Berlin     24-01-2010

While circa 20% per cent of Berliners are dependent on some sort of social or state support to survive – in the comparatively rich southern state of Bavaria, only about 5% of people live on or need state aid.

From an economic standpoint Berlin is a bit of a basket case – the jobless rate is around 17% and the municipal debt stands currently at nearly 65 billion Euro.

After the reunion of East & West Berlin in 1989, many thought that Berlin would regain its role as an industrial transportation and production hub – a gateway to the rest of central Europe.

However instead it has since then lost almost 70% of its manufacturing jobs because state subsidies which were previously paid out -in both east & West Berlin -were in the main stopped after unification.

So much for the negatives.

The other side to this distressed economic situation is the rise of a new increasingly important group of ‘artistic-workers’ – in the spheres of music, design and the visual arts – which have the potential to remake Berlin.

The ‘Berlinale’, the Berlin International Film festival, and ‘Bread&Butter’ Berlin Fashion Week are symbols of Berlin’s cultural and creative strength and rebirth.

One positive legacy of its having been ‘two-cities’ previously is that it now has three separate opera houses and three universities.

While Paris, New York and London still have their own particular attractions for musicians and artists, at the moment it seems everyone is raving about Berlin – and that goes especially for those who just want to rave & dance – clubbers attracted by Berlin’s 250 nightclubs.

All of this has not gone un-noticed outside of Germany.

With Air Berlin, EasyJet, Germanwings, and Ryanair, all offering low-cost flights to the city, many younger tourists are just coming to spend a weekend and often spend entire evenings/mornings on the dance floor!

Compared to Paris and London entrance fees and drinks cost just a fraction in Berlin.

Many British, American, Canadian, Russian and artists from other  European nations are contributing to the creative economy.

With affordable rents, a multitude of empty spaces in the city centre, and a general level of tolerance and permissive attitudes to modern arts – Berlin has found itself the centre for a whole generation of creativity.

The music industry – everything from rock to classical – has been calculated to be Berlin’s 3^rd largest money earner which employs  14,000 people.

This ‘new creative economy’ alone is now calculated to worth more than 20% of Berlin’s GDP!