Cornelia Brelowski: It’s a shared world

EXT & PHOTOS: CORNELIA BRELOWSKI

I have written about Berlin’s sharing culture concerning books before, but lately the city resembles one big beach on which washed up household items mix with designer clothes, children’s toys, and furniture in a happy merry-go-round.

Basically, it is first come first serve on the residential streets of Berlin. Just the other day, I was watering my plants when I saw a man coming out of the building across the street, nonchalantly carrying a gigantic, pink plastic rocker looking like a mixture between a child’s bobsleigh and a toy raft – to put it down in front of the building for a future owner. It literally took one second to be spotted by a passing mother and child – the boy visibly urging her to stop only a few steps on, begging to go back. She seemed doubtful, so the boy grabbed the gigantic plastic contraption and sat himself on it, proving that it was just the right size for him (actually I thought him too big, but I could understand the attraction, if only for the blazing colours). While I was watching the scene like a silent movie, the mother seemed to relent on the condition that the boy would haul the pink plastic monster back home himself.

Sharing keeps each other aloft. Photo: Kaja Sariwating on Unsplash

Two days before, I had been sitting with an afternoon coffee in the sun, when a nice looking, handcrafted bookshelf caught my attention standing on the sidewalk two houses down the street. While I was lazily pondering if it would fit on my bike, someone approached rapidly with a two-wheel cart, so determined and fast that I thought he would run into the shelf. But no, he quickly secured it by virtually embracing and dragging it onto the cart, whereupon he fastened it with two elastic bands he had brought especially. As he passed me on his way back, eyes straight ahead, I silently congratulated him on his successful mission. He must have spotted the shelf, run home, fetched the cart and run back to secure his find as quickly as possible.

Leather boots, anyone? Photo: Reiko Gitzbrecht on Unsplash

It has become a normal sight to see Berliners stopping in the street to hold up a piece of clothing for size or start reading a discarded book. The time is over when people bothered to put out a sign saying “for free” or “to a good home” together with the things they no longer need – everyone assumes that anything you put out in the street is free for the taking. In case of moving house, Berliners are therefore well advised to have a friend stand guard while temporarily storing things in the passageway – otherwise, they may well end up with only half their furniture at the new place of residence.

Berlin’s accommodating streets have so far afforded me books, stamped bone China, a working art nouveau lamp (worth a few hundred Euros), as well as an under-sink cabinet – all of which in excellent condition. It’s offline ebay in Berlin every day – and the self-declared ‘thing finder’ Pippi Longstocking would have a ball.