The Korean Diaspora: Berlin

Searching for a little “seoul” in Berlin, Germany.

I’ve been told frequently that Koreans are the Italians of Asia. The explanation is that both countries are peninsulas home to “passionate” people. But if you’d indulge me in this absurd exercise, I’d like to add that there’s also a Korean-German connection. 

First, both revolutionized the dissemination of the written word. In 1455, Gutenberg’s 42-line Bible was printed using metal movable type, a technology used some 200 years earlier during Korea’s Goryeo Dynasty. The “Jikji“, the world’s oldest remaining movable metal print book, was printed in 1377. More recently, of course, both countries were physically divided by political ideologies.

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