Berlin has traditionally attracted people from Eastern Europe. Between the two World Wars, there were about 300,000 Russians in Berlin. There are Russians in Berlin now, too, and there always will be. Going west from St. Petersburg or Moscow, Berlin is the next major city after Warsaw. If I have Russian cabbage soup with friends under a picture of Bulgakov at the Pasternak Caf in the Prenzlauer Berg, I don't know whether the owner is Greek Orthodox or Jewish.
Berlin has a tradition of hospitality to emigrant cultures, and that tradition is continuing.
Berlin is really a multitude of cities, a workshop for liberal democracy because it treats the subcultures inside it with interest and respect. Alert and enterprising people always want to go where something is happening, where a mystique is being created or revived, where some new and high-spirited local patriotism is being born. This is happening now in Berlin. Berliners have a strong interest in culture, and a curiosity about talents from afar. Individuals and nations often like to see themselves as victims.