Heart Berlin, Heart Autumn
14 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
in Germany, Living, Musings Tags: autumn, berlin, cafes, celebrations, oktoberfest, potsdam
I’ve decided already that autumn is my favourite season to be in Germany. It becomes both Berlin and Potsdam very well.
I think part of this autumnal ‘aptness’ comes from the way that Germans seem to really celebrate the coming of this season. As September began to wane I started to notice a very clear shift, not only seasonally/naturally etc. but socially. Now, personally I have always loved autumn more than any other season. For one, my birthday falls within it, and who doesn’t give some bias to that? (Unless you’re of the mind where being a year older is an annual curse). I am not ashamed to admit that I still get excited about Halloween and Bonfire Night. The weather starts to become much more pleasant to me – colder, but in a brisk, refreshing sense, not freezing-my-arse-off cold. Have you also ever noticed that autumn also comes with a smell? Sharp, acrid, perhaps a faint sense of woodsmoke, the kind that slightly burns your nose – every year that I can remember I’ve taken a whiff of the air and known that autumn has come. And with the colder weather comes my favourite attire – CARDIGANS! SCARVES! HATS! BOOTS! The utter, utter joy of layering! Ah… just writing about it makes me start pre-emptively drooling for Accessorize. You know what I’m talking about, I’m not the only one who goes a bit nutty over this. The world dons a new riot of colour which exudes its own warmth and sense of wellbeing. It makes you want to walk down a tree-lined avenue in the park, coffee in hand, music on, and take a look around with a contented sigh. For me, it is just a great time to ‘be’.
In the UK I constantly find that autumn seems to become a source of misery (not to all, of course – and power to you!): ‘I had to turn on the heating last night *sigh*’ ‘Is the weather this miserable where you are?’ ‘How depressing. Everything’s dying.’ Autumn seems to mean the decline of the year, the step closer to another stressful Christmas. Perhaps it is just another reason to grumble. Here, however, autumn is nothing if not a completely new lifestyle and mode of thinking. In my wanders around Potsdam and Berlin the emphasis lies on autumn as a time of togetherness, productivity and fruitfulness, tapping into a new kind of warmth as summer disappears, and almost a new source of fun.
The motif of harvest is everywhere right now alongside everything Halloween-related – shops and tables are festooned with foliage, wheat, grasses and plush scarecrows ; the colours are dominated by reds, oranges and russets. Contrary to autumn as being a season of decline (however beautiful), the emphasis here is the fruit of previous seasons’ labour – something that I think has perhaps fallen by the wayside a little at home. It is not an obligation enforced by your local church or village hall – it is a statement, an illustration of a lifestyle. The German work ethic needs no expansion. However, their capacity for relaxation, fun and ‘downtime’ does.
With this in mind, what I’ve also found here is that autumn time means PARTY TIME! It took living here for a few months to realise how little excuse is needed in Germany (at least where I’ve been) to celebrate something. Autumn is no exception. To start with: one word – Oktoberfest. Need I go on?? Beer, a crowd of your friends, parades, brass bands and fantastic costume. Few things get more fun than that, right? I was also really intrigued by a recent article from (find) that highlighted the importance of national identity to the Munich celebrations. However, we did not lose out for not living there – Potsdam has been hosting an October funfair near Alter Markt (which sends a mile-high spotlight into the air every night). I can’t lie, I really, really want to go. Walking past, the air is immediately filled with those old ‘Cotton Eye Joe’-esque classics (I really wish I was being sarcastic) that play on the rides, brightly coloured lights and that weirdly addictive smell of candyfloss. My inner child is ecstatic. For a couple of weeks a brass band in Bavarian get-up was resident amongst the cafes and had the more inebriated Germans singing and banging on the tables.
I end this big ol’ ramble with my final observation: asthetically, I think Berlin, Potsdam and the German lifestyle are made for autumn. The way that the gold-tinged light falls on the red bricks of the Holländisches Viertel and honey/cream nineteenth-century apartments which harmonise so well with the tree-lined avenues, the plethora of horse chestnuts and cobbles. Riding your bike wrapped up in autumn uniform – a wool coat, thick scarves, knee-high boots and hats. When the late afternoon sunlight spills into big open rooms like a Midas touch. When it is time for even the hardiest cafe-dwellers to throw off their outdoor blankets and retreat inside amid candles to sip their milchkaffees. The way that the grey mists and iron wintry skies perfectly accentuate Berlin’s hard edge, bleak past and gritty present; in spite of this, the way that the colours are just more colourful here.
So there you have it! My first little natter. I say little. This is an essay really. If you’ve got this far, I promise you a toffee apple 
