Guest Author | iHeartBerlin.de

Dancing in the Streets of Berlin

Dearest Berlin, let us dance!

Already wearing your prettiest summer-dress and smiling your brightest smile!
Finally your days are long, your nights short. Melt into each other. Have no beginning and no end.
The melancholic spirit of winter seems long past and is forgiven.
Dark November blues melt simultaneously with my frozen lemon popsicles.
The sky painted in radiant blue. This is why I fell in love with you, Berlin.
Everything is blooming and the city is raging with life. Listening to street musicians while bathing in the sun.
Watching shimmering shadows dancing in the moonlight.
Dreams seem to come true during summer.

The Curious Haus Schwarzenberg

by Guest Author | Mitte

Right around Hackescher Markt, the touristy yet hip area in Berlin Mitte, lies Haus Schwarzenberg, an unpretentious space where Art and creativity are allowed to flourish. Festooned with graffiti, paintings and strange iron objects, in Haus Schwarzenberg you are likely to get lost in a bizarre maze of doors that lead way to varied and fascinating attractions: from a museum dedicated Anne Frank’s feelings to an old workshop for the blind, here you can easily spend a whole day without getting bored.

I remember the first time I went to Haus Schwarzenberg – it was in late October, not long after I first moved to Berlin. At the time, I confess I did not know what to expect from the place itself; of course, I had seen pictures and read some information about it, but nothing had prepared my little heart for the impact of surprise – as I set foot at Haus Schwarzenberg I was immediately blown away. As a matter of fact, despite being always packed with curious tourists, it is impossible not to fall in love with this sample of Berlin’s underground universe that promises a complete sensory experience.

Vietnamese Lifestyle in Berlin: Projects & People

by Guest Author | Art, Events, Party, People

Vietnamese people is Berlin’s largest East Asian community, comprising 1.16% of the total population. German or international friends usually immediately associate Vietnamese people with restaurants, nail salons, flower shops or convenience stores since the majority of those people operate in these businesses. However, the younger generations of Vietnamese in Berlin are actually a lively generation blended well into the German culture and the Berlin hippie lifestyle. They are also a very creative and artful cohort and the faces behind lots of successful businesses and entertaining activities in this cosmopolitan city. A look into the most outstanding and interesting projects by the Vietnamese youth in Berlin!

5 Hidden Contemporary Architecture Highlights in Berlin

by Guest Author | Design

photos: Laura Fiorio

The local architect Itay Friedman presents his top five lesser known but most appreciated buildings in Berlin.

Berlins’ urban and cultural experience is composed of numerous structures and architectural marvels, from museums to concert halls, clubs to historical structures, parks, and monuments to statues and government building. All together elegantly compose what we call and define as the rich Berlin urban cultural experience.

As an architect that has been working in Berlin for almost a decade, I find that so many unique and important buildings that contribute profoundly to our cities cultural and social growth in an unprecedented way go unknown and unrecognized.

In Berlin we can find great examples of the purest form of architecture, which unfortunately are not always in the limelight as mostly nowadays architecture is not measured and examined by its own merit but by the name of the architect him/herself.

As Tag der Architektur 2017 is upon us (a yearly event celebrating architecture), created with the support of local architects, foundations and led by the chamber of architects Berlin, I wanted to share my top five buildings that are mostly unknown and that I essentially love the most in Berlin. In my eyes, they represent uncompromised professionalism by colleagues with unwavering resolute to our field, that I am proud to work alongside in the same city.

A Message to Berlin

by Guest Author | Photos, Stories

photos: Jan Rückert

My dearest Berlin,

you are loud, moody and exhausting. A city driven by hectic energy.

But you are also calm. This is why we come from all around the world.

We – the outsiders of norms. We – who love to go against the flow.

And here with you we can be free. No cages, no bars.

You are a city of freedom. I can’t think of a city that is more free. No rules, no limitations.

Wear It: The Fashion Tech Festival in Berlin

by Guest Author | Design, Fashion, Photos

photos: Galya Feierman

Wear It Festival, unfolding the world of fashion tech in Palais Kulturbrauerei, offered a profoundly engaging and mind-expanding platform for wear it, discover it, produce it, believe it and network it, and provided a tremendously insightful two-day journey into the nature of IT. Gathering an incredible populace of participants ranging from inventors to fashion designers, from software geeks to academics, from cutting edge international companies to multimedia students, from start-ups, investors, government representatives to colorful wondering fashionistas in bling and synthetic fabrics, among others. The continuous flow of lectures in the auditorium added a few credits to your future masters degree while the foyer provided a trade fair-like exhibition of the latest merchandise and prototypes attracting future producers, collaborators and consumers.

Throughout the building the conversation continued and the visitors were drawn like moths to the numerous LED lights of high tech, brought together by workshops and free coffee and cake breaks and entertained by music and visuals. Kulturbrauerei’s scraped old walls joined in a familiar Berlin recipe with neon lights and synth sounds, but also counterpoised the sleek and refined appearance of future technology that is already happening now.

Berlin’s Summer Music & Arts Festivals 2017

by Guest Author | Art, Events, Music

photo: Ben de Biel / Nation of Gondwana

It’s officially here! Festival season has begun,and we felt the need to tell you about all the great festivals coming up this summer in, around and sort of near Berlin. From German pop to techno, house and street food in Neukölln we’ve compiled a list of festivals that are definitely worth a visit. Take a break from the city life, pack your things and go to the beach or forest nearby! There will be great music, good food and art. From workshops to exhibitions, performances: you can have it all this summer – at the following festivals. See them after the jump.

Goodbye Berlin

by Guest Author | Stories

There was no more city, just countless trees lining a mirage of endless autobahn. There would be no more abrasive Sonnenallee mornings, no more late night Spätis, no more dreamy parties of sunshine dancing. There had been mere danglings of hopeful sunny days but I could no longer wait. I had made a decision and I was finally driving out of the city for good. No longer finding the fun in the perplexing allurement of escapism, I wriggled out of the grip of city life. Berlin had made final attempts of kindness — in classic narcissistic fashion — only after I had made the decision to leave.

Janis Joplin once said about men in an interview, “Have you ever seen those mule carts? They dangle a carrot in front of the mule’s face and it keeps chasing something it’s never gonna get.” I felt like I was the mule, stepping forward but never being able to taste the sweet earthy goodness. I saw Berlin as the carrot, having much to offer that I could never really savor.

The Ups and Downs of Being a Female DJ in Berlin

by Guest Author | Party, People

photos: Olga Khristolyubova

Berlin is such a diverse and open minded city, yet the music industry has not been cracked by women, as I noticed the lack of female presence behind the decks.

No… I’m not a DJ… but three years in this magical city has allowed me to explore Berlin’s electronic music and club scene, through the eyes of a music enthusiast, dance floor filler, and a social party girl.

Some ladies have successfully crept there way into the music industry, as many of my best memories in this city, has been witnessing legends like Sonja Moonear, rocking it at CDV, Anja Schneider who burns Watergate down with her vibrant connection to the audience or my personal favorite, Anthea who rocks the boat at Hoppetosse.

The Memories of the Holocaust in the Streets of Berlin

by Guest Author | Stories

photo: Norman Poznan

How can you live in a building having such a history? One of my friends whatsapped me, after I told him about my neighbor, Flora Friedel Brandt. I get that a lot from people, how can I live in a city like Berlin, as a Jew, as an Israeli. How can I live in a city that didn’t want us before, that sent Flora away from here.

Flora Friedel Brandt was born as Flora Friedel Silber, on October 11, 1866. Flora was a Jew, a Berliner. Fire, she was living in Schöneberg in West Berlin. Then she moved to Wedding, “Little Turkey” of today. Finally, she had moved to Pappelallee 3 in Prenzlauer Berg at the east side of Berlin. Where she lived until Tuesday, June 16, 1942, when Nazi soldiers entered her building to take her. The soldiers evacuated Flora from her home, and sent her 260 kilometers south, to Theresienstadt Ghetto, in modern Czechoslovakia.

Theresienstadt Ghetto was flora’s new home for three months, until September 19, 1942. On that day, along with many other Jews, she was crammed into a beef freight train. The train was heading to a destination unknown to any of its passengers.

I find it hard to believe that Flora trusted the soldiers who told her she was heading to a new work camp, as she was boarding this crammed freight train, on a Saturday, going about 700 kilometers east, to the Treblinka Death Camp.

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