English in Berlin

In Kreuzberg cafe?s or Neuko?lln vintage shops, cosmopolitan Berlin speaks English as a matter of course. But how did the English language take hold in these places? Who speaks English in Berlin and who is excluded in doing so? Isn’t it just a short while ago that groups who conversed in a language other than German were stigmatised as parallel societies by the German media? Political geographer Sinthujan Varatharajah and artist Moshtari Hilal explore these questions in an Instagram live conversation, available in this volume in an extended version in German and English translation. They uncover the underlying double standards and capital interests of the German mainstream society, trace the links with gentrification and asylum policy, and search for forms of equitable cultural work. Moshtari Hilal is an artist living in Hamburg. Sinthujan Varatharajah is a researcher and essayist living in Berlin. In a live Instagram conversation in 2021, they triggered an intense debate about Nazi traditions after 1945.