‘Historical Berlin’ Archives
Berlin’s Cherry Blossoms [Sakura]
![Berlin’s Cherry Blossoms [Sakura]](http://www.slowtravelberlin.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Kirschbluete-480x360.jpg "Berlin’s Cherry Blossoms [Sakura]")
Joep de Visser traces the history of Berlin's cherry blossom trees back to a 1990 Japanese TV campaign... Sakura at Gärten der Welt © Grün Berlin Cherry blossoms are more associated with the Far East than Berlin – particularly with Japan, where the annual hanami (‘flower viewing’) is held to celebrate the beauty of these flowers. While hanami dates back to the 8th century in Japan, in later centuries the blossom from the Japanese cherry trees - Prunus serrulata - also known as [...]
Gartenstadt Falkenberg
Elizabeth Childers profiles Bruno Taut's Gartenstadt Falkenberg housing estate... Image by Ryan Hursh Take the S-Bahn twenty kilometers southeast from the Middle of Berlin to the Grünau stop and you will end up at a small and intriguing housing estate called Gartenstadt Falkenberg (“Falkenberg Garden City”). Clustered around three streets — Akazienhof, Am Falkenberg, and Gartenstadtweg — are 128 dwellings. These simple but colourful buildings sit in what looks like an almost [...]
Berlin’s Ghost Stations
Marcel Krueger takes a ride on the U6 to explore Berlin's GDR-era "ghost stations"... I’ve been fascinated by the subway all my life. Maybe it’s the fact that there's nothing outside the windows; that when sitting in a subway carriage one has no other choice than to focus on the other passengers – how they look, what they’re doing, what they’re reading – or, god forbid, oneself. There’s also that unique feeling of descending into the bowels of a city and being propelled from [...]
Berlin At War
Brian Melican reviews Roger Moorhouse's excruciatingly detailed account of Berlin during World War 2... Berlin at war: the devastated city in 1945 For a comparatively young city, Berlin is by no means short on history. Paris and London may have been founded by the Romans, but the presence of the past in Berlin can be quite overwhelming – primarily, and quite paradoxically, due to the recent nature of this past. There must be nearly two million people in the city who remember the Wall [...]
Jewish Museum Berlin
Paul Sullivan takes a trip through one of Berlin's darkest museums... Front Garden of the Jewish Museum by Matthias Heiderich Of all Berlin’s myriad museums and memorials, Daniel Libeskind’s Jewish Museum is one of the most powerful and unique. Built in 1999 and opened in 2001, it’s a bold attempt to express not only the horrors of the Holocaust, but also to examine the broader history of Jewish life and culture in Germany. Located off a busy road in the city’s Kreuzberg [...]
Berlin’s Historic Market Halls
Ian Farrell explores the history - and current status - of Berlin's 19th century Markthallen... The central market hall at Alexanderplatz around 1890 The year is 1883. The newly founded nation of Germany is developing at a rapid rate, with the capital city of Berlin as its political and economic centre. On the international stage, the country is making a lot of noise establishing itself as a major player in world politics as well as science and other realms. At home, much is also [...]
Nazi Masses and the Call of Nature
Rosa Sala Rose meditates on some of the impractical aspects of the Nazi's mass rallies... The image on the right comes from the best-known example of propaganda in film history: Triumph of the Will (1935) by Leni Riefenstahl. It shows, in a way that still feels overwhelming, thousands of human beings exploited as part of a pleasant but empty geometric design. They are turned into a “closed crowd” as defined by Elias Canetti in his famous book Crowds and Power: The closed [...]
Berlin’s GDR Museum
John Feffer explores the split personality of Berlin's GDR Museum... The GDR Museum in Berlin is actually two museums in one. And these two parts, both devoted to everyday life in the German Democratic Republic, subtly contradict one another. That might not have been the intention of the museum founders. But this tension actually captures the ambiguities of East Germany and the ambivalence that many Germans feel today about the erstwhile communist state. The experience inside the main [...]
The Hidden Watchtower
Marcel Krueger meets the man who turned a GDR watchtower into a memorial for his murdered brother... „Gegen Verräter und Grenzverletzer ist die Schußwaffe anzuwenden. Es sind solche Maßnahmen zu treffen, daß Verbrecher in der 100-m-Sperrzone gestellt werden können. Beobachtungs- und Schußfeld ist in der Sperrzone zu schaffen.“ "Firearms are to be used against traitors and those attempting to violate the border. Measures should be taken with the aim of halting the criminal inside [...]
The Film Studios of Oskar Meßter
NotMsParker (aka Beata Gontarczyk-Krampe) explores the former studios of Oskar Meßter, the "father of German cinema"... The year is 1866. Mr. Eduard Meßter and his lovely wife Marie Wilhelmine, a comfortably wealthy couple running a prosperous optical instruments business in Berlin-Mitte, welcome a new member of their family: a boy whom they christen Oskar. In 1896 Oskar, a 30-year-old with extensive knowledge of all things optical and with an insatiable interest in all things [...]
