Books | iHeartBerlin.de

How to host an unforgettable Dinner

One of the major aims we have here on the blog is to find ways for you to have an amazing time in Berlin. Regardless if you live here or if you are just visiting, we want you to make the most of this amazing city and have an unforgettable time here. With our guides and reviews we’re offering a lot of recommendations on what to do here – with our recent collaboration with Priceless^® Berlin we have also introduced you to a whole new spectrum of unique experiences from culinary delights to fun adventures.

But what makes an experience really unique and unforgettable? It’s not really as easy as it sounds. We thought a lot about this, because we wanted to create our own “priceless” event for you. As the season of cosy nights at home and lovely holiday dinners is approaching we decided that we wanted to do something related to amazing food. So we sat down with someone who really knows something about excellent food: our Blogfabrik colleague Sophia Hoffmann, who recently published her second amazing cookbook “Vegan Queens”. Together we developed a dinner event of a different kind. “Harvest Muse” turned out to much more than just a dinner party. For the delight of our guests Sophia created something that could almost be described as an altar of the fruits of Autumn – a beautiful food installation that was first admired and photographed and than later devoured by the attendants. In a short interview Sophia explains how the idea came up and what other advice she can give to our readers on how to host an unforgettable dinner.

Photographs by Manuel Moncayo: An Escape to Nature

by Nikos | Books, Photos, Stories

photos: Manuel Moncayo

There are these moments, where all you want is simply to pause your life, take a deep breath, clear your head from all the annoying and time-consuming distractions that you let govern you and just exist without thinking that you are running late on your schedule. All that is needed is just these few minutes, where you get to really think about what you are doing and/or what you have become, not necessarily in an existential or an overanalysing way, but in the fashion that suits you best. How often do we even stop for a moment to observe our surroundings, appreciate what we have and realize that the majority of what we like to call “problems” are very insignificant considering we only live just a couple of decades? While pausing your life might not be possible, escaping from its worries just for a bit might prove just as rewarding.

The Berlin-Code: How to understand the City

by Nikos | Books

In the time that we have all spent in Berlin either as visitors or residents, how much energy have we invested in getting to know the city? What could we say about it, that could be insightful and at the same time descriptive of its true identity? Do we even know the city we so passionately talk about?

Brenda Strohmaier’s and Alexander S. Wolf’s “Der Berlin-Code” tackles this -oddly- rarely addressed issue by creating a very special guide for anyone curious to find out a little bit more about Berlin’s core identity. What makes this book unique is that it transcends the usual questions “Where to go?”, “What to do?” etc. as well as the well-known discontent about how Berlin used to be and how it currently is. Instead, it delves into themes that cannot be approached by a simple Google search.

Berlin’s Nightlife & Music Scene of the 1920s

by Yasmin | Books, Music, Party

photos: Berlin – Sounds of an Era

“The city had a jewel-like sparkle, especially at night, that didn’t exist in Paris”

Josephine Baker

Berlin in the 20’s: With the Jazz emerging and the dresses shortening, a new feeling of life entered the city, invigorating its nightlife. The time frame of the Weimar Republic might have set the tone for the capital’s later years, up until the now – including wild dancing, loud music and free spirit.

The city was in a blaze of glory – with the horror’s of the war and the cultural scene ever-changing – and it has some amazing contemporary witnesses and their music that are testaments for this unique period.

Polish Lifestyle in Berlin

by Yasmin | Art, Bars, Books, Cafés, Food, Photos, Restaurants, Shops

“Doublefaced No. 21”, photo: Sebastian Bieniek

Berlin is a city made of puzzle pieces, a mosaic of multitudes. Its irresistible charm and distinctive difference is made of the people that shape the city culturally. A Berlin without its cultural diversity is not only hard to imagine – it just wouldn’t even be as interesting probably. The contributions of inhabitants from all over the world helped forming a colorful kaleidoscope of ethnic elements.

We want to take a closer look at all the possibilities and present to you the manifold ways of experiencing Berlin’s diverse cultures. Today: The Polish Edition!

Polish people are some of the best people! In our last edition, we told you about the Turkish Lifestyle in Berlin. This time we want to cover the beautiful polish things to spend your days with in the capital. From Pierogi to Polish Fashion, Germany and Poland have a lot of history together that lingers on. See our little selection right after the jump. Baw się dobrze! read more…

Here’s to the Beauty of Men

by Frank | Art, Books

photo: Jean-Baptiste Huong

For the longest time showing the beauty of the human body was a bit of a taboo in art and artistic photography. What was completely natural for the old masters is now deemed to be too commercial to count as art. Art should not be appealing, let alone be beautiful. This is something for advertising, or in the case of the human physique: erotica.

It’s a shame really, because the human body is as good of an object for art as any, and not just as something abstract or for the sake documentary. I’m glad that the art world seems to slowly but steadily overcome this prejudice. More artists experiment with nudity, sex, even pornography. Even galleries are picking up on this. Now more than ever artists who dedicate themselves to the beauty of the human body are no longer just considered photographers, but actual artists. I think this development is very positive and we should embrace this positivity.

The Most Awesome Independent Book Shops in Berlin

by Yasmin | Books, Shops

photo: Alicia Kassebohm

We all know the beauty of a good book. The luxury of indulging in the written word is incomparable. We might have told you about the books about Berlin. Now it’s time to shed light on where to best get them.

There are over 285 book shops in Berlin, each one of them with their own beauty. Some are small, some are bigger, all of them are good. A few of them have such a special atmosphere though, which is worth listing. See 12 of our favorite book shops of the capital after the jump. read more…

The Time Berlin Became a Metropolis

by Yasmin | Books, Photos

Mehringplatz, photo: Robert Prager, 1894

There was a time when Berlin was a kingly residence, a time of Prussian glory.
In the 19th century, the city changed with the industrialization in full swing. After that, it became the capital of the Wilhelmine empire. The photographs of that time document a city in change, Berlin’s transition into a metropolis.

Miriam Paeslack put together a coffee table book full of treasures of photography that illustrate the city’s change. Her book “Berlin im 19. Jahrhundert: Frühe Photographien 1850-1914” was published at Schirmer/Mosel. See some of the impressive photos of a Berlin long ahead our time right after the jump. read more…

A Berlin Reading List

by Yasmin | Books

photo: oh_hedwig

Just recently we told you about some of the most famous writer Exiles of Berlin. Today we get down to the nitty-gritty and present to you some books that revolve around Berlin. You will recognize some of the featured authors here. We’re concentrating on giving you a list that features books that are available both in German and in English. Since the current weather is perfect for a good, long read, we present to you our very own Berlin reading list. Without further ado, here are ten books that you should get your hands on. Right after the jump. read more…

An Iconic Berlin Book: Gender as a Spectrum

by Yasmin | Books, Photos

photos: Joseph Wolfgang Ohlert

Gender, identity and self-expression are very delicate, intimate subjects to address.
The true kaleidoscope of human identities, facets and preferences is as diverse as there are people on this planet. Beyond a world of black and white, there is a whole range of color, which makes life interesting. Yet we all want the same thing: recognition for who we are and what we feel.
And to get said recognition, visibility is crucial.

“Gender concerns anybody and is part of every identity,” says Joseph Wolfgang Ohlert, author of the new book ‘Gender as a Spectrum’.

The photographer teamed up with entertainer, artist and Transgender activist Kaey, and portrayed people from Berlin and various places on the planet. All of them are a facet of the kaleidoscope, moving between the polarity of gender. For over two years Ohlert worked on this book with Kaey, capturing people in an authentic, emotional way that is both raw and rare. While Ohlert took the photographs, Kaey interviewed the portrayed people, so the reader gets to know the personalities behind the picture even better, learning about their personal self-concepts, self-definitions, views and wishes.

And maybe the reader starts asking himself these questions, finding answers about himself, or maybe just learning about the people that are all with him on the kaleidoscope of being a person.

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