May 1st 2015

A tad late but I did take some photo's of the May 1st events this year. Kreuzberg was packed with parties, clubs, cafes, street concerts and food all making for an amazing atmosphere. See previous posts for more details,  2011 here, 2012 here and 2014 here.

A few people showed up.

BBQ (though some bars look like this on any given night thanks the smokes)

Anyone who was anyone was there.

A few more people showed up.

Sneaking a snog.

Hallo :)

 These four girls were part of a large group that photo bombed my camera and then ran off into the crowd. Very... photogenic.

Frank and Ollie both turned up in the same outfit, Ollie was not impressed.

Ciao for now
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

Neukolln public gardens around the Körner

  A few months ago a friend mentioned that there was a nice clean park in Neukolln. Most parks in the former east are a bit wild and well used so the site of green grass without numerous beer bottle caps meant I would need to find this. I never got around to checking it out till early October.

  Now, there is a palace in Charlottenburg with a large wild garden called Schloss Charlottenburg. It used to be well kept and done up in the traditional style of each royal family's era. Once small section is currently done up in a very geometric style of royal gardens.

  In my opinion, this park in Neukolln is far more impressive than the Charlottenburg Palace park. Built between 1912 and 1914, Körner Park is a sunken garden with a water fall, fountain and at the far end, an Orangery containing an art gallery with cafe. All this in a lower income neighbourhood more know for kebabs and underground bars and clubs. Somehow funding for this park is quite obviously in place, whereas the typical park here is a far cry from this level of maintenance.

Feels a bit like a Parisian park.

A park with enough elevation to have a waterfall, a rare sight indeed.

Gallery and cafe

Apparently the former owner of a gravel pit on the site handed it over to the local city government to be converted into a park (provided it bear his name). Thus the reason for the sunken nature of this park. It was very run down after WWII but in the 1970's was restored and in 1983 the Orangery was reopened. As of 2004, its a listed heritage site.

  On a warm day its got a crowd but not nothing like as busy as Mauer or Gorlitzer parks. A good spot to relax, people watch, sketch, read and plan a lazy day over a coffee.

Cheers
Andy

Ostsee camping trip

A group of friends and I went up north to the beach resort near Ostsee. Its on the Baltic sea so not a super warm Mediterranean type place but still good. Its a little colder (still tolerable) but the beach is huge and very shallow. Its a long curving coast with a few little towns along the way. The full coast spans the German-Polish border and is quite built up in areas. We stayed away from that and followed Linsey's directions to a wild area with long grass and forest behind us on the beach to setup camp.

We took two cars and drove up from Berlin. Along the way were hundreds of wind turbine farms and a few solar farms.

We arrived late in the afternoon and setup camp before it got too dark.

After scrounging for fallen branches, we got the fire started. Some more impressed with the sky than the fire construction:)

Not bad for a bunch of city slickers.

Liam had the bright idea to put tea candles in sand pits and cups to light the camp area.

Idyllic little vacation hamlet nearby. VERY clean place. Every stick and twig was manicured into place on the roofs.

Survivors of the night and the attack of the 50 foot mosquitoes.

  The far western end of the peninsula used to be some sort of military base with an air strip, u-boat base and perhaps a launch site for buzz bombs. Now its fenced off and a nature preserve, much better idea.

  Over all a great night and a relaxing time star gazing and fire watching. After the morning dip and breaky we packed up and walked about 2 kilometres down the beach to the small town and had lunch at a rather posh Italian place. Linsey and I tried our luck ordering iced coffee... seems to be a foreign concept here. We got a cup of espresso and a glass with ice cubes. Not what we had in mind mate.

Until next time.
AJ