After World Wart II, Germany experienced its Wirstschaftwunder 'Economic Miracle' period of rapid reconstruction and development. In order to fuel the 'miracle' Germany needed workers. A lot can be written about these workers, known then as Gastarbeiter (guest workers) and I'm trying to keep this entry short! Bascally what you need to know, particularly after the division of the country into East and West Germany, the West invited the Turkish to help out, and the East invited their communist Vietnamese comrades to help out.
After the Gastarbeiter agreements ended with the respective countries, they were supposed to go home. With not much in the way of opportunities for the Turkish workers back in their homeland, many stayed. Many of the Vietnamese however did return to Vietnam.
This short history is very evident in Berlin. The entire district of Kreuzberg is heavily influenced by Turkish culture and this extends heavily also into neighbouring Neukölln. The Turkish influence is felt all over the city. Although figures vary, a rough estimate is that there are approximately 200,000 Turkish in Berlin (this figure is also sometimes estimates at 500,000!) - out of a population of 3.5 Million Berliners.
Contrast that number (say 200,000) with the estimated Vietnamese population of around 20,000 and its easy to see why the Vietnamese influence is not so evident.
As with many cities there are many 'Asian' restaurants that hint at the cultural demographic and supermarkets as I wrote in a previous post about Asian supermarkets in Berlin. But, without a specific 'Chinatown' in Berlin there hasn't appeared to be a centre of Asian culture here.
That was until the situation started bothering me - surely there was some kind of Vietnamese enclave. It would be a shame if there wasn't given the Gastarbeiter history and the strong remaining presence of the Turkish.
Well, it turns out there is such an Vietnamese ethnic enclave. A huge complex of 5 large market halls and some periphery buildings. This is called the Dong Xuan Center, in Lichtenberg.
Lichtenberg, being the neighbouring district of Friedrichshain is not far from us. Easily accessible with the M5 tram (stops right at the entrance) or for us an easy 4.7km ride.
Once entering the gates you just pick a hall and go for a walk. But after being there, there is a more methodical way to do it...
Using this layout, taken from the Dong Xuan Center website (which is worth reading through some of its history), and entering from Herzbergerstraße,a way to do see it all would to go immediately to the right, walk up Halle 8, then enter Halle 6 and walk through to end up at the end of Halle 3. Then you can go 'down' Halle 3, 'up' Halle 2 and 'down' Halle 1 to end up back at the gate and have seen everything.
Really, though it doesn't matter, apart from a bit of backtracking, its easy to see the whole thing even if you don't have a plan!
So what is at this place?
Hairdressers
Restaurants
Hairdressers next to restaurants
A few Asian grocers
And an over-abundance of horrible HORRIBLE fashion.
An interesting thing is that the Center is a combination of wholesale and retail stores. This one got me by surprise when the first store I went through didn't have any prices. I asked the store guys and they told me in broken German / English / Vietnamese that they don't sell to the public. So that's how I learnt the word Großhandel (wholesale) and the difference between that and Einzelhandel (retail). Schooled!
Looking at the signs on most of the shops they will say if they are wholesale, retail or both.
The halls al say Großhandel at the entrance, so that's nothing to go by!
Regardless of wholesale or retail, there is just SO MUCH CRAP here. Plastic crap, bad fashion and crappy gift things and crappy things for your house and many 'gift stores' which have so many crappy things in them.
A shop full of plastic flowers? Dong Xuan has got it covered.
Want a tattoo, some permanent make-up and a 'Dung' massage...covered!
And the latest nail supplies 'direct from London'. You can get it here.
Maybe you aren't such a good cook? No problems, sprinkle some 'Super Seasoning' (Monosodium Glutamate MSG) and you will get great results, and maybe a headache and nausea too. (I'd never seen MSG for sale before).
So is this place worth the visit? For me it was definitely worth a visit...ONCE. I thought it was incredible that the place existed, and I am happy that it does so that it can in some way preserve the story of the Vietnamese contribution to the German economic miracle.
Reasons not to go back? There's nothing for us here product wise that we either want or can get cheaper at a more local store. What about the restaurants? Surely they are authentic awesome Vietnamese food houses? Well the food might be authentic, but the setting isn't so nice (for a meal) and the prices are probably higher than our local Friedrichshain mom and pop Vietnamese kitchens.
All in all though, a decent half-day-trip, by no means something a tourist should put on their itinerary but probably somewhere every Berliner should check out on a 'Don't know what to do day'.
After the Gastarbeiter agreements ended with the respective countries, they were supposed to go home. With not much in the way of opportunities for the Turkish workers back in their homeland, many stayed. Many of the Vietnamese however did return to Vietnam.
This short history is very evident in Berlin. The entire district of Kreuzberg is heavily influenced by Turkish culture and this extends heavily also into neighbouring Neukölln. The Turkish influence is felt all over the city. Although figures vary, a rough estimate is that there are approximately 200,000 Turkish in Berlin (this figure is also sometimes estimates at 500,000!) - out of a population of 3.5 Million Berliners.
Contrast that number (say 200,000) with the estimated Vietnamese population of around 20,000 and its easy to see why the Vietnamese influence is not so evident.
As with many cities there are many 'Asian' restaurants that hint at the cultural demographic and supermarkets as I wrote in a previous post about Asian supermarkets in Berlin. But, without a specific 'Chinatown' in Berlin there hasn't appeared to be a centre of Asian culture here.
That was until the situation started bothering me - surely there was some kind of Vietnamese enclave. It would be a shame if there wasn't given the Gastarbeiter history and the strong remaining presence of the Turkish.
Well, it turns out there is such an Vietnamese ethnic enclave. A huge complex of 5 large market halls and some periphery buildings. This is called the Dong Xuan Center, in Lichtenberg.
Lichtenberg, being the neighbouring district of Friedrichshain is not far from us. Easily accessible with the M5 tram (stops right at the entrance) or for us an easy 4.7km ride.
Once entering the gates you just pick a hall and go for a walk. But after being there, there is a more methodical way to do it...
Using this layout, taken from the Dong Xuan Center website (which is worth reading through some of its history), and entering from Herzbergerstraße,a way to do see it all would to go immediately to the right, walk up Halle 8, then enter Halle 6 and walk through to end up at the end of Halle 3. Then you can go 'down' Halle 3, 'up' Halle 2 and 'down' Halle 1 to end up back at the gate and have seen everything.
Really, though it doesn't matter, apart from a bit of backtracking, its easy to see the whole thing even if you don't have a plan!
So what is at this place?
Hairdressers
Restaurants
Hairdressers next to restaurants
A few Asian grocers
And an over-abundance of horrible HORRIBLE fashion.
An interesting thing is that the Center is a combination of wholesale and retail stores. This one got me by surprise when the first store I went through didn't have any prices. I asked the store guys and they told me in broken German / English / Vietnamese that they don't sell to the public. So that's how I learnt the word Großhandel (wholesale) and the difference between that and Einzelhandel (retail). Schooled!
Looking at the signs on most of the shops they will say if they are wholesale, retail or both.
The halls al say Großhandel at the entrance, so that's nothing to go by!
Regardless of wholesale or retail, there is just SO MUCH CRAP here. Plastic crap, bad fashion and crappy gift things and crappy things for your house and many 'gift stores' which have so many crappy things in them.
A shop full of plastic flowers? Dong Xuan has got it covered.
Want a tattoo, some permanent make-up and a 'Dung' massage...covered!
And the latest nail supplies 'direct from London'. You can get it here.
Maybe you aren't such a good cook? No problems, sprinkle some 'Super Seasoning' (Monosodium Glutamate MSG) and you will get great results, and maybe a headache and nausea too. (I'd never seen MSG for sale before).
So is this place worth the visit? For me it was definitely worth a visit...ONCE. I thought it was incredible that the place existed, and I am happy that it does so that it can in some way preserve the story of the Vietnamese contribution to the German economic miracle.
Reasons not to go back? There's nothing for us here product wise that we either want or can get cheaper at a more local store. What about the restaurants? Surely they are authentic awesome Vietnamese food houses? Well the food might be authentic, but the setting isn't so nice (for a meal) and the prices are probably higher than our local Friedrichshain mom and pop Vietnamese kitchens.
All in all though, a decent half-day-trip, by no means something a tourist should put on their itinerary but probably somewhere every Berliner should check out on a 'Don't know what to do day'.
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