Berlin: Where everyone fits in

“Why are you here?” For other members of the expat community in Berlin, particularly the English-speaking one, there’s often a set of assumptions readily at hand; a lot has been written about how the influx of internationals is, for better or worse, transforming the nature of the city.

When a German realises you’re a New Zealander, however, they often can’t quite seem to believe it, the implication of the questioning being “You’re from New Zealand! Why would you ever want to leave? And why would you choose to come here?”

While everyone has their own motivations for leaving home, the reasons given by new Berliners for living in the unofficial new capital of Young Europe tend to be a bit more uniform: cheap rent and low living costs that allow for a more flexible way of life; the opportunity to pursue obscure interests in an expectation-free environment; near-perfect geographic positioning that means that Copenhagen is as close as Prague; and a general sense of possibility that pervades the city.

Livvy Tonkin, 24, arrived here three months ago after travelling around Western Europe, and having been told that Berlin was a place where she’d fit in. She says that while she is more interested in meeting people from other cultures, she also enjoys the comfort of hanging out with fellow New Zealanders, many of whom she has met through “friend dates” set up by people from home.

When Ella Kay, 23, who knew Tonkin through flatmates back in Auckland, got here a month later, she saw on Facebook that Tonkin was in Berlin and asked to meet for a coffee. As she doesn’t speak German, it’s been hard for her to befriend locals, so it’s “always a treat to meet New Zealanders”. She thinks that Berlin’s ‘anything goes’ attitude would appeal to most young people back home: “I’ve always perceived the NZ culture and mentality and culture as being fairly open.”

While they both miss their family and friends, the anonymity and size that Berlin affords is a major benefit, as it means that you can be yourself without any pressure of being judged by your peers. However, they’re both aware that their stay is temporary. Tonkin says that any homesickness is tempered by the knowledge that she’ll “be back one day”, and Kay says that even though she has no specific plans to return, she knows she “will be [in New Zealand] for most of my life”.

For many, the beginnings of their new life in Berlin are similarly unplanned: an exploratory trip that piques interests and provokes what ifs which blossom into needs and whens. Martin Keane, 33, was playing bass for Lawrence Arabia on tour when he first visited the city. Having previously lived in London for a couple of years, and looking to move back to Europe after six months back home, he was “eyeing up every city as we went through” and weighing up which one provided the “best options”.

Despite the freezing cold of early February, they had an amazing time, an experience replicated when he returned again in the summer. “I couldn’t get over how it had a different vibe to everywhere else,” he says, pointing to the diversity of the city’s inhabitants, as well as the fact that it allows for more of a work-life balance. Many people freelance, or work from home, often only part-time. It’s not a traditional nine-to-five scenario, which gives you a lot of flexibility, leading to an environment where it’s “very easy” to get a project like an unfinished album or art installation off the ground.

That freedom does come with a cost, however: a lack of industry in the city and one of the highest unemployment rates in Germany means that “workwise, it’s a bit tricky in Berlin, particularly if you don’t have any German,” says Keane.

In Germany, they are super appreciative of culture... it is a huge part of their life, they’re taught to really value that as children

And that novel/short film/clothing line isn’t going to create itself: because you’ve also left behind existing support structures back in New Zealand, “you have to be a bit more self-reliant” and motivated, Keane says.

Someone who finds no shortage of motivation and stimulation in such a permissive and encouraging atmosphere is Nicky Broekhuysen, 32, an artist who has been living in Berlin since 2008, following two-and-a-half years in Shanghai. After graduating from Elam, she spent 18 months working two jobs in Auckland, struggling to make ends meet and finding herself unable to find the energy or time for her art. This led her to re-evaluate her priorities and decide to “leave in order to become an artist”.

She appreciates the higher level of general interest in art, noting that “in Germany, they are super appreciative of culture... it is a huge part of their life, they’re taught to really value that as children”. In New Zealand, she says that there isn’t so much of a balance, due mostly to the prevalence of other interests and New Zealand’s relative youthfulness as a culture.

She emphasises, however, that this is only what works for her personally, noting that many other artists are “stimulated by what New Zealand offers” and have forged successful careers while remaining in New Zealand.

A heightened awareness of what New Zealand offers is something that living overseas seems to throw into sharp relief. Broekhuysen tries to go home every two years and will be returning again in February. She says that the way she experiences home has changed the longer she has been away. In the past, she was more focused on hanging out with friends and family; now, her priorities when she’s back in New Zealand are all about “nature, nature, nature” as she tries to make the most of unique opportunities like free camping on the West Coast or walking the Milford Track.

This increasing desire to re-connect with the familiar has also affected her life in Berlin – although she mostly hung out with Germans in the beginning, she finds that her core friendship group is now mostly Kiwis, remarking that while the huge cultural difference between Germany and New Zealand is inspiring, it’s nice to experience familiarity.

She shares a studio with two fellow New Zealanders, a fashion designer and a photographer, although the arrangement came together completely accidentally. Similarly, her friend group also developed organically, finding that she was drawn to them due to their shared interests rather than any intrinsic “Kiwiness”.

Part of the motivation, though, does lie in making friends with people you can eventually reconnect with back home. “You feel like you’re making a childhood friend,” she says, instead of one who's eventually just going to become another chat icon who's only online late at night.

Keane, too, has noticed the transitory nature of the international community here. He says people tend to come here for a few years rather than “looking at it as a permanent life choice”. That’s part of what keeps the city dynamic, but also means that many friendships often have a real-life expiry date.

Approximately 470,000 people of non-German nationality live in Berlin – roughly 13 per cent of the overall population – and according to the recent figures released by the German Federal Statistics Office, at least 530 of those are New Zealanders.

James Anderson, 34, the Second Secretary at the New Zealand Embassy in Berlin, says that while they “haven’t necessarily noticed an uptake of people who have been registering with us”, there does seem to be an anecdotal increase in the amount of young Kiwis coming to Berlin, particularly during the European summer.

While the embassy occasionally hosts events, such as a Waitangi Day function, their primary act of community cultivation is an e-newsletter, which they use to let people know about NZ-related events, whether they be exhibitions by artists on a Creative New Zealand residency, an Australasian film festival, or an Eleanor Catton reading.

In between such events, New Zealanders seeking a literal taste of home in die Hauptstadt have two main options, coincidentally located within 15 minutes of each other in the northern suburb of Prenzlauer Berg. Tucked away down a quiet side street that branches off the arterial Schönhauser Allee, is the cafe Antipodes, which Paul Milne, 47, and Jane Nye, 36, founded in September 2010.

Offering a range of Edmonds-inspired fare, such as Afghans and a marmalade-enhanced Anzac slice, their main intention upon opening was to introduce Germany to the New Zealand style of coffee, rather than create a cafe drenched in Kiwiana.

While they also haven’t explicitly sought out the company of their fellow compatriots, their reputation means that they get a lot of Australasian customers looking for good coffee, as well as Germans seeking the style of cafe they encountered when visiting New Zealand.

They’ve also been approached by other Kiwi businesses, for whom they provide a ready market. Milne notes that the pie he is busy tucking into as we speak is baked by a man from Whanganui; they used to sell sausages made by a butcher from Ashburton; and that the coffee they use is roasted by a Wellingtonian.

The aroma of that very same coffee, Kings and Queens, lightly perfumes the cosy confines of The Dairy, the cafe run by Shannon Campbell, where you’ll also find pies, scones, and sandwiches with names like “Kiwi Lawnmower” and “Twisted Knickers”.

Although the former Hamiltonian’s been in Berlin for just over ten years, Campbell didn’t set up the cafe until 2011, after he decided to take advantage of the relative ease of setting up a business in Berlin.

While he says he “doesn't really know what ‘NZ food’ is”, and that he makes it up as he goes along, Campbell also runs a catering business, which is often called in for events by the embassy and the New Zealand Meat Board. Today, he’s catering the European premiere of the second installment of The Hobbit trilogy, forcing him to duck in and out of the kitchen during our interview to check on the 1800 pieces of fudge he is making for the event’s special goodie boxes.

After six years in London, where he spent a lot of time hanging out with friends he knew from home, Campbell says that upon his arrival in Berlin, he made a conscious decision to integrate into the local community. He attended German school every day for six months in order to “be a part of [the community] and experience and know what’s going on”.

In his experience, that rings true of a lot of the other New Zealanders he’s met here, most of whom have moved to Berlin to experience the cultural difference that Germany provides. But many end up making connections with others from back home anyway, usually without meaning to. While he didn’t really start meeting Kiwis until he opened the cafe, he echoes Breukhuysen when he says that “the longer you’re away from home, the nicer it is to meet people from home” and that time and distance also made him realise how fortunate he was to grow up in such a “genius” place.

As much as he misses “really ordinary things like light, and smell, and the taste of things”, he says an economy in which “everybody’s getting squeezed” means that he can’t afford to go back – especially with the upheaval it would cause his young family.

Instead, he stays connected by going to see kapa haka groups when they pass through Berlin; visiting the marae in Hamburg (which, astoundingly, has now been there for 100 years) with his children; and even helping curious students put down a hangi – which, he says, “worked out all right”, even though he’d done one before.

Keane also attended the hangi, and explains that it came about because a professor with a Kiwi connection heard about a hangi while teaching a course on food and culture, and started contacting local Kiwis about how to go about setting one up.

This inherent curiosity in New Zealand life, and utopian ideas of what that lifestyle entails, is true of almost all Germans, making young Kiwis’ move to Berlin a very positive and generally easygoing experience of integration. It also goes some way towards explaining why over 9000 young Germans take advantage of the Working Holiday Scheme and travel to New Zealand each year. As Keane puts it: “It’s great being a Kiwi here – if you’re German, New Zealand is a dream country that you just wish you could one day go to and visit.”

This content was brought to you with assistance from New Zealand On Air.