Why I spent hours at an airport...
...only to end up staying in Berlin.
The elderly gentleman hurries over to the boarding desk. Even before he gets to it, he’s waving his boarding pass. Just as he reaches the desk, an aircraft passes the window on the runway. The lady at the desk laughs: “Unfortunately you’re too late” and takes the ticket. The would-be passenger laughs too - trial operations are still ongoing at the new Berlin Airport, BER.
Read on...
0 comments
The Black Box sheds light on the mystery
Where the Cold War becomes tangible and comprehensible
Checkpoint Charlie, memorial at the Berlin Wall, Tränenpalast ("Palace of Tears"). Does Berlin really need another exhibition about the Cold War? That is what I ask myself en route to the preview of the Black Box - an exhibition which is expected to open during the middle of the year on this very topic.
Read on...
0 comments
About Pong, Pac-Man and Pixels
On a time journey through digital cultural history in the Computer Game Museum
On Sundays I like to play “Monopoly“. I am also always ready for a few quick dice rolls to play “Ludo” or a game of “Scrabble“, or what about the card game “Mau Mau”? The only problem is the lack of fellow players: as a reaction to my game proposals I normally raise incredulous looks and contracted eyebrows – the retro trend for analogue parlour games does not yet seem to have reached my Berlin friends…
Read on...
0 comments
Nothing is impossible in Berlin
The Fish Spa “Fußfetifisch” makes feet and fish happy
Palermo, Buenos Aires I press my nose against a shop window and cannot believe what I see: fish eats foot! Tourists are sitting there, hold their feet in a tank and let little fish nibble at their feet. This must be one of those South American peculiarities. Where else in the world should something like that be possible?
Read on...
0 comments
32 marble groups of figures & a concrete Louise
Berlin’s vanished monuments are prepared for their comeback at the Spandau Citadel
Queen Louise of Prussia looks a bit sad. Standing there, her husband Fredrick William III in the back and Old Fritz to her right, she already seems to have a suspicion. Maybe a forthcoming farewell. Because the beautiful marble statue will soon have to leave the supplies depot of the Spandau Citadel and return to her traditional location in Berlin’s Tiergarten. For the moment there are still concrete copies of the Prussian couple there. Louise will be replaced and here weathered double will be transported to the original of William in Spandau.
Read on...
0 comments
Emotional roller coaster through history
So much sensation in the Jewish Museum
In the middle of Berlin, I set off on the trail of German-Jewish history. The best address for this is undoubtedly the Jewish Museum . As I head in that direction, the dates suddenly start to hit me. On 30th January 1933, Hitler was appointed Reich Chancellor. The Second World War began on 1st September 1939 and continued until Germany’s surrender on 9th May 1945. One thing’s for sure – it’d make my History teacher proud if he read the first lines of this blog entry.
Read on...
0 comments
Berlin’s wild side
Where the chancellery fox and the racoon from the underground car park bid each other “Goodnight”
Do you sometimes have the feeling that someone is watching you? Do you feel eyes boring a hole in your back but when you turn around, there’s nobody there? Take it from me, there is someone there. He’s just well hidden. Perhaps in the bushes or up a tree. He’s sitting there, hoping that you will disappear or perhaps drop a tasty titbit. And he might not be alone but worth two in the bush.
Read on...
0 comments
What’s the point of piranhas when there’s Berlin?
Berlin blogger Karin Willms reports from South America
Our dear colleague and enthusiastic Berlin blogger, Karin Willms, is currently travelling around South America. There she’s piranha fishing, freezing to death in four pairs of socks, camping on the third highest mountain in Bolivia or casually chewing on coca leaves. Although she is far away from home, Berlin isn’t really letting her go. Here’s an excerpt from her letter to us:
Read on...
0 comments
On a Sunday in October
On the tracks of the "Kunstherbst"
What exactly is the “Berliner Kunstherbst” (Berlin Arts Fall)? This much discussed season has always been a mystery for me. No later than from September onwards you hear and read about it, the names of numerous galleries and exhibitions are dropped like leaves fall from the trees. “Help! There are already now more private viewings than I can count, more festivals than I can celebrate, more contemporary art than I can understand.”
Read on...
0 comments
Through the Eyes of an Outsider
About the exhibition “Ai Weiwei in New York – Photographs 1983-1993” at the Martin-Gropius-Bau
Most don’t like to admit it, but I will: I’m not a genuine Berliner. Instead, I moved here - from the provinces – just like many other capital city residents whom you frequently bump into at private viewings, exclusive parties and other secret spots around the city. There is a crucial difference between a genuine Berliner and us “newcomers”: we haven’t yet got used to the almost endless possibilities of city life.
Read on...
0 comments
Archive
- February 2012 (1)
- January 2012 (6)
- December 2011 (3)
- November 2011 (2)
- October 2011 (6)
- September 2011 (3)
- August 2011 (4)
- July 2011 (3)
- June 2011 (3)
- May 2011 (1)
- April 2011 (4)
- March 2011 (1)
- February 2011 (2)
- January 2011 (2)
- December 2010 (3)
- November 2010 (3)
- October 2010 (3)
- September 2010 (1)
- August 2010 (1)
- July 2010 (1)
- June 2010 (11)