The World’s First Street Art Museum in Berlin

The World’s First Street Art Museum in Berlin

The Street Art Museum, photo:  Urban Nation.

‘Urban Art to me, means to hold a conversation in public’

Yasha Young is visibly thrilled. The director of Urban Nation, a network for street art and Urban Contemporary Art is celebrating the upcoming opening the world’s first Street Art Museum on September 16, 2017.
“Urban Art is a contemporary witness, who shows himself to everyone”, Young says with her voice shaking lightly. And with this year, this witness is about to be seen by even more people, right in the midst of Schöneberg.

Get more information about this unique project and see first drafts and a trailer for the museum after the jump. read more…

How (un)funny are Germans really?

How (un)funny are Germans really?

Humor is unique and universal at the same time. One of the perks of laughing besides being, well good, is its ability to unite people and nations. You could probably say that most cultures have some similar funny bones. At least we all can always agree to laugh about something, like physical comedy. Of course there are also things that maybe some cultures would laugh about more than others – because they know where the jokes emerge from. This is where humor get’s lost in translation. read more…

When in Need of a Rescue in Berlin

When in Need of a Rescue in Berlin

photo: Anže Kokalj

We all need a little saving sometimes. Someone to grab us by our shoulders, reassuring it’s gonna be okay. In a city like Berlin, accidents happen. With so many people living next to and with each other, bruises are inevitable. In cars, on bicycles or walking on the street, with hearts falling on the floor, shattering to pieces: Every day, someone is out there, needing a pick-me-up.

Luckily, there is almost always help just around the corner to mend that heart and come to the rescue. Just like the other day, when an ADAC (automobile club) chopper landed in the middle of the street of Kottbusser Damm. Who knows, who needed saving that day – it’s good someone was there.

Photographer Anže Kokalj captured this unusual moment of a helicopter landing in the middle of Kreuzberg. You can find more pictures on his Instagram.

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Berlin is… Trash

Berlin is… Trash

photo: Montecruz Foto / CC

It’s on the streets, it’s in corners. It’s on the U-Bahn seats, it’s an armor. Don’t be surprised, we all know that behind its disguise, Berlin is a beauty. Hidden in trash, a secret stash of pulsating life.

It’s a juice box, flat, lying on the concrete, with the straw pointing north. It’s in the searching eye of a person, collecting empty bottles from the trash bin. Lifting up the green flask, reflecting against the sun, you can still see the remains of loud music and the weekend fun – in the drops leftover.
It’s a bag of plastic, flying in the air, like an orange bird getting trapped in a tree.
It’s the mess between you and me.

Berlin is a beauty, it’s messy and honest, at times tired from vomit, dripping from stairwells.
And still it has taken care of you, you never fell. At times it crumples up, and then evens out – a constant recycling of breathing in and breathing out.

But the circle of life in the city, it shows that things may come and things may go, what matters is: we arose.

At Home with Günther Krabbenhöft

At Home with Günther Krabbenhöft

Photo: Friedrich Bungert

“I always wore at least a colored sock”

Günther Anton Krabbenhöft, the senior that got famous through a street-style photograph, is special in every way. With his elegant and colorful clothing, the 70 year old refuses to sink into the beige-grey of many elder people. He prefers to dress elegantly, yet with a touch of extravaganza. This preference is also to be found in his home.

Krabbenhöft invited Frank Bertram from wunderwerk.berlin to his home in Kreuzberg and told a little bit about his motivations and inspirations to dress well and be different.

Everything in his apartment seems to be well-chosen, from the coat hook to the table he sits on. Even the tea-pot he pours his tea out of is a designer-piece, seemingly. But make no mistake, Krabbenhöft is no hipster, as he states at the end of the video: “Hipsters”, he says, “Hipsters are different”.

See the charming video right after the jump. read more…

Berlin in full Bloom: Re-Openings in Spring

Berlin in full Bloom: Re-Openings in Spring

photo: Klunkerkranich

Spring has sprung! And you know what this means: Outdoor locations are becoming a thing again!

No more standing under heating lamps, clutching to your scarves. The last fluffs of your scarfs are scaling off your necks and many heads turn to other people again. With every raising degree, the core areas of the capital shift from inside to outside.

Berlin awakens in Spring. And along with it the people, the cafés, restaurants, urban parks and festivals are returning from their winter hideout. How we’ve missed the many opportunities to enjoy life under the clear sky. With Spring, all these possibilities are back!

And even better, we compiled a list of activities and locations that are back from winter hiatus and open again for you to enjoy. See them right after the jump. read more…

LeidenSchafft – A Movie about Berlin Hip Hop

LeidenSchafft – A Movie about Berlin Hip Hop

photos: LeidenSchafft

The Berlin underground scene is one of the most diverse in the world. Makes sense – where there is a large society, there is also an underground, an anti-pole to the mainstream. If you look around the Hip Hop scene nowadays, a lot of things have changed. The subcultural character of Hip Hop seemingly vanished and slowly but steadily German Rap became mainstream. But still, Hip Hop is the voice of the unheard, an organ for the youth and a space for resistance.

Young filmmaker and and photographer Mirza Odabaşı took it upon himself to go back in time, to the origins of Berlin and German Rap culture and met up with a wide range of artists and personalities from the scene. In his documentary LeidenSchafft, a pun from the words “passion”, “misery” and “creation”, Odabaşı goes into the deep meanings of the local Rap culture, talks about identity and finding and defining yourself in and outside of the music. He met up with many icons of the scene, ranging from well-known artists like Marteria, Chefket, Eko Fresh and many more to rather Oldschool trailblazers such as Killa Hakan, Marcus Staiger or Spaiche.

In 43 minutes Odabaşı manages to get into topics such as experiences of social exclusion, some of the possible reasons to why Hip Hop is so popular amongst the alleged socially disadvantaged adolscents and portrays the people shaping the German Hip Hop scene in beautiful images in Berlin.
In that way, “LeidenSchafft” is a look back and an appraisal at the same time, bringing light to the underground. And human emotions.

See some impressions of the film and a teaser after the jump.

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Berlin Kultour – A Special Tour Through Berlin

Berlin Kultour – A Special Tour Through Berlin

photos: Sascha Wolters

Berlin is no place like others when it comes to special corners and Sightseeing. No wonder here, Berlin has a lot of history. With its many Sightseeing possibilities and countless historical buildings, there is probably no corner in the capital that is not worth knowing about. Which is why there are many city guides, leading foreigners through the capital. But also for locals it’s great to get to know one’s own city better. And there is one guide in particular that offers tours around the city with a special twist.

Tobi Allers is the founder of Berlin Kultour and offers around 15 tours through Berlin with different topics, interesting for anyone who is interested in art, culture and history – or just the city he lives in. We met up with him to take an exclusive, intimate version of his tour “Refugees in historical perspective” and got to know a lot. Get some impressions and see some pictures after the jump. read more…

Why We Love Spring

Why We Love Spring

photo: oh_hedwig

We’re not alone on this one. Doesn’t everyone enjoy Spring? The blossoming of their surroundings? Isn’t it beautiful for every pair of eyes to see colors again, to feel warm air on their skin?

Spring is the season of hope. It is to a year what the morning is to a day. A beginning, a new start, a hunch. It is an opening, a promise to what might be. With the colorful flowers, the smiles on people’s faces and the memory of a warmth slowly coming back, spring is also high spirits. Drunken from the first soft drafts of air that don’t cut ice cold when inhaling, we all tend to take a leap of faith.

A leap of faith into the sun, out of our scarves. Away from the heating and into the outdoors. A step towards us all, we see ourselves again: Walking freely on the streets, with a swing in our steps. Spring in Berlin is like a flower thriving, each one of us a petal, with our arms open to the sky and to each other.

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Sterni & Chill in Reinickendorf

Sterni & Chill in Reinickendorf

“We are feeling good and there’s a Späti in the neighborhood.” There is probably no better USP to Berlin than its Spätis and probably no better way to start a song. Daði Freyr and Jökull Logi from LESULA are originally from Iceland and are currently studying and making music in the capital. And the guys seem to love one aspect of the capital in particular. Their song “Reinickendorf” is a relaxed and funny hymn to the one-and-only, in their eyes underestimated beer Sternburg Export. Better known to Berliners as well-priced Sterni, you have probably drunken this liquid gold at some point. For some people it’s more like liquid Zyankali though. Depends, on your taste. But: “You know that we appreciate it” as they sing smoothly. LESULA show in their music video shot by Árný Fjóla what it means to relax in totally underrated Reinickendorf. And are very funny while doing so. Check out this funny gem and nod your head to this original capital anthem. Right after the jump. read more…