Bierpinsel tower or Turmrestaurant Steglitz

  On a long ride through the south of Berlin I discovered this landmark tower on Schloßstraße. Situated above the palace ubahn station, it has the location and the iconic shape that stands out and yet its been empty since 2006. With a look this futuristic it looks like the surrounding building are only just now beginning to catch up with its distinct style.
  It seems it was developed as a restaurant back in the mid 70's called Turmrestaurant Steglitz, but for various reasons went bankrupt. It has since had many different businesses at the location including bars and cafe's. Its an impressive structure for sure. Its possible it was intended to be another icon for the former West Berlin state and to showcase architectural abilities of the west.

  Not only is it on the main street but its also on a large cross street. The building is integrated into the elevated highway and has a central elevator to access this and an adjoining elevated parking area.

The entrance to the elevator from the ubahn exit.

  The current graffiti edifice was created in 2010 by a number of artists for a street art exhibition in and around the tower. There's a bit more info here

  Apparently needed structural repairs forced its closure and are the reason no one wants to reopen it. Too bad as I'd like to see inside.

  Until next time,
Andy

The devils in the details

A group of friends and I went for a tour to the old US listening station at Teufelsberg a few weeks ago. I've been out there before but now its being run by a collective of creative types with tours happening on a regular basis. More here. I was curious to see what has changed. The place has been cleaned up a lot and looks far less like a refugee camp.

   The name Teufelsberg means devils mountain in German and its actually a really nice area of Berlin. Its a large collection of rolling hills covered in forest, a few small lakes and lots of trails to bike or walk through, great in summer. Its when walking that you get a idea of how appropriate the name of this forest and "mountain" is. Even with a casual glance either side of the trail, you spot bricks, bits of metal, glass and other construction debris. This was the dumping place after the war for all the bomb damaged houses of Berlin. A mountain of dirt, debris and sad memories is birthing a forest of renewal.

  So for our tour of the listening station, we all biked out there and climbed the hill to the front gate. Despite it still being early March it was great weather for the trip. Its getting quite popular and a large crowd had developed by the time we set off.

  The first stop inside the perimeter fence was a large building that once housed the mess hall of the site. I didn't catch much of the guides comments as she didn't seem all that enthused about the place or was just tired that day, rather disappointing for a guide. Unfortunately we didn't go inside.

  Next up was the main tower complex with the large radar domes. The first two floors are now impromptu graffiti art galleries.

To the left is one of the piles of debris, now covered in people flying kites, model airplanes or hang gliding.

 In the shot above is a view over the much larger building, never made it very far inside that one, most curious though. On the roof there is now a large painting of a triangular cat/dog creature. Sadly this is not an improvement in my opinion as there used to be a great drawing of a cosmonaut monkey in that same spot, see below.

Inside the highest dome. It feels much more like a gallery now rather than a abandoned facility as it did before, see below.

The veils of secrecy removed.

The stamp of gentrification

 A few shots from years past,

  So, for the time being, that is my last visit to the Teufelsberg station. And yes we forgot to get the group shot for the end, next time:)

Andy

25th anniversary of the wall -Lichtgrenze

Berlin's infamous wall just celebrated the 25th anniversary of the day it all finally came tumbling down. I spent a few hours exploring the installation of balloons along the inner city area of the wall. The project was inspired by an idea from Christopher Bauder and Marc Bauder and the Kulturprojekte GmbH. More info here


  The idea is good and the installation looks great at night but suffers a bit by day. Of course the best way to look at this project is from a symbolic point of view and in this regard its effective. In most parts of the city the wall is long gone so this ghostly reminder of what once divided serves to cause one to pause and think of what happened here. At all too many locations, there are memorials for the people who died trying to flee the East. In some places its a plinth or plaque or simply a subtle cross incorporated into a railing.

  The big event on the last evening was the release of balloons as a symbolic fall of the wall. I think most were expecting all the balloons to go at once rather than a slow release so it was a bit anti-climatic. There was a light inside each stand so as each balloon left it also left the light and disappeared into the black sky disappointing many photographers :) Considering the incredible speed the wall actually fell, basically a few hours after the news conference, it seemed more apropos to have all the balloons go at once. But that would mean a shorter show for the home audience I suppose...

  Later in the evening a sizable number of people were walking home with as many of the balloon towers as they could carry. I expect a few front gardens to have new architectural details, perhaps a few artists will create something with them as well.

Until next time,
Andy

Barenquell Brauerei, perhaps the final visit.

Back in April I went to look around the Barenquell Brauerei abandoned brewery again. See previous visits here and here. I've heard that as of August there's a new fence around the place so perhaps its due to be torn down:(

A strange little room that was visible through a hole in the wall.

Organic duct tape.

  Once again this amazing place inspires some great compositions. Lets hope its still around next year.

Cheers
Andy

Wandering down new streets

Its been a long time since my last post as I've been busy. Lots of photo's have backed up on the drive. Over the next few weeks I'll be posting a bunch from various explorations in Berlin.

Loads of amazing lightning storms in the summer here.

Large Art Deco station in the metro.

This is a quiet Thursday evening near the closed Tempelhof airport, there's not much happening around here. Although much of Berlin feels this empty on more than a few occasions. Its still amazing to be riding down a large street and suddenly realize that there's no traffic around. A quick glance behind reveals cars way back there at a red light but even once they're released, its not a huge flood and you are back to having the road to yourself.

Not a museum but a bookstore.

A bookstore in the centre of Berlin, called Dussman's with many levels of books, DVD's and a central atrium of plants and trees. At the back of the store is this Egyptian sculpture. Behind that is a huge hanging garden with the store cafe downstairs. Water trickles down through the leaves creating very fresh air.

This is about 5 stories tall.

Staircase leading to a spa in the centre of Berlin

Nature strikes back

  There used to be a beautiful and large railway station called Anhalter Bahnhof in Kreuzberg. It was lost during an allied bombing raid and so the tracks were left and nature took back the land. Its been so long that trees are now absorbing the rails. This area is now part of Gleisdreieck Park in Kreuzberg and is therefore preserved as a reminder. I wonder if in another 50 years of this process, these rails may become airborne as the tree carries them with it.

Memories of a bygone time.

That's all for now.
Andy