Aidan Marshall
A Stroll Through Lichtenberg
Out of all the places I have visited while in the city of Berlin, none surprise me more than Lichtenberg. I originally thought it was going to be another touristy location, with people of all nationalities running from monument to monument. What I found instead was quite the opposite. Lichtenberg is in essence the closest thing to a residential district I could find in Berlin. The streets are calm and quiet, with cobblestone mixing with both dirt paths to quaint little parks, or stone sidewalks brushing up against 6 story apartment buildings. There were little to no monuments or locations that would usually attract attention from tourist with wanderlust, but instead was filled with little churches, schools for practically every 20 blocks, and sports grounds for children to play games. This fascinates me severely as I would have imagined a place so close to Alexanderplatz would be bustling with foot traffic of people from all around Berlin, but as I stated before, the opposite was true. The schools were not necessarily old, but by the same token not necessarily new either, with a design reminiscent of 1960’s-1980’s styled buildings. The apartment buildings on the other hand, were new and designed with modern architecture in mind, with the buildings blending with whites, red, and oranges in bright and interesting fashion. There was also a severe lack of any form of shops or restaurants around thee area I was in. For as far as I could tell, the only thing around was apartment buildings, schools, parks, and sports grounds. However, this could just be the could just be a case of where I was in Lichtenberg. What truly fascinated me even more than the lack of monuments or tourist in the district however, was the people I found living in the district.
That was another aspect of Lichtenberg I found fascinating. Unlike the rest of Berlin, which is usually chocked full of all ages of people from young adults to old grandparents; Lichtenberg was instead chocked full of young families. Every so often I would see another young couple walking around with two small children in tow, or I would see grandparents watching their grandkids play on the numerous jungle gyms. From what I could tell there were no overtly joint adults walking around, nor anyone who could be considered middle aged. Lichtenberg seemed the place that one would go to if they wished to raise their young family in Berlin, but not in the more crazier parts such as the Mitte where such young children could easily get into trouble. That isn’t to say however that there was only families. I saw a relative minority of young adults enjoying the serenity of the district, with most using the place as an excellent running ground or biking park.
In truth, Lichtenberg was a quiet and calm district that was a far cry from most of the districts I have visited. Unlike the usual hustle and bustle I found in central Berlin, Lichtenberg was just soothing and slow with an emphasis on family safety and fun, with plenty of schools and parks to accomplish this.