Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown

- 25 years later, after the Wall fell,

Berlin remains complicated and unfinished.

Complicated by history and counter-history

with an urban fabric that resists all attempts

to reorder it.

Berlin fascinates

and people continue to be drawn to its darkness

and its light.

- Berlin is never Berlin, they say.

Pounded into rubble by Allied bombs and Russian artillery

in World War II, surrounded,

then hacked in two during the Cold War,

then reunited and reborn, Berlin is a city of ghosts.

An ever-evolving space where memories and new ideas

live side by side.

In between and after the wars,

Berlin has always been a place where you find what you want

or what you think you need,

what you can't get back home.

A place where fantasies could come true.

It's all here, if you know where to look.

It's no coincidence,

it's a natural progression, really,

that Berlin's nightlife is excessive,

completely and proudly uninhibited, and never-ending.

There are clubs for everybody

and many are friendly towards

whatever your personal lifestyle choices might be.

Club culture is the pride of Berliners

and draws millions of thrill seekers

from all over the world.

It is notoriously difficult to navigate, however,

and finding the right place with the right mix

that will actually let you in the door

can be a challenge.

Who decides who gets in,

keeps each place with its own personal,

non-judgmental balance are people like Frank Kunster.

For 25 years, he's been the gatekeeper and bouncer

at some of Berlin's most infamous club doorways.

You were described as a legendary doorman.

Yeah, maybe.

Older?

- Well, the... the last three years at bar.

Right.

A professional partier

in Berlin, what time do they show up at the club?

- 6:00 in the morning.

- No way. - Oh, yes, of course.

- So wait a minute, you arrive at 6:00 am.

- And then the clubs, they go from Saturday evening

to Monday morning without any break.

So people go there normally Sunday morning

and then they dance Sunday all day and all night,

then go home Monday morning.

So you're talking 24 hours.

No, 36 hours, no problem.

- 36 hours. What are you doing for 36 hours?

- Dancing, talking, chilling, hugging, ing, whatever.

- I don't want to do any of those things for 36 hours

personally, I think.

Danke.

Both:

Um, I have to begin, sir.

Beautiful.

As a large man with a physically challenging job,

Frank likes meat, as I do.

So a long-established butcher shop

like Fleischerie Domke

is just what the both of us need.

Pork schnitzel with murky, delicious brown gravy,

and boulette, which I gather is German for meatballs,

is the kind of working-class food one wants

and needs.

So what attracted you to this business?

- The night had always, like... I always was...

attracted to the night.

I think people in the night

when they are on alcohol or on drugs open their mind.

Because it's dark, they are more free in their mind.

I found that interesting.

- Berlin is world-famous for its club scene.

Why here?

- I think because we are the last liberal city,

like real liberal, you know?

The people can afford being here, it's cheap to drink,

it's cheap to live, it's cheap to eat,

and people come here because of the freedom to party,

to get wasted as hard as possible.

- How about the police and the government at this time?

You know, you've got thousands of people taking ecstasy

and dancing all night till 11:00, 12:00 the next night.

- I think the government know... I know policemen

and they know about, like, people doing drugs

and they come to our clubs to do drugs by themselves

or not or they drink,

but they accept and everybody's cool with it.

Berlin is a party city.

It's no real industry besides a party industry

and so, so many tourists come here only because of that

from Spain, from Italy, from Russia,

from U.S., from U.K.

to get totally lost and totally wasted

but not in a bad way, just like in a Buddhistic way.

It's like in the moment you get lost you can find yourself,

and that I think what excess is about.

Pure hedonism.

- Come to Berlin, get high, party.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The Wall.

An absurd, tragic, almost metaphoric,

but all-too-real expression

of humanity's failure and depravity.

A 96-mile stretch of concrete and razor wire

cut Berlin into an island of capitalistic West

and gray, soul-crushing, repressive communist East.

They keep a few chunks of it around,

a reminder of terror, of triumph,

or simply to take selfies in front of.

Every day fewer and fewer remember

that the world almost ended right here.

Even as the wall fell,

techno music seemed to express something

that needed to be expressed.

Dance music and ecstasy and mammoth nightclubs

exploded across a reunited Berlin.

During that time, DJs like Ellen Allien

were pioneers of the new sound and a new generation.

East and West, a unifying force.

Sausage is my favorite food.

As a German, you need sausage.

Mm.

Yeah, it's... it's good.

- Mm, very good with apple and, I think.

- Lunch at Michelburger, a joint on Friedrichshain.

Sausage of chicken, pig's feet, and sage

with smoked mashed potatoes and apple.

Beef shoulder braised and served with root vegetables,

potatoes, horseradish, and, God help me, kale.

When did the Wall come down? That was what year?

- '89. - '89.

So everything started in '89.

Everything started in '89.

First, the club scene

was based on the... On the West side

where the first techno club opened.

Wall came down and then everything moved to the East

because there was space, a lot of industrial places,

and music was a meeting point of the East and West

and a meeting point of young people trying to move together.

It just happened in the club.

When the Wall came down, it was our music to come together,

so it's very deeply in our blood.

Right.

- That's why it's so strong for me, so being a DJ,

because this time was a very strong impact for my soul.

- Over time, so many artists, musicians, writers

from elsewhere have come to Berlin.

It's always been sort of a magnet for artists

for a lot of reasons.

Why do you think here of all places

would be so welcoming

and attractive to creative people?

- I think after the second war everything was burned here.

There was nothing.

Nothing was here, only like broken stones, you know.

Everything was gone, all the history.

So people start building up the new Berlin or whatever

and we are still in that process, you know,

and when you come here you have... you have the feeling

that you have to help to build something here.

I'm a part of it.

If I go to Paris, I'm not thinking I'm a part of Paris.

I'm not, because there is so much history

you can see, or Rome... - Right.

- I think only about the Rome history.

- Yes. - 'Cause there's everything

you can touch. It's an open air museum, yeah.

But here, you have to feel you're building something.

I think that's why so many people come here.

When I'm here, I start being so creative

because it means something to me.

It's a very quiet city

but also there is something , you know?

Something that you have the feeling

you want to be a part of,

and I think that's why many people come here.

- There's no past. There's only a future.

- Mm. - In a sense.

You can create your own world here.

- Yeah. Exactly, yeah.

- You know, when I was a teenager,

the... the real punk rockers were like us,

and we were like... so they would all be like, "No, no, no.

Punk's dead."

By the time we go into it, it was like .

Hi, everybody, this is Anton,

and I'm gonna tell you about what I did

to make dinner.

I used two legs of lamb.