Crisis and Confidence: Berlin vs. Warsaw

Just back from a few days in Warsaw. The contrast with Berlin is striking. Warsaw is the picture of energy and vitality. It doesn't seem to matter how their upcoming election turns out. (In fact, no one seems to care). Berlin feels nervous and tired, and the uncertain election results have ushered in the promise of two more years of collective indigestion. It's like some great reversal of the 19th century cliche in which the young and dynamic West was zooming away from the decadent East.

You can almost hear the Polish border guards chuckling as you cross that line. "Who's decadent now, Werner?"

The most popular German newspaper just put Gerhard Schroeder on its cover photoshopped into the dress of a Roman Caesar. Yipes! But Rome didn't fall in a day...

Boomtown Warsaw

Warsaw is dizzy with progress. Everywhere there are building cranes and the sound of hammering. The new architecture is bold and confident. The office towers have eye-catching shapes and colors. Even the smaller, more modest buildings demonstrate a love of innovation and perhaps a thirst for change. The city has none of the eager-not-to-offend "historic-looking" architecture that currently plagues American cities. No fake brick. No over-polite efforts to "fit into the neighborhood." The Poles seem like they enjoy taking chances, like they believe in the future.

Berlin's also got great new architecture, but there is little building going on at the moment and hardly anything in the works. Even the new, mammoth train station going up near Berlin's government district has a melancholy glow. The building stands alone. Nothing has happened yet in the way of economic development around the station. Meanwhile, the Zoo Station- once a symbol of Berlin's crazy energy -- is going to lose its intercity traffic. Even if the new train station is a success, an old, established commercial district faces decline.

In Warsaw, the go-getter capitalist energy can be felt on the street. Men in beautifully tailored suits, with stylish accessories, bound along the pavement. (Do they all get handmaid suits? Why do they look so fabulous?) A mix of international chain stores and local independent propietors compete for your attention with bright, catchy displays. At seemingly every busy intersection there are men and women passing out advertisements or hawking some service.

The food has a similar air of freshness and vitality. Warsaw's restaurant scene has become very international, with Thai, Japanese, etc. though we stuck to Polish cooking. It turned out to be a gazzilion times more flavorful, fresh, and creative than any of the Polish food I had in Chicago growing up. The chefs are jazzing up things like beet borscht, gonkula, and roast duck. It was heavy with tradition (and fat) but somehow still elegant. And the pastries were incredible. Cheesecakes, strudels, flourless chocolate cake, plum cake, paczki, and the best danish I ever had in my life.

Again, I contrast this with Berlin, where there's also been a renaissance of sorts for native cuisine, but the spirit of innovation rarely goes beyond a few sprigs of arugula. It may be that the top restaurants are great (we can't afford 'em), but the stuff for regular folk doesn't offer much inspiration.

Winners and Losers

So Poland looks good - at least at first - but there's no escaping the sense of one people divided sharply into winners and losers. The new business elites are Polish, but so are the maids cleaning your hotel room, so are the guys hitting you up for change, and the women squatting in the entryway to the churches. There are almost no immigrants - no minorities stepping in to do the dirty work and keep up the underground economy. Perhaps it is because of this that the poverty and the crime is much more self-evident than in Berlin. A friend of ours was confronted by a knife-wielding man in the subway. Another friend witnessed four teenagers beating a guy in the street. Our hotel had security walking up and down our hallway throughout the day. Police were everywhere in the city.

They can't isolate and contain the "criminal elements" in Warsaw the way they do in western cities. There is no "other" to stick in a ghetto somewhere.

While Poles have plenty of reasons to be excited about the future, they also seem obsessed with history. They are furious that Germany is considering the creation of a "Center against Expulsion" in Berlin to memorialize the fate of Germans at the end of World War II expelled from lands now belonging to Poland. They are scared of the Russians, don't like the Ukranians, have some bone to pick with Belarus. They are angry at Germany for failing to support a common "European" policy against Russia, even as they refuse to apologize for supporting America's Iraq policy against French and German objections. (They see America as the "indispensable nation" for protecting Europe against a revived and revanchist Russia.)

And what about the legacy of Jewish history in Warsaw? Though Jews represented 1/4 of the pre-war population in the city, it's difficult to find any acknowledgement of their presence that isn't at least borderline offensive. A bookstore on the most prominent shopping strip advertises books by a notorious Holocaust denier. A shop on the main square sells paintings of "Jewish money-lenders." Street-sellers hawk little wooden figurines of rabbis and klezmer musicians.

Polish elections are about to happen and interest is dismally low -- another contrast with Germany. Voter participation has been consistently under 50% for parliamentary elections. The government decision to join America's "coalition of the willing" was hardly discussed in parliament and got no attention in the press -- until Polish troops started getting killed. The public's paranoia toward the Russians, simmering anger at the Germans, and generalized distrust of east-European neighbors crowds out other issues.

Maybe none of that matters -- politics, history, international relations - if the economy grows fast enough and the paczkis are still fresh and tasty. The "new Europe," as Rumsfeld calls it, is going to invent its own way of getting things done. But I'd rather be in Berlin right now and in the future: decadent or otherwise.