‘Urbanism’ Archives
Berlin’s Bunkers
Swedish architect and author Fredrik Torisson profiles Berlin's bunkers... Berlin is full of bunkers. Some are more visible than others and some have even become topography rather than buildings. Obsolete bunkers are relics that tend to remain standing regardless of circumstance; being difficult to demolish is as much a part of their nature as their ability to be camouflaged is, which makes them a series of half-invisible and more or less eternal relics. As a building typology, [...]
Onkel Toms Hütte
Natalie Holmes unearths the intriguing story behind Zehlendorf's most singular housing estate... Imagine this: in 1925, 70,000 Berliners lived in basements and about 600,000 people inhabited rooms shared with three others. Many apartments had little or no heating and the lack of running water made for appalling sanitary conditions. In winter the apartments were damp and icy. In summer they were unbearably hot. Times were tough, so in order to survive, women and children frequently [...]
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 [...]
Haus Schwarzenberg
Grashina Gabelmann explores the story behind Mitte's Haus Schwarzenberg... Most visitors to Berlin find themselves ambling along Mitte’s Rosenthaler Strasse at some point, often to browse well-known commercial landmarks like the Rosen and Hackeschen Höfe. While these places possess their own kind of charm, located between these highly buffed retail magnets, at No. 39, is a more subdued, scruffy building whose brown, pockmarked façade -- conspicuously un-refurbished – is decorated [...]
Natur-Park Schöneberger Südgelände
The snappily-titled Natur-Park Schöneberger Südgelände is a not-so-well-known 18-hectare urban park at the southern end of Schöneberg. The park has blossomed from the ruins of an old railway hub that was built in the 1890s, and which for 70 years operated as one of the city's busiest (including during WWII). The area was closed and abandoned following the division of the city and nature slowly began to work its magic, reclaiming the old crumbling administrative buildings and rotting [...]
Winter in Berlin [Photo Gallery]
![Winter in Berlin [Photo Gallery]](http://www.slowtravelberlin.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/wm_039-300x200.jpg "Winter in Berlin [Photo Gallery]")
We asked our readers for their best photos of Berlin in winter. Here are our picks of their pics...
In Prenzlauer Berg
Philosopher Justin E. H. Smith takes a stroll around Prenzlauer Berg and ruminates on its (mostly hidden) past... Among the grimmer thoughts one has to contend with on any visit to Berlin is this: that one could very well be staying not only in the logistical nerve center of the Final Solution, but in the very building, and perhaps in the very same room, in which a Holocaust victim once lived. This possibility rose to 50%, in fact, when I was in Berlin a few days ago, and stayed in a [...]
Berlin’s Best Christmas Markets
Ruth Michaelson profiles the best Christmas Markets in Berlin for 2011... The temperature has gone sub-zero and anything you plan on consuming had better taste of cinnamon or come mit Schuss. With Berlin playing host to over sixty Christmas markets annually, there’s no shortage of places for you to get your fix of Lebkuchen and gifts in the frosty open air… Best Of The Big Hitters Gendarmenmarkt The sparkliest of them all, lit with all the double-Dom grandeur you’d expect [...]
Bamboo Bicycle Club
Jack Orlik talks to bamboo bike creator Dan Vogel-Essex... The workshop stands in a triangle of land carved up by industrial bars of steel: frontiers formed by the S-Bahn and national railway tracks that bring trains thundering past every few minutes. "It's a shame you didn't get to see it in the sun. It can be really quite beautiful", says Dan Vogel-Essex, gesturing over the scrubland that was once a trainyard. The sky has clouded over, and the thick metallic smell of rain begins to [...]
Berlin’s Lesbische Frauen
Brendan Nash explores Berlin's Weimar-era lesbian scene... In 1928, Ruth Margarete Roellig wrote a guide book for visitors to Berlin. But this wasn't just any run-of-the-mill guidebook. This was "Berlin's Lesbische Frauen" a comprehensive guide to the hottest and most happening lesbian bars and clubs the city had to offer. With an estimated 85,000 living in the city, Berlin was the lesbian capital of the world, and visitors were flocking in to experience all the city had to offer, and [...]
