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As the title suggests, this groundbreaking film is about a young man accepting the fact that he is gay. Filmed in the GDR in 1989, the film is as sensitive as the storyline is brilliant, and it also provides a fascinating insight into life on the other side of the wall. It also has a special poignancy because the film premiered in East Berlin the very night that the wall fell.
The Monsterkabinett is a permanent and evolving exhibition in the cellar galleries beneath Haus Schwarzenberg in Berlin Mitte. The 20 minute guided tour performance presents 20 years of extraordinary work by the artist group Dead Chickens.
“The Bloch”, a 4m high mechanical monster by Hannes Heiner stands in the main courtyard of Haus Schwarzenberg watching over the entrance to the Monsterkabinett. He rolls his eyes, bats his lashes and flaps his wings, extending an invitation to meet his fellow creatures in the subterranean domain of the Monsterkabinett.
Allow a trusted guide to lead you down the narrow winding stair and into the bizarre and labyrinthine world of the Monsterkabinett where monstrous yet loveable creatures- in turn terrifying, tragic and comical- inhabit a world beyond the imagination. Driven by a compelling rhythm, the fantastic mechanical beings of the monsterkabinett dance and sing. Music and machine merge and thrill to the beat. Highlights of the exhibition include a giant spider which fortunately does not bite, my personal favourite, the hilariously poignant “Trampeltier” and the “Spiegelraum”- a room which has to be seen to be believed. A tour through the Monsterkabinett is an unforgettable experience- grotesque and poetic and berlin underground in every sense of the word.
open Thursday 6-10pm, Friday-Saturday 4-10pm
www.monsterkabinett.de
Rosenthaler Str 39, 10178, Berlin
+49(0)178 8060202
It's a 1.3km length of the the Berlin Wall with amazing art work recently restored. Pollution and graffiti ruined the first lot so get to see it before this happens again. (I visited on 7th March 2011)
www.eastsidegallery.com/
Mühlenstraße 1, 10243 Berlin-Friedrichshain, Germany
Google map: bit.ly/htW6x6
+49(0)30 251 7159
Great little cellar bar in Oranienburger Strasse. Go down the steps and be greeted by the bowler-hatted Ian Dury-esque owner/designer of this DIY retro establishment. Homemade artworks and paraphenalia adorn the brick walls, candles drip wax over their holders, smoke-filled ambience and Rolling Stones grooves. Relax on a big-armed sofa and discuss the Tachelles art collective (just along the road) over a Berliner Weisse green or red. A real taste of creative, underground Berlin.
Oranienburger Str. 40
10117 Berlin
Google map: bit.ly/gf10hf
GoArt! organises tours in the contemporary art scene in Berlin, which is huge, brilliant, and apparently one of the most vibrant in the world at the moment.
This is the place when you're looking for free events like parties and museums in Berlin. Perfect for low-budget travellers. These are the events locals go to. Even real Berliners don't know everything you can get in Berlin for free. Most of the content is german, but can be translated at the bottom of the page.
Just an hour outside Berlin by car lies a real hidden gem. The Woerlitzer Park – a UNESCO World Heritage Site – is one of the most dazzling examples of landscape gardening in continental Europe. Having been inspired by a trip to England, Prince Leopold III started work on the 122 hectare public garden in 1764. Now it stands – a stunning series of labyrinthine paths, winding rivers and ponds – as an oasis of calm, and a true work of art.
For directions see
www.woerlitz-information.de/woerlitz-en/ko/anfahrt.php
It's a great example of an urban artists' collective, situated in an old crumbling department store from the turn of the century in the middle of the up-and-coming mitte district.
It houses many artists' galleries and workspaces where the public are free to wander and these are often turned into venues for impromptu parties.
There is a great outside space dotted with sculptures and beer served from an old VW van in the back and there's a cafe inside serving food from breakfasts to supper and coffees and hot chocolates and also a venue for live music. A wonderful space just to hang out.
arthouse tacheles
Oranienburger Str. 54
10117 Berlin
www.tacheles.de
Unlike Paris or London, Germany's capital plays a very limited role in the nation's consciousness. If it weren’t for the relocation of parliament, the city would still be a rundown dump. As it is, the main dynamic in the city comes from ever decreasing numbers of radical, temporary refits of abandoned warehouses.
Hamburg is more arty, Munich more fashionable, Frankfurt more successful, Cologne more cultured, Stuttgart richer. Whether in football, ballet, opera, cuisine, nightlife, design or music, the focus in Germany lies elsewhere.
Most non-Berliners regard the city with a mixture of affection and pity; one of the things that surprised me when I got here was just how de-centralised everything is, as I was expecting the capital to be the focus. It is this medieval every-town-has-its-own-brewery aspect of local centres which gives Germany its charm.
This is one of the world's great art galleries, with a masterpiece every few metres. The building is new (part of the Kulturforum) and is a pleasure to visit in itself.
The collection includes European painting and sculpture from the Middle Ages to about 1800.
Stauffenbergstrasse 40, a short walk from Potsdamerplatz (S and U-bahn) or Bus 200. Near the Berlinphilharmonie and many other places of interest.
Having lived some years in Friedrichshain, I've witnessed the district's transformation from working-class but lively community into west German upwardly mobile professional's playground.
As with Prenzlauer Berg before, the property developers have moved in en masse, creating an upsurge in eigentumswohnungen (private flats) which has indirectly impacted upon the previously reasonable rents. The buildings were once "typically East German", but new riches have brought a splash of colour and penthouse flats of which real Friedrichshainers could only dream about.
Moreover, the bars and cafes are almost exclusively of the "Ballermann" package holiday variety (cocktails, palm trees, water-pipes), geared towards German tourists and the easyJet mob. Decent bars and restaurants are few and far between.
If this were not enough, the area around Frankfurter Tor has seen numerous neo-Nazi attacks on tourists and anyone vaguely foreign-looking in recent months (Friedrichshain is edged by the Lichtenberg and Marzahn housing estates where, sad to say, right-wing sentiment is the order of the day for the largely disaffected and unemployed youth).
So, all in all, great if you're wearing blinkers.
The neighbourhood to be in Berlin. Typically East German buildings now house “multi-kulti” inhabitants.
Rents are relatively cheap so it’s the preferred area of students, making it very lively and full of bustling clubs and cafes.
East Berlin
Berlin’s equivalent to the Tate Modern, housed in a beautiful old train station. A great place to while away a few hours surrounded by an extensive mix of German and international modern art.
Invalidenstraße 50-51
10557 Berlin-Tiergarten
The Egyptian Museum, just across the road from Schloß Charlottenburg, has a superb collection of artefacts, but is worth visiting for one reason alone – as the home of the famous bust of Nefertiti. And nobody objects if you take your own photos of it either!
Schloßstraße 70, Charlottenburg, 14059 (3209 1261). U2 Sophie-Charlotte-Platz/U7 Richard-Wagner-Platz.
Less a museum in the British sense and more an art gallery, with a range or erotic work, from Japanese scrolls to pieces by Georg Grosz and Weimar-era pornographic cartoons that were used as political satire. Far more interesting than the Sex Museum in Amsterdam.
Joachimstaler Straße 4, Charlottenburg; S3, S5, S7, S9/U2, U9 Zoologisher Garten. 10623 (886 0666)
The Bilderbuch Café is a lovely café in Schoeneberg. Its unique furniture and delicious breakfast are very well known (and loved) among Berliners. Go to the back of the café, where you will find a huge place that will remind you of some ancient castle's library. The walls are full with bookcases. If you take a book or a board game from the shelves you might happily want to spend a whole day there! Also there are regular readings, concerts and discussions. Check www.cafe-bilderbuch.de for further information. There is a huge breakfast buffet on sundays that is worth a try, too!
Cafe Bilderbuch Akazienstrasse 28 10823 Berlin 030/ 78706057 metro: Eisenacher straße bus 148, 187, 348
Not a name that really sticks out, but this is the hive of the Kreuzburg area. On a cold day in February its numerous cafes and geek shoppers are a welcome from the intense cold. In the summer walk down and see numerous musical acts. Not a place to be seen but a place to just be.
U-Bahn Moritz Platz right slap bang in the middle
This beautiful baroque palace, recently restored, on its own garden island in the Spree, is far less visited than others in the city. It houses a new museum and a great cafe.
Get there by tram from Köpenick S-Bahn (line 3) or take a boat from Treptower Park (1 hour);
www.koepenick.net/
You can take a ferry ride from Wansee to Kladow for free if you have a travelcard: it’s part of Berlin’s marvellous public transport network. Kladow is itself a great place to spend a day - stroll through the village and across the line of the Berlin Wall, past crystal clear lakes with good swimming beaches, to the Heilandskirche and castle at Sakrow. From Sakrow you can get a Viking ship in summer to Potsdam.
http:www.kladow-online.de
One of Europe’s greatest – if less well-known - art galleries, the Gemäldegalerie contains stunning works by Cranach, Dürer and Holbein. Usually empty. My favourite picture is The Fountain of Youth, by Lucas Cranach the Elder. It’s the one where a group of crones climb into a large basin and emerge as nymph-like young women. I find it rather erotic. Shut on Mondays.
Stauffenbergstrasse 40; Nearest U-Bahn: Potsdamer Platz
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