Not that long ago, Kreuzberg used to be a hub for immigrants, left-wing activists, the socially disadvantaged, the LGBT community, and everybody else who felt they didn't quite fit in, while neighboring Friedrichshain was a completely derelict area with many of its period buildings going to pieces.
Though all this still applies - to a degree, at least - fact remains that Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg has since mutated into one of Berlin's priciest, and choicest, neighborhoods where new, expensive, apartment blocks are going up on a constant basis and more and more international companies set up shop in converted warehouses and new, swanky office buildings ...
...such as, for instance, BASF, located in a former warehouses, now fully converted, extended, and tarted up:
... or the newly erected Universal Music Building (to the left), facing Oberbaum Bridge and the MTV Building to its right:
... the Mercedes Benz Tower, which has recently been completed:
... the Living Levels apartment building, for which last existing parts of the Berlin Wall were torn down under great protest:
... through the arches of Oberbaum Bridge, Jonathan Borofsky's Molecule Man can be spotted in the back, next to the Allianz Tower:
... Oberbaum Bridge, as featured in a variety of movies, most famously in The Unknown, starring Liam Neeson and Diane Krüger:
... another converted warehouse, now housing offices of Berlin's thriving start-up community:
... this is the other side of Kreuzberg - Tempest, an anarchist library:
... or this - an area full of interesting street art:
... but Kreuzberg is also home to some lovely parks - Hasenheide, Görlitzer Park (though its reputation has somewhat suffered due to blatant drug dealing) , etc. - or, here, Victoria Park:
... then again, there are fabulously restored period buildings (... though the graffiti on its front door is proof that the gentrification of the area is met by considerable resistance):
... and once more, the inevitable Oberbaum Bridge with the Allianz Tower and the Treptowers in the back. Right behind the bridge is where Europe's last slum used to be - so dubbed by a journalist - a plot of land occupied by a mix of drop-outs, homeless people, and so-called Blockuppants:
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