photo: Matthias Arlund
The recent heat wave continues to be a living hell for all of Berlin. We can attempt to escape it by chilling by the lake or even getting out of town, but the merciless sun is not going anywhere. Although we humans might feel constantly drowning in sweat, the real ecological problem concerns the drought that is deeply affecting our trees. How can we save them?
When it comes to breakfast cafes I have to admit that I tend to always go to the same places, mostly my neighborhood cafe around the corner. But in the last year or so there have been so many cool new cafes opening up around various neighborhoods in Berlin that I thought it was about time to make a new version of our super popular breakfast & brunch places guide. This old guide still holds a lot of great places that are total classics now for Berlin, but this new guide should finally give some chance to newer cafes in town! Enjoy our list…
Schöneberg, Schöneberg…? Surely, some people who aren’t yet familiar with the city won’t know that Schöneberg is one of Berlin’s neighborhoods because that’s exactly what happened to me. For decades Schöneberg was the epicenter of Berlin’s creative underground, but today you will find Berlin’s interesting, cool, and artsy vibe in most of the Eastern neighborhoods. This unique atmosphere that makes people from all over the globe want to move to the German capital. That way some neighborhoods like Kreuzberg have kept their cool and edgy reputation over the years. But, as you can already imagine, there’s much more than meets the eye in Berlin’s west, especially in Schöneberg. Yes, if you are new in town Schöneberg is still worth a visit and we are going to explore some of its curious locations and little wonders.
FYI: Because Schöneberg is quite an extense neighborhood, I have focused on a specific area which it’s the Akazienkiez and places near The Red Island. In a map, you can see a distinctive triangle-shaped area of Schöneberg bordered by railway lines S1, U7 and the Ringbahn of Berlin. It was called like that due to the left-wing supporters that lived in that specific neighborhood.
photos: Amanda Artiaga
There are so many reasons why we heart Berlin. In a fast-paced city like ours, it’s hard to keep track. People move in and out, places come and go. What one person loves about this city, might be completely unknown to others, and possibly gone before they even find out about it. Every city guide, every restaurant recommendation, list of cafés, clubs or bars can only give little indications and reflect someone else’s love for this city, but in the end why you love Berlin, is your own story.
Those who have been born and raised in Berlin, and, after all these years, still decide to call Berlin their home, have a genuine love story to tell. We asked some of these ‘Ur-Berliners’, with lifelong experience how they would spend a day in Berlin. The results are a collection of hidden gems and nostalgic places that never lose their charm. #whyiheartberlin
Berlin is this hilarious place where a tacky discounter with a hot Angebot for plastic flip-flops can sometimes be located literally a few steps away from a concept store. This divergence is definitely among top 5 characteristics of this fabulous city – the city that inspires all different kinds of creative thinkers – many brilliant designers among them!
For our new shopping guide we have focussed on those stores with a especially contemporary concept that combines cutting-edge fashion with other products such as interior design, accessories, beauty products and more. Enjoy our selection of concept stores below!
artwork: Haegue Yang, photo Marco Funke
We’re always keeping you up to date on the coolest contemporary art exhibitions in town – highlighting every art week and pointing you right to the hottest galleries whenever we suggest a route for a particular hood. The Berlin crowd is famous for channeling their creativity in the most unusual ways so no wonder you always enjoy these tips! That’s why we thought we might just go ahead and present you a guide of the 10 most important contemporary art places in the city.
After a year of suspension and anticipation it’s finally the time: Germany’s first street art and urban art museum Urban Nation is celebrating its big opening this coming Saturday (September 16th 2017, at 19h) and we had the chance to take a sneak peek and snap some pictures in advance!
Urban Nation has a really compelling history here in Berlin. Founder Yasha Young started the project in 2013 by organizing exhibitions on the many empty facades of Berlin’s building. We owe many of Berlin’s cool street art murals to her. Before that she used to run an urban art gallery in Berlin and New York, but the few walls of a gallery space were simply not big enough for what she envisioned. With Urban Nation of course there was a masterplan behind it. Funded by the Berliner Leben foundation and designed by prestigious architecture bureau Graft she created the first museum for street art and urban art in Germany – right in the heart of Schöneberg. Thanks to the ever changing murals in the neighborhood the whole area around Bülowstraße has now been transformed into a hot spot for urban art. Whole building facades are covered with artworks there which is quite the contrast to the many grey residential buildings in Berlin.
Urban Nation aims to become not only an exhibition space for artists who used to present their work on the streets, but also an archive for urban art like it never existed before anywhere. It’s an exciting edition to the art and museum scene of Berlin and we are excited to see what the future holds for this place.
Berlin is many things, but undeniably, Berlin is pretty damn gay. The capital is so famous as a vibrating LGBTQ hotspot with countless bars, clubs, parties, different places, different styles, scenes and people that it can all become pretty confusing. You have something for everyone here, and that can be a bit overwhelming at times. So, we put together a little list of places a Berlin gay should know.
Every year Berlin gets so many new restaurants that it has become a custom for us to make a round-up of all that’s new in the gastronomic scene in the past months. This year it was in fact so much, that we decided to split up our annual new restaurant guide in two and we’ll start with one particularly trendy genre: Asian fusion. Here’s our pick of the most interesting ones:
Parma di Vinibenedetti, Wedding
You know, there is pizza and than there is original Italian pizza! When it comes to this beloved comfort food I am totally loyal to the people who invented the dish sometime in the 18th century. I actually live right on top of a regular pizza delivery shop, so the temptation is so near, but to be honest I would rather order in a real Italian pizza from further away before I eat even a bite of that globalized crap (sorry) from downstairs.
Berlin is full of pizza places, but how do you know where to find the real deal? A lot of great places are actually really low key in their appearance, so you can’t judge those kind of books by their covers. Luckily our friends from Berlino Magazine found a solution for this dilemma. With their True Italian food festivals they are promoting the best and most authentic Italian restaurants in Berlin. The next edition that takes place in 2018 is dedicated to Pizza. We thought the True Italian Pizza Week is a great opportunity to extract our first True Italian Pizza guide from their list of participating restaurants. If you want to try out some of the best pizzas in town you should follow their map and get a taste of some special pizzas in each of the places marked on it.
To wet your appetite we selected our favorite pizza place per district in our new guide!