I come from a family of survivors. Courage was served at the dinner table. You either became courageous or the exact opposite. You either become what you hear at the dinner table or you become the exact opposite. Having been born into a Jewish family of entrepreneurs, we had to start over twice. In my living memory! My great-grandfather was ultimately killed in a concentration camp. My grandfather fled with my father, then five years old. They had everything taken away from them in Germany. In Israel, they started over. Then they sold that. They came back to Germany hoping to start over here. Then the communists took everything and they had to start over again. I was taught that the only way to function is to start something. That’s what we do. It was never suggested to me to go get a job somewhere. The idea was to start something. So, the first thing I started was the record label when I was 21.
A lot has been written about entrepreneurs who themselves come from entrepreneurial families, or from outside the system and figure out how to make it their way through the mainstream system. Having said that, there are plenty of German entrepreneurs. They do exist but we don’t have an entrepreneurial culture and, frankly, a lot of cultural work is a form of entrepreneurism. In some ways, an artist is a cultural entrepreneur without a clear business plan to execute. What is true for all of them is that the hustle is real. This romantic notion of Toulouse-Lautrec being discovered as he slaves away in the attic by himself is delusional. You’ve got to understand the ecosystem. You’ve got to get out and hustle. And it’s the same when you have an idea. I think Germans are very scared and it is part of the German culture to be careful. But ‘careful’ actually is just another word for ‘fearful’. I’m shocked at how much Germans still give over to fear.
I was born and raised in Berlin, and both of my parents were born here. What does that mean to me? When I was growing up here, I wanted to get out. When I was 16, there was a wall, it was relatively provincial, also with respect to the snotty attitude of Kreuzberg and that whole self-involvement. There was very little interesting going on. Everyone looked towards the UK or US for cultural things such as film or music. We had a brief moment of Neue Deutsche Welle that quickly took a nosedive into forced funniness. So, somehow Berlin was my home as a 14 or 15 year old. You don’t have a comparison anyway, but it was a city I wanted to leave. And when the Wall came down, it immediately became a fun place. I was around 20 and old enough to fully participate in the force Berlin had suddenly become, without worrying about anything. It was the perfect age, to be 21 in the year the Wall came down. Let’s be honest, it was a lot of fun.
"I come from a family of survivors"
And looking further back at the story of my family: first the Nazis took everything, then we got it back. Then the communists took everything, then we got it back. In 1991, my father said, “Yoram, go take a look, we’re getting back some real estate from your great-grandfather.” So, I drove to those addresses and I came back and said: “Papa, I don’t know anyone in the world who would ever want to live in Zionskirchplatz or Kastanienallee. We need to sell this shit as quickly as possible.” And, of course, we did. We invested that money very wisely and I’m very happy with that choice, but it shows you what I understand about places coming around. Now Prenzlauer Berg has become very fun and very grown-up and it is now the most expensive real estate in Germany. And it’s wonderfully grown up and everyone votes for the Green Party and everyone has wooden toys and wonderful Swedish strollers for their children and buys very expensive bicycles and they dine in great restaurants and buy things in good little shops. I like it. But it is a very grown-up place.
Guess what, Friedrichshain is next. If you stroll through there, all those 27 year olds are suddenly 31. They’re getting married. They’re having kids. There’s a lot of real estate development going on and Kreuzkölln, northern Neukölln is becoming super chic and guess what, we have 20 other districts this can happen to. We’ve got Wedding, Moabit, Schöneberg – Tempelhof could use a refresh. Even Reinickendorf, and up in Pankow, there’s so much Berlin and the city will move over the next 20-30 years, you’re going to hear a lot about new districts that are up and coming and that’s kind of fun. And by the way, some of these other districts are going to go downhill, they won’t be quite as cool anymore. It’s a natural process for a city. The larger question is, how we define creativity and where will it take place?