33 f Berlin Calling
Berlin has become a magnet for Romanian Roma musicians like those who formed Fanfara Kalashnikov. Rob Rigney is our man on the streets.
T
hey are familiar sights on the subways, squares, cafés and street corners. In many ways they have replaced the tradi- tional Berlin hurdy-gurdy man
of yore. And some have gone on from being street musicians to become club sen- sations. With Romania’s accession into the EU, Romanian Roma musicians are flocking to Berlin, and in doing so they are chang- ing the musical landscape of the city.
Several times each summer a bus leaves from Romania for Berlin with Romanian Roma who hope to make money playing the streets of the German capital. They pay a certain amount for the fare and each Roma has to prove that he knows at least one song in order to be
taken. Once in Berlin they gravitate with other Gypsies from Romania to the poor quarters of town, like Wedding or Neukölln, where Romanians rent out rooms to them for five euros a night. Often they live four or five to a room. Dur- ing the days the women go out begging. The men play music. Here they meet dis- crimination, police harassment, threats of deportation. Some only stay for a season and then go back to Romania when winter sets in. Some, however, have established themselves in Berlin for good.
Nica Cristea, otherwise known as Cris- tian, is an elderly Roma man from subur- ban Bucharest who has been playing his self-made cembalo on the streets of Berlin for several years now and has no plans to
go back to Romania. Always dapperly dressed in a suit and colourful tie and black trilby hat, he is a regular fixture on Hermannplatz, not far from where he lives in Neukölln. He speaks neither English nor German, but he will show anyone who is interested a piece of paper certifying him- self as a musician for the Romanian state television orchestra.
“I have an imposing past,” says Cris-
tian proudly. “My father, my grandfather, they were all respected musicians. When I play in a restaurant people just burn. They call me maestro. It bothers me that I have to play here on the streets and that people don’t really appreciate my high value as a musician. If you know anyone who can get me a gig please let me know.”
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