My name is Leif Henrik Osthoff and I’m the creative director & founder of TEN ELEVEN NINE and in 1999 i moved from Bochum to Torstrasse 99 in 10119 Berlin Mitte.
25 years ago, when Torstrasse 99 was one of the few buildings that had already been renovated and when the restaurant Transit was still the underground club “Eimer” and St. Oberholz on Rosenthaler Platz was still a Burger King.
In the meantime, I‘ve moved 4 times, but since 2009 I‘ve lived on Torstrasse again for the third time. Mitte‘s postcode is 10119, a number that I associate a lot with, because for me it stands for Berlin in the noughties with all its new beginnings, curiosity, creativity and freedom for new ideas and lifestyles.
Today, Berlin Mitte will be thoroughly gentrified and the original spirit will no longer really exist. But every era has its possibilities, opportunities and limitations.
Even today, Berlin is and will remain exciting and a perfect place to meet great people and spin new ideas.
And that‘s why the name of my watch brand is TEN ELEVEN NINE, derived from the postcode of Mitte 10119, where Sonja Gutschera and I have our studio.
https://gutscheraosthoff.com/
For me, it‘s not about a geographical location, but about the attitude to life in the figurative sense; a playground where you can realise new ideas.
PICTURES BY: GUTSCHERA & OSTHOFF
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