Blind Man Roams the Globe: Berlin

Available for over a year

Peter White explores Berlin through the sounds of a city that is finding new and imaginative ways to mark its troubled past and plan for its fast expanding future. It is Peter’s third visit to the city and he is struck by how much it is still haunted by the past. He idles on street corners to absorb the voices around him and he is struck by a familiar lament: people worrying about how much longer they will be able to afford to live in a city with fast rising property prices prompted in part by an influx of foreign investors. His guide is a fellow blind-man, entrepreneur Erich Thurner, who shares the concerns as he contemplates his own future in Berlin. Through his travels, Peter marvels at the rapid expansion of the transport network and the sense that Government is getting bolder in its architectural grandeur. Expansion comes at a price for some, with immigrant labourers camping down for the night on the pavement of the monumental boulevard, Karl-Marx Allee.