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Mittwoch, 26. Juni 2013

About Doing Business in Berlin and its Mentality

Having had the opportunity to do business in Berlin many times, from a psychogeographical standpoint I observed different phenomenological qualities existing in Berlin. On the one hand Berlin, as the biggest city in the German speaking countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg), is an eclectic and multicultural metropolis with many different aspects, but on the other hand as a feeling person I experienced not just the big intellectual sphere which is cultivated in Berlin over centuries but also a huge amount of strong erruptive emotions coming from its people, in terms of rudness and harshness and an explosive way of expressing emotions to each other.


That led me to the conclusion that in Berlin there is a huge open space for different ideas, discussions and debates, making it a great place for open minds and creative people wnating to have as least mental limits as possible, but this huge open intellectual space deriving from being the prefered metropolis of German emperors aside Vienna as the Austrian emperor metropolis, Berlin is filled with one of the most raw, blunt, brute and reckless behaviour by its residents I have ever experienced. In this Berliner mentality politness, respectfulness and thoughtfulness as well as niceness seem to seen by the Berliner as uptightness, limitation to the strongest form of individualization I have ever experienced.

When it comes to the economical situation in Berlin the city's official motto 'arm aber sexy' ('poor but sexy') promoted by its mayor Klaus Wowereit has a certain kind of influence on its people respectively shows how the decades of communicsm influenced the mentality. Every time when I had to do in Berlin I experienced a peculiar trait existing in the mentalities of many Berliner. Within the city of Berlin I always sensed a cultivalted resentment against money, capital and ambition from its selfconfident residents used to be part/surrounded by communicst values. So I always found this resentment to be contraproductive when doing business in Berlin.

In my point of view Berlin is compareble with New York City in many ways especially when it comes to the intellectual sphere and the degree of individualization, but Berlin is a more Russian and - due to its close border to Poland - Polish kind of NYC with a more harsh wind blowing into the face of its residents when people of Berlin get together than in other cities in the German speaking countries.

Therefore sensitive and polite souls will probably feel strange in Berlin facing this typical Berliner mentality. By the way I have met several nice, friendly, polite and hearty Berliner but as a matter of fact all of them where coming from somewhere else but not originally from Berlin just trying to get along with the harsh, rude and almost aggressive Siberian wind 'cultivated' in Berlin.

© by Dr. Dr. Immanuel Fruhmann
Global Philosopher

On Self-Organization and Social Unrest

My assessment is that the long tradition of violence and intimidation against the own people through regimes of several dictatorships around the world, is not prevailing anymore, because from a self-organizational point of view a critical mass of people in the developing countries received education throughout the times of thriving economies and therefore invested in their minds to reached a certain level of evolution of their individual consciousness as well as their collective consciousness as a society, now demanding more as their oppressive regimes are willing to give them. Therefore the people are not willing anymore to obey blindly and feel intimidated by their oppressive regimes. So from an psychological standpoint they are not willing anymore to back the 'ego-games' or projects only flattering and bolstering the egos of their dictators or so-called presidents. Instead the critical mass of now awakened/awakening people, who invested in their education through the last decades, more and more prefer to stay in selfreference and not being oppressively governed in constant alloreference as they were used to be.

Belarus is Europe's Last Dictatorship

There are many pseudo-democracies in the world, but Belarus is definitely Europe's last dictatorship proper. Or have you observed any signs of civil society coming from Belarus recently? So far as I observed the case of Belarus, its 'president' Lukashenko rules 'his' country more and more authoritarian since he came to power in 1994. When putting Belarus into the spotlight, it becomes obvious, that in Belarus as Europe's last rock-bottom autocracy in the backyard of Russia, the Lukashenko led regime just could afford to trample on the human rights of its people, and with that holding back the development of Belarus into a 'open society' (as Karl Popper in 'The Open Society and its Enemies' has pointed out), because of its good relations with its big brother and protector Russia as well as Belarus' natural resources and its location as a transit country for Russian oil and gas to Europe.


Samstag, 22. Juni 2013

Turkey as Europe's Emerging Market

Turkey is THE emerging market at Europe's gate to Asia. Even though Turkey is not the only emerging market in Europe, keeping in mind the emerging markets within the EU such as Poland (with its 38.383 million people according to the CIA factbook), Turkey with its 80.694 million people (according to the CIA factbook) is definitely the biggest market per capita. That makes Turkey Europe's largest emerging market. The recent uprising in the Turkish society (May-June 2013), lead by many Turks who not only want to have economic development but also personal freedoms and a democratic society to live in, I see systemically interlinked with Brazil, with its 201.009 million people (according to the CIA factbook) another important emerging market.

Freitag, 21. Juni 2013

Now Vienna surpassed Hamburg by 51.000 inhabitants!

The results of the German Census 2011 has been published on May 31th 2013 and represents the feeling of many people that Vienna (with its 1.757.353 inhabitants according to "Statistik Austria") is the second largest metropolis in the German speaking countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg), right after Berlin (with its 3.292.365 citizens, according to the newspaper "Berliner Morgenpost"). 

This makes Hamburg (with its 1.706.696 people according to the newspaper "Welt") the 3rd largest city in the German speaking countries and Munich the 4rd largest city (with its 1.443.112 inhabitants according to Munich City Officials). Cologne (with its 1.005.775 citizens according to the newspaper "Express") ranks 5th slightly above the one-million mark.

The 5 cities in the German speaking countries with more than a million citizens are as follows
  1. Berlin: __________   3.292 millions
  2. Vienna/Wien: _____  1.757 millions