Exberliner issue 185, September 2019

SKATING IN BERLIN
a skating video he’d been working on for
three years. Panorama Berlin was a featurelength
compilation of clips of local talents
showing off their tricks – at Kulturforum
but also on Alexanderplatz, Potsdamer
Platz train station, urban playgrounds and
other more grungy off-the-grid locations.
Lennie Burmeister, himself a protagonist
of the film describes it as a catalyst for the
Berlin skate scene: “That was what got us
together.” A year after the release of his
film, Sello turned Panorama into Anzeige
Berlin, a photo-driven fanzine and guide to
the city’s prime skating locations – spots
like the steps of Treptow’s Soviet memorial
or the steps and rails outside the Tempodrom.
The small-format zine would be
available at every skateshop in Berlin, and
a must-read for visitors in the know. “It
fired up the whole scene and skateboarding
in Berlin exploded,” says Burmeister,
talking about the snowball effect Panorama
Berlin and Anzeige had.
Berlin skating, 20 years on
In the 1990s there weren’t many skateparks,
so the go-to spot was Kulturforum, the
museum complex on Potsdamer Straße, not
far from where the Wall one stood, and only
a stone’s throw away from the huge building
site that Postdamer Platz was at the time.
Especially on Mondays, when the museums
were closed, the Forum was teeming with
skaters. Today, skaters are spoilt for choice,
with the city’s 40-odd skate parks and endless
secret spots. For many, Warschauer
Straße has become the epicentre, with premium
locations such as Skatehalle on the
RAW Gelände, the “Bänke Berlin” down the
middle of Warschauer Straße and the “Dog
Shit Spot” right underneath the Warschauer
Brücke. Twigga likes Hasenheide: “Where
there is some green, you are likely to find a
more mellow, slightly older crowd, people
that don’t have to prove themselves like the
teens who still have that need.”
Both Twigga and Burmeister agree that
skating is thriving: “Skateboarders from all
over the world are moving here nowadays
and you can find any style and cultural
influence within the scene,” says Burmeister.
“From dirty punk rock DIY transition
skaters to clean hip-hop ledge wizards,
everybody can find a place to skate in Berlin.”
Twigga agrees, emphasizing the unique
quality of the Berlin scene: here, in stark
contrast to traditional skate meccas like Los
Angeles, Barcelona, or Melbourne fame isn’t
fetishised. Pros and amateurs skate side by
side. “I think that’s the beauty of Berlin, you
don’t get so starstruck.”
“There’s never
been as many
skaters.”
Lennie Burmeister on 30 years
of Berlin skateboarding and
scouting for the best spots to
shred and kick-flip in the city.
By Franziska Helms
If you’ve never heard of Lennie Burmeister,
chances are you’re not into
skateboarding. A main protagonist of the
local Brett scene since the late-1990s, Lennie
is among that handful of German skaters
that managed to make a name and living off
their passion – getting the ultimate accolade
in the form of a board under his name by
Berlin’s leading producer Radio Skateboards.
Today 41, he lives between Kreuzberg and
his native Lower Saxony where he runs his
own skatepark building company, while still
trying to skate as much as possible in his
own “park” built in a barn, where he already
teaches tricks to his four-year-old son. When
we talked to him, he was sitting in his office,
slowed down by a knee injury.
How does a 10-year-old boy from rural
Lower Saxony in the 1980s end up catching
the skateboarding virus? It was 1988.
One of my best friends came back from a trip
to the US with three boards in his luggage. In
the beginning there was only the board and
For almost 10 years, Anzeige Berlin
magazine was the Berlin skateboarder’s
bible. Started by Adam
Sello, as a continuation of his
exploration of the Berlin skating
scene in the docu Panorama
Berlin, 49 issues were published
from 2005-2014. “Whenever an
American team would come to
Berlin, they would call me and
ask if I could show them around.
I would often say yes, give them
a stack of Anzeige Berlin and add
‘Here, now choose where you want
to go’.” (Lennie Burmeister)
the street. At some point, when I was visiting
Braunschweig, I must have been 11, I saw a
skateboard magazine at a kiosk for the first
time and I suddenly realised there was this
whole world around it.
When did you first come to Berlin?
It was the early 1990s, I was about 15 and
exploring urban skating spots around
Germany. That’s when I first met the Berlin
boys, around 20 people who would meet
each other at competitions. There was one
super talent, Sammy Hariti, who was winning
European championships at 14, but
otherwise Berlin wasn’t really on the map in
terms of skateboarding at the time. In skating
mags like Monster Skateboard Magazine,
which belonged to the Titus empire based in
Münster, it was all about western Germany –
but not the capital.
How behind would you say the German
scene was compared to the US? Everything
took off in California, in the 1960s
when surfboard companies started producing
and selling the first skateboards – they
were mini surfboards on wheels. In the 1970s
they invented the polyurethane skate wheels
and suddenly you could skate properly.
That’s when everyone started buying boards.
Titus Dittman picked up on the trend and
saw the market potential. He was the first
to import skateboards to Germany – and
for a long time the only wholesaler. Every
shop that wanted to sell boards had to go
through Titus. It was very exclusive but he
must be credited with bringing skateboards
to Germany.
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