cheap.

Now, as Germany prepares to mark 20 years since east and west were reunited as one, Berlin is finally undergoing the boom that lawmakers had envisioned when they tapped as the nation's capital in 1991 — and that is causing worries that its "poor but sexy" image is under threat.

Many complain the increase in prosperity is eroding the very Bohemian spirit that has made it attractive, triggering an identity crisis. The students and artists who have long put Berlin at the cutting edge of trends now complain they can no longer afford the skyrocketing rents.

London, Rome and Paris have all gone through the double-edged process of good times sapping their scenes of creative vigor. Now some Berliners fear the same thing is happening to them.

After spending the 1990s ranked with the lowest gross domestic output of Germany's major cities, according to the DIW economic institute, Berlin has recorded the strongest economic growth for the past five years. A population decline has been reversed and a record 4.2 million tourists flocked here in the first six months of 2010, making it the third most popular city in Europe, after Paris and London.

"Berlin is moving and there is everything here: culture, nature, architecture, history, lifestyle — everyone can find their niche here," said Johanna Ebert, 34, manager of the newly opened Hotel4youth, situated on a strip of the land where for six decades the Berlin Wall stood.

The capital — which doubles as a city and a state — reported a more than 1.6 percent jump in overall economic output for 2004 to 2009, according to figures gathered by the DIW. That compares to a national average of barely 0.5 percent.

Yet there are concerns that the long-sought increase of wealth threatens those elements that have helped make the city exceptional: its chaotic feel, spontaneous clubs and abundance of open spaces and affordable rents that have nurtured a rich experimental art scene.

"Everything is being renovated, money flows in, but the individuality is flowing out," Ebert said.

Indeed, the Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood where the hotel is located has undergone an 80 percent turnover of its original population since 1990. First students and artists drove out the former East German residents, only to see their own rents soar as investors bought up the crumbling prewar buildings and turned them into stylish upscale dwellings.