{"id":116158,"date":"2026-06-25T12:17:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T12:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/116158\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T12:17:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T12:17:12","slug":"not-everywhere-needs-to-be-the-new-berlin-so-stop-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/116158\/","title":{"rendered":"Not everywhere needs to be the “new Berlin”, so stop it"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Not<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ Erik Cleves Kristensen \/ SajoR \/ Derbrauni \/ Alexey Komarov \/Thomas Wolf \/ foto-tw.de<\/p>\n

Thu 25 June 2026 12:30, UK <\/p>\n

There aren\u2019t many cities in the world that elicit a response like Berlin<\/a>. Even the name conjures up images of techno and strobes, makeshift bars, and effortless cool.<\/p>\n

Besides Tokyo or New York, there\u2019s no other city on the planet that has such a loved and aspirational identity. However, we need to talk about the most reductive phrase in travel writing, \u2018new Berlin\u2019, which is seemingly being handed to any city with decent nightlife and a bit of an edge.<\/p>\n

Berlin is unique, and I\u2019ve had some of the best nights in my life there. Kreuzburg is every bit as fun as advertised, and although I\u2019ve never visited Berghain, it\u2019s one of the few major European cities whose nightlife lives up to its reputation<\/a>. You\u2019ll never have a better kebab, watching a game at Union is unforgettable, and then there\u2019s the history, which makes turning onto every new street a lesson in Europe\u2019s recent past.<\/p>\n

However, over the past few years, we\u2019ve seen nearly every major publication describe somewhere as being the \u2018new Berlin\u2019. Occasionally, we\u2019ll get qualifiers, it could be the \u2018next Berlin\u2019, \u2018South American\u2019s Berlin\u2019, but the formula is always the same. I\u2019m not sure exactly when this started, but over the past decade, we\u2019ve seen Tbilisi, Belgrade, Warsaw, Medellin, and Athens, amongst many others, be labelled as such, with even Leipzig heralded as the \u2018new Berlin\u2019 despite being an hour away on the train.<\/p>\n

The phrase shows laziness, it shows sloppiness, and it shows a deep disrespect to both Berlin and the cities that are being compared to it. It\u2019s basically a way for the journalist to say that it\u2019s fun, up-and-coming, fairly cheap and has an arty\/creative vibe. It\u2019s an editorial shortcut to tell the reader about the city\u2019s credentials without ever actually putting in the work to tell you why.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve seen the phrase used countless times across Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Over in the Baltics, we\u2019ve seen both Vilnius and Tallinn described as such, seemingly because they have some of the elements that helped forge Berlin into what it\u2019s become. They\u2019re affordable, have strong artistic scenes and plenty of empty buildings which are being repurposed. Effectively having a few warehouses at reasonable prices turns you into the \u2018new Berlin\u2019 in modern travel media.<\/p>\n

\"Talin<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ Maigi<\/p>\n

While many of the cities given the tag have undergone some sort of political and social change, there seems to be a lack of nuance to the term. What happened in Berlin after the fall of the wall was very particular to the city and its people. While other countries have had post-Soviet fallout, they\u2019re not really comparable besides the ideology that was there initially. Berlin is very much a reaction to the trauma of the wall fall and the very specific conditions that were left behind. Comparing it to the likes of Tallinn, for example, really does a disservice to the people who lived through those changes and regimes in both countries.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s Tbilisi, which is the poster child for the terminology. It\u2019s an extraordinary city, shaped by its past role in Georgian, Persian, Russian and then Soviet empires. It\u2019s been at the intersection of competing civilisations for its entire history, and its architecture speaks to that, and their love of wine is arguably as deep and historical as that of the Romans. <\/p>\n

Much like Berlin, it has a thriving LGBTQ+ scene <\/a>and a love of electronic music, but it came to be in a very different manner, and that history shouldn\u2019t be forgotten. Instead, much like anywhere else that has a squat bar and a Boiler Room set, it\u2019s called the \u2018new Berlin\u2019, and people are urged to head there in their droves for its edgy atmosphere, authentic scene and good value food and drink.<\/p>\n

The tag doesn\u2019t just misrepresent a city but robs it of a chance to develop its own reputation, swallowing it up in hype. Before you know it, the clubs are full of tourists, influencers are doing cheese-pulls on TikTok, AirBnBs are rammed, and locals have been priced out by crazy rents.<\/p>\n

Good travel content has always been about making the unfamiliar speak to readers or viewers. It\u2019s about stories and allowing us, as consumers, to feel the warmth and authenticity of any place. Slapping the \u2018new Berlin\u2019 tag on a city does the exact opposite, trivialising the place before you\u2019ve even set foot in it. Every city has a unique story and a complicated development that has come through hundreds of years of politics and social change. Let\u2019s focus on how places came into being, and what makes them so unique and special, rather than claiming that they\u2019re just different versions of somewhere else.<\/p>\n

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