Ladi 6 has just gone. Electric Wire Hustle, Hollie Smith and Lisa Tomlins are going.  An Emerald City has been there for years; young street artist Carmel Levy arrived in April and Lloyd Jones wrote his last novel after a year there. Melody Thomas looks at why creative Kiwis are so attracted to Germany’s capital city.
IN 1800, German writer Jean Paul wrote that, “Berlin is rather a part of the world than a city”. Certainly citizens from all over the planet choose to live there – the Berlin statistics office puts the foreign population at 13.7% (others report it higher), and in December 2010, 398 of them were New Zealanders.
But what Paul was referring to was more likely the feeling of the place, and this doesn’t seem to have changed much in the 200 years since he spoke.
Sam Handley plays in Auckland band An Emerald City, who have been based in Berlin for the past couple of years.
“There’s such a diversity in music and art and not really any one established scene that’s super-fashionable. This German guy said to me, ‘Just be what you wanna be. Just be’, and that’s what people’s attitudes are like. If they love something they’ll get involved and have a really good time, and if they don’t, they’ll say, ‘I don’t like this, but hey, good on you for doing it’.”
Much-loved Wellington singer Lisa Tomlins leaves this winter on a one-way ticket to Berlin.
“I love it... The people have this amazing level of comfort in their own skin. This place will always be my home, but I need a shake-up, an adventure, in a place where I can be me, with no pressure to be or do what others want me to,” she says.
Urban street artist Carmel Levy moved to Berlin in April, and intends to stay for six months. The ‘just be’ ethos is something she sees reflected in fashion.
“People here seem to rock around in whatever clothing they like. You can get away with wearing anything you want,” she says.  
“As an artist, [Berlin gives me] mad inspiration. I’m collecting ideas every day.”
For a city of over 3.5 million, Berlin is very safe.
“We were living in the east side of town, which is … kinda a cheaper and rougher side of town, but people are really friendly. [Berlin] is one of the places I felt most safe, out of everywhere I’ve been in the world,” says Handley.
Tomlins agrees, “I never saw anything underhanded while I was there. One night I walked home after a party… I wandered the streets in the early hours taking in the sights. I never thought ‘oh I’m lost’, or ‘oh oh there’s some really freaky people’.”
Every year Germany, and especially Berlin, takes creative industries more seriously.
From a Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology report, published in 2009: “Culture and creative industries have grown to be more than just an image factor; they are now perceived as an economic branch of its own standing, a permanently established growth industry.”
The Berlin film industry employs more than 36,000 and generates annual revenues of £2.4 billion. Around 6,000 visual artists exhibit their work in more than 400 Berlin galleries. There are hundreds of music publishers, many focusing on underground artists, and at last count, 70 professional recording studios.
“There are hundreds of galleries, from abstract to contemporary, and grungy street galleries to Dali,” says Levy.
“In the East side, many people have turned old shops into art galleries and makeshift bars, essentially out of nothing – they just pull junk in off the street, and turn it into cool, quirky places,” says Handley.
All these things combine to make Berlin what David Bowie called, “The greatest cultural extravaganza that one could imagine.” Bowie was referring to 1970s Berlin, but R.E.M. repeated the sentiment last year: “Berlin is a pulsing, exciting city with so many varied and distinctive neighborhoods, iconic history all around, great food at all levels and from every corner of the world...”
The final selling point on Berlin is that living there is affordable. A working holiday visa, which allows childless under-30s to live and work in Germany for a year, asks for evidence that applicants can cover living expenses for their first three months. They specify a minimum of £250 a month, and at around $450 New Zealand dollars, that’s a pretty cheap living cost.
Coffee is £1.50, takeaway pizza’s about £3, a ticket to the movies £5-8.  
“Drink a beer anywhere you like and it will only cost you 50 cents,” adds Levy.  
Bettina Senff, director of the Goethe-Institut in Wellington, says they get lots of positive feedback from those returning from Berlin.
“It’s still a town in change, everything’s moving and it’s a very creative community. Take time now to [go there] while it’s not so established.”
In 1910, author Karl Scheffler said, “Berlin is a city condemned forever to becoming and never to being.” Perhaps that’s where the attraction really lies – for all the benefits offered to artists in New Zealand, there is also a small-town self-consciousness, a lingering concern about what’s expected and what people think of us. A city like Berlin, that constantly undergoes new transformations, gives its inhabitants the opportunity to do the same, which is surely a catalyst for creative growth.
Lisa Tomlins hopes so:  “I’m going to Berlin to ignite my ideas. If you don’t have another set of experiences you’re closing yourself off to that part of life that helps you grow further… You may as well dig yourself a grave.”
“Get out there New Zealand!” she laughs.