Notes
by Gaston Morel, a French art dealer who visits the city two or three
times a year, from 1929 to 1933:
"Berlin is the opposite of a harmonious city; It is made up of disagreements and dissonances. The effervescence of Alexanderplatz against the calm of the residential districts. The bucolic Tiergarten and, close by, the feverish movement of Potsdamer Platz, the largest traffic node in Europe.
It is cosmopolitan and provincial. Cosmopolitan ? Actually, there are not so many foreigners here, two out of a hundred, no more. Russians fugitives from communism, but also Poles, Czechs, Hungarians, Swiss, Swedes, people from all the Balkans. And a few Englishmen, attracted by the depreciated mark and the rich and varied sexual offer.
Cosmopolitan nevertheless, less by its population than by the circulation of ideas: this city is quick to adopt the latest trend, whether it comes from Paris, Chicago or Moscow. She fears, above all, not to be up to date with the latest fashion. A little snobs the dear Berliners, perhaps because this city does not have the traditions of Paris or Rome, because it is an upstart among European capitals.
German cities with tradition are Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, and also Vienna. Ex-sieges of the Holy Roman Empire, the Aulic Council, the Imperial Diet. Berlin is a recent capital city. Most palaces and ministries, museums and faculties, were built when the city became the center of the German Empire. Before that, it was only a regional capital.
That is precisely why she is so impatient to become something today. To become, if possible, everything.
My visits to Berlin are an injection of adrenaline. The rhythm of the city transmitts to me, and I feel this tension, a positive tension, still weeks after coming back to Paris. "
(from Berlin-Expo)
"Berlin is the opposite of a harmonious city; It is made up of disagreements and dissonances. The effervescence of Alexanderplatz against the calm of the residential districts. The bucolic Tiergarten and, close by, the feverish movement of Potsdamer Platz, the largest traffic node in Europe.
It is cosmopolitan and provincial. Cosmopolitan ? Actually, there are not so many foreigners here, two out of a hundred, no more. Russians fugitives from communism, but also Poles, Czechs, Hungarians, Swiss, Swedes, people from all the Balkans. And a few Englishmen, attracted by the depreciated mark and the rich and varied sexual offer.
Cosmopolitan nevertheless, less by its population than by the circulation of ideas: this city is quick to adopt the latest trend, whether it comes from Paris, Chicago or Moscow. She fears, above all, not to be up to date with the latest fashion. A little snobs the dear Berliners, perhaps because this city does not have the traditions of Paris or Rome, because it is an upstart among European capitals.
German cities with tradition are Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, and also Vienna. Ex-sieges of the Holy Roman Empire, the Aulic Council, the Imperial Diet. Berlin is a recent capital city. Most palaces and ministries, museums and faculties, were built when the city became the center of the German Empire. Before that, it was only a regional capital.
That is precisely why she is so impatient to become something today. To become, if possible, everything.
My visits to Berlin are an injection of adrenaline. The rhythm of the city transmitts to me, and I feel this tension, a positive tension, still weeks after coming back to Paris. "
(from Berlin-Expo)
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