Travel A Decade Back in Berlin With Google Street View

photos: Google Street View. 

Berlin, much like many of its soul-searching inhabitants, is a creation always in progress, never quite complete. In fact, sometimes it’s quite hard to keep up with all the newest urban developments, so much so that even Google didn’t manage to update all of the Street View services to the present day state yet. We’ve taken screenshots of the most surprising sights – featuring the nostalgic memories of White Trash Fast Food and the Beate Uhse Erotic Museum – read on to see them and travel back to the not so distant noughties!

While it’s hard to find an example of Google Maps being inaccurate, there are some discrepancies between the map and Street View images that we found quite interesting. It’s really compelling to see how the city changed within a decade – whether you’ve actually witnessed it or not. Here are some examples:

Soho House

2008 – a time when iPod ads were a reality and the Berlin Soho House wasn’t! This majestic facade is hiding even more ancient history – you can see black and white photos and find out about all the different functions the current Soho House building used to serve in this article.

Kaiser’s

We were so saddened by the closing of this supermarket chain that we even wrote a farewell letter to it! Probably one of the main reasons it became so iconic was the famous Kaiser’s disco party. But other locations, especially the ones at Warschauer Straße and Kottbusser Tor, were almost some bizarre kind of landmarks for the community – just think of all the Tinder dates that were scheduled in front of them!

Bar 25

Unfortunately, I arrived too late to ever experience this mythical party location by the Spree, but I give credit to the legends circulating about it. You can read the impressions about the closing party of Bar 25 from someone who’s seen it all in this article. Or just have a look at this entrance to the club from Google Street View:

Stattbad Wedding

You’d be surprised how many functions one could give to a space that used to be a swimming pool: ”it was filled with a lot of subcultural and nightlife projects including artists studios and workshops, offices for start-ups, a nightclub and bar, a space for concerts, exhibitions, screenings and dinner and whatever other projects you can imagine”.  Here you can read even more about it and see pictures of the interior!

 

Palast der Republik

This majestic remnant of communism also enjoyed a short-lived career as an art space before it was torn down. Here you can read more about its history and see impressive photographs depicting its demolition.

White Trash Fast Food

The White Trash used to be one of the most iconic burger joints ever, with the winning combination of great food and some rock’n’roll spirit. It also had a basement club hosting concerts, shows, and parties – many of which quite legendary.

BLU Murals on Cuvrystraße

The street facing the East Side Gallery has seen much development in recent years. But in June of 2008, you could still find there lots of freaky murals like this one here that was a collab of BLU and JR. Later another one was added and a few years ago the artist painted both of them over because some real estate shark was using these images to sell expensive apartments.

Beate Uhse Erotic Museum and A&O Hostel

The new office and retail space Zoom at Zoologischer Garten has replaced two interesting spots. If you never have, you should definitely google Beate Uhse – this unique German lady could be considered a pioneer in more fields than one – and I’m full of regret that I never got to see the inside of her Erotic Museum. I don’t know much about the A&O Hostel at Zoo, but I quite enjoy the quirky aesthetics of the building it was located in.

Did you happen to find any other old curiosities on Google Street View? Let us know in the comments below.

 

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<a href="https://www.iheartberlin.de/author/michalina/" target="_self">Michalina</a>

Michalina

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