The Latest at Goethe

By Sara Scarafia

The station waits for me as it does every morning and, with its resolute blue, welcomes me to underground Berlin. This morning, the time passes at my stop at Märkisches Museum passes more slowly, as if it were to elapsing to the rhythm of the slowly melting snow. A little girl with a pink cap on her head plays with two little stuffed bears. She is sitting on her father’s lap. She notices that I am looking over at her and then holds her hands so that I can see what her two cuddly friends are doing, too.

Suddenly the train pulls in, so, everyone on board. I find my usual seat opposite the doors. Across from me, a young woman leafs through a newspaper. A standing young man listens to music through colourful headphones that – judging from his rapt facial expression – he really enjoys. We arrive at Spittelmarkt. A woman sits down next to me. She opens a novel and begins to read greedily, as if she had just interrupted an important conversation with a friend that had only distracted her for a moment. I observe a mother of twins. They must be four years old and stare at me from their almond-shaped eyes, while eating up sweets in religious silence. Here we are at Potsdamer Platz and I, too, have to get off the train. But, I will be back here in a few hours to again observe the lives that enter and leave the train at every station.

Click on the images or the names of the cities to read the other reports:




Back to the overview