photos: Roger Sabaté.
For me, Kreuzberg has always been a bit of a mixed bag. Don’t get me wrong, I do understand that a lot of people especially love this district, and I certainly have an appreciation for it, too. But to answer what’s exactly the appeal of Kreuzberg, this requires a bit of elaborating.
For a quite long time, Kreuzberg was anything but popular for the regular Berliner. In fact, in the time of the division of Berlin, the district was not exactly coveted. This might have been related to the proximity to the Berlin Wall. The small district had three sides of the wall towards Mitte, Friedrichshain, and Treptow. As history has taught us, the areas towards the wall were considered dangerous – there were cases of border patrol shooting at people on the Western side by accident thinking it was people from the East fleeing. I’m not sure if this is actually an urban myth, but it did come up several times.
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by Frank | Stories
Gentrification in Berlin is a subject that we are all to a degree affected by but many remain helpless in the face of it. The new visualization by the artist collective oddviz around Serkan Kaptan, Cagri Taskin and Erdal Inci deals with the subject of gentrification in Kreuzberg – in a seemingly simple, yet truly moving way.
Kreuzberg has long remained a stronghold of alternative lifestyles and social diversity, yet the recent developments make one wonder how long will it still resemble the free-spirited, laid-back hood many of us have fallen in love with.
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by Michalina | Art, Videos
photo: Max Patzig / CC*
I can still clearly recall the first time I set foot on the Kottbusser Tor. It was just different from anything I’d seen before. Its smell, dirt, and the zombie drug dealers whispering “ecstasy?” in front of the fruit and vegetables stand definitely made up for a powerful first impression.
Further perplexed by the army of dinky mannequins supposed to represent little boys sporting traditional attire in a shop on Kottbusser Straße, I pretty much knew Kotti would become a place close to my heart.
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by Michalina | Stories
photos: Jeisson Martin
I still remember the streets of Istanbul. More so, the scent of them. When I think of the city, I think of the dust, flying around, mixing with the different smells of food from the streets. Carrying the life of the people through the alleys, being baked in the sun and cooled down at night. I remember the flavor of apple tea floating through the city, I remember the sea. When I think of Berlin I smell an evening, a sundown, some concrete. I think of the possibilities that dance through the streets, the lights and the music. A smell can predict danger, a scent can mean home, a fragrance can make a promise.
The scent of a city is sort of its emotional fingerprint. The identity and announcement of events. How warm the smells surround you, how cold the night could be. How harsh a certain district smells and how soft the sea. Kreuzberg smells different than Zehlendorf, Mitte has a different perfume than Neukölln. Not to get all Grenouille, but scents to me are the texture that memories are made of.
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by Yasmin | 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
photo: Thomas Dornfeld
For a few months now we have been mostly working out of Blogfabrik which is located in the middle of popular Kreuzberg, 5 minutes walk from Kotti, and 10 minutes by bike from Schlesi. Here the life beats very fast and when we exit our awesome office for lunch, a wide variety of international restaurants await us in the streets of Kreuzberg and there are so many opportunities to eat something delicious and special.
Kreuzberg stands for international cultures and a wild nightlife with loads of young people visiting numerous bars like the Würgeengel or Farbfernseher, clubs like Watergate or Ritter Butzke – it’s always exciting to move around in this district, because Kreuzberg is one of the places where you never get bored. One of the highlights of this vibrant area that you can experience is the big street festival on the 1st of May (labor day) where masses of happy, celebrating people make their way through the streets of Kreuzberg. If that’s too much for you, you can also spend relaxing hours at the Görli park. To keep it short: Kreuzberg is a very great and also one of the most diverse places in Berlin.
So much for today’s situation – but how was it back in 1979? How were the people and how diverse was the crowd? We want to share with you a great video that we found that sends us on a journey back in time and shows us places we know how they used to be. The area is beautiful and hauntingly silent and it shows that especially the people of Kreuzberg make the district so unique. In addition to the video we also found some photos that were taken around the same time by photographer Thomas Dornfeld who captured some street scenes of Kreuzberg. Enjoy the video and the photo after the jump.
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by Olga | Photos, Videos
Last Thursday it was finally time for a new project that we are part of to see the light of day. For the first time we invited people to see the new Blogfabrik space. The opening event was a huge success and so many came, more than we ever thought would. We are super proud and happy that the reactions were so positive and curious. It’s been really like a dream come true for us since we moved in back in May, but only now with the reactions of the people at the opening event we can finally realize and understand how amazing this project is.
I would like to thank the Blogfabrik godfather Holger Bingmann from the bottom of my heart for making this place a reality. It’s a huge undertaking and certainly not an easy one, but we are really grateful that someone has the faith in and enthusiasm for this project. I would also like to thank the Blogfabrik and Daily Bread Mag team Maria Ebbinghaus, Claudio Rimmele, Daniel Gruber and Danilo Sierra for rocking the house for us!
And now let’s get to it and look at some photos from our press preview afternoon and the opening party in the evening by photographers Anna Agliardi and Nils Krüger. Enjoy!
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by Frank | Party, Photos
The season opening of the HAU Theater never got as much attention as the current one thanks to the installation project Wanna Play from the Dutch artist Dries Verhoeven. The artist created a physical chat box right in the middle of Heinrichplatz in Kreuzberg. In his glass container he is planning to live until the 15th of October. During this period of time he will only communicate with the outside world through gay dating apps like Grindr trying to hook up with men, but not for sex but for other social activites inside the box. The idea was to criticize the explicit and care-free sexual behaviour of gays with the app. Turning the world of Grindr upside down he wanted to just make appointments for harmless dates: “I will play chess with them, have breakfast, make pancakes, we’ll shave one another or read to one another from our favourite books,” Dries Verhoeven writes in a statement about the project.
But in the end nothing was really harmless about this project. All digital conversations were projected live in public on his pavilion so that everyone stopping by could read them. The faces of the chat partners were made unrecognizable but some argue that it was not really anonymous enough (if you took a picture you could easily remove the uv-filter through photoshop) . But the problem that made most people furious and legitimately offended was the fact, that he did not inform his chat partners about the fact that they and their conversation were part of a public “art” installation. The rage got viral and the story of Parker Tilghmann who fell into the “trap” spread all over the internet. To respond to the massive protest from the public and the queer community the artist and the HAU Theater decided to interrupt the performance for an open discussion tonight 19h at Hau 2 (Hallesches Ufer 32, 10963 Berlin). There will be the possibility to ask and criticize the artist directly in an open dialogue. Some questions I would like to ask the artist and more critical thoughts about the project after the jump.
UPDATE: Following the public discussion on October 5, HAU Hebbel am Ufer is hosting a further talk on October 15. Short statements will be given by sex researcher Martin Dannecker, internet activist Nathan Fain and journalist and blogger Kevin Junk. The discussion will then be opened up to questions from the audience, at which time Dries Verhoeven and Annemie Vanackere, artistic and managing director of HAU Hebbel am Ufer, will also participate. Moderation will be provided by journalist Martin Reichert. The event is free and begins at 8 pm at HAU1.
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by Claudio | Kreuzberg, Theater
For those of you who like to hang out at Admiralbrücke and around the riverbanks along the Landwehrkanal we have some good news: No longer do you have to sit on the streets. Right at the popular hang-out spot at the bridge a brand new cafe and restaurant called Milou opened up offering freshly made breakfast, lunch and dinner from healthy and local ingredients.
We checked out the place recently and tried out all their breakfast options which includes a variety of egg dishes, yummy pancakes and oatmeal. Thew quality of the food and coffee was really good and the prices really fair, what more can you ask for? There is of course a lot more, but we needed to save some space for the gorgeous looking cakes (which tasted as just as great as they looked). For lunch and dinner they have a colorful menu plus some daily specials which we yet have to try out. It includes freshly made pasta, fish and meat dishes, salads, soups, Tarte Flambee, Quiche and a lot more. You won’t be missing anything here in this sunny and friendly place. Get some first impressions and the details after the jump.
UPDATE: This place has changed its owners and name to Berlin Soulfood. They still have lunch, dinner and breakfast, but a different menu now. We will check it out shortly and change our review.
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by Frank | Cafés, Kreuzberg, Restaurants
photo: Ole Ukena
Last night the occupation of a house at Ohlauer Straße in Kreuzberg achieved something like a bitter happy end. The solidarity and all the engagement of the people from Berlin towards the refugees of Ohlauer Straße has proven to be succesful. The 40 remaining refugees will be able to stay and meanwhile the house will be rebuilt to a proper refugee center. But still this result is not a success but more like a bitter reminder that it takes guts, will power and boldness to fight injustice. The images and stories from Ohlauer Straße seem to be from another country. Police brutality resulting in pepper spray against demonstrating teenagers and multiple fractures and damages under all the people protesting is a shameful result for the local government. The most expensive intervention of the police forces so far would have financed so much more important things in this city than this inhuman, senseless and unjust blockade. I just hope that the images from this days will stay sharp in our memories and in the consciousness of the government as well. More photos to be remembered after the jump.
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by Claudio | Kreuzberg, Photos, Stories
