I'm just finishing up a month long trip to Berlin and I absolutely love it here.  My only questions is how do artists manage to live here?  The cost of living is relatively low and compared to New York rents in Berlin are insanely cheap, that part makes sense.  I rented an apartment in Prenzlauer Berg big enough for two people to live comfortably for 700 Euros and I even managed to find a nice sized studio for 100 Euros.  The cheap rent is easy to understand because the unemployment rate here is so high and the city is made to house far more people than the current population.  So back to my question, how can an artist manage to live here?  If you can't get a job here, especially as a foreigner, then how could you pay your rent?  I've heard friends here mention jobs in other parts of the world that they return to when their funds are depleted.  Any one have any insight into how an artist can get by in Berlin?

It made me also think about how certain similar cities in the US might make sense as places for artists to live because there is so much available space at incredibly low prices but all of the cities I'm thinking of (Detroit, Cleveland, etc.) are economically depressed and one would have the same problem there that one would have in Berlin.