Posts Tagged ‘Prenzlauer Berg’
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: City Of Street Art & Graffiti
Simon Arms looks at the development of the Berlin street art and graffiti scene... Art critic Emilie Trice has called Berlin “the graffiti Mecca of the urban art world.” While few people would argue with her, the Berlin street scene is not as radical as her statement suggests. Street art in Berlin is a big industry. It’s not exactly legal, but the city’s title of UNESCO’s City of Design has kept local authorities from doing much to change what observers call the most “bombed” [...]
Dong Xuang Center
Marian Ryan visits Lichtenberg's Dong Xuang Center and takes a closer look at Berlin's Vietnamese community... To any casual visitor, it’s obvious: Berlin, in many ways, is a mess. Despite twenty years of rebuilding and gentrification, of whitewash and polish, you’ll find prairie-size empty tracts just west of shiny new Potsdamer Platz and grimy, windowless buildings in Prenzlauer Berg. Decay and regeneration, subtle processes in most places, here are on brazen display. This [...]
Lucky Leek
Ruth Michaelson and Itay Lotem give several thumbs up to Prenzlauer Berg's latest vegan venture... The Vegan’s View by Ruth Before you even get to the food, Lucky Leek presents itself as a vastly different vegan eating experience - just by virtue of the light, airy interior and general lack of wind-chimes, woven hemp furniture or thrashing punk music. The interior blends right in to the other upscale, minimalist establishments on Kollwitzstrasse without seeming pretentious or [...]
Boxhagener Platz Food Market
Peggy Schatz finds fine foods and good vibes at Boxhagener Platz's Saturday Food Market... There are almost as many food markets in Berlin as there are districts - each one embedded in its Kiez like a pearl. There are big, shiny ones like the ones on Kollwitzplatz in Prenzlauer Berg and Winterfeldtplatz in Schoeneberg, plus smaller ones that are barely noticed and some wonderfully unique ones in between. One of the best known - and most-loved - markets in Friedrichshain takes place [...]
Memory Vintage (Shop & Café)
Carlijn Potma delves deep into Berlin's Memory Vintage shop & cafe... Everytime I cycle down Schwedter Strasse there is one special place I can’t bear to ride past. Located nearby the busy Schönhauser Allee, Memory Vintage - a curious shop brimmed with things we deem call ‘retro’ - just keeps on luring me in with its nostalgic atmosphere that transports me into the past. Memory is not only a store - the eponymous café next door is part of the business, run by [...]
The Way Of Tea
Marian Ryan visits Runge & Graf and explains why tea could - or should - be the new coffee... Beat icon Jack Kerouac once described the memory-soaked Proust as “an old teahead of time”—given the seminal role of a pot of tea and some bits of madeleine in the opening of Swann’s Way—and encouraged aspiring writers to be the same. Though the hard-drinking Beat may have been speaking in metaphor, the link between tea and creative inspiration is an article of faith for Berlin tea [...]
Not A Wooden Spoon
Carlijn Potma pays a visit to one of Berlin's thriving eco-furniture shops... Housed in one of the few non-renovated GDR-style buildings left on Prenzlauer Berg's Oderberger Strasse, Not A Wooden Spoon is a small store with an interior - and concept - every bit as alluring as its raw exterior. The wooden terrace and lattice work of the shopfront hint at what’s inside, namely desirable handmade furniture. London-born Michael Ferguson started the shop almost two years ago and makes [...]
Float Berlin
Ruth Michaelson spends some time alone in a dark, water-filled tank...with mixed results. While the idea of Slow Travel may be all about doing things at a leisurely pace, the un-practiced among us sometimes need a little assistance in the art of relaxation. Personally, the idea of having someone effectively shut me in a dark enclosed space for an hour, purely for the purpose of doing nothing at all sets my heart racing in such a way that might seem a little [...]
10 great books about the Berlin Wall…
Suzanne Munshower profiles her ten favourite books about the Berlin wall... At 1 am on 13 August 1961, barbed wire was rolled out in the first step of building a wall that would split a city for more than quarter of a century. These books can provide a better understanding of the geography of, the history behind and the collateral damage caused by this monument to humankind's perversity. The starting point for me is Frederick Taylor's The Berlin Wall because of its masterful [...]
