A straight line traces its way along the footpaths of a trendy neighbourhood in Berlin. — COMAN HAMILTON/dpa
It's always worth looking at what’s under your feet in the city of Berlin in Germany. The cobblestone pavements here are studded with memorials.
So-called Stolpersteine (“stumbling stones”) are brass-plated cobbles that bear the names of those murdered and persecuted by Nazis and are typically found near the entrance to the apartment block where the person once lived.
Elsewhere, you’d easily miss the markings that point out where the city was once divided in two by the Berlin Wall, a piece of history that has since largely disappeared from view.
But in one area of Berlin, an underfoot landmark gives the passer-by no such information about its origin or meaning: a mysterious line, carved into footpaths across an entire neighbourhood.
In recent years, more and more people have been noticing a thin line that comes and goes as it traces a roughly 2km route along various footpaths of the hip district of Neukölln.
One local has even started a walking tour and campaign to discover the origins of the line.
“You can find absolutely nothing about it,” walking tour organiser Stefan Tolkmitt writes on a blog collecting updates, theories and information on the line.
Even the district’s mayor, Martin Hikel, has been involved in efforts to uncover the truth of the line, carved about a centimetre into the cobbles – to no avail, according to the website.
Municipal officials, who have been aware of the line for at least eight years, started internal research efforts, asking local shopkeepers and neighbours, but could not uncover the source of the line, local newspaper Berliner Kurier reported.
“It must have been cut into part asphalt, part cobblestones with really heavy equipment,” Tolkmitt’s blog speculates.
“It must have made a lot of noise. And it must have taken more than a few minutes,” the blog reads, appealing for information from readers who know anything.
“It can’t be that no one noticed?”
The smartphone walking tour, appropriately named “Walk the Line”, can be taken for free in English or German and without any booking – you simply load the instructions on your phone and set off to find the line.
More intrepid explorers can make their way to the Weisestrasse bus stop, not far from the Boddinstrasse U-Bahn station, and experience the satisfaction of finding the line on their own.
Neukölln, widely known for its high migrant population, is already well worth a visit to try some of Germany’s best Turkish and Arabic restaurants and the buzzing nightlife.
The tour takes explorers south through an area known for its dimly lit bars, trendy cafés and restaurants hyped in the foodie scene, and is not far from Berlin’s old Tempelhof airport, now a sprawling park used for barbecues, festivals, in-line skating and kite flying.
In May of this year, Tolkmitt’s blog updated that he had received an anonymous tip that the line is likely to have come from a 2012 art project.
And while the line itself ends as abruptly as it begins, the mystery does not, it would appear. Tolkmitt has not been able to contact the artist or gallery to explain the meaning of the line. – dpa
