Our city is changing. As long as we’re loud enough, it can change for the better.
My body is still sobering up from excessive new years celebrations when I leave my apartment on Karl-Marx-Allee on this frosty Thursday morning. I might feel like trash, but stepping through the elegant row of columns guarding the gates to the monumental ‘Stalin-palaces’, I live in, just gives me something grand each time.
I’m on my – semi-thought-through – mission to keep it that way: I’m buying my apartment! – I’m 25, I just finished my studies, and my savings got me as far as a new MacBook… Turning around the corner to Ostbahnhof, nervously fiddling with the pile of signed documents in my right hand, I ask myself: Have I gone mad?
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by Andy | People, Stories
For a few weeks now a quite special installation has been gracing the Kreuzberger Zentrum at Kottbusser Tor. Hanging from the balconies of the apartments you can see black and white close-ups of the eyes from the residents of the building. The installation wants to give a face and a voice to the people who live there and who are under threat to be pushed out of their homes due to the usual real-estate nightmare that’s going on in the city. I think it’s a good idea to protest the developments in this way because for those real estate investors often the people are just numbers on paper, their lives and their stories don’t matter to them, mostly because they are invisible to them. But they are real people and it’s about time that all the real estate sharks are faced with the reality of them. They are watching you now!
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by Frank | Art, People, Stories
illustrations: Bruno Pinto da Cruz
In our ceaseless hunt for cool Berlin art, we stumbled upon a project we loved and thought we’d share with you: Berlin-based digital illustrator Bruno Pinto da Cruz’s ISOMATIC. ISOMATIC is a sequence of architectural drawings, transformed by Bruno into illustrations, unveiling the scenery in different colors and shapes. Among other projects, our eye was caught by his awesome Kotti illustration, the beginning of a series that is going to focus on Berlin’s iconic neighborhoods. Kotti, through Bruno’s eyes, becomes playful and flooded with color; a little Sailor Moon-y looking, which made me love it extra much. Of course, it’s not the first time Kotti becomes an artist’s muse: In the past, among others, Kotti has served as an inspiration to illustrator Nicola Napoli, in his creation of various illustration series, as well as a toy carpet by Muschi Kreuzberg.
In his latest artwork he totally remodeled the Ku’damm area around Bikini Berlin, the zoo and the Memorial Church including water slides and zeppelin. How fun!
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by Stella | Art, Design
We already enjoyed the illustrated version of infamous Kottbusser Tor by Nicola Napoli a lot. But now there is a new illustration out there by Vidam, created for Muschi Kreuzberg in the style of a game carpet for children. Apparently it is actually going to be available to order soon on their website.
As child-friendly as the carpet might appear at first sight, the devil is in the detail: It’s probably a nightmare come true for every Prenzlauer Berg mom to see their kid play between syringes and dog poop, but hey, that’s just the reality of Kottbusser Tor…
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by Frank | Art
On iHeartBerlin, we’ve already put forward arguments for claims like Berlin is a Psycho and so on, but today, I’d like to tell you for once what Berlin is not, although I might have thrown some such accusations in the past. Berlin is not a liar. Or at least Kreuzberg isn’t.
Leaving the dubious honesty of its inhabitants aside, Kreuzberg stays steadfast and true. I’ve checked. And now you can, too. Have you ever wondered why does the U1 like to trick us into believing we’d be seeing some gates (“Tor” in German)? And then you get out on Kotti and what you actually see (and smell) is so different from the Brandenburger Tor you even doubt you’re still in the same city. Get to know Kreuzberg with these pictures from the turn of the 19th century!
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by Michalina | Photos, Stories
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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by Yasmin | Kreuzberg, Photos, Stories
Following the spirit of our Exploring Berlin series we want to look at another district today and show you our favorite places there. This time we chose the one that we are surrounded by the most as our office at Blogfabrik is located right in the middle of it. I’m talking about Kreuzberg of course, probably one of the most popular districts of Berlin at the moment.
People who come to Berlin just love it here. It’s buzzing and it’s relaxed at the same time. It offers everything from delicious food, compelling art, pulsating nightlife and cultural entertainment. But apart from all of that Kreuzberg is particularly good for one thing: Just hanging out and having a good time. So we drove around in the past days dropping by the most beloved hang-out spots of the Berliners and snapping some photos for you. By the way all of the photos in this feature have been taken with the new Sony Xperia Z5 smartphone (versus the Z1 or my SLR that I normally use) which is being presented at the IFA these days. But now let’s dive into our favorite places in Kreuzberg.
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by Frank | Bars, Cafés, Clubs, Galleries, Kreuzberg, Restaurants
Last evening, after a couple of beautiful sunny and warm days, the rain came and sucked the summer out of the city within a heartbeat. Not only did the sky turn grey, also the temperatures dropped so quickly, it felt like a reminder that the past weeks have been a paradise and we’re about to return the the reality now. By chance I found this stunning short film that captures one night and one day in Berlin. It starts off with some moody impressions of a stormy and rainy night at Kottbusser Tor and I this was exactly what I walked through after seeing the film, it was really haunting.
Gladly the film shows a beautiful and sunny day after this rainy night and I hope we do have a couple of those ones left this year. Enjoy this amazing video by Timon de Graaf Boele with a soundtrack by Apparat that will give you goosebumps after the jump.
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by Frank | Videos
photos: Christoph Neumann
Yesterday it finally happened: After months of secrecy and hard work from so many people involved we finally pressed the publish button on a new exciting project: The Blogfabrik. We’ve teased on this new place a few times but now we can finally share it with the world.
Together with a group of over 30 other digital content creators iHeartBerlin.de moved into this amazing new space that is funded by media distributor Trunk and located in the heart of Kreuzberg at Kottbusser Tor. On the one side Blogfabrik is mix of a co-working space and a multi-functional area that serves as a photo studio and an event space for workshops, exhibitions, screenings, dinners and anything else we might be cooking up there. On the other side Blogfabrik is meant as an expertise hub for content creators such as bloggers, photographers, filmmakers, etc. where we can get together, share ideas and knowledge and make projects together.
One of these projects is the new online magazine Daily Bread that we all have been working on for the past months. In this magazine we will all share our experience and insights of our lives as content creators. It will reflect the topics of all our individual blogs, magazines, Instagram and Twitter accounts, but it will also grant a look behind the scenes and give us the opportunity to talk about things such as business, innovation, and observation – all stuff that we would normally not talk about on our own sites. More about the project and some impressions after the jump.
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by Frank | People
I remember being quite surprised when my literature teacher told us in school that the friendship between Robinson Crusoe and Friday had a big “Gay” Factor. It is one of the things that are so painfully obvious that you don`t notice it.
Experiencing the theatre performance Fortschritt Karibik at Vierte Welt you will have a large amount of this painful “of course, how could I don’t see it” moments. Both pieces are about the situation in the Caribbean after the earthquake or furthermore the “European” commercialised fantasy of their situation. Even if the topic is rather serious, it does not mean that the pieces lack in humour. In contrary: inside the small theatre inside the Kreuzberg-Center of Kottbusser Tor, a magic box will open in front of you charmingly showing you what kind of self-complacent shitty attitude we have towards the human catastrophe in the Caribbean. I definitely recommend you to watch the piece not only for the stunning performances of sisters in crime Tatiana Saphir and Tamara Saphir but also because of the multitude of experiences and perspectives you will get with just one theater ticket. Photos, dates and a funny/crazy Trailer after the jump.
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by Claudio | Kreuzberg, Theater
