As home to a young, exuberant population and much of Berlin’s club scene, Friedrichshain can give a first impression of being one big party district. Friedrichshain was part of East Berlin and, far more than in Prenzlauer Berg or Mitte, it shows. On wide thoroughfares such as Karl-Marx-Allee, plenty of monumental concrete remains to give the district a palpable sense of the GDR past. Friedrichshain is also, however, a place of many neighbourhoods, each with its distinctive flavour. The slick offices of MTV and Universal dominate the riverside media district. Pub-going students trawl Simon-Dach-Strasse and the bars of the surrounding area late into the night. Nearby Samariterviertel is increasingly the province of young families. Rigaer Strasse remains the outpost of the punks and anarchists who once dominated Friedrichshain.