It’s really true. Most of them are the same, conservative values and money rule everything and only every once in awhile you see a rare gem, like a special person or store.
Today, we went on a little excursion with O to the new Mall of Berlin (where I ended up purchasing a t-shirt that says “mais oui” on it). Being extremely close to the Potsdamer Platz Arkaden, the latter was almost completely deserted. To be honest, I like shopping malls, they are as meaningful as a piece of architecture and culture as an aiport, and just as commercial really, but for some reason, airports are beloved while malls are dismissed. (Plus I suspect that any shopping mall produces less waste for the environment than any airport.) I don’t get it. Arguably a mall is actually more useful than an airport and if I had the choice, I would rather spend time in a mall any day of the year.
Berlin itself has quite an interesting display of shopping malls of different ages, where you feel the passage of history. I have fond feelings for quite a few of them: the Europa-Center, perhaps the most ugly of all of them (and quite deserted) has a water clock which is perhaps the first thing I remember coming to Berlin at age 4; the Gropiuspassagen, a sad attempt at making the outskirts of Berlin nicer, is the closest mall to our place and the biggest in the city; finally, the Potsdamer Platz Arkaden is where I spent my youth ditching class. All of these malls are old and ugly by today’s standards, and this is especially visible when they are compared to the Mall of Berlin. I actually hope that they will tear down the older malls and replace them with actual apartments for people to live in. Till then, I will enjoy them like I did our trip today.