EXBERLINER Issue 133, December 2014

Issue 133 • €2.90 • December 2014
JOANNA HOGG: “In a way, she is in a relationship with the house.
They sort of melt into each other.” (p.30)
RIMINI PROTOKOLL: “I’d never spoken to a drone pilot before.” (p.34)
LITTLE DRAGON: “I went off for a wee, and when I came back, I saw
the bus driving away in the distance.” (p.38)
the many faces of
ISLAM IN
BERLIN
FROM
BURQINIS
TO HALAL
Our guide to
Muslim Berlin
HOLY HIJAB!
To cover or not to
cover? Muslimas
lift the veil
GERMANS
FOR ALLAH
Islam as a “scientific
choice”
RABID DOGG
A Kreuzberg gangsta
rapper turned star
ISIS recruiter
WHO’S AFRAID
OF THE
SALAFISTS?
And who are they
anyway?
www.exberliner.com
What’s on? • Art • Fashion • Film • Food • Music • Nightlife • Stage
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17 Big brother’s not watching you
Making feminists out of Muslim boys
ISSUE 133, DECEMBER 2014
REGULARS
03 Werner’s political notebook Hooligans
against Salafists
04 Best of Berlin A Berlin Christmas wish list
46 Berlin bites MJ’s Foodshop and a halal
round-up
48 Fashion What’s hot and what’s not
49 Amok Mama How to be hunted
SPECIAL: ISLAM
6 Editor’s note How to talk about Islam in
ISIS times
8 Searching for radicals Who are the
Salafists?
11 Jihadi brides The girls of ISIS
12 Islam in Berlin: Your guide From poetry
slams to radical shisha, eight tips
14 Opting for Allah Four Berliners who
became Muslims – as a logical choice
16 My little brother, the Muslim When
family members convert
ANNA AGLIARDI
18 Veiled truths To cover or not to cover?
Germany's headscarf debate
20 Germany’s gangsta jihadist What
happened to Deso Dogg?
22 The Kurdish resistance Germany’s
Kurds fight against ISIS
24 Hippy Muslims Berlin’s Sufis show
another, groovier side of Islam
54 Spotlight The Islamic cemetery
WHAT’S ON
26 Events calendar
28 Film
34 Stage
37 Music and nightlife
42 Art
50 The Berlin Guide
53 Ask Hans-Torsten
55 Ask Dr. Dot
56 Letters to the editor
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To cover or not to
cover? Muslimas
lift the veil
Islam as a “scientific
choice”
A Kreuzberg gangsta
rapper turned star
ISIS recruiter
And who are they
anyway?
www.exberliner.com
Issue 133 • €2.90 • December 2014
JOANNA HOGG: “In a way, she is in a relationship with the house.
They sort of melt into each other.” (p.30)
RIMINI PROTOKOLL: “I’d never spoken to a drone pilot before.” (p.34)
LITTLE DRAGON: “I went off for a wee, and when I came back, I saw
the bus driving away in the distance.” (p.38)
Our guide to
Muslim Berlin
the many faces of
ISLAM IN
BERLIN
HOLY HIJAB!
GERMANS
FOR ALLAH
RABID DOGG
WHO’S AFRAID
OF THE
SALAFISTS?
FROM
BURQINIS
TO HALAL
100% made in Berlin.
Printed on recycled
paper.
What’s on? • Art • Fashion • Film • Food • Music • Nightlife • Stage
ISSUE 133
Illustration by
Agata Sasiuk
Printed in Berlin
100% recycled paper
EDITORIAL / DESIGN
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Nadja Vancauwenberghe
ART DIRECTOR Erica Löfman
COPY/DEPUTY EDITOR Rachel Glassberg
WEB EDITOR Walter Crasshole
OFFICE MANAGER Sara Wilde
FEATURES EDITOR Ruth Schneider
SENIOR/MUSIC D. Strauss
FILM Eve Lucas
STAGE Nathalie Frank
ART Fridey Mickel
FOOD Françoise Poilâne
FASHION Jessica Saltz
GRAPHIC DESIGNER Agata Sasiuk
PHOTOGRAPHER Anna Agliardi
CONTRIBUTORS Emma Anderson, Mary Biekert,
Betti Hunter, Ben Knight, Sadie Martin, Tom
Osmond, Robert Rigney, Caspar Schliephack,
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■ Werner's political notebook By KONRAD WERNER
Hooligans
against Salafists
The hooligans have discovered populism. On
the back of the massive success of their protest
against Salafists in Cologne in October, Germany’s
favourite crusading football fans launched another
campaign called “Hooligans against Train Drivers”
during last month’s rail strike. From now on, in an
attempt to rehabilitate their unfortunate image,
hooligans will be marching on the streets against
other unpopular things. The possibilities are
endless: Hooligans against Paedophiles, Hooligans
against Refugees, Hooligans against GEMA,
Hooligans against Litter, Hooligans against Noisy
Children on Trains. Finally,
football fans have
FOOTBALL FANS
HAVE DISCOVERED
WHAT MOST
POLITICAL PARTIES
LEARNED LONG AGO.
discovered what most
political parties learned
long ago – that the
best way to win public
sympathy is to blindly
attack anything that
white middle-class people
are phobic about.
Unfortunately, seeing
as they’re not the sharpest tools in the box,
the hooligans in Cologne got a little confused
about what they were supposed to be against, and
started attacking policemen, and ended up injuring
over 40 riot cops and tipping over a van before
someone told them that the police are, if anything,
on their side when it comes to Muslims. Everyone
seemed shocked by this sudden outbreak of farrighted-tainted
violence. The police were by their
own account overwhelmed on the day, seeing as
three times as many nutjobs showed up than they
expected. “I was surprised that so many different
people joined the mob in Cologne,” said someone
described as a “conflict researcher at the University
of Bielefeld” by Die Welt newspaper (a blatantly
made-up job). “It was a broad alliance of people
who are scared of Islamisation in their areas of
town.” The German Interior Ministry, meanwhile,
also issued a warning about the escalation of such
violence, and a general
increase in “hooligan
incidents” this year.
There was “a serious
risk that individuals or
small groups will commit
severe crimes out of
Islamophobic motives,”
the ministry said in a
statement. Germany’s
intelligence agency, the Verfassungsschutz, does not
even keep hooligan groups under surveillance,
since, until now, they were assumed to be interested
mainly in cracking each other’s heads.
But it’s a bit much for all these various protectors,
experts, and arbiters of German society to act
all surprised that anti-Islamic
violence is on the rise, considering
that they are the ones
who have done so much to stir
the threat posed by Muslims
in Germany. The Verfassungsschutz
never tires of warning of
the threat posed by Salafists
in the country. But while last
year’s Verfassungschutz report
estimates that there are 5500
Salafists in Germany altogether (both the violent
and non-violent ones), the police estimate that
there are 13,600 hooligans in Germany who are
“violence-ready and violence-seeking”.
Obviously, of all of Germany’s religious communities,
the Muslims do have a particular problem
with radicalisation. There are plenty of young
foolish people who feel like the West’s inaction
in Syria has left them with no choice other than
to go and get involved in that horrible war. And a
handful, it’s true, have ended up joining the brutal
“Islamic State”. Some of those may come back to
Germany with the ability to fire a Kalashnikov. But
then again, no one knows more about that than
the Muslim communities themselves. Possibly the
very worst way to neutralise this threat (in fact, the
quickest way to magnify it) is to do what the German
authorities are doing now – that is, demonise
the Muslim population and Islam itself. ■
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3

BEST OF BERLIN
BY THE EXBERLINER EDITORIAL TEAM.
A Berlin
wish list
Show some hometown pride this
Christmas and give your loved ones
something that just screams Berlin,
from Aldi action figures to club
stench in a bauble.
Black or white
Dizzying monochromatic prints influenced by modern Berlin life characterise
German-Lebanese designer Daniel Arab’s micro-label COLORBLIND PATTERNS.
Working in his Wedding studio, Arab screenprints his cotton bags (€36), cushions
(€26) and wall hangings (€24) with patterns that flirt with Arabic tile art and Art
Nouveau. The result? Crisp, hyper-modern designs with just enough minimalism
to plant them squarely on the average Berghain hipster’s Christmas list. Colorblind
prints are available in three stores across the city: Berlin Beirut Multiples
(Brunnenstr. 162), The Optimistic Store (Rochstr. 17) in Mitte, and Arab’s own
atelier showroom (Antwerpener Str. 46). BH
One crazy Cookie
Having trouble with that one hard-partying friend who always
manages to trump your outlandish clubbing stories? Pop
EDGEWISE: A PICTURE OF COOKIE MUELLER (€22, b_books) into
their stocking this year and shut them up once and for all with
this collection of sleazy, Studio 54-era NYC anecdotes that
makes even the most committed Berlin techno fiend look about
as edgy as Taylor Swift. Tales of drug-fuelled excess are only to
be expected from any profile of Mueller, the famed writer and
actress who starred in John Waters’ notorious film Pink Flamingos.
Berlin-based author Chloé Griffin eschews the conventional
biography format in favour of a scrapbook-style compendium,
providing a rare glimpse into Mueller’s life with yearbook entries,
original scribbled story drafts, rare Cookie snapshots and details
of her brush with the law during her journey to Berlin in 1981. BH
Edible landmarks
You might have taken holiday visitors to the
Gendarmenmarkt and passed by Fassbender &
Rausch, the largest Schokoladenhaus in the world,
its windows filled with iconic Berlin landmarks
glistening in chocolate glory. While the Reichstag
and the white chocolate-graffitied slice of Berlin
Wall aren’t for sale, you’ll find that a transportable,
edible, and 60 percent-cacao dark CHOCOLATE
BRANDENBURG GATE, weighing in at 1.8kg and
complete with an 18-karat gold-plated Quadriga
statue on top, can be yours for €120. SM
A beer a day
Grown-up ways to count down the days till Christmas are nothing
new in Germany, but a collection of regional brews in a festive BEER
ADVENT CALENDAR (€42.99) definitely trumps the usual alcoholic
pralines. Sure, you could get the Kindl or Astra at your Späti, but with
ever-changing varieties like the unfiltered Zwickl Kellerbier from Bayreuth
or the mysterious “anti-ageing” beer from Klosterbrauerei Neuzelle,
purveyor of German delicacies gourmeo24.com may have found just what’s
needed to quiet the beer snob your recipient has become since moving to
a land of endless pilsners. SM
4 • DECEMBER 2014

Sniff, memory
Who knows what one-time Berliner Vladimir Nabokov (Speak,
Memory) would have made of this gift. YINKANA (aka Spanish expat
Malu Lopez), reconstructs your fondest Berlin recollections in
olfactory form and preserves them in glass bulb necklaces (€19-34,
available online or at Reichenberger Str. 116, Kreuzberg). “Berliner
Winter”, with pieces of ginger, pine needles and lemon evoking
frigid nights warmed by cups of ginger tea, makes a thoughtful gift
for nostalgic friends, while lovers might appreciate a customised
version (€49) – Lopez even hiked out to the forest on behalf of a
male customer who wanted to give his wife the scent of their first
meeting. Then again, if you two met in a more typical Berlin setting,
consider the questionable “Berliner Club”, with scraps of confetti,
glitter and cigarette butts collected off the floor of the Kit Kat Club.
Even when the scent wears off in 3-12 months, they’ll still be left
with a pretty necklace to keep those lost memories alive. MB
Portrait in
Playmobil
Give the narcissists in your life what
they’ve always wanted – themselves,
in a plastic bubble. Provide Israeliborn
Dorit Bialer with €75, a photo
and some details about your recipient,
and within a few days she’ll give you a
specially tailored action figure crafted
from Flohmarkt-scavenged Playmobil
toys, displayed with custom-made
accessories in stylish packaging. She’ll
even do couples for no extra
charge. If the people you know are
caricatures anyway, check out Bialer’s
premade BERLINERS IN A BOX, which
vary from bitingly accurate (the
chronically depressed Aldi cashier
equipped with broken Pfandmaschine)
to slightly off (hipster graphic
designers will find their favourite bar
misspelled) to simply offensive (a
Neukölln child beggar?). HW
C
M
Y
CM
MY
CY
CMY
K
Bites in a box
A hamper of Berlin delicacies? Not your
first choice of gift, right? Berlin-based
TRY FOODS aims to prove you wrong
with a selection of goodies from the
city’s newly hip food scene. Inside their
cute box (€27.90) you’ll find jarred
blood sausage from Neukölln’s Blutwurstmanufaktur,
real Berliner Weisse
from Moabit’s Brewbaker, organic grill
sauce, locally produced linden honey
and, for a multikulti touch, lokum (Turkish
delight) from Mitte’s fancy Confiserie
Orientale. All this, plus a 112-page
bilingual gourmet guide to the city.
Sure to delight and surprise out-oftown
foodies. JS
5

ARTICLE FROM THE TAG EDITOR
How to talk about Islam in ISIS times?
A few ‘uncomfortable truths’ and how to deal with them.
They can hardly pronounce the name of
the Prophet in Arabic. They’ve spent
more hours surfing the web for gore
flicks and conspiracy videos than reading
the Quran, which they quote in Twitterlength
140-character bites. They know how to
use a smartphone better than an AK-47. De-radicalisation
experts tell us they mostly stem from
non-religious Muslim backgrounds; a growing
number of them weren’t brought up Muslim at
all. ISIS’ Western recruits are a greater problem
for the West than we think. Not because of their
numbers or the actual imminent threat they
pose, but because of who they are: the children
not of Islam, but of our societies.
The new recruits
Berlin is not such a hotbed of ISIS jihadists – 65
at most left the city for Syria and Iraq, according
to intelligence reports (most come from
Germany’s Ruhr; while Paris produced 350
recruits). Almost nothing is known about their
identity or whereabouts. Unlike in the UK or
France, where first-person testimonies from distraught
parents abound on prime-time TV, very
few stories have leaked into the German media.
What we do know is that the German capital
has bred one of ISIS’ highest-profile European
recruits – and its best recruiter: Denis Cuspert,
aka Deso Dogg, aka Abu Talha al-Amani. According
to German-Egyptian politologist Asiem
El Difraoui, nobody cares if Western recruits
can read the Quran or handle a gun. “A couple
of years ago, all that online propaganda was in
Arabic or bad English. Now we have hundreds
of Europeans who are very active in social
media and who can directly address European
audiences not only in European languages, but
with trendy European slang,” he says, pointing
to the Berlin ex-rapper’s gangsta-cool appeal to
young audiences (see page 20).
Whether hip hop singers converted to warmongering
anasheed (a cappella chanting) or cute
black-veiled princesses posing next to trendylooking
jihadi Prince Charmings (see page 11),
they’re the poster children of the ‘cool jihad’
propaganda machine. And their numbers are
rising. Although they shouldn’t be overstated
(a couple of thousand for the whole of Europe,
only 550 in Germany) everyone seems to agree
that more and more Western youth are falling
for jihad, be they thugs like Deso Dogg or
‘naïves’ truly eager to help build a ‘better world’.
Nicolas Hénin was held hostage by ISIS
together with James Foley, Peter Kassig and all
the other Westerners later executed between
June 2013-April 2014. He says he saw both types:
“Some were sincere guys, they’d come to help.”
And there were the brutes, “people who found
with ISIS the perfect vehicle to express a penchant
for violence” – like Mehdi Nemmouche,
a French convert who Hénin described as “singing,
when he was not torturing” – or playing
with his phone.
Either way, religion is the least of their
motivations. “They’re very bad Muslims,” says
the French former hostage. “Many are recent
converts or born again. They’ve got a really weak
ideological background. They’re brainwashed
with some very basic Islam they’re told to repeat
in loop. Exactly the same way as in a sect.”
“They don’t understand anything about
the fundamentals of Islam!” says El Difraoui.
Berlin’s anti-radicalisation specialist Claudia
Dantschke (see page 10) concurs. “Political
Salafisim and jihadism attract young people
from all backgrounds – with and without a
migration background, from Muslim and non-
Muslim families. They’re mostly what I’d call
religious illiterates.”
Children of the West
For El Difraoui, the case is clear: “They are the
children of Western society, not the children
of Islam.” They’ve developed what he calls an
“anti-culture”, not just a subculture, but a total
rejection of the dominant culture they live in,
“mixed with some nihilism and a pathology of
THE FACTS
n There are about 4 million Muslims in
Germany – about 5 percent of the country’s
population. 45 percent of them have
German citizenship.
n Most Muslims in Germany are Sunni
(2.64 million).
n There are 249,000 Muslims in Berlin, of
which 73 percent have a Turkish background
and one-third are German citizens. 110,000
are Kurdish.
n There are 550 Germans who have left for
Syria and Iraq with ‘Islamist motivations’,
including some 65 Berliners. 90 percent of
recruits are under age 30; 61 percent of them
were born in Germany; 10 to 15 percent of
them are women.*
n 60 Germans have been killed fighting for
ISIS; 180 have returned to Germany.*
*Source: Verfassungsschutz
violence.” Much ink has been spilled about the
deep malaise in the First World’s postmodern
societies – a quest for meaning of new generations
left bereft in a world they don’t identify
with. “Western society doesn’t reach these
young people anymore,” says El Difraoui.
Add to that divorced parents, a lost girlfriend,
psychological or geographical isolation. Recruits
also come from remote, rural places – that’s the
beauty of social media. “Twenty years ago they
could have been punks or skinheads, now they
go to new radical forms.”
In short: ISIS didn’t create these kids’
malaise, it just ruthlessly takes advantage of it.
Hénin calls jihad the ultimate rebellion. “It’s the
best, easiest and most spectacular way to say
‘fuck off’ to the society you live in! Thirty years
ago if you had a clash with your parents, you’d
go and smoke weed in Kathmandu – today you
dress in black and go fight in Kobani.” Just look
at those selfies of jihadists raising their index
fingers to the sky (a rallying gesture symbolising
the concept of tawhid, unity between God and
the Muslim community) as spread all over social
media: something between a Facebook ‘like’ and
giving the finger to the world you left behind.
Young recruits’ profile pages are also often
filled with images of dying Palestinian kids, or
women and babies gassed by Assad. This is no
coincidence. We need to face the mistakes we’ve
made, says Hénin, who points to the West’s
culpability in creating ISIS as a result of years
of foreign policy mistakes from Libya to Iraq to
Syria. What he calls the “Islamic State Magic” is
a “unique cross-pollination of frustrations, here
in our societies and there on the ground.”
His stance got him accusations of suffering
from Stockholm syndrome. “Strangely, my cap tivity
didn’t change my beliefs. I have no vindictive
feelings. I have not converted either. I haven’t
become a jihadist!” Hénin believes we have a collective
responsibility and we should face it.
Don’t polarise, inform!
So, responsibility lies in our societies, not just in
Islam? That’s not what you’d believe from reading
the Western media. Take the Focus magazine
cover in November: a niqab-clad beauty along
with the headline: “The dark side of Islam:
Eight uncomfortable truths about the Muslim
religion.” Inside, illustrations show convulsed
faces of preachers giving inflammatory speeches
in fantasised mosques. A more poised yet
populist text spells out the ‘truths’ about Islam
as obsolete, intolerant and potentially violent,
6 • DECEMBER 2014

equating a whole religion of 1.6 billion followers
to a selection of its worst, foulest parts.
“That Focus cover is a real scandal,” El Difraoui
storms. “They think they’re selling more
papers by playing with people’s fears, but in
reality they’re creating stigma and polarisation,
ultimately playing ISIS’ game. People need to
understand that’s what they want!” El Difraoui
adds that after a sabbatical on the topic of jihad
and propaganda, he felt compelled to step back
into the media ring. “When I saw the nonsense
they were coming up with, I felt I didn’t have
a choice! That equation ‘Islam equals Islamism
equals Salafism equals terrorism’ is nonsense.”
It’s a slippery slope – one that the German
authorities are recklessly sliding down.
Are all of the 570 Berliners labelled as
“Salafisten” by the Verfassungsschutz potentially
dangerous? “You’ve got to be a lot more careful,”
says El Difraoui. “Salafi is a huge current. You
can’t generalise. It’s irresponsible.” Know the
saying, he says: “Few Salafists are jihadists, but
almost all jihadists are Salafists.”
Abdul Adhim Kamouss would readily agree.
He is currently Germany’s most famous imam,
thanks to his appearance in September on
Günther Jauch’s talk show together with CDU
politician Wolfgang Bosbach, Neukölln mayor
Heinz Buschkowsky and Minister of the Interior
Thomas de Maizière. Kamouss says that he was
invited to the programme to discuss radicalisation.
Little did he know he was meant to be the
“radical” of the show, as the imam who preached
at the ‘Salafist’ Al-Nur mosque in Neukölln, and
who once had contact with Deso Dogg before
he went underground. “I preach at 12 mosques
in Berlin. But Al-Nur fits their picture. ‘Salafist’.
Period. You’re branded. Most media sing the
same tune. Zack. Copy, paste. Zack. Can we be
factual? I just want to see one story where you
ask me the questions and I hear or see my words
as I said them,” says the man who qualifies the
new zeitgeist as “Islamophobia times 10”.
The polarising effect of the show was as obvious
as it was immediate. Whereas ARD viewers
expressed outrage at seeing a ‘radical’ being
given airtime on a public channel, Muslims and
people who knew Kamouss were taken aback:
why portray a clearly conservative but peaceful,
pious and by no means radical man as a radical
‘Salafist’? “I personally saw how angry he got
when he once heard someone say something in
favour of ISIS – he calls them devils,” says an
insider familiar with the imam. For Kamouss,
Muslims’ duty is to fight the “greater jihad”,
one’s own inner spiritual struggle – not military
wars against infidels here or in faraway Syria.
Another favourite talk show ‘expert’ is the
Egyptian-German writer Hamed Abdel-Samad,
author of the controversial bestseller Islamic Fascism.
His uncompromising statements condemning
Islam as an intolerant,
backwards religion that is
prone to extremism by its
very nature only cause further
provocation and don’t
help bring sanity into an
already over heated debate.
Back to facts:
Muslims in Berlin
One thing is for sure:
whereas the press from
yellow to mainstream has
been busy painting a onesize-fits-all
picture of scary,
potentially violent beard
and hijab wearers, Muslims
are in reality a wildly
heterogeneous bunch with
as many languages, social
backgrounds and political
creeds as ‘Christians’.
A few simple facts would
help: Kreuzberg, Neukölln
and Wedding are not populated
by ‘Turks’. Many are
ethnic Kurds (see page 22)
and not happy to be confused
with those countrymen
they see as oppressors.
Falafel is Arabic and döner
kebab Turkish. Wearing a
hijab can be a sign of oppression
– or self-assertion
(see page 18). There are 80
‘official’ mosques in Berlin
(about 100 total), but few have minarets and
many are nothing more than a simple prayer
room. Mosque-goers are not necessarily radicals,
and ‘conservative’ doesn’t mean violent. A few
more surprising facts? It is disarmingly easy to
convert to Islam and more and more Germans
are doing so – but they’re rather the peaceful,
grounded sort (see page 14), light years away
from the emotional raptures of extremism. Or
perhaps they belong to the Sufis, the singing,
dancing hippies amongst the Muslims (see page
24). And, believe it or not, some Muslims are
ready to give their blood in Syria or Iraq to fight
against ISIS, which they call ISID – the Turkish
name for the organisation.
Semantic jihad
How should we in the media refer to Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi’s self-proclaimed “Islamic State”,
the Sunni jihadists waging a bloody campaign to
establish a caliphate in Iraq and Syria? Pointing
to the fact that the organisation was neither
Islamic nor a state, some started to put the
contentious ‘State’ between quotation marks or,
less subtly, to add the prefix “so-called” to it. In
“They think
they’re selling
more papers by
playing with
people’s fears, but
in reality they’re
creating stigma
and polarisation,
ultimately
playing ISIS’
game.”
a much-publicised coup,
the French government
officially decided to opt for
the Arabic-derived
pejorative term “Daesh” –
and encouraged all media
to follow suit. Nicolas
Hénin was outraged. “This
is just responding to
propaganda with more
propaganda. It’s not the
place of journalists to
decide whether or not an
organisation deserves to be
called by its name.”
As for us, we thought
Daesh would sound savvy,
but few readers would ever
understand it. ISIS felt like
a forgivable compromise
(who remembers what acronyms
stand for anyway?),
with “Islamic State” only
acceptable if derived from
an article – making clear it
is the ‘proper’ name of an
organisation, but not a real
state.
So, a few “uncomfortable
truths”, as Focus would call
them…
n More Westerners are joining
ISIS than ever. Yes, it is
an alarming phenomenon,
but still a relatively marginal
one.
n Western recruits are not the children of
Islam, but of our Western societies. Branding
ISIS recruits as the logical consequence of an
intrinsically intolerant, violent religion is as
inept as it is counter-productive and only fuels
Islamophobia.
n Islamophobia and jihadism feed each other –
and need one another to survive. Hénin had the
opportunity to see first-hand that Islamophobia
was fuelling the jihadi engine: “It was a motivation
in their engagement.”
n Ultimately, the first victims of radical jihad are
not Westerners, but Muslims. Theirs were the
first heads to roll on the battleground in Syria,
and still more are killed by drones in the name
of the fight against terrorism. But here, in the
Western world, they are the victims of stigmatisation
– by media more prone to fear-mongering
campaigns than informative coverage.
In working on this issue, we tried to avoid alltoo-easy
stigmatisation and polarisation. We
hope we’ve been able to contribute to a more
factual, rational debate on Islam in Berlin and
Germany. NADJA VANCAUWENBERGHE
ILLUSTRATED PATTERN BY AGATA SASIUK
7

INVESTIGATION
Searching for radicals
Germany has banned ISIS, but this doesn’t seem to have stopped ever more youth from
joining the jihad in Syria. Who are Berlin’s recruits? We went looking for extremists and
found… “Salafists”. By Ben Knight
AGATA SASIUK
Behind a huge cigarette factory in south
Neukölln, there is a mosque called
Al-Nur. From the outside, it’s like a
run-down, unforgiving secondary school
from the 1970s, all decaying concrete slabs set
functionally on top of each other. If you walk in
on a Saturday morning, that impression is only
reinforced, since the upper floors of the building
are a school where children study the Quran,
learn Arabic, and get after-school help with their
German and maths. Outside the classrooms,
there’s a waiting area with sofas where mums and
dads wait to pick up their children.
This mosque has probably the worst reputation
in the whole of Germany. Hardly a single
major German national news outlet has failed
to link the place to what they have gotten used
to indiscriminately calling “radical Islamists”
or Salafists. In 2011, Der Spiegel published an
article that described the mosque as a “refuge
for radicals”, where Salafists were indoctrinating
hundreds of children into a particularly
conservative brand of Islam that was alienating
them from mainstream German society.
Since the spread of “Islamic State” in Syria and
northern Iraq, the reporting on the mosque has
become simpler. The Berliner Kurier tabloid, for
one, has taken to calling it “the terror mosque”
at any opportunity because Denis Cuspert, aka
Deso Dogg, the rapper turned ISIS jihadist (see
page 20), once attended Al-Nur. This, as far as
the media is concerned, is the mother lode of
radicalisation in Berlin.
All that seems to have passed by at least one
dad, who is waiting for his daughter to come out
of her Arabic lesson. He looks surprised when I
bring up the mosque’s extremist reputation. “I
look at all my daughter’s textbooks, and there’s
nothing in there,” he says, looking slightly worried,
then turns to the dad next to him to ask
if he’s heard that. Then, suddenly defensive, he
talks about how terrible the situation in Syria is,
condemns ISIS and expresses his concerns about
how the group is destroying Islam’s reputation.
In the mosque itself, you step over dozens of
children’s shoes onto a big expanse of carpet,
where, in between prayer times, you’re free to
pad around among the chattering kids and the
men sitting on the floor against the walls, checking
their smartphones. If you walk all the way to
the back, you get to a large office filled with more
families and shelves of leather-bound books with
gold Arabic writing. This is where the mosque’s
administration sits – in this case a man with
an impressive, beautifully curled beard. Unlike
the dad upstairs, he definitely knows about the
mosque’s bad reputation. “It’s the press!” he says.
“If we were anything like what they write about
us, the police would have shut us down long ago.
It’s libellous.” Then he says that the board is considering
taking legal action against the papers.
On the lookout
Part of the reason Al-Nur has attracted such
media attention is that it appears in the annual
reports of Berlin’s domestic intelligence agency,
the Verfassungsschutz (Office for the Protection
of the Constitution). Though the latest one
admits that “non-Salafist Muslims” also attend
the mosque, “German-speaking Salafist preachers”
have spoken there. In particular, the report
drew attention to Muhammad al-Arifi, a guest
preacher from Saudi Arabia who has, the report
says, “repeatedly become noticeable for his anti-
Semitic, homophobic and misogynistic views”.
8 • DECEMBER 2014

Isabelle Kalbitzer, spokeswoman for Berlin’s
Verfassungsschutz office, has no doubt what this
means. The agency takes up an upper floor of the
Berlin interior ministry, an imposing 19th-century
Prussian building. To get to talk to Kalbitzer,
you have to give up your ID, pass an airlock-type
of door, and follow her along endless corridors to
her spacious room at the back.
“The numbers have risen. We’re now at 570
Salafists in Berlin – of which 290 are violenceoriented,”
she says. By “violence-oriented”,
Kalbitzer means “there are indications that
they have at some point expressed themselves
along those lines, or that a ‘certain distance from
violence’ is not there.” The Verfassungsschutz
distinguishes this group from two other groups
of Salafists: those they call “purists”, strictly
Islamic but not politically oriented, and the
political Salafists, who want to “change basic
elements of a free democratic state” but are not
ready to resort to violence. The Verfassungsschutz
relies on a number of different indices to make
this definition. “We learn, for example, that they
go to a particular mosque, or can be associated
with a particular preacher, or there is telephone
information, or they are active on the internet,
or they’ve been to certain demonstrations.”
“Of course, you see it from external signs,
too,” Kalbitzer adds. “If you suddenly see beards
or shorter trousers on the men, or veils on the
women, and they withdraw further from social
life. It’s not like a checklist – ‘okay, you look like
this, you’re a Salafist’ – but a lot of them do look
like that.”
Nebulous definitions
One man whom the Verfassungsschutz defines as
a Salafist is Abdul Adhim Kamouss (photo, next
page), an imam who preaches at several Berlin
mosques, including, until recently, Al-Nur. In
September he appeared on the ARD’s Günther
Jauch political chat show, where his lively argument
with Neukölln Mayor Heinz Buschkowsky
and Christian Democrat MP Wolfgang Bosbach
caused an intense reaction. Many German
viewers and newspapers were annoyed that this
“extremist” had been offered a “platform”. But
Kamouss wasn’t happy either. “I thought I had
been invited to talk about radicalisation. Instead,
they just talked about me,” he says.
Most Muslims were equally upset about the
way Kamouss had been represented. “I thought,
and all my Muslim friends thought, that they had
chosen Kamouss because he was a Muslim who
spoke out against ISIS,” said one student close to
the community. In fact, the imam was cornered
into representing the radicals. That has become
a pattern – normal Muslims are pushed by the
German media under the same umbrella as the
people they themselves are scared of.
“No, I’m not a Salafist. I see myself as a
moderate Muslim. I’ve never been part of any
current or party or political movement. I see
that as a division of our great nation of Islam,”
says Kamouss, sitting in an Eiscafé in a Wedding
shopping mall.
What is a Salafist, anyway? “That’s the
problem. They are slowly taking away all our
Islamic words – they’ve taken away the word
salaf and dragged it through dirt,” says Kamouss.
The word is rooted in an 18th-century doctrine
created by the scholar Muhammad ibn Abd
al-Wahhab – which still determines government
policy in Saudi Arabia – that advocates a
return to the Islam of the salafs, or ancestors, the
generations closest to the prophet Muhammad.
The word “Salafism” was not used until the 20th
century, and it’s hard to find any Muslims in Germany
who would self-identify as Salafists. “There
is a movement in the whole world called Salafia,
but not as described by the Verfassungs schutz –
they are people who concentrate on the classic
learning and who try to dedicate themselves to
it,” says Kamouss. “They have nothing to do with
jihad – they are completely normal people in the
mosques. There probably
are people in Germany
who would have described
themselves as Salafists, but
they wouldn’t do it anymore,
because they know that this
word has a different meaning
in Germany.”
Kalbitzer also gets a little
exasperated over wrangling
with the definition.
“I find it tiresome to talk
about – whether you call
them Salafists or whatever,”
she says. “You can call it
something else as far as I’m
concerned, but the ideology is still the same.”
So if the definition is unclear, can we at least
agree on the numbers of radical Muslims travelling
to Syria? According to the Verfassungsschutz,
around 550 people are thought to have travelled to
Syria and Iraq from Germany, 65 from Berlin. But
those numbers don’t go any further, as Kalbitzer
admits. “They are people who have gone to Syria
– that doesn’t mean they all take part in fighting,”
she says. “It also doesn’t mean they have automatically
joined ISIS. It includes people who want to
provide logistical support. They’re not all fighters,
but we can assume that they are all Salafists, and
that they have gone there for political reasons. Of
course, there are also Islamists who travel there
for humanitarian reasons. Not all of these people
are dangerous.”
Salafists against ISIS
So the Al-Nur mosque is not just for Salafists,
Salafist doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone,
and the authorities admit that not all of
those travelling to Syria are violent – all ideas
you wouldn’t get from reading the German
media. But there is another mosque mentioned
in the Verfassungsschutz reports, that definitely
is “Salafist” by their definition. This is the
As-Sahaba in Wedding, occupying a cramped
ground-floor retail space on Torfstraße.
From outside, it looks a lot more secretive than
Al-Nur – only a few posters in the windows with
Quran quotations reveal what it is at all. And
you don’t get invited in if you knock on the door.
When I go there, a German man comes out in
full Salafist attire – straggly beard, white smock,
ankle-length trousers, little cap. He introduces
himself (he doesn’t want his name printed) and
A German man
comes out in full
Salafist attire.
“You probably
think we’re all
monsters in
here, don’t you?”
says he is a “member of the board”. His whole
demeanour is wary. “You probably think we’re
all monsters in here, don’t you?” is almost the
first thing he says. Then he announces that the
board has stopped giving interviews to the press
because of “bad experiences”, and adds that he’s
noticed much more hostility towards himself in
the past few months “because of my appearance”.
Eventually he agrees to answer a few questions
by email. “We are constantly demonised in the
media and presented as the breeding ground of
radicalisation, etc.,” he writes a few days later.
“Even though our efforts have always been to explain
religion to Muslims as well as non-Muslims
– old and young, mainly in German.”
“We don’t promote or support any militant
group in any crisis
regions,” he adds. “Since
our position is wellknown
in the Muslim
‘community’, up until
now no young people
have turned to us to ask
if they could join the civil
war in Syria.”
His verdict on ISIS is
clear: “To name yourself
as the head of the entire
Muslim nation and to
demand that Muslims
recognise it isn’t some
trivial matter that can be
decided in an Iraqi bunker,” he says. “To declare
a state like that in the middle of a civil war zone
without consulting any leading Islamic scholars
is completely illegitimate and therefore void.”
That’s the opinion from the mosque at the top of
the Verfassungsschutz’s watch-list.
Kamouss does know at least one person who
has gone to Syria to join ISIS – Denis Cuspert,
though the last time he had any contact with him
was three years before the ex-rapper travelled
there. “In the last three years, maybe three young
people have come to me and said, ‘I want to go
to Syria, what do you think?’ And I ask myself:
Is this someone from the Verfassungsschutz, a spy,
or is it really a young man who thinks this? And
then I advise them against it. I say, Allah has
kept you distant from it – stay away, and look
after your family.”
Why is he suspicious of spies? “Because anyone
who wants to go wouldn’t talk to someone
like me – a public person in the community,” he
says. “The ones who are already radicalised say I
am just an apostate and a hypocrite anyway.”
Finding recruits
So where does ISIS get its German recruits
from? The mosques themselves don’t radicalise
Muslims, but radical Islamic groups can certainly
use mosques to find recruits, especially large,
popular, conservative-influenced ones like Al-
Nur. “Like any company who wants to sell something,
they go where young people are,” says one
anonymous source. “So they go to the mosque
and say, ‘let’s meet in the café to smoke shisha’
– even though that isn’t exactly pious.” They’re
also known to meet in universities. “They invite
students to ‘learning groups’.”
9

ARTICLE INVESTIGATION TAG
ANNA AGLIARDI
But these extremist groups include several
factions with different nationalities, religious
affiliations, political standpoints, and views on
the legitimacy of violence. Not all of them are
considered terrorist, some of them are not even
illegal, many of them are hostile to one another
– and none of them are directly linked to ISIS.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière
made activities of “Islamic State” in Germany
illegal earlier this year, but so far it is effectively
a symbolic gesture, since no one seems to know
if there are any active members in Germany at
all. The federal Verfassungsschutz report published
this year does not even list the “Islamic
State” as one of the Islamist groups in Germany
(al-Qaeda is on the list, as is the vague term
“Salafist movements”, but for both of these
there are “no certain numbers” when it comes
to actual members).
One less nebulously defined Islamist group
identified by the Verfassungsschutz is Hizb ut-
Tahrir (“Party of Liberation”), which has been
banned since 2003, and which, according to the
report, “favours violence, but hardly makes any
violent public appearance”. The intelligence
agencies say this group has 300 members in
Germany, 35 of whom live in Berlin. And some
of these men are said to frequent the Salam
Café on Nettelbeckplatz in Wedding. “This
café is monitored 24/7,” said one source. “When
this Iraqi guy I know was arrested, and they
found this WhatsApp group on his phone, the
entire café went crazy because they were all in
this group, and they thought ‘we are all now on
the list.’”
It is within this kind of group that the Islamic
State can hope to find recruits – though not directly.
Instead, they use the internet. “In groups
like Hizb ut-Tahrir, people start to watch videos
from ISIS, start to get in contact via Facebook
and Twitter with people in Syria, and those people
in Syria then tell them, ‘You are on the right
track, but beware of Nusra, they are traitors.’
They know the discourse, the clashes between
al-Nusra, al-Qaeda and ISIS.”
In Syria and Iraq, of course, all these internecine
rivalries are on a much bloodier scale, and
involve a whole other bewildering dimension of
name-calling. “You have to keep in mind that
the conflict between radical groups is much
older than what we have in Germany,” said the
student. “And they label each other – call each
other Salafists, and the regimes label them back.
You have a hardcore militia leader like Hassan
Nasrallah, from Hezbollah, calling those people
fighting in Syria takfiris [infidels].”
There are no clear reasons why this handful
of people go. Kamouss’ theory is that there
are three different ways radicalisation happens:
“Some radicalise directly, in banned groups like
Millatu Ibrahim in North Rhine-Westphalia,”
he said. “And some do it indirectly, like these
– I call them ‘internet imams’, who have no
theological training, who just have a camera and
a Youtube account. And then there is German
politics, which also radicalises – this Islamophobia
among the politicians, and the way the
media reports on Islamic issues. People feel like
they’re on the margins, they’re hated, they’re
not listened to.”
There are also moral and emotional forces at
work, he adds: “Why do they go there? For over
three years, the Syrian people have been massacred,
murdered with chemical weapons, butchered
by all kinds of different groups, especially
by Assad. And then the highly civilised European
Western world watches while it happens... You
know how many people have been killed there?
550,000. That’s a catastrophe. And the young
people watch and say, ‘I have to help.’”
What’s being done?
Given the attention that’s paid to the dangers of
Islam in Germany, it’s a bit bizarre how neglected
all of Germany’s prevention programmes are.
The nightmare is that young German Muslims
will become radical enough to travel to Syria or
Iraq, be trained to use a Kalashnikov by a brutal
militia, witness beheadings and then return to
Germany with their heads full of religious frenzy.
But if a parent is worried their child might
be thinking of that, there is only one official
government number in the whole of Germany
they can call: that of the Hayat programme,
run by Claudia Dantschke. With minimal staff,
Hayat has dealt with 31 cases since it was started
in 2011, counselling and helping worried families
to win their sons and daughters back from the
temptations of extremism. “Two-thirds of these
cases concern Syria and especially the jihadist
organisation ‘Islamic State’,” says Dantschke.
“In four cases we managed to help de-radicalise
the young person – so that there was no longer
a danger they would travel abroad or participate
in armed jihad.”
After one exchange with Dantschke, it becomes
clear how different ISIS is from al-Qaeda,
especially in Germany. While the perpetrators
of 9/11 were a hardcore cell who spent several
years in Hamburg training in secret and evading
intelligence agencies, ISIS’ presence in Germany
is as a youth subculture that thrives on Youtube
accounts, WhatsApp groups and Twitter feeds.
“For them it’s not about the search for spirituality
and religion, but much more profanely about
community, orientation, clarity, acceptance, identity
and the so-called meaning of life,” she says.
10 • DECEMBER 2014

While the youths she deals with are from all
kinds of social backgrounds, Dantschke says they
have one thing in common: “Not a single one of
them has been socialised in a religious or theological
sense,” she says. “At the most, their experience
of religion, whichever one, is more part of a
family culture, even when they did go and pray in
church or mosque. They didn’t grow up reflecting
on their religion. They are ‘religious illiterates.’”
There are other prevention programmes that
work directly with young people in schools,
places which, by Kalbitzer’s own admission, the
Verfassungsschutz does not have the same kind
of access to. One programme, which works
without any government funding from a tiny
office on a ground floor in Neukölln, is called
Ufuq (“Horizon”). Here there are two desks
where Jochen Müller and Sindyan Qasem sit and
plan workshops. Ufuq was founded six years ago
as a project purely about preventing religionmotivated
extremism, but it soon became clear
to them that you can’t talk about Islamism or
Salafism without talking about Islamophobia as
well. So now the workshops are simply designed
to get Muslim and non-Muslim teenagers to talk
about everyday issues – headscarves, the role of
men and women.
“There wouldn’t be much point in going into a
workshop and saying, ‘okay, today we’re going to
talk about ISIS’, because then their shutters would
just come down,” says Qasem. “Because they’re
confronted with those stereotypes every day.”
“Our concept of prevention is much broader
– we start much earlier,” he says. “Prevention at
the moment in Germany is all about ‘how can
we stop more people going? What do we do
with the people who come back? How can we
make sure that nothing happens here?’ But for
us, political education is prevention. By dealing
with this huge issue of Islam in Germany and
giving young people space to talk about it, we
sensitise young Muslims and non-Muslims to
anti-democratic or anti-human viewpoints.”
Ufuq also trains what it calls “multiplicators”
– teachers and social workers – to tell the difference
between religious behaviour and radical
behaviour. “People see that someone starts praying
five times a day and think it’s the first stage
of radicalisation. It isn’t.”
The fact that programmes like Hayat and
Ufuq are chronically overworked and underfunded
shows that the Muslim community does have
a problem with radicalisation. But, as Kamouss
– the “Salafist” imam ridiculed by the German
media – says, the Muslims themselves know that
better than anyone. “Claudia Dantschke isn’t
a Muslim,” he said. “For non-Muslims to make
projects for us Muslims, and then expect the
Muslims to take part... no! No! And a thousand
times no! It’ll never work, especially the way
Muslim issues are reported on in Germany. The
Muslims all look on it with suspicion. Look
at the way I was treated on TV! Do you know
how many thousands of people were hurt and
offended by that? And then they expect those
people to trust the state? Without direct cooperation
with influential people in the Islamic
community they won’t get anywhere. My hand is
extended.” n
Jihadi brides
Lured into joining ISIS by a promise
of revolution and desert romance,
those girls end up as little more
than “cheerleaders of the jihad”.
On an ordinary October morning in 2013,
Sarah O., a 15-year-old German-Algerian
Muslim girl from Konstanz, left for school with
little more than her school bag, never to be
seen again by her parents and friends. Only
a few short days later, she was discovered to
have posted pictures of herself on Instagram
and Facebook, fully veiled and holding an
AK-47, stating that “she was doing well, eating
well and learning to shoot while attending
daily lectures”. Her parents’ worst fears were
confirmed: she had joined ISIS and was now
living in Syria. A month later, her father received
a call from a male German jihad fighter
asking for his permission to marry Sarah.
Without her father’s blessing, the couple went
forth and performed the marriage anyway.
One of her Facebook posts reads: “Jihad. My
life. My love.”
Fourteen percent of ISIS recruits are
women – an estimated seven or eight girls left
Berlin for Syria over the past year. They first
make contact via social media, where female
ISIS members depict a romanticised life within
the Caliphate: Arabian desert sunsets, group
photos of fully veiled women looking out
onto the sweeping views together, and – the
key factor – strapping warrior husbands. “Are
the fighters concerned about beauty when
it comes to marriage?” asks one anonymous
user on the Tumblr blog of a woman calling
herself Umm Abaydah. Another has more
practical concerns: “Can you find a good hair
dryer and straightener in Syria?” And there
are pleas. “I am 17 years old and I want to
come to Syria very much. I have done my research,
but the only obstacle I am facing is my
family. I want to come very badly... but how?”
The ISIS blogger’s response: “Contact me on
Kik, inshallah. I can help.” Through texting
apps such as Kik, girls receive step-by-step
details of how to reach ISIS-controlled territory
upon landing in Istanbul: Buy a Turkcellspecific
SIM card at Atatürk airport. Call us at
this number. Wait at this hotel, and prepare
to make the 3am mad dash across the Syrian
border. Comments like “I can’t wait to fight
for the Islamic State” and advances such as
“Hey, sexy beheader, are you married?” on
the now-defunct Twitter feed of James Foley’s
killer, it’s all a decidedly Western approach
toward what is, in the end, a restricted life of
cooking, cleaning and childcare – and writing
propaganda, if you’re educated enough. A
Verfassungsschutz official defined women
in ISIS as “the cheerleaders of the jihad”.
Who’d be attracted to that kind of life?
Claudia Dantschke (see article, left) says
that many of the girls at risk for radicalisation
come from authoritarian households, and are
used to their brothers and male cousins being
favoured over them. “Salafism gives them
a chance to prove themselves. They want the
possibility of being recognised as a woman,
even if it is ‘only’ in classical female roles like
housewife and mother.” Running away from
home is also a way to rebel against their
families – while justifying it as a “calling”
from Allah.
At a “Young Muslim” meeting group held at
the Sehitlik Mosque, 80 percent of attendees
are women. “I think that many Islamic women
are feeling alone and have a strong desire
to search for some sort of belonging,” says
imam Ender Cetin. The biggest determining
factor as to why these groups are succeeding?
“These extremist groups really know how to
speak the language of the youth. They connect
with them more than any regular mosque
can.” While some girls, like Sarah O., are able
to adjust to life as a mujahideen, others like
French 15-year-old Nora el-Bathy, end up
regretting their decision. After getting in touch
with extremists through Facebook, in January
she ran away from home to join the al-Nusra
Front. Soon, how ever, she called her brother
in France, begging him to come get her:
originally promised she would be helping Syrian
orphans, she had instead been forced to
watch fighters’ children, and the emir (leader)
in charge of her would not let her leave. She
told him: “I’ve made the biggest mistake of
my life.” MARY BIEKERT
11

ARTICLE ROUND-UP TAG
Islam in Berlin:
Your guide
Eight tips for Muslims and
non-Muslims alike.
Maschari Center
ANNA AGLIARDI
All-in-one stop
for the curious
You’ve probably seen the MASCHARI
CENTER’s minarets from the Görlitzer
Bahnhof U-Bahn station. Look for a
white, glass-domed complex with
giant arched windows and shiny facades.
Perhaps you already dug into
a halloumi sandwich at their Manteuffelstraße
Imbiss without knowing
it’s halal? The shop’s ornate ceilings
hint at what to expect when entering
the 5000sqm commercial and
cultural hub next door. Apart from a
student centre, a women’s (all-covered)
fashion store, a bookshop and
a halal butcher in the basement, the
complex houses the Omar Mosque,
one of Germany’s biggest, with
space for 800 worshipers. Opened
in 2010 by Kreuzberg’s IVWP, an
independent non-profit association
for “charitable projects” with roots
in Lebanon, Maschari is home to an
international Sunni community... but
it’s open and friendly enough for a
non-believer’s first foray into Berlin’s
Muslim world. You can go inside and
take photos, participate in Germanlanguage
Islam classes or sign up for
a guided tour. The women’s section
is on the second floor, but as a non-
Muslim woman you’re invited into
the main prayer room nevertheless.
Inside the all-white mosque, richly
decorated with Arab patterns, you’ll
find flat screens streaming interpretations
of Quran passages, and
the biggest crystal chandelier you
will ever come across. No headscarf
needed, but remember to take
your shoes off. HW Wiener Str. 1-6,
Kreuzberg
Muslim chick lit
The next time you and your friends
start rehashing the old Kopftuch
(headscarf) debate (see page 18),
break out a quote from Tuchgefühl,
a collection of female Muslim voices
on the controversial headwear.
NARRABILA was founded in Berlin in
2011 as the “first German women’s
publishing house for Muslims”, and
its titles (seven so far, all in German)
go far beyond the headscarf and
associated stereotypes. Founder
and author Claudia Valentin-Mohamed
wants women from different
nationalities (some converts, most
debutants) to tell their stories, with
“no taboos.” Katja Meryem Brügel’s
Novellen in blau concerns polygamy,
for instance. Next in the publishing
queue: a book by their first male
author (to be fair, it’s a biography
of renowned author and convert
Fatima Grimm). HW
Radical shisha
Sooner or later, anyone who goes in
search of radical Muslims in Berlin
ends up at the Salam Café in Wedding
– so our anonymous inside
source in the ‘Muslim community’
told us. The rumours that members
of illegal groups relax there to
smoke some apple-flavoured pipes
and take advantage of the free wi-fi
have become so pervasive that even
the German intelligence agencies
know about the place. The decor
is minimal: dark red walls, about 20
identical black fake leather sofas,
and floor-to-ceiling windows that
offer a sweeping view of the famous
Nettelbeckplatz. It all offers space
to concentrate on that cool, candysweet
smoke. The proprietors have
opted to keep the menu simple – an
exclusive range of Bountys, Mars
Bars, Snickers, and Twixes may or
may not be augmented with a sucuk
and cheese toasty handed to you
on a paper napkin. Entertainment is
a choice between FIFA football on
a PlayStation in a back room or real
football, usually the Turkish Süper
Lig, on TV in the front room. If you
are not Turkish or Arab or, presumably,
a man, you may feel slightly
awkward for about 10 minutes, but
then everyone will relax. You might
want to avoid the place if you’re
Shia, though – our inside source
tells us that two Iranians were
chased away a few months ago. BK
Nettelbeckplatz, Wedding
Fast track to Mecca
If you’re a Muslim, you’ve got to do
it: the hajj, a five-day trip to Mecca,
Saudi Arabia, during the last month
of the Islamic calendar. Take the work
out of your pilgrimage with MEKKA
REISEN in Neukölln, one of a handful
of agencies that specialise in travel
packages to the holy city. For €4000,
they’ll cover flights, accommodation
at three- to four-star hotels, transportation
to and from sacred sites as
well as visa arrangements – everything
but the goat you’re supposed
to sacrifice on day three.
Not a Muslim? Just convert (see
page 14). You’ll need to prove
your devotion by having a local
Islamic centre or mosque notarise
an “Islamic certificate” that Mekka
Reisen will include with your visa
application. Next, cross your fingers:
since so many people apply
for the hajj each year, Saudi Arabia
limits the number of people who
may go, giving preference to older
applicants. Last October, 3.5 million
people made the trip – including
10,000 Germans. If your visa’s approved,
start packing! You’ll need a
special outfit made from two sheets
of white, seamless cloth. Other
than that, pack light – fall temperatures
in Mecca can reach over 35
degrees. You can buy the holy accessories
once you’re there: seven
stones to throw at pillars representing
the devil, and that sacrificial
goat (these days, most people just
buy a voucher for someone else to
slaughter an animal for them). If the
cost of a hajj package is too high,
take an umrah, a lesser pilgrimage
you can make December through
March, for €800-1300. Converts
might even be able to go for free
thanks to subsidies from wealthy
sponsors in Saudi Arabia! Just act
fast: the Saudi Arabian embassy in
Berlin says the numbers of converts
applying for visas have been growing,
and the next hajj is only nine
months away. EA Sonnenallee 95,
Neukölln
Best reasons
to convert to
the burqini
In need of some new swimwear?
Why not try the modesty-preserving
full-body bathing suit favoured by
conservative Muslim women the
world over?
n You can be lazy! Made of the same
light, synthetic material as any swimsuit,
the burqini covers your legs,
arms, torso, neck and hair. It won’t
cling to your body even when wet,
so you’ll never have to worry about
your bikini figure again. And think of
all the money you’ll save on waxing!
n You’ll be safe from the sun! They
were invented in Australia, and what
can keep you safe from radiation on
an Australian beach will keep your
skin cancer-free at the Müggelsee.
n The ultimate privacy policy! With
that snug hood, you’re as good
as unrecognisable. You’re already
encrypting your emails and taking
the battery out of your cell phone
– isn’t it time you started swimming
incognito as well?
n Catch someone’s eye! It’s not
like swimming naked will get you
any attention in a city that has FKK
anywhere. With a bright-coloured
burqini (they even come in pink!),
you’ll be the talk of the lake.
n Travel the Muslim world! Frolic
worry-free with locals at the beach
in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates,
where women aren’t allowed to turn
up in regular swimming costumes.
Then bring your burqini back home
– we checked with the Berliner
Wasserbetriebe, and they’re allowed
at all public pools here. Just watch
out in France and Holland, where
wearing one is against the law. SW
dressed-to-swim.de, sanimpuls.de
12 • DECEMBER 2014

ILLUSTRATED PATTERN BY AGATA SASIUK
i,Slam
ARNE LIST
Parts of the Arab Spring mural
A piece of
Arab Spring art
If you didn’t know it was there,
you’d never find it: In Prenzlauer
Berg’s Winsviertel, behind a Kaisers,
in a narrow driveway connecting
two parking lots, lies a different
type of Wall: Berlin’s own piece of
Egypt’s Tahrir Square. The 20m-long
mural was painted in two stages
by Ammar Abo Bakr, Hanaa el
Degham and Ganzeer, all Egyptian
artists who took part in the amazing
explosion of political street art in
Cairo during and after the 2011
Arab Spring revolution. Split into
two sections, the longer stretch of
the mural depicts a large wounded
angel-cat – next to three demonstrating
Egyptian kids. This part was
completed in January of this year,
by famous street artist Ganzeer,
whom Berlin-based Bakr and El
Degham invited to collaborate on
a stretch of wall owned by a friend.
The mural is overlaid with a poem
in Arabic by Palestinian Mahmoud
Darwish, ”We love life whenever we
can”. A smaller section of the mural
was done by Bakr and Degham
themselves a year earlier. It depicts
a large, colourful Sufi, representing
a more moderate face of Islam
threatened by the rise of the Muslim
Brotherhood. It was early 2012,
street demonstrations had toppled
old dictator Mubarak, but now the
Islamist organisation was set to
‘steal’ the revolution at the upcoming
democratic elections. “Egypt
is not the Muslim Brothers” reads
a message underneath – already
dreading the upcoming Islamist
election victory. A message soon
made obsolete by the military coup
and the unprecedented, bloody
repression against the Brothers
that ensued. Is this when someone
defaced the writing to “Egypt is
the Muslim Brothers”? Now the
‘not’ has been penned back, an
apt and sad reminder of Egypt’s
enduring political confusion. MB
Booze-free
poetry slam
Full of forbidden spirits, swearing
and sneering at religious references,
poetry slams used to be no-gos for
most Muslims in Berlin, says 25-yearold
poet Youssef Adlah. Until 2011,
when he and Younes Al-Amayra
(both German with Arabic roots)
co-founded the I,SLAM series to
establish a spoken-word scene for
Muslims – complete with its own
charter of ‘five pillars’ including a
ban on insults (satire is fine, though).
Take away alcohol and the offensive
language from a poetry slam?
What’s left, really? Well, media critique,
religiosity and discrimination,
but also – in contrast to mainstream
poetry slams – an abundance of
female participants. “Often it’s eight
out of nine,” says Adlah. One such
slammer is the Palestinian Faten
El-Dabbas, whose poems often
deal with the occupation of Gaza:
“Hold my fate in your hands, like a
joystick.” Non-Muslims are welcome
to watch any performance, or
participate at one of their “i,Slam,
we,Slam” inter-religious events.
They’ve been touring through eight
German cities, plus Zurich, Vienna
and Tunis. Check i-slam.de for future
events, but make sure to get there
on time – thus far it’s practically
always sold out. HW
Quality coverage
This time of year, you don’t need to
be a muslima to go scarf shopping.
In Kreuzberg, follow the fashionably
veiled young women to MERYEMCE
ESARP on Kottbusser Damm, where a
colourful range of satiny polyester hijabs
(€10) awaits. On display behind
the counter are silk scarves from €30
(Indian produced) to €250 (an Italian
Valentino). Their decorative ‘vintage’
assortment – actually fresh-produced
copies of traditional flower-patterned
Turkish headscarves – will brighten
up the darkest Decem ber (€15). For
a more hardcore veiled experience,
ANNA AGLIARDI
Burqini
ANNA AGLIARDI
from hijabs to niqabs to the elusive
burqini, head two stops south on
the U8 to Hoor al Ayn, an Islamic
boutique located opposite the row
of shisha bars on Flughafenstraße.
Female shoppers, be warned: you
can browse through the stretchy
full-body cloaks and sample the 100
percent halal room scents all you
like, but the sales clerk will ignore
you unless you’re properly covered
up. So if you’re wondering why the
nigella-seed oil on offer claims to cure
cancer, epilepsy, diabetes and “sexual
weaknesses”, you’ll have to turn to
the shop’s website, where you’ll find
out that Muhammad apparently said
these seeds heal all diseases but
death. Inshallah. HW Meryemce Esarp,
Kottbusser Damm 10, Kreuzberg; Hoor Al
Ayn, Flughafenstr. 48, Neukölln
13

CONVERTS
Opting for Allah
Conversions to Islam are on the rise in Germany. For these
Berliners, the Quran was the only rational choice.
By Hanna Westerlund
Compared to other religions, converting
to Islam is extremely simple. You
need neither mosque nor imam, and
no particular knowledge. Just have
two Muslim witnesses hear you say the shahada
(declaration of belief in the oneness of God and
acceptance of Muhammad as his prophet) – and
it’s done!
There is no central institution registering
Muslims in Germany, and thus no way to keep
track of converts – but by all accounts, the
numbers of Germans saying the oath is on the
rise. The skyrocketing figures you may have read
about (Der Spiegel reported a four-fold rise in
one year), all of which seem to stem from the
Zentralinstitut Islam-Archiv Deutschland in Soest,
are no more than “pure extrapolations” according
to some researchers in the field. However,
one trusted source is the Saudi Arabian embassy
in Berlin, which administrates the hajj visa: the
only time you as a Muslim would have a mosque
write a confirmation of your beliefs is when applying
to that embassy for the Mecca pilgrimage.
And although the embassy won’t give exact
numbers, they will say there’s been a rise in the
number of convert applicants.
Why are more and more Germans choosing
this stigmatised minority religion? According
to these four Berliners, it was the only one that
made sense...
From David Luther to Dawood Basheer
Between a KFC and an empty kindergarten in
Pankow stands the Khadija mosque, the first
one in former East Germany, which attracted
protesters during its 2008 construction. It’s soon
prayer time for 24-year-old David Luther. Until
two years ago, he was in Berlin’s deep techno
scene: “It was all about faster, louder and cooler.
And when it didn’t get better, then I felt empty.
My purpose was to reach trance through the
music.” Now he reaches trance through prayer,
at least five times a day – an app keeps track of
the hours – sometimes asking God to help him
pass his law exams at the Free University. “When
I tell people in my course I go pray, they’re like:
‘What are you doing?!’ They label me as crazy.”
Luther was raised Catholic in Munich, which
entailed working as an assistant in the church,
but out of tradition rather than sincere belief.
At the age of 16, he moved in with his grandparents
in Berlin. “Munich was too spießig. I was
a free thinker.” Three years ago, a girl he knew
from an online forum introduced Luther to
Islam. With Christianity, there had always been
some things that didn’t make sense to him, such
as the Holy Trinity. Islam, on the other hand,
seemed coherent. “There are no logical gaps.
It’s more like a great puzzle, put in place piece
by piece. In the Catholic Church they told me
simply to believe, but I had questions. And
that’s the beauty of Islam, you can question it.
A good Muslim is critical.”
Luther felt “embraced in a very loving way” at
Khadija, which is affiliated with the Ahmadiyya
branch of Sunni Islam
Judaism seemed
too elitist,
Christianity too
old-fashioned.
And, on top of
that: too
misogynist.
(whose believers are seen as
heretics, hence persecuted
in Pakistan). In June 2013,
among 35,000 Ahmadiyya
at the yearly international
Jalsa Salana convention in
Karlsruhe, he took the step
to officially convert, gaining
the new name Dawood
Basheer.
Having his family accept
his decision has been a process.
“My mother reacted
very strongly. She’s Hungarian,
and pork is to Hungarians what beer is to
Germans.” Adapting to his community’s rules on
separation of the sexes, Luther has limited his
contacts with women, avoiding eye contact and
shaking hands. “I wouldn’t demand my wife wear
the hijab – although, of course I’d be happy if she
did.” And, inshallah, he’ll be married soon, Luther
says – to a Pakistani woman he’s never met. “It
could have been a German girl, but she happened
to be from Pakistan. We found each other
on an Islamic online dating service. She looked
pretty,” he laughs.
Why Alexandra started eating meat
The second floor of the Khadija mosque is the
women’s domain. One of them is Alexandra
Baron, a 27-year-old pastry chef with curious eyes
and a thoroughly tied black scarf covering hair
and ears. Her nose and the skin under her lips
bear traces of piercings. Three years ago, Baron
– a “scientifically oriented person” brought up
non-religiously in Marzahn – was a heavy metal
fan. After finishing school, she took on teaching
herself astronomy, history and archaeology,
then religion. She picked up the Bible, but was
turned off by the New Testament: “All these
things against natural laws, how Jesus ascended
to heaven with his physical body, for instance. I
knew astronauts had to wear special suits to be
able to breathe – how, then, could a person possibly
survive on the way up without all of that?”
Having heard that Muslims thought the
Quran was God’s words, Baron bought herself
a copy. “I realised no human could have written
it. It describes how a kid develops in the womb,
how humans developed from one cell, and how
early life developed in water. That wasn’t known
1400 years ago. It was totally logical, and went
hand in hand with science,” she concludes. Additionally,
she saw the end of “a despairing search
for love”, with a row of broken relationships and
callous family relations. “I had always thought
there was more to life. So I said, ‘Either I do this
wholeheartedly, or not at all.’”
On one morning during Ramadan in July
2012, 24-year-old Alexandra headed to the Omar
Mosque at the Maschari Center by Görlitzer
Bahnhof, buying herself a headscarf on the
way. “I was nervous and afraid to do something
wrong.” She was immediately welcomed and
took her vows there, but a little over a year later
decided to move on to the Khadija mosque. “I
had never before felt such a peace and harmony
as I did there – and I liked that it was stricter.”
Though Baron’s grandmother
supported her
decision (she finds the veiling
proper!), her father got so
upset they ended up cutting
off contact. She still doesn’t
know why. “It’s such a taboo
theme.” She tries to keep up
with her friends. “I dropped
partying, drinking and smoking,
but we still try to hang
out together. We just do other
things – shopping, dinner,
mushroom picking...” Convinced
she couldn’t live with a
non-believer, Baron persuaded her boyfriend to
convert and they got married that same day.
Working as a Konditorin for a big catering
chain, she says her conversion didn’t bring
much complication in her workplace. “My boss
and colleagues don’t mind me wearing long
sleeves and covering my neck and head. My only
problem is that I feel uncomfortable working
alone with men. I try to avoid it.” A vegetarian
for 10 years, Baron says she read in the Quran
that “animals were created for us to use. So then
I started to eat meat again.” She still hasn’t told
her family. “For them, I’m still a vegetarian!”
“I would’ve ended up in jail”
In Berlin’s biggest mosque, the Sehitlik on
Columbia damm, 38-year-old Andy Abbas Schulz
has just explained the meaning of Zakat, the
Islamic tenet of giving to the needy, using a story
about sharing a candy bar as a kid. Despite holding
Islam classes once or twice a month on top
of his regular career of arranging inter-religious
workshops for a violence prevention network, he
shows no signs of falling back on energy. His German
mother and Lebanese father separated when
he was in the fourth grade, after which Schulz
14 • DECEMBER 2014

moved with his mother from Charlottenburg to
Neukölln. As a teen, his life centred around partying,
shoplifting, drugs and gang fights. “It was
about taking everything to the limit. I know my
personality, I’m 100 percent sure that if I didn’t
become religious, I would have ended up in jail –
or dead.” His mother, a converted Muslim herself,
urged him to find religion, but it wasn’t until age
18 that he realised he was on a “destructive” path
– yet the idea of studying for a career, building
a family “and then dying and losing everything”
seemed equally unappealing. He decided to “take
a look at the whole religion thing. I started at
zero, that is, denying everything I knew before.
I asked Christians, Jews, Buddhists, my biology
and physics teachers... I tried to have a rational,
scientific approach. Not like: ‘I believe’. Because,
Andy Abbas Schulz:
“I tried to have a
rational, scientific
approach. Not like:
‘I believe’. Because,
you know, I used to
believe in Santa
Claus, and that
wasn’t true.”
you know, I used to believe in Santa Claus, and
that wasn’t true.”
Together with a friend and his girlfriend,
he went to discuss the Quran with intellectual
Muslims in a Kreuzberg living room. A medicine
student at the time, he wanted proofs and found
the book full of them: “For instance, there’s a
passage about how ‘heaven and Earth are from
one single point expanding’, something scientists
have concluded is actually the case for the whole
universe.”
It took Schulz more than a year to fully
embrace Islam. Sticking to his questioning approach,
he’s been engaged in the German Islamic
lessons at the Sehitlik mosque for the past eight
years. In his nearly two decades as a Muslim, he’s
been to Mecca 10 times.
ANNA AGLIARDI
A Muslim in the GDR
One of Schulz’ listeners this Wednesday night,
sitting by the back wall, is 71-year-old convert
Djamila Alkonavi. With her headscarf tied farmer-style
in the back of her neck, she stands out a
little. It’s out of pragmatism, she says – she used
to work for a public gardener. “Today I would
never have been employed, wearing a headscarf.”
“Djamila” is a name she chose herself. Born
Rotraud Scheer in 1943 in Auschwitz – her parents
were political prisoners – she had a communist,
non-religious upbringing in Karlshorst, East
Berlin, encouraged to think scientifically by her
biologist father. When she turned 15, Alkonavi
had her first contact with Islam through a Syrian
student from West Berlin, who was married to
a German woman. “They were educated people
and had a very modern understanding of Islam.
I found out that it was compatible with Darwinism,
for instance. That impressed me!”
As she started to read the Bible and the Quran,
she started to compare the religions she knew:
Judaism seemed too elitist, Christianity too oldfashioned.
“And, on top of that: too misogynist!
The fact that a woman was to blame for the sin
in Eden, and that it was disputed that she had a
soul, that type of patriarchal hierarchy... I found
nothing like that in Islam.”
What she did find was a religion that seemed
“modern, universal and logical”. Islam encouraged
no blind belief, but education. Overall, it fit
the 15-year-old’s communist ideals. “Ethically it
was pretty similar; all people are equal, solidarity
is important and so on... The biggest step was
to realise there was a God. That took something
like two years. I had no epiphany, really – it was
more like an intellectual decision.”
For Alkonavi’s mother, a Communist Party
member and civil servant, her daughter’s conversion
was a catastrophe. Especially since her
Muslim friends were from the West – the enemy.
She tried to forbid Alkonavi from practicing
Islam. “My argument was the communist law. I
showed her: ‘look – freedom of religion!’ But my
mum decided to send me to a boarding school to
protect me from such undesirable Western influences.
She was hoping I’d forget about Islam.”
Boarding school didn’t deter her – and neither
did the construction of the Berlin Wall in August
1961. Tipped off by her Muslim friends in the
West, 10 days later, the 18-year-old embarked on a
diplomat’s train on Friedrichstraße and got off at
Bahnhof Zoo – finally, she was free to embrace her
new religion! (Her mother reported a “kidnapping”,
and almost lost her job at the SED office when it
became clear her daughter left out of her own will.)
Pre-Gastarbeiter-boom, Islam was fairly unknown
in West Berlin: “People would be curious,
asking questions. A policeman once thought
Islam was the name of the religion of the Jews.”
Eventually Alkonavi met a Turkish student,
whom she married. He encouraged her to contact
her mother again. “It was not easy, but she
ended up accepting my decision.” Berlin’s attitude
towards Muslims “has changed a lot,” she says, but
not necessarily for the better. “Now, all of a sudden,
we’re all terrorists.” She doesn’t think it’s her
responsibility to defend Islam though. “Terrorism
has nothing to do with us.” n
15

TRUE STORY
My little brother, the Muslim
A Berlin Studentin on how her sibling’s
sudden conversion changed their
whole family. By KATHARINA HEROLD
“Do not tell your mother I told you this!” When my father said this to me,
I expected something dramatic, something so scandalous my mother
would not be able to take it. The announcement: “Your brother has
converted to Islam.” I don’t remember what my response was, but I do
remember thinking, “We’ll see how long that’ll last.” My brother doesn’t
have the greatest track record of going through with things. As a matter of
fact, in the 12 months prior to that point he had considered joining the
Bundeswehr, emigrating to Canada to become a shepherd and many other
things that he talked about at length but never actually undertook. So I
naturally didn’t expect this particular idea to stick.
That was three years ago. My brother is now a fully
converted Muslim – circumcision and all.
I still don’t understand his motivation. He was 17
years old and studying abroad in Canada for a year.
Apparently he had made friends with several people
from a Muslim community who welcomed him with
open arms. When my father and sister went to visit
him, he enthusiastically told them about his new
religion. When my mother was finally clued in, she
chose to act as if everything were completely normal
– easy enough while my brother was still in Canada.
But when he moved back in with our parents in
western Germany, the entire family’s patience was
seriously tested.
I was home from university for the summer, and at
first I didn’t think things would be that different.
Although my brother chose a new Muslim name and
even changed his email address, his appearance didn’t
change drastically – he did grow a beard for a while, but shaved it off
eventually. He didn’t change his hobbies, either. He had always enjoyed
hanging out in his room painting, reading or playing video games. But his
opinions and his lifestyle changed all the more severely. First, there was his
diet. You’d think that one person abstaining from pork wouldn’t be an
issue. You would be wrong. My parents were not allowed to have pork in
the house at all. And yes, they did obey their then-18-year-old son. During
that summer, his diet became stricter and stricter and, consequently, the
family fridge became more and more restricted to certain foods. He could
only eat halal, so my parents started buying their meat from a mosque.
Next, he insisted on banning all dairy products that might at some point
have been in contact with pigs. And he started nagging us whenever we did
anything forbidden by Islamic law, like serving champagne at my mother’s
50th birthday.
It is important to note that at no point did I ever actually mind his
newfound beliefs. I even understood how the strict Catholic school we
were sent to might have produced this in him as an adolescent act of rebellion.
Granted, it was hard to talk to him about anything really – religion
(obviously!), politics, education, Western films or books. But I figured in
the end we still believed in the same god, and both of our faiths advocated
compassion and tolerance... so why not live by these rules and just accept a
person’s right to believe whatever they want?
But then his attitude towards me, my sister and even our mother
became more and more patronising. I didn’t like being told that I
He started to
bring his prayer
rug everywhere he
went in order to
pray five times a
day, which I have
to admit is quite
an admirable act
of discipline.
shouldn’t be drinking wine or attending university, but rather getting
married and having children. When he heard our sister – who is two years
older than him – was planning to study abroad in Hungary, he insisted she
needed “male protection”. I couldn’t believe he was actually saying these
things, never mind believing them! Fortunately, we could still put our
opinions aside and, as the family geeks, bond over a game of Age of
Empires for an hour or two. And we eventually became too busy to have
any energy left for arguments. He started an apprenticeship as an
electrician (and was thrilled that his boss, a Muslim himself, didn’t mind
him praying at the required times), moved out of our parents’ home and
started a routine as a believing Muslim – while I, back at uni in Berlin,
continued my wine-drinking, class-attending life.
Christmas that year was a different story. Being a Catholic Christian
family, we usually celebrated Christmas quite traditionally. But this time
around, we had to pass on most of our traditions to
accommodate my brother who, for some reason,
insisted on spending the holidays at the family home.
We did have a tree in the living room, but that was
about it. My father prepared a huge halal Christmas
meal, consulting my brother on every single ingredient.
Unfortunately, though, the mosque couldn’t
provide him with the meat he had ordered specially,
and my father had to do with ordinary veal, thinking
that his son would be fine eating the vegetables and
the side dishes. When my brother found out, he was
furious. He exploded: we were not being tolerant and
we didn’t support him in his choice. He left the house
in a rage, leaving my mother and my sister crying and
my father and I angry. The holidays were ruined. My
family decided not to celebrate Christmas anymore.
I didn’t speak to my brother for several months
after that. But the following May, we went on a trip
with the entire extended family and I had to share a
hotel room with him. I decided not to let him get to me, and it seemed
like he had calmed down as well. I was able to eat pork at dinner and even
wash it down with a glass of wine without being pestered about it. On my
side, I accepted that his alarm clock would go off at dawn and he would
then proceed to pray for what seemed like hours while I tried desperately
to go back to sleep. Everybody – my parents, sister, grandparents, uncles,
aunts and cousins – got used to his prayer rug, which he brought with him
everywhere he went in order to pray five times a day, which I have to
admit is quite an admirable act of discipline.
Over the following months, the tension between us started to dissolve.
It was easier to talk to him, even ask him questions about his beliefs and
his rituals. Some of my uncles were still worried that he might become an
extremist. In fact, I know my brother is extremely critical of ISIS, arguing
that they’re misinterpreting the Quran.
At this point, it has become clear to us that this really isn’t a fad. My
family is still adjusting – some family members are more accepting than
others, but everybody’s trying. As for me, I am happy that he has found
something that is important enough for him to really follow through with.
Now, he’s courting a girl in Pakistan he has never met because he wants to
start a family as soon as possible. Here it is: I might become an aunt in the
near future, and I’m ready. I am going be in that child’s life for sure!
*Given the sensitivity of the topic, the author used an alias and refrained from using names
or details that would make her family identifiable.
16 • DECEMBER 2014

PREVENTION
Big brother’s not
watching you
Honour killings as sensationalised by Western media have
portrayed Islam in a sexist, oppressive light. Berlin’s HEROES
aim to show a more open, tolerant Muslim man by questioning
boys’ relationship to honour… and their sisters! By Mihret Yohannes
Encouraging Muslim teenagers to question
the same honour code he grew up
with, 24-year-old Ali Ahmad won’t relent
until gender violence and oppression are
zapped from his community. “I ask, ‘Do you all
know what honour is?’ Everyone starts nodding.
‘Okay, so what is honour?’ Suddenly they’re all
quiet,” As part of the local organisation HE-
ROES, Ahmad leads workshops that challenge
young Muslims to think about what Ehre means
to them. “Every session starts with that same
silence,” he says, “But eventually someone speaks
up and says, ‘My family is my honour’ or ‘Not
disobeying my father.’ Some say their success
is their honour, or that they don’t steal. But for
many, their sister’s honour is their honour.”
For many religious Muslims, a man is considered
ehrlos (without honour) if his wife, girlfriend
or sister insults him or is harassed by others.
Conversely, a man who shows strength and
confidence when ‘defending’ (or disciplining) the
female is considered honourable. For a woman,
however, honour takes on a chaste shape: it
demands both virginity until marriage and
faithfulness in marriage. Digressions from this
code can prompt painful, and sometimes fatal,
clashes as men feel pressure to enforce the family’s
values or lose face. “When a girl is no longer
a virgin, people in our community will run off at
the mouth about it – and that’s what people are
scared of,” says Ahmad. “That’s really the worst
thing that could happen. You can’t generalise,
but reactions can go from Case A, talking peacefully,
to the very worst, Case Z: murder.”
This destructive face of ‘honour’ rears its
head 5000 times annually worldwide, according
to UN estimates, with at least 133 honour
killings taking place in Germany over the last 10
years according to ehrenmord.de. One of those
murders, the 2005 honour killing of 23-year-old
Hatun Sürücü by her 18-year-old brother in
Berlin and the media-led uproar that followed,
spurred Berlin sociologist Dagmar Riedel-Breidenstein
to found HEROES in Neukölln in 2007.
She took her inspiration from an anti-honour
violence programme in Sweden, Sharaf Heroes
(with sharaf meaning ‘honour’ in Arabic), which
focused on engaging young Muslim men in
conversations about gender equality. Seven years
on, despite detractors’ doubts, Germany’s first
male-focused project tackling gender violence
in honour-based communities now comprises
35 trained instructors, or ‘Heroes’, of Arabic,
Albanian, Kurdish and Turkish descent, and has
inspired a new wave of projects across Germany.
Since 2010, Ahmad, a Neukölln-born student
of Lebanese descent with four brothers and four
sisters (including a twin sister), has dedicated
10-15 hours monthly to the project alongside
his studies and hip hop dancing with the Berlin
street dance champions, Lunatix. “Dancing
also isn’t seen so positively in my community,”
Ahmad confesses. He recalls his father’s reaction
five years ago: “Dancing? Am I supposed to tell
people that my son’s a dancer?” Ahmad clicks his
fingers above his head as he reenacts the jig his
father performed while quizzing him: “You have
to imagine a slightly older man, 55, with a little
belly, shaking his hips like that,”
he laughs.
AGATA SASIUK
Today, HEROES is under the stewardship of
Dagmar Riedel-Breidenstein’s daughter, gender
researcher Jenny Breidenstein, who says that
the initiative’s power lies in the team’s mixed
background, and in each member’s ability to immediately
connect with their audience through
workshops, notably through role play. In one
scenario, a ‘father’ berates a ‘son’ for being too
distracted by PlayStation to keep track of his
sister’s where abouts. “Where is the man of
the house when I’m not around?” the ‘father’,
played by a HEROES leader, asks angrily,
hitting the controller out of his son’s hands.
When, later, the ‘son’ finally finds his sister, he
forcefully drags her home with echoes of ‘Are
you not a man?’ and ‘Do you have no honour?’
ringing in his ears.
The responses from the group are not always
what you’d expect. “I’ve had girls at workshops
who’ve said, ‘Yes, he behaved like a proper
father! He has to follow through, he has responsibilities,”
Ahmad says. However, it is when HE-
ROES presents an alternative scenario, where
father and brother sit down and talk, that girls
in workshops respond with unanimous envy.
“And why?” Ahmad asks. “Because it’s based on
trust rather than lashing out. Then the thought
process starts.”
It is not only Muslims who commit honour
killings in Germany – perpetrators include non-
Muslims from Cuba, Greece and Italy among
many other countries, a reminder that sexist
power structures are not necessarily related to
religion. “Sexism isn’t just an Arab or Turkish
thing. I’ve heard the same from German teenagers!”
Meanwhile figures show that overzealous
Muslim men don’t have a monopoly on violence
towards women: two-thirds of last year’s domestic
violence acts (10,650 out of 15,971) were
committed by German men without a ‘migration
background’.
Yet, based on a 2014 Infratest survey, Germans’
perceptions of Islam as intolerant and antiwomen
(68 percent), and aggressive (42 percent)
persist, reminding Ahmad of HEROES’ endgame:
“We feel duty bound to act so that not all migrants,
or Muslims, who have the same concept of
honour as us are lumped together with those who
say, ‘I’d kill my sister if I saw her out at 8pm.’”
Marginalisation can help entrench misogyny,
he notes. “I’ve seen in Lebanon how men and
women can be friends; laugh and talk and be
seen together outside,” Ahmad reflects. “But
here, because people cling to their values so
strongly out of fear of losing them, we live out
our religion and traditions more strictly than in
our country of origin.”
His goal is simply to present other options.
“We go there to get them thinking because
they’ve always known this one system, and when
another alternative rears its head, the old system
suddenly becomes unstuck,” he says.
“In workshops, we often ask, ‘What would you
do if you saw your sister out with a boy?’ Some
say, ‘I’d walk straight up to them and beat them
up.’” Ahmad says he has learned there are alternatives:
“You don’t have to react straight away
or turn yourself into a criminal. You can wait, go
home and talk.” A step in the right direction. n
17

DEBATE
Veiled truths
To cover or not to cover? Germany’s decade-long debate
around the Islamic headscarf continues to divide.
By Mihret Yohannes
Assertive and eloquent, stubborn and uncompromising,
25-year-old law school
graduate Betül Ulusoy is far from the
German stereotype of a headscarfwearing
Muslim woman. Yet she’s been wearing
one since she was a girl.
“I wear cotton when I do gardening or sports,
silk when I go to work or for a night out. I
like fashion, so everything’s often colour-coordinated.”
Like 30 percent of Muslim women
in Germany, Ulusoy wears a hijab – a veil that
covers the head, neck and chest. Although her
mother covers up, her parents, both descendants
of Turkish guest workers, were against their
three daughters following suit. “My mum wears
a headscarf to connect her to her old country,
but people were unfriendly to her because of it,
so she didn’t want us wearing them. She wanted
to make life easier for us.” Ulusoy decided she
wanted to wear one while attending an Islamic
primary school in Kreuzberg; after years of badgering,
her parents gave in. “My dad thought I was
too young and wanted me to make the decision
a bit later and with more awareness. However,
he raised me to have a strong personality, and he
knows that when I get something in my head I
will see it through.”
The most fervent opposition came from her
mother’s elder sister: “My aunt was completely
against it – she thought it was outdated. She said
to me, ‘If you wear the headscarf, I won’t be seen
with you in public!’ and she stuck by that threat.
She stopped taking me to the cinema, walked
ahead of me when we were out together.”
But it wasn’t until she began attending high
school at a Gymnasium in Neukölln that Ulusoy
learned what her headscarf meant to most non-
Muslim Germans. At the first lesson of term, Ulusoy’s
politics teacher shouted at her and a friend:
“Another two of you headscarf lot!” After Ulusoy
organised a discussion with 2006 Berlin state
election candidates which drew press attention,
the school headmistress approached 16-year-old
Ulusoy to congratulate her, but added: “‘Now we
just have to talk about your scheiß Kopftuch.”
Later, Ulusoy was offered the possibility of
going to Paris on an exchange trip, but was told
she would have to remove her headscarf during
lessons, like French Muslim girls, since religious
symbols are banned in French public schools.
She rebelled, refused to give in and ended up not
joining the trip, something she bitterly recalls as
discrimination and “being expulsed from a school
exchange”. What if it was the other way around?
“If a German girl was asked to wear a headscarf
in any situation, be it just for two hours, I’d
stand 100 percent behind her and say it is wrong
to make her wear one. Freedom means that
everyone can wear whatever he or she wants,
even when others don’t like that.”
In 2013, to counter a FEMEN protest calling
for the ‘liberation’ of headscarf wearers, Ulusoy
and five of her friends formed the activist group
MuslimaPride. “What bothered me more than
anything was knowing people would think,
‘FEMEN are right! Muslim women are oppressed
and must be freed! I wanted to provide a
counter weight.”
Her choice of headwear has turned into a
rebellious statement. “The reason I choose to
cover is constantly evolving. As a child, I loved
stories about the Prophet in the Quran, but I
also wanted to be a grown-up… After 9/11 and
high school, it became an act of defiance; I’ll
wear it now precisely because you don’t want me
to. Today, I wear it out of spirituality and because
it is part of my Muslim identity.”
The Quran does not specifically state that women
must cover their heads or faces. Rather, there
is a passage that reads that women should “draw
their veils over their bosoms” to preserve their
modesty. Various interpretations of this have led
to the hijab, the niqab (which covers all but the
eyes) and the burqa (which covers the eyes with a
screen), among others.
“I don’t draw a line,” says Ulusoy about more
restrictive forms of covering. “Whether I like it
or not, it’s irrelevant – I shouldn’t involve myself
in other people’s freedom.” An imam met at a
Wedding mosque, also stressed that a woman’s
free choice should be the criteria: “It is not
Islamic to force women to cover like the Talibans
do. It is Islamic for women to cover the body.”
Yet in Westerners’ eyes, these garments have
become inextricably tied to female oppression in
countries like Afghanistan and Iran, where it is
illegal to appear in public without a hijab. In the
areas of Syria controlled by ISIS, women must
cover themselves from head to toe.
“You can’t compare a Muslim woman in
Germany with the image you have of women
from Saudi Arabia or Iran,” says Ulusoy. “But I
understand that non-Muslims have those images
in their head, as long as they only have the information
that the media presents them with.”
“The reason I
choose to cover is
constantly
evolving. After 9/11
and high school, it
became an act of
defiance; I’ll wear
it now precisely
because you don’t
want me to.”
Such associations have prompted headscarf
bans across Europe – including Germany. In 2005,
Berlin passed a neutrality law banning all religious
symbols for civil servants – the response to an
almost two-year debate sparked when German-
Afghan teacher Fereshta Ludin filed a federal
lawsuit against Stuttgart school authorities for
denying her a teaching post on the grounds of her
headscarf. Though ruling in Ludin’s favour, the
Federal Constitutional Court framed the issue as
a state neutrality problem that could be rectified
if all religious expression was banned for public
servants. “Headscarves have no place on people
in service of the state, including teachers,” former
chancellor Gerhard Schröder declared in 2003.
The resulting law allows German pupils to wear
headscarves, but forbids teachers from doing so
during working hours – a compromise between
the ‘freedom-first’ model of the US, the UK and
Scandinavia and the fully secular model in France
and Belgium where no religious signs are permitted
for teachers or pupils.
Yet ‘neutrality’ in principle doesn’t guarantee
equality in practice. While seven other German
states followed Berlin’s lead in banning public
school teachers from wearing headscarves,
five of them – Baden-Württemberg, Saarland,
Hesse, Bavaria, and North Rhine-Westphalia –
still allow Christian and Jewish clothing, such as
kippahs and nun’s habits. The so-called neutral-
18 • DECEMBER 2014

ity law became referred to, even in Berlin, as
the “Kopftuchverbot”.
Seyran Ates, a sceptical, self-described ‘liberal
Muslim’ and lawyer supports the move to separate
religion and state that Berlin’s neutrality law
attempts. “If refraining from wearing a headscarf
is important for my career, I’d rather just not do
it than insist. Wearing a headscarf isn’t a religious
imperative like believing in Allah.” She describes
the act of wearing a headscarf more as “a symbol
of submission to men than to God.”
Ates, who is of Kurdish descent, came to Wedding
from Istanbul as a six-year-old. Now 51, she
has never worn any type of headscarf and recalls
her mother parting with her own hijab soon
after arriving in Berlin: “Back then, most Turkish
women took off their headscarf because they had
come to Germany and wanted to work here.”
Her criticisms of rising conservatism among
Germany’s Muslim community have earned her
death threats and physical attacks. Her experiences
nonetheless do not steer her toward
oversimplifying: “There is a definite polarisation
in the Islamic world,” Ates adds. “It is as plural
as the Christian and the Jewish ones. We have
to be clear about that.” Yet, she casts doubt on
the nature of the ‘free choice’ involved in young
women’s decision to cover their heads: “I doubt
they had the type of childhood that enabled
them to develop a free self-image. Can they
really say everything they did was voluntary and
that they live free, self-determined lives?”
Meanwhile, activist and author Emel Zeynelabidin
sees the Neutrality Law as a missed opportunity
to confront uncomfortable issues and
open a much needed public debate on the place
of Islam in the country.
The headscarf debate led Zeynelabidin on a
17- month journey experimenting with different
styles that fulfilled the requirement of covering
hair, ears and neck until she finally decided to
test what would happen if she didn’t cover her
head… at all. “It felt stinknormal, as we say in German,”
Zeynelabidin laughs.
Born in Istanbul but living in Germany since
infancy, Zeynelabidin first covered her head on
the day of her first menstrual cycle, as tradition
posits. But in February 2005, after 30 years, the
54-year-old mother of six took off her hijab once
and for all. “My head no longer felt hemmed in.
It was free.” Her decision led to social ostracisation
and rejection. A chairwoman of the Islamic
Women’s Association for 10 years, Zeynelabidin
was an active member of Berlin’s Muslim community
at the time. “You can’t hide it, of course,
when someone who usually appears in public
with a headscarf suddenly no longer wears one.
They said to me, ‘You’re now one of them.’ Or
ANNA AGLIARI
‘Do you have no shame?’ Breaking off contact
and refusing to talk to me was another reaction.”
Yet, Zeynelabidin is critical of the neutrality
law as having “watered down the issues”: “German
politics is turning away from a real debate, simply
saying ‘We neutralise it by banning the symbol.’
But that’s no debate! Avoiding confrontation is
widespread in Germany, and that is so dangerous!”
Another criticism is that the law is set to
backfire. Or that’s what Gabriele Boos-Niazy,
chairwoman of the Women’s Coalition for Action
(AmF), believes. Although allegedly inspired
by gender equality, it might just in fact condone
the same thing that its proponents critique the
custom of covering for: erasing women from
public life. “I mean, if they really think that’s
the case, they should be striving to bring these
women into the workplace so that they earn
their own money, throw off their headscarves
with their newfound independence and stand on
their own two feet. But the fact that they aren’t
being welcomed with open arms shows that isn’t
what it’s about at all.” A hijab wearer herself who
converted to Islam 30 years ago after marrying
her Muslim husband, Boos-Niazy advises
affected women and the Federal Constitutional
Court on the law’s repercussions.
And the law now seems to be seeping into the
private sector, as signalled in the courtroom this
year when four different Berlin judges refused to
hear private Muslim lawyers who covered their
hair. Another case at the Tiergarten Magistrates
Court in March saw a judge order a witness in a
wrongful parking case to remove her hijab because
he said he needed to see her ears to know whether
she was telling the truth. Boos-Niazy sees the
problem as linked to the judicial situation in Berlin,
which legitimises the rejection of the veiled
Muslim woman: “The fact that someone can even
think like that, reflected everywhere in the media
and in politics, gives people the impression that
you can simply and legally say, ‘No, actually you
are qualified, but I don’t want you because you
wear a headscarf.’” Of 700 companies surveyed by
Freiburg Pedagogy University in 2013, 35.1 percent
said they would not hire a woman who wore any
form of veiling. For her part, Ulusoy says she encounters
“great irritation” at job interviews when
potential employers see her hijab.
Far from resolving questions of sexism in Islam
or the issue of the marginalisation of Muslim
women in society, Germany’s so-called ‘neutrality
laws’ sweep the debate under the carpet instead,
while giving potential employers an opportunity
to discriminate against both females and
Muslims in total legality – a danger in Germany’s
current climate of growing anti-Islam sentiment.
So, what now? In March 2012, a young muslim
woman won a lawsuit against a Berlin dentist for
rejecting her application for a training post on
the grounds of her headscarf, and was awarded
three months pay as compensation. Germany’s
Anti-Discrimination Authority described the
Berlin Labour Court’s ruling as “a verdict which
sends a signal.” Should secularism and women’s
rights truly be the goal, and for the neutrality law
not to be reduced to that “Kopf tuchverbot” moniker,
reengagement with the debate is essential. n
19

PROFILE
Germany’s gangsta jihadist
From anti-fascist Kreuzberg street fighter to anti-Touri rapper hungry for recognition,
Denis Cuspert – aka Deso Dogg, Abou Maleeq and Abu Talha al-Almani – has found in
ISIS the best vessel to express his rage... and he’s famous, at last. By Robert Rigney
The first time I met Denis Cuspert, the
half-German, half-Ghanaian rapper
then known as Deso Dogg, was in 2010.
No one would have guessed the turn his
life would take over the next four years: radical
jihadist in Syria, fighter and propagandist for
ISIS, and Germany’s most famous and most
wanted Islamist.
I was researching a story about the 36 Boys, a
notorious Kreuzberg street gang from the late
1980s and 1990s. They fought turf battles in
and around Kreuzberg 36, rapped, breakdanced,
sprayed graffiti murals and attacked skinheads
and neo-Nazis. Among the group’s members
were Killa Hakan, who spent time in jail for the
armed robbery of a jeweller’s shop in Kreuzberg
and later went on to become a famous Turkish
rapper; Neco Celik, the intellectual of the gang,
now a successful filmmaker dubbed “the Spike
Lee of Kreuzberg”; and Tim Raue, the only
German in the gang, now a star chef. And then
there was Deso Dogg.
The gang had dissolved by 2005, but in 2007,
some of its former members revived the old
name as a fashion brand for a line of streetwear
sold out of a shop in an alleyway at Kotti. The
shop, which sold cappies and hoodies and letterman
jackets, was the hangout of boxers, actors,
hip-hoppers, breakdancers and graffiti artists.
They called it an “Anlaufstelle”: a shelter and a
contact point. When kids had problems, they
went there for advice. If they couldn’t make it
any more, they got help there.
It was here that I met Deso Dogg. I was talking
to the owner, Sinan Tosun, about hip hop and
the 36 Boys’ early days, when Cuspert spoke up.
“Hip hop is war.” He was a 35-year-old man
with neck and arms covered with tattoos, a
prison tear under his right eye, and the body of
someone who spent his days pumping iron and
kickboxing.
Later, I got to know Deso Dogg somewhat
better. We went for tea and simits at a Turkish
cafe across the street, where Cuspert greeted his
Muslim brothers with a broad “salam alaikum”,
and told me a bit about his life and trials, growing
up in Kreuzberg around Kottbusser Tor and later
Charlottenburg with a stepfather who was an
American soldier, his first brush with the police
at 11, and then joining the 36 Boys in his teens,
inspired by the LA gangs Crips and Bloods, the
movie Colors and the rap music of Dr. Dre.
As a teen, he used to rabble-rouse with
American GIs. When the Wall fell, he fought
running battles with skinheads in East Berlin.
Every first of May, he and his gang teamed up
with anti-fascists, marched together, threw
“Mollis” and fought the police.
Cuspert then took up rap music, establishing
himself as the “Black Angel” and a hero to
Kreuzberg’s immigrant youth. He released three
albums: Schwarzer Engel (2006), Geeni’z in collaboration
with Jasha (2008) and Alle Augen auf
mich (2009). In 2008 he appeared in an episode
of the television series Der Bluff, playing a student
who turns gangster rapper.
When I spoke to Cuspert in 2010 he appeared
to be just another Kreuzberg hoodie, a
Muslim who knew little about religion, amiable
His songs started to
take on a radical hue.
“Armed with bombs
and grenades,” he
rapped. “Right in the
centre I press the
button.”
enough, but relishing the gangster pose.
“I swear to you, I had a pump gun,” said
Cuspert. “I went to sleep with that pump gun
beside my bed. And I always held my 36 high. I
always fought for 36. I bled for 36. I was stabbed
for 36. I had 36 tattooed on my back. For me,
Kreuzberg is a part of my life.”
Cuspert’s hostility then was reserved for tourists
and hipsters, the new arrivals, who in Cuspert’s
opinion didn’t know shit, and were trying
to bask in the Kreuzberg myth while pushing up
rents. “The people from the outside, they come
to Kreuzberg and they think, ‘Oh, Kreuzberg.
Nice. Multikulti, ah. I’m also a Kreuzberger.’ No!
You’re a Kreuzberger if you were born here. If
you grew up here. If you fought here.”
Soon after this, Cuspert dropped out of sight.
He began to show his face less and less around
Kotti and was rumoured to be taking Quran
classes at the ‘Salafist’ Al-Nur mosque in Neukölln.
He posted a video of his official conversion
to Islam – although he’d told me he was a
Muslim by birth.
His songs started to take on a radical hue.
“Armed with bombs and grenades,” he rapped,
“Right in the centre I press the button.”
Ultimately, he turned his back on music.
He grew a beard, started to clothe himself in
Islamic garb, changed his name to Abou Maleeq
and began issuing videos featuring teary and
emotional denunciations of hip hop as haram,
the devil’s work, while at the same time issuing
calls for jihad in Germany.
In 2011 I picked up a story about a young Albanian
Muslim who shot two American soldiers
dead at the airport in Frankfurt. It said that the
Albanian, a German citizen born in Kosovo,
had been inspired and radicalised by the music
and video proclamations of Cuspert, who earlier
that year had been charged with illegal possession
of weapons after he appeared in a Youtube
video brandishing arms: 16 nine-millimetre
and .22 cartridges were found at his home. In
August 2011, he was fined €1800.
Cuspert’s ex-36 Boys friends were speechless.
“Who knows what happened to him,” Sinan
Tosun told me from behind the counter of the
36 Boys shop in May of that year. “He’s gone
underground. Stopped rap music. A lot of people
come up to me and they ask me, ‘What’s up
with Deso? Has he been brainwashed?’ I don’t
know. And the kids as well, they ask, ‘Why has
Deso stopped making rap music?’ I’m a Muslim
as well, but I don’t believe that music is evil.
It’s a good thing. You have to use the talents
that God gave you... Now no one wants to have
anything to do with him. They don’t want to
call him up because they know that his phone is
being tapped by the police.”
Cuspert became ever more radical, joining
the German Salafist organisation Millatu
Ibrahim, giving talks in mosques in support of
the growing mujahideen forces in Afghanistan,
Iraq, Somalia and Chechnya, and issuing videos
where he called for armed jihad, threatening to
bring the war home to Germany.
“To Merkel, Minster of the Interior and Foreign
Minister,” he announced. “You are waging
jihad in our countries, and we will bring jihad
to your countries. You are not safe. You will no
longer be able to live in safety. And that’s why
this country, the Federal Republic of Germany,
is a war zone.”
COLLAGE OF IMAGES FROM A YOUTUBE VIDEO BY GLOBAL ISLAMIC MEDIA FRONT
20 • DECEMBER 2014

One day I caught sight of him on the U8 heading
to Wedding. He had a beard and was dressed
in a Muslim salwar under a camo jacket. I got up
and went after him, but lost him in the crowd.
A year later, I was in Istanbul when I heard
that Cuspert, after the banning of Millatu
Ibrahim in Germany, had made good on his
promise of jihad. He travelled to Tunisia,
Egypt, Libya and thence to Syria, where the
39-year-old, now calling himself Abu Talha
al-Almani (“the German Abu Talha”) swore an
oath of allegiance to ISIS. In widely circulated
Youtube videos, he issued vitriolic messages
from the front lines about how Obama and the
US would pay and pay, while glorifying the role
of ISIS and proselytising for young Muslim
youth to come to Syria and fight.
In April 2014, he was reported to have been
killed in a suicide bombing carried out by rival
jihadist group al-Nusra Front. Reports of his
death turned out to be premature. By his own
admission, he was treated in a Turkish hospital
for a coma. Strengthened in his martyr role, in
the following months he was said to have been
found in northern Syria in contact with senior
ideologues and commanders of ISIS.
Germany’s domestic security agency issued
warnings about him: As one of the organisation’s
top recruiters, they said, “Cuspert has direct access
to the upper echelons of ISIS.” And should
Cuspert choose to return to Germany, his threat
to security would be serious.
In November, Cuspert appeared, very much
alive and well, in a two-minute ISIS massexecution
video. Picking up a severed head,
he states that the dead men fought against the
Islamic State and “that’s why they received the
death penalty.”
What happened to Deso Dogg? “He fell in
with the wrong people,” concludes Abubakir
Saadaoui, who does dawa (missionary) work
at Dar Assalam mosque, a moderate Arabic
mosque on Flughafenstraße which pulls in hundreds
of Neukölln Arabic Muslims for prayers
every Friday. Cuspert used to come by the
mosque for prayers, or to participate in Gaza
solidarity rallies, before he went underground.
When I talked to him, Saadaoui questioned
the German authorities’ slow response to the
rapper’s radicalisation. “He clearly stated that
Germany was jihad territory as early as 2012.
The question is: why wasn’t Deso Dogg arrested?
Why was he allowed to fly to Syria? It’s
certain that he departed from Tegel or Schönefeld.
In my opinion, Deso Dogg should have
been immediately arrested.”
Abdul Adhim Kamouss of Neukölln’s Al-Nur
mosque knew Cuspert, and this is something
that the media was quick to hold against him.
In September, when he appeared on Günther
Jauch’s prime time talkshow, it was suggested he
had helped to radicalise the former rapper.
Kamouss says Cuspert was just one among
the three or four hundred young people who
came to the mosque to talk about religion. “He
was already considering giving up rap music as
haram. I told him to continue doing it, but with
a good message.”
But Kamouss didn’t really worry about Cuspert
till a friend called him up drawing attention
to a song he had written in praise of jihad. “I
tried to enlighten him. He was taking verses
from the hadiths out of context, projecting them
incorrectly on our time without knowing the
intention, reducing them to something not so
good. I said, ‘Watch out! Islam is about knowledge.
It’s not about emotions.’”
Cuspert made light of Kamouss’ concerns and
told him not to worry. A month passed, and Cuspert
was at it again. “Again I schooled him. And
after this second call, he changed his number.
And then he started in earnest to radicalise himself.
Where he showed up at the demonstration
in Bonn against caricatures of Muhammad, and
fought and yelled and made videos.”
Ultimately, Kamouss says that Cuspert took
the turn he did because of his innate aggression.
“I think it’s the result of the nature of the person,
when it all comes down to it. It doesn’t have
anything to do with Islam. There are people who
are predisposed to be aggressive... He was a guy
who always wanted new challenges. I said, ‘Calm
down. Religion is about learning. And you have
to learn first.’ But then he got to know other
people in western Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia
and the like... and when he got to know
these people, he was – peng, gone.” n
21

ARTICLE REPORT TAG
The Kurdish resistance
Eager to avenge their brethren, Berlin’s Kurds are waging their own war against ISIS:
both in the Middle East and at home. By Caspar Schliephack
At a protest in front of the Brandenburg
Gate on October 6, members of Berlin’s
Kurdish community chanted: “A
tree, a rope, a Salafi neck!” Referring
to their opponents variously as “Salafists”, “Wahabis”
or “agents of the Turkish government”,
protesters used slogans such as “Salafists are
fascists” or “Wahabis are no Sunnis”. The conflict
between Kurds and Islamist supporters of ISIS
has long spread to diaspora communities around
the world. With its large Kurdish population,
Berlin has not been spared from the tensions.
Through Kurdish satellite channels, Facebook
and Twitter, Kurds in Berlin have followed their
Middle Eastern counterparts’ involvement in the
war on ISIS with increasing frustration. Nearly
all consider themselves to be connected to the
conflict in one way or another. With August’s
attack on the Kurdish city of Shingal, Iraq
and September’s news of the siege of Kobani,
tensions reached a boiling point. “Turkey will
explode if Kobani falls into ISIS hands,” seethes
one Kurdish Berliner.
When Germans speak about Kreuzberg,
Neukölln and Wedding, they often refer to “little
Istanbul”. But in fact, approximately 110,000
Berliners – nearly half of the so-called “Turkish
community” – belong to this ethnic minority
from eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, Syria and
northwestern Iran. A total of 500,000 Kurds live
in the whole of Germany. Though they share a
common religion, Sunni Islam, with Turks, the
Kurds have been subject to decades of repression
from the Turkish government – and now
find themselves the target of ISIS persecution
in Iraq and Syria. As they’ve done for years, they
are fighting back.
Since 1978, the Kurds have had their own
army in the form of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’
Party), a secular, militant communist organisation
originally formed by a group of students
led by Abdullah Öcalan, who is now serving a
life sentence in Turkish prison. Mostly relying
on guerrilla warfare, they and affiliated groups
in Iran, Iraq and Syria engaged in brutal clashes
with Turkish armies, as well as fellow Kurds in
the Islamist organisation Kurdish Hezbollah, resulting
in horrific consequences for the Kurdish
civilian population. An estimated 45,000 people
were killed between the PKK’s first battle in
1984 and their agreement to withdraw their
forces in 2013.
Now the PKK has emerged as radical Islam’s
staunchest enemy, carrying out rescue operations
in Shingal and Kobani in the face of inaction
from the Turkish government.
As in Turkey, the PKK is considered a terrorist
organisation in Europe, and has been banned
in Germany since 1993 due to violence, illegal
recruiting and fundraising by German members.
Nevertheless, it has stayed active here through
a network of different PKK-affiliated groups.
In 2013, Germany’s internal security agency, the
Verfassungsschutz, estimated there were 13,000
core PKK members in Germany, most of them
based in Berlin.
Azad (name changed) is a 23-year-old bricklayer
from Berlin. Although an active member
of a PKK-affiliated youth organisation, he calls
himslef as “a normal citizen who carries the
ideology of the PKK and its leader Öcalan.”
Yet, not a “real member” “If I were, I would be
on the mountains in Turkey.” According to him,
“Nobody knows the real PKK leaders in Berlin.
Sometimes cadres from Turkey or other places
in Europe come to check whether the Kurdish
organisations follow their rules.”
In past years, most of these groups have
concentrated on cultural activities or organised
peaceful protests in order to raise awareness
of Kurdish resistance and press for the annulment
of PKK’s status as a terrorist organisation.
However, tensions between PKK members and
young Turkish nationalists, or “Grey Wolves”,
have been known to turn violent. The PKK
attacked Turkish consulates, banks and alleged
supporters of right-wing Turkish parties, and at
Kurdish rallies its supporters violently clashed
with opposing Turkish youth. In 2007, Turkish
protesters went so far as to attack the Kurdish
Ibrahim Halil mosque in Kreuzberg, thinking it
to be a PKK support base even though the PKK
is famously leftist and secular.
Recently, though, most Kurdish protests
in Berlin have been held in solidarity for the
besieged Kurdish regions in Iraq and Syria – both
to raise Germans’ awareness of the situation, and
to distance themselves from the acts being carried
out in the name of their religion.
22 • DECEMBER 2014

PKK-affiliated groups have mobilised tens
of thousands of Kurds for their protests across
Germany, gaining significant media coverage.
They have received increasing organisational
and political support from German leftists.
Speaking in the Bundestag, prominent MPs like
Gregor Gysi of Die Linke and Green leader Cem
Özemir have called for a lift of the ban on the
PKK. There have even been voices in the CDU
and SPD questioning the ban, despite the PKK’s
criminal money-raising activities in Germany,
suspected to include drug dealing, prostitution
and the collection of ‘protection money’ from
shops and restaurants.
Meanwhile, as its profile rises, the PKK has
found more and more Kurds willing to join their
cause in Syria – contrary to the media’s obsession
with jihadist recruits, here is a group of
European Muslims making the trip to wage war
against, not with ISIS. Kurdish organisations estimate
the number of Kurdish PKK volunteers
who went from Germany to Syria to be around
50 so far. But due to a well-established underground
network throughout Europe that has
provided the PKK with money and volunteer
fighters for decades, the actual number is likely
to be much higher.
Asked whether the PKK is in fact recruiting
Kurdish youth through Kurdish organisations,
Azad says, “They’d be shut down if they did.
We don’t recruit fighters. Our job is to raise our
voices against oppression and to show people
that the PKK is no terror organisation like
‘Islamic State’.” At the same time, he says, “If
somebody really wants to join, he will get there.
I don’t know the exact procedure. Even among
supporters, these structures are secretive.”
He himself does what he can to support the
anti-ISIS cause. “A wounded female Kurdish
fighter came to my family in Berlin a few days
ago and we treated her. The moment she was
ready, she returned to the battlefield in Kobani.”
In early October, the Syrian conflict played
out on German soil. In the sleepy northern town
of Celle, street fighting between Yazidi Kurds
and Muslim Chechens had to be contained by
riot police. In Hamburg, hundreds of Kurdish
“We, the Kurdish youth,
are ready to defend our
nation in Berlin, whenever
necessary. We are
on constant alert.”
PKK supporters protested against ISIS, fought
with Muslim radicals and clashed with the
police. The Ver fassungsschutz warned that these
tensions could escalate further.
“I don’t think there will be similar clashes in
Berlin,” says Azad. “Yes, there are people who are
traumatised by what’s happening to the Kurds in
Shingal and Kobani. But our goal is not fighting
Salafists or Islam. If we wanted to attack
Salafists, we would have. What happened in
Hamburg and Celle was self-defence.”
Asked about any possible PKK directive on
how to deal with ISIS supporters in Germany,
he says: “No, there are no orders from PKK in
Turkey. But we find out very quickly if someone
in Germany wants to attack Kurds. And we are
prepared in case it happens. We can defend ourselves.
The Kurdish youth here are not trained to
fight, in contrast to the Kurdish youth in Turkey.
But we are ready to defend our nation in Berlin,
whenever necessary.”
A recent incident shows how tense the situation
between PKK-affiliated groups and alleged
ISIS supporters in Berlin actually is and how
serious the Kurds take the issue of self-defence
against possible Islamist aggression. “There was
a dangerous situation on October 10. Kurds
demonstrated in Düsseldorf in solidarity for
Kobani. As their buses returned to Berlin, we
were warned that a group of Salafists were planning
an attack on those buses in Wedding. We
immediately went to the place and monitored
the surroundings. We even went to a nearby
Salafist café, so that they would see us. Only after
we gave our OK did the buses come. We are on
constant alert.” n
Berliner Festspiele
Martin-Gropius-
Bau
Ulfberht-Schwert, 10. Jh. n. Chr.
© Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum
für Vor- und Frühgeschichte /
Claudia Plamp
10 September 2014 –
4 January 2015
The Vikings
Organizer: Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte –
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Mamma Roma, Pier Paolo Pasolini,
1962. © All rights reserved
11 September 2014 –
5 January 2015
Pasolini Roma
5 December 2014 –
6 April 2015
W. Krinski: Experimentell-methodische
Studienarbeit zum Thema
„Farbe und räumliche Komposition“,
1921 © Staatliches Schtschussew
Museum für Architektur Moskau
VKhUTEMAS
A Russian
Laboratory of Modernity.
Architecture designs
1920 – 1930
VIDEO SCREENGRABS FROM USER LUKPAU2, YOUTUBE
Niederkirchnerstraße 7, 10963 Berlin
Tel. +49 30 254 86 0
Wed – Mon 10am – 7pm, closed Tue
open on public holidays,
closed on 24.12. and 31.12.2014
online-tickets: www.gropiusbau.de
23

ALTERNATIVE ISLAM
Hippy
Muslims
Away from screaming headlines
about jihad and Syria, in private
apartments and hidden-away
mosques, some other German
Muslims are peacefully living
out their faith in Berlin: the
Sufis. By Robert Rigney
ANNA AGLIARDI
They gather at a ground-floor apartment on Wissmannstraße in
Neukölln: Muslims and non-Muslims, Turks and Germans, people
from around the world and all walks of life. The atmosphere is
cosy and intimate as they sit on Oriental rugs and cushions, sip
black tea, talk and listen to their sheikh, speak in parables and allegories
about the spiritual search.
It feels more like one of Berlin’s ubiquitous Hare Krishna meet-ups than
a prayer session at a conventional mosque. But this, too, is Islam: Sufism,
the mystical branch that seeks to attain an awareness of God through
emotion rather than strict adherence to outward laws. Sufis bring in an
added aesthetic dimension to their worship – approaching God using music,
chanting (dhikr) and the trance-engendering ‘whirling dervish’ dance.
The main meeting point for Sufis in Berlin, Neukölln’s Sufi Zentrum is
what’s known as a dergah: both a mosque and a place of philosophical and
spiritual exchange. One of the things that sets it apart from a traditional
mosque is the relatively free gender intermingling. Men and women
sit together, and there are few headscarves in the gathering. Some are
traditional Muslims who have lapsed and then rediscovered the religion
of their birth, while others are delvers in the esoteric who may know each
other from a Krishna circle elsewhere, or may have been reading up on the
Kaballah before coming.
Abdul Cemal, who declines to give his Christian name for fear of a backlash
from his employer, is a German Muslim and Sufi of 10 years standing.
A self-described ex-“techno punk”, he appeared at the dergah for the first
time with bright red hair and piercings, upon the recommendation of his
girlfriend. He was at the end of his tether, so to speak.
“I was fed up with my whole life in Berlin,” he recalls. “And then I came
across a flyer from the Sufi Zentrum. ‘If you’ve reached a dead end and you
no longer know how to proceed, then pay us a visit.’ That was the message.
My girlfriend said she had been there once before, and that if I went I
would find an answer to all of my questions.”
He showed up at the dergah’s old address in a private apartment in
Prinzenstraße, Kreuzberg. Back then, it was all Turks. Upon arrival he
caught a glimpse of the sheikh, sitting there with his turban, traditional Sufi
dress and cane. His first thought, he says, was, “Oh shit, I’ve fell in with the
Muslims and the next thing I know they’ll be strapping a bomb to me.”
Now, he is Hausmeister at the Neukölln dergah, a position he’s held for
four years. Over his past decade as a Sufi, he has seen people come and go
and come and stay and become Muslims.
“Generally speaking, I can say that every person who goes there
comes out a nicer person. I’ve made a number of very close friendships
with brothers and sisters that developed over the years. Or there are those
who come like comets every two years and then disappear again. But
as a rule, everyone who passes through is changed in a positive way.
Because everyone who has a question laying heavily on his breast finds
an answer to his question.”
What the brothers and sisters of the Sufi Zentrum have in common
is that they have come to seek spiritual guidance from Sheikh Esref
Efendi, the presiding spiritual leader of the dergah. Following a sheikh
is one of the hallmarks of Sufism: a student becomes a Sufi by seeking
out one such guru, who has to have received the authorisation to
teach (ijazah) from another grand master (in Efendi’s case, the recently
deceased Sheikh Nazim al-Haqqani from Cyprus) in an unbroken succession,
known as the “golden chain”.
Members describe the sheikh as a “father”, a master, a teacher. “He
has dedicated himself to a life of dignity in order to serve Allah, to help
people,” says Medina, a 27-year-old convert who wears the hijab. “Not to
turn them into Muslims. But rather to help them in spiritual problems,
in normal everyday problems, whether that be in married life or with
regards to psychological issues. But of course, in the name of Allah and
with Sufi methods, Islamic methods.”
Efendi’s devoted circle of followers has been with him for over 10 years,
distinguished both in the dergah and on the streets of Berlin by their distinctive
headgear: a turned around flat cap worn over a Muslim skullcap.
“Because we try to imitate our sheikh, we also copy his fashion,”
says Abdul Cemal. “And this, interestingly, has given rise to a feeling
of belonging to a group, and that lends security, and in the time being
it has become a trademark in Kreuzberg and Neukölln. When you see
someone wearing this cap that way, then you know he is one of us. Many
recognise us. Sometimes complete strangers greet us on the street with
‘salam alaikum’ and ‘give my regards to the sheikh’. People whom I don’t
know, but he knows.”
Sufis must still adhere to the five pillars of Islam: declaring there is
no god except God and that Muhammad is God’s messenger (shahada),
ritual prayer five times a day (salat), giving 2.5 percent of one’s savings
to the poor and needy (zakat), fasting and self-control during the holy
month of Ramadan (sawm), and a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in
a lifetime (hajj). But Sufism’s humanistic, non-dogmatic approach and
colourful, often cathartic rituals make it the most accessible form of the
religion for many Westerners.
Tanya is an ex-Catholic German convert and regular at the Sufi
Zentrum, who wears the hijab “80 percent of the time”. She says she
identifies herself as a Sufi, rather than as a Muslim per se.
24 • DECEMBER 2014

“I never
wanted the
normal ones. I
prayed to God
to send me the
crazy ones, the
abnormal, and
that is what he
has done.”
DEUTSCH.
SOWIESO!
“I never introduce myself as a Muslim. Rather, I say that I am a
Sufi. I’m already so often pigeonholed because I wear the hijab. I
don’t want to be associated with that which most people understand
by the word ‘Muslim’.”
The same characteristics that endear Sufism to the West have also
made Sufis the target of hostility and violence from more extremist
Muslim groups. In Iran, Egypt and Pakistan, militant Islamists have
attacked Sufi mosques and shrines, feeling that Sufi practices are
heretical in their adoration of sheikhs and their use of chanting and
music, which they see as bid’ah or impure, and shirk, polytheistic.
Distancing himself from extremist brothers who are entirely
dismissive of Sufism, conservative Berlin imam Abdul Adhim
Kamouss, a one-time teacher at Neukölln’s Al-Nur mosque, says,
“I am against people saying, ‘Sufism? Ach, get rid of it!’.” However:
“There are those who transgress upon the fundamentals of the religion,
making a saint out of their sheikh – they say only through the
sheikh will you achieve paradise, that the sheikh is infallible. And
they go to the graves of the great sheikhs, touching the gravestone
and thinking that they receive blessings from it. That goes in the
direction of Christianity, of what they did with Jesus.”
Back at the Sufi Zentrum on Wissmannstraße, while the sheikh talks
with his cohorts, a young German slightly the worse for drink rests
against the open window on the street outside and rambles on drunkenly
and philosophically, half to himself, half to the Sufis within.
Suddenly the sheikh breaks off his musings and invites the kid
in. Surprisingly, he accepts the invitation, kisses the sheikh’s hand
and sits down and waxes philosophical about his various twists and
turns of fate, till one of his friends comes in and drags him away.
It’s an encounter that would be inconceivable anywhere else, at any
other mosque.
Later the sheikh says, “I never wanted the normal ones. I prayed
to God to send me the crazy ones, the abnormal, and that is what
he has done.”
“And that is precisely the point!” says Abdul Cemal. “I was
exactly like that kid. You’re not sent away. Although this man was
drunk. Although he was a punk. Spiritually, it says over our door,
‘Come, whoever you are’. The quote is from [13th-century Sufi
mystic] Rumi. And this saying is put into practice with us. In the
10 years I have been there, there hasn’t been a case of someone
being refused entry.” n
goethe.de/berlin
Sprache. Kultur. Deutschland.
25

What’s on
CALENDAR
December 2014
1
Brittani Sonnenberg
THEATRE MONDAY, DEC 1 With
a reading from her novel Home
Leave, the self-labelled “third
culture kid” addresses the
shapeshifting nature of identity
and the concept of
‘home’ in a footloose life.
English Theatre Berlin.
Starts 20:00.
Dec 3:
Waffenlounge
at the HAU
Bryan Adams
3
MUSIC WEDNESDAY, DEC 3
Germany is more about ’68
than the summer of ‘69. But
Adams still has his stakes
here. Catch him touring
new album Tracks of My
Years. O2 World. Starts
20:00. (see page 37)
Berlin Music Week
MUSIC WEDNESDAY, SEP 3 Music
is an industry, too. Aside
from the 100 artists drawn
to the city, there’ll be a conference
with 2000 industry
suits from 30 countries hanging
around to find the next big
thing. Through Sep 7. Various
venues.
Giselle, Dec 11
4
Berlin Art Film Festival
ART FILM THURSDAY, DEC 4
A brand new film fest focusing
on the edgier side of Berlin-centric
films, with 32 selections
from the poetic to the
pornographic. Through Dec 7.
With English subs. FSK. Starts
19:30. (see page 32)
THEATRE SUNDAY, DEC 7 The
last chance to catch Daniel
Sauermilch’s Woody Allenesque
political play, plus readings
from Native American
activist Leonard Peltier. In English.
From Dec 5. Theaterforum
Kreuzberg. Starts 20:00. (see
page 34)
Afghan Love
15
Wir Zöpfe
THEATRE MONDAY, DEC 15
Jews, Christians, Muslims and
just about every identity possible
make for a truly Berlin
Christmas in Marianna Salzmann’s
holiday-themed play.
With English surtitles. Maxim
Gorki. Starts 19:30
13 Years Klaus
Wowereit
8
EXHIBITION MONDAY, DEC 8
Lame duck mayor Wowi is officially
leaving us on Dec 11.
He’ll have one last moment in
the spotlight at the opening of
the Schwules Museum’s Und
das war auch gut so. Through
March 31. Starts 17:30.
Berlin Art Week
ART TUESDAY, SEP 16 Although
alt-fave Preview has dissolved,
Berlin’s abuzz with art through
16
three fairs: ABC, Preview successor
Positions and unofficial
affiliate Liste. The city-wide
hobnobbing goes on through
Sep 21. (see page XX)
EXBlicks: Out in East Berlin, Dec 16
Giselle
BALLET THURSDAY, DEC 11
Berlin’s prima ballerina, Polina
Semionova, returns to the
11
Staatsballet in the tragically
romantic tale of dancing to
death – and beyond – choreographed
by Patrice Bart. Also
Dec 12. Staatsoper Theatre.
Starts 19:30.
EXBlicks: Out in
East Berlin
FILM TUESDAY, DEC 16 Gay life
behind the iron curtain wasn’t
16
always rosy, despite decriminalisation.
Jochen Hick examines
the life of Ossi homosexuals.
With English subs and followed
by a Q&A. Lichtblick Kino.
Starts 20:30. (see page 33)
12
sixth album on tour. United
MIA.
Dec 16-24:
Hannukah at the
Brandenburg
Gate
MUSIC FRIDAY, DEC 12 After
several years of silence, Mieze
Katz and her boys take their
States of Ich&Du adds sounds
from their 1990s punk beginnings
to a fully electronic
dance pit. C-Halle.
Starts 19:00.
17
Morr Music
Christmas Special
MUSIC WEDNESDAY, DEC 17
With Fenster, Slow Steve, Aloa
Input and the Morr Music
DJs, expect a mix of mantra
pop, trippy visuals, and future
sounds from the cult Berlin indie
label. Hans Otto Theater
Potsdam. Starts 20:00.
My perfect Berlin weekend
Thirty-seven-year-old
Moroccan-born ABDUL
ADHIM KAMOUSS (see
page 8) is Berlin’s most
high-profile imam, appearing
on TV, Facebook
and Youtube as
the progressive face of
conservative Islam.
FRIDAY 10:00 Drink tea
and read Quran passages
to my infant
son. 12:00 In my best
clothes, I go to Bilal
mosque (Drontheimer
Str. 16, Wedding) and
hold sermon. 14:00
Cosy lunch with my wife.
18:00 Weekly lessons,
climbing “The Steps of
the Striving” with my
pupils. 20:00 Friends
come over for dinner; we
talk long into the night.
SATURDAY 10:00 Breakfast
with the family.
12:00 We explore the
canals of Neu-Venedig
by canoe (Köpenick).
14:00 Picnic, ice cream
and jokes. 18:00 We
meet the Fischer und
seine Frau in the yurt at
Figurentheater Grashüpfer
(Puschkinallee 16a,
Treptow). 20:00 Dinner
at Salsabil Restaurant
(Wörther Str. 16,
Prenzlauer Berg). 22:00
I read Moroccan fairytales
to my children.
SUNDAY 9:00 A round
of jogging in Schillerpark
(Wedding). 12:00 With
the help of books and
Youtube, I immerse myself
in history and travel.
19:00 A young German
has questions
about Islam, so I meet
with him at Zam Zam
Restaurant (Hauptstr.
15, Schöneberg). 22:00
My wife and I ring out
the day with the Hörspiel
“Nathan der Weise”.
ANNA AGLIARDI
20
Dance before Christmas
DANCE SATURDAY, DEC 20
Explore every dimension of
contemporary dance in performances
spanning cultures
and generations. Add your own
moves at the nightly jam sessions.
Dec 16-21. Acker Stadt
Palast. 20:00. (see page 36)
27
Situation Rooms
THEATRE SATURDAY, DEC 27
Perk up from your Christmas
comedown with some actionpacked
interactive theatre/cinema,
as you find yourself besieged
by chaos in places like
the White House Situation
Room. Through Jan 11. HAU2.
Starts 17:00. (see page 34)
23
Funk style costumes and emit
Goat
MUSIC TUESDAY, SEP 23 The
psychedelic-experimental-fusion
band from Sweden don P-
eccentric live voodoo vibes
that would make even the likes
of James Brown proud. Postbahnhof.
Starts 20:00.
Aloa Input, Morr Music Christmas, Dec 17
28
The Little Foxes
THEATRE SUNDAY, DEC 28 Catch
the story of Regina, a banker’s
wife who longs for independence,
and her moneygrubbing
brothers as they plot
against each other in Thomas
Ostermeier’s latest. With
English surtitles. Schaubühne.
Starts 20:00.
ELA GRIESHABER
26 • DECEMBER 2014

Flashback, Dec 13
5
13
Flashback
ART SATURDAY, DEC 13 Javier
Ramirex, whose multimedia art
is best in tandem with Berlin
techno, showcases new international
artists in the unused
portion of Pankow’s Bürgeramt.
Through Jan 10. Galerie Marzia
Frozen. Starts 14:00.
VKhUTEMAS
5
ART DESIGN FRIDAY, DEC 5 The
“Russian Bauhaus” of
the 1920s gets a survey
through sketches,
paintings and
more. Through April 6.
Martin-Gropius-Bau.
Starts 10:00.
Waiting for Godot
THEATRE SUNDAY, DEC 14 Samuel
Beckett’s famously absurdist
play returns to the
14
stage. Nearly 60 years later,
there’s still lots to glean
from absolutely nothing. With
English surtitles. Also Dec
21. Deutsches Theater. Starts
19:00.
Dec 6:
Porn This Way
preview night at
Schwules
Museum
6
British Film Night
FILM SATURDAY, DEC 6 The
Around the World in 14 Films
festival (Nov 28-Dec 7)
screens Jonathan Glazer’s
Under the Skin and the
German premiere of Joanna
Hogg’s Exhibition.
Babylon Mitte. Starts
19:45. (see page 32)
14
December Programme
5.–7.12. / HAU2 DANCE
Kat Válastur
Ah! Oh! – A Contemporary
Ritual / Premiere
11.–14.12. / HAU3 THEATRE /MUSIC
Damian
Rebgetz
The Hooks / Premiere / English
19.+20.12. / HAU3 THEATRE
Showcase Beat
Le Mot
Nazisupermenschen sind
euch allen überlegen
Die lange Nacht der Nazisupermenschen / German
19
Lucia Christmas Market, Dec 22
21
Hungarian Contemporary
Dance Festival
DANCE SUNDAY, DEC 21 With
the theme of border crossing,
the festival transgresses genre
boundaries. The final night sees
Krisztián Gergye’s Auction in
which dance, theatre and
art collide. Dock 11.
Starts 16:00.
30
presents a whimsical evening
Friends of Amarillis
MUSIC TUESDAY, DEC 30 The
perfect way to chill out before
Sylvester, a baroque trio
of musical theatre, promising
wordless surprises full of
passion and seduction. Also
Dec 31. Radialsystem V.
Starts 20:00.
Dec 21:
Green
Christmas
Market at
Glashaus!
18
at the Jewish music festival’s
Louis Lewandowski
Festival
MUSIC THURSDAY, DEC 18 Boston’s
Zamir Chorale performs
pre-opening. This year features
Jewish-German composers
who fled to the US during the
Nazi regime. Through Dec 21.
St. Lukas Kirche. Starts 18:00.
22
and Glashaus) finish on the
Goodbye, Christmas
(markets)
FESTIVAL MONDAY, DEC 22 Two
favourites (at Domäne Dahlem
21st, so calm holiday nerves at
the last day of Scandinavianthemed
Lucia market (Dec
22) or Prinzessinnengarten’s
Wintermarkt (Dec 23).
31
2km of celebrations including
New Year’s Eve
at Brandenburg Gate
CITY FEST WEDNESDAY, DEC 31
Welcome in the New Year with
party tents, laser shows, music
from the Pet Shop Boys and
Bonnie Tyler, and of course,
fireworks! Brandenburg Gate/
Victory Column. Starts 14:00.
Expatriarch Generations #4, Dec 19
19
Expatriarch
Generations #4
MUSIC FRIDAY, DEC 19 The
fourth and final edition of Expatriarch
sees Gudrun Gut taking
DJ/producer Borusiade under
her wing for a shared gig
celebrating queer creativity.
Schwuz. Starts 23:00.
25
Die Zauberflöte
OPERA THURSDAY, DEC 25
Looking for something classy
on Christmas Day? The
Staatsoper always delivers!
Mozart’s Magic Flute leads you
in a battle against the Queen
of the Night. Staatsoper im
Schiller Theater. Starts 15:00
and 19:00.
Die Zauberflöte, Dec 25
31
29.12. / HAU1 CONCERT
To Rococo Rot /
The Pastels
3.12.2014–11.1.2015 /
HAU1, HAU2, HAU3
Waffenlounge /
Weapons Lounge
Performances, installations, films and talks
by and with andcompany&Co., Josh Begley,
Ellen Blumenstein, Christine Cynn, Cie.
Random Scream & Davis Freemann, Harun
Farocki, John Goetz, Derek Gregory, HGB
Leipzig, KW Institute for Contemporary Art,
Rabih Mroué, Herfried Münkler, Volker Pantenburg,
Jon Rafman, schroederlevyrauch,
Franziska Seeberg, Hans-Christian Ströbele,
Daniel Tyradellis, Ulrike Winkelmann and
many more
3.+4.12., 8.–10.12., 13.+14.12.,
16.+17.12., 19.+20.12. / HAU1 THEATRE
Hans-Werner
Kroesinger
Exporting War / Premiere / German
Part of “Waffenlounge / Weapons Lounge“
14.–23.12., 27.–30.12.2014,
2.–11.1.2015 / HAU2 THEATRE / INSTALLATION
Rimini Protokoll
Situation Rooms / English or German
Part of “Waffenlounge / Weapons Lounge”
27
• www.hebbel-am-ufer.de

What’s on
FILM
STARTS NOV 27
La última película
D: Raya Martin, Mark Persanson
(Mexico, Canada,
Denmark, Philippines
2013) with Alex Ross
Perry, Gabino Rodríguez,
Iazua Larios ◆◆◆ In
an homage to Dennis
Hopper’s controversial
Last Movie, Perry’s
almost-too-uncomfortably
realistic portrayal of a
pretentious hipster auteur making the ‘last’ movie, Mayapredicted
apocalypse looming ahead, shows filmmakers
with independent visions still struggling over 40 years
later. The intellectual comedy genuinely celebrates and
satirises experimental cinema with stream-of-consciousness
ramblings, portraits of Mexico shot through nine
different cameras and (purposefully) missing scenes. SM
STARTS NOV 27
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them
D: Ned Benson (USA 2014) with James McAvoy, Jessica
Chastain ◆◆◆ After
two films that explored
his and her reactions
to family trauma, part
three of this trilogy shows
a couple (McAvoy and
Chastain) dealing with an
event that’s pushed them
radically apart. Having set
up trauma as irrevocably
damaging, Benson has
little choice but to stay ambivalent, but does well to
conceptualise a couple as two people joined at the hip
both by past pleasure and pain – and a present in which
all this must find a place of its own. EL
STARTS NOV 27
The Green Prince
D: Nadav Schirman (Germany, UK, USA, Israel 2014)
documentary with Mosab
Hassan Yousef, Gonen Ben
Yitzhak ◆◆◆ When
Israel’s security agency
Shin Bet succeeded in
recruiting Mosab, the son
of Hamas founding member
and religious leader
Sheikh Hassan Yousef,
a long process of trust
building and cooperation
began between the spy and his handler. Schirman’s talking
heads documentary explores how the entrenched situation
in the Middle East perverts allegiances. It won the Audience
Award at Sundance for showing how we’re forced to
construct truths – and must live with the results. EL
STARTS DEC 4
Wiedersehen mit Brundibár
D: Douglas Wolfsperger
(Germany 2014) with
Greta Klingsberg, Annika
Westphal, Ikra-Fatma
Latif ◆◆◆ Preparing
the children’s opera
Brundibár, originally
played in Theresienstadt,
a multicultural cast of
young Berliners confronts
past atrocities. When they
meet Greta, one of the few survivors of the original cast,
they’re inspired by her beaming optimism and transform
the play through their own reflections. This documentary
is a serene revisit to the past without being paralysed by
its weight, a story about the redeeming power of music,
as well as an extraordinary encounter between different
generations and cultural backgrounds. YC
28 • DECEMBER 2014
When all the world’s
a stage By EVE LUCAS
If, as Marxist theatre philosopher Alain Badiou
has suggested, a film is over once completed
and cannot turn audiences into participants as
theatre can, why are so many filmmakers drawn
to theatre in their work? One reason lies in
precisely that apposition between a finished
object (film) and an ongoing process (theatre). In
French director Olivier Assayas’ THE CLOUDS OF
SILS MARIA (photo), Maria (Binoche) is a middleaged
actress. Visiting the legendary Swiss resort
Sils Maria, she’s persuaded to take on the role of
an older woman in a play in which she starred,
playing the younger, aggressive part, some two
decades ago. Reading lines with her PA Valentine
(a cool, subtle Stewart), she explores more than
a role. Another set of meetings with her young
nemesis, a highly visible young actress (Moretz),
confronts Maria with the virtual realities of new
social media – a sideline excursion into Assayas’
interest in Debord’s theories on life as spectacle.
The film is immensely, rewardingly complex:
scenes showing Valentine and Maria running
lines practically blend reality, theatre and film
before fading theatrically to curtained black.
Binoche plays both herself and her role as Maria
– who, in turn, is developing a stage character
whose lesbian relationship with a younger
woman brims back into her encounters with Val.
Playing to an intimated audience, the dialogues
are naturalist but self-consciously so, and their
cumulative effect indeed suggests growing selfawareness
in the Brechtian sense. But whilst exploring
this explicitly theatrical process, Assayas
also exploits filmic possibilities such as fluid
editing and matching location to plot: in this
case the symbolically ephemeral cloud formation
of the “Maloja snake” (also the name of the play)
that occasionally meanders into the local valley to
underscore the question of what is real and how
the (dramatic) arts can shape perceptions of it.
FILM
editor’s
pick
Could sheer persistence explain the jury’s preference
for this year’s Palme d’or winner WINTER
SLEEP (Kis uykusu) from Turkish director Nuri
Bilge Ceylan over Assayas’ film? Former actor and
current hotel owner Aydin (Bilginer) goes through
a similar process of self-awareness to that explored
by Assayas. Holed up for the cold winter months
in the picturesque Cappadocian cave landscape,
Aydin writes a pompous blog but is really in the
process of researching a definitive work on Turkish
theatre. He prides himself on an enlightened,
un-patriarchal attitude to his unhappy wife, his
bored sister and various other dependents, but
as he (and we) comes to realise, not many people
around him buy into his delusions. Again, it’s the
theatrical principle of dialogue and self-awareness
that propels this film. Withdrawn in beautifully
rendered cave-rooms full of flickering shadows,
Aydin indulges his self-aggrandisement by talking
down his interlocutors. Like Plato’s philosopher,
he discards illusion and delusion for a reality
check only when he’s physically outside. But three
hours of dialogue, however cleverly scripted and
thematically telling, is a long time. And ending
with a very filmic off-screen confessional, which
may or may not stand the test of time, Ceylan
seems, as Plato did, to express a distrust of theatrical
procedures. Such a conclusion – validated by
a temporary result but in denial over its methods
– achieves an interesting experimental tension
but remains disappointingly inconclusive. ■
STARTS DEC 11
Winter Sleep ◆◆◆
D: Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey, France, Germany 2014) with Haluk
Bilginer, Melisa Sözen, Demet Akbag (dubbed in German)
STARTS DEC 18
The Clouds of Sils Maria ◆◆◆◆
D: Olivier Assayas (France, Switzerland, Germany 2014) with
Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, Chloë Grace Moretz
ALL MOVIES ARE IN OV WITH GERMAN SUBTITLES UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED

STARTS NOV 27
The Zero Theorem
D: Terry Gilliam (USA 2014) with Christoph
Waltz, Mélanie Thierry, David Thewlis
◆ If Brazil was ahead of its
time and still looks avant-garde
nowadays, The Zero Theorem already
feels outdated at the time of
release. Set in a dystopia regulated
by the enigmatic “Management”
and dominated by neon colours,
digital images, memory chips and
fibre optics, a hermitic computer
hacker Qohen Leth (Waltz) strives
to decipher the meaning of human
existence through algorithm.
His only ‘interpersonal’ contact
consists of a simulated love
interest, a teenage hacker and
a virtual psychiatrist. This time
Gilliam’s trademark labyrinthine
narrative thread is more alienating
than thought-provoking, and his
female protagonist is diminished
into a bland, blond sex object. In
Gilliam’s attempt to create Leth as
someone who is waiting for some
form of a digitised Godot while
being physically entangled in wires
most of the time, those existential
questions are sketchily raised and
fail to forge any connection with
the film’s aesthetics as a whole.
Although Waltz’s performance is
professional, he is unfortunately
drowned in a kitschy mise-enscène
and a careless script. It
is a pellmell of everything but at
the same time full of void. As the
film’s own tag-line accurately puts
it: “Every thing adds up to nothing,
that’s the point.” YC
STARTS DEC 4
Im Keller
D: Ulrich Seidl (Austria 2014) documentary
◆◆◆◆ After his recent foray
into feature film territory with his
Paradise trilogy, Seidl is back on
home turf with this mischievous
documentary exposing the dark
underbelly of Austrian basements.
It’s in Seidl’s familiarly wry and
observational style as laundrywomen
pose for the camera while
washing machines churn disinterestedly
– but it’s also startlingly
provocative, as Im Keller dragnets
myriad underground goings-on.
Apart from glimpses of miniature
railway enthusiasts, radio fanatics
and home-bar owners, there’s
also a seamier side to cellar life,
as Seidl observes and interviews
masochists, dominatrixes,
cupboard-mothers nursing plastic
dolls and old-schoolers nostalgic
for the Third Reich.
Opening with a long sequence
of a python in a terrarium gearing
up to devour its freshly served
guinea pig lunch, Im Keller explores
these fantasy spaces below
ground – periodically violent, but
always in thrall to man’s most
primitive passions. And as men
and women (but mainly men) live
out the private urges they prefer to
hide below stairs, Seidl exposes
Austria’s darker side – preoccupied
with sex, immigration and power.
It’s no doubt a portrait of just one
stratum of society, skewed and
sordid. But scratching to get under
the skin of Austrian suburbia, it’s
a deliciously grotesque portrait all
the same. MW
worth 10 €, 15 €, 25 € or 50 € –
redeemable for all CineStar products
Find this and more vouchers at the box office
and in our online shop at cinestar.de
29

What’s on
FILM
STARTS DEC 4
Magic in the Moonlight
D: Woody Allen (USA
2014) with Colin Firth,
Emma Stone ◆◆
The annual Allen returns
with a 1920s tale of a
commercially hard-nosed
magician (Firth) lured
to the South of France
to expose a delightful
young American medium
(Stone). Can passion
trump reason? Might there be life after death? Questions
that Allen ventilates (again) in perfect pageantry on
retro-hued 35mm film. Invoking its titular atmospherics,
the film meanders entertainingly between cynicism and
charm but ultimately flounders in the concept of elusive
illusionism that it set out to explore. EL
“The house is the
main character”By YUN-HUA CHEN
With her third feature film Exhibition, acclaimed British director JOANNA
HOGG explores new possibilities of film space.
EXHIBITION
Dec 11
STARTS DEC 4
Third Person
D: Paul Haggis (UK, USA,
Germany, Belgium 2013)
with Liam Neeson, Mila
Kunis, Adrien Brody
◆ Haggis (Crash)
again attempts to join the
dots between apparently
disparate stories. Here,
it’s couples dealing with
parent-child dependency.
Travelling through time
and space with a writer (an implausible Neeson) working
on his fourth book in a Parisian hotel, Haggis’ script turns
creative turmoil to potluck trauma before resolving itself
in narrative conceit – but not before we’ve sat through
some indifferent acting, confused editing and the feeling
that our efforts are not matched by those on screen. EL
STARTS DEC 4
The Drop
D: Michaël R. Roskam
(USA 2014) with Tom
Hardy, Noomi Rapace,
James Gandolfini, Matthias
Schoenaerts ◆◆ Two
cousins run a Brooklyn bar
as part of a money laundry/deposit
system that
finds itself under investigation
after a robbery goes
wrong. The script fails to
sustain intrigue but Hardy and Gandolfini fill the contours
of damaged New Yorker ‘hood characters, providing the
kind of depth that bears fruit as events unfold in the final
act. Whilst cast and cinematography aren’t enough to completely
redeem the film’s faults, its old-school storytelling
and gloomily fatalistic tone will find fans. ZS
STARTS DEC 11
Exhibition
D: Joanna Hogg (UK
2014) with Viviane Albertine,
Liam Gillick, Tom
Hiddleston ◆◆◆
Hogg’s film about an
artist couple facing
significant life changes
when their house goes on
sale (see interview, right)
not only proceeds via the
development of an art
installation, but is an installation in and of itself: we see
their mysterious alienation and sexual discord, as well as
their physical and metaphysical blending into the house.
As potential buyers examine the house, the most intimate
details in their marriage also come under scrutiny. A subtly
unsettling film with artistic quirkiness and a poignant
look at marriage and human relationships. YC
A surreal drama about a couple trying to sell
their London townhouse, the film (see review,
left) moves towards a less linear narrative
structure to give audiences more freedom of
interpretation.
Your film plays with the concepts of
‘exhibition’ and ‘exhibitionism’ as well as
film as an art installation. How did that
develop? The fact that this film was about
this play between exhibition and exhibitionism
became clearer to me when we were editing. Up
until that point, I was focusing on the idea of
the house, which is like a gallery space too – a
container for all the ideas, the dreams and the
memories, the life of this married couple.
You suggest visually that the house in
Exhibition could be a prison. What else
might it be? A prison, but also a haven: a place
to escape to and to feel safe in. I was always
interested in the idea of the house and the main
female character becoming part of the house,
almost like she’s becoming part of the architecture.
But yes, she is also trying to leave the confines
of the house. In a way, she is in a relationship
with it. That’s an easier relationship for her
than the relationship with her husband. With the
house, they sort of melt into each other. They
become the same thing. I was always interested
in the story about the three characters, or maybe
you could even say one character: the house. The
house is the main character, the main idea, and
everything else exists within that.
In contrast to earlier films, you’ve used
a lot of dream and recollection imagery,
almost like ghosts intruding into reality.
This was something I was experimenting with
for the first time. I was challenging myself to
work with a less linear structure, but also to
incorporate dreams and memories. It was the
house itself that sort of provided me with the
idea. My earlier films seem more real but actually
this one feels like a more realistic depiction
of my own life: how one is constantly dreaming
and remembering but is also in the present moment
as well.
Does your use of those images change the
film’s relationship with the spectator? Yes.
What I discovered is that it is more challenging
for the audience to enter that space and to
understand it, so I often get responses such as,
“I sort of don’t get it” or “I am kind of not in
there”. But I also get the opposite response.
There doesn’t seem to be a mid-way point. I
have to accept that. But because it is less linear
as a story, I think the audience finds that more
difficult to see.
You explore women’s sexuality in such
a subtle way – something more female
filmmakers should be allowed to do. It’s
important that there should be more female
film makers. But I have to say that I think less
about being a female filmmaker now than when
I was directing television, working with male
crews. Having done that for 12 years, I came out
determined to feel safe in an environment of my
own making. I think about it in a more political
way: in terms of how many women assist men in
making films. I want to encourage more women
to find their own voices. ■
30 • DECEMBER 2014
ALL MOVIES ARE IN OV WITH GERMAN SUBTITLES UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED

www.radialsystem.de
SPACE FOR ARTS AN
STARTS DEC 11
Timbuktu
D: Abderrahmane Sissako (France, Mauritania
2014) with Ibrahim Ahmed, Toulou Kiki,
Abel Jafri ◆◆◆ A contender for this
year’s Palme d’Or, Sissako’s film
about the havoc wrought by Islamic
fundamentalists on his home country
of Mali and in particular the
city of Timbuktu could hardly have
anticipated its contemporaneity.
Beautifully and lovingly crafted with
all the golden warmth and contemplative
grandeur once associated
with the mystique of Timbuktu,
Sissako centres events on a herdsman’s
family headed by Kidane
(Ahmed) whose rage at the loss of
a valuable cow leads to a killing for
which Kidane is held to merciless
account by the district’s new fundamentalist
rulers. Far from depicting
these as ideologically blinded,
gun-touting fools, Sissako portrays
them as quietly but disastrously
errant: unaccustomed rulers whose
pursuit of the bewildered local
population takes place almost
lightly and with occasional touches
of humour as they chase men who
still play music or football across
dusty streets and mud-baked
roofs, argue with the local imam
or administer a death sentence.
One scene of particular brutality is
rendered almost soundlessly; you
have to look twice to see it as a
fitting metaphor for a new inability
to communicate tolerance and
tradition – and admire Sissako for
choosing a quiet path to lament the
white noise of dogma. EL
Angels’ Share
a staged concert in English
NICO AND THE NAVIGATORS
Radialsystem V: 5th | 6th | 7th December, 8 p.m.
STARTS DEC 18
The Homesman
D: Tommy Lee Jones (USA 2014) with
Hillary Swank, Tommy Lee Jones ◆◆◆
Distilling the scattered plotlines
of his promising directorial debut,
Tommy Lee Jones returns to the
big chair with The Homesman:
a streamlined, sombre western
which confirms his abilities with
the megaphone, even if it does
try a bit too hard. Hillary Swank
plays Mary Dee Cuddy, a hardy,
successful farmer in her early
thirties who still hopes, perhaps
in earnest, to wed. Everyone calls
her bossy: it’s difficult to disagree.
A cruel winter leaves three of her
community’s young women in
various degrees of mental disrepair
and when their utterly useless
husbands decide that enough’s
enough, they draw to determine
who will escort them to an asylum
across state. Cuddy ends up with
the job. She finds Tommy Lee
Jones strung up to a tree and
agrees to free him if he’ll come
along for the ride.
There’s a sense Jones is
fancying himself as quite the
contemporary here, delving into
subjects which classic Hollywood
would have considered quite
taboo, but, regrettably, these
depictions of insanity are rather
crude. Still, like an easy read, The
Homesman is a film worth getting
lost in; both in Rodrigo Prieto’s
finely photographed landscapes,
and in the deep contours of that
magnificent, weathered face. ROC
DEUTSCH IN ENGLISH!
MAXIM GORKI THEATRE
WITH ENGLISH SURTITLES
SEE yOU bACK fOR
THE 2014/15 SEASON!
www.gorki.de
31

What’s on
FILM
STARTS DEC 11
The Loft
D: Erik Van Looy (USA
2014) with Wentworth
Miller, James Marsden,
Rhona Mitra ◆◆
Belgian director and
game-show host Van
Looy directed a Belgian
version of this story in
2008, and the morality
tale of five married men
who share an uptown flat
for extramarital assignations travels well to a sexed-up
noir New York setting. Yet despite a plausible amalgam
of ambition undermined by boredom and arrogance,
slack pace and editing in this classic whodunit leave the
viewer with enough time to work out what’s working, what
isn’t – and why. EL
Flicks our picks
Special screenings, festivals and retrospectives you shouldn’t miss this month
AROUND THE
WORLD IN
14 FILMS
Nov 28 - Dec 7
STARTS DEC 18
Serena
D: Susanne Bier (USA,
France, Czech Republic
2014) with Bradley Cooper,
Jennifer Lawrence
◆ Danish director
Susanne Bier goes all-out
wide-screen epic Hollywood.
The result lacks
focus. As they lustily fell
whole swathes of North
Carolina’s forests during
the Depression, young, dashing timber-empire scion
George (Cooper) and glamorous wife Serena (Lawrence)
show scant regard for early conservationism, but with a
mythical tree-man egging on a far-fetched plot and an
overly metaphorical ending involving a surfeit of animal
imagery, Bier hints heavily that nature will seek revenge.
Timberrrr! EL
STARTS DEC 25
Coherence
D: James Ward Byrkit
(USA 2013) with Emily
Baldoni, Nicholas Brendon
◆◆◆ Realities multiply
and collide in this trippy,
geekily funny sci-fi thriller.
The premise is outrageous
as comet-induced chaos
taps into our most basic
existential angst. The
plot gets a bit muddled
and the dialogue overly expository in the mid-section,
occasionally forfeiting a consistent sense of dread. But
things come together at the end as one narrative point
of view successfully asserts itself and brings it all to an
easily identifiable, smartly climatic close. ZS
STARTS DEC 25
The Theory of Everything
D: James Marsh (UK
2014) with Eddie
Redmayne, Felicity Jones
◆◆◆ As we saw in
Shadow Dancer, James
Marsh doesn’t shy
away from complexity,
so serious physics get
considerable screenplay
in this thoughtful look at
the relationship between
genial genius Stephen Hawking and his first wife Jane.
They met at Cambridge just before he was diagnosed
with ALS and a vibrant camera captures both the flush
of youth and the hard-won pleasures of marital and
professional maturity. Jones hides her lights behind
Redmayne’s bushel, but he really shines. Any Oscars in
those black holes? EL
NOV 28 - DEC 7
Globetrotting with films
AROUND THE WORLD IN 14 FILMS returns to Babylon
for the nineth time to take audiences on another
trip around world cinema. It opens with Andrey
Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan, a powerful Russian social
drama (partially sponsored by Russia’s Ministry of
Culture) probing the depths of a corrupted society,
accompanied by Philip Glass’s mesmerising
soundtrack. Exploring a different form of nepotism,
Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy’s The Tribe (Ukraine) follows
a group of deaf mute teenagers in a boarding
school in which hierarchy has been strictly defined
by the in-house mafia. Using diegetic sound only
and sign language without subtitles, the film beautifully
recreates the deaf mute’s feeling in a hearing
world. In Tsai Ming-Liang’s Stray Dogs (Taiwan),
sound is used sparsely in the context of a deprived
family squatting between collapsing ruins in Taipei
– a tour de force of social inequality and absurdity
of urban space. Amongst work from legendary
auteur filmmakers, Aleksei German’s last film Hard
to be a God (Russia/Ukraine) maintains trademark
black-and-white cinematography and digressive
narrative, while effectively creating a mélange of
medieval looking sci-fi; Jean-Luc Godard’s Adieu au
Langage (France/Switzerland) is the first 3D film
essay, revolutionising the medium while keeping
the spirit of la nouvelle vague; whilst Lav Diaz’s
From What is Before (Philippines) is a stunning
black-and-white tale set in 1972 in a remote Filipino
village – a historical, lyrical and mystical epic
of five and a half hours. For something geographically
closer to home, Franz Müller’s Worst Case
Scenario (Germany) is a border-crossing film-in-afilm
comedy in which a director struggles to make
a comedy about the UEFA football championship
in Poland with a continuously diminishing cast and
crew, while his complicated relationship with the
costume designer aka ex-girlfriend is aggravated by
an unexpected pregnancy. From epic to epicurean:
there’s something here for everybody. YC AROUND
THE WORLD IN 14 FILMS | Kino Babylon, Rosa-Luxemburg-Str.
30, Mitte, U-Bhf Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz
DEC 4-7
From porn to poetry
… Berlin has it all, and it was only a matter of time
before somebody hit upon the idea of curating a
LEVIATHAN
festival in which it all comes together under one
festival roof. Showing over 30 Berlin-themed films
and all with English subtitles, the BERLIN ART FILM
FESTIVAL opens with Ich will mich nicht künstlich
aufregen (Asta Upset), preempting the film’s general
German release by over one month and picking
up on the (non-profit; non-funded; non-sponsored)
festival’s own privately resolved funding issues
with a tale of a Berlin art curator who finds herself
scouting for new sources of financial support.
Day two features a live dialogue dubbing of the
infamous 2001 guerrilla porn film Bonking Berlin
Bastards. Thomas Arslan’s Der Schöne Tag (A Fine
Day) and a Bruce La Bruce session show on Dec 6
whilst the German premiere of Sabine Lidl’s documentary
Nan Goldin – I Remember your Face wraps
things up on Dec 7. A short film programme will
also show. Films are flanked by panel discussions
– in English – with filmmakers, half of whom are
women. Party fans should’t miss Südblock on Dec
6. Let’s hear it for Berlin and the films that give it
some edge. For details, check berlinartfilmfestival.
de. EL THE BERLIN ART FILM FESTIVAL | FSK am Oranienplatz,
Segitzdamm 2; Südblock, Admiralstr. 1-2; Kreuzberg,
U-Bhf Kottbusser Tor
DEC 4-10
Willkommen, bienvenue…
This year’s FRENCH FILM WEEK serves up everything
we (stereotypically) associate with la grande
nation – including concepts for which only the
French have words. An amour fou is at the heart
of 3 coeurs (Benoit Jacquot, 2013), the festival’s
celebrity-cast opening film in which a tax inspector
inadvertently inspires the love of a tempestuous
woman (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her steady
sister (Chiara Mastroianni) under the watchful eye
of gourmand mamam (Deneuve). Slightly uneven
in tone, scenes of grande bouffe provincial feasting
are also a constant in Au fil d’Ariane which
offsets a mythical, dream-like scenario of lost
souls loosely attached to a port café in Marseille
against the bon bourgeois aspirations of a woman
turning 50. Paris – and the rest of France – feature
prominently in the films of festival focus actor Vincent
Macaigne, who’s made a specialty of playing
an urbanite lost in the unsophisticated provinces
(Tonnerre, La Fille du 14. Juillet and Le Naufragé).
With 10 premieres (and pre-release screenings of
32 • DECEMBER 2014
ALL MOVIES ARE IN OV WITH GERMAN SUBTITLES UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED

FRENCH FILM
WEEK
Dec 4-10
3 COEURS
Olivier Assayas’ The Clouds of Sils Maria, see page 28), films
from Canada and Belgium, a remastered version of Resnais’
classic Hiroshima mon Amour and a chance to catch both
this year’s German box office leader Qu’est-ce qu’on a fait au
Bon Dieu (Monsieur Claude und seine Töchter) and director
Benoit on opening night, the variety and depth of year’s
festival (including four films of particular note presented by
the Institut Francais) looks set to outpace last year’s 9000
visitors. Bonne chance, bon courage! EL FRENCH FILM WEEK |
various venues; full programme at www.franzoesische-filmwoche.de
DEC 12-30
Happy feet
It’s the season, and if you can’t afford tickets for the
Nutcracker at the Staatsoper, there’s plenty of foot-tapping
going on at Arsenal as it starts ALL SINGING, ALL DANCING,
a two-month extravaganza of golden era Hollywood musicals.
Tracing their development from screwball plot enlivener to art
form, screenings start in the 1930s with Fred and Ginger in
Top Hat, picking up The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939)
and Vincente Minnelli’s 1945 Ziegfield Follies and 1951 An
American in Paris along the way before reaching an apotheosis
in films such as Singin’ in the Rain (1952) and Rouben
Mamoulian’s remake of Lubitsch’s Ninotchka, the 1957
classic Silk Stockings. Get your kicks … EL ALL SINGING, ALL
DANCING. HOLLYWOOD MUSICALS 1933 – 1957 | Arsenal, Potsdamer Str. 2,
Mitte, S+U-Bhf Potsdamer Platz
DEC 16, 20:30
Gay behind the Wall
Say what you will about Ostalgie, but East Germany did do
away with the criminalisation of homosexual acts in 1968,
one year earlier than its Western counterpart. The rosy memories
stop there, however. At this month’s EXBlicks, OUT IN
EAST BERLIN, Jochen Hick and Andreas Strohfeldt explore the
lives of homosexuals behind the Wall – from cruising areas
to separated lovers to encounters with malicious “Romeos”,
Stasi informants masquerading as lovers to get a handle on
homosexual activism. Beginning with the seemingly common
childhood memories of gays and lesbians, it becomes clear
that the political climate presented a different set of problems
to those experiencing Cold War Berlin. The timespan
of the film takes us all the way to when Coming Out, the first
DEFA film to explore gay themes, well, came out, its release
date practically nullifying its triumph – November 9, 1989. In
cooperation with realeyz.tv, join Exberliner and Jochen Hick
to celebrate the film’s release on DVD – followed, as always,
by complimentary wine. EXBLICKS: OUT IN EAST BERLIN | Lichtblick
Kino, Kastanienallee 77, Prenzlauer Berg, U-Bhf Senefelderplatz
17. & 18. 12. 2014, 20 Uhr
A FREAK SHOW FOR S.
A TRIBUTE PERFORMANCE TO
SARAH BAARTMAN BY ANNABEL GUÉRÉDRAT
www.ballhausnaunynstrasse.de
T. (030) 754 537 25 33

What’s on
STAGE
DEC 5-6, 20:00, DEC 7, 17:00
Ah! Oh! – A Contemporary Ritual
Berlin choreographer Kat
Válastur contrasts the
strength of ancestral rituals
with our achievementoriented
society. Following
GLAND as a part of the
series “The Marginal
Sculptures of Newtopia”,
this new performance
features six performers
lost in a post-apocalyptic
society. They seem to be existing only for themselves, but
still they are looking for contact with others, remembering
collective movements, evoking traditional circle dances.
Rites as an orientation tool for the future? HAU2,
Hallesches Ufer 32, Kreuzberg, U-Bhf Möckernbrücke
DEC 5-7, 20:00
Angels’ Share
Nico and the Navigators
present an absurd trip
with six musicians, two
performers and a singer,
travelling from the courtly
London world of Henry
Purcell to village pubs in
the Scottish Highlands,
navigating between highclass
and alehouse culture,
between melancholy
inebriation and love of life. The title evokes the part of
the whisky that evaporates during storage, supplying “the
angels”. On December 7, the show is preceded at 17:30
by a screening of Mission Impossible?, a documentary
film on Nico and the Navigators, followed by a discussion
with the artists. Radialsystem V, Holzmarktstr. 33,
Friedrichshain, S-Bhf Ostbahnhof
DEC 5-7, 20:00
Afghan Love
Performed by Living
Room Productions,
an English-speaking
theatre group working in
Berlin since 2000, Daniel
Sauermilch’s Woody Allenesque
play features an
eager idealist and philanthropists,
fiercely pointing
out their inconsistencies
and making it difficult to
choose whom to identify with. The play will be preceded
by a reading of poetry by the Native American activist
Leonard Peltier, imprisoned on dubious charges for 39
years. Get three tickets for the price of two by booking in
advance. Theaterforum Kreuzberg, Eisenbahnstr. 21,
Kreuzberg, U-Bhf Schlesisches Tor
GERMAN THEATRE
Premieres
■ WIR ZÖPFE, Marianna Salzmann’s Christmas comedy
featuring Christians, Jews and Muslims, Dec 13, 19:30, Dec
15, 19, 25, 19:30 with English surtitles, Gorki
■ ARIZONA LADY, Katharine Mehrling as the resolute
rancher with Hungarian roots in Emmerich Kálmán‘s Western
operetta, Dec 21, 18:00, Komische Oper
With English surtitles
■ THE PAST, choreographer Constanza Macras focuses
on the art of memory, Dec 1, 20:00, Schaubühne
■ VORHAUT, a comedy about a piece of skin, Dec 27-
30, 20:00, Ballhaus Naunynstr.
IOSIFLYKAKIS
NICO AND THE NAVIGATORS
LIVING ROOM PRODUCTIONS
Choose your
weapon
By LINUS IGNATIUS
Daniel Wetzel of performance
group Rimini Protokoll explains
the trio’s “multi-player video
piece” SITUATION ROOMS,
coming to Berlin December 14.
Guided by a video playing on an Ipad, you wander
through a film set as you follow the perspectives
of real people whose lives have been shaped
by weapons: a drone pilot, a war photographer,
a shooting champion at a gun range. Chosen
for this year’s Theatertreffen but not shown in
Berlin until now, Situation Rooms is the latest
of Rimini Protokoll’s site-specific, informative
pieces modeled after current events. The
founders – Wetzel, fellow German Helgard Haug
and Swiss Stefan Kaegi – have received numerous
awards worldwide for their contributions to
theater, including the German Faust prize (2007)
and the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale (2011).
What inspired you to create a piece on
the arms industry? We were examining the
paradox of producing and selling weapons. We
thought, we want to learn more about why it
is like that. So we started from the German
viewpoint. But you can’t just discuss it nationally;
it’s actually a European question. And then
we decided to make a model of the whole world
in these 20 rooms. It’s about many, very different
viewpoints on the fact that there are weapons
and violence everywhere in the world.
How did you choose your characters? We
wanted to talk to people in the industries. It’s
not so easy, the further up you go. You can enter
a shop and talk to the person that sells guns.
But if you talk to lobbyists, they give you half an
hour, they know what they want to say and they
don’t listen to you. Talking to manufacturers – no
chance. They’re not interested! They say, “Look,
the theatre audience is the liberal left. Why
should I stand there like an idiot and explain why
my product is important? There are regulations.
If you don’t like them, change them. Otherwise I
will do my work. There is no reason for dialogue.”
How did you continue your research when
you encountered these roadblocks? One
journalist said to us, “If you want to talk about
weapons, you can think about the weapon or the
wound.” So we also started research from the
side of those who had been affected by violence.
We spoke with refugees at Oranienplatz
and people from Doctors
Without Borders.
What kinds of people did you encounter?
I’d never spoken to a drone
pilot before, or a lawyer who defends
SITUATION ROOMS
Dec 14 - Jan 11 |
HAU2, Hallesches
Ufer 32, Kreuzberg,
U-Bhf Hallesches Tor
victims of drone strikes in Pakistan. I’d never
spoken to someone responsible for cartel killings
in Mexico, or refugees from Sudan who had to
escape Libya because otherwise they would be
slaughtered by rebels. You know these faces from
TV or media, but it’s something else to meet
them and learn what they have to share.
Is there anyone who stands out particularly
strongly? I was very busy with this refugee from
Syria. He sits in front of Facebook watching
every video that pops up in this propaganda battle.
The only thing you can say for sure is yes, yes,
people are dying in a very brutal way – younger
than 10 and older than 80. And he is just watching
this all the time to feed his hate and despair.
What was the intended effect of getting so
close to people, and bringing the audience
into that proximity? In German when two
people have a conflict, and one wants the other
to see it from their point of view, we say “versetz
dich mal in meine Lage”, or “put yourself in my
shoes”. This is the main thing in Situation Rooms.
You enter their situation. And every seven
minutes and 20 seconds you change situations
and enter the situation of someone else. We’re
not claiming that these seven minutes will give
you information in such a concentrated way as a
news article. The information is something else.
It’s a more physical and more emotional memory
than facts.
Could you describe the films?
How does the audience experience
the story? We were experimenting
with this format of simultaneous
shooting. Every film was shot
simultaneously within just seven
34 • DECEMBER 2014

STAGE
editor’s
pick
JORG BAUMANN
Waffenlounge: our picks
This piece is part of a larger series on
weapons, war, and violence at the HAU called
Waffenlounge. The programme’s headliner,
EXPORTING WAR, is a new production by Hans-
Werner Kroesinger (Dec 3-20, 20:00, HAU1, in
German) about the weapons market in Germany
and abroad. The showing on Dec 13 will be
followed by a talk with the director and experts
in the field. In WEAPON OF CHOICE – ODER:
GIBT ES HELDEN OHNE WAFFEN?, directed by
Franziska Seeberg, students from Kreuzberg
present their experiences searching for
weapons in their own neighbourhood (Dec 15,
16, 18:00, HAU3). Finally, a discussion will be
held with various international artists and the
members of Rimini Protokoll following Harun
Farocki’s film BILDER VON GEWALT (Dec 18,
18:00 [screening], 20:00 [discussion], HAU1).
The theme will be representations of violence,
bringing together many of the programme’s difficult
questions in a powerful forum.
I’m not saying any of this is not super tough. But
it’s more tactile, and compared to what you hear
in reports and see on BBC or in documentaries,
our stories are relatively modest.
minutes inside the film set. There are 20 films,
but each audience member sees only 10. That
means you jump back in time nine times, starting
at the beginning of those particular seven
minutes. If you want to see the entire thing,
you come twice. But this is not our intention. It
is fractured. If you had made 400 rooms, with
400 stories, it would still be a fragment of the
world. So many others could have shared their
experiences with us.
There’s an element of almost childlike
excitement for the audience as they move
through the film set. But there are also
moments in the films that are disturbing
and upsetting – do you want to create a dissonance
between these two feelings? You
are really under tension in this piece, especially
in the beginning. You enter and you learn how
the game works. You realise, I’m not outside
the game. I don’t sit in front of the screen, just
playing. I am a factor for others. But it’s not so
horrible. There are moments when you get told
really bad things, and you see what happens
when people kill other people. You see choppedup
limbs, yes, and you see fragmented bodies.
What about the genre: film set, documentary
theatre, and you called it a ‘game’…
“Multi-player video piece”, we’re calling it. But
for us it’s important to always cross genres –
that’s the fun of it. That’s the drive, the motive.
What haven’t we done, what would be a new
kind of experience? A project should always be
an adventure. For us, theatre is a place where
you can constantly try to reinvent the reasons we
come together, and how we want to share stories.
It’s a big laboratory that doesn’t work without
the interest of the people that come and see it.
So we always try to take the next step. For us,
and for you. ■
35

What’s on
STAGE
Dance before Christmas
DEC 11-14, 20:00
Now I Lay Me Down
“What a gently welcoming
darkestness” – so begins
E.E. Cummings’ poem
“Now i lay(with everywhere
around)”. And so
Kaleidoskop perform their
new piece freely inspired
by the poet – in the
darkness. The ensemble
is constantly reinventing
ways of staging and
listening to music. In this sensitive experience, sounds
become architecture and music becomes environment.
Relieved from visual attractions, the listener, between
sleep and awakening, is part of a musical body that
generates its own dreams. The evening includes pieces
by Johann Sebastian Bach, Samuel Barber and Benjamin
Britten. Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Schaperstr. 24,
Wilmersdorf, U-Bhf Spichernstr.
DEC 15-21
I. Hungarian Contemporary Dance Festival
Presented by Bakelit
Multi Art Center, the
festival aims to represent
outstanding Hungarian
contemporary dance with
a broad variety of works.
Introducing 14 pieces,
the week starts with
Compagnie Pál Frenák’s
InTimE, featuring six
performers dealing with
attraction and decision around a red sofa (photo), and
ends with Auction, a performance in the course of which
Krisztián Gergye creates a fine art product, immediately
exhibited afterwards, offered “for sale” and destroyed.
Dock 11, Kastanienallee 79, Prenzlauer Berg, U-Bhf
Eberswalder Str.
DEC 14, 21, 19:00
Waiting for Godot
Great Bulgarian director
Dimiter Gotscheff died
during preliminary work on
this production – his actors
decided to finish the
work and bring it to the
stage as an affectionate
homage, directed by Ivan
Panteleev. Their version
takes place on a titled
stage pierced with a big
hole, emphasising the absurdity of Vladimir and Estragon’s
waiting by their going round and round in circles. Andreas
Döhler’s performance as Lucky is remarkable, especially
when it comes to his monologue: nonsensical, furious and
sincere. On the 14th with English surtitles. Deutsches
Theater, Schumannstr. 13, Mitte, S+U-Bhf Friedrichstr.
ENGLISH COMEDY
■ BAUM HAUS Comedy showcase and open mic in a
techno club! Hosted by Dharmander Singh. Dec 4, 21:00,
Grießmuehle
■ OFF THE CUFF Tear-inducingly funny format where
comedians improvise from topics they have never seen,
Dec 12, 20:30, T Berlin
■ THE FISH BOWL Berlin’s legendary fortnightly comedy
showcase. Dec 18, 20:30, Grießmuehle
■ COMEDY AUF DEUGLISH Stand-up comedy where
some performers perform in English, some in German - all
in Deuglish. Always packed and lively - free food! Dec 20,
20:30, Vétomat
ARNO DECLAIR COMPAGNIE PAL FRENAK LADISLAV ZAJAC
With the second TANZEN VOR WEIHNACHTEN festival, Acker Stadt
Palast invites dancers and the audience to meet.
“Our everyday life movements are so poor!”
states Acker Stadt Palast’s artistic director Anete
Colacioppo. “The computer tells you how you have
to behave in front of it, the furniture doesn’t allow
much freedom of movement. Some people go
dancing in clubs, but even there, the movements
are quite stipulated – you wouldn’t lie on the floor.
I would like to put the brakes on that a bit.” The
Brazilian actress and curator has been involved in
theatre since the age of 14. She arrived in Berlin in
2003: “I was surprised by the precise ways theatre
and dance styles are described here. Maybe that’s
why I am still so curious about all the possibilities
performing arts has to offer,” she adds. This
extensive curiosity is reflected in her festival’s
programme, exploring with 12 different pieces how
varied contemporary dance can be, and allowing
audience members to experience some of these
possibilities themselves.
The Viennese duo of Tiina Sööt and Dorothea
Zeyringer present LONELY LONELY, a piece danced
in cardboard boxes. Forced to adapt, “the dancers’
bodies are nearly absent,” comments Colacioppo,
glad to demonstrate that “dance doesn’t have
to be so focused on the body.” REPAIR:MOVE, by
Richter/Meyer/Marx, also questions the place of
the body in a performance, using the repetition of
movements performed within heavy
red costumes that emphasise the
body without really showing it.
On the other side of the dance
scale, Greek dancer Athanasia
Kanellopoulou shows
THE RETURN OF PENELOPE, a
strongly emotional piece based
on powerful physical expression.
“It’s almost pathetic – the kind of
work that you see very rarely in
the German scene, where artists
II TANZEN VOR
WEIHNACHTEN –
TRANSMISSIONS
December 16-21,
20:00 | Acker
Stadt Palast,
Ackerstr. 169/170,
Mitte, U-Bhf
Rosenthaler Platz
tend rather to focus on the structural or formal
aspects of the movement.” Concentrated on movement’s
pure beauty, Berlin-based Korean dancer
Howool Baek’s minimalistic piece DID U HEAR
exposes small parts of the body subtly moving:
“Sometimes only the hand or the foot,
which opens a lot of images.” The festival also
focuses on the connection between dance and
new music. AUS VIERUNDZWANZIG: SIEBEN, a
short piece by composer Uwe Rasch and dancer
Kiri Haardt, is the result of a common composition;
whereas Gabriel Galindez Cruz created
LA PERFEZIONE DI UNO SPIRITO SOTTILE as a response
to a music piece by Salvatore Siarrino and
performs it as a “choreographic concert” together
with a flautist and a singer.
“For me, it’s important to give the audience the
opportunity to experience something,” says Colacioppo.
“And I am very interested in the connection
between seeing and doing.” That’s how the idea of
systematic JAM SESSIONS after the festival performances
came. “It’s an attempt to mix the audience
with the artists and see what comes out.” Every
evening, following the last show, a 20-minute session
will be opened, inviting audience members to
join the artists on stage. In a relaxed atmosphere,
the dancers will teach the audience an easy way of
working with the body – to play with distance
and proximity, repeat the same movement
several times, vary the speed or try to imitate
someone else’s gestures. Small, easy
‘tools’ that can be freely experienced and
re-used later on, as an impulse to explore
bodily possibilities. Dancers and audience
members are then, every night, invited to
end the evening in a party atmosphere at
the bar. NATHALIE FRANK
For the full programme, see ackerstadtpalast.de
ATHANASIA KANELLOPOULOU
36 • DECEMBER 2014

What’s on
MUSIC AND NIGHTLIFE
MUSIC
editor’s
pick
The past has not passed By D. STRAUSS
You did it: another year has passed and you kept
reading Exberliner, as I kept writing for it. The
Rick Steves Fever Dream of Berlin kept its hold
and while your college friends were all off getting
graduate degrees and having children, you sat in
a cardboard box for 27 hours in that group show
in the back of that café that closed five months
ago. Even if it turns out that you aren’t an artist,
and barely a person, Berlin – and the Berlin
sound – abides.
By this, do I mean techno? Not exactly. Outside
of Germany, non-specialists tend to crib the
meaning of the genre to refer to everything from
Kraftwerk to SAM SMITH, the youthful vocalist
launched by Disclosure, now on the trajectory
toward awkwardly over-groomed pop star. But
the Berlin sound, as codified shortly before
the turn of the millennium, is electronic dance
music that isn’t necessarily danceable (or even
electronic), with a touch of high-art pedigree. A
techno-pop which nods toward dance, as well as
a certain maturity that, at its best, offers a worldliness
to inner life and, at worst, an enervation.
Although the recent festival mentality has
normalised disparate bookings, it’s why MODERAT,
an act, born in the East, that’s as Berlin techno as
Berlin techno can get, can sign abstract electronicists
MOUSE ON MARS to its Monkeytown
label and play on the same bill as them and THE
NOTWIST, a non-Berliner indie rock band with a
sound sympathetic to the city’s (and on City Slang,
a Berlin label, to boot). And the style’s experimental
aspects harken back to the days of krautrock
– we’ll one day judge Einstürzende Neubauten as
the joint connecting Faust and Nils Frahm.
GUDRUN GUT was an Ingenious Dilettante in
those early days of Neubauten and has a new
record out with Faust’s HANS-JOACHIM IRMLER
– what might have once been a generational, oppositional
pose, now makes sense in the context
of Faust’s project of experimental pop. Gut has
been involved with every major Berlin musical
movement of the last three plus decades, including
the founding of Love Parade; following her
career is as good a way to follow the concerns of
what’s specific to the Berlin music scene as any.
Another is to look at TO ROCOCO ROT, former
East German visual artists who helped define the
post-rock sound and, along with various spin-offs
(Tarwater, Kreidler et al), Berlin’s – it seems that
rarely a week goes by when one of its members
isn’t involved in some project here, musical or
otherwise. Evidently, their dance card has been
piling up – they’re calling a halt to the consortium.
So naturally the opener for their farewell
concert is THE PASTELS, as Scottish as a meal of
dead dog in pantyhose.
But this most non-Berlin of openers is apt:
What is Berlin’s sound now, except for the flailing
of clumsily dressed and underpaid expats
attempting to surf the city’s magic? With the
general destruction of physical urban communities
through rough gentrification and the speed
that bad ideas get shared on the Internet, youth
culture is congealing into a steady flow of nonspecific
sludge. And the only pop star who can
save us from this is BRYAN ADAMS (photo), who
bought a factory on the edge of Berlin a year
or two ago and has promised to fill it up with
artists, musicians and artist-musicians, all living
a creative utopia in order to incubate the city’s
future. This plan has, so far, failed to come to
pass. At his concert, Adams will be performing
an album he recorded three decades ago, entitled
Reckless. I guess the environment was different
then, and this may again be the case next year. n
Music Editor D. Strauss may be contacted at strauss@exberliner.com
SAM SMITH W/YEARS AND YEARS Mon, Dec 1, 20:00 | Astra, Revaler Str. 99, Friedrichshain, S+U-Bhf Warschauer Str. BRYAN
ADAMS Wed, Dec 3 20:00| O2 World, Mühlenstr. 12-30, Friedrichshain, S+U-Bhf Warschauer Str. MONKEYTOWN FEST W/
MODERAT, THE NOTWIST, MOUSE ON MARS, DARK SKY, SIRIUSMSO Fri, Dec 5, 20:00 | Tempodrom, Möckernstr. 10, Kreuzberg, S-Bhf
Anhalter Bahnhof ELEKTROAKUSTISCHER SALON W/IRMLER & LIEBEZEIT, GUT & IRMLER, TENORS OF KALMA, DJ GUIDO MÖBIUS,
Thu, Dec 18, 20:00 | Berghain, Rüdersdorfer Str. 70, Friedrichshain, S-Bhf Ostbahnhof TO ROCOCO ROT W/THE PASTELS Mon, Dec
29, 19:00 | HAU1, Stresemannstr. 29, Kreuzberg, U-Bhf Hallesches Tor
37

What’s on
MUSIC AND NIGHTLIFE
CLUB PICKS
SAT, DEC 6, 23:00
3 Jahre Freudentaumel (Let’s say, techno)
Those who doubt the
reach of the Freudentaumel
crew, need only
gaze upon the all-stars
and label folks who stud
this, a mere birthday
number three, including
Circus Company’s DAVE
AJU (photo), live sets by
faux-Bpitcher ALIEN ALIEN,
RAMPUE, violin virtuoso
ROBERTO SAVVAGIO and JUBEL JETTE, Gigolo’s HRDVSION,
FOG PUMA, Øye hip hop head DELFONIC, DWIG, and about
two dozen more, because three is the magic number.
Ritter Butzke, Ritterstr. 26, Kreuzberg, U-Bhf Moritzplatz
SAT, DEC 13, 23:59
10 Jahre Berghain (Should we assume it
shall be techno?)
There were more articles
on the 25th anniversary
of die Wende that mentioned
Berghain (and how
hard it is for American
journalism students to
get into it) than the Berlin
Wall, and The Little Ostgut
That Could celebrates
its first decade with the
usual insouciance –
minus its new kinky sugar
sculptures, the line-up holds no surprises, just the usual
excellence, with dubstep in the main room with a live set
by SHED (photo), neo-disco and UK Funky in Panorama
Bar with JOAKIM and JOY ORBISON, respectively, and Nordic
balearic on Sunday with SKÅTEBARD. Plus BEN KLOCK
and the regulars. Remember: face tattoos hide the ageing
process. Berghain, Rüdersdorfer Str. 70, Friedrichshain,
S-Bhf Ostbahnhof
WED, DEC. 31
Sylvesterave! (As you like it)
Another year has come
and gone and you never
did get around to writing
that piece for the New
York Times Style section
about how your boyfriend
(now-ex) is pioneering
Central European vegan
chilli. Time to dance off
the disappointment.
If the €139 dinner at
Clärchen’s Ballhaus doesn’t slice your sausage, it’s
only €65 at Kitty Cheng (as a bar, maybe it’s all finger
food). And there’s always that other pole of East German
decadence, Berghain, which mostly features regulars
such as DJ PETE and TAMA SUMO. Gretchen focuses on
its specialty — post-jungle derivatives, with BLACK SUN
EMPIRE (photo) and NEONLIGHT. Ritter Butzke wishes
you all a Hippy New Year, with EINMUSIK, IL CIVETTO and
TIGERSKIN performing live along with a dozen others
DJing, with a similar group — TANITH, MIKE WALL, MITJA
PRINZ, et al — at Suicide Circus. There’s more of that
techno you don’t wish to avoid with LÜTZENKIRCHEN and
DANIEL BOON at M-BIA, while Humboldthain Club fans
out its Allstars, like STEVEN TANG. No techno for you? The
indie-riffic KARRERA KLUB DJs and their various progeny
bring a Pop Explosion to Magnet. If you prefer a bit more
culture, even Radialsystem V is hosting a DJ: LETIZIA
RENZINI. Grüner Salon pretends to be Bassy, with DJ LO-
BOTOMY, MAN TANZRATTE and friends bringing a night of
Spacy Stardust Sleaze, though on Dec 30 Bassy will also
pretend to be Bassy, with JUNGLE GIULIA and GOLBY
SURROUND. Who will you pretend to be in 2015?
All over the city, check specific websites for information
RUTGER PRINS
Cut-ups By MARISSA MEDAL
Gothenburg, Sweden is better
known for its twee and pensive
singer-songwriters. One wouldn’t
expect it to also host the lair of a
LITTLE DRAGON.
But for the better part of a decade, the offkilter
dance-pop consortium, consisting of
singer Yukimi Nagano, bassist Fredrik Källgren,
drummer Erik Boden and keyboardist Håkan
Wirenstrand, have been climbing into public
consciousness, with a boost from Grey’s Anatomy,
Outkast’s Big Boi and, notably, Damon Albarn,
who anointed them honorary Gorillaz. They
take down the tempo a bit on Nabuma Rubberband
(Because Music), their latest; you’ll hear
that slow roar Monday, December 8
at Astra.
You had cut back on touring.
ERIK BODEN: We had a long period
where we didn’t do any shows, so you
kind of lose your identity, somehow.
We actually managed to, for the
second time in the history of Little
Dragon, forget somebody at customs. It’s not fun.
FREDRIK KÄLLGREN: It’s easily done, I guess.
EB: It’s easily done but nerve-racking for the
person that’s left behind, I suppose.
FK: You’re in the bus, and then maybe in the
middle of the night or in the morning everyone
has to go out to show their passports, then
everyone needs to go back to the bus. And that’s
when. Maybe you are a bit stressed.
YUKIMI NAGANO: It’s like four in the morning,
usually, when we go through customs.
FK: I went off for a wee, and when I went out
from the toilet [laughs], I saw the bus driving
away in the distance. I freaked out – I didn’t
have my phone but I had my passport.
When did they notice that you were gone?
YN: Like, two and a half hours later.
FK: Yeah, one and a half, actually. But then it
took 1.5 hours to drive back.
EB: I mean, you still have the Gmail correspondence
with the American Homeland
Security guys...
FK: They were great.
EB: You sent Christmas cards – you got under
their skin eventually, and even became friends a
little bit.
FK: Yeah, there was one lady helping me.
Are you guys happy with how the album
has been received?
FK: Yeah, it feels like we’re on the verge of
something.
EB: To be brilliant! [Laughs]
FK: To be brilliant!
YN: No, on the verge of success. We’re just on
the verge.
EB: We’re constantly not quite there yet.
FK: No...
LITTLE DRAGON
W/NAO Mon, Dec
8, 20:00 | Astra,
Revaler Str. 99,
Friedrichshain, S+U-
Bhf Warschauer Str.
YN: OK. We usually make fun because
someone wrote that in an article.
EB: Is that what you were rephrasing?
YN: No, it does feel good actually,
but, I mean, it’s weird. You know, it’s
been quite gradual but I feel like it
all depends on who you’re compared
to. We want to do this kind of uncompromised
and as solid as we can. I mean, for this record
we wrote all the songs and we produced them
ourselves. But we gave away the stems and had
someone else mix the record. So that’s kind of a
mini-step in giving away your baby.
Are any of the lyrics based on a
relationship?
YN: No, certainly. I mean, absolutely, I think it’s
both personal but also fictional, and the fictional
stuff is also personal somehow, if you know what
I mean. It’s kind of inevitable for it to get in
the mix, so yeah, some things are dreamy and
fantasy and other things are real.
So, are you in a relationship?
YN: Yeah.
And you guys?
EB, FK, HW: We’re not. [Dour mumbling]
YN: We’re family right here.
What is this other parallel universe that
appears throughout the album?
YN: I think it’s a kind of escapism, and if you really
love music, it is a kind of natural high state.
I like to kind of dream myself away and I think
music really enhances that way of seeing life. You
know, like, if you had a soundtrack right now
everything you see would feel a little bit different
and the memory would be different.
FK: Well put.
It’s like technology encouraging life. What
are your thoughts on technology?
HAKAN WIRENSTRAND: Well, I like the mix of
electronic sounds, synths and stuff being played
by hand, you know, and sometimes it’s not per-
38 • DECEMBER 2014

InfoS: (030) 30 10 6 80 88
www.trinitymusic.de
24.02.15 . Columbiahalle 06.03.15 . astra kulturhaus
fectly in time and everything, but I think it sucks
you into becoming interested even though you’re
not really knowing why. Sometimes it’s kind of
the dirt or all the mistakes and, uh, the human
touch. There’s a lot of bands like that. Like Devo:
super-strict machine kind of playing – wait a
minute, there is actually a drummer there, really
trying his best to be as machine as possible.
FK: I was out taking a walk, and there on the
lawn was this grass clipper robot coming towards
me and I stood and watched it. It’s funny.
It was a robot?
FK: It was a robot, a grass-cutting robot, and it
was helping the lawn. That was crazy. All of a
sudden there is a little dude, it felt like a little
dude running around by himself or herself. I’ve
been out on a lawnmower, you know, you sit on it
and steer, and for me that was kind of like, a big
step. Wow. [Laughs] But is it better? I don’t know,
because I kind of enjoy cutting the lawn. It’s a
dream for a lot of people. It’s definitely a dream.
But I’m thinking maybe we’re going to get used
to that, having more machines, which is scary.
EB: I think it’s funny how a lot of these things,
you can start feeling like they have a personality,
which is kind of scary. They don’t actually have a
personality – it’s all just programmed – but sometimes
it’s like, “Whoa, why are you doing this to
me?” And you get angry at some computer.
FK: A lot of people kind of get angry on the
computer.
YN: Or when you’re buying groceries and you
don’t pay for your groceries anymore to a person.
You buy them at the machine. Technology is
good. Technology is destroying us. It’s very grey.
FK: It’s very interesting, though, because we’re
probably going to get to that stage where we get
more relationships with computers.
EB: I had a phone with Siri on it. I won’t name
the brand or anything, but I started talking to
Siri there for a while, actually. I was like, “Siri,
can you put on the alarm for me?” They just start
talking to you. I’m like. “Please end this conversation,”
and she wants me to talk more and I
noticed I was laying there talking to Siri.
FK: One thing that I’ve been thinking
about with technology is this
phenomenon of the singularity that
you talk about, because you know the
artificial intelligence that is getting
more intelligent, and they say at one
point it will be more intelligent than humans
and we will become useless. But my question is:
what drives this technology? Because it doesn’t
have a body, it doesn’t have urges and drives and
loneliness and hungriness, you know? But in a
way we are machines, as well. What is driving us?
Basic needs and complex thoughts! And food.
EB: I think it just wants to be updated! [all laugh]
They’re trained to be modelled after us.
FK: It’s going to be random and kind of start being
self-contained.
HW: For me, it will be so smart it will kill itself.
There have been thousands of movies
about this subject.
HW: Yeah, let’s watch some. ■
Little Dragon in five dates
1996 First-year student Yukimi meets seniors
Fredrik Källgren and Erik Boden while at high
school in Gothenburg, Sweden.
2007 Sign with Peacefrog Records and
release their eponymous debut album,
followed up with sophomore effort Machine
Dreams two years later.
2009 “Twice” gets heavy TV and film
placement, including Grey’s Anatomy.
2010 Damon Albarn features Little Dragon on
Gorillaz’ Plastic Beach (Virgin), along with De
La Soul, whose Dave will guest on Nabuma
Rubberband. They’re taken along on tour.
2011 Title track to third album Ritual Union
(Peacefrog) gets heavy club traction; featured
on songs by SBTRKT and DJ Shadow.
MICHAL ANDRYSIAK
PHOTOS BY MICHAL ANDRYSIAK
24.03.15 . Columbiahalle
Bluegrass JamBoree
07.12.14 . C-Club
deus
09.12.14 . Postbahnhof
The game
09.12.14 . C-Club
CurTis harding
11.12.14 . Bang Bang Club
James YorksTon
13.01.15 . heimathafen neukölln
lamBChoP
Performing nixon
05.02.15 . heimathafen neukölln
rea garveY
09.02.15 . Tempodrom
sTraighT no Chaser
11.02.15 . heimathafen neukölln
NICK MULVEY
special guest: Eaves
Do. 04.12. Einlass 19:00 Maschinenhaus
intro, faze, Radio Eins & KulturNews präsentieren:
LITTLE DRAGON
spec. guest: Nao
Mo. 08.12. Einlass 19:00 Astra Kulturhaus
BRAVO, vevo & Radio Fritz präsentieren:
KATY PERRY
Prismatic World Tour
support: Charli XCX
Fr. 13.03.2015 Einlass 18:00 O2World
SELAH SUE
Sa. 14.03.2015 Einlass 19:00
Astra Kulturhaus
Infos unter www.mct-agentur.com
Online Tickets unter www.tickets.de + www.ticketmaster.de
Ticket Hotline: 030 - 61 10 13 13
07
DEZ
20
FEB
02
DEZ
02
DEZ
05
DEZ
13
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20
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08
FEB
02
MÄR
08
MÄR
10
MÄR
STROMAE
COLUMBIAHALLE
THE BLACK KEYS
MAX-SCHMELING-HALLE
PARKWAY DRIVE &
HEAVEN SHALL BURN
COLUMBIAHALLE
SHAMIR
KANTINE AM BERGHAIN
KIASMOS
WATERGATE
»PELAGIC RECORDS LABEL NIGHT«
MONO • EF • UVM.
C-CLUB
AT THE GATES & TRIPTYKON
POSTBAHNHOF
ELLIPHANT
MAGNET CLUB
JOSÉ GONZÁLEZ
HEIMATHAFEN NEUKÖLLN
TIGER LOU
MAGNET CLUB
TINASHE
FRANNZ CLUB
02.06.15 . Zitadelle
Pere uBu
11.02.15 . Quasimodo
mark lanegan Band
17.02.15 . Postbahnhof
The suBwaYs
20.02.15 . huxleys
Paloma faiTh
20.02.15 . Postbahnhof
alex g
23.02.15 . kantine am Berghain
asaf avidan & Band
12.03.15 . kesselhaus
sCoTT Bradlee &
PosTmodern JukeBox
08.03.15 . lido
arChive
24.03.15 . huxleys
39
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What’s on
MUSIC AND NIGHTLIFE
CONCERT PICKS
THU, DEC 4, 21:30
Rodion G.A. (Romanian Krautrock)
The latest rediscovery in
the annals of psychedelia,
the Romanian RODION
G.A. was a kosmische
tape-splicer par excellence
and could have
given Klaus Schulze a
run for his money in the
1970s if only anyone
would have accepted his
currency. The low, emphysema-encouraging
ceilings of Mme. Claude should provide
a greater intimacy than next week’s gig at Berghain. Backing
up the bill: sehr chic singing cellist DIZZY MOON and
the casually eclectic DJ EMMA TOME. Madame Claude,
Lübbener Str. 19, Kreuzberg, U-Bhf Schlesisches Tor
TUE, DEC 9, 21:00
The Game (Hip Hop)
THE GAME has apparently
still got game – a decade
removed from “Hate It or
Love It”, the long brokenaway
50 Cent protégé’s
last album topped the US
hip hop charts. Not the
German ones, though,
which puts the rapper in
the liminal state between
relevancy and veneration
that allows him to play a smallish spot like C-Club. No
doubt the show will be crowded by excitable Hamburgers
in confusing baseball caps, so if you’re also going to dress
in sporting wear, preference hockey pads. C-Club, Columbiadamm
9-11, Kreuzberg, U-Bhf Platz der Luftbrücke
TUE, DEC 23, 21:00
Camera and Friends (Nü Krautrock)
Former buskers CAMERA
risk a certain consistency
in their approach, which is
why the old krautrockers,
such as Michael Rother
and Möbius, tour with
them. There’s enough overlap
between Nü Krauts
and Old Shoegazers that
tonight’s melange makes
sense: in addition to the
recently rediscovered GÜNTHER SCHICKERT on guitar, the
band features Brian Jonestown Massacre’s ANTON NEW-
COMBE on synth, Spacemen 3’s WILL CARRUTHERS on
bass and post-rock revivalist ANIKA on vocals. SCHWUND
opens. If all this sounds a bit 8mm, well, everyone’s
favourite barman OSCAR VALENTINE will be DJing. SO36,
Oraninenstr. 190, Kreuzberg, U-Bhf Kottbusser Tor
SUN, DEC 28 - MON, DEC 29, 21:00
Leo Records 35th Anniversary (Free Jazz)
Leo Feigin (photo) has
been documenting the
Russian avant scene as
well as free jazz heroes
elsewhere, though the
impact of his label has
waned since its days as a
Cold War bludgeon. Sunday
privileges the RUS-
SIAN FREE FOLK QUARTET
featuring the cultish Evgeny
Masloboev, ALMUT KÜHNE solo and BASSX3, whose
Gebhard Ullmann also plays sax in Monday’s 4 REEDS.
TJ SHREDDER features Necks drummer extraordinaire
Tony Buck. VOCCOLOURS is a German vocal quartet – free
speech to give the NSA something to listen to. B-Flat,
Rosenthaler Str. 13, Mitte, U-Bhf Rosenthaler Platz
Three questions for...
Sherry LeBlanc of Love Inks
By BETTI HUNTER
Austin, Texas minimalist electro-dreamers LOVE INKS – husband-andwife
duo SHERRY LEBLANC (photo, right) and Kevin Dehan, alongside
newly recruited bassist Zach Biggs – have further stripped back their
pared-down sound with new album Exi (Republic of Music). Meet
Sherry’s unflinching stare at Lido on Sat, Dec 20.
You like to make prolonged eye contact
with individual members of the audience.
I make a point to try to look everyone that I can
see in the eye, and really, really connect. This
is going to sound trite, maybe, but when I was
a kid I read an interview with Madonna where
she talked about how, before she had made it,
she would just walk around the streets of New
York holding eye contact so that when people
saw her again, they’d be like, “Ooh, I know her
from somewhere.” So as a kid, I started making
really direct eye contact after reading that article
and then I think it just gets blown up on stage.
Sometimes, if someone is talking and being really
loud at a bar, the way that I’ll draw them in is
just by staring and making very uncomfortable
eye contact that I’m not comfortable with. But
that always works – it almost breaks down that
third wall. I think people sometimes, when they
go see bands, forget that it’s not on television. It
makes the experience more of a human experience
between everyone.
Have you ever freaked anyone out by doing
it? There were these guys in Cincinnati that
had just kind of stumbled into the bar we were
playing, and this is the one time that the eye
contact thing went horribly wrong. I was trying
to engage them by looking at them
and then – it’s weird: people don’t
think musicians can hear what
you’re saying while you’re on stage,
but we could hear all of the conversations
throughout the bar. And
their response, which was probably
just out of, like, embarrassment and
LOVE INKS W/
Karrera Klub DJs
Sat, Dec 20, 22:00
| Lido, Cuvrystr. 7,
Kreuzberg, U-Bhf
Schlesisches Tor
discomfort, was “Look at this slut. She’s going to
suck our dicks later.” And then they started being
really aggressive back, and coming up to the
stage and making sexual gestures at me. The guys
ended up having to be thrown out of the bar.
But it just started with this innocent idea that I
could get their attention through eye contact.
You guys don’t have a reputation for bellligerence.
Um, we had crazy stuff happen in
Brighton, of all places. It was the night of a
football game, and there was a big upset, so the
streets got kind of rowdy. And then this one guy
came up, this giant, bald-headed man, and he
wanted to fight Kevin – “You, me, we’re going
at it!” And Kevin was, like, “No, man, I’m cool.
Sit down and have a beer with us.” But the guy
was just belligerently drunk and so I was there
with my friend Bex who is kind of this tiny, very
cute little lady, and I’m like, “Hey, man, it’s okay.”
But when I touched his shoulder, he somehow
thought that one of the guys in our group had
touched him and he turned around and punched
Bex in the face. He knocked her two bottom
back teeth out. And so at that point everybody
at our table jumped on the guy. Kevin had never
been in a fistfight before, and he ended up
almost not being able to play guitar for the rest
of the dates because he had damaged his
hand so badly. It’s just, we’re like a really
minimalist wimpy band and we ended up
in this fistfight in Brighton and we were
like, “What the fuck,” and everyone was
saying, “Brighton is peaceful, this kind
of thing doesn’t happen often.” But I
don’t know. ■
TARA HEDLUND
40 • DECEMBER 2014

Ich will nicht nach Berlin
From Monster Mash to
mashed potatoes By BETTI HUNTER and SADIE MARTIN
“Karaoke is a FREAK magnet,” admits Ron
Rineck with a sheepish chuckle. As the
founder of Berlin’s notorious karaoke bar
Monster Ronson’s, Rineck has encountered
his fair share of divas, drunks and delusional
wannabes in the labyrinth of private singing
booths and on the main karaoke stage,
where braver (or boozier) souls satiate their
need for public admiration.
“They take it so seriously!” he laughs.
“They come to me in distress and say ‘Oh
my God, that guy is singing my song!’ and
I’m like, ‘Oh, really? Did you write it?’”
December 1 marks MONSTER RONSON’S
10-year anniversary, which will be celebrated
in their customary sparkle-heavy style with
a surprise party planned for Rineck by his
employees (oops!).
Sixteen years previous, he was grudgingly
dragged to his first karaoke bar in New
York, where he sang The Stones’ “Paint It
Black”. Hours later Rineck was alone in the
booth, two microphones in hand, begging
his friends to stay.
Rineck made the move to Berlin in 1998.
Back then, Kim’s Karaoke in Mehringdamm
offered only a smattering of English and
German songs. Sonntags in Mauerpark didn’t
take over the Bearpit until 2009. Rineck
started spreading the karaoke gospel by KJing
impromptu events from the back of his
car and living in squats while “itching to open
a place” of his own. “I didn’t have any money,
and when you’re 25 and have a big green mohawk,
nobody wants to rent you a place.”
Rineck’s hair has since calmed. In 2004,
the original Monster Ronson’s Sing Inn
opened its doors in a former brothel on
Lübbener Straße (now occupied by Madame
Claude), unleashing a nightly chorus of
pissed-up partiers onto an otherwise deadend
street. After three years in Kreuzberg, it
was onto the even more dead-end Warschauer
Bridge – in 2008, Matrix was the only
club in the area.
“Everybody said, ‘This will never work,’”
he recalls, “and the first year was hell. Every
month my rent was getting paid later and
later.” But word-of-mouth spread rapidly.
“It blows my mind,” he says proudly, “that
people from all corners of the Earth have
heard of us.” The only uphill battle has been
having a 100 percent gay night. “We host
Gayhole parties every Thursday, but even
on a really gay night, it’s still only half gay.
That’s okay, but I know people who come
in and they’re like ‘Hey, there’s all these
straight people here, let’s go.’”
Two years ago, as Berlin’s status as a global
party mecca cemented, Rineck abandoned
his city apartment and now lives “in needed
peace and quiet” on his remote farm with
13 chickens, two ducks, three cats and, of
course, a karaoke machine. “When I moved
to Berlin it was a big empty adult playground.
Now the city is too full,” he sighs.
So when he’s not serenading his menagerie
with “Call Me Maybe”, Rineck tends to his
vegetables and delivers weekly supplies to
his employees when he returns to man the
doors on weekends. The farm has increasingly
become his stage – the lure of the neon
lights and disco balls replaced by a satisfaction
in showing city-folk that “there’s an
alternative to buying overpriced groceries
that may or may not be good for you.”
“I don’t want to be in nightlife my whole
life,” he says. “I’ve made a lot of connections
with other farmers in the region, which is exciting.
Having this farm is my practice career
change.” But there are some aspects of country
life this city boy hasn’t quite adapted to...
“Ugh, gross, my cat just brought a mouse in!”
he exclaims. To the cat: “You’re gross!” ■
INTRODUCING
MIT PIMF, RACING GLACIERS, WEVAL
09.12.\LIDO
ZOOT WOMAN
19.01.\LIDO
JUSTIN TOWNES
EARLE
SUPPORT: ANDREW COMBS
26.01.\GRÜNER SALON
TR/ST
29.01.\SCHWUZ
KIESZA
01.02.\KESSELHAUS
JESSIE WARE
06.02.\ASTRA KULTURHAUS
SYLVAN ESSO
21.02.\PRINCE CHARLES
CERTAIN PEOPLE
MIT PANDA BEAR
10.03.\BERGHAIN
THE
UNDERACHIEVERS
AND
FLATBUSH
ZOMBIES
ARE
CLOCKWORK
INDIGO
29.03.\LIDO
SIZARR
17.04.\LIDO
meltbooking.com
facebook.com/wearemeltbooking
41

What’s on
ART
American Producers –
Playback Room part II
How best to show music?
Wolfgang Tillmans’s
Playback Room project
creates sensitive and
specific listening situations
for an audience
to reengage with music
they thought they knew.
The earlier incarnation
of this series, which was
dedicated to the band
Colourbox, is followed here with a specially created listening
room installation that presents the work of a range
of American hip-hop producers – from Kanye to Missy to
Zebra Katz – in an invitational, exciting, and expansive
way. AD Through Jan 17, Between Bridges, Keithstr. 15,
Charlottenburg, U-Bhf Wittenbergplatz, Wed–Sat 12-18
Nairy Baghramian – Off the Rack
Iranian artist Nairy
Baghramian’s installation
works are evocative
collections of objects that
come together to create
diverse and colourful
formations; referencing
sculpture, design, and
architecture. Sometimes
domestic items such as
furniture or pillows appear
surrounded by more peculiar and less familiar structures.
There is the sense that some objects are found and
some are fabricated but it is difficult to distinguish the
readymades from the bespoke items. Baghramian’s play
with scale and colour thwarts and brings alive the most
mundane of ‘everyday’ objects. AD Dec 13–Jan 25,
N.B.K., Chausseestr. 128/129, Mitte, U-Bhf Oranienburger
Tor, Tue-Sun 12–18, Thu 12–20
Miklos Gaál – Pieces of the Sky
Finnish photographer
Miklos Gaál captures
everyday motives in an
extraordinary way. One
would swear up and
down that he works in
analogue photography,
but instead he sets a new
mark on the map of the
tradition. Butterflies, snow,
soapsuds on a table: he
puts each object under a magnifying glass, creating new
contexts out of everyday glimpses. Perception becomes
forged in stone, drawing on our personal memories and
the emotions tied into them. FM Through Dec 13, Wagner
+ Partner, Strausberger Platz 8, Friedrichshain, U-Bhf
Strausberger Platz, Tue-Sat 13-18
Gottfried Lindauer – The Maori Portraits
In the quiet halls of the
Altes Museum, it’s shocking
but understandable
how this exhibition could
pass you by. The small
but fine portraits by 19thcentury
artist Gottfried
Lindauer, who resettled in
New Zealand in the late
1800s after studying classical
painting at the Art
Academy of Vienna, use a smooth, classical style to wash
over imagery of Maori tribespeople, channeling a finenesse
reminiscent of the frills and thrills of Viennese cafe
society. The formalisaton breathes life into the individuals,
who peek out proudly from the canvases. FM Through
Apr 12, Alte Nationalgalerie, Bodestr. 1-3, Mitte, U-Bhf
Klosterstr., Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat 10-18, Thu 10-20
BETWEEN BRIDGES
“You don’t know if it’s
the start or the end of
the world” By FRIDEY MICKEL
His diminutive, classically styled paintings of
desert-like landscapes (a little bit Whistler, a
little bit Rothko) are slowly making their way
around the art world. After generating buzz in
New York, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Paris and
London, he has finally made his way to Berlin
with a show at Veneklasen/Werner.
Your paintings are small, but still so powerful…
It’s about the relation – because the
paintings can fit in my hand, I can see all the
parts together, sort of move everything around.
With smaller sizes, there’s more of a relation,
more intimacy. I try to put complexity in the
small scale, making the painting bigger than the
viewer’s physicality – I like the distinction. It’s
important for me to paint fresh. It’s good for me
when I have the connection to the work I need
to finish. With these small ones, I only need one
or two days.
Do you ever work big? No. I tried many times,
but it wasn’t good for me. I was never happy
with the big ones. There’s more attention
in the small ones. This year
I found a way to make things a bit
bigger, but they need to be sort of
enclosed – only using two or three
colours or something like that, not
a lot of detail like in the small ones.
When I have a lot of stuff happening,
a lot of details, it’s better for me
to work small.
LUCAS ARRUDA –
DESERTO-MODELO
Through Jan 10 |
Veneklasen/Werner,
Rudi-Dutschke-Str.
26, Kreuzberg,
U-Bhf Kochstr.,
Tue-Sat 11-18
ART
editor’s
pick
Thirty-one-year-old Brazilian painter LUCAS ARRUDA is about to
make it big – by making it small.
Where does the ‘Deserto-Modelo’ concept
come from? You’ve been using this
title again and again for your exhibitions.
‘Deserto-Modelo’ comes from a Brazilian poet
I really love, João Cabral de Melo Neto. It’s the
final line of one of his poems: “We chose to build
an enormous model.” This word, translated as
‘model’, could be understood as a pattern, or
a new system, or an idealistic desert. It makes
sense for me, because it brings attention to the
civilisation, the repetition and development...
The works all deal with the same issue, and
there’s a kind of a pattern of which things show.
Why are you so fascinated with the concept
of desert? In a desert you don’t know if it’s the
start or the end of the world. It’s a place man
can’t survive, an empty place, not anything, a
metaphysical place, because you have no presence
of time, but an existential quality. For me,
it’s the only place where you could have freedom,
an experience of death as an experience of freedom,
and then return home safely.
Let’s talk about the slide paintings…
The slides are very small paintings
– I used a magnifying glass and
painted directly on them. I thought
for many months about what order I
should put the slides in. The heart of
the work is how the projector light
goes on and off when changing each
slide. The light ‘opens’ when each
VENEKLASEN/WERNER
42 • DECEMBER 2014

slide is introduced, and then it closes as
the slide fades away. For me, this work is
important, because it sort of examines the
saturation of the landscapes: when you see
one, it dilutes and you forget the painting
that came before it. The importance of
one is replaced by the following one. More
specifically, it’s more about the moment,
like when nighttime approaches, the way
the day moves into the night. The night has
a connotation of drama to it – it’s dark and
mysterious. But what I am really interested
in is the energy you feel just before night
happens, expecting that moment to arrive –
as the night comes, the day sort of opens up
again. This passage is important to me, the
passage of the Earth in this way, this energy
of passage from one into the other.
How do you identify with the tradition
of classical painting? I’m very aware of
this moment of our history, of gender painting
and landscapes, and there is no pretension
to say that what I’m doing is unrelated
to it. And I have no problem of paying
homage to classical painting. I don’t have a
problem being associated with it, or a problem
that someone might think the work is
from that period of time. It’s an honour to
be counted among those artists. ■
Tina Sauerländer on...
Caroline Kryzecki
December 5 marks
the opening of
Superposition at
Sexauer Gallery,
featuring Berlin artist
Caroline Kryzecki
and her new cycle
of mystical ballpoint
pen-on-paper creations.
Accompanying
the exhibition is a
monograph catalogue
by Düsseldorf-based
design studios Optik
and Zweizueins,
featuring a text by
curatorial it-girl TINA
SAUERLÄNDER. Like
the other elegant
opening soirees
hosted by Jan-Philipp
Sexauer, this is your
chance to immerse
yourself in the who’s
who of the scene. Sauerländer took
Fridey Mickel a bit deeper under the
surface of the art.
What attracted you to Caroline
Kryzecki’s work? When I first visited
Caroline in her Neukölln studio some
years ago, I was very impressed by
the power of her drawings combining
line systems and geometrical forms. That
day, she gave me a unique insight into her
photo archive, which she had spread on a
table and allowed me to go through by myself.
There were images of abstract patterns and
ornaments from everyday life: close-ups of
house facades, lattices, supermarket shelves
or stacked sun loungers. This was an ‘aha’
experience for me. She was obviously looking
for some kind of structure, order and regularity
within everyday chaos.
What did you write about her drawings? My
text explains the connection between Caroline
Kryzecki’s moiré drawings and the idea of
structuring chaos through repeating patterns.
CAROLINE KRYZECKI –
SUPERPOSITION Dec 6-Jan 17
| Sexauer Gallery, Streustr.
90, Pankow, Tue-Sat 13-18
(opening with catalogue
release, Dec 5, 18-21)
SEXAUER​ GALLERY​
For “KSZ 100/70”
the artist preconceived
a construction
method which she
applied to each work
of the series, repeating
it with slightly
changed initial
parametres. This
method resembles
computer-based algorithms,
which are often
inherent to digital
and Internet based
art – but Caroline
carries out her work
manually. This leads
to irregularities that
force her to modify
the initial parameters,
making her series
similar to self-organisational
systems
which adjust their
structure according
to external, environmental
factors. These
ideas of algorithms
and self-organising
structures are linked
to many fields of our
life today – from mathematics
and physics,
to biology and meteorology, to economics and
philosophy – to name just a few.
Why do you think it is important for a catalogue
to have a text? A contemporary catalogue
text could serve as a means of getting
deeper knowledge and background information
about a work, and also contextualising it
with other works or crucial developments of
our time. Artworks are highly individualised
artistic expressions, but also always a reflection
of the artist’s surroundings, his or her
world and the world we all live in. A catalog
text tries to merge these approaches and
therefore could be a necessary tool within art
and its communication today. ■
schaubühne
+++With English surtitles+++
The Past
by Constanza Macras | DorkyPark and Oscar
Bianchi | Direction and Choreography:
Constanza Macras
27., 29.+30.11., 1.12. > 8:00 p.m.
NEVER
FOREVER
by Falk Richter and TOTAL BRUTAL
Text and Direction: Falk Richter
7.12. > 5:00 p.m.
The Forbidden
Zone
by Duncan Macmillan | Direction: Katie Mitchell
14., 15.+16.12. > 8:00 p.m.
An Enemy of
the People
by Henrik Ibsen | Direction: Thomas Ostermeier
18.12. > 8:00 p.m.
Tartuffe
by Molière | Direction: Michael Thalheimer
20.12. > 8:00 p.m.
The Little Foxes
by Lillian Hellman
Direction: Thomas Ostermeier
28.12. > 8:00 p.m.
43
Tickets: 030.890023 | www.schaubuehne.de

Pablo Picasso, La Tauromaquia o el arte de torear, Sprung mit der Garrocha, 1957, © Succession Picasso/VG BILD-KUNST Bonn 2014
Francisco de Goya, La Tauromaquia, 1816
What’s on
ART
Goya/Picasso – La Tauromaquia
T
This is a comprehensive
display of graphic
works from two giants of
Spanish/European A
art,
centered on the contentious
u drama and brutality
of modern bullfighting.
Using r light-dark contrasts
to emphasise the
dynamics O of the struggle,
Goya’s are precise, almost
mdocumentary representations, whereas Picasso’s appear
from a few loose
GOYA
strokes. Numerous
• PICASSO
lithographs and
colour
A
linos are also on show, in which topics such as
myth, death, and Eros are unearthed by these masters of
the graph. AD Through Feb 22, Schloss Britz, Alt-Britz
q
73, Neukölln, U-Bhf Rudow, Tue–Sun 11–18
u
I
Paul Graham – Does Yellow Run Forever?
New York-based British
photographer Paul
Graham’s work in the
early A 1980s revolutionised
the way colour
photography was used
SChlOSS in social documentary, BrITz
18.10.2014 influencing the work - 22.02.2015
of
Alt-Britz Martin 73 • Parr 12359 and Berlin • Richard
Tel.: 030/60 97 92 30 • www.schlossbritz.de
Billingham among many
others emerging from
the British scene at that time. Here, a diverse range of
beautifully arranged, framed colour prints bring the viewer
to everyday scenes from many different locations, rural to
urban, in many parts of the world, all bound by a delicate
and humane sensibility proposed by both subject and
photographer. A must-see show. AD Through Dec 20,
Carlier Gebauer, Markgrafenstr. 67, Kreuzberg, U-Bhf
Kochstr., Tue–Sat 11–18
László Moholy-Nagy – Sensing the Future
The ‘brave new world’
forms and experiments
seem almost cute in a
modern-day context. Yet
the artwork itself remains
fundamental: light, colour,
film and form live up to
the Bauhaus style that
flowed out of the art
school once Moholy-
Nagy took the reigns. The
inadvertent questions that emerge examine what many
wonder but few ask: If new media artwork has its roots so
weighted in monarchical excellence, why is it that people
are still so confused about it today? FM Through Jan
2, Bauhaus-Archiv, Klingelhöferstr. 14, Schöneberg, U-Bhf
Nollendorfplatz, Wed-Mon 10-17
Jeremy Shaw – Hot 100s
Alongside an ongoing
video work are four new
large-scale panels of
101 Polaroid photos
each. Listening through
headphones to specific
Billboard Hot 100 chart
music, at certain points
during each song, Shaw
placed his index finger
directly onto unexposed
pieces of Polaroid film situated on the copper plate
surface of a Kirlian camera device, sending an electric
shock through the film and into his finger. The process
captures a photographic image of both Shaw’s fingerprint
and the electrical coronal discharge that exists around it,
capturing each song’s mediation through his body. FM
Through Dec 20, Johann König, Dessauer Str. 6-7, Kreuzberg,
U-Bhf Mendelssohn-Bartholdy-Park, Tue-Sat 10-18
HARUN FAROCKI
“This pineapple is confronting its
own existence” By ADRIAN DUNCAN
More than just lifestyle photographers, the Kiev trio GORSAD opens a
window onto Ukraine’s youth culture.
The raw, often provocative
images of Maria and
Julian Romaniuk and
Viktor Vasiliev come
from the interactions
they have with their
young subjects, who
display a side of Ukraine
not often shown in
the media. Their most
recent photo series
Paradise will be shown
at Erratum as part of
the show STILL LIFE
# SHIT HAPPENS, curated
by Penny Rafferty
(also featuring HR,
Grey Hutton, and Angelo Scamuffo).
What does the word “Gorsad” mean, and
how did you all meet?
GORSAD: Actually, Gorsad is a place in Odessa,
translated as “urban garden”. We are old friends.
We studied together at the Institute of Arts, Kiev.
How do you collaborate? It depends. In any
case, the end result is the interaction of our
three attitudes. Each time, when selecting the
right picture, we ask ourselves the question:
How sincere is this emotion, how does it taste,
what is the aftertaste? As soon as the ingredients
are brought to a proper condition, there comes
a feeling of satisfaction. Satisfaction: that’s the
energy that we want to share with the audience.
Why do you tend to focus on youth? We don't
do it intentionally. Although, most likely, there is
ERNSTE SPIELE I-IV
Through Jan 18 |
Hamburger Bahnhof,
Invalidenstr. 50-51,
S-Bhf Hauptbahnhof,
Tue-Fri 10-18, Sat-
Sun 11-18
a certain proportion
STILL LIFE # SHIT
of vampirism. We like
HAPPENS Dec 12-
teenagers. They are
Jan 16 | Erratum,
always full of spontaneity,
passion for
Böckhstr. 40,
Kreuzberg, U-Bhf
Schönleinstr., everything new. They
Wed-Sat 14-19 are not spoiled by the
experience and this
allows them not to be
afraid to hide their true desires.
It is a kind of banter.
Penny, where had you seen
Gorsad's work before?
PENNY RAFFERTY: I believe I first
encountered Gorsad from the
unoriginal outburst of a Facebook
feed, which in some ways is also a compliment
as it stood out from the chaos. I think this
is because their work has all the traits of trend/
lifestyle photography, yet while most other images
we see are extensions of the ‘heroin chic’ style
of the early 1990s, Gorsad have an unassuming
sweetness – perhaps due to the political climate
in Ukraine, and the fact the youth live in a certain
abject poverty and don’t feel the need to glorify it.
GORSAD
Can you describe one of the works in this
series? I think it would be apt to talk about
“Pineapple” as it’s the flyer image, I would say it
is very simple, but also harrowing. A pineapple
slightly reclined smoking a cigarette has a comic
element naturally, but the world is an increasingly
unthinkable place, of planetary disasters, emerging
pandemics and the looming threat of extinction,
and to me this pineapple is enigmatically
confronting the horizon of its own existence. ■
Serious games
The late HARUN FAROCKI, one of Germany’s most
prominent video artists, leaves behind an expansive
oeuvre. His recent work Ernste Spiele I-IV (2009-
10), a fascinating installation of four projected
films that raises questions about ‘gaming’ and
its uses, shows the types of computer-generated
imagery employed by the US Army to train marines
for combat in Afghanistan or Iraq. Each film piece
overlaps surreal gaming imagery with ‘real’ footage
of soldiers before and after deployment.
Farocki’s intense early work Inextinguishable
Fire (1969), and his unrelenting
Interface (1995) are also shown, adding
further context to Farocki’s overall contribution
to contemporary film and video art.
Farocki passed away on July 30 of this
year, halfway through the run of his installation
at Hamburger Bahnhof – don’t miss
your chance to see it. AD
44 • DECEMBER 2014

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BERLIN BITES By FRANÇOISE POILANE
ANNA AGLIARDI
HELLO, HALAL!
Legal since 2002, halal slaughter remains controversial in Germany, with
animal rights activists calling for a ban every few years. In Berlin, though,
Islam-approved food abounds in just about every form imaginable, meeting
the demands of today’s multikulti Muslim.
Zam Zam: Currying favour
A poorly photoshopped Muslim crescent and
star on top of a bright green waterfall ornate
the 80-dish menu: Zam Zam is the name of a
spring in Mecca, and the green is actually the
Pakistani flag. A computer scientist who left
Pakistan for Berlin in 1981, business savvy owner
Tanveer Ahmed saw the lack of halal South Asian
restaurants as a gap in market and – ka-ching! –
launched Zam Zam in 2007. Here, Muslims and
others fill up on Indian and Pakistani classics,
at a slightly higher quality than the fast food
atmosphere suggests. Try the Indian Chicken
Madras, a proper garam masala and garlic-rich
curry (€5.90, with halal fillets from the next-door
Turkish supermarket) and veggie Shahi Paneer, a
creamy tomato sauce with cheese, almonds and
sultanas. It’s worth the €6, especially with the
fried “balloon bread” Bathura (€1.30). If you’re
aiming for something more original, order the
Rasgulla for dessert – two spongy, grainy cottage
cheese balls resembling peeled lychees, soaked
in rose water syrup, neatly arranged with coconut
flakes and almonds. HW Zam Zam, Hauptstr. 15,
Schöneberg, U-Bhf Kleistpark, Mon-Sun 12-24
Salsabil: Falafel goes east
Decent Arabic food joints are a dime a dozen in
the former West, but 20-year-old Lebanese minichain
Salsabil ensures halal eaters in Prenzlauer
Berg and Friedrichshain get their fix as well. Its
cutesy ‘oriental’ décor, reasonably priced menu
and free, self-service Schwarztee samovar – replaced
by a warming cinnamon tea in the winter
– make this a cosy little hangout. The menu offers
the usual falafel, shawarma, makali and halloumi
sandwiches (€3-3.50), plus more exciting options
such as lamb sujuk. If you’re a little more than
peckish, you can sit down to a full plate of assorted
meats and veg (€8.50) which will probably
fill two bellies if you’ve already had one of their
lentil soup appetisers (€2). How do you know
it’s halal? Kais, the friendly Tunisian and devout
Muslim who helps run the Friedrichshain branch,
claims to know the supplier personally. TO
Göhrener Str. 6, Wörther Str. 16, Prenzlauer Berg, U-Bhf
Eberswalder Str., Grünberger Str. 38, Friedrichshain,
S+U-Bhf Warschauer Str., Mon-Sun 12-1
Ruccola Cuccina Mediterane: Halalitaly
An impressive clash of Mediterranean and Middle
Eastern culture greets you on entering the diminutive
pizzeria at Rathaus Neukölln. A cartoonesque
pizzaiolo character grins down from the
sign, “Halal” emblazoned on his hat. Strangely,
the intricate tiled flooring and Arabic scripture
on the crimson walls don’t seem out of sync with
the hanging Tricolore and vats of Parmigiano.
Owner Abdulkarim Tarhini favours the traditional
Italian style and pulls it off – his classic thin-crust
Margherita (€5.10) even wins the approval of
Exberliner’s resident Italiana. Meat-lovers will be
impressed by the coronary-inducing Mista with
(beef) salami and (turkey) ham (€5.70) or the fiery
Chicken Curry (€7.90 with chicken breast, curry
sauce, and pineapple). Getting a table might also
be hard – their seating arrangements consist of
two red vinyl booths – but their speedy Lieferservice
makes it a favourite with famished couch
potatoes. BH Erkstr. 20, Neukölln, U-Bhf Rathaus
Neukölln, Mon-Sun 13:45-1:30
Toast Haus: Cheese Kurd
Opened this year on Hermannstraße, this all-halal
Turkish sandwich shop is owned by a charming
young couple (he’s Kurdish; she’s Chinese-Vietnamese)
who get their bread specially made from
a bakery in Zehlendorf owned by the husband’s
family. A kind of Milchbrot, it stands up to the
panini press with aplomb, developing a crispy
crust while maintaining a soft interior that melds
perfectly with gooey melted cheese and any number
of other ingredients, from Turkish pastrami to
“Hawaii”-style pineapple to a veggie option with
tomato and peppers (€2.90-3.80). It comes on
a partitioned plate with pickled cabbage, olives,
yoghurt and chilli sauce. If you’re craving more,
they also make multiple variations of menemen,
the creamy Turkish scrambled egg dish, and
omelettes. JS Hermannstr. 169, Neukölln, U-Bhf
Hermannstr., Mon-Sat 7-17
Curry1: Beefy Wurst
If you’re a devout Muslim or Jew or just not into
pork, but you can’t live without the original Berlin
fast food delicacy, this little Imbiss on the border
of Kreuzberg and Neukölln might be for you,
though a beacon on the street food scene it is
not. As at every currywurst stand, the bearded
worker cheerily drenches tangy ketchup on your
paper plate of sliced sausage, piles cardboardy
French fries on top of that, then squirts noncurry
ketchup all over that. Eat at the one small
sit-down table or else standing up in the freezing
cold. The Wurst definitely tastes beefy, with a
slight BBQ tanginess. All in all, neither inferior
nor superior to the pork version. Cleanse your
palate afterwards with a mango Ayran – no booze
sold here! SG Kottbusser Damm 1, Kreuzberg, U-
Bhf Kottbusser Tor, Mon-Thu 10-24, Fri 10-1, Sat 11-1,
Sun 12-24
46 • DECEMBER 2014

MJ’s Foodshop:
America, fork yeah
Food snobs tend to use the word ‘authentic’ to
refer to cheap, dingy holes in the wall run by wizened
old women and populated by leather-faced
blue-collar workers, not brand-spanking-new
midpriced expat restaurants putting the stamp
of gentrification on NoSo (north of Sonnenallee).
Yet we dare say: the six-month-old MJ’s
Foodshop serves some of the most authentic
American food in Berlin!
It starts with the portions. “The French have
a problem here,” our waiter says as, completely
stuffed, we admit defeat and ask to have the
remaining third of our reasonable-sounding
order doggy-bagged. Like the no-frills New York
eateries at which owner and chef Michael Rosenfeld
made his living before moving to Europe
seven years ago, MJ’s Foodshop is not a place for
restraint. Or subtlety. Or, thank god, tofu.
Instead, it’s a hall of fame of casual-dining
classics made entirely from scratch, including
all the breads and sauces (besides the obligatory
ketchup and Tabasco). There’s Caesar salad, a club
sandwich, mac and cheese, beef brisket and fried
chicken, none of it ‘artisanal’ or ‘deconstructed’ or
given a pretentious gourmet twist. Rather, it’s just
like your American mum made – but better.
Take that mac and cheese (€5), which though
listed as a “Small
Favourite” arrives
in a crock the size
of a Frisbee. Made
with Irish cheddar, it
avoids the dish’s usual
(mushy, congealed)
missteps even on
reheat, achieving a
creamy texture with a
nicely browned
crust that shatters
like a crème
MJ’S FOOD-
SHOP Sonnenallee
34,
brûlée when
you dig in. Or
Neukölln, U-Bhf
the Caesar salad Hermannplatz,
(€7), which
Tue-Sun 12-23
unless otherwise
specified comes
absolutely drenched, steakhouse-style, in a tangy
dressing (anchovies included, of course!) with
thick grilled toast in lieu of croutons – the homemade
bread stands out spectacularly here.
Puzzlingly, the menu skips over beef burgers,
opting for a veggie version only (€8). As if to
overcompensate, the grain-and-mushroom patty
is one of the meatiest ones we’ve tried in Berlin.
Topped with avocado and caramelised onions,
served with cabbage slaw and some pretty darn
addictive sliced pickled chillies, it’s anything but
health food – even more so with add-ons (€.50-1)
like cheese, a fried egg
or, yes, bacon. Only
order the fries (€3 with
your choice of flavoured
mayo) if you’re ravenous
– they earn points
for leaving the skin on,
but could stand to be
crispier.
MJ’s most glaring
weak spot is its
alcoholic drinks. A crisp
local IPA would work
wonders in cutting
through the myriad
swathes of melted
cheese, and weekend
brunchers might crave
a Bloody Mary along
with that towering turkey and bacon club (€9).
Instead, we’re left with sweet-ish, mostly Bavarian
brews (around €2.50).
Don’t let that deter you. In the constant, oppressive
greyness of a Berlin winter, comfort food
is a must, and that’s exactly what you’ll find here.
All that’s left is for Rosenfeld to make good on
his promise to keep his restaurant open 24 hours
on weekends so you can replace that 4am döner
with something truly unregrettable – and have
enough left over that you won’t have to leave the
house for breakfast the next day. JS
ANNA AGLIARDI
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& EXCLUSIVE
UMAMI
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47

FASHION
By JESSICA SALTZ
■ FASHIONISTAS
Leather on
the brain
MARINA HOERMANSEDER's sculptural leather
pieces make the jump from international stages
to the Berlin streets.
Most fashion graduates struggle for years to create
a name for themselves, but Marina Hoermanseder’s
success was immediate. Her 2013 ESMOD graduate
collection, inspired by 18th-century orthopaedic
corsets, caught the attention of fashion press in record
time and her pieces have already been worn by Lady
Gaga, Rihanna, rapper Eve and most recently on
stage by FKA Twigs. The celebrity demand is “very
flattering. It’s good for the press and to bring attention
to my brand,” the designer says, but she modestly
admits that “it is more flattering to see regular women
trying on and enjoying my clothes.” The 28-year-old
Vienna native studied fashion in Berlin after completing
a degree in finance at her parents’ insistence.
“That was the deal I made with them. And I have now
managed to convince my toughest critics,” she smiles.
Hoerman seder’s fascination with corsets
began when she was working
at Alexander McQueen
in London. “I wanted to
learn how to make corsets
of the Renaissance,” she
says. “But in my research, I
came across the orthopaedic
corsets of the 18th
century and just couldn’t
forget the images of the
■ SHOP OF
THE MONTH
Wunderkind
Wolfgang Joop is
busy on TV judging
Germany’s Next Top
Model, but he still finds
time to oversee his
brilliant label, now in
a very glamorous new
premises on Ku’damm.
Kurfürstendamm 46,
Charlottenburg, U-Bhf
Uhlandstr., Mon-Sat 10-19
intricate handwork.” Leather became her material of
choice and she trained “with an old saddler in Wedding”
to learn the tricks of the trade, as well as experimenting
with new techniques at home in her kitchen. She masterfully
uses leather to create sexy, fitted lacquered bustiers,
elaborate skirts and jackets covered with twisted straps
and buckles. The stand-out piece of the current Autumn/
Winter collection is a white, ruched leather cape, created
by wetting the leather and scrunching it up. “It looks a
bit like a brain and was inspired by a hairless cat.” Her
pieces are intricate, sculptural and unique, but she herself
acknowledges that some of the heavier items are incredibly
difficult to move around in, and her label therefore
now includes a lot more wearable pret-a-porter clothing.
“Leather is the signature of the brand, so I will always
include a leather pocket on a coat or a leather buckle on
a sweater.” She is expanding her ready-towear
line to include accessories, but
her ongoing fascination with her
trademark fabric shows no sign
of waning: “I am in love with
the material and don’t want to
let it go.”
Available at Bikini Berlin or
online at www.marinahoermanseder.com.
BERNAHRD MUSIL
GREGOR HOHENBERG
WOOLLY
WINTER
It is around this time each
year that I go on a frenzied
spree in a wool shop,
proudly dust off my knitting
needles, get through
a few rows of “knit one,
purl one”, inadvertently
stab myself a few times,
grow bored and hurl my
ragged, hole-ridden effort
behind the sofa. I’ll never
extinguish that ember of
a dream that I will one
day create the world’s
most beautiful sweater
with my own bare hands,
but thankfully there are
other options available
in the meantime. And I
don’t have to look far.
It’s impossible to discuss
Berlin fashion without
mentioning knitwear; it is
crocheted into the city’s
design DNA. Maiami is a
local label that is doing
us proud. They produce
chunky, snuggly pure
wool sweaters (that are
unisex and made from
natural, untreated wool
– how Berlin!), knitted
dresses and accessories,
all of which are beautifully
made by hand. But don’t
let your wool wishes stop
there. If your Christmas
list is looking a little barren,
Maiami also makes
knitted lampshades,
cushions and even vases
for you to deck the halls
– and your apartment –
with. www.maiami.de
48 • DECEMBER 2014

AMOK MAMA
By JACINTA NANDI
How to be hunted
“So,” says Zara. “Basically,
you’ve done
everything wrong. And
all you need to do is
change tactics and do
everything right.”
“Right,” I say. “Okay.
Fine. Great. So. What’s
my new tactic?”
Zara is actually meant
to be writing her Master’s
Thesis on Some
Really Difficult German
Book, possibly Kleist or
even Kafka or something.
But things get in
the way. Life gets in the
way. And a very thorough, almost scientific,
kinda zealous approach to the ins and outs
and the Dos and Don’ts of Online Dating
gets in the way. I swear, if Zara had spent all
the time she’s spent reading Dating-Ratgeber
reading Some Really Difficult German Books
instead, she could’ve had a PhD by now.
Me, of course, I am an incredibly busy and
stressed-out working single mother, so I don’t
have time to read Dating-Ratgeber myself, but
can always manage to find time to meet up
with Zara, drink three and a half bottles of
Bio-Rioja, and get her to tell me what I am
doing wrong.
“You need to make him feel like he has
hunted you. He is a hunter, after all. He is the
hunter and you are the hunted. However, at
the same time, you need to make him feel like
you have selected him. You have chosen him.
You’re not just the hunted, you’re also the
selector. You have selected him from an ocean
of potential Online Dating partners like a
healthy berry.”
“Right,” I say. “Okay. Fine. Great. So. How
do I do that then?”
“Well, Jacinta, you should always be honest
about your feelings. Always. But never
mention that you feel fat and hate your body,
feel broody and want to have babies, or feel
lonely and want to get married or possibly
commit suicide.”
I stare at Zara blankly, blinking at her
in confusion.
“But, Zara, what other feelings
do people have? I literally
don’t have any other feelings
than those.”
“Do not tell him any
dreams you might have had
about him, especially not
dreams involving marriage
or babies.”
“Oh,” I say. “I already
told him about a baby
dream.”
“JACINTA!” Zara yells
reproachfully.
“It’s fine,” I say. “The
baby was deformed.
It had this kind of
sparrow-y penis bone
sticking out of its neck,
kind of like a Tyrannosaurus
Rex’s fingernail.
And then it got eaten by
these hungry vampire
Nazis. I think you’re allowed
to tell them about
your baby dreams if
they’re weird enough.“
“Well...” says Zara.
“What?” I say.
“Don’t be too weird!”
“No?”
“No,” she says. “For every one weird thing
you do, do five normal things. You need to
keep the weird-to-normal ratio at a healthy
1:5.” I look at Zara and sigh forlornly. No
wonder birthrates in the Western world are
so despairingly low, I think. God, it must’ve
been fun in the Olden-y Caveman-y Days,
back when, instead of having to try to fool
men into thinking they were hunters, they
actually just were actual hunters and would
go off for days and come back with a slab of
mammoth flesh and maybe a tooth from a
sabre-toothed tiger, and they would give it to
you and you would grunt appreciatively, thus
signalling that you had in fact selected them,
and then you’d fuck for, like, literally hours
before falling asleep by a giant campfire.
“Also, don’t write about him!” Zara says.
“That’s not actually in any of the Ratgeber I’ve
read, I just think it’s a bad idea.“
“No, it’s fine,” I say. “He doesn’t read
anything unless it’s by Susan Sontag or French
philosophy from, like, 1687 and stuff.”
“Phew!” says Zara. “So, Jacinta. Just follow
all this simple advice, and everything will be
totally fine.”
“Yes,” I say. “What could possibly go
wrong now?” ■
MARTA DOMINGUEZ
"AND THEN IT GOT EATEN BY
VAMPIRE NAZIS. I THINK YOU’RE
ALLOWED TO TELL THEM
ABOUT YOUR BABY DREAMS IF
THEY’RE WEIRD ENOUGH."
“
Being a student in
Berlin is extremely
rewarding – there
are so many
inspiring things in
this city!”
MATT BELBIN
BA (HONS) PRACTICAL FILMMAKING
Do you see yourself as the next
award-winning filmmaker?
COME TO OUR OPEN EVENING
30th October, 6pm
Berliner Union-Film
Oberlandstraße 26-35
12099 Berlin
Email to RSVP: berlin@metfilmschool.de
Find out more about our range of courses
in: Filmmaking, Directing, Producing,
Screenwriting & Documentary
CONTACT US FOR MORE INFO:
T: +49 (0)30 8975 8877
E: INFO@METFILMSCHOOL.DE
W: WWW.METFILMSCHOOL.DE
55

ADVERTORIAL
The Berlin guide
The new directory to help you find your way around Berlin.
To advertise, contact ads@exberliner.com
mitte
Paper & Tea Discover tea, systematically
organised by oxidation, including
white, green, yellow, oolong,
black, pu-erh scented and blended
teas. Explore other sections of the
store, devoted to authentic tea accessories
and handmade paper products.
Round off your sensuous shopping experience
with teas prepared by knowledgeable
teaists. Alte Schönhauser
Str. 50, U-Bhf Weinmeisterstr., Mon-
Sat 11-20, www.paperandtea.com
Prêt-à-Vélo Carefully handcrafted
bicycles from England, Italy
and Belgium meet high-quality bags,
smart accessories for a day of biking
in the city, chic functional clothing
and office-ready bike shoes. As premium
partners of the brands Brooks
England and Fahrer Berlin, they focus
on sustainably designed products
that are produced in Europe
and that can often only be found in
their store. Fehrbelliner Str. 17, U-
Bhf Rosenthaler Platz, Mon-Fri 12-19,
Sat 10-16, www.pret-a-velo.de
Roland Weiss, Lawyer
Do you have employment law problems?
Roland Weiss (Rechtsanwalt,
German attorney at law) has advised
German and international clients on
labour law for more than ten years.
He speaks German, English, Swedish
and French. Friedrichstr. 210, U-Bhf
Kochstr., Tel 030 3406 0390, www.
weisslegal.de
Icons
Beauty
Coffee
Drinks
Entertainment
Food
Gallery/Art
Health/Wellness
Music
Languages
Services
Shop
Sports/Fitness
Kilkenny Irish Pub Natives
and visitors alike converge to
drink and party at this pub under the
beautiful Hackescher Markt station.
Enjoy homemade Irish and international
pub grub plus a huge vast selection
of beers and spirits. Catch all the
international sports on big screens.
Live concerts two to three nights
a week. Easy 24h access to public
transport. Am Zwirngraben 17-20,
S-Bhf Hackescher Markt, Mon-Sun
from 12, www.kilkenny-pub.de
Dolores Founded 10 years ago
as a street food pioneer in the German
capital, Dolores serves excellent
California-style burritos and quesadillas
– inspired by San Francisco’s Mission
district. Recommended by Time
Out, New York Times and Lonely Planet.
Voted #1 value for your money
by Exberliner readers. Rosa-Luxemburg-Str.
7, S+U-Bhf Alexanderplatz,
Tel 030 2809 9597, Mon-Sat 11:30-
22, Sun 13-22, www.dolores-berlin.de
Sauerkraut In a cosy, woodpanelled
room, German and American
cultures (Donald Duck meets
Hansel and Gretel!) clash head-on
with a menu of meaty delights. Seven
kinds of homemade Wurst, interesting
burgers and original tapas.
Daily lunch specials for €7.50.
Wein bergsweg 25, U-Bhf Rosenthaler
Platz, Tel 030 6640 8355, Mon-
Fri 8-1, Sat-Sun 9-1, www.restaurantsauerkraut.de
Tommi’s Burger Joint At
this London import, you‘ll find classic
no-nonsense black Angus beef burgers,
medium grilled, just like Tommi
likes it. Kick-ass veggie burgers for the
non-Fleisch eaters and milkshakes that
taste better than yours. Invalidenstr.
160, U-Bhf Rosenthaler Platz, Mon-
Sun 11:30-22, www.burgerjoint.de
Maya Massage is a relaxed
and friendly service run by Susie
Maya Draper – a fully qualified Swedish
massage therapist from the UK,
offering an accessible and affordable
way for people to experience the
benefits of Swedish massage! Pricing:
30 min for €25, 60 min for €40,
90 min for €55. Generator Hostels,
Oranienburger Str. 65, S-Bhf Oranienburger
Str., Tel 0152 8536 135, www.
facebook.com/mayamassage
Fire Bar After reunification,
Berlin exploded with underground
bars. In Fire Bar you can still feel
the spirit of the Berlin underground.
Chea p drinks, sofas, funky lights.
The fire is always burnin’ in this cosy
cellar bar. Krausnickstr. 5, S-Bhf
Oranien burger Str., Mon-Sun from 20,
www.fire-club.de
Kapitel Zwei Conveniently located
in the heart of Berlin, Kapitel
Zwei offers intensive German-language
courses from only €202 per month.
Their experienced teachers and small
class sizes will have you speaking
Deutsch in no time. All levels offered
from beginners to advanced, start
anytime! Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 29,
S+U-Bhf Alexander platz, Tel 030 9562
5321, Mon-Thu 8:30-12:30, 13:30-19,
Fri 8:30-15:30, www.kapitel-zwei.de
moabit
Lei e Lui The lovingly decorated
Lei e Lui is one of the city’s few
certified all-organic restaurants. These
trailblazing pioneers of bio food
in Berlin serve up a variety of tasty,
creative Mediterranean-Oriental specialities
such as fresh vegan vegetable
cream soups, curry and couscous,
pasta, risotti and homemade
cakes and desserts. Wilsnacker Str.
61, S+U-Bhf Hauptbahnhof, Tel 030
3020 8890, Wed-Sat 17-24, www.leie-lui.de
prenzlauer berg
Godshot belongs to the top of
the league, with excellent coffee and
super-friendly staff. Above all, they
know their stuff. Take your time, enjoy
the casual, laid-back atmosphere of a
great neighbourhood and one of their
delicious cakes. Immanuelkirchstr. 32,
U-Bhf Senefelderplatz, Mon-Fri 8-18,
Sat 9-18, Sun 13-18, www.godshot.de
LPG Biomarkt Your all-organic
neighbourhood supermarket
supplies fruit and vegetables,
meats, cheeses and even cosmetics.
Fill your basket with freshly baked
bread and treat yourself to a selection
of sweet and savoury goodies.
Kollwitzstr. 17, U-Bhf Senefelderplatz,
Mon-Sat 9-21, bakery from 7,
www.lpg-biomarkt.de
The Green Room is a centre
for holistic, green medicine. Here
you‘ll find an international team of
complementary health practitioners
who offer consultations in English
and German. Holistic therapies at the
Green Room include homoeopathy,
psychotherapy, coaching, hypnosis
and EMDR, Neurological Integration
System and PSYCH-K, Ayurvedic and
Tibetan massage, classical and pregnancy
massage, past-life regression
and yoga. Hufelandstr. 34, Tel 030
4208 4030, www.thegreenroom.de
No Wódka showcases the
best of today’s lively Polish art and
design scene. The concept store features
a range of contemporary Polish
fashion, homeware and furniture and
also hosts exhibitions of work by Polish
artists. Pappelallee 10, U-Bhf
Eberswalder Str., Mon 12-19, Tue-Sat
11-19, www.nowodka.com
Herr Nilsson Godis is a candy
shop which specialises in well-selected
delicious Scandinavian candy.
Really sour sweets, salty liquorice and
smooth chocolate-coated marshmallows
can all be pick ‘n’ mixed into your
candy bag. Get your sweet fix in one
of the two Berlin stores or make someone
happy and order sweet presents
from the online shop! Stargarder Str.
58, S-Bhf Prenzlauer Allee, Mon-Tue
11-19, Wed-Fri 11-20, Sat 12-18, Sun
13-18, www.herrnilsson.com
Memory It’s easy to see why
Kylie Minogue shops here: a haven
for vintage lovers, the small boutique
offers an extensive range of 1950s
to 1970s treasures from handbags
and suitcases to jewellery and evening
dresses… at affordable prices!
Schwedter Str. 2, U-Bhf Senefelderplatz,
Mon-Sat 14-19
Lesendro​The recently opened
Lesendro on Kollwitzplatz is the only
original fish and seafood restaurant
from Montenegro and the Adriatic Sea
in Berlin. They serve traditional dishes
such as variations on octopus, Buzara,
Brodet (bouillabaise), scampi baked in
sea salt and a wide variety of Mediterranean
fish. The warm and cosy atmosphere
with live piano at the weekends
and the friendly, heart-warming service
will make you feel right at home.
Knaackstr. 45, U-Bhf Senefelderplatz,
Tel 030 3810 4136, Mon-Fri 17-23, Sat-
Sun 12-23, www.lesendro.de​
Comptoir du Cidre
Arti sanal ciders, perry, pommeau and
calvados... French Canadian siblings
Leila and Sidney Kristiansen are behind
Comptoir du Cidre, continental
Europe’s first bar solely dedicated
to craft ciders. Their tapas menu is a
play on traditional French bistro dishes
with subtle Japanese influences.
Kollwitzstr. 98, U-Bhf Eberswalder
Str., Tue-Fri 17-24, Sat 11-24, www.
facebook.com/comptoirducidre
friedrichshain
Milja & Schäfa serves homemade
pasta made fresh daily, crisp salads
and daily specials in pleasant surroundings,
blending urban style with
woody rustic charm. Every day their
open kitchen gives birth to a new lunch
menu and breakfast variations. Pamper
your sweet tooth with homemade desserts,
cakes and cookies. The coffee is
organic and the fine wines come from a
hand-selected young German vintner.
Sonntag str. 1, S-Bhf Ostkreuz, Tel 0176
6266 8459, Sun-Thu 8-24, Fri-Sat 8-2
50 • DECEMBER 2014

Dr. Dot gives the best massage,
erm, on Earth. Based in Kreuzberg
61, across from Viktoriapark, Dot has
the most famous hands in the biz. Either
she or one of her 850+ strong
team of massage therapists (Dotbots)
can massage you pretty much any
time, anywhere. Deep Tissue is their
specialty. www.drdot.com
ILLUSTRATION BY AGATA SASIUK
Blue Living This colour concept
store stocks famous and beautiful
English paint and wallpaper from
Farrow & Ball, as well as furniture
and fabrics from established manufacturers
such as Moooi and Kvadrat
and a range of vintage classics. Discover
new design objects and wonderful
collectibles each time you visit.
Süd stern 6, U-Bhf Südstern, www.
blueliving-farben.de
3 Schwestern Housed in a former
hospital turned art centre, this spacious
restaurant with big windows overlooking
a lovely garden serves fresh,
seasonal German and continental dishes
at reasonable prices. Breakfast on
weekends and holidays. Live music and
parties start after dessert. Mariannenplatz
2 (Bethanien), U-Bhf Kott busser
Tor, Tel 030 600 318 600, Mon-Sun
from 11, www.3schwestern-berlin.de
LPG Biomarkt Your all-organic
neighbourhood supermarket
supplies fruit and vegetables,
meats, cheeses and even cosmetics.
Fill your basket with freshly baked
bread and treat yourself to a selection
of sweet and savoury goodies.
Reichenberger Str. 37, U-Bhf Kottbusser
Tor, Mon-Sat 8-21, bakery
from 7, www.lpg-biomarkt.de
No Hablo Español The best
California-style Mexican street food
joint in Friedrichshain. Delicious
freshly made burritos and quesadillas
served by a collection of fun-loving
international people. Once a week,
challenge the NHE team in a game
of rock-paper-scissors and win a halfprice
meal! Kopernikusstr. 22, S+U-
Bhf Warschauer Str., Mon-Sun from
12, www.nohabloespanol.de
Schillerburger The legacy
continues from Neukölln to Kreuzberg,
Pankow and Friedrichshain.
Voted one of the top 10 burgers in
Berlin with veggie, vegan, classic
& cheeseburgers with all the trimmings.
”The wise man makes provision
for the future.” – Friedrich Schiller
Wühlischstr. 41/42, S+U-Bhf Warschauer
Str., Mon-Sun 11:30-1, www.
schillerburger.com
Workout Berlin Personal training
on pilates reformers. This unique
fitness studio combines the flexibility
of a gym with the personal attention
of a trainer. The challenging workouts
focus on core strength, coordination,
flexibility and endurance and
leave you feeling lean, strong and
at ease. Simplonstr. 23, S+U-Bhf
Warschauer Str., Tel 0173 5842 236,
www.workout-berlin.de
Goura Pakora This vedicvegan
restaurant and café serves
wraps, smoothies, freshly squeezed
juices, salads, thalis (big mix plates),
dosas (rice pancakes) and crispy
pakoras. 100% fresh and homemade
with love! Krossener Str. 16,
S+U-Bhf Warschauer Str., Tue-Sat
12-23, Sun 12-22:30, www.gourapakora.de
Monster Ronson’s Ichiban
Karaoke is the world’s craziest
karaoke club. Make out on
their super-dark dance floor, get
naked in the private karaoke boxes
and sing your favourite songs all
night. Warschauer Str. 34, S+U-Bhf
Warschauer Str., Mon-Sun from 19,
www.karaokemonster.de
Hops & Barley Serving
home-brewed pilsner and dark
beer, this is the place to go to get
that proper brew-pub vibe in Friedrichshain.
Cider and wheat beers
are also on tap. Part brewery,
part bar, the interior is beautifully
decorated with antique tiles.
Wühlischstr. 22-23, S+U-Bhf Warschauer
Str., Mon-Sun 17-2, www.
hopsandbarley-berlin.de
kreuzberg
Santa Maria Eat authentic
Mexican street food right on Oranienstraße,
with a bar offering a full range
of mezcal, tequila and cocktails. Enjoy
favourites like chilaquiles and tacos
de carnitas plus the biggest, tastiest
burritos in town. Oranienstr.
170, U-Bhf Kottbusser Tor, Mon-Sun
from 12, www.santaberlin.com
Bastard From Bastard with love:
whether it’s breakfast, lunch or dinner,
this restaurant is not just for those
who were born out of wedlock.
Choose from the changing seasonal
menu created with love for fresh ingredients
and fine food. Our tip: try
the homemade stone-oven bread!
Reichenberger Str. 122, U-Bhf Görlitzer
Bahnhof, Tel 030 5482 1866, Mon-
Sun 9-17, www.bastard-berlin.de
Piri’s Inspired by the flavours
of Portugal, and Piri-Piri sauce in
particular, Piri’s brings the flavours
of Portuguese chicken in burger
form, with their very own special
recipe salsa, combined with delicious
homemade aioli and soft, seeded
buns. Wiener Str. 31, U-Bhf
Görlitzer Bahnhof, Mon-Sun 12-22,
www.piris-chicken.com
Rosa Caleta You’ll find what
is surely Berlin’s finest Jamaican food
in a side street a stone’s throw from
Görlitzer Bahnhof on the U1 line. Live
music, art exhibitions, catering and
an intimate dining atmosphere offering
creative dishes with a European
touch. Great homemade cake selection.
Muskauer Str. 9, U-Bhf Görlitzer
Bahnhof, Tel 030 6953 7859, Tue-
Sat 18-23:30, Sun 14-1, kitchen until
23:30, www.rosacaleta.com
Tiki Heart Café &
Shop Looking for a weird, wonderful
Hawaiian-Kreuzberg atmosphere?
Then this is the best place to be.
Open for diner-style breakfast, lunch
and cocktails. Kick back amongst punk
rock Schnickschnack, crazy clothing and
footwear. Aloha & rock ‘n’ roll! Wiener
Str. 20, U-Bhf Gör litzer Bahnhof,
Mon-Sun from 10, www.tikiheart.de
Jivamukti Yoga The official
outpost of NYC’s best-known yoga
centre offers the opposite of “fastfood
Western yoga”. Sounds too hippy?
Don’t worry: yoga is a pleasure
here. Stylish surroundings, classy
equipment, English-speaking staff and
two loft studios add to the relaxing,
luxurious atmosphere. Four English
classes. Oranienstr. 25, U-Bhf Kottbusser
Tor, www.jivamuktiberlin.de
51

ADVERTORIAL
Modern Graphics Berlins
best comic shop! Here you can
find the biggest possible selection
of German and English comic books,
graphic novels, illustration/art/street
art/tatoo/design books and magazines
and cool toys. A weekly shipment
with the newest US comics arrives
each Thursday! They have a
second store in Europa Center.
Oranien str. 22, U-Bhf Kottbusser Tor,
www.modern-graphics.de
Café Morgenland On weekends
and holidays you’ll find a great
buffet here, complete with gourmet
cheese, fresh fruit and veg, crêpes
and other vegetarian dishes, cold
cuts, shrimp cocktails and more. Set
menus from €5. During Happy Hour
drinks are just €3.50 after 20:00. Reservations
suggested. Skalitzer Str.
35, U-Bhf Görlitzer Bahnhof, Tel 030
6113 291, Mon-Fri 9-1, Sat-Sun from
10, www.morgenland-berlin.de
neukölln
Pazzi X Pizza offers an amazing
selection of pizzas and creative
topping combinations including
seasonal varieties with pumpkin or
porcini. Innovative antipasti plates,
salads, tasty frappés and a charming
atmosphere. Slices from only €2!
Herrfurthstr. 8, U-Bhf Boddinstr.,
Mon-Sun 11:30-24
Pêle Mêle Enjoy homemade
cakes, coffee specialties,
soups and salads, veggie-burgers,
fresh smoothies, shakes and so much
more! An extensive breakfast menu
all day long and brunch buffet every
Sunday. 100% vegan and organic.
Stop by for a beer or a glass of wine
and surf the net for free. Innstr. 26,
Tel 030 3646 7523, Mon-Sat 10-
20, Sun 10-22 (brunch 10-15), www.
pele-mele-berlin.de
Mama Kalo Dig in to the
best of both German and French
cuisine at this cosy gem in Schillerkiez.
Everything is homemade, from
the Flammkuchen and Spätzle to
the quiche, soups, salads and desserts.
Freshly baked Kuchen, anyone?
Herrfurthstr. 23, U-Bhf Boddinstr.,
Tel 030 6796 2701, Mon-Tue, Thu 12-
22, Fri 12-23, Sat 15-23, Sun 15-22
Rollberg Kino With five
screens, Babylon Kreuzberg’s bigger
but lesser-known sister boasts one of
the largest original language movie
selections in Berlin. Located on the
U8 near Hermannstraße in the Kindl
Boulevard shopping centre. Rollbergstr.
70, U-Bhf Boddinstr., Tel 030
6270 4645, www.yorck.de
Hepcat’s Corner Swing,
swing, swing! This comfy, warm Art
Nouveau café and bistro offers a
daily rotating menu including delicious
breakfast, coffee and homemade
cake- all accompanied by the
best swing tunes around. Live lessons
every Saturday from 19:00.
Schinkestr. 14, U-Bhf Schönleinstr.,
Tue-Sat 10-24, Sun 10-21, www.
hepcatscorner.de
Sala Da Mangiare Authentic,
traditional Italian cuisine. Queens
of the house: cappelletti, ravioli, tagliatelle,
strozzapreti and gnocchi,
handmade fresh every day. Ingredients
are sourced from Emilia Romagna,
organic farms and slow food
suppliers. You’ll feel right at home
in the intimate, friendly atmosphere.
Mainzer Str. 23, U-Bhf Boddinstr.,
Tel 0157 7068 3348, Tue-Sat 19-23,
www.saladamangiare.de
Rixbox Espresso & Food
offers top-quality signature espresso
blends, mild and strong, fresh juice,
homemade lemonade, shakes, sorbets,
soups, stews and sandwiches.
Their fresh ingredients come from local
and regional suppliers and their
meals are visually creative, always
homemade, served quickly and of
great value. Richardstr. 2, U-Bhf
Karl-Marx-Str., Mon-Sat 8-21, Sun 10-
18, www.rixbox.de
Prachtwerk One of a
kind in Neukölln, Prachtwerk is a spacious
café, music venue and gallery.
With a wide variety of local and
organic items, Prachtwerk serves
up Five Elephant Coffee, beer from
Neukölln’s Rollberg Brauerei, housemade
baked goods, tasty cocktails,
and more. The best part? All profits
benefit social projects. Ganghoferstr.
2, U-Bhf Karl-Marx-Str.,
www.prachtwerkberlin.com
Wilhelm Tell A unique
restaurant offering a weekly rotating
menu prepared by a team of experienced
chefs. A rich culinary selection
from tapas to steak adds nice variety
including fine vegetarian dishes, salads,
homemade bread and desserts.
Join musicians, poetry slammers, singers
and creatives the first Saturday
of every month for the very special
“Tellerrand-Sessions”. Herrfurthstr.
7, U-Bhf Boddinstr., Mon-Sun 9-24,
www.wilhelmtellberlin.com
Dr. Pogo Veganladen-
Kollektiv is a vegan-only grocery
store with a tiny café in cosy Rixdorf.
It’s a cooperative shop run by 12 dedicated
individuals. Vegans will find
almost anything they need. Non-vegans
are welcome to discover interesting
plant-based alternatives and organic
products amongst 2000 items,
fresh vegetables and lots of bulk ware
for small portions. Karl-Marx-Platz
24, S+U-Bhf Neukölln, Mon-Tue, Thu-
Fri 9-20, Wed 12-20, Sat 9-16, www.
veganladen-kollektiv.net
Schillerbar serves fantastic
breakfast well into the afternoon
and great cocktails at night. Behold
the authentic red paint on the outside
wall intended to threaten the bar
upon opening, left there, and affectionately
responded to with hearts
stating “Schiller loves you anyway” (in
German of course). Herrfurthstr. 7,
U-Bhf Boddinstr., Tel 0172 9824 427,
Mon-Sun 9-2, www.schillerbar.com
wedding
Berlin Glas e.V. Their mission
is to share the skill of making
glass art with the public and provide
a resource to international artists
working with all media. Their underlying
message: working in collaboration
with artists of various cultures
doesn’t just broaden someone’s
artistic capacity, it actually creates a
culture of peace. Provinzstr. 42a, S-
Bhf Schönholz, www.berlinglas.org
The Castle Pub is a real
pub in the English/Irish sense of the
word serving great Guinness and
other special beers with seasonal,
fresh handmade gastropub food.
Monday night is the prize quiz night
when the place gets packed. This
oasis in Gesundbrunnen gives you
a warm welcome, and a big screen
for special match days and more.
Hochstr. 2, S+U-Bhf Gesundbrunnen,
Mon-Fri from 18, Sat-Sun from
12, www.castlepub.de
schöneberg
Dolores Goes West The
place that revolutionised Berlin fast
food with awesome California-style
burritos ten years ago has a second
store on Wittenbergplatz, across
from KaDeWe. This location serves
their best classics and several great
new spicy combos. Bayreuther Str.
36, U-Bhf Wittenbergplatz, Mon-Sun
11-22, www.dolores-berlin.de
Kumpelnest 3000 The
legendary bar that made the Berlin
nightlife scene what it is today. This
brothel-turned-bar 25 years ago was
Bono’s hangout during his visits to
West Berlin. Kumpelnest hasn’t lost
any of its authenticity or wild side
over the years. Hipsters beware!
Lützowstr. 23, U-Bhf Kurfürstenstr.,
Mon-Fri 19-5, Sat-Sun from 19,
www.kumpelnest3000.com
Computer Service Julien
Kwan Julien Kwan’s elegant
store for Apple computers and
other high-tech goodies is the place
for those who want more than just
a shop-and-go experience. Personalised
service makes browsing the
latest technology a true pleasure.
Vorbergstr. 2, U-Bhf Kleistpark, Tel
030 6170 0510, Mon-Fri 10-19, Sat
12-16, www.deinmac.de
Winterfeld Italian food at
its best: expect expertly made pizzas,
delicious pasta and fresh salads.
The salumeria offers a wide variety of
homemade antipasti and a broad selection
of fine wines. We highly recommend
their breakfast Monday to
Saturday! Winterfeldtstr. 58, U-Bhf
Nollendorfplatz, Tel 030 2607 5547,
Mon-Fri 10-24, Sat 9-24, Sun 9:30-23,
www.winterfeld-berlin.de
charlottenburg
Café im Literaturhaus
Enjoy a coffee in one of Berlin’s finest
cafés, known for its courteous
staff and pleasant atmosphere in the
elegant and much-loved Literaturhaus
villa. The perfect stop during a
shopping trip on nearby Ku’damm.
Fasanenstr. 23, U-Bhf Uhlandstr.,
Tel 030 8825 414, Mon-Sun 9:30-24,
www.literaturhaus-berlin.de
The Harp is an Irish haven
just a one-minute stroll off of
Ku’damm. Taste the homemade German
and international food and the
great Irish and German beers. Listen
to live music every Friday and Saturday,
play darts or join in the famous
pub quiz on Thursdays. Smoker’s
lounge available. Home of the Berliner
Rugby Club. Giesebrechtstr. 15, U-
Bhf Adenauerplatz, Mon-Fri from 13,
Sat-Sun from 10, www.harp-pub.de
Lalaine Find everything from
tender merino wool and mohair in differing
thicknesses and colours to precious
cashmere and smooth silk lingerie.
Sure to please even the most
demanding of customers. In short, a
lovely boutique for all your knitting
needs at Savignyplatz. Kantstr. 145,
S-Bhf Savignyplatz, Mon-Fri 10-19,
Sat 10-15, www.lalaine.org
Schwarzes Café Since the
1970s, Schwarzes Café on Savignyplatz
has been a cult favourite among
artists, anarchists, foreigners and
Charlottenburgers. They’re open 24/7,
have English menus and serve organic
meat. Kantstr. 148, S-Bhf Savignyplatz,
Tel 030 3138 038, Mon-Sun all
day, www.schwarzescafeberlin.de
FIND FULL
GUIDES AT
www.exberliner.com/
directory
52 • DECEMBER 2014

ADVICE
KARSTEN KAIE
presents
The New Berlin Comedy Show !
ask
HANS-TORSTEN
Hans-Torsten Richter answers your questions about surviving and
thriving in Berlin. Write to hanstorsten@exberliner.com.
Dear Hans-Torsten: My wife and I were
both born in Berlin and worked in Berlin
for 9-10 years. When we were both 27,
we left Germany to immigrate to the US.
We have German and American citizenship
and have paid in enough to qualify
for pensions from both countries ($3500
in America, €500 in Germany). We are
looking to retire in Germany at age 65,
three years from now. Before we left,
we had been paying into the Berliner
AOK (Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse). We
would like to know how much it would
cost us per month for basic GKV and
the supplemental disability and nursing
home insurance. – Ralph
Dear Ralph: Health insurance bureaucracy
in Germany doesn’t get any simpler
after retirement. Especially for returning
prodigal sons and daughters who left back
in the 1970s. The AOK is the biggest Gesetzliche
Krankenkasse (GKV) or statutory
health insurance provider, but the same
rules apply to all GKVs. Pensioners insured
this way fall into two categories: pflichtversichert
(mandatorily insured) and freiwillig
versichert (voluntarily insured). The
problem is that pensioners can only be
pflichtversichert if they were insured with
a GKV for “at least nine-tenths of the second
half of one’s working life”. The benefit
of this is that if you have a German state
pension, the pension fund will pay for half
of the health insurance contribution (15.5
percent of your monthly income).
Since you are not eligible for this, you
would have no option but to sign up
for the “voluntary” insurance status. Of
course, health insurance is not voluntary
– you have to have it. Here, too, the
person on the Krankenkasse’s hotline will
probably be a total dick and very likely
lie to you (either out of ignorance or as a
deliberate strategy of misinformation to
exclude undesirable pensioners) and say
that you’re not eligible since you haven’t
worked in Germany in the last five years.
With voluntary status, you have to pay the
entire 15.5 percent of your income (on
pensions, investments, etc.). And even if
you have a lower income, there is a minimum
payment of about €350 per month
including the mandatory Pflegeversicherung
(nursing home insurance). The exact
contribution you would pay is impossible
for me to calculate here, but it would be
at least €700 per month for the two of
you. The other option would be private
insurance. Till not long ago, private insurance
was impossibly expensive for older
people, but thanks to a recent change
in the law, private providers must offer
a “basic” plan with comparable conditions
to the Krankenkassen. One thing is
for sure: don’t let anyone tell you aren’t
going to get into the gesetzliche Krankenkasse.
As German citizens, they can’t
refuse you – just cite the 2007 Krankenversicherungsgesetz,
which will make
them realise they’re not dealing with a
clueless amateur.
The application process is bureaucratic
sadism: you’ll have to outline how you
were insured in your entire time abroad
and might have to dig up proof that you
were in the AOK when you were living
here in the 1970s. This can take weeks or
months, but once you’re in, you’re in. Even
if you go bankrupt for whatever reason,
you can go on welfare and the Sozialamt
will pay your insurance premium. Not
an appealing thought, but better than
destitution. Good luck to you, Ralph. P.S.,
AOK has an English hotline: 0049 9131
9242 10 128.
Dear Hans-Torsten: I would like to
found an English-speaking club in
Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg (perhaps called
Friedrichsholt/Crosspile?). You have any
idea how to do that? I would like to
attract native English speakers, not Germans
looking for free English lessons.
– Christoph
Dear Christoph: Don’t be a loser, man.
Interesting people don’t go to clubs like
that. Desperate, socially stunted people
do. If you set up a weekly Stammtisch for
English speakers, only Germans will show
up. And the name of your club is not gonna
cut it. We Germans are turned on by
gimmicky bilingual puns, but “Crosspile”
sounds more like an orgy for Catholics
than a language tandem meet-up. Instead
of going through the hassles of this club
thing, check the Exberliner online calendar
or Facebook for English-language events:
everything from Alcoholics Anonymous
to death metal whisky tastings, stand-up
comedy to creative writing groups, all already
exist in English here. Find your own
scene and start talking.
etb
Directed by Olivier Giraud
Dec. 19 / Jan. 9 10 16 17 at 8pm
Sternberg - Theater in der Spielbank - Potsdamer Platz
Tickets: 030 47 99 74 74 and at www.karstenkaie.com
100% IN ENGLISH – COMEDY AT ITS BEST
25 JAHRE MAUERFALL OR: HOW I LEARNED TO
STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE OSSIS/WESSIS
NASTY PEACE
By copy & waste
Plus an All-Star International
Comedy Showcase, the U.S.
Embassy Literature Series and
much, much more!
December 2014
International Performing Arts Center
53
ETBERLIN.DE

ARTICLE SPOTLIGHT TAG
Islam after death By Emma Anderson. Photo by Anna Agliardi.
Nestled below the towering white spires of the
Sehitlik Mosque by Tempelhof is the first – and
only – Islamic cemetery in Berlin. About 100
gravestones rubbed bare by more than a century
of wind and rain start to tell the story of this
historic graveyard.
The cemetery was originally founded near
Hasenheide in 1798 for the burial of the Ottoman
Empire’s ambassador to Berlin, Ali Aziz
Efendi, who was later joined there by four other
Ottoman nationals. The five graves were moved
to the cemetery’s current location off of Columbiadamm
in 1866. A yellow and red obelisk was
built at the center of the cemetery to honor the
five men moved from the original site as well as
to symbolise the strong bond between Prussia
and the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman soldiers
who fought alongside Germans in World War
I were also buried here. Though most in the
graveyard are Turkish, visitors can spot headstones
of people from Afghanistan to Indonesia.
Some of the more famous names include Persian
princess Mehpare Kadjar-Taki (1894-1989),
Kazakh political activist and freedom fighter
Mustafa Shokay (1890-1941) and Egyptian artist
and businessman Mohamed Soliman (1878-
1929), owner of a chain of theatres in Berlin.
Since the Columbiadamm graveyard closed due
to full capacity in 1989, there has been no other
exclusively Muslim cemetery opened in Berlin.
Muslims may now be buried in one of just 5000
designated spaces, either next to the original
Islamic cemetery or in Gatow, Spandau.
Ender Cetin, chairman of the Muslim association
at the Sehitlik mosque, has been lobbying for
a new Muslim cemetery to be opened for years,
but progress has been slow. “This is always a discussion
among politicians: Do we give Muslims
a graveyard, or could churches give them some
space? It is always back and forth – bureaucracy.”
The need for exclusively Muslim spaces is
ever more pressing because Germans don’t
always comply with Islamic burial requirements,
says undertaker Bahri Deniz. Muslims must be
buried with their hearts pointing toward Mecca,
and Deniz observes that even some of the
graves at the Islamic cemetery were laid incorrectly.
Bodies must be interned as soon after
death as possible, whereas in Berlin, it’s illegal to
bury a body before 48 hours have passed. Muslims
are also supposed to remain in their resting
places for eternity, but the Berlin authorities
will move a body unless the burial space lease
is renewed every 20 years (the Columbiadamm
cemetery is exempt from this requirement).
Right now, between 70 and 80 percent of
German Muslims choose to be sent back to
their families’ original homelands after death.
According to Deniz, though, second-generation
immigrants are increasingly choosing to remain
in Berlin, both because they identify more
closely with Germany and because they want
their children and friends to visit their graves
more easily. “This is our homeland,” he says.
“We should have our own graveyard – one big
cemetery. That is our right.” n
54 • DECEMBER 2014

SEX
Ask Dr. Dot
q
I am dating a guy 15 years older than
me. I really adore him and he me, but
he is borderline obsessed. He texts me
dozens of times per day when I am working
asking me every detail of my day, keeping tabs
on me, checking up on me, etc. He calls me
constantly and demands proof of where I have
been sometimes. These are the reasons I never
wanted to date a female – they all seem so
clingy and crazy. Their wacky behaviour pretty
much turned me gay at a young age. Here I
am with “clingy and crazy”. He and I recently
moved in together and I thought that would
show him I am his, but he has gotten worse;
not better. It’s just never enough for him. How
can I prove my love to him and make him relax?
– Butt-hole Surfer
a: Ask him: “What will make you trust me and
relax?” See what he says. Perhaps he wants to be
married and adopt kids. Or perhaps HE is fucking
around behind your back and is therefore jealous
and paranoid (notice thieves are always afraid
someone is stealing from them; cheaters fear
being cheated on... just throwing that out there).
No matter how invested you are, if you feel suffocated,
it won’t last. Stop the bleeding and get
out before it is too late. Bunny Boiler alert. Better
a horrific ending than a never-ending horror.
q
My girlfriend has disgusting breath. I
usually fuck her without kissing her, and
she is complaining about it. I have offered
her mints and she does not get the hint. Please
save me! – Dying Dale
a: I feel you, my friend. It is hell having to kiss a
smelly pie hole. She is probably not flossing and
has a slight gum disease now. Google “gingivitis”
for her and call her over to the computer and
ask her to read it. Then, ask her to please go to
the dentist to have it checked out as people can
Send all questions or problems,
whatever they are, to me:
drdot@drdot.com
die from gum disease, for real. Book a dentist
appointment and go with her – you’ll come off
as the caring boyfriend and the suffering will
hopefully end. Buy LOTS of dental floss and leave
it around the flat. Start flossing around her and
hand her the box when you’re done.
q
My girlfriend is one of the sexiest, prettiest
women in Berlin. She is from Cuba
and I am from Wales. I feel lucky to have
her as I am frankly not Brad Pitt by any means.
But (there is always a “but”, innit?) lately I
noticed she seems to be trying to change me.
Wanted me to quit the fags (not gays, I mean
smokes), get more fit (no more kebabs late at
night) and I have done all that and look and
feel better, I do admit. After a wild weekend
together, she mentioned that I am an arsehole
when I drink. Strange, as no one has ever complained
before. So now she wants me to quit
drinking too. Shall I thank her for the makeover
and try? – Welsh Wully
a: It is human nature for people to see how far
they can push their partner until they fucking
snap. She is testing out her pussy power on you.
It is great that she wants you to be healthy, but
you have to draw the line soon or you will just be
a lump of clay she has moulded to her liking. And
once she has pushed, pulled and moulded you
exactly how she wants you, she will put your balls
in her pocket and find a real man who won’t be so
easy to pussy whip. You have to stay the man she
fell in love with at all costs. Perhaps cut down on
your vices but tell her nicely as possible that you
prefer her to be your girlfriend, not your Mum.
q
I am fucking tired. Tired of dating. Tired
of supporting myself with no end in sight.
What happened to chivalry? Where are
the men who take care of their women? Who
open doors, give compliments and want a family...
has this species become extinct? Am I the
only one who feels this way? I’m a creep. I’m a
weirdo. What the hell am I doing here? I don’t
belong here. Help? – Bitchy in Berlin
a: You’re in the wrong country for that. In Ireland
and the UK, for example, men will open a door for
you and insist on paying for your drink and dinner.
Germans seem to prefer equality (open your own
door, pay your own rent even if you live together).
The downside is you do have to go halves on
everything. Upside is you’ve a lot of freedom. Lets
say you were dating a conservative Muslim man –
he would pay all of the bills and protect you but
you would have no say in anything. You couldn’t
go out much on the town with your girlfriends
or accidentally screw a co-worker after too many
drinks and live to tell about it. Meanwhile, Berliner
guys don’t want extra work. Gotta make things
easy for them or they’re not interested. Too many
other willing women roaming around to choose
from. The single straight man in Berlin has the
upper hand indeed. But if you make sure you can
support yourself, you will have the pleasure of
being able to choose who you stay with rather
than being trapped in a gilded cage. I agree about
the compliments complaint. Sofía Vergara could
walk down Friedrichstraße in just a thong and high
heels and the German men would probably just
glance at her and keep walking (they would wank
over her later at home, but NEVER give her a compliment).
If you want catcalls, go to NYC or Rome.
55 • SEPTEMBER 2014

FROM OUR READERS
better system. Audiences should be willing to pay
something for the music they want to listen to
and support the people who make that music. But
human nature is another matter, isn’t it… – Bob
As our Snowden issue (#130) showed,
Exberliner stands up for whistleblowers,
no matter what era. So we were delighted
to receive this story from a reader:
The forgotten anti-Nazi whistleblower
Dear Editor: Sixty-eight years before Snowden,
and 28 years before eight American citizens broke
into an FBI office and leaked documents giving
evidence of unlawful surveillance of US citizens
to the press, anti-Nazi whistleblower Fritz Kolbe
used his access to documents at the Auswärtiges
Amt and the Wolfsschanze to smuggle over 2600
Nazi secrets to the Americans, who once were
heroes. As a middle-ranking, nondescript official
in the Berlin Auswärtiges Amt, Fritz Kolbe was
better known for his efficiency than his personality.
But he disliked bullies and in Nazi Germany
they were hard to miss, despite the best efforts of
his colleagues to not want to see or understand
anything. Plagued by doubts over what he could
do, he cast off foolish and risky thoughts of
overt rebellion and used his access to the most
secret documents of the Third Reich to blow the
whistle on life inside Nazi Germany. Not one to
advance his career at the expense of higher values,
Kolbe risked all to bring documents to Allen
Dulles and the Allies only to be met with distrust
and tardiness, his credibility undone by a rat in
the ranks of the Allied intelligence community,
being Kim Philby of MI6. Unlike other resistors
slaughtered on the butchers’ hooks of Hitler’s
revenge after Stauffenberg’s aborted assassination
TO THE EDITOR
plot, Kolbe survived the war only to find that
those on whom he had blown the whistle had
taken up their careers again in post-war Germany.
There was little love lost for Kolbe, just reprisal.
Blocked from the Foreign Office, he died in 1973
as a chainsaw salesman in Switzerland. It was only
in 2004 that German Foreign Minister Joschka
Fischer posthumously recognised Kolbe as a hero
rather than a traitor. – Graham Bassett
Our article about GEMA and live venues in
Berlin (Issue #131, October 2014) continues
to draw responses:
Go, GEMA!
Right off the top I’d like to thank you for making
an effort to write an unbiased and objective
article about GEMA and live music in Berlin.
GEMA has and continues to be over 50 percent
of my yearly income. They are certainly unrelenting.
Personally, despite their shortcomings,
I am grateful for that. I do not perform live anywhere
near as much as I used to. Why? Simply
because it no longer is possible to make a living
at it if you’re playing small and middle-sized
clubs and venues. From 1985 to approximately
2001 I made a very good living as a performer
in this city. But these days, young people expect
music for free. It has become a cheap product.
GEMA is an easy and convenient scapegoat.
Instead of complaining and blaming GEMA for
their problems, club owners should be willing
to begin a dialogue with GEMA to work out a
The return of Exberliner sexpert Dr. Dot
in last month’s issue (#132, November)
didn’t please everyone.
Is Dr. Dot a man?!
Reading Exberliner is like indulging in a long and
freshly cooked meal, only the dessert is mouldy...
YES, I’m talking about the advice column of
so-called ‘Dr. Dot.’ At best, she insults readers’
intelligence. Worst case, some poor woman might
take Dot’s guidance seriously, her favourite lesson
– regardless of the question asked – being that it’s
their DUTY to please men. Why is it that antifeminists
are granted full pages in a magazine as
‘progressive’ as Exberliner in 2014? Dot’s ability to
turn every question from a female reader against
them (like the ones from the last issue: Working
too much to have the energy for sex? Hurting
yourself when giving head? Feeling humiliated?
The all-in-one Dr. Dot solution: GIVE HEAD!)
makes me assume she’s actually a ghostwriting old
man who thinks he deserves more head. Hugh
Hefner maybe. Am I right? – PC Police
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15, 2014 for your chance to win!
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