Guide7 min readUpdated May 12, 2026
The Dong Xuan Center, explained
Wholesale halls in Lichtenberg that double as the meeting point for two Vietnamese communities that used to live on opposite sides of a wall.
01Two communities, one car park
West Germany took boat people from 1979. East Germany, at the same time, brought in tens of thousands of contract workers from a fellow socialist state. Reunification left the second group with no status and no jobs, and the fight for the right to stay ran through the 1990s. The two groups arrived with different politics and different accents. Their grandchildren increasingly share a school run.
02Going as a visitor
The front halls are wholesale and will feel like it. Keep walking. The restaurants, hairdressers and grocers at the back are where the place actually lives, and the bún chả is cooked over charcoal that sets off the smoke alarm on a weekly basis.
Where this came from
AI draftThis piece was drafted by AI from the sources below, then taken as far as its review status says. If something here is wrong about your community, tell us and it gets fixed.
Sources
- Wikipedia, Vietnamese diasporaThe two German communities and the post-reunification residence fight
- The Viets city directoryBerlin neighborhoods
Last updated May 12, 2026