EAST VILLAGE

Description

Essentials about East Village in brief

East Village is one of New York City’s trendiest neighborhoods. Located between Greenwich Village to the west, Lower East Side to the south and Stuyvesant Town in Downtown Manhattan, the neighborhood was once the center of New York’s subculture and in recent decades has become one of New York City’s most popular living, working and nightlife areas with numerous museums, libraries, theaters, stores, bars and restaurants.

The history of East Village

Little Germany

East Village has great historical significance, especially for German tourists, as it was once home to the largest German expatriate community. In the mid-19th century, mainly Irish and German immigrants settled in the area. The neighborhood became the center of German migrants and soon received the name “Little Germany” due to its typical German subculture with beer gardens, sports and shooting clubs, German schools and churches. At the peak of the immigration wave, around 370,000 people with a German immigrant background lived here. Little Germany was thus the third largest German-speaking city in the world after Berlin and Vienna.

The sinking of the General Slocum

In 1904, the German community in East Village was shaken by a terrible event from which it never recovered. On June 15 of that year, more than 1,000 German Americans set out on an excursion on the paddle steamer General Slocum on the East River. However, the ship, built of wood, caught fire during the trip. Since firefighting efforts on water failed and the saving shore could not be reached fast enough, officially 1,021 people died in the fire on deck and in the floods of the East River (the death toll was probably higher, as there was no reliable information about the number of young children on board). To this day, the sinking of the General Slocum remains the largest civilian maritime disaster in the United States. Due to the loss of many people important to the German community, it disintegrated in the years to come. Many German-Americans moved to other parts of New York City and East Village was settled by immigrants from other countries, especially Poland and Ukraine.

The Beatniks

Until the mid-1960s, East Village was still a part of the Lower East Side with similar ethnic and social conditions. With the arrival of the beatniks in the 1950s, the neighborhood became attractive to hippies, musicians, and artists, who settled there starting in 1960. To distinguish the area from the slums of the Lower East Side and to emphasize its proximity to the popular neighborhoods of Greenwich Village and SoHo, real estate speculators spread the name East Village. The new name became established and has been used exclusively since the late 1960s.

Punkrock and Performance Art

A lively music and cultural scene developed in East Village. The neighborhood’s music clubs contributed significantly to the development of punk rock. The theaters in East Village significantly influenced performance art. And the neighborhood’s galleries helped numerous world-renowned postmodern artists achieve success, including Keith Haring and Jeff Koons.

The gentrification of East Village

Since the 1980s, the neighborhood has tended to see a decline in independent arts and cultural institutions. East Village became increasingly gentrified, causing galleries, art stages and the gay and lesbian scene to leave the neighborhood. Today, East Village is a popular neighborhood with many parks and numerous museums, libraries, theaters, stores, bars and restaurants.