Life in Berlin as coronavirus lockdown is eased: ‘It feels like reawakening from hibernation’ – inews

OpinionCommentIts after the sun sets, however, that the city perhaps feels most strange

Monday, 11th May 2020, 10:17 am

Its a hot bank holiday weekend in Berlin and the streets of Neuklln are bustling with activity. Along the banks of the canal, Berliners sit in pairs or in small groups, drinking beers from a local Spti (convenience shop), soaking up the sunshine. The canal itself is full of life, as people float around in brightly coloured rubber dinghies, the sound of techno music coming from boomboxes. Long queues form outside the much-beloved ice cream parlours and cyclists casually weave around them. It feels as though the world is opening up again, a friend says.

Germany has begun to ease its partial lockdown, after Chancellor Angela Merkel said the first phase of the pandemic is behind us. Shops in the city have reopened, along with hairdressers, and members of two households can meet in public again. Soon, restaurants, cafes, open air swimming pools and beauty parlours will also be able to reopen.

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Berlin, much loved for its rebellious energy, feels like its partially reawakening from hibernation. For a brief moment, sitting by the water, I almost forget we are living through a pandemic.

But such moments are fleeting as social distancing measures remain firmly in place. The contact ban means people must stay 1.5 metres apart and there is still unease over a possible second wave of coronavirus infections.

As I walk to the U-bahn along busy Kottbusser Damm, I pass long lines of people queuing outside supermarkets wearing face masks. Face coverings are mandatory in shops and on public transport, and have become a constant reminder of our new normal. Over the past few weeks Ive seen them everywhere, worn by riot police on 1 May, when protests typically take place in Kreuzberg, as well as by shop window mannequins.

Almost everyone on my train carriage home has covered their face; some have clinical white masks, others wear colourful patterned ones, or have pulled scarves up to their noses. A single bare-faced man looks out of place, alone in breaking the rules. Earlier this week, I forgot mine [its plain black in colour, in true Berlin style] when I walked to my local bakery and was barred from entering.

All is not quite what it seems outdoors, either. Up close, it's clear the reason queues for ice cream are long is because people are standing on floor markings to stay far apart.

Its after the sun sets, however, that the city perhaps feels most strange. Berlins infamous techno clubs like Berghain, Sisyphos and About Blank, normally open all-hours all-weekend, remain shuttered. Even when restaurants and cafes open again later this month, they must close by 10pm. Berlin, known for its hedonism, normally has a palpable sense of freedom in the air. But the typically 24-hour city now has a curfew of sorts. At sunset, the night would normally just be beginning, but with nowhere to go people presumably head home.

The next day, as temperatures reach 22 degrees, I cycle to Schlachtensee, a lake in the West of the city, grateful we can do typical Berlin activities like cycling and lake trips.

Berliners are creative people and will find different ways to live and connect with each other safely in the coming months.

Summer is just around the corner, but this year it will be different. Europes most hedonistic capital has a unique energy in the warmer months, full of tourists, techno-lovers, and those here just for summer. Most years, street festivals like Christopher Street Day (CSD), Berlins world-renowned pride celebration, bring hundreds of thousands of people together to sing, dance, kiss and celebrate our freedom to live as we choose in this open-minded city.

Such personal freedoms are not given away easily here. This is particularly apparent in the thorny subject of a possible coronavirus app, which could help track the virus using mobile phone data, but that has so far met resistance in a country with memories of spying during the Nazi era, as well as by the Stasi secret police in the former communist East.

Without it for now, we must adapt to this next phase of the pandemic. Berliners are creative people and will find different ways to live and connect with each other safely in the coming months.

I plan to try new activities this summer; Ive bought a second-hand bike and am learning to cycle here for the first time. Im also on a mission to be able to slackline, which means to walk across a slack rope between two trees. Perhaps, like so many others, Ill even get a rubber dinghy and a boombox so I can float down the canal in Neuklln, playing some techno as I go.

Abby Young-Powell is a journalist living in Berlin

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Life in Berlin as coronavirus lockdown is eased: 'It feels like reawakening from hibernation' - inews