The Stories behind Berlin’s Icons

The Stories behind Berlin’s Icons

photo: Camilla Bundgaard.

Perhaps one of the main thoughts when thinking about Berlin, at least for young people that is, are its popular nightclubs, music venues, events, clubs and techno parties. In fact, Berlin has been gaining a reputation of this wild and sleepless city where the party never ends. However, Berlin is much more than just an endless rave – not to mention that it was the capital of Nazi Germany and it was also infamously divided during the Cold War – and its historical landmarks are a crucial part of what makes Berlin such an interesting city. So, although we usually try not to write about mainstream tourist sights, through the big urban icons listed in this piece you will get to understand a little bit of the history behind them.

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Stunning Impressionist Photo Art of Berlin’s Icons

Stunning Impressionist Photo Art of Berlin’s Icons

photos: Florian Lonicer

You’re no strangers to iHeartBerlin’s crush for unique, cool art; let alone when there’s an innovative new project, inspired by the beauty of this city– we have to share! Florian Lonicer‘s love for urban photography and pursuit for perspective, combined with Berlin’s most significant touristic attractions brought to us the project Blickwinkel. At first sight, one might think this is a series of impressionist paintings, which would be cool enough, but finding out that these are actual photographs blew our mind!

This amazing result comes from 25 snapshots mashed together in postproduction: Each landmark is being photographed 25 times, all from different perspectives and locations. In this way, we perceive the essence of the landmark, while its frame becomes less concrete. For Florian, the different shots symbolize the different perspectives, as well as the different personal experiences each of us has, that connects us to each landmark: therefore each work of art is the sum of different perspectives, where rigid frames are shattered and colours prevail.

The photos are now available as a calendar for 2018 here.

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Berlin from Above: The Best Viewpoints of the City

Berlin from Above: The Best Viewpoints of the City

Berlin’s beauty is in the details. Yes, despite being a very popular city, it is not exactly known for, let’s say, the typical understanding of beauty. People like this city for more subtle reasons. But we think it’s also a matter of perspective. When you take a few steps back and look at it from a distance – more specifically from above – you see the city in a whole new way. Things that you normally only realize when you spend more time here become very obvious: How green the city is, the massive parks that function as green lungs of the city. How low the city was built, almost devoid of sky scrapers that mostly give cities with skylines a very generic look. From the distance you will see the more iconic constructions of the city and how much they stand-out, details that every other big city would simply swallow in a jungle of concrete.

We should look at Berlin from a bird’s eye view way more often and appreciate this different kind of beauty! To give you an overview of where you can get this perspective, we selected our favorite high viewpoints for you. A little shout-out to some of our Instagrammers from our #berlin exhibition who made a big portion of the photos after the jump.

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Berlin’s Party Beards

Berlin’s Party Beards

Nowadays men spend more time on grooming and shaping their beards than with their hair style. Maybe it is just a temporary trend, but right know a beard is the must-have accessory for any party lover. Since we are quite beardicted ourselves we wrote a story for alternative queer magazine Siegessäule gathering the most interesting beard styles from Berlin’s nightlife. From cute boys with mustaches, to Russian gangsters and bearded women Berlin can be quite the beard show. Be impressed by the diversity of beards after the jump.

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30 Years of Siegessäule – A Retrospective of Queer Life in Berlin

30 Years of Siegessäule – A Retrospective of Queer Life in Berlin

The LGBT culture in Berlin and the community behind it is probably one of the most diverse, lively and interesting scenes in Germany and probably also in Europe. No other city has such an active and beautiful queer subculture. And by culture we are referring not exclusively to nightlife but of course to art, theater, dance and literature. In all fields there are strong queer voices living and working in Berlin and this is quite the inspiration for all the young LGBT people coming here. For some these voices are maybe even too strong, calling it all a “Gay Mafia”. I am not so sure if this Gay Mafia really exists. For sure there is a community here who can be supportive in certain aspects for some artist. But being gay or LGBT doesn’t make the community of Berlin automatically love and accept every artwork you produce as we might have seen in the recent case of Dries Verhoeven.

One strong voice in the LGBT community is the monthly city magazine Siegessäule which is distributed free all over the city. Since the last edition we are collaborating with them on a new city column that comes out every second issue. Since the magazine just turned 30 we really want to congratulate them and to do so, we compiled a collection of the covers from 1984 until today. Also there is an exhibition at the Schwules Museum about the Siegessäule and tomorrow there will be a guided tour with gay filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim showing you around and telling you more about it. After the jump you can find the sometimes trashy, sometimes provocative but always fun covers of the magazine. We’re looking forward to another 30 years!

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