About us

The Neighbourhood - Berlin, Friedrichshain

We are located in Berlin Friedrichshain, one of Berlin’s central districts, neighboured by Prenzlauer Berg, Mitte and Kreuzberg. Friedrichshain itself is known for its young and creative vibe, due to its enormous amount of bars, cafés, galleries, theatres, cultural institutions, restaurants, cheap eats... and then there are those great clubs, such as the Berghain, entitled as the “best club worldwide” by the New York Times and other newspapers and magazines that followed the echo. What other clubs in the neighbourhood? Here we go: Cassiopeia, Astra, Suicide Circus, Lovelight, Supamolly, Aeden, Beate Uwe, Matrix, Watergate, Musik & Frieden, RSO, Kater Blau, L.U.X., Lido, Arena, Privatclub… also have a look under “clubs” or "neighbourhood". A fair 5-minute walk away direction North you will come across the Karl-Marx-Allee - an architectural homage to the Soviet Union’s Socialist Classicism, the so-called "wedding-cake style". Furtherdown South awaits you another tourist sight: the Oberbaum Bridge, that nowadays connects the underground lines from West to East, but was cut and abandoned in the era of the Cold War, except for several spy-exchanges. Just around the corner you'll find the East Side Gallery, which is the longest remaining strip of the Wall, painted by artists from all over the world. So these are all tourist attractions within walking distance from Sunflower Hostel. The historical centre of the city, Mitte, with the majority of Berlin’s tourist sights can be reached within 5 minutes by the means of public transportation.

First of all it is about the laid back and grounded atmosphere, guests usually appreciate; our pleasant staff, colourful and creative rooms; and again despite these times of more and more hostel-chains opening up under the theme of “hotel standard for hostel-prices”, we prefer funky paintings on our guests rooms walls and cool people working with us, rather than construct an impersonal and formal hotel standard which ends up keeping you from communicating with us, or our other guests and Berlin. We believe that not only your budget, but the atmosphere our hostel and our guests and therefore you create, makes you want to stay with us. The Sunflower Hostel is open to all kinds of different people and your stay will or would have been a completely different experience, if you will or would have stayed with us a week earlier or later – as we are the platform and it is the guest-community that spreads life thru our veins.
All we ask for is pleasant behaviour, mutual respect, awareness, understanding and interest in and for each other. The feedback goes, that people either love or hate us, though love seems to outweigh the hatred-section by many multiples. In order not to be hated, we recommend you to have a read through the section “What is the Sunflower Hostel not about?”, before you place a reservation and become disappointed or even hateful afterwards. The wide range of variety of our guests is also represented in the character and range of rooms we offer, as we are interested in the widest possible range of different people gathered together.

• We are not a hotel and don’t claim to satisfy hotel needs. Those who want all those hotel standards for cheap, we recommend to look elsewhere. Call it "old-fashioned", we call it “old school”; but a hostel is a hostel and should not pretend to be something else, as otherwise the advantages a hostel provides get lost : character, personality and communication; at least that is what we believe. And that is the reason why we do what we do, and actually do like what we do. Thank you!
• We are not your parents, and those who are looking for a parental substitute away from home in order to be educated or stuffed with maternal care and support, then we recommend for you to look elsewhere. Thank you! By the way: This is not an age-matter, we do know that by now…
• We do like and sell alcohol, but we don’t like people abusing it and as a result turn other guests’ stay into sleepless nightmares. If you are of that kind, we recommend to stay somewhere else and we will force you to stay somewhere else, and if you had decided to stay with us in advance anyway – then without refund - please have a look at our "Terms and Conditions"… or simply listen to Aretha Franklin’s “Respect”! Thank you!
• We are not your 24/7-indoor-programme complete with animators, theme-nights in the hostel-owned club or such. If you are unable to step outside the door and willing to experience Berlin and the great variety it has to offer yourself, we recommend to look elsewhere. Thank you!
• We are not your entertainers. If you are unable to communicate with that other guest sitting at your table, we recommend to look elsewhere. Thank you!
• We are not your wi-fi camp. If you are unable to communicate with that other guest sitting at your table, but prefer to let the facebook-world know, what you had for dinner and what the person looks like sitting next to you, we recommend to look elsewhere. Though we would rather prefer you let the facebook-community know, what a great time you have had than to have you run through the Berlin’s streets, screaming out your excitement and waking up the people that live and work here. Thank you!
• Berlin has no centre, except the one you chose to be your centre. Please forget the city-planning idea of one centre, where the heart of a city is pumping and the neighbouring districts are competing for nearness. Berlin is different: - an accumulation of different districts with various characteristics. If you are unable to adjust to this idea and instead moan about a 3-minute-ride by public transportation to reach the historical centre and not take the chance to get to know anything else, we recommend to stay elsewhere: Mitte for instance; thank you!
• We are not a couch-surfing-substitute. We pay tax and give people jobs. No pay, no stay - simple! Our prices for accommodation, breakfast, drinks and other services are fairly moderate; therefore please understand, that we do not tolerate you sitting in our lobby mixing your own drinks bought from the supermarket and even ask for glasses and ice cubes. If this policy does not find your understanding, we recommend to look elsewhere. Thank you!
• We do love and adore Johnny Cash, John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, but if you pretend to be anyone or even all of them, that is a reason why we would recommend you to stay elsewhere. ‘CAUSE YOU ARE NOT!

The company consists of two unfinished academics (was it Sociology and Law or Economics?), one finished teacher, who is not into teaching, but into preaching, one dj dedicated to the tunes of minimal Electro, a solid book keeper, an engineer of isolation (whatever that is or was…) and… well, we don’t know about no. 7, and neither does he… We heard, that he used to be really good at soccer… Anyway, that makes seven in total, 1 female and 6 males coming from East Germany, West Germany and the Blue Mountains of Australia originally, with backgrounds and personalities that are impossible to be more different from each other, but united in the goal of welcoming and hosting you, our guest, from anywhere in the world and to get you linked and enthusiastic about what we adore and love about Berlin: Progressivity, dynamics, tolerance, creativity, political awareness & ignorance, spontaneity, flexibility, harshness, friendliness, beauty, ugliness, harmony and cruelty, speed, slowness, variety, free or open or abandoned spaces ready to be invaded by new ideas, history able and accessable to be experienced, a certain madness and… constant change! Berlin never is, but always becomes… and there you go to come along; join on in! U R WELCOME!