‘Resources & Practicalities’ Archives
25 Of Our Favourite Berlin Blogs & Websites
Being such a complex and cosmopolitan city, it's no surprise that Berlin has inspired a dense network of bloggers and websites in recent years. There are dedicated online hubs for pretty much everything in the city, from design, fashion and architecture to books, food, nightlife and more. One of the things we love about the city is its propensity for collaboration over competition. And it's in this spirit that we have listed below some of our favourite Berlin websites and blogs. We hope you [...]
Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin: A Walking Tour
“For Christopher, Berlin meant boys,” goes a memorable line in Christopher Isherwood’s memoir. It is the starting point for Brendan Nash’s walking tour of the area around Nollendorfplatz in Schöneberg, one of Berlin’s oldest gay neighborhoods. Isherwood, whose portrayal of Berlin between the late 1920s and early 1930s gave us the images many of us still associate with this period, lived here during his third visit to the city. While still a student in Cambridge, Isherwood and [...]
Waxing Poetic: Berlin’s Live Lit Scene
Looking for lit events in Berlin? Marian Ryan outlines the best of the city's regular shindigs, salons and slams... For literature geeks in Berlin looking to sample the local scene, there’s no shortage of salons, readings, talks and slams. In English or German, whether at big institutions like the embassies and the American Academy, the traditional, clubby Literaturhäuser or intimate Lesebühnen, options are ample. That’s not even counting the hordes of festivals with a literary [...]
A guide to renting in Berlin
New Berlin resident Marcel Krueger on how his recent move to the city was not as cheap - nor as fun - as he'd imagined... In Ireland, where I've been living for the last five years, finding a new apartment and an agreement with a landlord was never hard. It mostly boiled down to viewing a place, shaking hands and paying a deposit in cash, up front. In Berlin, I've recently discovered, it's a different story. For example, prospective landlords and property agents require you to submit [...]
Hüttenpalast: Cabin Fever
Leisha Jones checks out one of the city's most innovative accommodation projects - the Hüttenpalast. Passing through the leafy courtyard out the back of an unassuming Neükolln café, the exterior of this1910 vacuum cleaner factory belies the whimsy that awaits behind its doors. Inside, the hushed air and low glow of fairy lights evoke the feeling of entering a clandestine clubhouse. You feel as though you have stumbled upon a place where you should talk in a whisper, or where you [...]
Artconnect Berlin
Adrian Pasen chats to Julia Mari Bernaus about the comprehensive online hub she's built for Berlin’s art community... With its heady mix of freedom of creative expression, liberalism and affordable living, it’s little wonder that Berlin continues to serve as the unofficial hub for peripatetic creatives from all corners of the globe.It makes for an incalculably large talent pool, all looking for new outlets, new inspiration and new collaborative opportunities. But the sheer number and [...]
Idleness: The Mother of Possibility
American essayist and literary critic Sven Birkets makes the case for Idleness as creative necessity... Idleness—that beautiful, historically encumbered word. Beautiful because childhood is its first sanctuary and still somehow inheres in its three easy syllables—and who among us doesn’t sway toward the thought of it, often, conjuring what life might be like if it were still a play of appetites and inclinations rather than a roster of the duties and oughts that fill our [...]
The Dummkopf’s Guide to Subletting
James Glazebrook of Überlin gives us his tips on subletting in Berlin... When you arrive in Berlin, chances are you’ll end up in a flatshare or a sublet. While we’ve no experience of the former, having too many things (and cats) to squeeze into a single room, we can impart some wisdom about the latter. On paper subletting is straightforward – you pays your money (bills included) and move into an apartment which is set up with everything you’ll need for your first few months in [...]
