EXBERLINER Issue 148 April 2016

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“We have 50 employees with 22 different nationalities – and we speak English.” 2007. Low-lit, clubby and über-stylish, it attracts a black-clad crowd of young internationals who come to Kottbusser Tor solely to hang out there – as does Voo, the concept store Yasin opened in 2010. Located in an anonymous Hof, also on Oranienstraße, the store sells designer home goods alongside rare garments, jewellery, thirdwave coffee and €65 myrrh-scented candles. “We needed a concept store in Kreuzberg,” says Yasin, who’s just returned from Paris Fashion Week. “Nobody from Kreuzberg wants to go shopping in Mitte!” Yasin now holds down the fort at both businesses as his brother pursues a career as a filmmaker: Kaan’s Sivas won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival in 2014. Dressed in a casual grey sweatshirt under a long black wool coat, 32-year-old Yasin doesn’t quite fit the image of your typical boutique owner – nor that of a Turkish man living on Kottbusser Tor. The Müjdecis might share a country of origin with the neighbourhood’s community of ex-Gastarbeiter families, but their story is much more in line with the typical expat narrative: both brothers came here to study in their early twenties, fell in love with the city and stayed. “My business is not Turkish. It doesn’t belong to a specific nation, gender or culture. I cannot say I am Turkish. Here many Turks are really scared of losing their identity and becoming German. They have to show, ‘I’m a man! I’m Turkish!’ That’s not my issue.” Yasin, who speaks flawless German with only a light accent, says Kreuzberg’s internationality is what keeps him in Berlin and drives his business. “Between Luzia and Voo Store, we have 50 employees with 22 different nationalities – and we speak English. My ideal customer is a Kreuzberger who is… not from Berlin, no, but people who come from somewhere else and think, ‘Wow, this city is interesting!’ and then stay here. Or someone from Stuttgart who hates Stuttgart and comes to Berlin, meets all the international people and works at a start up. That’s my client,” he says. KC THE SHOE WHISPERER Ibrahim Contur It’s the early 1990s. A young Yugoslavian model walks into shoe repair store Abgelaufen with a pair of swanky designer pumps that she got to keep after a photo shoot – or that’s how she describes the four ripped-apart pieces to the young man behind the counter. She’s been to every shoe repair store in town, and Ibrahim Contur is her last hope. At first he too sends her away, but after an angry visit from her mother, he finds the right glue, leather and metal parts and meticulously puts the pumps back together. “She cried when she saw that I actually managed to fix them. That was true love!” Contur says, laughing at the memory. Now 42 and still operating out of the tiny store he took over from his father 22 years ago, Contur has garnered a reputation around the Kiez for being able to do the impossible. There’s something about his supremely calm and affable manner that makes you instantly want to trust him with your footwear, even despite the fact that he “never did an apprenticeship. Whenever I didn’t know how to fix something I looked up one of the old Meisters “I’M NOT LEAVING UNTIL I HAVE TO... SO PROBABLY FEET FIRST.” and I asked them to help me... and somehow, they always did.” Contur was born in Wedding in 1974, but his family came here from western Turkey in the 1970s. His father opened Abgelaufen in 1986. Since then, it’s been the store that the other shoe repair stores in Kreuzberg send their particularly tricky jobs to. The constant flow of colourful Kotti customers makes for an endless wellspring of stories, which Contur eagerly shares. “One time someone came back after almost 15 years, apologised for the long wait and told me he had been in prison.” Another customer always had two pairs of boots on rotation – he’d come to pick up his just-fixed pair of cowboy boots only to exchange it for his second, newly ruined pair. This went on for a few years. “I’ll never forget that guy – I hope I’ll see him again someday...” Contur is aware he’s part of a dying trade and it’s unlikely that his son, who has a walking disability, or one of his three daughters will take over. But it doesn’t seem to bother him too much. His own future here seem pretty set. “I’m not leaving until I have to – so probably feet first.” JH 16 • APRIL <strong>2016</strong>
Follow us: #wearemelt 15.16.17 July <strong>2016</strong> Ferropolis, Germany THE VOICE OF KOTTI Erçan Yasaroglu Most Berlin journalists probably have Erçan Yasaroglu on speed dial. With regional and national press hankering after his opinion on everything Kotti-related, he’s become a local celebrity in recent years – but what makes this Turkish-German café owner such a vital part of the debate? Yasaroglu owns Café Kotti, a smoky “transcultural meeting point” at the heart of Kottbusser Tor. He’s lived in Kreuzberg for 33 years, Kotti for six, and between the café and his day-to-day efforts as a state social worker, he’s pretty much as active as you can get in the community. And it’s not just journalists looking to Yasaroglu for answers: after settling down with his coffee (milk and about five sugars) and lighting a cigarette, his smartphone buzzes. Some rapid Turkish and a few chuckles later, he ends the call with a snort. The guys outside saw him rushing to the café for our interview and thought something must have happened. Seeing Yasaroglu in a rush might be worrying. This is a guy who seems to have life sussed. From the sculpted grey locks he pushes back from his face every few minutes to the thoughtful, collected way he talks about his neighbourhood, there’s something reassuringly put-together about him. Originally from Balıkesir in Turkey’s Marmara region, he studied literature at Anadolu University. But fleeing Turkey as a political refugee in 1980, he found himself “stateless, homeless,” roaming through Syria and Lebanon before reaching Germany in 1982. And back then, this wasn’t an easy place to be a refugee. “The Willkommenskultur that’s developed in Germany over the past year, it just didn’t exist then,” Yasaroglu remembers. “Back then, the Berliners saw us with our shortcomings and differences… and there was prejudice, there was fear. Turkish, Muslim, dark-skinned, violent, this and that...” Arriving in “EVERYONE WHO WALKS IN THE DOOR AT CAFÉ KOTTI IS A FRIEND.” Germany completely alone, the young immigrant built his life in Kreuzberg – and by 2009, when he took over the café on Adalbertstraße, he knew Kotti was where he wanted to be. “So much happens here, with influences from across the world… I wanted to live in the middle of it all.” But things changed last year, he says, when a new crop of drug dealers invaded the Kiez (see page 6). Kotti’s become a “rechtsfreier Raum,” Yasaroglu sighs. A lawless black hole. And it’s sucking in everything, including his business. “Of course dealers try and come into Café Kotti,” he says. “They stand at the door. Look!” He waves an arm and sure enough, there are a couple of leather-jacketed guys leaning on the railings outside, eyes on the ground. There’s no way they’re coming inside, though: anyone caught dealing in Café Kotti gets an automatic Hausverbot. He can ban them from his café, but Yasaroglu can’t pull the dealers off Kotti’s streets. So why stay? “Kottbusser Tor’s my home,” he shrugs. “I’ve started a family here, had children… all my friends are here.” But don’t get him wrong: Yasaroglu knows there’s more to life than Kreuzberg. His next project? A “Café Kotti Zwei”. In Turkey, no less. Under the careful eye of Yasaroglu’s brother and sister, this new café is set to open on the Turkish coast opposite the refugee camps of Lesbos, allowing Europe’s newest arrivals to mix with those from all over the world. Yasaroglu himself employs four refugees in Café Kotti, plus one intern. “Turkey’s really missing something like this,” he concludes. The English-dominated chatter beneath the veils of smoke may have alienated the locals, but it’s all part of Café Kotti’s international appeal. And what do the customers think? “Everyone who walks in the door at Café Kotti is a friend,” Yasaroglu corrects us. “Not a customer. A friend. It doesn’t matter whether or not we speak the same language.” We think we’re being told off – but then he smiles. “Like you and me. If we sit here for long enough, talk together, drink coffee together… we’re friends!” HB Disclosure, Deichkind, Tame Impala, Jamie xx, Two Door Cinema Club, Jean-Michel Jarre, Chvrches, M83, Solomun, Boys Noize (live), Maceo Plex, Ben Klock, Modeselektor (DJ-Set), Skepta Andhim, Andy C, Andy Stott (live), Black Coffee, Bob Moses, Circa Waves, Digitalism, DJ Koze, DJ Phono, Drangsal, Ed Davenport, Floating Points (live), Graham Candy, Helena Hauff, Ho99o9, Honey Dijon, Horse Meat Disco, Isolation Berlin, Jamie Woon, Kim Ann Foxman, Kollektiv Turmstrasse, Kytes, Lea Porcelain, Mano Le Tough, Maya Jane Coles, Mind Against, Motor City Drum Ensemble, Mura Masa, Oddisee & Good Company, Oliver Koletzki, Pan-Pot, Say Yes Dog, Sleaford Mods, Stephan Bodzin (live), The Black Madonna, Tiga (live), Tijana T, Vril (live), Woman and many more The best time in the world. Dance with 20,000 friends from across the globe on 3 days, 10 floors and 3 beaches. 17
Page 1 and 2: Issue 148 • €2.90 • April 201
Page 3 and 4: REGULARS 03 Werner’s political no
Page 5 and 6: “It was a tiny island with bikers
Page 7 and 8: OLIVER MILSTER Best cheap, sexy spe
Page 9 and 10: “They don’t care about the poli
Page 11 and 12: URBAN CHANGE Prescription for gentr
Page 13 and 14: MARIA RUNARSDOTTIR who reaped tax b
Page 15 and 16: “Kotti’s always been avant-gard
Page 17: “We had break-ins. But once we ma
Page 21 and 22: KOTTI FOR... Hipsters Your friends
Page 23 and 24: KOTTI FOR... KOTTI FOR... Queers Fo
Page 25 and 26: SPOTLIGHT “ The florist that (alm
Page 27 and 28: Exberliner Kotti party! Mon 4.4 PAR
Page 29 and 30: GERMANY’S FIRST IMAX ® LASER PRO
Page 31 and 32: STARTS APR 14 Song One D: Kate Bark
Page 33 and 34: ACHTUNG BERLIN Apr 13-20 BACK TO NO
Page 35 and 36: What do you mean by “bullshit med
Page 37 and 38: MUSIC 2 classic alBums in 1 night d
Page 39 and 40: FRANÇOISE CACTUS: Our lyrics are f
Page 41 and 42: PREVIEW The great indoors Just a fe
Page 43 and 44: Would you say that the female figur
Page 45 and 46: you feel his personal development i
Page 47 and 48: Dolores Mitte Schöneberg Founded 1
Page 49 and 50: ADVERTISING The language school dir
Page 51 and 52: Allan’s Breakfast Club Bonjour, m
Page 53 and 54: Q&A Four questions for... Maciek La
Page 55 and 56: CLOSE-UP Seven questions for... Gra
Page 57 and 58: ADVICE + DRANGSAL+ FIRST HATE + LES
Page 59 and 60: FROM OUR READERS are the most helpl

EXBERLINER Issue 148 April 2016

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