Berlin vintage, walked street by street

How this started

I moved to Berlin in 2011. Among the things that made me fall for this city: the second hand shops, the vintage, the thrift stores.

What made it hard was the city itself. Berlin is enormous, and it is cut by long stretches where there is simply nothing. An afternoon of shopping could turn into two hours of walking for three shops, two of them closed.

In 2014 there was no way around it. Most second hand shops were not on Google Maps, and most of them had no website. So I did the only thing that worked: I walked each kiez, street by street, and wrote down what I found. That became the first version of this guide.

It worked. People used it. Then Covid closed the shops and I stopped.

Why it is back

Google Maps knows the shops now. It still does not know the distances the way you feel them on a Saturday, and it will not build you a route that makes sense. That is the part nobody solved, and it is worse if you are visiting for four days, with Sunday closed.

Two other things changed since the first version.

The pace. Every time I come back from a trip there are at least three new places in my own neighbourhood. A shop, a bar, a cafe that was not there when I left.

And the hype. Since Mauerpark became a stop on every itinerary, shops have appeared that call themselves second hand and price like boutiques. Others sell clothes straight out of shipping containers, and you should know when that is the case.

What gets into the guide

• I have been inside. Every shop in the guide, I have visited myself. No press releases, no reposted photos.
• Prices are stated plainly. If a shop is expensive, it says so. If it is expensive for what it sells, it does not make the guide.
• The selection has to be real. Curated rails, someone who chose the pieces. Bulk container stock is listed only when the sorting is genuinely good, and it is named for what it is.
• The basics have to hold. Still open, hours checked, address checked. That sounds obvious until you walk to a closed door.
• Each shop earns its place with something specific. An era, a cut, a price level, a rail nobody else has. A shop that is simply fine does not make it.
• Nothing here is paid. No sponsored listings, no commission, no exchange.

How the guide is built

Two layers. Each one does something the other cannot.

The Atlas is the map: Berlin’s second hand scene, organised kiez by kiez. Neukölln, Kreuzberg, Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg, Schöneberg, Wedding, and more as I walk them. Each neighbourhood has its own page, its own mood, its own shops. Free, built to browse, built to make you leave the house.

Verified is the stamp. A shop gets it once I have walked in myself. Without the stamp, the shop is documented but I have not been back yet, and you can see the difference at a glance. The stamp is the reason the rest of the guide is worth citing, so I would rather have fewer stamps than a generous definition of the word.

Who is writing this

I am Emilie, a Parisian based in Berlin. I built this guide for the ordinary reason most useful things get built: I could not find what I needed, so I made it.

Berlin vintage. Mapped, and matched.

Where to start

If you like walking and deciding for yourself, start with All shops → or pick a kiez from the Atlas.

And if you would rather receive the new shops as I find them, the newsletter goes out once a month. New shops, no spam, Berlin vintage by someone who actually goes.

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