Edited and introduced by Karin Bauer and Jennifer Ruth Hosek, this issue of Seminar focuses on the New Berlin as created through various cultural productions proper and gestures to the contemporary importance of the rising global culture of creative forms of dissent through the occupation of urban physical and ideational space. It presents analyses of the German capital through individual case studies and readings of music, film, literature, theatre, and social action and political protest. While mindful of Berlin’s place in German history and the politics of memory negotiated in and about the city, the articles share a strong concern with Berlin’s present and future. They show how contemporary artistic productions and cultural institutions both produce and problematize the urban images and narratives of Berlin as the capital of cool and how they function to valorize certain types of ‘otherness’ and harmonize difference while pushing the boundaries of the mainstream.