My neighbor Gerhard is in his mid-seventies and has been living in our house for all his life. First with his mother and his three siblings in a single room apartment in the back building, then in his own two bedroom apartment from 1975 onwards, where he still lives to this day.
He's got no close family in Kreuzberg anymore, although two of his siblings still live in the greater Berlin area. Sadly, one of his brothers passed away as a young boy, having drowned in the nearby Landwehrkanal.
In this building Gerhard also experienced the fall of the Berlin wall, which he didn't feel like attending the first evening, because he "had work the next day." However, he was relieved being able to visit East German family members more easily afterwards.
Gerhard has traveled extensively throughout his life and is always eager to sit down and talk about his travel experiences. His apartment is filled with souvenirs from all the countries he has traveled to, and he's got a story to tell about each and every one of them.
Gerhard is also a very avid photographer and has created numerous photo albums, which he sometimes takes with him to our back yard to look at whilst enjoying the sun. We sometimes exchange photographs, and he immediately gifted me his old tripod when he learned that I was in need of one.
Ever since he was a young boy, Gerhard has collected and played with model trains. After his set was stolen from his basement a few years ago, he obtained his most recent model - an Arnold Rapido 1:160 - from one of his nephews. He has put a lot of work into his model world, recreating some of his favorite Berlin buildings such as the Babylon movie theater.
He has stressed however that he always likes to throw in a "pinch of fantasy and fairytale magic" into his model train worlds to "keep it interesting."
