評(píng)論
打印
Berlin's image
柏林映像
Losing its cool
風(fēng)華漸失
The German capital, famous for its edgy urbanity and quality of life, looks tired
以前衛(wèi)和高生活品質(zhì)聞名于世的德國(guó)首都，如今卻是一副倦怠的樣子
A disappointing missed opportunity?
錯(cuò)失良機(jī)，讓人惋惜？
WHEN a magazine proclaims on its cover that a city is the world's “coolest”, it is often a sign that it has peaked. Newsweek did it to London in 1996, just as the city was becoming unaffordable for many cool people. Now it is Berlin's turn. In October Stern, a German magazine, declared the city the coolest, giving special attention to its many great clubs for partying.
如果某家雜志封面上大肆贊美某個(gè)城市為世界“最好玩”的城市，那往往預(yù)示著這座城市開(kāi)始衰退。美國(guó)《新聞周刊》曾經(jīng)于1996年夸贊倫敦，而當(dāng)時(shí)這個(gè)城市不斷增加的消費(fèi)讓很多冷靜的人難以承受。如今，輪到柏林上演這一幕了。德國(guó)《明星》雜志于10月份宣揚(yáng)它是最好玩的城市，并特意報(bào)導(dǎo)了許多舉行派對(duì)的大型俱樂(lè)部。
The party scene is thriving, drawing tourists from Tel Aviv toStockholmwho fly in for long insomniac weekends. The most famous venue, Berghain, notorious for its arbitrary bouncers, is a world hub for techno music. But true cognoscenti are nostalgic for the rougher, anarchic days just after the Berlin Wall fell, when clubs popped up in abandoned spaces along the former no-man's-land, always several steps ahead of tedious fire regulations. A new book, “Berlin Wonderland”, documents the “wild years between 1990-96” with black-and-white photographs.
派對(duì)場(chǎng)面激奮人心，從特拉維夫到斯德哥爾摩的眾多海外游客紛紛而至，在這里度過(guò)幾個(gè)漫長(zhǎng)無(wú)眠的周末。最出名的地方非世界電子音樂(lè)中心—柏林“伯根哈因”夜店莫屬，其中隨心所欲的保安讓該店“聞名于世”。但真正的電音行家卻一直懷念柏林墻倒塌后那些艱苦混亂的歲月，各種各樣的夜店紛紛在之前無(wú)人地帶的廢棄地方出現(xiàn)，總能機(jī)智應(yīng)對(duì)冗長(zhǎng)乏味的禁火規(guī)定?！栋亓制婢场愤@本新書(shū)用黑白照片講述了1990年至1996年期間的癲狂歲月。
Some Berliners' nostalgia goes further back. The hottest museum exhibition is about West Berlin as a freedom-loving, libertine and yet parochial island surrounded byEast Germany. These days, by contrast, locals are annoyed by throngs of expats and westerners gentrifying formerly edgy neighbourhoods like Prenzlauer Berg.
還有一些柏林人則懷念更加久遠(yuǎn)的年代。當(dāng)時(shí)最受歡迎的博物館展覽主題一般是關(guān)于被東德環(huán)繞，地域狹小但崇尚自由，無(wú)拘無(wú)束的西柏林。相比之下，如今當(dāng)?shù)厝藚s對(duì)不斷涌入的移民和西方游客頗為惱怒—他們讓以往棱角鮮明的普倫茨勞貝格街區(qū)變得更優(yōu)雅了。
Berlinis still fascinating. Nowhere are the scars of history—holocaust, war, destruction, division—so visible. And rents and prices remain low. A Facebook post by an Israeli expat in Berlin, called Olim le Berlin (“ascend to Berlin”), has launched a small exodus of Israelis who come for affordable fun and find Germany's dark past more intriguing than repulsive.
柏林依舊迷人。歷史之殤無(wú)處不在—大屠殺、戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)、毀滅、分裂—皆歷歷在目。租金和物價(jià)仍然處于低水平。一位以色列裔柏林人在臉書(shū)上發(fā)表一個(gè)名為“進(jìn)柏林記”的活動(dòng)—該活動(dòng)吸引了少許追求享樂(lè)的以色列人，并且讓他們發(fā)現(xiàn)相比德國(guó)曾經(jīng)的黑暗歷史，柏林紙醉金迷的生活更有誘惑力。
Yet rents have been rising for years, and locals and creative types complain about being priced out (even as they oppose any attempts to build new housing). Worse, much of the city has been made unusable or ungainly because of construction. The most notorious project of all isBerlin's new airport, originally due to open in 2011 but repeatedly delayed (to 2017 on the latest estimate). It is now the butt of jokes.
然而，租金連續(xù)幾年增長(zhǎng)，當(dāng)?shù)厝伺c創(chuàng)作型的人埋怨迫于高房?jī)r(jià)而離開(kāi)柏林（即使他們始終反對(duì)建造新住房）。更為不妙的是，城市的很多地方由于施工建設(shè)而無(wú)法使用或丑陋不堪。其中臭名昭著的工程當(dāng)屬柏林新機(jī)場(chǎng)，原計(jì)劃于2011年投入使用，但卻一再地延遲（據(jù)最新預(yù)計(jì)于2017年建成）。它成了當(dāng)今時(shí)代的一大笑柄。
Even more telling is a huge building-site in the city centre, where the former castle of the Prussian kings (damaged in the war, razed by the communists) is being rebuilt to house a cultural forum. After years of controversy, most Berliners have decided that it is boring, retrograde and a missed opportunity. And there may be too little money left to make three of the fa?ades look like the old castle, so the edifice could end up disappointing even its fans.
更值得說(shuō)道的是在市中心進(jìn)行的一項(xiàng)遺址修復(fù)工程，該遺址原是普魯士國(guó)王的城堡（在戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)中受損，被共產(chǎn)主義分子摧毀），重建后用于舉辦文化論壇。歷經(jīng)多年的爭(zhēng)議，大部分柏林人一致認(rèn)為，這一遺址工程的是讓人厭煩，落后的并且已經(jīng)失去最好的時(shí)機(jī)。并且，項(xiàng)目資金可能也不足以支持讓城堡的三面都恢復(fù)原狀，再這樣繼續(xù)下去可能會(huì)最終讓工程的支持者們都失望萬(wàn)分。
For Berliners with children, schools are the biggest problem. The centre-left Social Democrats who runBerlin's government have fiddled about with no fewer than 23 school reforms, most of them ideologically tinged to level down rather than foster excellence.Berlincomes last in the school rankings amongGermany's 16 states. Now the government is harassing the international (ie, English-taught) schools with new regulations, which will anger many expats and cosmopolitan locals.
對(duì)于有孩子的柏林人來(lái)說(shuō)，學(xué)校成了最頭痛的問(wèn)題。柏林的執(zhí)政黨中左翼社會(huì)民主黨先后進(jìn)行了多達(dá)23次的學(xué)校改革，結(jié)果一事無(wú)成，他們當(dāng)中大部分人只是在思想上輕描淡寫(xiě)，想以此來(lái)消除差距，而非培育英才。柏林在德國(guó)16個(gè)州的學(xué)校中排名倒數(shù)第一。現(xiàn)在政府采取的新法規(guī)讓國(guó)際性（英語(yǔ)教學(xué)）學(xué)校煩惱不已，也會(huì)觸怒許多旅居于此的外國(guó)人和來(lái)自世界各地的當(dāng)?shù)匾泼瘛?/div>
It is symbolically fitting that Klaus Wowereit, the gay and flamboyant Berliner who famously described his city as “poor but sexy”, has just retired after 13 years as mayor, to be replaced by a relatively grey protégé, Michael Müller. After decades of being subsidised byGermany's richer states,Berlinnow balances its budget. It is like an adolescent who has grown up and wants to prove he's responsible. Hence its bid to host the Olympics in either 2024 or 2028. WithinGermanyand evenEuropeit is still hard to find a more exciting city. And yet, as the new nostalgia suggests,Berlin's best days may already be behind it.
恰如前柏林市長(zhǎng)克勞斯?沃維雷特所說(shuō)，這是一個(gè)“貧窮又性感”的城市—他是一個(gè)個(gè)性分明的同性戀者，剛剛從長(zhǎng)達(dá)13年的市長(zhǎng)之位上卸任。下一屆出任的市長(zhǎng)為稍顯黯淡的門(mén)徒米哈爾·米勒。柏林經(jīng)受了德國(guó)發(fā)達(dá)州市數(shù)十年的欺辱，如今預(yù)算平衡。它像是剛成年，急于證明自己能有擔(dān)當(dāng)?shù)那嗄耆恕Ｒ虼?，它申辦2024年或2028年奧運(yùn)會(huì)。在德國(guó)，甚至是歐洲，依然難以找到一座更激奮人心的城市。然而，如新一代懷舊者所言，柏林的巔峰時(shí)光已經(jīng)一去不復(fù)返。譯者：石海霞 校對(duì)：曾擎禹
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