It is always hard to find a sense of collective identity in big cities, a feeling of belonging in the middle of endless streets and crowded spaces. And Berlin is not an exception. Boundaries have often been built in the so-called \u201ccity of freedom\u201d and since the fall of the Wall in 189 and the upcoming reunification, there have been several cultural politics to find a sense of identity for Berlin and a contested collective memory. However, according to the historian and writer of the book \u201cAt the Edge of the Wall: Public and Private Spheres in Divided Berlin\u201d, Dr. Hanno Hochmuth, Berlin has always been a polycentric city with different identities.<\/p>\n
The city consists of former villages that were merged almost a hundred years ago. According to Hochmuth, this Kiez<\/em> or neighborhood identity is also due to the urbanistic composition of the city: \u201cThe city has several city centers, not one, but at least two or three. So, people tend to develop their identity with their own neighborhoods\u201d, explains. However, these identities are in constant change, just as the city and the people living in it develop.<\/p>\n An example of this feeling of community and incessant growth of the city are the districts of Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg. Despite sharing a very similar proletarian past, both neighborhoods had apparently grown apart. During the political division of Berlin during the Cold War, the two neighborhoods remained separated by the Wall, following different political and social paths until 2001, when they were merged into a common administrative district.<\/p>\n\n\t\t