Berliner Luft is a popular peppermint-flavoured shot downed in the city’s bars. It also means Berlin Air and is a colloquialism for the city’s spirit of unfettered freedom and rebellious abandon. Given what this city went through, reduced to rubble by the furious Russians at the end of world war two, and then rent in two for more than 40 years during the Cold War, it’s not surprising that after the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, the populace needed to let off steam.
As friends who grew up in army families have also noted, it’s sobering to reflect that the way of life enjoyed by our parents’ generation now appears largely out of reach to their children
The city became Germany’s pressure release valve, famed for its annual techno Love Parade, weekend-long raves – starting at 7 a.m. on a Sunday morning is a particularly popular slot, apparently – relaxed alcohol laws and open drinking on the streets, kinky parties, and more.
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