photo: Burg Schnabel.
Yesterday has been a historic moment for Berlin. In what can only be described as the best news of the week the Berlin building and planning committee has declared clubs as cultural spaces putting them in the same category as theaters and operas, and no longer places of entertainment such as casinos and brothels.
This is a milestone accomplishment that was made possible by the work of a parliamentary forum titled #Clubkultur consisting of members from Berlin’s ruling parties SPD, Die Linke, and Grüne in collaboration with members of the CDU that fought for this for over a year. Only the political parties AfD and FDP voted against this (take note, dear voters…) which is no surprise, but also didn’t matter enough to stop this.
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by Frank | Party
photo: Spyrosdrakopoulos / CC BY-SA.
YAAM, the unique cultural venue at the banks of the Spree by Ostbahnhof providing a space for BPoCs living in Berlin, was forced to vacate its premises this week – no matter its legal background or intentions, there has never been a worse time in history for public officials to suddenly close a black venue!
The stability of the bank wall, the venue is built on, would no longer be guaranteed – an official static report stated. While legal justifications might make things sound a lil cuter – closing a club space on a more than lucrative real estate property… we all will assume just one thing, won’t we? – however, the timing of these events almost seems like a fairly bad joke. Like – whoever gave the instruction to make representatives of YAAM clear its indoor spaces – “You do read the news, right?!”
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by Andy | Clubs
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
242,000 people marched against the right-wing last Saturday. The iHeartBerlin team took part and has some pictures for you.
“Solidarity, not exclusion – for a free and liberal society,” the unifying motto of the “Unteilbar” (inseparable) initiative lead a massive crowd of people out on the streets six kilometers across the capital from Alexanderplatz to Siegessäule. “Tens of Thousands Protest Racism and Discrimination in Berlin”, “240,000 demonstrate against hate and xenophobia”, “March against far-right draws huge crowds in Berlin”, “It’s finally a united movement”, headlines like these popped up all over the world the last few days. It’s a symbol of hope during otherwise gloomy days that not only Berlin needed, but the whole world. And we want to say thank you. Thank you, Berlin. We all needed that.
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by Andy | People, Stories
photo: Dominik Pascal
While right-wing populism is spreading over Europe like a virus, we have to ask ourselves, is Berlin still the liberal and international safe haven we thought it is? Do we keep on doing what we’re doing or is this our wake up call?
Berlin doesn’t have a nationality. My next-door neighbor is originally from Slovenia. The flower shop in my house is owned by a lovely Korean lady. My Späti is run by a quirky mid-forties guy who was born in Romania and I buy my favorite Döner from Muhammad who grew up at Kotti but still visits the rest of his family in the East of Turkey twice a year. Every time I jump on the U1, I hear five different languages, but that never made me assume they were spoken by foreigners. These people live here. Nationality: Berlin(!?)
While knowing that I live in Germany, that’s what I always liked to tell myself…
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by Andy | Stories
The Holocaust Memorial right in the center of Berlin is definitely a controversial sight. From tourist taking selfies on it for their Tinder(or Grindr)-Profiles to right-wing politicians calling it a monstrosity, the poor memorial has received quite a lot of attention for the wrong reasons. But we have to bring you a tremendous news. The Memorial is not alone anymore because since yesterday a second Holocaust Memorial was build right in front of the home of Björn Höcke. Who is the horrible right-wing politician that insulted the memorial in the first place.
In just one day the Zentrum für Politische Schönheit (Center für Political Beauty), the artist collective responsible for the idea, collected almost 80 000 EUR donation via crowdfunding to build this memorial exceeding their goal way ahead of time.
Of course, this provocation by the Berlin-based collective which is well known for its cool but always controversial art projects is already targeted by angry Nazis that want to get rid of it. Let’s hope they won’t succeed and that the memorial stays there for quite a while. Chapeau to this funny and very disruptive way of using art for political protest.
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by Claudio | Art, Videos
photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-09700 / CC BY-SA 3.0
The First of May, that’s when there is a big street party in Berlin, right? Kind of. While the MyFest in Kreuzberg really feels like a big street festival with food stands, concerts and DJs playing in the streets it wasn’t always quite as cheerful and fun-oriented. The Labor Day has its origin in the USA in the late 19th century where it was among other things about the introduction of the 8h workday. There were attempts to establish it Germany in 1919, but it wasn’t until the Nazi time in the 30s that it became an official public holiday that it remained until today. Over the decades it changed its character from festive parades, political demonstrations to violent revolts. Here in Berlin the First of May was associated with aggressive protests, massive police force and burning cars in Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg until the late 2010s. The actual meaning of it feels pretty much lost by now when you look at what’s going on at the MyFest at present day even though there is still enough to protest and rebel against.
Below a photography review of 100 years of the First of May in Berlin.
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by Frank | Stories
