LOCATION
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Kastanienallee, which according to the Berliner Tagesspiegel daily “might well be Germany’s hippest drag,” has made a name for itself far beyond the city limits. It connects the vibrant borough of Mitte with the trendy district of Prenzlauer Berg.
Lifestyle
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Countless bars, cafés, restaurants, boutiques and galleries make for a creative environment that inspires international artists to set new trends and create original art for a multicultural bohemian scene that has congregated from all over the world to actively help shape the future. This, the electrifying and multilingual setting of the “place to be” in town, is the birthplace not just of tomorrow’s fashion, literature, architecture and media but also of lifestyles and existential models that reflect the ever-shifting social structures.
PAST & PRESENT
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Kastanienallee was laid out in 1826 as an extension of Weinbergsweg and owes its name to the chestnuts originally planted as roadside trees. During Communist times, an ambitious urban development project was conceived that would have required vacating and then razing the entire ward to make room for new housing. The project was ultimately shelved for lack of funds. Young squatters moved into the partially vacated buildings and were tolerated. They felt comfortable heating their flats with the old coal-fired stoves and saw themselves largely as artists or free spirits. After the country’s reunification, the majority of houses were redeveloped and modernised; gap sites created by wartime bombing were closed. What remained of the old-growth trees had long been damaged by leaky gas pipes. So in the late 1990s they were cut down, and the entire length of Kastanienallee was replanted in new chestnuts. Kastanienallee and its surrounding area soon became a very popular ward, studded with any number of cafés, bars, restaurants, galleries and boutiques. Indeed the street has gradually come to be known as one of the most en-vogue places in Berlin. Its local moniker has become “Casting Alley” because of the many posh boutiques lining it and their up-beat clientele.
CULTURE
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Countless art and culture options have turned Berlin’s Mitte district and the adjacent district of Prenzlauer Berg vibrant quarters of the most diverse trends and cultures where sub culture and high culture meld into an exciting symbiosis.
