“East or West?” the taxi driver asks in the course of our conversation while driving from Mitte to Kreuzberg. It goes without saying that I am also a Berliner by birth, like him. We talk about the resurrection of the Kurfürsten Damm and the crime on Kottbusser Tor, about the inadequate rents in the city center, and about those who have moved to Berlin, both new and old. “Uh, both,” I reply, biting my tongue at the same time. I realize what’s coming now. “Well, both doesn’t work” he corrects me, wise-assed. “Where did you go to school?” I could just lie and spare ourselves further questions. But we are right there, so I say: “In the West, but we lived in the East. That was before the fall of the Wall. “Now he is quite confused. I know the reaction. Anyone who grew up in Berlin in the 80s is either from the West or the East of Berlin. Only I can not answer this question clearly, because between 1986 and 1990 I lived in East Berlin, but went to school in West Berlin. I crossed the border daily in the Tränenpalast (Palace of Tears), as the commute to my school in West Berlin was called. I am neither Ossi nor Wessi, rather maybe Wossi: a child of both sides. I am familiar with the gray East with its bullet holes in the walls of the houses, the empty shelves in supermarkets, and the cozy East German atmosphere.
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by Suz | Stories
Those of you who have been passing by Brandenburger Tor in the last couple of days might have already noticed the huge installation that was installed on the Straße des 17. Juni. It is only one of many many actions happening all over town this week commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Peaceful Revolution that lead to it.
The installation was done by Patrick Shearn from Poetic Kinetics and is titled Visions in Motion. If this flittering carpet in the sky made of countless colorful ribbons seems familiar to you: The same artist was also responsible for the shimmering flitter installation that graced the ceiling of Kraftwerk during our own 10th-anniversary event two years ago.
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by Frank | Art
illustrations: Sophia Halamoda.
The history of the German division and the Berlin Wall is – to put it mildly – a rather complicated one. Especially since even today, 30 years later, it still feels the country has not completely recovered from it. I was only 7 when the wall came down so I feel my memory of life in the East is pretty much seen through the eyes of a child. I don’t remember life for my family being bad in any way, we were quite happy actually. There were a lot of things we didn’t have – but also we didn’t know about them, so we didn’t miss them.
But once the two German countries re-united, it did feel like something exciting and good was happening – at first. It took us all a while to understand what was really going on. On the surface, we were re-uniting but underneath it was more of a take-over. I don’t mean it in a hostile way, and I’m not blaming either side for what had happened. It is, as I said before, more complicated than that. But in the few decades, those two parts of Germany developed so differently under such different circumstances, that throwing them together again like that was just going to cause some collateral damage. If you only look at the election results or statistics such as unemployment rates you will see a country that is maybe not as united as it should be.
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by Frank | Stories
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With our brand new tour, we’re going to explore something we’ve talked about already in many of our history-themed pieces before, but we’ve never actually created a guide for: The Berlin Wall. That one element of Berlin’s past that has shaped the cities in endless ways and continues to do so.
But we’re not doing just any tour, we’re doing a tour with one of the new e-scooters that have been popping up on the streets recently: Circ.
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by Frank | Stories
After having left a mark in 2013 with his eye-catching street art pastings “Wrinkles of the City” all over Berlin, the world-wide famous French artist JR has reappeared in Berlin, with a new inspiring installation.
In order to celebrate Germany’s Reunification Day on the 3rd of October, JR recreated a representative scene to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall and the celebration of freedom. The installation is a photo collage set on the west side of the Brandenburg Gate, whose visual impact is remarkable, given its more than 25 meters high. The strength of the work of art is given by its composition: a picture from the Reunification Day representing people standing together on the top of the Wall has been built in front of the Brandenburg Gate.
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by Giulio | Art
Just opposite the railroad tracks of the far out S-Bahn station Schönholz, obviously visible to its passers-by, though half disappearing into a thin, sparse forrest – the newly discovered 80 remaining meters of the original Berlin Wall.
Just when we thought, now slowly, after 28 years and 3 months after the Mauerfall, there is nothing new to be said about the German division and its physical leftovers. But a few days ago we found out that – flipping hell – colorful remains of the historical first version wall, that physically and ideologically divided Berlin, were identified and unveiled as such only this February. We had to see this with our own eyes and made a little excursion there last weekend.
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by Franziska | Stories
When we think of Berlin as a tourist destination, there’s one spot that invariably attracts all kinds of visitors. Whether it’s your grandma or the cool chick you met in London, they’ll want to see the East Side Gallery. And while you’re there, don’t be surprised when your guest (well, maybe not the grandma), will ask you to take a selfie with what’s become the most recognizable graffiti of them all.
Its actual title is ‘’My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love’’, but if that doesn’t ring a bell, you probably know it as something along the lines of ‘’Two Older Guys Sharing an Intense Kiss’’. And guess what? Although the image itself is now widely regarded as something of a symbol for Berlin’s general inclusivity and the city’s welcoming approach towards anything LGBTQ, the history behind it is a bit different.
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by Michalina | Most Popular Posts, Stories
illustrations: Ligia Fascioni
The Berlin Wall that once divided the city has been an important symbol ever since its fall. However, its image has served not only as a grim reminder of just how cruel the world politics can get, but also as a proof that even in the darkest of times, humans are capable of creating art. The concrete canvas that the remains of the Wall provided in Mauerpark don’t cease to inspire new artists even as the paint is starting to peel off.
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by Michalina | Art
Works of art that combine unique, atmospheric movement with Berlin as their setting always catch our eye: it is with pleasure that we introduce to you our recent discovery, the Berlin-made Frantics Dance Company, through their super cool new video, FRENESI.
FRENESI, Spanish for frenzy, ‘a violent exaltation of a feeling or a passion’, was created through the collaboration of the dance group with the director Derek Pedros. Inspired by Berlin’s raw beauty and darkness, FRENESI takes us all around Berlin, shot at different locations like the Gretchen club, Marameo, Theatre Stahl and Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Center, taking us on a journey through the dancers’ captivating energy.
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by Stella | Videos
photo: speedpropertybuyers.co.uk / CC
Graffitis are a poetic creation of the streets and with this in mind I invite you to take a closer look at your surroundings; maybe there’s a hidden message waiting to be discovered or an image to be admired.
Although subjective, when we think of graffiti and street art, we often come to think of abstractness, disorganization, aesthetics, movement, freedom and creativity and whether to make us laugh or to incite us to riot, the colorful scribbles, which tend to be innovative and original, are the guiding thread that leads to self-expression while stimulating body and mind. However, it’s not only about the aesthetics since their most important feature is actually connected with the reactions they get; in other words, it has to do with provocation. And Art needs provocation, often associated with originality, to be consequently educational – Art does not rest exclusively on moralizing concepts, but it is above all a container of criticism and reflection. And Berlin, as a magnet drawing artists from all over the world, is the perfect example to illustrate the concept of “provocative Art”.
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by Guest Author | Art, Photos
