Stella | iHeartBerlin.de

5 Charming Cafes & Restaurants in Berlin by the Water

by Stella | Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg, Mitte, Tiergarten

Wondering how to spend the weekend if the weather does you a favor and is nice ever again in the future? Look no further as we’ve gathered for you some of our favorite cafes and restaurants by the water; because, what’s a better summer setting than this? Whether a lake or a riverside, these places are absolutely perfect for summer strolls, and God knows how we miss those. So next chance the weather gives you, grab your friend, your boo, your mom, and be where life is nice! You will find us there sipping on our beer, letting our toes catch some vitamin D.

Dangerous Photography: Higher than Ever

by Stella | Photos

photos: Cpt Olf

Following the first two features of our series about ‘Dangerous Photography’ that brought us to prohibited places such as the underground subway tunnels or the closed-off rooftops of Berlin, we are continuing our series today with something that can only be described as the superlative of the previous editions. Instagrammer Cpt Olf seems to be the king of them all, climbing higher than anyone we’ve seen so far. His photos are amazing slash panic inducing slash does his mother know he’s up there?

Among other places such as Belgium, Bulgaria, Vienna, Bangkok, Olf shoots stunning pictures from the highest points of Berlin, that we never thought one would be able climb to climb. I mean he climbed onto the rotating Berliner Verlag sign on top of the Berliner Verlag building at Alexanderplatz! Sometimes with company, sometimes without, Olf never fails to amaze us with his shots. While following what we assume is his passion for climbing on the craziest places, he doesn’t destroy anything while making his shoots. Check out some of his photos and be mesmerized and make sure to follow him on Instagram! (For people with a fear of heights like me they are absolutely distressing, but their magnificence can’t be denied!)

The Beautiful Classic Cars of Berlin

by Stella | Photos

photos: Alejandro Arretureta

On a typical stroll around Berlin, lots of things are meant to catch your eye: the beautiful architecture, the interesting people, and of course Berlin’s cars. Lots of Berliners don’t just drive to simply get to their destination, they’re making a statement with it. Classic cars in the city, perfectly maintained, become Alex’s subject who scouts and presents them to us. He usually gets lucky in finding his beauties during the weekend, when there’s less traffic and Berliners choose to take their oldtimers to commute.

Alex is so passionate about cars that he has a whole project dedicated to the finest of them: Carphiles is an online magazine and Instagram account based in Berlin. It aspires to photograph and tell the story behind every classic car and its owner, whether in Berlin or not (he has also featured cars in Bangkok, Kulala Lumpur, Paris, and more). With his project Carphiles, he wants to inspire, inform and fuel the interest in cars that many already have. Always aiming at the highest quality result his photos achieve a high aesthetic, very sleek look, presenting the cars combined with architecture and other urban elements.

Together with Alex, we picked out 10 of the loveliest shots of beautiful classic cars in Berlin for you.

Berlin’s Brutalist Cathedral of Contemporary Art: St. Agnes

by Stella | Art, Galleries, Kreuzberg

”Another Winter” – Aleksandar Duravcevic, Feb/March 2017

Berlin in recent years has become known for the space and freedom it gives emerging artists to create and find their artistic voice. Meanwhile, more and more art galleries make their way into the art market to represent and exhibit their work; one of our favorite ones we always love to visit is König Gallery in Kreuzberg.

König Gallery was founded by Johann König in 2002. His innovative spirit showed from the very beginning, when, at the age of 21 he invited his artist friend Jeppe Hein to install a wrecking ball in the gallery, destroying chunks of its wall as it moved about the space, and among the viewers. His innovative spirit, years later, and the urge to move away from the ‘white cube’, had him acquire an old unused church and turn it into an art space. St. Agnes is a Postwar massive concrete building of Brutalist style, designed by Werner Düttmann and built in the 1960s. A former catholic church, which however was out of service since 2004, found new life in 2015 when König re-opened it as the second location for his gallery, (now serving as the main space) while he also resides with his wife Lena in the church’s former rectory.

A Dance on the Rubbles of the Abandoned Blub Water Park

by Stella | Music, Videos

One year after the burning down of the Blub, the coolest water park Berlin ever had that was shut down in 2005, this cute music video, “The Ballad of Shelley and Hamza”, is bound to bring back memories both to those who used to have fun at the water slides in the 80s and 90s, as well as to us who visited it when it was already abandoned. “The Ballad of Shelley and Hamza” tells the story of two people, who, on their way to find themselves, they found each other; It is an entirely imagined, unconventional cross-continental love song about 2 friends from university, performed by James McBreen and recorded on a boat on the River Spree. In the music video, the two performers dance all over the abandoned place and through their moves they bring it back to life. Coincidentally, it was filmed only 2 weeks before Blub was burnt down last July. It’s a collaborative project between Overland Originals and Kopper Kollektiv, both Berlin-based creative production companies. The dancers, Berlin-based Samuel Olatidoye from Italy and Natalie Deryn Johnson from New York, met only 10 minutes before they started filming, James told us, but looks like they managed to find their common rhythm pretty fast.

Surreal Sensuality: The Photography of Maxime Ballesteros

by Stella | Art, Books

photos: Maxime Ballesteros

Ever since the French photographer Maxime Ballesteros got his first camera when he was a teenager, he hasn’t stopped taking pictures. Carrying a camera always with him, in order to be ready for when he sees something interesting to him, rather than documenting everything, Ballesteros uses photography as a tool to visualize his own subjective view of the world. His first monograph, Les Absents was released this month by Hantje Cantz Publishing, and produced in cooperation with the visionary culture and fashion network Sang Bleu in London, including various texts and poems by the artist himself. It takes us on a strong, emphatically physical, and a bit surreal journey into the artist’s world.

His photographs show a section of the world where day and night, dream and nightmare, the subjective and the objective are of equal importance. He compares his conception of his photography to the way our brain keeps both reality as well as dreams and nightmares in the same space; the same way, the artist’s imagination takes shape and comes into existence through the camera, making it real. He shoots in the moment, following his protagonists to wild parties, private apartments, and the beach at dawn—shimmering and excessive, sharp and always in style. read more…

Prinzessinengärten Berlin: An Urban Oasis of Berlin

by Stella | Cafés, Kreuzberg

At a time when financial profit is all that cities are driven by, the Prinzessinnengärten seem to be a green oasis that gives us hope that, as long as there are active people creating such projects, the future might not be so bleak. Nomadisch Grün (Nomadic Green) launched Prinzessinnengärten (Princess gardens) as a pilot project in the summer of 2009 at Moritzplatz in Berlin Kreuzberg, a site which had been a wasteland for over half a century. Along with friends, activists and neighbors, the group cleared away rubbish, built transportable organic vegetable plots and reaped the first fruits of their labour.

The ultimate idea behind this project is for all unused spaces in cities to be turned to green urban farming spaces where locals produce their own healthy food. In this way, the microclimate would be better, there would be less CO2, and the biological diversity would increase. This project promotes community and aspires to be a place where a new style of urban living can emerge, where people can work together, relax, communicate and enjoy locally produced vegetables. Since more and more people are living in cities than rural areas, it becomes important that there is change towards a more sustainable way of living, eating and moving.

Interior Design Dreams come true at the Amazing Crocodile

by Stella | Design, Mitte, Shops

photo: Patrick Albertini

Berlin is, among else, a designer’s paradise. Like its people, Berlin’s interiors are just as diverse, with style that’s hard to pin down. The influences come from everywhere: from full-on kitsch, to industrial details, or the much beloved Scandinavian minimalism, the city is full of Tumblr looking interiors, always ready to pose for our #interior Instagram posts. The Amazing Crocodile, one of the most striking interior design stores in Berlin, is full of fun, elegant objects for all tastes, and a must when hunting for stunning pieces to make your living space come alive!

Stories from the Wild Years: Berlin Heartbeats

by Stella | Books

photo: Philipp von Recklinghausen / bobsairport

The true difference a book can make, in a time when it’s pretty much all said and done, is have a clear, authentic voice, and this is exactly what ‘Berlin Heartbeats’ has. ‘Berlin Heartbeats’ is a collection of intense photo stories and essays, of people who experienced the 90’s in Berlin and the time right after the wall fell until the early 2000s, and a new reality revealed itself to them; “old structures dissolved giving space for improvisation and experiment”. Frank, genuine perspectives and testimonies, not of a romanticized Berlin, but of a city as experienced by them, giving raw, simple, but magical accounts. You see the abandoned and run-down areas of the once divided city, you see revolts in the streets, the crazy underground art and music scene, alternative living projects, street parades and so much more.

Imagine Berlin By The Sea

by Stella | Art, Design, Products, Stories

map: Carlos Borrell

I know, there’s only so much you can ask for from a place right? And considering that already Berlin is giving us SO much, it feels ungrateful to be asking for more. It is sexy, it is affordable, it is tolerant, it is fun. But still, there’s certain things Berliners crave for, these few things missing that would truly make it paradise, and us unable to ever leave it.

Like, for instance, I think, I don’t know if you agree, um, maybe we could use nicer weather? I don’t mean to sound unthankful for all the blessings this city gracefully bestows upon us, but we could do without these forever-winters. Of course once the frost spell is broken it gets to be really beautiful, it’s just not enough of that. Berliners show their fascination with the good weather, right when the first sign of it appears: ready to get naked and run to a lake, wearing smiles we definitely need to see more of.

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