EXBERLINER Issue 130, September 2014

Issue 130 • €2.90 • September 2014
MICHAEL OBERT: “I saw Louis at his worm-eaten table in the Rembrandt
light of his lantern listening to this music, and I got goosebumps.” (p.36)
DIGITALISM:”Now we work a little bit 9-5, or sometimes 5-9.” (p.44)
ALEXANDER DUVE: “Working with an artist is like being in a relationship
– these days it mostly doesn’t work out.” (p.48)
THE WAR ON
WHISTLEBLOWERS
An MI5 spy and a workplace
hero tell the truth – and get
punished for it
NSA’S LAPDOG?
How Germany does
America’s dirty work
COVER UP!
Seven encryption
tools you should
be using
Berlin’s
digital
rebellion
Whistleblowers, cypherpunks
and hackers: The post-
Snowden resistance is right
on our doorstep. Are you
ready to join the fight?
www.exberliner.com
JACOB
APPELBAUM
Our interview with
the exiled hacktivist
and new Berliner
WHO’S
WATCHING
YOU?
The government
agencies (and
Berlin start-ups)
stealing your
data
What’s on? • Art • Fashion • Film • Food • Music • Nightlife • Stage
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Printed on recycled
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20 From Stasi to NSA… and back?
Stasi expert Hubertus Knabe
22 Big Brother in Berlin How the state
spies on us
ISSUE 130, SEPTEMBER 2014
24 Confessions of an MI5 whistleblower
Annie Machon tells her story
REGULARS
02 Werner’s political notebook
How the state and businesses collude
04 Best of Berlin Coexist, Crazy Bastard
Hot Sauce, Dimension Alley, Kallasch&
52 Berlin bites Oui, Madame, Masel Topf,
Vego chocolate
54 Fashion What’s hot and what’s not
55 Spotlight Teepeeland
59 Amok Mama Don’t call me Jacinta!
PAGE 18
CW-DESIGN, PHOTOCASE.DE
26 Germany’s should-be heroes Why
workplace whistleblowers get punished
28 You are the product The Berlin
companies collecting your data
30 Encryption for everyone Seven tools
to take back your anonymity
31 The disruptors The Berliners who
play the system
WHAT’S ON
32 Events calendar
SPECIAL: SNOWDEN
AND SURVEILLANCE
06 Intro The new Berlin dissidence
08 Verbatim Jacob Appelbaum
14 Snowden’s defender The whistleblower’s
EU lawyer, Wolfgang Kaleck
16 Where the spies are A map of Berlin’s
surveillance hotspots
34 Film
40 Stage
43 Music and nightlife
48 Art
12 Leaked but locked up Open the
18 America’s lapdog The intimate
56 The Berlin Guide
Snowden files!
relationship between the BND and NSA
60 Letters to the editor
DEUTSCH IN ENGLISH!
MAXIM GORKI THEATRE
WITH ENGLISH SURTITLES
SEE yOU bACK fOR
THE 2014/15 SEASON!
www.gorki.de
1

An MI5 spy and a workplace
hero tell the truth – and get
punished for it
How Germany does
America’s dirty work
Seven encryption
tools you should
be using
www.exberliner.com
Issue 130 • €2.90 • September 2014
MICHAEL OBERT: “I saw Louis at his worm-eaten table in the Rembrandt
light of his lantern listening to this music, and I got goosebumps.” (p.36)
DIGITALISM:”Now we work a little bit 9-5, or sometimes 5-9.” (p.44)
ALEXANDER DUVE: “Working with an artist is like being in a relationship
– these days it mostly doesn’t work out.” (p.48)
Our interview with
the exiled hacktivist
and new Berliner
The government
agencies (and
Berlin start-ups)
stealing your
data
THE WAR ON
WHISTLEBLOWERS
NSA’S LAPDOG?
COVER UP!
Berlin’s
digital
rebellion
Whistleblowers, cypherpunks
and hackers: The post-
Snowden resistance is right
on our doorstep. Are you
ready to join the fight?
JACOB
APPELBAUM
WHO’S
WATCHING
YOU?
100% made in Berlin.
Printed on recycled
paper.
What’s on? • Art • Fashion • Film • Food • Music • Nightlife • Stage
ISSUE 130
Cover art by
Agata Sasiuk
PUBLISHERS:
Maurice
Frank, Nadja
Vancauwenberghe,
Ioana Veleanu
Printed in Berlin
100% recycled paper
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Nadja Vancauwenberghe
BUSINESS MANAGER Maurice Frank
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
SALES & MARKETING EXECUTIVE Ines
Montani
AD SALES Marissa Medal, Ilektra Simou
DESIGNERS Cristián Recabarren, Agata Sasiuk
PHOTOGRAPHER Michal Andrysiak
CONTRIBUTORS Tatiana Bazzichelli, Mary
Biekert, Dan Borden, Michael Hald, Mike Fleck,
Seymour Gris, Seán Kenehan, Ben Knight, Dominic
Mealy, Camille Moreno (art), Rory O’Connor (film),
Hanna Westerlund, Krystian Woznicki, Document
Leaks: Anonymous
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■ Werner's political notebook By KONRAD WERNER
How the state and
businesses collude
in Germany
Bernie Ecclestone says he grew to like Munich in
the last few months, when he was forced to spend
a couple of days there every week. No wonder. It
turns out there are few nicer cities when you’re on
trial for corruption. Last month, the head of Formula
One wrapped up his bribery case by bribing
the city’s court with €75 million of his €3.6 billion
fortune. Not an out-of-court settlement, because
it was (ahem) with the court, and
not a fine, because Ecclestone
wasn’t convicted. It was a straight
payment to the Bavarian judiciary
in exchange for dropping
criminal charges against him. You
might want to try that if you ever
get arrested in Munich.
Speaking after the trial, Bernie
expressed mild unhappiness
about paying up. But then again,
he observed wisely, “It’d be worse
not to have the money. I actually
find this capitalist system good.” It definitely
works for him, anyway.
Germany is very proud of its successful businesses,
which is why German businessmen don’t
really take it too seriously when one of those many
surveys come out revealing that Germany is in the
same league as Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, and Namibia
in the world’s corruption charts. The disconnect
between perception and reality is striking – in the
2014 Global Fraud Survey carried out by accounting
firm Ernst & Young, we learned that only six
percent of German firms thought fraud was widespread,
but 26 percent reported serious fraud cases
in the last two years. That was not only more than
almost everywhere else in Europe, but also more
than Russia, with 16 percent.
Ernst & Young – being a German company –
downplayed the figures, saying they were just a
sign that German businesses had increased their
IF YOU’RE
TOO CORRUPT
FOR BRAZIL,
YOU KNOW
SOMETHING
IS UP.
“awareness” of the
problem, as if they had
merely started to realise
what corruption was.
Besides, the apologists
argue, the stats show
that German companies
are cracking down
on corruption more
than ever before. One
example consistently held up is that of Siemens, a
company that became legendary for its corruption
scandals in the past decade, but is now presented
as model of corporate compliance. So it’s odd that
earlier this year a court in Brazil
excluded Siemens from competing
for government contracts in
the coming years. If you’re too
corrupt for Brazil, you know
something is up.
The German government is
mainly happy for German firms
to deal with corruption internally,
and German firms do all they
can to keep cases away from the
public (try getting details on the
cases behind the above surveys –
the firms never publicise anything beyond the raw
data). That might be one reason why Germany
remains one of only a handful of countries in the
world that has signed but not ratified the United
Nations Convention Against Corruption (UN-
CAC) – a select group that includes Sudan, Bhutan
and Syria.
Or it might be that German politicians think of
business as a branch of public life anyway, seeing
as so many of them move so easily from one to
the other. Most recently, Ronald Pofalla, Angela
Merkel’s chief-of-staff, moved directly to a top
job at national rail operator Deutsche Bahn, while
minister-of-state Eckart von Klaeden moved to
Daimler. The EU has complained regularly to
Germany about this state of affairs – but cases
like Ecclestone’s show that when the state and
big business collude, the government is happy to
simply shrug. ■
2 • FEBRUARY 2013

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BEST OF BERLIN
BY THE EXBERLINER EDITORIAL TEAM.
Best 1990s flashback
If you’re what the internet calls a “Nineties Kid”, then stepping
into Friedrichshain clothing store COEXIST, with its
purple plastic blow-up chairs, rainbow shag rugs and a VCR
recording of Clueless playing in the corner, will send you into
full-blown reverie. Crocheted crop tops in candy-necklace
pastel colours, shiny Gwen Stefani-inspired bras and skirts
trimmed with faux fur, itty-bitty backpacks – they’re all here.
But Coexist is also a showcase for the designs of hip German
owners Indira Töreki and Anna Heise, who met at the
Schwerin Design School and combined their talents (and their
names) to create the label Indyanna. After a few crucial years
in London, they made their way to Berlin, opening Coexist
in March. Each of their pieces is guaranteed hand-sewn,
mostly made from upcycled materials; a craft that can often
be witnessed live in Töreki and Heise’s back-room sewing
studio. Their store also houses other independent designers,
including LuLaLoop (which has clothed the likes of indie-pop
princess Grimes). Even if you’re not one to wax nostalgic over
flashy print leotards (€65-70), bomber jackets hand sewn out
of vintage scarves (€126) or punk-y denim vests with a political
twist (€85), the shop is still worth a visit – and those of us
of a certain age will find it hard to resist the infamous tattoo
choker necklace (€2). MB Coexist, Grünberger Str. 88, Friedrichshain,
U-Bhf Samariterstr., Mon-Fri 12-20, Sat 12-18
Best Neukölln bar in Moabit
Okay, sure, KALLASCH& (whose name comes from the red sign
on the back wall, scavenged from a nearby abandoned restaurant
supply store called Kallasch & Jonas) boasts some signifiers
you might recognise from Weserstraße: stripped walls, mismatched
furniture, back-room concerts. But stick around and
you’ll notice that a) everyone actually listens when someone’s
playing; and b) you might even end up talking to someone you
didn’t come in with. This is Moabit, after all, where despite a
recent spate of rent increases, the streets remain quiet and the
populace “down-to-earth”, as co-owner and barwoman Luisa
Traumann puts it. Starting with a crumbling Eckkneipe, she and
fellow Moabiter Dominik Borrmann planned and renovated
tirelessly from the bar’s inception in October right up to its
official opening in July, and the whole place still buzzes with a
scrappy “can you believe they’re letting us get away with this?”
energy. While the weather still allows, sip a Berliner Bären-Bräu
(€2.50) on the outdoor patio while watching the sun set over
the former train station that now houses the ZK/U art centre.
Then head inside for music, probably played by a folky veteran
of Borrmann’s three-year-old Musique Maudite concert series,
and one of Berlin’s better Mexikaner shots (€1). AJ Kallasch&,
Unionstr. 2, Moabit, U-Bhf Birkenstr., Thu-Sat 19-close
4 • SEPTEMBER 2014

Best hot stuff
Chilli fiends and locavores unite: Berlin’s
finally got its own artisanal hot
sauce. Irish expat Jonathan O’Reilly
first began the culinary experiments
that would lead to CRAZY BASTARD
SAUCE three years ago. The final
product – a paprika-tomatillo-habanero
concoction with a pleasantly fruity
burn – has been available since January,
and a sweet-hot jalapeño-date version
will be hitting the market soon.
How good is it? A 100ml bottle sent
to the Exberliner office disappeared in
days, emptied out onto sandwiches,
stir-frys, burritos… everything,
basically. Order it online (€5/100ml,
€9/200ml, plus postage) or pick up a
bottle at Neukölln’s Cabslam (€6) – a
fitting natural habitat for a hot sauce
created by a “reluctant illustrator/
dedicated barman/sometime musician”.
JS Crazy Bastard Hot Sauce, www.
crazybsauce.com
von ensemble mosaik
ERICA LÖFMAN
Best 3D selfie
There’s an odd moment – somewhere
between doing a 360 degree full-body swivel
whilst being scanned from head to toe, and
when you witness a miniature version of
yourself being squirted out by a printer –
where you think, “Jesus, is my posture really
that bad?” If such revelations hold no fear
for you, then we’ve got a café that’s right up
your alley… DIMENSION ALLEY, that is. The
future of the selfie is here, nestled unassumingly
in Prenzlauer Berg, and predictably
enough it’s 3D. Offering a variety of digital
fabrication workshops that cater to children
(upon request) and adult novices (€40), the
world’s third “fab café” goes to great lengths
to walk you through the potentially infinite
applications of 3D printing: organic tissue,
aeronautical engine parts, even entire buildings.
Then, they give you the opportunity to
design… a keychain. Yet the more technically
savvy can rock up with preconceived
designs and bring them to life with the help
of the outfit’s affable owners, examples of
which can be seen around the workshop:
the aforementioned mini-me (from €25),
miniaturised landscapes, a Mars Rover and
models of actual bone scans, to name but a
few. Height and width were good while they
lasted, but modern Berliners need something
more: they need depth, and that’s exactly
what this techno-caff is serving up, in
viscous thermoplastic form. SK Dimension
Alley, Liselotte-Herrmannstr. 1, Prenzlauer Berg,
S-Bhf Greifswalder Str., Mon-Fri 10-18, Sat 11-18
Filme: Distruktur – Melissa Dullius,
Gustavo Jahn
Künstlerische Leitung: Bettina Junge,
Thomas Fiedler / Kommando Himmelfahrt
Clemens Gadenstätter:
Sad Songs (2012)
Mark Barden:
viscosity (2014)
Mauro Lanza / Andrea Valle:
Regnum vegetabile (2014)
3. & 4. September 2014
20 Uhr im Berghain
Am Wriezener Bahnhof, 10243 Berlin
Eintritt 9 € – Karten an der Abendkasse
Eine Produktion des ensembles mosaik
in Koproduktion mit dem Internationalen
Musikinstitut Darmstadt; gefördert aus
Mitteln des Hauptstadtkulturfonds.
MICHAL ANDRYSIAK
5

ARTICLE FROM THE TAG EDITOR
BERLIN’S
DIGITAL
REBELS
ILLUSTRATIONS BY CATHERINE FRANCK
Berlin might well be home to the highest concentration of
“Snowdenistas” in the world – starting with the small circle
of trusted confidants. There’s Edward Snowden’s first ally, US documentary
filmmaker Laura Poitras, who in January 2013 received a pseudonymous
email, trusted a certain whistleblower’s story and met and filmed the
young NSA runaway in his Hong Kong hotel room – resulting in a video that
was to make history. After being on a watchlist, detained and interrogated
countless times, she made Berlin her base. There’s Sarah Harrison, the Wikiangel
sent by Julian Assange, who spent 40 nerve-wracking days in Moscow’s
Sheremetyevo airport while escorting Snowden to safe haven. Advised by her
lawyers that it wasn’t safe to return home to the UK, Harrison decided to
go to Berlin, joining another exile, the US hacktivist Jacob Appelbaum (see
interview, page 8), a close associate of Assange and friend of Poitras. There’s
also former MI5 agent Annie Machon (see page 24), herself a former whistleblower
turned outspoken anti-surveillance campaigner.
It is not a coincidence that so many Snowden allies have ended up here.
Berlin has always been a centre of crypto-dissidence – starting with the
founding of the Chaos Computer Club 30 years ago, now represented by
the likes of Andy Müller-Maghun and Constanze Kurz. Add to these Daniel
Domscheit-Berg, WikiLeaks spokesman turned renegade, now a member of
digital transparency champions the Pirate Party. They form the nexus of a
constellation of collectives and organisations from the non-profit Digitale
Gesellschaft to the international NGO Tactical Tech, a collective focused
on technology and activism, to the Courage Foun dation, an international
whistleblower support organisation set up by Harrison last June – not to
forget the benevolent techies who patiently teach Berlin’s crypto-illiterates
the art of online privacy at open workshops they misleadingly call cryptoparties
(no music, booze optional). United by a strange mix of digitally
enabled awareness and cyber-utopianism, they meet with whistleblowers,
human rights activists, academics and lawyers at international conferences
the world over. Here, they socialise at a certain weekly Mitte Stammtisch
or at events across Berlin’s alternative bars, like Citizen Kino’s evenings
of media-subversion. It’s an underworld populated with Club Mate
drinkers who don’t necessarily live in Neukölln, rarely own Macbooks
and don’t exhibit their lives on Facebook. Instead, they send each other
encrypted messages from computers covered in “Tor Project” or “Asylum
for Snowden” stickers. They often carry outdated mobile phones – the
rare smartphone owners take their batteries out, knowing that even a
switched-off phone can easily be turned into a tracking device and a networked
microphone. They want to change the world but fear journalists.
They’re distrustful. Realistic, stoic, idealistic. Often bespectacled. Mostly
male, but not entirely.
The only one missing is “Ed”, as his supporters affectionately call him.
In the meantime, lamp posts are plastered with stickers emblazoned with
an Obama-campaign-esque replica of his face; even my vet has “Asyl”
postcards in his office among the cute cat photos. In the age of ‘normcore’,
digital nerds have grown hotter (I heard it: “Snowden is a sexy
man.”) Snowden-sploitation?
The Berlin literati are catching up: this year’s International Literature
Festival warms up with a Snowden support evening on September 8 (not
sure who’s supporting whom here), complete with a panel discussion and
a reading (a collage of Snowden’s wisest quotes). They’ve also initiated a
petition demanding Germany to grant him asylum: we all want him in
Berlin. Except for the German government, that is. Had Snowden been
Chinese, they would have welcomed him with open arms as a political
6 • SEPTEMBER 2014

Laura Poitras
Sarah Harrison
Jake Appelbaum
dissident (see our interview with Snowden’s lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck,
page 14). The issue is that in many ways, the German political establishment
has remained a lapdog of the US (see page 18) – from Cold War
times, when the NSA had its Berlin roost in Teufelsberg, up till now.
Germany is the NSA’s most important base of operations in Europe. The
infamous XKeyscore is ope rated from the Hesse town of Griesheim, as
revealed by one of the many documents in the Snowden cache.
Now we know about the collusion of the NSA and Britain’s GCHQ, to
a lesser extent Germany’s BND, and half of Silicon Valley in the ambition
to turn the world into what Snowden called a vast “digital panopticon”.
Comparisons with 1984 seem as hackneyed as they’re apt: Big Brotherhood
has descended upon us. We’ve entered the most monitored and
spied-on age in human history. Our everyday habits and deeds are recorded,
sorted and analysed by data collection agencies to the profit of online
and offline businesses without our consent or knowledge (see page 28).
The digital economy has turned into a vast milking operation, and we’re
the cows. Put that information in the wrong hands – we’re dead cows.
Now we know. Does this mean we’re more aware? Beyond the stickers
and the outcry, what measures are we taking? Are we using Tor to
browse the internet or encrypting our email? Or reverting to typewriters
to outsmart the spies, as contemplated by the Bundestag’s NSA
parliamentary commission: back to analogue? For its part, Exberliner
is embracing digital enlightenment: we’re working on an open-source
whistleblower submission system and, from this month on, we’ll be
the first Berlin magazine with full digital privacy. As well as enabling
our journalists to communicate securely when they need to, it is also a
symbolic gesture, an act of political rebellion.
In times of impunity from governments, it is up to us, citizens, to
stand up for our rights. Snowden, like Manning, Assange and many others
before them (let’s not forget local whistleblower Brigitte Heinisch, whose
legal battle changed the way whistleblowers are treated in Germany, page
26) is a classic example of what Albert Camus called a “rebel” – the man
who says “no” in the face of what he considers to be illegal but also immoral,
who fights against the kind of world he doesn’t want to live in.
Citizens of Berlin, join the whistleblowers, cypherpunks and hacktivists
– it’s time to rebel. NADJA VANCAUWENBERGHE
7

SNOWDEN SPECIAL
MICHAL ANDRYSIAK
“We’ve entered
revolutionary times”
Jacob Appelbaum: New Berliner, exiled hacktivist, passionate idealist
By Ruth Schneider
8 • SEPTEMBER 2014

A
longtime collaborator of Julian Assange, a close friend of Edward
Snowden confidants Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald
and now himself a trusted ally of the NSA whistleblower, this is
a man with some serious cred on the Snowden scene.
Jacob Appelbaum is a natural-born dissident with a fighting spirit and
serious oratory skills. Starting off as a campaigner for medical marijuana
in California at age 15, Appelbaum spent more time worrying about
planet Earth (later with Greenpeace and Rain Forest Action Network)
and his computer’s ecosystem than his schoolwork. By his early twenties
he was busy helping friends bring technology to Iraq (installing internet
satellites in Kurdistan) or de-constructing Apple’s encrypted disk storage
system. His involvement with the Tor Project (from 2004) and Wiki-
Leaks were soon to follow. In 2010, Rolling Stone tagged him the “most
dangerous man in cyberspace”, a label that still pisses him off today.
He would hate the idea, but the Snowden affair has boosted his career –
as a freelance writer with access to the NSA files, and as a public speaker
who’s been both an expert on and victim of digital surveillance. Appelbaum
was among the few cyber-security brains who engineered the Tor
anonymity software. This and his connection to WikiLeaks earned him
harassment from US intelligence agencies – relentless pressure which
culminated in his girlfriend being spied on in her bedroom. In June of
last year, he decided to bid home and friends farewell and join the likes of
Poitras and WikiLeaks’ Sarah Harrison in self-imposed Berlin exile.
Appelbaum – a man with over 76,000 Twitter followers – is coy about
his new celebrity on the digital scene. Yet today it’s hard to conceive
of a conference with the words “surveillance” or “Snowden” in the title
without his participation. Like many of his techie peers, he encrypts
his email, and if he does have a smartphone on him, the battery travels
separately in his bag.
“I’m a journalist, a computer security researcher/programmer, as well
as an artist – all three are on my visa,” a freelance visa Germany has just
renewed for another two years.
He’s also bit of a rabble-rouser – like when this year, after winning
the respected Henri Nannen prize for journalism, Appelbaum publicly
expressed his shame at winning an award named after a one-time Nazi
(the famous Stern founder was a Waffen-SS propaganda man in Italy), and
pledged to melt his award together with those of other winners, creating
a new artwork.
In person, “Jake”, as his friends call him, comes across as a rather shy,
aloof type. But get him on topic and this 31-year-old tattooed product
of “generation so-what” metamorphoses into an uncompromising yet
endearing idealist.
Last year, you decided to move to Berlin after
years of harassment by the US government.
Why then? I had enough. For years I had
terrible interactions with the police, with border
control, with the FBI. All sorts of different
encounters that my family had experienced, that
my partner had experienced, who is no longer my
partner now partially due to this stress. Unbelievable
things really.
Can you tell me about one of these unbelievable
things? Sure. A couple of years ago my
mother was arrested in a small town in California.
This is not necessarily out of the ordinary
for her, she is a troubled person. But the police
kicked down the door and arrested her on the
toilet and dragged her out of the apartment
while recording the entire happening on an audio
recorder. I flew to California to try and bail her
out of jail. I thought that this is just what would
happen to any person’s mother in these sort of
circumstances. But it became increasingly clear to
me that there was something else happening by
the way that they treated her. She was handcuffed
and tied down; her wrists and ankles and waist
were all chained together. At one point she was
interrogated about my role in WikiLeaks. I had
never told my mother about Julian Assange or
WikiLeaks. She doesn’t use the internet.
So they transferred her to a mental hospital
eventually. I met her there and she told me that
they were drugging her against her will. They had
been given an order by the judge to forcibly drug
her. They interrogated her again about my role in
WikiLeaks. She spent 18 months in jail without
a trial. She has been on probation for three years
and because I have left the US, I haven’t seen her
in this period of time. It is a very sad situation.
You were also followed, harassed... When
I was in Iceland, I received a panicked message.
My now ex-fiancée had woken up with men wearing
night vision goggles watching her sleep in her
home. When we travelled together, I would go
through customs with her and they would literally
take me away in front of her and deny to her
that I existed. I experienced this for years.
When did it start? It really started in 2009, but
I had been very quiet about it. It really started to
heat up in 2010 and 2011 and got gradually worse.
In May 2013 I had dinner with my aforementioned
ex-girlfriend, and at this dinner we were
physically followed by at least two agents we
think were with the FBI. We negotiated over the
internet to have dinner at a specific restaurant
“I feel safer in East
Berlin as an immigrant
than I ever have as a
citizen in the United
States.”
at a specific time and she picked me up and we
drove there. The email was encrypted and we
used all sorts of stuff, but it’s clear that both of
our computers were probably compromised and
they knew everything. What is weird is that we
didn’t go to the restaurant that we planned on.
At the last second I had a nervous twitch and
I said, let’s take a left right here and go to this
restaurant. And not 10 minutes later a guy with
a buzz cut sits down right next to us, puts his
cell on the table, the microphone of his phone
directly pointed at me. Twenty minutes later a
woman comes and sits down next to him. And
she also puts her cell phone on the table. They
pretended to be on a first date but they never
said anything about what they do, why she was
late... At some point my fiancée really broke
down crying from the pressure. The day before,
Laura Poitras had come to visit us in Seattle. So
it’s quite clear that this surveillance had been
linked, they wanted to know what had happened
with Laura. And of course that wasn’t the topic
of our dinner conversation.
Was it during the Snowden revelations?
No, Laura was just visiting me. Laura and I have
been dear friends for a long time. That kind
of harassment started much before Snowden.
And this led me to realise that when these leaks
started coming out, something big was happening.
When we learned about Edward Snowden
and Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, I was
actually in Munich – on my way to Seattle from a
trip to India. A friend from the Chaos Computer
Club walked up to me while I was having dinner
and he said to me, “Did you hear the source of
the leaks?” I was travelling with Laura’s producer
Caity, and we were filming together... I think she
even filmed me loading the page of The Guardian,
learning the name of Edward Snowden and learning
why we couldn’t reach Laura all that time.
I put everything together and realised that if I
were to go back now, these years of harassment
about WikiLeaks would be nothing compared to
what was coming next. So I cancelled my return
flight and I never went home again. That was in
early June of 2013.
All those years of harassment – it was because
of your involvement with Wiki Leaks?
The data trail you leave behind tells a story about
you, but not necessarily one that is true. Even if
it’s made up of facts. For years the US government
harassed me because they thought Bradley
Manning, now Chelsea Manning, had given me
documents. But that is not true.
How do you know they thought that?
Because they dragged friends of mine into a
grand jury in Virginia and threatened them
with indefinite detention if they did not testify
against me, waive their constitutional liberties
9

and talk about me specifically. When I realised
that they had a completely incorrect theory and
that they tried to destroy my life for years, I
thought to myself that there will be no end to
what they do to harass and to destroy. So, I felt I
shouldn’t return.
So why Berlin? Berlin has an incredible culture
of resistance. I have been coming to Berlin for
many years because of the Chaos Computer
Club, and I’ve worked with
Der Spiegel in the context of
WikiLeaks. I have a lot of
close friends here in the art
world and in the computer
hacker world and in the
journalistic world. I exist
at the intersection of those
three worlds, and Berlin
makes me very happy. We
often joke that it’s this sort
of last stand for democracy.
Where people are really
having real dialogues. The
people in Chaos Computer
Club, Der Spiegel, taz, Exberliner,
etc. said to me that they were with me, and
so I have been here for a year and have applied
for a temporary residence visa, as everyone does,
and I received it. Frankly, I feel safer in East Berlin
as an immigrant than I ever have as a citizen
in the United States.
You never felt like applying for asylum?
I do not relish the idea of being a refugee. I
hope it never comes to that. I have been offered
political asylum by other countries. I don’t want
to say which ones. The US government is out
to get everyone associated with WikiLeaks and
Snowden in any way they can. It is political
persecution. I think that Germany has done a
good job by letting me stay. I want the same for
everyone who needs it.
It is a beautiful irony to be an exile here.
Berlin has a crazy history of surveillance
from the Cold War to the present day. We
know from the Snowden files that Germany
is the NSA’s closest ally in Europe.
Even with Berlin’s history, even with the intense
irony of East Berlin being a place where we
work on these things now, it is not necessarily an
endorsement that Berlin is perfect. There is an
immense amount of spying here by the German
government and the NSA. We now know how
closely they work together. For example, as far as
we can tell all the American drone assassinations
are relayed through Germany...
You and Laura both worked with Der
Spiegel – how did it happen? Well, Andy
Müller- Maguhn and I had been working with
Spiegel in various capacities over the years and
we both convinced her to come and work with
us. Marcel Rosenbach and Holger Stark are two
of the greatest living journalists; they are goodnatured,
have good ethics and I trust them both.
Were you ever tempted to join Glenn
“The Guardian
is a petty, shitty
newspaper with
an axe to grind
about WikiLeaks
and Julian
Assange.”
Greenwald and The Guardian? Well, I was
working with Glenn, and I asked The Guardian
for a letter to be covered under their editorial
secrecy privileges, and they declined. I think it’s
because they’re a petty, shitty newspaper with
people at the helm like Luke Harding, Alan
Rusbridger and David Leigh who have an axe to
grind about WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, and
they decided that that was more important than
anything else including protecting me. When, in
September 2013, Leigh and
Harding were here at Hundt
Hammer Stein bookstore for
a reading of their book on
WikiLeaks, they lied about
about Julian endlessly. Do
you know that when Julian
first went to the [Ecuadorian]
embassy, The Guardian sent
him a basket with clean socks
and soap in it? That is the attitude
that The Guardian has
towards serious journalists!
Don’t you think they
did a good job with the
Snowden leaks? They broke the story despite
considerable pressure... Until you consider
the fact that they said they wouldn’t even
touch anything related to Afghanistan or Iraq,
for example. I mean, that’s unbelievable... They
have done a good job in some of this reporting,
but to me it is very sad that they view this as a
competition between news organisations or egos
as opposed to understanding the importance
overall. You see this with Harding’s book about
the Snowden files. What does he know about
Snowden? He has no contact to Snowden, no
idea about any of this stuff, and he writes this
totally exploitative book to try and present to us
the full history and it is completely preposterous
– this is The Guardian. The fact that they
have all these documents but they are basically
done reporting on them – to me that’s another
example of how unbelievably irresponsible they
are as a publication. We don’t need organisations
like these who serve the state, we have enough
of those. We need organisations who serve the
public interest, and this is what the press is supposed
to do.
Why didn’t you follow Laura and Glenn to
The Intercept? I really like The Intercept, and I
think the people working there are of the highest
calibre. I’m glad Pierre [Omidyar] is financing it,
but you’ve gotta ask yourself, why? It is purely to
make money. My interest is very much aligned to
increase justice in the world, to try and improve
human rights issues. So I care very much about
the things that Jeremy Scahill writes on The Intercept
about drone strikes. I care what Glenn is doing,
I care what Laura is doing. I have the utmost
respect for publications that get the truth out for
the public interest. But each of these places have
different limits and different goals.
You are being overly diplomatic now. I’m
not! People who work as effective journalists in
the US are harassed, they are bothered... They
are arrested and they live with serious fear of
repercussions even if they won’t admit it.
So, would you say that’s the reason why The
Intercept withheld the fact that Afghanistan
had been under total NSA surveillance
in their exposure of the so-called Bahamas
story – too much pressure? I think it is quite
clear that organisations like The Intercept are
explicitly under pressure. And The Washington Post
is also explicitly under pressure – they got the
story and actually didn’t publish the names of any
of those countries... When you talk to the people
who work at these organisations they all have a
great deal of fear.
But look, Glenn and Laura are two heroes
of fearless journalism. They proved their
integrity many times and now they’ve gone
on to found a new media platform... you
would expect that organisation to be more
‘independent’. So what does that tell you
about what’s possible?
It tells me that apparently it’s not possible.
That is the answer to the question then. What is
possible for The Intercept, The Washington Post or
The Guardian? There are all different things in
terms of possibilities. Could The Intercept publish
anything they want? Potentially, but there are
consequences that come with it. Political, legal
and maybe even technical consequences. The
reality of the situation is that there is a reason
why WikiLeaks exists. WikiLeaks is a publisher
of the last resort.
So, without WikiLeaks, the Afghan people
wouldn’t have been informed... I am happy
that WikiLeaks exists because they serve as a
balancing factor. Right? When publications like
The Intercept fear to publish something like that
or worry that it could be harmful, WikiLeaks
is able to come in and talk about it. It really
behooves governments not to pressure places
like The Intercept or The Washington Post because
that creates a space where it’s absolutely clear
that WikiLeaks is a necessity, even now. I think
it’s sad that there is an environment where news
publications are not allowed to tell you certain
facts, but it is also the reality of the situation
that we are living in.
What do you think was the most significant
thing about the Snowden files? I think that it
is important to understand that Snowden serves
as an example that it is not only possible to
resist, it is possible to resist and to survive. What
Snowden has done is a brave act of whistleblowing.
He has paid dearly for it, and many people
are working to ensure that he doesn’t pay with
his life. Of course the impact of the documents
was important, but the impact of surviving alone
was just as important in some sense for inspiring
other people. I mean, [NSA whistleblower William]
Binney doesn’t have legs anymore. He is a
double amputee from the diabetes and the stress
of his life. Thomas Drake’s life has been in some
ways completely ruined. Chelsea Manning has
ended up with a 35-year prison sentence.
10 • SEPTEMBER 2014

But is being stuck in Russia under Putin’s
guardianship really an enviable option?
Well, that’s a really loaded statement; how do
you know that Putin has anything to do with
Edward Snowden? Let me just say that it’s better
to be alive and stuck in one of the largest
countries in the world than to be imprisoned
or to be dead. But some people deny this and
suggest that he is a pawn or a puppet. They
criticise his choice of asylum. But he applied
for asylum in as many countries as possible, and
nearly every single one refused on a technicality.
Sarah Harrison and Julian Assange saved his life
because WikiLeaks takes source protection seriously.
Just imagine, those three people managed
to embarrass the entire intelligence community.
That is so powerful.
Then there are those who say things like,
“Well, what did we learn from Snowden
that we didn’t know before?” There is a
difference between suspecting and absolutely
knowing something like the fact that the Bahamas
are under complete surveillance. There is a
difference between understanding that metadata
programs are being used to help kill people with
drone strikes and speculating about it. There is a
difference between understanding that Chancellor
Merkel is spied on as a head of state in theory
and finding out it is entirely the case. Because of
my experiences, I know something about the difference
between probability and certainty, what
is legal versus what is happening. I, for the rest
of my life, will never lie down in a bed in a house
and not know that my house is monitored. I will
never be able to have a free conversation in my
home for as long as I live...
Stuff like that used to be called paranoia.
So, you’re saying it vindicates the paranoid
ones among us? When Julian Assange and I
wrote Cypherpunks, many people said that we
were crazy, paranoid, etc. Well now, thanks to
Snowden, we know it is no longer unreasonable
to think that our phones are being tapped or that
the internet is being monitored. It is a fact. It
might be oppressive in a sense, but it is still a liberating
phase because it is no longer a question.
Every person who doesn’t work to change it is
complicit. That’s the difference. There is a huge
split between a bunch of cynical people who
say they already knew and don’t need to think
further about it, and a number of not-so-cynical
people who say it’s what we suspected and what
we feared, now let’s change it.
Were you personally shocked by those revelations?
I moved beyond shock. I am horrified and
I want things to change. One way to change these
things is to publicise them so that people know
about them, and another way is to build alternative
solutions to them. And this is what we are doing
with the Tor Project, for example, and many other
people are working on exactly that as well.
So, how do you get people to go to the next
level – from awareness to action? We have to
have a lot more than just individual actions. My
recycling does not save the environment. It is a
useful part of a much bigger picture. We need industrial
action on a planetary scale. For example
we have to re-engineer the way telecommunication
systems work. Why can the NSA wiretap
entire countries? Because the infrastructure is designed
to be wiretapped and they exploit it. And
that needs to be changed. The reality is that most
people trust the defaults of their electronic devices.
Until the architecture is privacy by design,
we will have privacy by policy. Privacy by policy
will always be violated by
people who do not feel that
they are constrained by that
policy. We have to work to
change the way our infrastructure
works. To make it
actually secure.
But many don’t feel that
concerned – as internet
users, they just want to
accomplish certain tasks
and are unbothered
about corporate or political
use of their personal
data.... Saying, “Oh I’m
not interesting, no one will want to watch me” as
a way of coping with this stress is understandable.
But I would re-frame it as “intelligence agencies
are normal people”. The capabilities necessary to
tap a cell phone costs €1000 or less. The methods
are available to everyone – an ex-lover, a competitive
journalist… So, it’s about choice, not whether
or not you have something to hide. There are
businesses that exploit people’s lack of knowledge,
and, yes, we should question the centralisation of
businesses like Facebook and Twitter. We have to
deal with corporate surveillance and government
surveillance and the ties between them. It is a big
problem. But it is something we can solve.
You called Facebook Stasibook… Yes,
because of its close collaboration with the state.
They have an entire department that does nothing
but turn over data to police, governments and
other requesting parties. I’m sure that the FBI
went to Facebook for any data that they had on
me. The Department of Justice went to Twitter
and Google for me. I think the big fallacy is to
think that because people use Facebook they
don’t care about privacy. But what is the alternative
for most people? The reality is that if you live
in London, when you walk down the street, it’s
a privacy-violating channel of information. But
what can you do? You won’t stay inside all the
time, which doesn’t mean you don’t care about
the cameras. So, we must build alternatives so
that people can choose. And we can do it.
You seem unexpectedly confident, even
optimistic. I don’t think there is a divide
between the physical and digital world anymore
and history shows us that it is possible to resist
and it is necessary to do so. With the Snowden
files and WikiLeaks we’ve entered revolutionary
times, big changes are ahead.
Do you think that Snowden sparked a
revolution? Yes. I think Julian Assange, Edward
Snowden, Laura Poitras, Chelsea Manning,
Glenn Greenwald and others have all contributed
a great deal to history. We live in times of
extreme upheaval. I see that we have already
built the beginning of alternative structures that
exist already. Like the Tor network. Millions of
people use it everyday. Whistleblowers, journalists,
doctors... It is not a promise of the future,
it is an optimistic reality. I would say there is a
long struggle, and we are in the middle of this
struggle. We may not
win all these battles and
“There was never a
time in history
where this many
people could be
under surveillance.
This is new, and it
is not okay.”
we may not stop mass
surveillance, but there
is an opportunity to do
that, and with those tools
many people are not as
vulnerable to surveillance
as the rest of the planet
is by default right now.
So, it’s about empowering
ourselves
as citizens of the
digital age? The point
is whether you want to
support the fundamental tenets of a democratic
society. If you do, then you should use these
types of programs. What is most important is
to think about the big picture in order to restore
balance to a lot of what has been lost. We
fundamentally need to re-architect and re-affirm
things, we need our policies and our technologies
to line up, we need to re-affirm fundamental
principles about human rights. When I first
went to the European Court of Human Rights
in Strasbourg, I cried.
I thought you belonged to “generation
so-what”. You’re turning out to be such an
idealist! The court in Strasbourg is one of the
most utopian visions. This notion that any person
can lodge a case or a claim, that any person
has the right to have injustices done to them by
states redressed in this manner, and for states
to have to do something about it… well, this to
me is something almost unimaginable. But then
I think of people like Assange, Snowden and
Poitras and I think, of course we need to reaffirm
these values that were hard-won after the
Second World War. We can’t solve it in a cynical
way. There was never a time in history where
this many people could be under surveillance.
This is new and it is not okay. And we can stop it
and we should stop it. Things like cryptoparties
are part of a grassroots response to stop that on
an individual level and they are great. We need
people to do this in law, we need companies to
take a strong stance to ensure that these types
of communications are secure, to have opportunities
for anonymity, that there is a possibility
for a data-retention-free society. These kinds of
things are critical. I think there are actually ways
in which we know how to do it now. We can use
some of the existing apparatuses to change the
world. And it is already happening. Every time
you anonymise, every time you encrypt, every
time you assert your rights and refuse submission,
we’re winning. n
11

SNOWDEN SPECIAL
Leaked but locked up:
Who controls the Snowden files?
Edward Snowden risked his life to leak documents for
the sake of “informing the public”. But how much
wiser are we, the public, really? How much has
actually been leaked so far, and who decides what
gets published and on what grounds?
We first heard about the NSA files in June of last year over two successive
scoops by The Guardian (June 5), and The Washington Post (June 6) that
left the world screaming with outrage. Never had a single leak unleashed
such a firestorm; never had a leaker been turned into such an instant hero.
(His confessional video was uploaded to Youtube on June 9; it has since
been viewed by over three million people). By September 2013, Der Spiegel
released the story about Angela Merkel’s cell phone being monitored by
the NSA, scandalising the Germans and their Kanzlerin. More documents
have been published since, bringing ever more shocking evidence of the
NSA’s total impunity in its ambition of total surveillance. It seems that not
a single country, community or activity escapes America’s all-seeing eye.
How many more revelations are still to come?
In other words: how much has been published so far? Does anyone
actually know the exact size of Snowden’s NSA
cache? NSA Director Keith Alexander initially
estimated that the former contractor had copied
anywhere from 50,000 to 200,000 NSA documents.
Today US officials claim it was 1.7 million
– Snowden said he took far fewer, but never gave
an actual number. Wild speculations concluded
that at the current publication rate, it would take
another half decade to go through Snowden’s
bounty. Who knows?
What we do know is that what has been made
public so far is only a small portion of what
Snowden risked his life to tell the world. What we
also know is that the flow and the content of
At the current
publication rate,
it could take
another half
decade to go
through
Snowden’s bounty.
revelations to the public is controlled by those who have access to the
precious archive. “Who’s that?” you might ask. There’s the original duo
Snowden met in a Hong Kong hotel on June 2, 2013 and entrusted with
the leak – documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras and journalist/blogger
Glenn Greenwald. They, in turn, enrolled the Washington Post and The
Guardian, which was soon to share the spoils with The New York Times. The
circle has grown to include Der Spiegel, since Poitras moved to Berlin with
the files in her luggage to join old companions-in-digital-dissidence,
cypherpunks Jacob Appelbaum and Andy Müller-Maguhn to work with
the German newsweekly. For his part, and while keeping his cooperation
with The Guardian, Greenwald shared his own set of files with outlets in
India and Brazil (he lives in Rio) and the French Le Monde. Ultimately he
left the UK newspaper in October of last year to concentrate on an
ambitious new venture, The Intercept, an ‘independent’ news site generously
funded by Ebay mogul Pierre Omidyar. The site was launched in
March with Poitras as a co-founder. The presence of both of Snowden’s
initial confidentes on the masthead bestowed instant credibility upon the
new online medium. Its mission statement? “To provide a platform to
report on the documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward
Snowden,” pledging fearless, adversarial journalism.
The pressure on media organisations to not publish information is
enormous. It has, for one, driven The Guardian to do away with their own
copy of the Snowden files in a highly publicised case of spy-media drama
– complete with a self-promotional video showing editors laboriously
destroying computer hardware with angle-grinders and drills under the
watchful eyes of two representatives from the GCHQ, the British NSA
equivalent. We also know that The Guardian and The Washington Post
withdrew some information from articles they published – probably after
negotiation with the authorities, mostly for ‘security’ reasons. But what
about when even the more ‘fearless’ ones succumb to the pressure? That’s
what happened last May, when The Intercept failed to disclose the name of a
country outed by a Snowden document as one of the five targets of total
NSA telecom surveillance. It took WikiLeaks’ insider knowledge and
Julian Assange’s outrage at what he called “censorship” to reveal that
“country X” was actually Afghanistan. The Intercept’s defence, “credible
concerns that it could lead to increased violence”, didn’t impress everyone.
So, who are we to trust? RUTH SCHNEIDER
AGATA SASIUK
12 • SEPTEMBER 2014

OPINION:
“Open the Snowden Files!” By KRYSTIAN WOZNICKI
More than one year after “NSA-Gate”, access to
Edward Snowden’s documents remains closed.
They have been rendered inaccessible again,
devoid of public control.
A small circle of people decides who can
access, read, analyse, interpret and publish the
Snowden files. Those who belong to this small
circle tend to argue that this has to do with
security reasons – the leaked files have been “secured”
in order to prevent greater harm. There
is also the obvious argument that this method
enables the long-lasting media narrative to
enfold – the “life insurance” of the whistleblower.
But what if, in the very sense that “data is the
oil of the 21st century” – what if the Snowden
files have been privatised by people who try to
exploit them according to their own interests?
Many researchers, activists and technology
experts (not to mention journalists, other than the
“lucky few”) have a great interest to work with the
Snowden files. Imagine the historical impact on
sciences, social movements and IT infrastructures
if those files would become public domain and
serve as material to study as well as to learn from.
In July, I confronted The Guardian’s Luke
Harding (The Snowden Files) with the issue while
at a Netzwerk Recherche summit in Hamburg
(the big gathering of the investigative community).
Harding seemed unprepared to reflect on
the possibility to open the small circle currently
dealing with the Snowden files.
To paraphrase his response: Yes, it is a
dilemma that only few people can look at the
Snowden files and draw their own conclusions.
However, this limitation is a natural result of
their very precarious nature (files containing
state secrets) and a consequence of the influence
exerted by the government. Nonetheless, “if you
have a special project” you could contact Guardian
editor Alan Rusbridger and probably get him
to provide you with the requested material.
A request for files – such a request is usually
directed towards obscure organisations or
corporations, and it is usually articulated by the
press. The request is usually denied at first, but
as the history of investigative journalism shows,
including many successful court cases, one must
fight for one’s right to access information. Now,
you must make these requests to the press itself.
This is absurd. To whom are organisations like
The Guardian, The Washington Post, The New York
Times, Der Spiegel and individuals like Glenn
Greenwald accountable? Are they subject to any
democratic control?
I was also able to ask the investigative reporter
Seymour Hersh what he thought of the fact that
the Snowden files are locked away by people
who actually represent freedom of speech: “I
don’t think there is much chance of getting
either Greenwald or anyone at the Times or Post
or Guardian to open up their files. The reporters
and editors will all claim they have done
the public a great service… meanwhile, they all
continue to hoard what they have and share it
with no one. Newspapers turn out to be not very
interested in spreading the wealth.”
What I’m trying to suggest: we should work
out a new model for transferring the Snowden
files (and big data leaks in general) into the
public domain – taking into account the obvious
problems of security, government pressure and
Snowden’s “life insurance”.
All of this should be addressed on an international
level, starting in the countries where the
files are currently being
processed – in the US, in
the UK and in Germany.
Perhaps it should begin
in Berlin, where the
public interest in the
Snowden disclosures
is probably the biggest
worldwide. The main
actors here, including
journalists at Der Spiegel
and key figures from
the hacker scene, are
accumulating what late
French sociologist Pierre
Bourdieu would call
“cultural capital” due to
their exclusive access, while making non-transparent
decisions about what is accessible to the
public and what is not.
Ultimately, “it is the choice of the leaker to
tell the journalist what to do with the material,”
as Stefan Candea, a central figure in the
Offshore Leaks project, reminds us. So we need
to convince people like Snowden to consider
open access to their files. Maybe this is not such
a futile endeavour when you take into account
the fact that Snowden may not be too satisfied
about how his material has been processed so far.
In any case, we are facing a lot of work. We need
to raise awareness among whistleblowers and we
need to craft an adequate concept for platforms
that allow open access to their leaks. In six
points, here is what we need to consider:
1. Any responsible disclosure of leaked source
material should come with information about
the whole body of documents, as long as this
kind of information does not reveal the identity
of the leaker.
2. The public version should be cleared of all
names. Ewan Tarkan, a journalist pursuing (undercover)
research on issues like the surveillance
industry, states: “In the past there have been several
cases in which the names of people who had
just done simple IT services were visible. Their
lives are at stake when documents containing
visible names are published. At the same time,
this can’t be brought forth as an argument to
withhold all the files. As the case of WikiLeaks
shows, it is possible to remove names from documents
before publishing them.” Yet, who decides
Do we have to
decide between
Snowden’s life
insurance and
open access to the
files? Or are there
ways to reconcile
both concerns?
which names should be deleted? Who designs
the interface in a way that is also attractive to a
broad, non-technical audience?
3. The files need to be made accessible in a
manner that allows everybody working with
them a certain degree of anonymity – you don’t
want the files on your desktop, but in the cloud,
at a publicly known location that is accessible in
a secure way. But hosted by whom? For instance,
a public institution like a library?
4. The question how to work with the files
is central to the model: Are the respective files
machine-readable? Or do they need to be rendered
that way? There are various tools that will
solve that problem, e.g. DocumentCloud.
5. You need to understand the language in
which the files are written. Solicit the help of
someone who is fluent,
learn it yourself or have
your machine do it for
you. Needless to say, any
publication would have
to provide links to the
sources, openly accessible
to anyone.
6. In Snowden’s case,
we need to make sure
that the whistleblower
does not lose his life
insurance and consequently
his life. The
next big step would
be to open access to
the files – at least 50
percent of them. In Julian Assange’s case, some
files remained undisclosed in order to back up
his publishing activity. This approach could also
work for Snowden.
Is this all our model needs to consider? Probably
not. But for now, we could start by asking: why is
there only one publicly available counter of the
Snowden files in the world, maintained by John
Young’s Cryptome under the project name Tally
Update? Why aren’t those in the circle of the
lucky few providing such a service? Or at least
helping Young with fact checking? Why are the
Snowden files not handled in a less restrictive
manner? Aren’t there smarter ways to go about
it? And when thinking about public interest: Do
we have to make a decision between Snowden’s
life insurance and open access to the files? Or
are there ways to reconcile both concerns?
The discussion entails reflections on the foundations
of our democracy. It is not the worst
moment in history to rethink most of them. n
Krystian Woznicki is a
journalist, cultural critic and
publisher of the Berliner
Gazette, an online
newspaper he founded in
1999. The Gazette will be
holding its annual
conference, this year
entitled “Slow Politics”, at
Supermarkt on Nov 13-15.
YASUHIRO YAMAGUCHI
13

SNOWDEN SPECIAL
Snowden’s defender
Berlin-based lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck is the NSA whistleblower’s legal support in Europe
and a dedicated fighter in the struggle against state surveillance. The co-founder of the
European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights regularly takes states and
corporations to court for human rights abuses around the globe from his office on the
fifth floor of a large factory building in Kreuzberg’s Zossener Straße. By Ruth Schneider
Edward Snowden has two American lawyers
and a Russian one. You are officially his
European lawyer – what’s been your role so
far? We’ve been exploring the possibility of him
getting to some type of safe haven in Europe. One
country specifically was under discussion over the
last 12 months: Germany. The German parliament
set up an NSA investigation committee,
and part of their discussion
was to invite him to come
to Germany to testify and
give him some type of
state security. It wasn’t very
realistic, because obviously
the two governing parties
are not willing to have him
here. People tried to make it
happen, but there were still
some legal issues. There are
other European countries
that want him as an expert
and to hear his opinion on
the issues that he raised,
but it seems that for now he
might stay in Russia...
So countries want him
to testify, yet they don’t
want to give him any
guarantee... That is typical
hypocrisy when it comes
to civil liberties and human
rights. My enemy’s whistleblower
is my friend and my
own whistleblower is my
enemy. You should expect
a more principled position,
especially from Western
Europea n countries. This
is not only about Edward
Snow den, it is about a fundamental
principle of transparency
and democracy and
enabling us, the national,
European and global public,
to discuss certain things.
If he hadn’t come out with
these revelations, we would
have had no chance to participate
in these discussions on a knowledgeable
basis. None of us can deny that even our European
democracies are violating laws. We need to
balance that out, and whistleblowers do this.
Do you see hypocrisy in Germany? Sure! The
rule of law played a bigger role in Germany than
in US policy over the last 15 years, that is for
sure. Germany was much more willing to obey
and advocate for international law. There is a
difference between torturing suspects yourself, as
the US did post-9/11, and some actions somehow
evading German law, which is what we are
talking about now. But still in the issue of secret
services there is much hypocrisy, and if their conclusion
from the NSA scandal is to better equip
German, French and Swiss
secret services, then we are
not on the same page. I’m
fighting for a less superficial
critique of the US and a
more principled discussion.
MICHAL ANDRYSIAK
What about the right
to privacy ? Aren’t there
any laws? Privacy laws
do exist, but with a lot of
exceptions. When it comes
to a confrontation between
privacy and national security,
privacy never wins. We as
Western societies allow our
secret services a lot. And it’s
not only a problem in the
US or since 9/11. We had
the problems before, and
it is not helpful to use the
scandal to blame others...
This is much more than accusing
the NSA of collecting
too much data. The idea
that America is the bad guy
prevents you from thinking
and from really considering
the big picture.
What about Snowden
being recognised as a
political dissident and
granted political asylum
in Europe? Not possible?
Unless you are a whistleblower
from China or from
Russia – then, it’s considered
political persecution.
If you come from those
countries you won’t have a
14 • SEPTEMBER 2014

problem being acknowledged, but if you come
from a ‘friendly’ country you will have a problem.
But there can be other exceptions in international
law where you have the guarantee of a safe stay.
So, concretely, what would happen if
Snowden travelled to Berlin? I don’t know.
This is a political decision. If he took a plane
from Moscow to Berlin, he would run the obvious
risk of being arrested and extradited to the
US. There would be an extradition procedure
where he would have to defend himself. That is a
very realistic scenario.
He wouldn’t have very good chances, would
he? It is not about a good chance. He’ll only
enter the country if he has the assurance that he
won’t be imprisoned or extradited or somehow
rendered to the US.
Isn’t it crazy that in 21stcentury
Europe there isn’t
one country that could
guarantee this? Most of European
history was the opposite
of what Europeans think of
themselves. Yes, they claimed
to follow the various paths of
enlightenment and protect
human rights everywhere… but
at the same time, European
history is a history of colonialism
and post-colonial exploitation. On the one
hand they hold speeches for human rights, and
on the other they exploit indigenous populations
all over the world in order to find cheaper natural
resources. It’s not enough to only see one side.
Here in Germany, there’s a strong pro-
Snowden movement... As far as I can see,
the media and the hype about Edward Snowden
didn’t improve his situation regarding getting
asylum in Germany or elsewhere. The government
didn’t change its stance much from the
beginning. It was a very self-centred discussion.
It was news about nothing. The whole time, he
was saying, “I don’t think I should be in the centre
of this discussion. You shouldn’t discuss me,
you should support the cause of anti-surveillance
and protection of whistleblowers.” And that
hasn’t happened so much. The discussion was
about him, but it wasn’t his initiative... and that
is not in his interest.
From early on he decided to show his face.
Was it a smart gesture? It was a catch-22. If he
didn’t show his face, people would have accused
him of being a coward. Now that he did, he’s
criticised too. I think he has very strong arguments
for the way he did it. It is a good way to
prove that he is a bona fide whistleblower.
Is being recogniseable good legal protection
for him, or just the opposite? It’s not only
about the law; it is law, morality and politics. He
obviously gets a lot of moral support because he
showed his face and is willing to answer questions.
Whether this will lead to the right political conclusions,
we will see. It’s not the end of the story.
“My enemy’s
whistleblower
is my friend
and my own
whistle blower
is my enemy.”
Personally, you don’t think it makes any difference?
No, no, I’m not saying that. I have my
sympathy for someone who does it that way. It
makes it easier to defend him. The political outcome
of these revelations is not Edward Snowden
versus the NSA or Edward Snowden versus the
US – it is the public, the defenders of human
liberties plus Edward Snowden. It is an ongoing
battle. You can’t draw conclusions. It is about
taking up the cause and trying to enforce it.
Hubertus Knabe (see page 20) and others
have filed charges against the NSA… I think
that the litigation so far may not have hit the
right point. There was this interesting piece that
Constanze Kurz [of the Computer Chaos Club]
filed with others in the UK. They went to the
European court in Strasbourg against the UK for
the violation of privacy laws. I think it’s a crucial
problem that we don’t have
appropriate laws. We have to
reform our laws to deal with the
dangers of massive interception
of information by secret services.
This is the perfect time.
Like working on drafting
laws to protect whistleblowers?
The Council of Europe
wants to propose an additional
protocol for the European Convention
of Human Rights. Many
people are proposing reforms, and we have to see
if the Snowden revelations serve as a long-term
solution for whistleblowers. The national parliaments
have to decide.
Are you hopeful? Is the political will there?
I’m not interested in whether the political will is
there or not. My task is to work on it.
When you see what happened to Chelsea
Manning and people forget that Julian Assange
is stuck in an embassy, what are your
hopes for Snowden – and beyond? Whistleblowers
who get into trouble need strong allies,
people who will take a high personal risk, not
for them, but for the future. It is a long-term
struggle. At this point in time it is more dangerous
for whistleblowers; maybe we will be in a
better situation in three to five years, but only if
other people join this struggle. Let’s prepare to
lay the ground for a better situation for Edward
Snowden today or tomorrow, and for other
whistleblowers in the future. Are you ready for
the struggle? Yes or no?
Berlin ended up being a centre of
Snowden support. Do you think that
exiles like Laura Poitras, Sarah Harrison
or Jacob Appelbaum are safer here?
I hope that they are all safe, but there is no
guarantee. The point is that if some prosecutor
in the world decides to issue an international
or European arrest warrant, how do German
authorities deal with that? We can hope that
public opinion here is strong enough and that
the community would back them up, but the
test hasn’t come yet. n
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15

ARTICLE SNOWDEN TAGSPECIAL
WHERE THE SPIES ARE
By Dan Borden
Last year, Edward Snowden’s NSA files revealed that America was
listening in on German citizens’ phone calls, right up to Chancellor
Angela Merkel. Then in June, two German intelligence workers were
accused of spying for the US, in part to keep an eye on Russia. Berlin
is once again a capital of international espionage and, in an uncanny
mirroring of its Cold War heyday, a proxy battleground between
Washington and Moscow. These revelations have turned a spotlight
on the Hauptstadt’s cast of intelligence agents and imbued some
otherwise mundane office buildings with an aura of intrigue…
Bendlerblock
Stauffenbergstr. 13-14, Mitte
Today a group of conspirators planting bombs to overthrow the
government would be labelled a terrorist cell, but when said group
targeted Adolf Hitler, they were rightfully heralded as heroes. Colonel
Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg led the July 20, 1944 plot to
assassinate the Nazi leader from this 1914 neo-classical edifice, then
the Wehrmacht headquarters. Hours after their plot failed, he and
fellow conspirators were executed in the building’s inner courtyard.
Today, the Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand, or German Resistance
Memorial Centre, commemorates Von Stauffenberg and other Germans
who actively opposed the Nazi regime out of conscience. But
this memorial to violent subversion shares Bendlerblock with one of
modern Germany’s largest bureaucracies, the Federal Ministry
of Defence and, specifically, the office of accused spy Leonid
K. Investigators say the 37-year old bureaucrat passed
secrets to American agents and, on July 9, raided
Leonid’s Bendlerblock office and Potsdam home. Der
Spiegel reports that, like Stauffenberg, Leonid K. is of
aristocratic birth, but his motivation for betraying his
country – conscience or money? – is still a mystery.
The American Embassy
Pariser Platz 2, Mitte
When it opened in July 2008, the worst that German
critics could say about the new embassy was
that it was ugly. The building had a tortured birth.
California-based architects Moore Ruble Yudell
got design credit, but their unofficial partner was
Osama bin Laden. The 1998 African embassy
bombings and September 11, 2001 attacks forced
ever-stronger security measures. Even the Holocaust
Memorial across the street was squeezed
to make room for a buffer zone. But the new embassy’s
too-public location – a stone’s throw from
the Reichstag, Kanzleramt and other embassies
– made it perfect for high-tech eavesdropping.
Last year, amid the uproar over news that the NSA
tapped Angela Merkel’s phone, Der Spiegel magazine
outed the building as a secret listening post.
Its windowless penthouse, they contend, hides the
super-sensitive antennae of the Special Collection
Service (SCS), an elite agency run
jointly by the NSA and CIA. These
accusations have made the
American Embassy more
than just ugly – it’s
turned into a symbol of
paranoia and distrust.
16 • SEPTEMBER 2014

The Bundesnachrichtendienst
Schwartzkopffstr., Mitte
Construction began on the enormous new
home for the Bundesnachrichtendienst
(BND), Germany’s version of the CIA or
MI6, way back in 2006. When it opens in
2017 – three years behind schedule and
€1.5 billion over budget – Berlin will become
home to the highest concentration
of German spies, 4000 agents and support
staff. The city can also expect a boom in
private companies and start-ups specialising
in surveillance and high-tech gadgetry.
The anticipated influx of well-paid bureaucrats
is already transforming this quiet
corner of Mitte. Across Chausseestraße
from the BND, a plot of land once divided
by the Berlin Wall is morphing into The
The Russian Embassy
Unter den Linden 63-65, Mitte
Garden, a complex of 214 luxury condos.
Sales prices: €3500-5000 per square metre,
above the city average of €3000.
Why relocate the BND’s spies from
Pullach, in suburban Bavaria, to the
Hauptstadt? Berlin needs the money – the
agency’s 2014 budget was €550 billion.
And it allows for more secure, non-digital
communication between the BND
and Angela Merkel’s
office. Hand-delivered,
typewritten
messages? Or
maybe tin cans
with really long
strings?
Why is the US really spying on Germany? According to some
experts, to keep up with the Russians. Washington suspects the
German intelligence agencies are already riddled with Russian
spies. Ironically, America’s BND mole Markus R. was discovered
only because he got greedy and also offered his services to
the Russian Embassy in Berlin. When it opened in 1951, the
then-Soviet Embassy broke a lot of rules: it’s set back from Unter
den Linden and taller than its neighbours. Stalin demanded a
symbol of dominance over a conquered enemy and a model for
future development in the capital (see Karl-Marx-Allee). Stalin
fan and ex-KGB agent Vladimir Putin has kept the Cold War-era
Russian-German spy machine at full throttle. A Marburg couple
convicted of espionage in July 2013 had been relaying EU and
NATO secrets to Moscow nonstop since the Reagan era. The US
complains that ex-GDR comrade Merkel has been too soft on
Putin: Markus R. offered his secrets to both the US and Russia.
Both accepted, but only the US was punished – the CIA’s Berlin
station chief, posted at the US Embassy, was expelled in July.
WHERE THE
SPIES WERE
n Glienicke Brücke (Wannsee/
Potsdam) First termed the “Bridge of Unity”
because it linked West Berlin with Potsdam
in the East, it earned the sexier title “Bridge
of Spies” after hosting a series of high profile
East-West agent exchanges.
n NSA listening post (Teufelsberg,
Grunewald) The US National Security
Agency picked this man-made hill, West
Berlin’s highest point, to eavesdrop on
Soviet military communications (see page
18). Today it’s a picturesque ruin.
n Cafe Adler (Friedrichstr. 206, Mitte)
Where East met West. A hub of journalists,
diplomats and spies loved for its ornate glass
ceiling and view to Checkpoint Charlie across
the street. It closed in 2008.
n Former US Embassy to East
Germany (Neustädtische Kirchstr. 4-5,
Mitte) From 1974-1990, this 19th-century
palace two blocks from Unter den Linden
was officially an island of Yankee soil and, no
doubt, a nest of Cold War spies.
n Café Moskau (Karl-Marx-Allee 34,
Mitte) Soviet bloc VIPs flocked to this icon
of 1960s chic for the best Russian food in
town. Across the street was East Berlin’s
premier hotel, the Berolina, today a lowly
Bürgeramt.
n Stasi headquarters (Ruschestr. 103,
Lichtenberg) East Germany’s dreaded secret
police operated from this not-so-secret
Lichtenberg compound. It’s now a museum
run by Stasi survivors.
Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz
Kasernengelände Am Treptower Park, Treptow
The two Germans caught spying for the US were
uncovered by Germany’s domestic intelligence
agency, the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, or
BfV. Its Berlin headquarters sits just west of the
Treptower Park S-Bahn station, a high-tech office
building nestled between 19th-century brick army
barracks. Like the FBI in the US, the BfV keeps
tabs on internal threats to the nation’s security.
But critics say the agency’s title, literally ‘Protection
of the Constitution’, smacks of Orwellian
doublespeak as its agents are regularly caught
breaking laws while exercising their duties. The
BfV’s dodgy reputation dates back to its founding
in 1950 when the Allies staffed the new agency
with ex-members of the Gestapo, the Nazis’
secret police, but cases of illegal wiretapping and
secret closed trials continue to this day. Critics
allege the agency is preoccupied with left-wing
threats – half the members of Die Linke party in
the Bundestag were found to be under surveillance
– while turning a blind eye to right-wing
extremists. A neo-Nazi group, the National
Socialist Underground (NSU), carried out a terror
campaign against immigrants from 2000 to 2006
undetected because the BfV’s agents blamed the
10 murders on organised crime. Whether this was
due to incompetence or complicity, as its critics
accuse, will never be known since a BfV manager
shredded dozens of key documents. Last year,
Cem Özdemir, Chairman of the Green Party, said
the BfV’s institutionalised xenophobia makes
it unable to combat right-wing extremism and
called for the agency to be dismantled.
17

SNOWDEN SPECIAL
America’s lapdog
From the Cold War to reunified Germany, surveillance has a long history in Berlin, which might
be why Berliners have been so touchy about the Snowden affair. But then again, the country’s
relations with the NSA have always been intimate – and slightly unhealthy. By Ben Knight
As tour guides go, Bernie is a bit eccentric. Unshaven
and chain-smoking, the ageing Berliner
leads people round the smashed, leaky ruin on
Teufelsberg explaining things in a sarcastic tone
that keeps you constantly unsure whether the
things he says are true. He spent 16 years guarding
the “Devil’s Mountain” when it was an Allied
military field station, and his favourite parts of
the tour are when he can hint mysteriously at
the decadence and destruction that used to go
on when the Cold War ended. He stops next to a
pile of warped wheels and cracked metal inside a
lift shaft. “See this? I helped cut the cables once,”
he says, as if telling a that-was-some-party story.
“We did it to block off the lower floors.” What
used to happen on the lower floors? “No, not
telling you that. That stays down there.” Then he
cackles, puts a finger up to his toothless mouth
and makes a very serious face.
Teufelsberg is a godforsaken place where manmade
plans usually come to nothing – Albert
Speer’s military academy, whose foundation
stone was laid here by Hitler, was stopped midconstruction
by the Second World War. David
Lynch’s “New Age University” nearby was never
given planning permission. And all that’s left of
the luxury apartments planned for the disused
military listening station is some parquet flooring
in the decrepit showroom. Even Bernie’s
lift-destroying debauchery was ended by the
authorities.
So now there are only the tours, conducted
by the fascinating, inscrutable people who used
to work here. Out on the roof, with its vista of
the whole of Berlin and what looks like half of
Brandenburg, Bernie is being secretive again.
This time he refuses to tell us what the middle
surveillance dome – the one set higher up than
the other two, on top of a tower – was used
for. “You said that one was for picking up radio
signals, and that one was for monitoring air traffic,
so what else could the middle one be? Maybe
satellites?” Bernie shrugs, narrows his eyes, and
presses his lips together.
“Why is it still a secret?” someone asks.
“There are things about this place that are officially
a secret until 2022,” he says.
“Come on, it’s not like America still cares.
There’s nothing here.”
“You’re only half right there,” says Bernie.
“The Americans still keep an eye on this place.”
Some of the tourists can’t help but look around,
while Bernie wanders off.
Bernie guarded the Teufelsberg field station
from 1976 to 1992, checking the IDs on the
American and British soldiers as they came into
work every day (via separate entrances). Germans
weren’t allowed in. And if they needed a plumber
or a repairman, Bernie says solemnly, they were
blindfolded as they were led through the windowless
corridors inside.
The point of this field station was to eavesdrop
on the communists. There were Russian
specialists for Russian communications and
German linguists to handle the East Germans.
Another tour guide, Chris McLarren, spent two
years – from 1973 to 1975 – as a signals traffic
analyst at Teufelsberg, tracking the East German
army as they marched around the Brandenburg
countryside. “It was our job to know the other
army almost as well as the people serving in it,” is
how he remembers it. As far as he is concerned,
intelligence work in the Cold War meant preserving
world peace: “The important thing is that
the Soviets also had a listening post. The biggest
dangers were surprise, panic and military overreaction.
But because we were both listening,
there was no surprise, no panic and no overreaction.
And we’re all still here. But the world is
very different now.”
Which is why, even though he’s an ex-intelligence
agent, McLarren is on Edward Snowden’s
The Stasi’s files on
the NSA were
handed over to the
Americans, without
any copies being
kept: “The tracks
were successfully
covered.”
side. “I admire whistleblowers greatly,” he says.
“They are usually people trying to do the right
thing, and they see other people trying to do the
right thing, but not obeying the rules. And the
rules are there for a purpose.” Then again, he
admits he might not have felt so righteous back
in the 1970s. Would he have been concerned if
he’d found out that the NSA was spying on West
German citizens? “I would have to be persuaded
now. I don’t know if that would have been the
case then, because young people tend to be very
enthusiastic about their work.”
As it is though, McLarren insists that his work
at Teufelsberg was exclusively military. “So far as
I know, mine was totally a military institution.
This was the US Army’s intelligence agency, and
we provided our information up the military
chain.” But then he adds, “I don’t know if
there were NSA workers there, and it may have
changed after I left.”
Defining the difference between military and
civilian intelligence work is central to the NSA
scandal – some surveillance targets are more ‘legitimate’
than others. But drawing the line was tricky
even when enemies were more visible, and since
the end of the Cold War it has become a lot more
difficult. William Binney, the former NSA technical
director who resigned and turned whistleblower
in 2001, believes the agency he worked for was
effectively using the Teufelsberg listening station
from the very beginning. After all, the NSA has a
military component, called the Central Security
Service (CSS), and that is usually headed by a US
army general.
The combination of the end of the Cold War
and 9/11 dramatically ramped up the political
power of the intelligence community in the US.
A couple of months ago, Binney testified to the
German parliament that the NSA had become
a “totalitarian organisation.” It was a remark
that was used in plenty of headlines because it
confirmed the Germans’ biggest fear: the NSA
equals the Stasi. Quite a few people have drawn
that comparison, including, according to The
New York Times, Angela Merkel during an angry
phone call with Barack Obama (she denied
it). It’s an obvious point to make, and it’s the
apparent reason why Germans have been more
outraged about the Snowden case than most. But
according to Stasi expert Hubertus Knabe (see
18 • SEPTEMBER 2014

page 20), while it might
be valid in terms of methodology,
it’s also fraught
with historical inaccuracy.
Klaus Eichner might be
one of the best people
to judge. He had a
33-year career at East
Germany’s Ministry
of State Security (MfS,
aka Stasi) and became
an officer specialised in
combating the West’s
secret services. Eichner
recently published a
withering book called
Empire Without Mysteries:
What the GDR’s Intelligence
Services Already Knew
About the NSA, which
tells the dark stories of
how the Stasi infiltrated
Teufelsberg. He doesn’t
think much of the comparison.
“Secret services
are always formed by the
political system from
which they originate and
in which they function,”
he says. “So there can be
no equivalence between
the secret services of the
East and the West.”
But, he added, that
doesn’t mean you can
simply define the East as
dictatorial and the West
as democratic. “One
argument is as wrong as
the other,” he says. In his
book, Eichner even dares
to turn the equivalence
on its head: “I share the
chancellor’s view that
the comparison between
the Stasi and the NSA
is unacceptable, though
for a different reason: we
stuck to the laws.”
Whatever you think of that claim, the discussion
itself is a little academic, given that the
Stasi doesn’t exist anymore. A bit more pertinent
for us is the relationship between the NSA and
reunified Germany’s intelligence agency, the
Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND). Another NSA
whistleblower, Thomas Drake, gave the German
press more headlines earlier this year when he
told the German parliamentary committee that
the BND was nothing more than an “appendix”
to the NSA. Though he says that the German
press misinterpreted that – he didn’t mean a useless,
subordinate bodily organ, but appendix as
in what you put at the end of a book. “Sort of an
afterthought,” as he puts it.
But whichever metaphor you use, the relationship,
says Drake, is intimate and slightly unhealthy.
“It’s fair to say it’s a subservient relationship...
the NSA is very much the big brother.”
The BND’s obedience to the NSA stems from
West Germany’s former dependence on the
USA. That had dramatic consequences in the
aftermath of reunification, when the Stasi’s files
on the NSA were inherited by the new German
government. In Empire Without Mysteries, Eichner
claims that the authority in charge of administering
the Stasi files (headed by the future German
President Joachim Gauck) and the Interior
Ministry under Wolfgang Schäuble, broke German
law to make sure that all the Stasi’s files on
the NSA were handed over to the Americans,
without any copies being kept. “The tracks were
successfully covered,” Eichner writes. It was now
“impossible to prove black on white how the
Americans spied on the GDR and the Federal
Republic of Germany in the 1970s and 1980s.”
Eichner’s implication is that if the German
government had followed its own rules, we would
have known a lot more
about the NSA before
Binney, Drake, and
Snowden came along. The
whistleblowers merely
made obvious what the
Stasi already knew. “The
surveillance of German
telecommunications by
the NSA is not the core
of the problem. The problem
is the imperial urge
of the USA superpower
to impose its global ambition
for domination with
the help of the NSA in
the electronic war against
both friend and foe.”
A decade after
reunification, the
BND’s relationship to
the NSA became even
more obsequious when
Germany’s intelligence
agencies caught flak
for failing to catch the
Hamburg cell that took
part in the September 11
attacks in the US. “The
attitude was, ‘wait a
minute, there were actual
9/11 terrorists living in
Hamburg and you didn’t
stop them?’” says Drake.
After that, “the BND
became eager to provide
as much as it could. The
2002 agreement that I
saw was very broad in
terms of information
sharing and access. The
NSA has always had this
attitude to third parties
[those outside the US,
UK, Canada, Australia
and New Zealand, the
so-called ‘Five Eyes’]: you
give us whatever we ask
for, and then we’ll decide
what we give you.”
Then, as the age of Facebook and mass online
data dawned and the NSA’s mass surveillance programmes
began to fire up their engines, it became
clear that Germany was in an ideal geographical
position. It was a staging post for data flying in
from the Middle East, North Africa and Afghanistan,
as well as across Europe. That agreement in
2002 marked the sea change. According to Drake,
before 2002, especially during the Cold War,
mass data about citizens wasn’t collected and
even targeted data wasn’t kept for longer than
was necessary for analysis. Afterwards, he says, “it
didn’t matter. The mindset was ‘we need all the
data’... and the NSA had particular leverage over
the BND.”
All this has left Germany in what you’d call
an awkward position: it is both the NSA’s most
obedient lapdog and its bitterest, most outraged
critic. n
CW-DESIGN / PHOTOCASE.COM
19

SNOWDEN SPECIAL
From Stasi to NSA… and back?
Head of the Stasi prison memorial Hubertus Knabe knows a thing or two about state
surveillance. He’s suing the NSA for spying on Germans. By Sara Wilde
Born in the West in 1959 to GDR exiles,
the historian and human rights
activist Hubertus Knabe campaigned
to release East German dissidents,
attracting the attention of the East German
secret police, the Stasi. In 1992, he was one
of the first to access his personal file, where
he learned that a close friend had reported
him for smuggling “forbidden literature” into
the GDR. As director of the memorial in the
former Stasi Hohenschönhausen prison, he
has fought tirelessly against trivialisation of
the crimes of the former communist state.
He’s also drawn ire for his staunch criticism
of the German Left Party (Die Linke) and
uncompromising rejection of Ostalgie in all its
forms. After information about NSA activity
in Germany came to light in the Snowden files
last year, he filed a criminal complaint against
the United States with the German Federal
Prosecutor’s office for illegally collecting and
analysing the data of German citizens.
You filed a lawsuit against the NSA. Why?
The media reported that large-scale telephone
and email monitoring had taken place in
Germany. This is forbidden by our constitution,
hence illegal – therefore I believe it is
the duty of the German Federal Prosecutor to
investigate. Much to my regret, they decided to
start investigating only in the case of Chancellor
Merkel’s phone and not in the many likely
cases of other affected people. I guess that my
longtime concern with surveillance and the
GDR has made me especially sensitive when it
comes to misuse of governmental power. The
GDR was a surveillance society par excellence
and this should never be allowed to exist again.
Can we compare the NSA with the Stasi?
Did the Americans, thanks to the digital
means at their disposal, achieve what the
East Germans tried with analogue means:
total surveillance of every citizen? I see
one fundamental difference between the Stasi
and the NSA. The Stasi tried to subjugate the
population by creating fear and through the
persecution of differently minded people and
people who would have liked to lead a different
life to the one the government had planned out
for them. The NSA, at least according to its
own claims, tries to protect the population.
What about their methods? The means of
communication have changed a lot, of course.
There were no mobile phones and emails in the
GDR. The Stasi worked mainly with human
surveillance, a huge surveillance network run by
informants. There were over 180,000 informal
members of the Stasi – that is the highest population/informant
ratio in history. But the Stasi’s
technological surveillance was actually more
sophisticated than what people think. They completely
monitored the phone exchange between
the GDR and the FRG, for example. But also
within the FRG they were tapping the chancellor’s
phone and the phones of all the members
of parliament, the federal president and the
president of the Bundesverfassungsschutz (domestic
security agency). The
idea to listen in on Angela
Merkel’s cell phone
isn’t that new! Of course
it didn’t concern that
many people back then
because only very few
could afford a mobile
phone...
Besides the chancellor’s
phone – and
more shocking
somehow – was the
impulse to ‘spy’ on
normal citizens. Is
“The idea to listen
in on Angela
Merkel’s cell phone
isn’t that new! The
Stasi was already
tapping the West
German chancellor’s
phone…”
that another similarity? Well, in a constitutional
state, surveillance of a citizen can only
take place when he has committed a criminal
act or the strong suspicion of a crime exists. Random
monitoring of people is not allowed. In the
GDR the enormous network of informants was
there to report on people’s activities but also on
their thoughts and their plans, even before they
had planned anything objectionable. The good
informant would be able, so to speak, to see into
people’s heads. So, yes, somehow, surveillance as
it is used today resembles this kind of precautionary
surveillance. Everyone is being checked
on to filter out who is dangerous.
Many similarities... The philosophy is very
similar. However the aim is different and it is
important to emphasise this. The Stasi worked
most of all with fear and everyone knew that if
he or she would say the wrong thing, they would
quickly end up in prison. We’re not subjected
to the same amount of fear anymore, thank
God. In the GDR, everyone knew that the Stasi
was everywhere. If there were more than three
people together, then one of them would
be a spy. Therefore, people would be careful
what they would say in a pub, for example.
We don’t have that anymore. We are also not
afraid of the police anymore but feel safer
when an officer is around – very different to
the GDR.
Still, isn’t it shocking to know you’re
under surveillance even if it is not used
as an instrument of rule by fear? Of
course, the fact that such extensive surveillance
took place in a democratic country
like Germany came as a surprise. Until
Snowden’s files, people
would assume that, as
the law says, no one
could be monitored
without a court order.
It’s not easy to get a
court order. Can they
just spy on someone?
Can they bully someone
to testify? Can they tap
someone’s phone or bug
someone’s apartment
when they entertain
a suspicion? I learned
that the possibilities are
very restricted and that
is a fundamental difference to the methods
the Stasi used. It is a very secure system
that keeps the police from randomly doing
as they please. Unfortunately, next to these
strict rules protecting civil liberties, there is
a different kind of surveillance. The danger
is now that the information that is not controlled
in any way could be misused. Who
controls the NSA and what they do with the
information they gather?
Do you believe the government when
they say they were unaware of the NSA
activities – here, in Germany, where
American intelligence has their biggest
presence outside the US? All we can say
is that if the Verfassungsschutz, the BND
and the Militärische Abschirmdienst (Military
Counterintelligence Service) had done their
job, then they would have known about it. If
a foreign country is doing a huge amount of
spying in Germany and the German national
security services are not aware of it, it’s a
confession of failure.
20 • SEPTEMBER 2014

Or naïveté? It reminds me a bit of the
naïveté of the West Germans during the
Cold War. The national security service
somehow believed – and they told the
public back then – that long-distance calls
(from Hamburg to Munich, for example)
were safe from tapping. After the Wall
came down, it was disclosed that that was
not the case at all and that the GDR had
its monitoring station and recorded everything
that went from southern Germany
to northern Germany and back, as well as
everything between West Germany and
West Berlin. Therefore, there are only two
possibilities: Either the German national
security services are really lousy or they
have tolerated the surveillance because
they probably profited from it.
During the Cold War, the US was West
Germany’s trusted ally and protector.
Twenty-five years later, although
now a unified, sovereign country, it
seems that somehow Germany has
remained America’s lapdog. Certainly,
the difference between now and then is that
until 1994, Germany was de facto still under
occupation, therefore the Allies had certain
rights. Since 1994, Germany is sovereign.
So, if there is surveillance in Germany it
would have to be done by a German agency,
not by a foreign power. That is the problem.
Do you think Germans might have
lost their trust in the US? Well, it is
politically dangerous. Such impunity on the
part of the US leads to a loss of credibility.
In the long run it feeds a certain anti-
Americanism that has always been present
in Germany. Many feel confirmed in their
belief that the US is not an example of
freedom and democracy. It is very sad
when the most important democracy in the
world finds a projection that reads “United
Stasi of America” on its embassy. That is
how you can damage your own image.
Do you think that Germans are more
sensitive to surveillance issues due
to their recent history? Presumably,
but the outcry has been relatively modest.
Even more so in East Germany. In the
West, critics are louder because people
can’t make the comparison. But the East
Germans know it: as much as it might be
working outside of the law, you don’t have
to fear the NSA the way we used to fear
the Stasi. n
Hubertus Knabe will be at Lichtblick Kino on
September 25 for a special edition of Exblicks,
featuring a rare screening of internal Stasi videos
and a discussion.
21

2014
Big Brother in Berlin
SNOWDEN SPECIAL
Facebook knows your friends and political affinities, your mobile service
provider knows your whereabouts, Instagram knows what you had for
dinner. But who are they telling? As Orwell’s dystopian world turns 30,
are Berliners in danger of becoming transparent citizens?
By Hanna Westerlund and Seán Kenehan
On your U-Bahn to work, most likely
under the eye of one of the 3165 cameras
on BVG trains and platforms,
you pull out your phone and start
typing a comment on Facebook. Realising it may
be too polemical (who could tell if your future
boss is snooping around?), you erase it instead of
posting. A common practice, seven out of 10 users
do it. Facebook knows these figures, because
they saved what you just erased. Last year, the
company made a survey analysing data from the
‘self-censored’ messages of nearly four million
users. (Why? Less generated content equals less
‘social value’, which may harm their service.)
As you get off the train, 500 metres away
from you a bag is being snatched. The incident
has nothing to do with you, but afterwards the
police may nevertheless find out who you are,
who you called and when, just
because your cell phone was
in the area. They may request
this data from all mobile
network operators and filter
it to find potential suspects.
This practice, called Funkzellenabfrage,
is only supposed
to be used in investigations
of severe crimes. However,
since it was revealed that the
Dresden police used it against
anti-neo-Nazi demonstrators
in 2011, it has been subject to
public debate. Last year, the
Berlin police gathered 50 million
records of phone traffic metadata, more than
ever before. That means, provided you hang out
in areas with average crime rates, your data was
collected 14 times.
The post-Snowden landscape
Known for some of the strictest data protection
laws in the world, Germany has blocked the harmonising
of laws in the European union, afraid
they wouldn’t be able to keep their high standards.
Germans have had Google blur their houses
on map street views, and Facebook remove facial
“It’s not a
matter of
having
anything to
hide or not,
but a human
rights issue.”
recognition. Yet, never before has it been so difficult
to maintain one’s anonymity, such that the
average German is in risk of becoming a gläserner
Bürger – a transparent or “glass citizen”.
In the words of Edward Snowden himself, in
a June 2013 interview with The Guardian: “Even
if you’re not doing anything wrong, you’re being
watched and recorded.” Since the revelations
concerning mass surveillance through programmes
like the NSA’s PRISM and XKeyscore,
it appears our personal information is up for
grabs. Should we assume everything we do online
is being monitored? “In principle, yes,” says
Alexander Dix, Berlin’s Data Protection and
Freedom of Information Commissioner. “That
is probably the reality, unless one takes certain
steps to prevent that from happening. But if
someone is not a nerd in that sense of the word,
then everything he does online
is under surveillance.”
The brunt of this intrusion
stems from the NSA, whose
guiding philosophy has been
referred to as the ‘haystack
method’: compile as much information
as possible, and sift
through it to find that one useful
‘needle’. According to Dix,
Germany’s foreign intelligence
agency, the Bundes­nachrichtendienst
(BND) operates under
stricter conditions as the only
German government body
that can secretly screen our
calls: “Under German law, this [haystack method]
is only legal in the very particular case of international
telecommunications, where you can screen
contents of conversations indiscriminately based
on certain keywords.” This keyword scanning and
recording method is applied to all international
telephone calls and internet traffic with a link
to Germany. Recorded calls are then crossreferenced
with other databases to determine
whether a communication appears suspicious.
There are restrictions, though. Only one-fifth
of the communication data traffic that has a ‘foreign
element’ can be
copied and reviewed by
the BND. Also, they’re
not supposed to be spying
on German citizens.
But in an online world,
that is largely theoretical.
Email addresses
ending in .de could of
course be erased, but
what about Germans
with Gmail accounts,
Facebook and Skype?
Or Al-Qaida members
with .de accounts?
Victim or
accomplice?
“It is hard to believe
that they didn’t
know,” says Dix, on
the BND’s complicity
with the
US intelligence
agency’s surveillance
programmes. “At
least that they didn’t
know more than
they admitted later
on.” In the wake of
the NSA’s tapping
of Angela Merkel’s
mobile phone, one
might view the
German government
as a victim of
espionage, rather
than an accomplice.
Yet around
50 of Snowden’s
documents detail
Germany’s collusion
with the
NSA. According
to Der Spiegel,
the NSA and
AGATA SASIUK
22 • SEPTEMBER 2014

BND cooperate at the Bad Aibling listening post
near Munich to monitor possible terrorist activity
in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It’s known
that the BND has used XKeyscore intel
– “for testing purposes”, they claim –
and through documents leaked to
netzpolitik.org it was revealed
that the Bundes kriminal amt
(Federal Criminal Police) has
acquired FinFisher spyware
which allows “remote intrusion”
of digital devices.
Though this spyware was
recently deemed illegal,
research is already
underway to develop new
software that remains
within the restrictions of
the German constitution.
Says Dix, “Infiltration of computers by
malware only seriously began after 9/11,” when
German intelligence agencies were escalating in
surveillance. With two new sets of laws, the Anti-
Terror-Paket I and II, they were allowed to request
customer data from airlines, postal services
and banks. “The detection networks become
more dense, the observation-free zones smaller,”
Heribert Prantl, Süddeutsche Zeitung journalist
and author of Glanz und Elend der Grund rechte
(Splendour and Misery of Fundamental Rights),
said in an interview with Telepolis. “For security
reasons, people are now being tapped and observed,
computers are being searched. People are
being imprisoned, even tortured.”
While law enforcement must procure a warrant
to perform surveillance operations such as
Funkzellenabfrage, the BND must justify itself to
the G10 Commission (named after the article
of the German constitution that safeguards
communications privacy) and the Parliamentary
Control Commission. This sounds like reassuring
oversight, yet the process is entirely opaque,
Dix says. “We do have laws regulating surveillance,
but the key issue is to what extent can
they really be enforced, and controlled.”
Trouble in Neuland
Although ridiculed for her comment, “The
internet is Neuland for us all,” Chancellor Merkel
was correct – in legislative terms, the internet is
nigh-uncharted territory. Posteo.de, a Berlinbased
email provider dedicated to its customers’
privacy, had a rough encounter with this legal
minefield. “Last year, the police came to our
offices with a warrant to claim inventory data
which we didn’t have, but they didn’t believe our
lawyer,” says founder Patrik Löhr. German email
providers that store Bestandsdaten (the names
and phone numbers of clients who may be under
suspicion of illegal activity) are legally obliged
to submit it – but Posteo.de does not retain this
information. “They tried to intimidate us and
were very forceful. In the end, they had to leave
empty-handed.”
According to Dix, surveillance laws are so
broad that they cannot cover every situation,
leaving many loopholes: “For example, a new
power is given to investigate a serious crime,
but as society changes the definition of a ‘serious
crime’ changes... Police legislation always
uses broad language, they need to become more
specific.” Malte Spitz, Green Party member and
activist for media and internet policy, speaks of
the system’s inadequacies: “How can parliamentarians
oversee something if they don’t understand
the concrete process of how intelligence
agencies monitor people, or if they have no
possibility to ask experts on specific cases? The
oversight system in Germany isn’t working; the
idea of oversight is there, but it’s not a powerful
and controlling oversight.”
Metadata is content
If citizens are being subjected to surveillance,
don’t they have a right to
know the extent? After
a lengthy battle with the
mobile service provider
Deutsche Telekom, Spitz
finally won back data that
had been recorded over
six months of his life: the
times and locations of his
phone calls, from which
extensive personal information
could be extrapolated.
“I was surprised by
the amount,” says Spitz.
“I didn’t expect there
would be 35,000 lines...
every few minutes you
could see where I was,
what I was doing.” German
phone companies
are obliged to save this
metadata, but they’re not allowed to store the
actual calls. From a surveillance perspective,
Spitz says, metadata is easier to analyse anyway:
“If you see that a person is texting someone at
3am, you can assume this person doesn’t have a
job for which he needs to wake up at 6am, and
that he has friends who don’t either... That’s how
metadata works.”
Politicians have asserted harvesting times and
locations of phone calls and emails is less invasive
than collecting actual content, and that the
two could be separated. Privacy activists argue
that collecting metadata can in fact be more intrusive
in people’s privacy than listening to content
– as Spitz outlined with compelling graphics
in a TED Talk in 2012. The type of information
that can be piled up under the term ‘metadata’
now consists of much more than the time and
the person involved in the communication.
You can read out the location, device number,
language setting of the cell phone or computer,
operating system... “The old distinction between
metadata and content is outdated. You can
create content out of metadata,” says Jan-Peter
Kleinhans from the data protection initiative
Privacy Project. “And still the law doesn’t treat
metadata as content. This is just wrong!”
Hacker’s paranoia or human rights issue?
Does heightened awareness of your transparency
make you care? In Berlin, groups like Digitale
Gesellschaft, netzpolitik.org and Chaos Computer
Club have been talking for years about data protection.
“But they were the nerds and the hackers,
who could easily be perceived as ‘IT people’ or
conspiracy theorists,” says Kleinhans. Privacy
Project wants to change the focus of the public
debate from an ‘internet topic’ to a question of
human rights: “It’s not a matter of having anything
to hide or not, but a human rights issue. The right
to privacy, to form your opinion.” He thinks the
BND works according to double standards: “The
EU Charter of Human Rights assumes everyone is
equal. At the same time, our intelligence agencies
operate on national terms, where foreigners have
NO rights. Zero protection.”
So how to proceed? Once or twice a week,
hordes of Berlin hackers full of confidence about
“taking back what
is already written
“If you see that a
person is texting
someone at 3am, you
can assume he doesn’t
have a job for which
he needs to wake up
at 6am, and that he
has friends who don’t
either... That’s how
metadata works.”
into our constitutions”
gather
to teach you all
they know about
anonymous surfing
and encrypting
your email.
Michael Schmidt
spends 10-15 hours
a week organising
these so-called
cryptoparties.
“How would you
feel if you knew
as we’re sitting
here that someone
is in your flat, in
your bedroom?
You’d want to go
home and throw him out. Do you have anything
to hide? Not really. You could just live there and
ignore him, but you don’t. And that’s a healthy
feeling.”
Data Protection Commissioner Dix is in favour
of encryption. He wants more state money
to inform the public, and says it should “definitely
be taught in schools.” He doesn’t encrypt
emails himself, though: “It’s too complex.”
Interestingly, Germany’s domestic intelligence
agency, the Bundesverfassungsschutz (BfV), wrote
in their annual report 2013 that “closed fora and
encryption programs are mostly useful as communication
tools for potentially violent extremists.”
Does using encryption services then make
you a target? Potentially. After Angela Merkel,
the second German proven to be spied on by the
NSA is Sebastian Hahn, a 27-year-old computer
science student in Bavaria, for hosting a Tor
server (see page 30).
There is a point in doing it anyway, though.
The more of a default procedure it is and the
more people encrypt, the less suspicious it will
be to spying eyes. The encryption software pioneer
Philip Zimmerman compared it in 1991 with
using envelopes for your correspondence, instead
of writing everything on postcards.
How can we be sure that we will hold on to
our privacy and not become transparent citizens?
In the optimistic words of cryptoparty organiser
Schmidt: “We don’t earn money, we just know
it’s the right thing. Passion is in the centre of the
movement. Governments have no passion.” n
23

SNOWDEN SPECIAL
Confessions of an MI5
whistleblower
Former UK spy Annie Machon knows first-hand what happens to people who tell the truth about
intelligence agencies. She blew the whistle in 1997 with fellow agent and then-boy friend David
Shayler, triggering a two-year manhunt that culminated in Shayler’s arrest. We met the part-time
Berliner on Potsdamer Platz a few metres away from RT’s bureau, where she regularly appears as
a consultant for the 24-hour Russian news channel. She told her story to Ruth Schneider.
“
I didn’t want to be a spy. In 1990, I was
21, and I wanted to have a job that would
make a difference. So I sat the Foreign Office
exams. But then I received a mysterious
letter from the Ministry of Defence saying
that “there were other jobs I might find more
interesting” and there’s a phone number. I actually
ended up ringing up this number because my
father – he’s an investigative journalist – wanted
to see if it was indeed MI5. “Oh go on, just see...”
They said that they wanted a ‘new generation’
intelligence officer who would be working against
terrorist targets, that they no longer did the old
“let’s investigate political activists” stuff because
the Cold War was over, etc.. But then I started
there and my first post was in the political activism
section, doing precisely what they said they
no longer wanted to do. I could not understand
how they saw these groups as a threat. It was
a shock, and I seriously considered resigning
towards the end of my time there.
That’s when my relationship with David
Shayler started. He had been recruited as part
of the same generation as me, and he was also
shocked at the scale of it. But then the two of us
were moved to the Irish section, where it felt like
we could do some good because at that point the
IRA was putting bombs down at will. But even
then we saw so many things going wrong. And
then we went to the Middle Eastern section and
saw even worse things, which is why we resigned
after only six years.
Shut up and follow orders
Throughout the recruitment process you are
grilled about these ethical issues. Things like
internment without trial, torture, shoot to kill...
I was quite outspoken about it then and they
said, “Well you know, we agree with you, we don’t
do this sort of thing.” So when we found out that
they did, many of us were unhappy. But when we
spoke out, we were told, “Shut up, don’t rock the
boat, just follow orders.”
There was an intergenerational problem.
The management at that time had been under
the Cold War era, gathering intelligence slowly
and looking at “reds under the bed”, and suddenly
they were managing groups who had
been brought in to investigate terrorist targets,
where you have to gather evidence that you can
put people on trial for. It’s a very different skill
set and the targets move much more quickly.
So there was a cultural clash, and I think that’s
where all this disaffectation came from.
David was the head of the Libya section
between 1994-96 and he was briefed on the case
that made us quit, which was
the Gaddafi assassination
plot. We decided that we
had to do something, but it
took more than just one day.
There were a lot of heartwringing
episodes where we
thought, “Why us?” because
we knew we’d have to leave
the UK, we knew we’d have
to face prosecution and we
knew we’d be unemployable
afterwards… but it just felt
like the right thing to do, I
suppose.
We took the decision to go public in early
1996, and he resigned in autumn. He had already
taken steps to approach the media – he decided
on the Mail on Sunday because the owner of the
Mail group at the time, Viscount Rothermere,
was known to be very anti-intelligence agency.
I wasn’t terribly involved in those early stages
because David wanted to protect me. He acted
as a buffer between me and them.
Life in exile
It took 10 months for the story to break. My
understanding is that only three days beforehand
they suddenly said, “This is what’s going to
happen this weekend, what do you want to do?
Get out of the country or what?” He said “yes”.
They offered him a certain amount of money
to live in exile for up to six months. Of course
the establishment in the UK made great play of
this and said, “Oh yes, he sold documents.” We
actually offered to give it back if we could return
“We couldn’t even
warn our families.
So the first they
heard of it was on
the front page of
the newspaper
with David’s
picture on it…”
to the UK without arrest and give evidence in
parliament. MI5 refused.
We flew out on the morning of August 23,
1997, 12 hours ahead of the newspapers hitting
the streets in the UK. There had already been
certain indications that MI5 were beginning to
get suspicious, so we were pretty strung out with
tension. We felt like we couldn’t talk in our flats,
we couldn’t even warn our families that we were
going to do it. So the first they heard of it was on
the front page of the newspaper
with David’s picture on
it. That was quite dramatic!
First we went to Amsterdam,
then Utrecht.
We moved around all over
the Netherlands for the
first week and fled all the
way down the southwest
of France to Bayonne. We
wanted to get as far away
from where they knew we
were. Then we just moved
around from town to town
in the south of France and
Spain, staying in cheap hotels, fake names, cash
payments, the whole thing.
After a month, I went back to the UK for
a week to pack up our flat. I was picked up at
Gatwick airport and taken off to a counterterrorism
suite in London and grilled for a day.
But they never charged me with anything – I was
just David’s girlfriend at that point, I hadn’t done
anything, so how could they? When I made it to
our flat, I saw it had been smashed up in a raid;
they had ripped it apart for no reason.
While I was in the UK, David found this little
place to hide in the centre of France in Lachaux,
which is in the middle of nowhere! We were sort
of stuck there with no car, no TV, no nothing.
It was surreal, actually, because on one hand we
were supposed to be on the run but on the other
hand we were living in this strange rural idyll.
It was two kilometres outside the local village.
We had a little van that came round once a week
with food and things and the bread van every
24 • SEPTEMBER 2014

MICHAL ANDRYSIAK
“The worst part
of the whole
thing was the
media rape of
our reputations
– that’s what it
felt like.”
day, it was that primitive. So, from the centre of
London to that was quite a culture shock!
Back then there was no Facebook, there
was no Google, there was nothing. Whereas of
course now if someone did this and you were on
the run, it would make it more difficult … but
then there would be much more media exposure
of what you were saying and what you were doing,
so it’s horses for courses I suppose.
David’s arrest
At that time, the most serious allegations had
not yet been reported by the UK media because
they were too scared of the Gaddafi plot, they
wanted to try and investigate it themselves. So
the early disclosures were only files on government
ministers and activists, which were bad
enough. The British government took out an
injunction against the whole of the UK media,
and David Shayler personally, to ban any new
revelations in the summer of 1997.
Finally – after a year! – the BBC exposed the
Gaddafi plot, in summer 1998. They had to
submit the story for approval under the terms
of the injunction. This happened on a Friday
afternoon within two hours. We were in Paris at
that point, working with the journalists on the
story, so we were in a hotel. David went out, and
he got arrested coming back in. The first I heard
of it was the knock on the door from the DST
saying, “We’ve got Mr. Shayler downstairs and
you can’t see him.” I asked, “Are you arresting
him?” and they said no, and I didn’t see him
for two months. They said he was a traitor. But
when the French got the paperwork from the
British government, they realised he was actually
a whistleblower, so then they eased up and let me
see him in prison.
After four months, Dave was actually released
by the French and we had another two years in
Paris, got the stories out, more campaigning,
etc. But then he decided to go back in 2000 to
go on trial. It took two years and he was only
ever charged with a very early disclosure, not the
Gaddafi plot. Of course he was inevitably found
guilty, there was no defence under UK law. Even
the judge said what he had done lay in the public
interest and he hadn’t done it for financial reasons.
But if you work for the intelligence agency
and you blow the whistle, you are guilty, that’s it.
There’s a clear bright line.
He was sentenced to six months – but you can
serve a third of your sentence if you are then
electronically tagged, so he got it down to two
months. It’s not that bad when you think he
was facing six years with three charges. But, you
know, to have your liberty taken away for exposing
the crimes of others is difficult. The process
was a very, very high price to pay even then.
Now what whistleblowers are facing is 35 years
in prison, at least in America. So the courage it
takes for people to do that is huge.
The war on whistleblowers
The worst part of the whole thing was the
media rape of reputations – that’s what it felt
like. Where each media organisation has its
agenda, doesn’t actually listen to the evidence
of the whistleblower but wants to use it for
whatever purposes and how it can be controlled
and spun. The fact that David went to
prison and took “his beating like a man” as the
judge said was actually minor compared the
reputation damage done to him forevermore.
People who blow the whistle have no experience,
they’re virgins when it comes to the
media. So what I try to do is explain to potential
whistleblowers the issues they might need
to think about before they go ahead. I think
that seeing what Snowden did has shown that
people do learn from earlier cases and do try
to do it more safely and more effectively because
the key thing is to get the message out.
It’s not about narcissism or personal glory.
I have seen so many whistleblowers from
different backgrounds... the whole idea is to
crush them, destroy them. I think particularly
coming out of intelligence you’re automatically
criminalised. It’s even harder. There’s
that polarisation of being a hero and being
a traitor, which is very difficult to live with
over the years, and it took its toll on David.
The last time I saw him was in the summer
of last year, and he seemed happy in his new
life. He seemed at peace. But I don’t know
what he’s up to. Considering the intensity of
the years we had together it’s sad that we’ve
lost touch. I just hope he stays safe and stays
happy. n
25

SNOWDEN SPECIAL
Germany’s should-be heroes
While Snowden risked his life to enlighten the world about the NSA, the ‘little guys’ who
disclose corruption and wrongdoing at their jobs face huge obstacles in Germany, where
whistleblower protection is virtually non-existent.
By Seymour Gris
Working in a home for bed-ridden,
sick elderly patients is a demanding
job by any measure. But to
work in a home which is chronically
understaffed to the point that residents are
lying in their own vomit and urine – that’s when
it becomes unbearable. For Brigitte Heinisch
(photo), a carer in a Berlin home belonging to
the state-owned health care company Vivantes,
workplace conditions became so bad she was
compelled to act. She and her colleagues were
so overworked they became sick; staff were expected
to document care that hadn’t even been
provided. Her numerous complaints to Vivantes
management went unheeded.
Finally, in 2005, she felt compelled to file a
criminal complaint against Vivantes for failing to
fulfil basic standards of care. “I would have made
myself criminally responsible if I had continued
to work in those conditions – also ethically and
morally,” she explains. “There really wasn’t much
of a choice. Basically, they wanted to make a
profit, at the cost of dependent, highly vulnerable
people.”
Little did she know that her story would
become one of the most important cases of
whistleblowing in Germany to date. Vivantes
reacted to the criminal charges by firing Heinisch
without notice. She received no severance
pay. Meanwhile, the public prosecutor’s office
deemed the case unimportant and discontinued
its investigations. For the next six years,
Heinisch went from one German court to the
next – but the judges always ruled that her act
of lodging a criminal complaint against Vivantes
was a “compelling reason” for them to fire her.
Supported by friends and the Verdi trade union,
Heinisch was finally able to get her case heard
by the European Court of Justice in Strasbourg.
In a groundbreaking decision in 2011, the court
blamed Germany and ruled that publicly disclosing
serious problems at one’s workplace fell
under freedom of expression and could not be
used as grounds for dismissal. In 2012, Heinisch
took Vivantes back to court and won €90,000
in severance pay. The ruling appears to have
strengthened the position of other whistleblowers
in Germany. “There are been numerous cases
in the labour courts that have referred to my
case,” says Heinisch.
A truckful of spoiled meat
But workplace whistleblowers still have trouble
finding their way back into their career. Heinisch
stopped working altogether because of the
immense stress caused by the entire saga. She’s
not the only one. Brandenburg trucker Miroslav
Strecker suffered serious consequences after
exposing criminal activity by
one of his employer’s clients.
In 2007, he discovered he
was delivering a truckload
of years-old slaughterhouse
remains, the kind of ‘meat’
that is only allowed to be
used in pet food, to a sausage
factory in Bavaria. He
reported the factory to the
authorities, who ended up
uncovering the far-reaching
Gammelfleisch (rotten meat)
scandal – including the
discovery of hundreds of
tonnes of old meat and offal in Berlin döner
kebabs. Strecker was later recognised for his
“civil courage” with various awards. Yet he still
faced problems with his employer: squealing on
a customer is a no-no. After the revelations, he
took time off from work due to a shoulder operation.
Once back on the job, Strecker says his
employer deliberately gave him the deliveries involving
the most heavy lifting. He was eventually
fired and had to fight for severance pay in court.
He now works as a bus driver in Brandenburg.
‘Nest dirtiers’
In Germany’s pro-industry culture, where those
who report criminal activity at their workplace
are still called Nestbeschmutzer or ‘nest dirtiers’,
whistleblower protection legislation remains
virtually non-existent. The Beamten­status­gesetz
of 2009 protects civil servants who report gross
misconduct and corruption to state prosecutors,
but there is nothing similar for the private sector.
“Lobbyists and
politicians are
scared their
shadowy sources
of side income will
be exposed. It’s
corruption, plain
and simple.”
As a signatory of the G20’s Anti-Corruption
Action Plan, Germany promised to implement
whistleblower protection by the end of 2012.
This obligation and the Heinisch decision in
Strasbourg prompted the SPD (then still in
opposition), the Greens, and Die Linke to attempt
to pass a law protecting Hinweis­geber (a
neologism meaning ‘tip givers’) in the Bundestag
in June 2013. This was thwarted by Angela
Merkel’s government – ironically, just days after
Snowden’s revelations on the NSA came to
light – with the justification
that current labour law sufficiently
protects whistleblowers
(and now that the
SPD is in the governing
coalition, they suddenly
agree!).
Heinisch is jaded about
the judicial and political system
in Germany: “It quickly
became clear to me that
state prosecutors were working
for business interests –
by simply dropping cases, or
just not following up. I was
invited for a talk with the Greens and everything
was just wishy-washy. It wasn’t about actually
helping the whistleblowers.” She is a member
of the non-profit Whistleblower Network, but
finds their tactics too timid: “I’m a little more
radical when it comes to pursuing our demands.
I said we should just get as many whistleblowers
as possible together in a protest camp out in
front of the Reichstag for a week. But a lot of
people didn’t want to do that. There’s no other
way. Politicians just represent the interests of
business, that’s the way it is.”
You can’t fight the system
Guido Strack, founder of the Whistleblower
Network, who himself lost his job and was subjected
to a Kafkaesque legal nightmare after he
exposed waste and corruption as an EU official,
is equally pessimistic. The affair and associated
stress destroyed his career, destroyed his marriage
and weakened his faith in “the system”. In
26 • SEPTEMBER 2014

an interview with filmmaker Ian Hawkins,
he summed up his sentiment: “If you do
something that they don’t like, then you are
considered to be someone going against the
system. And then the system fights back
with every means it has. I thought it was
a just system and that you could achieve
something if you do the right thing. I don’t
think that any more.“
Corruption in the courts
To Andrea Fuchs, a former stockbroker
who reported insider trading at DG Bank
in Frankfurt 18 years ago, the situation for
whistleblowers in Germany is “disastrous”.
According to her, even countries without the
reputation of being strong democracies, like
Indonesia, have a functioning whistleblower
protection law. Her actions destroyed her
career in banking forever. In a immensely
complicated legal ordeal in eight courts
that continues till this day, Fuchs was officially
fired 19 times from the same job, even
though she says the grounds for her dismissal
were dismissed in court each time. She hasn’t
worked in 18 years. Germany’s highest court,
the Constitutional Court, refused to hear her
case without even giving a reason. For her,
the German system is riddled with corruption:
for example, she once received an anonymous
letter stating that a labour court judge
who had heard her case had also worked on
the arbitration board of DG Bank.
Like Heinisch, Fuchs is hoping the court
in Strasbourg will serve justice after nearly
two decades – lawyers are currently assessing
the viability of her case. “Europe needs
to give the Germans a slap on the hand!”
Meanwhile Fuchs, also a member of the
Whistleblower Network, is advising three
people who have not yet gone public with
their accounts of corruption in the organisations
they work for.
What is Germany’s problem with
whistleblowers? Fuchs believes the “experience
of the Third Reich and the GDR
left people with the [negative] idea of the
‘informant’, hence the reluctance to protect
people making claims against wrongdoing.
But it’s all an excuse for the lobbyists and
the politicians who are scared their shadowy
sources of side income will be exposed.
It’s corruption, plain and simple.”
For the sakes of those who’ve sacrificed
their careers and even marriages to expose
uncomfortable truths, let’s hope the spirit
of the Age of the Whistleblower ushered
in by Edward Snowden will rub off on Germany
for good. n
MICHAL ANDRYSIAK
27

SNOWDEN SPECIAL
You are the product
Behind today’s ‘free and open’ internet lie shadowy firms who have made your data
their business – many of them based in Berlin. By Mary Biekert and Rachel Glassberg
If you didn’t look for them, you wouldn’t even
know they were there. But install a simple
privacy tool like Ghostery and you’ll find them
lurking on nearly every website you visit, like a
swarm of cockroaches underneath spotless floorboards.
Their names are nonsensical: Eyeota,
Nugg.Ad, Quantcast, Zanox. You don’t know
them. But they know you.
These are the invisible engines that power the
internet today: data mining companies that determine
which ads you are shown by monitoring
what you do online. As the €27.3 billion industry
continues to expand, these companies are devising
ever-cleverer ways to get at that information
while staying within Europe’s strict, yet pliable,
privacy laws. And many of them have their roots
in Berlin’s own blossoming start-up scene.
One of those companies is Nugg.ad, once
a start-up, now an international corporation
owned by Deutsche Post specialising in “Predictive
Behavioural Targeting” with eight offices
across Europe. Accepting us into their cheerfully
yellow Friedrichshain headquarters, consulting
director Sema Saglik was all smiles as she explained
the company’s business model – and,
of course, their amazing privacy record.
Nugg.ad partners with the publishers
of over 4000 sites (including
those in the Axel Springer group,
such as Bild.de) to log users’ pageviews
via the invisible graphics
known as “tracking pixels”. They
correlate data about what kind
of content you view – “sports”,
“health and beauty”, etc. – with
“anonymous survey responses”
about age, gender and other interests
to put together your likely
profile. This profile (minus your IP
address, which is cut off using third-party software)
is relayed via browser cookie to the original
website as well as advertising networks, who
use this information to show you the ads and
content they think you’re likely to click on via
an automated process called “real-time bidding”.
This all happens in a matter of milliseconds.
Saglik estimates 85 percent of German users
have a Nugg.ad cookie on their computer – so
even if you’re not clicking on the ads they’ve
helped to place, chances are someone is. “Just
one percent is enough,” says Jonas*, a tech-savvy
Berliner who used to work at digital marketing
company Neue Digital
(now Razorfish). “A lot of
people won’t click on the
ads, but the ones who do
offer enough revenue.”
The ‘good
ol’ shopping
experience
Welcome to the new
digital economy: an
internet where we’re
given access to seemingly
unlimited amounts
of information… which we’re paying for, largely
unbeknownst to us, with information of our
own. As author and documentarist Astra Taylor
writes in The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power
and Culture in the Digital Age, “Web 2.0 is not
about users buying products. Rather, the users
are the product.”
Not that the organisations buying and selling
this product will admit to it. Nugg.ad claims
they’re benefiting not only advertisers but users,
by showing them only the ads that
are relevant to them. Says Saglik:
“When you’re a 25-year-old male, you
don’t want to see ads for diapers.”
Another such company, TheAdex –
with offices in Berlin, Düsseldorf,
London and Switzerland – justifies
their practices similarly on
their website: “We dream of the
‘good ol’ days’ when you went
to the local butcher or baker
and they knew exactly what you
wanted and why. It seems like a
serious breach of privacy viewed
through a modern prism, but for
some reason we don’t feel that way when it’s a
small business owner. The intent is the same:
to make a better shopping experience for the
customer.”
It sounds innocuous enough. But in the case
of the butcher you know exactly what information
you’re giving out and what he’s doing with
it. To the average internet user, this isn’t quite as
clear when it comes to “predictive behavioural
targeting” and “next generation data management
solutions”. And in the case of people
who publish on platforms such as Blogger, the
analogy is closer to the butcher’s landlord getting
information about you
behind the butcher’s
back.
Companies thus take
advantage of consumers’
ignorance to pull
some seriously sneaky
manoeuvres – conflicting
the programmers
who are working behind
the scenes. “If you want
to work in the start-up
scene now, you’ve got to
navigate tonnes of dodgy
job offers,” says Nicolas*, a programmer from
Finland. Niels*, also from Scandinavia, moved
to Berlin to work in the hyped start-up scene.
He found himself at the “ad attention measuring
technology” company Meetrics, which runs
scripts on over 2000 sites including Spiegel
Online, Germany’s most influential news site.
Their technology allows them to see and store
data about how people’s mice move about a web
page – “where they click, where they scroll. The
information is sold both to the webpage owners
and advertisers so that they can see which
advertisements are most successful for whom.
We could also pull up specific IP addresses and
replay how a person navigated a specific web
page.” According to him, there was also a plug-in
that they developed that would be installed, usually
without awareness of the consequences, by a
user who clicked on a certain ad, survey or offer
to ‘win a free Ipad’. “This plug-in had the full
potential to take over that person’s web browser,
to take their private information such as bank
account numbers, passwords…”
Hidden terms and conditions
How much of this is legal? Surprisingly, nearly
all of it – even in Germany, the country with
some of the strictest data protection laws in the
world. “Basically, in the US, you can do anything
you want with data as long as you don’t infringe
the rights of the person,” says Jana Moser, a
lawyer specialising in digital privacy law. “In
Germany, you can only use data to provide the
service specified by the website – that which is
really, strictly mandatory, nothing more.” But
there is a catch.
Under current law, there is a difference in
the treatment of personally identifiable data
ILLUSTRATIONS BY AGATA SASIUK
28 • SEPTEMBER 2014

(names, addresses, credit card
numbers) and anonymous or
pseudonymous data: numbers
that are not personally
identifiable, but might be in
combination with each other.
The difference between the
two can be as simple as a string
of three digits: in Germany, IP
addresses are considered personally
identifiable information,
yet with cookies and tracking
pixels, logging these numbers
is inevitable. That’s why many
companies, including Nugg.
ad, use an outside program or
“third-party anonymiser” to randomise
or truncate users’ IPs.
You only need the last three digits to be removed
for the address to be rendered anonymous. Still,
information about the router used or the city of
origin might remain.
While companies can only gather personally
identifiable data with users’ explicit consent,
usually obtained when they click “Agree” after
skimming through some nigh-unreadable “Terms
of Service”, the collection of pseudonymous data
is done by default, legal so long as the user is
given the option to opt out on the “Privacy
Policy” or Datenschutz section of the website
using the tracker. “The link to opt out is usually
positioned in the last sentence in the terms and
conditions, poorly written and often with white
on white background, so it’s impossible to see or
barely visible,” says Jonas. Not to mention that
there is no simple way to manually opt out of
every single company’s data collection policy at
once – and once you’ve opted out of a tracker, its
cookie will remain until you delete it.
The more “anonymous data” companies collect,
the easier it is to correlate their ‘profile’ of
you. “It gets to the point that it’s not anonymous
at all,” says Jonas. “Companies never technically
break the law because they use exchange binaries
and work together to collect data and pass it
along. They can take your data from several
different sources and correlate it all in a matter
of seconds and come up with a profile linked to
your name.” This is possible, he says, through
application process interface (API) technology, a
tool that allows web applications
to share data
from cookies. “It’s happening
all the time. The
law in Germany is that you
are not allowed to collect something
like this, but companies
are doing it anyway – if you get
caught, you have to pay a fine,
but usually the company will
just pay it because the chance
of actually getting caught doing
this is pretty small and the risk
is usually worth it.”
It’s a common tactic for
companies to spread information
around different servers
in different countries, taking
advantage of differing privacy
laws. Or they can move around
within Germany, says Moser:
“All companies have to respect
the same laws, but when
it comes to interpretation of the law,
different autho ri ties in different
federal states have different
opinions. The more they
know about the technical
infrastructure, the faster
they react. So, you’ll
hear about the authorities
in Hamburg going
against Facebook… but the
autho rities in Saxony? Never.”
Perpetually obsolete regulations
A better, comprehensive data protection policy is
clearly needed to keep up with the times – and in
fact, since 2012 the EU has been putting together
such a policy, a reform of the current laws (which
were passed in 1995). Yet keeping digital privacy
laws vague and open to interpretation might be
the most effective tactic at regulating Big Data,
says Moser. “The more detailed regulation we
have, the more difficult it will be to catch up in
the future. We can’t just say, ‘We have to regulate
iBeacons’, for example, because in one year we
might not have iBeacons anymore.”
The data industry is therefore counted on
to regulate itself, through a series of (optional)
privacy programmes like the European Privacy
Seal, a certification awarded to companies that
pass inspection by third-party IT experts, and
the Deutscher Datenschutzrat Online-Werbung
(DDOW), the industry body that came up
with a codex of guidelines for German digital
advertising companies. In the wake of the
Snowden revelations and increasing consumer
uneasiness, Big Data players have also come to
recognise the value of transparency – so long as
they’re the ones doing the revealing. The Your
Online Choices program, for instance, displays
a tiny blue icon in the corner of ads; click on it
and you’ll be brought to a website, created by
the European Digital Advertising Alliance, that
informs you why and how your data’s being used
and includes a “Preference Management” section
in which you can opt out of data collection
by over 80 companies in one fell swoop (theoretically
– it’s plagued with “connection problems”).
Nugg.ad CEO Stephan Noller is even putting on
a “Data Days” festival this October, complete
with talks on “Data-driven Applications vs. Ethics
and Policies.”
“I think self-regulation can be good,” says
Moser. “But what should never happen again is
this Safe Harbour concept.” That’s the agreement,
dating back to 1998, by which US-based
companies like Google and Facebook are
currently allowed to gather data on EU citizens.
They only need to “self-certify” that they are in
compliance with European data protection law,
as enforced, by all accounts ineffectively, by the
US Federal Trade Commission. In August, the
US consumer rights advocacy group Center for
Digital Democracy (CDD), accused 30 American
data companies – including Adobe, AOL and
data brokerage giant Acxiom – of “compiling,
using and sharing EU consumers’ personal
information without their awareness and
meaningful consent”. The group called for the
suspension of Safe Harbour, which would
prohibit any US-based site from collecting
data in Europe.
Instead of counting on corporations
to conform to bendable,
perpetually obsolete
regulations, the best option
would be for users
to take their data into
their own hands. You
can start small, by blocking
cookies or deleting them after every browsing
session and downloading a browser plug-in like
Disconnect, Scriptpolicy or Ghostery to display
and block all advertising and analytical requests.
If every internet user was as informed as
possible and chose to opt out of everything,
“the entire industry would collapse,”
says one Berlin insider.
You can see the beginnings
of this for yourself.
Block every
single cookie and
tracker and your
personal internet
experience will
fundamentally
change – videos
won’t load, for
example. In
the long run,
though, it might
be a small sacrifice to
make yourself a totally free
member of the new digital
economy order. n
*Names changed.
If every internet user
was as informed as
possible and chose to
opt out of everything,
“the entire industry
would collapse”.
29

Whether you’re plotting a revolution or making brunch plans, here are some
simple (and free!) tools to evade unwelcome eavesdroppers. As Edward
Snowden says: “Encryption works – it’s one of the things you can rely on.”
By Michael Hald
EMAIL
THUNDERBIRD
with Enigmail and PGP
(Windows, OS X, Linux)
WHAT IT IS WHAT IT IS WHAT IT IS WHAT IT IS WHAT IT IS WHAT IT IS WHAT IT IS
An email client (Thunderbird)
with an add-on (Enigmail)
that encrypts your emails
using PGP (Pretty Good Privacy).
To send an encrypted
email, ask the recipient for
their “public key” (a string of
characters; each person has
their own). Once the email is
sent, the recipient then uses
their “private key” to decrypt
your message and vice versa.
Anyone else will just see a
garble of random characters.
CHAT TEXT CALLS THE WEB FILES ALL-IN-ONE
JITSI
(Windows, OS X, Linux)
A program that offers encrypted
instant messaging
over services like Facebook
Chat, Google Talk and
AIM as well as video and
audio calls using the Jabber
protocol. Just give it your
login credentials (this can
be kept secure via a master
password) and chat away
securely. It also offers OTR
(Off-The-Record) messaging,
an independent encrypted
service, for the ultimate protected
chat experience.
TEXTSECURE
(Android, iOS under
development)
An app that automatically
encrypts your texts (and
sexts; it works with pictures
too) – as long as the recipient’s
also using the app.
REDPHONE/
SIGNAL
(Android, iOS)
A VoIP (Voice over Internet
Protocol) service that
encrypts the data of your
cell phone calls, preventing
outsiders from listening in.
It will automatically detect if
the person you’re trying to
reach also uses RedPhone
or Signal and offer to encrypt
the call.
TOR BROWSER
(Windows, OS X, Linux)
A program that hides your
internet traffic through
multiple layers of encryption
and sends it through
multiple servers in multiple
countries, allowing for
anonymous internet browsing.
It also gives you access
to the hidden Tor network,
aka the “Deep Web”.
TRUECRYPT
(Windows, OS X, Linux)
A program that lets you
create a so-called ‘encrypted
volume’ to protect
your files (with the power
of math!) It’s concealed as
a normal document, but
works as a virtual hard drive
which you can easily add or
remove files from.
TAILS
(Portable operating system)
Also called The Amnesic
Incognito Live System, this
OS comes on a handy USB
stick and contains Pidgin
with OTR for chatting,
email through Claws (similar
to Thunderbird), the Tor
Browser and file encryption.
Unless you set it to save files
permanently, everything
is deleted once you shut
down and remove the stick,
leaving no trace on the
computer you used.
USER EXPERIENCE USER EXPERIENCE USER EXPERIENCE USER EXPERIENCE USER EXPERIENCE USER EXPERIENCE USER EXPERIENCE
Once you’ve installed Thunderbird,
Enigmail and the
GnuPG program, it’s actually
pretty hassle-free. Now you
can use your regular email
account to send and receive
encoded messages to and
from fellow encrypters,
should you so choose.
Collecting all of your chat
services in one program is
definitely convenient, but
in order for it to actually
encrypt, the person you’re
chatting with also needs to
use the program or another
OTR-enabled chat.
Ridiculously easy. There’s
no need to remember any
passwords, and it can easily
replace your standard messaging
app.
Very intuitive – you can just
call people like you normally
would. Because it uses wi-fi
or data to make the encrypted
calls, it will not use
up any of your minutes.
The Tor Browser is preconfigured
for safe use right
out of the pack and works
just like Chrome or Firefox.
However, because of all the
encryption, it will always
be slower than normal
browsing. There are only
early, experimental mobile
versions so far, like Orfox
(with Orbot) for Android or
Onion Browser for iOS.
Making your encrypted
volume can be a bit complicated;
there are different
types of volumes, methods
and file systems to choose
from, and it’s not always
clear what’s best. But once
you’ve done it, it works
like any other USB stick or
memory card, except all of it
is digital.
The installation can be a bit
tricky, so it might be a good
idea to have a tech person
on standby. Once it’s
installed, it works like any
other OS (it’s most similar
to Linux). The best part is
that it can boot from almost
any computer.
LEVEL OF SECURITY LEVEL OF SECURITY LEVEL OF SECURITY LEVEL OF SECURITY LEVEL OF SECURITY LEVEL OF SECURITY LEVEL OF SECURITY
For 23 years now, PGP
encryption has repeatedly
proven itself to be one of the
hardest types of encryption to
crack. That said, if someone
manages to steal your private
key or you lose it you’re
screwed, so keep it somewhere
safe. The Thunderbird
add-on TorBirdy can also add
an extra layer of protection by
sending your emails through
the Tor network.
While it does encrypt otherwise
unprotected chat, the
real privacy comes with OTR
chat, which circumvents
companies like Google or
Facebook. Alternatively,
you can also use Pidgin with
OTR, Adium with logging
disabled or ChatSecure (for
your smartphone).
To the extent of public
knowledge no one – not
even the NSA – has been
able to break it yet. Bonus:
it encrypts your texts locally,
so your 3am booty requests
will remain safely locked
away even if you lose your
phone.
Both apps use the so-called
ZRTP protocol to provide
‘forward secret’ encryption
of the phone calls. Recommended
by Snowden (along
with TextSecure). We hear
it makes it hard for the NSA
to listen!
Stick to the Tor network
for optimal safety, and use
caution when inputting personal
info and passwords,
lest a cookie give away your
identity. Outsiders can still
see you’re using Tor – which
could be seen as suspicious
in itself. You might want to
install it on a USB stick to
ensure that it doesn’t save
any data to your computer.
The program offers a level
of encryption similar to what
the US uses for ‘Top Secret’-
level files. The programming
behind it is all free software,
so anyone can review the
code and find security
holes. Just remember that
the German intelligence service
considers people who
encrypt files as potential
terrorists, even if they’re just
locking up cake recipes.
It doesn’t get more secure
than this (without, say,
building a grsec-enabled
kernel for your corebootenabled
X60…). Of course,
if you bought the USB stick
online there’s still the risk
that a shady figure added
a tattle-tale component
somewhere in transit. If you
fear that might be the case,
you can install Tails on a
read-only DVD instead.
30 • SEPTEMBER 2014

SNOWDEN ARTICLE TAGSPECIAL
The disruptors
Hugs”, which analyses whether users need a
hug) under the motto “Your Data. Our Future.”
This provoked Google to demand them to stop
confusing their consumers and hand over their
google-nest.org domain, offering $100 for the
trouble. But the site had already gone viral,
prompting many a media discussion on whether
Google had overstepped its boundaries.
CHART BY TATIANA BAZZICHELLI
Don’t fight the system – disrupt it! Meet the subversive,
satirical, risk-taking Berliners trying to effect change
from within. By Tatiana Bazzichelli
The Snowden revelations have generated
an intense debate in Berlin. But trying
to deal with the topic, it is easy either
to become paralysed by its complexity,
disillusioned by its grand scale, or deterred by
fears of surveillance and repression.
Can we imagine new tools and new answers
that are not merely based on the idea of hiding
if there really is No Place To Hide, as the title of
Glenn Greenwald’s book on Snowden suggests?
Perhaps we should start focusing on how to
empower people to act consciously in society,
culture and the media environment.
Some Berlin-based artistic and activist groups
have been trying to do just that. Their tactic?
Disruption.
Here, the idea of disruption means to generate
criticism by “performing the machine” which we
want to fight – oftentimes from within.
This practice is nothing new in Germany.
Take journalist Günter Wallraff, who in the
1960s went undercover to get insight into power
structures and abuses, assuming identities such
as a homeless person, an alcoholic and a worker
in a chemical factory as described in his popular
13 unerwünschte Reportagen (13 Undesired Reports).
His name has even become a verb in Swedish,
meaning “to expose misconduct from the inside
by assuming a role”. This approach has a double
effect: from one side it reveals previously hidden
information to the public, and from the other, it
empowers them to adopt this methodology and
keep the ball of exposure rolling.
Today, in the context of increasingly invasive
corporations and government agencies, Berlin
collectives have had to get creative. While their
methods vary wildly, the goal is the same: to
rip away the veil of secrecy around institutions
and media corporations, and to get unexpected
feedback and reactions – whether positive or
negative.
With HEDONIST INTERNATIONAL, whose Fifth
Congress took place last June near Berlin, the
strategy of infiltration meets the practice of disruption.
In their manifesto the members of the
“communication guerrilla collective”, as activist
Alexander Müller describes it, introduce “hedonism
as the engine of a society as the chance to
overcome present circumstances”. In their view,
“where fun ends, hierarchy begins”. Instead of
“playing the system”, their playful interventions
liberate or “queer” power structures.
The group’s activities go beyond dancing
naked in neo-Nazi hotspots or holding hedonistic
nude flat viewing rallies to oppose Berlin
gentrification. In 2011, when German defence
minister Karl-Theodor Guttenberg was accused
of plagiarism of his doctoral dissertation and
forced to resign, the Hedonists organised a fake
demonstration of solidarity for the minister, attracting
many of his conservative supporters and
consequently making them very confused with
ironic slogans like “Jetzt oder nie – Monarchie!”.
The Hedonists also applied the strategy of
disturbance by generating fake Twitter accounts.
In the wake of the Fukushima catastrophe, they
created an account on behalf of the Atom Forum,
the German nuclear lobby, to question their
arguments and point out the consequence of the
meltdown – until the Atom Forum decided to
take legal action against the Hedonists, demonstrating
that the system can always force its truth
on you, even if you play with the truth itself.
Fake-tweeting for the company DigiTask,
manufacturer of the “Staatstrojaner” government
spyware exposed by the Chaos Computer Club
in 2011, again earned the Hedonists a Cease and
Desist letter. To justify its legal action, DigiTask
claimed that the spyware was not used in the
countries the activists were stating, rather in
other countries, including Austria – generating
another boomerang effect and causing a scandal
among Austrian activists.
Meanwhile, the tactic of the German PENG!
COLLECTIVE is to intrude into corporate conferences.
In December 2013 they hijacked the
Science Slam in Berlin, organised by Shell to
promote innovation by inviting young scientists
to present new ideas. The collective showed up
with an “amazing machine” that, when turned
on, flipped open to reveal the message “Slam
Shell” and began gushing oil on the presenters
as they demanded cleaner business practices
in Nigeria and the end of drilling in the Arctic.
They used a similar tactic at the May 2014
re:publica festival, where, inspired by Google’s
acquisition of home-device manufacturer Nest,
they posed as Google employees to deliver a
presentation about their new, seemingly utopian
“Google Nest” technology (for example, “Google
Another Berlin-based group that has made
disruption a source of artistic practice is the
TELEKOMMUNISTEN collective, initiated by
Canadian developer and “venture communist”
Dmytri Kleiner (an early critique of the existing
copyright norms but also the Creative Commons
movement, to which he opposed a Copyfarleft
licence system). Active in Berlin for around 10
years, the Telekommunisten have been demonstrating
how it is possible to work from within
the logics of centralised online (and offline)
systems, by imagining a series of “miscommunication
technologies” which “don’t work
as expected, or work in an unexpected way”.
Their last work, the Numbers Station, responds
directly to the recent debate on surveillance
and the need for data encryption. Addressed
ironically to all spies and whistleblowers, the
system is based on decryption cards, which help
participants decode phrases delivered by radio
communications. By bringing together playfulness
and encryption, and making crypto-tools
accessible as an artwork, Numbers Station shows
that to perform disruption you have to become
aware of the possibilities of your Internet presence,
and you need to explore its strength while
testing its limits.
In this post-Snowden, post-digital era, disruption
tactics have never been more accessible.
What Edward Snowden did, what Chelsea
Manning did and what other whistleblowers
did before them demonstrate that disruption is
ready to be applied by everyone. Holes in the
systems are everywhere, ready to be exploited.
What are you waiting for? n
Tatiana Bazzichelli is a curator
and researcher, author of
the books Networked
Disruption and Disrupting
Business (2013). She was
programme curator at
the transmediale festival
and she is planning a new
series of events under the
name Disruption Network Lab
(upcoming 2015), to bring into
dialogue local and international hackers,
activists, networkers, and critical thinkers
within the framework of art, hacktivism and
network economy.
GISELLA SORRENO
31

What’s on
CALENDAR
September 2014
CLASSICAL TUESDAY, SEP 2 The
Berlin Philharmonie runs a
marathon in cooperation with
Berliner Festspiele, with 31 instrumental
and vocal performances.
The opening is a tribute
to Johannes Brahms’ Piano
Concertos. Through Sep 22.
Starts 19:00. (see page 42)
Musikfest
15 Years Post Theater
THEATRE SUNDAY, SEP 7 Paragon
of both traditional and
contemporary theatre and
dance performances – Post
Theater turns 15. It closes out
with Jobs im Himmel but catch
what you can starting Sep
3. Theaterdiscounter. Starts
20:00.
15
Erotic Crisis
THEATRE MONDAY, SEP 15 The
new piece from Yael Ronen
gives Gorki a more erotic
charge. Exploring sexuality
among a myriad of social
constellations, tonight is the
first staging with English subs.
Maxim Gorki. Starts 19:30.
ULRICH “ULI”
SCHREIBER founded
Berlin’s International
Literature Festival
(Sep 10-20, see
page 42) in 2001 and
remains its illustrious
head to this day.
FRIDAY 20:00 A film at
Delphi Filmpalast (Kantstr.
12a, Charlottenburg).
22:00 Drinks and
maybe dinner at Paris
Bar (Kantstr. 152,
Charlottenburg).
SATURDAY 8:00 Coffee
and croissant at Literaturcafé
(Else-Ury-Bogen
599-601, Charlottenburg).
Reading the last
pages of Judith Hermann’s
novel Aller Liebe
Anfang. 10:00 Shopping
at the weekly market
(Karl-August Platz,
Charlottenburg). 12:00
Aglio e olio and cold
white wine at Biscotti
(Pestalozzistr. 88, Charlottenburg);
talking with
friends, watching people
passing happily with
beautiful flowers in their
Moderat, Berlin Festival, Sep 5
0
10
the city embraces 11 days of
International Literature
Festival
LITERATURE WEDNESDAY, SEP 10
Bookworms of Berlin rejoice as
literary celebration. Over 180
guests give lectures, workshops
and readings from prose to poetry.
Through Sep 21. Various
venues. (see page 42)
Erotic Crisis, Sep 15
My perfect Berlin weekend
0
arms. 14:00 Sanssouci
bread (my favourite)
at Butter Lindner
(Voßstr. 35, Charlottenburg).
15:00 Listening
to Tom Waits while cooking
and preparing my
flat for an evening party.
16:00 Waiting for wine
delivery from Klemke
(Mommsenstr. 9, Charlottenburg).
20:00 My
first guests arrive. Soon
I won’t be a noticeable
host any more, just
part of the crowd.
SUNDAY 12:00 Sit
on my balcony, reading
Dave Eggers’ The
Circle. 14:00 Maybe
I will take a walk in
Schlosspark Charlottenburg,
maybe not.
3
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.
11
Pasolini Roma
ART FILM THURSDAY, SEP 11
Auteur or agitator? Explore
the life and work of one of the
most controversial yet important
directors of all time – Pier
Paolo Pasolini. Through Jan
5. Martin-Gropius-Bau. Starts
10:00. (see page 38)
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 50)
22
Miss Kenichi
MUSIC MONDAY, SEP 22 Back
with new album The Trail, Miss
Kenichi has appeared in these
pages a few times over the
years, both as highlight and as
writer. She hits the stage with
Lonski and Classen as support.
Lido. Starts 20:00.
Azealia Banks
MUSIC FRIDAY, SEP 26 The
shade-throwing hip hop Amazon
brings her trademark
26
breakneck flow and pottymouth
and, hopefully, a taste
of her upcoming album Broke
with Expensive Taste. Huxley’s
Neue Welt. Starts 20:00. (see
page 46)
Also Sep 3-4:
Transduction
concert
installation at
Berghain
4
Jewish Culture Days
FESTIVAL THURSDAY, SEP 4
Shalom! For 10 days Berlin
will celebrate everything Jewish
through concerts, children’s
workshops, synagogue
tours, exhibitions and
Pasolini Roma, Sep 11
street festivals. Through
Sep 14. Various locations.
Starts 8:00.
0
17
Blonde Redhead
MUSIC WEDNESDAY, SEP 17
Blonde Redhead return just
in time for the release of their
new album Barragán: something
for both new and old
fans of the early-2000s indie
rock dreamers. Frannz Club.
Starts 20:00.
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.
Mary Ocher, Sep 27
0
STEPHAN WHITE ANGELO NOVI, FONDAZIONE
CINETECA DI BOLOGNA
32 • SEPTEMBER 2014

Jewish Culture Days, Sep 4
0
12
Colourbox
ART FRIDAY, SEP 12 Wolfgang
Tillman’s project space hosts
a retrospective on 4AD electronic
band Colourbox. Aheadof-their-time
in album art, they
beat Einstürzende Neubauten
to the horse penis punch by
six years. Between Bridges.
Starts 19:00.
Der Anständige
FILM THURSDAY, SEP 18 Catch
Vanessa Lapa’s documentary
on one of history’s greatest vil-
18
lains, Heinrich Himmler. Using
private letters only made public
in February, this is a personal
glimpse into the Nazi’s
mind. Volksbühne. Starts
20:00.
24
GusGus
MUSIC WEDNESDAY, SEP 24
Twenty years into a varied career,
Icelandic electronic outfit
GusGus released the techhouse-tinged
Mexico this year.
The show will be Obnoxiously
Sexual. Also Sep 23. Berghain.
Starts 20:00.
27
Mary Ocher
MUSIC SATURDAY, SEP 27 Berlin’s
multi-talented songstress
is leaving the Government behind
(just for one show) to entertain
us solo, spiced up with
piano. Lucrecia Dalt supports.
Roter Salon. Starts 21:00.
Also Sep 12-13:
Beer & Beef and
the last Bite Club
Mitte...
5
MUSIC FRIDAY, SEP 5 The fest
moved camp last minute this
year from Tempelhof to Arena
Park for a 48-hour lineup including
Mount Kimbie, Hudson
Mohawke, Moderat, Jessie
Ware and Digitalism (see page
44). Through Sep 7.
Berlin Festival
13
lead guided tours of museums
Day of Open Memorials
TOURS SATURDAY, SEP 13 Over
two days archaeologists, restorers
and conservationists
and concert halls, letting audiences
in on the secret side
of Berlin’s listed buildings.
Through Sep 14. Various
locations.
0
Dubl Trubl, Sep 19
25
EXBlicks: Stasi night
FILM THURSDAY, SEP 25
A unique programme from the
Stasi vaults including spy training
and GDR propaganda films,
plus a doc on Cold War espionage
and a discussion with Hubertus
Knabe, head of the Stasi
Museum. Lichtblick Kino. Starts
20:30. (see page 39)
28
of handbikers, power walkers
Berlin Marathon
SPORTS SUNDAY, SEP 28 Clear
the streets! Berlin gets taken
over for a city-wide marathon
and runners. If you wanna strap
on the rollerblades or bring the
kiddies, there’s a special race
for them the day before.
Also Sep 13-14:
Folsom Street
Europe
6
Experimentdays
POLITICS & ACTIVISM SATURDAY,
SEP 6 The annual urban development
fest runs from Sep
5-13. Today, catch an exhibition
and discussion with South African
artist Terry Kurgan, whose
work concerns the public versus
private realm. Bootshaus.
Starts 11:00.
25 Jahre Mauerfall
– We Are The Play
STAGE SUNDAY, SEP 14 Part of
English Theatre Berlin’s month-
14
long exploration, this site-specific
interactive performance
piece focuses on Germans and
Ausländer during the fall of the
Wall. From Sep 11. Berlin Wall
Memorial. Starts 19:00.
19
brought here to mix and match
DUBL TRUBL>>Ich bin
in Berlin
ART FRIDAY, SEP 19 More than
80 international artists are
skills and disciplines in surprising
ways: from art to film
to music. Opening party on
Sep 18. Through Oct 26. Starts
12:00. (see page 49)
Berlin Marathon, Sep 28
0
29
The Space Lady
MUSIC MONDAY, SEP 29
Spaced-out covers and originals
from a San Francisco
street musician turned rediscovered
cult heroine with a
fascinating life story (see page
46). Marie Antoinette. Starts
20:00.
1.10.–31.12.
Meg Stuart /
Damaged Goods
Phil Collins
Sarah Vanhee
Dries Verhoeven
Ivo Dimchev
Farid Fairuz
Forced
Entertainment
Philippe Quesne
Gob Squad
andcompany&Co.
Kat Válastur
Hans-Werner
Kroesinger
Damian Rebgetz
Rimini Protokoll
Laurent
Chétouane
Isabelle Schad
Mouse On Mars
Jefta van Dinther
Adam Linder
Nicoleta
Esinencu
u.v.m.
33
www.hebbel-am-ufer.de

What’s on
FILM
STARTS AUG 28
Wolfskinder
D: Rick Ostermann
(Germany 2013) with
Levin Liam, Helena Phil,
Vivien Ciskowski ◆◆◆◆
Ostermann’s debut film
and winner of the 2014
“Friedenspreis des
deutschen Films”, this
portrait of the odyssey
undertaken by Hans
(Liam) as he struggles
through post-WWII occupational and partisan brutalities
on his way to Lithuania searching for his younger brother
should be seen twice: once to appreciate the artistic
mastery of a largely ‘voiceless’ screenplay and soberly
stunning cinematography. And again: as a filter for the
millions of children’s voices currently undergoing something
similar – in reality. EL
DANIEL MCFADDEN
FILM
editor’s
pick
STARTS SEP 4
Hercules
D: Brett Ratner (USA
2014) with Dwayne Johnson,
Ian McShane
◆◆ It’s “Lions and
hydras and boars, oh
my!” as the usually
likeable Johnson and the
much maligned Ratner
join a selection of fine
British thesps for this
moderately diverting
retelling of the demi-god’s slightly latter years. Taking
place after his widely eulogised trials, we find Hercules
as a myth turned mercenary; trekking the wilderness
with his grumbling comrades until that one last lucrative
job offers an early way out. Credit for choosing to
debunk the hero’s mythology: aside from that, we all
know the drill. ROC
STARTS SEP 4
Deliver Us From Evil
D: Scott Derrickson (USA
2014) with Eric Bana, Édgar
Ramírez, Olivia Munn
◆◆ When New York
police officer Ralph Sarchie
(Bana) investigates a
series of inexplicable but
somehow interconnected
crimes, he crosses the
path of an unorthodox
priest. Together they combat
the evil spreading amongst Iraq vets, revealing his
own hidden guilt in the process. Adopting many elements
from the real-life Sarchie’s actual cases, this film is a
post-Iraq-war take on exorcism where horror genre meets
action and crime drama – with few surprises. YC
STARTS SEP 11
Song From The Forest
D: Michael Obert (Germany
2013) documentary
with Louis Sarno
◆◆◆◆ Following Sarno,
a musician who lived with
and recorded the music of
pygmy Bayaka tribe in a
Central African rainforest
for over 25 years, on his
journey back to his native
New York with his young
son Samedi, Obert’s film (see interview, page 36) is an intelligent
portrait of a hunter-gatherer people losing its way
of life, a man finding his way again and a boy embracing a
globalised future. Reverberating with polyphonies from the
Renaissance and the heart of Africa, this baroque sense
fest captivates heart and soul. MW
34 • SEPTEMBER 2014
The flesh hell of Hollywood
By EVE LUCAS
A scene in David Cronenberg’s MAPS TO THE
STARS (photo) shows ‘ageing’ movie actress Hannah
Segrand (Moore) rushing onto her pool patio
for a little elated gig with chore-whore Agatha
(Wasikowska). A rival’s little boy has drowned in
another pool somewhere in Hollywood. Things
are looking up.
States of extreme confusion are Cronenberg’s
stock in trade and a Hollywood populated by
emotionally distant and deceptively close stars
and gods is a natural choice of habitat. Not
surprisingly, Bruce Wagner’s screenplay is selfconsciously
heavy on the invocation of grand
themes from Greek mythology: brother-sister incest,
emotional infanticide and a bevy of visitors
from the netherworld. All quite apart from the
regular cast of treachery, greed and ambition that
humdingers its way through Segrand’s coterie:
her feel-good spin-guru Stafford Weiss (Cusack),
his tormented wife (Williams), recently detoxed
child-star son Benjie (Bird) and the bad daughter
who’s back in town. Watching it all through his
rear-view mirror is the hired limo driver Jerome
(Pattinson in a neat inversion of his role in Cosmopolis).
He’s working on his own screenplay, so
yeah, “everything is research”.
Jerome’s role is loosely based on Wagner’s own
experiences starting out in Hollywood. His view
of indolent, detached curiosity has been done
before (Altman’s The Player to name just one).
What Cronenberg/Wagner bring to this game is
the detachment of meta-textual commentary on
stardom, presenting Hollywood as a firmament
of humans “acting” as celestial bodies. It’s a consistently
unpleasant and deliberately unnatural
angle, contextualised by DP Peter Suschitsky,
whose background in still photography imparts
a predatory stasis to Rodeo Drive and Hollywood
Boulevard. Characters move through these
abeyant spaces as people but also as merchandise.
They are human subjects (evidenced by a
constipated Moore straining on the loo), but
see themselves as god-like objects of adulation
and emulation. These are freshly and viciously
observed dualities, albeit slightly overdrawn
and slackly edited. But as the curtain closes on
a last shot of tragedy there’s little question that
Cronenberg has again framed some pretty bad
lands. This Hollywood is Medea and she’s a titled
logo beaming in the distance: an impervious
signifier of status, watching the slaughter of her
children from her perch in the hills.
The ‘Map to the Stars’ (as in map of stars’ addresses)
also plays a small role in Mike Myers’
SUPERMENSCH: THE LEGEND OF SHEP GORDON as
Gordon recalls how he posted the notice “Alice
doesn’t live here anymore” on Alice Cooper’s
Hollywood home during the star’s stint in rehab.
Originally intent on becoming a probation officer,
Gordon literally stumbled into Hollywood
via the legendary Landmark Motel, where he
tried to separate what he thought was a couple
fighting. It turned out to be Janis Joplin and Jimi
Hendrix. Hendrix suggested Gordon try his hand
at talent management: specifically, Alice Cooper.
Gordon rose to become an impresario extraordinaire:
other clients include Anne Murray and
Luther Vandross. As a producer (Prince of Darkness)
he pioneered US independent film. He’s also
friendly with the Dalai Lama. With the exception
of a few quirky graphics, Myers’ documentary on
his friend Gordon is straightforward. It’s also an
engagingly frank reflection on an anomaly: a generous
man whose “compassionate business” ethic
has kept him afloat and decent in that very same
environment evoked so darkly by Cronenberg. ■
STARTS SEP 11
Maps to the Stars ◆◆◆
Directed by David Cronenberg (Canada, USA, France, Germany
2014) with Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, John Cusack
STARTS SEP 18
Supermensch: the Legend of Shep Gordon ◆◆◆
Directed by Mike Myers (USA 2013) documentary with Shep
Gordon
ALL MOVIES ARE IN OV WITH GERMAN SUBTITLES UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED

STARTS AUG 28
Begin Again
(Can A Song Save Your Life?) D: John
Carney (USA 2013) with Mark Ruffalo, Keira
Knightley, Hailee Steinfeld, Adam Levine,
Catherine Keener ◆◆◆ If, as freshly
unemployed music producer/exec
indie label founder Dan (Ruffalo)
says, music has the ability to
“invest banality with meaning”, you
won’t find a better example of that
maxim than right here, in Carney’s
follow-up to the endearing Once.
That’s better – as in “between
good and best”. Because let’s just
say that this story of singer-songwriter
Gretta (Knightley doing her
own vocals) who’s about to leave
NY after her rising rock-star
boyfriend (Levine) dumps her, is
discovered by Dan and agrees to
joint venture an album of her
songs street-recorded live in New
York – well, it doesn’t re-invent the
plot wheel. It does take the
age-worn tropes of disillusioned
passion and artistic integrity,
fine-tune them via solid performances
from main and subsidiary
stars (with Keener/Steinfeld
notably good as Dan’s wife and
daughter) and whoop the whole
thing up with a couple of wellplaced
set-piece performances
(albeit studio synced) against
some classic NY backdrops. Add
CeeLo Green as verse-rapping
sponsor Troublegum, a bit of
trans-Atlantic chemistry and a light
hand behind the camera and the
mic and you got yourself some
nicely observed female empowerment.
Summer ain’t over yet. See
it out with this. EL
AHA.
DEUTSCH!
STARTS AUG 28
Guardians of the Galaxy
D: James Gunn (USA 2014) with Chris
Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin
Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Benicio Del Toro
◆◆◆◆ There was a time when
the little red Marvel logo on a
film poster inspired feelings of
childlike wonder and excitement
in even the average filmgoer. Unfortunately,
as of late, the oncereliable
publishing company has
churned out a spate of sub-par,
kitsch, forgettable blockbusters
that have paled in comparison
with their predecessors. Guardians
of the Galaxy, however, has
completely (and thankfully) put a
stop to this trend. It’s an origins
tale of the adventures of Peter
Quill, a human kidnapped from
his home planet Earth and thrust
into a new life of interstellar
thievery. Upon obtaining a mysterious
and coveted orb as part
of a lucrative deal with an alien
jeweller, he is attacked by an
unlikely group of bounty hunters:
a mutant raccoon, a tree-man
and an oddly attractive bright
green spacewoman... and thus,
the Guardians of the Galaxy are
born. It’s the breath of fresh air
Marvel needed to recover from its
recent stagnancy and the surprising
amount of belly laughs are
enough to win over even the most
superhero-weary of viewers. MF
goethe.de/berlin
Sprache. Kultur. Deutschland.
35

What’s on
FILM
STARTS SEP 4
Another Me
(Another Me – Mein
zweites Ich) D: Isabel
Coixet (UK, Spain 2013)
with Sophie Turner,
Jonathan Rhys Meyers,
Gregg Sulkin ◆
Sophie Turner (Game of
Thrones) stars as Fay,
a teen whose grasp on
reality disintegrates after
she gets the lead in her
school’s rendition of Macbeth. Add a bit of doppelgänger
psychodrama and you have Isabel Coixet’s loose adaptation
of Catherine MacPhail’s eponymous teen novel. It
might sound promising on paper but not even the acting
of Turner or Rhys Meyers can save the script’s forced
esotericism and, well, plain bad writing. MH
STARTS SEP 18
Concerning Violence
D: Göran Olsson, (Sweden
2014) with Lauryn Hill
◆◆◆◆ With Lauryn Hill
reading excerpts from
Frantz Fanon’s incendiary
work on decolonisation
The Wretched Of
The Earth over Swedish
television archive footage
documenting the struggle
for independence for
colonised nations in Africa, Concerning Violence is an
intelligent and even-handed interrogation of the use
of violence both by the colonial powers on oppressed
natives and by freedom fighters wresting the power back.
Its Nine Scenes From The Anti-Imperialistic Self-Defence
are by turns beautiful, funny and disturbing, allowing the
images and people to speak for themselves. MW
STARTS SEP 18
A World Not Ours
D: Mahdi Fleifel (UK, Lebanon,
Denmark, UAE 2012)
documentary ◆◆◆◆
Before the Syrian troubles,
the Palestinian refugee
camp Ain El-Helweh in
Southern Lebanon housed
70,000. Even in 2012,
when Fleifel made this
film, it was crowded.
Watch this film and
imagine double that number trying to give their kids the
kind of cheerful Woody Allen misery invoked by Fleifel to
describe the soccer and semi-automatics that dominated
his childhood – before descending into the desperation
now suffered by his contemporaries. EL
STARTS SEP 18
Gemma Bovery
D: Anne Fontaine, (France
2014) with Gemma
Arterton, Fabrice Luchini,
Jason Flemyng ◆◆◆
Fontaine returns to
France for her adaptation
of Posy Simmonds’ novel
of French-speaking Brits
abroad. At its core, it’s
a humdrum comedy
about men’s fascination
with beautiful women, but blessed with a deliciously
asinine performance from Luchini as the curtain-twitching
neighbour who insists on turning Gemma (Arterton) and
her extramarital relations into Gustave Flaubert’s fictional
philanderer Emma Bovary – and turns a small town baker
with an over-baked literary imagination into a hero. Once
again, it seems, “Gemma Bovery, c’est moi.” MW
36 • SEPTEMBER 2014
“He’s my rainforest”By MARK WILSHIN
In his debut documentary Song from the Forest
(see review, page 34), Obert, a Berlin-based
journalist turned filmmaker, follows Sarno and
his son Samedi as they journey from their home
among the Bayaka tribe to the US.
Adventurer, journalist, writer, filmmaker
– how would you describe yourself ?
Storyteller. Or traveller and storyteller maybe. I
think travelling brought me to writing, and
writing brought me to filmmaking basically. But
it’s mainly my interest in stories of human beings.
I like these stories that ask existential questions
basically, and that make me think about my own
life, my own path, my own story, my own
decisions. And that’s the way I write my stories.
Song From The Forest is your first film. You
must have faced a lot of challenges… No
electricity, obviously. No running water. Dense
vegetation. It’s always dark, incredibly humid.
But the biggest challenge was shooting in the
US, because of Louis’ deep culture shock. Very
often I had to leave the camera and just turn
from filmmaker to human being, to friend. To
support him. I think that was a lot harder than
anything we experienced in the jungle.
How does that work? How do you know
when to put the camera down? I don’t really
consciously reflect on this. If I feel if this is a
moment to help and act in a human way, then I
just act. I think my filmmaking and my journalistic
work is always happening on a very human
level. At eye-level. So the people I’m dealing
with, they usually trust me. I don’t want to
disappoint them when they need my help.
It’s a nostalgic film about lost people –
both Louis Sarno and the Bayaka. Do you
SONG FROM
THE FOREST
Sep 11
A song on the radio led American Louis Sarno to the Central African
rainforest. Twenty-five years later, MICHAEL OBERT found him there.
think a documentary film can do more
than just document? Personally, I don’t care
about genre definitions. I like to treat the
subject almost as if it was a feature film. I hate
talking head films. I hate the whole biopic thing
as well. For information, you can just go online.
It’s definitely not a film about answers. I hate
answers in movies. It’s a poetic work, and poetry
is all about space I think. So the movie opens
spaces and you can wander around the spaces as
an audience, and then you come out with your
questions. That’s the type of storytelling I’m
interested in.
It’s very observational and spontaneous
– do you have a favourite moment? What
really touches me still is whenever the 16thcentury
music comes up. The whole idea to use
William Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices as the
backbone of the whole movie, it’s an experiment,
but I think it worked out really well.
What’s the story behind that music ? That
first night after our encounter, he took me to his
hut and we were talking randomly for hours. At
one point, I was so exhausted I just lay down on
the earth floor, and maybe a couple of hours later
I woke up and I heard this music, the first piece
that we use to open the movie – the Kyrie of the
Mass, sung by the Oxford Camerata. I had the
feeling I was between a dream and reality. And
then I opened my eyes and saw Louis at his
worm-eaten table in the Rembrandt light of his
lantern listening to this music, and I got
goosebumps. I think the music Louis had heard
on the radio lured him into the rainforest, but
this music lured me into his life. It will be five
years ago this autumn, and I’m still there. He’s a
major part of my life, I’m a major part of his life.
He’s my rainforest, basically. ■
ALL MOVIES ARE IN OV WITH GERMAN SUBTITLES UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED

DIGITAL
OFFSET PRINT
STARTS SEP 4
Still Life
(Mr. May und das Flüstern der Ewigkeit) D:
Uberto Pasolini (UK, Italy 2013) with Eddie
Marsan, Joanne Froggatt ◆◆◆◆ The art
of framing a still life demands deference
to detail and atmosphere.
And although he’s actually related
to Visconti, Vermeer feels more
genetically relevant to this second
film from Uberto Pasolini (producer
of The Full Monty) as he steps
delicately, frame-by-frame, through
the life of Mr. May (Marsan), a
London council worker tasked with
tracing the relatives of people who
have died alone and, failing that,
to arrange their solitary funerals.
Pasolini’s first film Machan
followed a group of Sri Lankans
who successfully applied for exit
visas to Germany by pretending
to be the national handball team.
His eye for the humanely absurd
is clothed here in the poetry of
intimacy. As May, Marsan personifies
a dedication to honouring the
fast-disappearing lives of his case
files, picking over their modest possessions
to get a feeling for their
unsung interests and translating
these pathetic accretions into moving
obituaries. As the potential love
interest Downton Abbey’s Froggatt
adds a note of potential salvation.
But it’s the directorial effort
that’s truly redemptive. Echoing
May’s own role as a re-creator of
existence, Pasolini burnishes a life
of unpromising bits and pieces –
turning unravelled existence into a
lustrous epigraph to loneliness. EL
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STARTS SEP 11
A Most Wanted Man
D: Anton Corbijn (UK, Germany 2012)
with Philip Seymour Hoffmann ◆◆◆◆
Following his 2007 debut Control,
Dutch-born photographer turned
director Corbijn returns to form
with a version of Le Carré’s
eponymous novel, filmed in Hamburg
and Berlin in just 40 days.
The constraints imposed by this
schedule are evident, but logically
so, in the movie’s delineation of
post 9/11 counter-terrorist urgency
as a sequence of grey zones that
start with a thin, dishevelled man
climbing out of Hamburg’s port
waters and running to take shelter.
A semi-official anti-terror unit operating
under one Günther Bachmann
(Hoffmann) with the grudging
complicity of Germany’s secret
services soon identifies this most
wanted man as a Muslim Chechen
who has evidently come to Hamburg
following the money deposited
there by his deceased father, a
Russian officer. As Bachmann and
his team (staffed by Nina Hoss and
Daniel Brühl) negotiate playing-time
and the support of an idealistic
human-rights lawyer (Rachel Adams),
the greater powers (including
Robin Wright as a CIA operative)
engage in their own cat-and-mouse
games. Undermining morality with
zealous conviction, the ensemble
cast pursues agendas marked by
delusion and righteousness. And
PSH locks it all together: scruffily
benevolent, sharp yet slovenly,
his performance will make you
weep for what is – and what might
have been. EL
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37
anything

What’s on
FILM
STARTS SEP 18
The Decent One
(Der Anständige) D:
Vanessa Lapa (Israel, Germany
2014) documentary
◆◆◆ Working with
virgin material taken from
the diaries and letters of
Himmler and his family,
Lapa tells the story of
the SS-Reichsführer and
Holocaust architect “in
his own words”. Merging
original photos and texts with contemporary found footage,
Lapa deliberately (and sometimes confusingly) blurs
the essentially factual with fictional structures, creating
a portrait of a fond family man utterly unaware of his
vicious inhumanity – whose daughter describes a 1941
(pre-Final Solution) outing to Dachau as a “wonderful
trip to a large enterprise”. EL
STARTS SEP 18
Shirley: Visions of Reality
D: Gustav Deutsch (Austria
2013) with Stephanie
Cumming, Christoph Bach
◆◆◆ Found footage
filmmaker Deutsch uses
13 of Edward Hopper’s
paintings as tableaux vivants
and starting points
for an exploration of the
troubled realities behind
the artist’s serene solipsism.
Re-presenting what
appear to be private reflections as historic moments on
August 28/29 in 1937, 1939, 1940, etc., Deutsch’s
trajectory ends with the Civil Rights March in 1963. It
helps to know both of Hopper’s reactionary misogyny
and the director’s idealist counterpoint (a liberal feminist
agenda). Then, it works. EL
STARTS SEP 25
Walking on Sunshine
D: Max Giwa, Dania
Pasquini (UK 2014)
with Annabel Scholey,
Giulio Berruti, Greg Wise
◆◆ There are a couple
of reasons to watch
this film about two sisters
and their holiday romance
gone serious with the
same man: the 1980s
feel-good vibe of Katrina
et al, and the ice-cutting jaw line of Latin lover Giulio
Berruti. And maybe one or two flash mob dance scenes.
Oh, and maybe Greg Wise’s roguish smirk? You’ll stay in
your seat for the duration but comparisons afterwards to
Mamma Mia might make you wish you hadn’t. EL
STARTS SEP 25
I Origins
D: Mike Cahill (USA,
2014) with Michael
Pitt, Brit Marling, Astrid
Bergès-Frisbey ◆◆
The molecular biologist
Dr. Ian Gray, in the grip
of an obsession with
human eyes, falls in love
with Sofi’s eyes at first
sight. As their romance
advances and starts to
intermingle with Ian’s research, these eyes eventually lead
Ian to cut all ties with his previous scientific and spiritual
beliefs. This is an ambitious project in terms of its mixture
of genres, international production and alternative
ideology; yet the overall eye-pleasing aesthetics cannot
conceal a flawed script and general imbalance. YC
38 • SEPTEMBER 2014
Flicks our picks
Special screenings, festivals and retrospectives you shouldn’t miss this month
DOWN UNDER
BERLIN
Sep 11-14
AUG 27-SEP 7
Fancy fantasy
Opening with The Rover, David Michôd’s study of a
lawless Australia post-economic collapse whose
bleak consistency of vision impressed critics at
Cannes, this year’s collated mind-games, aka the
hugely popular FANTASY FILMFEST, also presents
(finally) a chance to catch Jonathan Glazer’s Under
the Skin, featuring Scarlett Johansson’s best
innocuous predatory zombie, before the movie gets
its October DVD release. Best zombie title must go
to the wickedly entertaining All Cheerleaders Must
Die (Mckee/Sivertson, 2014). Aliens are well
represented in insider-acclaimed Coherence,
Texan-noir gets an outing in We Gotta Get out of this
Place (Hawkins Bros, 2013) and mockumentary
suburban Gothic from New Zealand should find an
instant fan base in What we do in the Shadows
(Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi, 2014). With a
special premiere screening of The November Man
(Roger Donaldson, 2014), plenty of fresh blood in
the Fresh Blood Section and a special performance
of Epstein’s 1928 classic The Fall of the House of
Usher vamped up with a DJ set, genres are again
up for grabs. If you don’t see things that others do,
you’ll have only yourself to blame. Details at www.
fantasyfilmfest.com. EL FANTASY FILMFEST | Cinemaxx
Potsdamer Platz, Kino 7, Potsdamer Str. 5; Cinestar im Sony
Center, Kino 5, Potsdamer Str. 4, Mitte, S+U-Bhf Potsdamer Platz
SEP 2-OCT 17
Pasolini’s passions
PIER PAOLO PASOLINI’s diverse oeuvre, showing in
a retrospective at Arsenal, is united by his ability
and determination to re-scape tropes of radical
sexuality, heretical religiosity and social ferment
with innovative combinations of sound and image.
Beginning at the relatively old age of 40 after his
move to Rome, Pasolini’s debut film Accattone
(1961) takes the lives of petty thieves and pimps
and threads them into themes of biblical sacrifice
echoed by a soundtrack from Bach’s St. Matthew’s
Passion – a subject that he tackled directly in his
re-telling of St. Matthew’s Gospel (Il vangelo
secondo Matteo, 1964). In or out of mythology
(Edipo re in 1967 and Medea, 1969), Pasolini’s
fascination with sexuality is always present. Whether
fictively explored in Teorema (1968) or bannered
by explicit questions put to members of the public
in the documentary Comizi d’Amor (1964), the
fusion of relationships and their socio-political
setting merges tenderly with proto-Marxist
heresies. Arsenal complements its choice of films
NIGHT CRIES – A RURAL TRAGEDY
with two filmic diaries made by Pasolini during trips
to India and Palestine, as well as documentaries
made on the director: Pasolini l’enragé (Jean-André
Fieschi, 1966) and A future memoria: Pier Paolo
Pasolini (Micheli, 1985) to name but two. In
association with this retrospective, an exhibition
organised by Berliner Festspiele and dedicated to
Pasolini’s very public affair with Rome will run from
mid-September to January 2015 at Martin-Gropius-
Bau, highlighting the director’s role as a Friulian
poet, novelist, political essayist, draftsman and
painter – and a dazzling post-war European
intellectual. The exhibition delineates phases of
Pasolini’s engagement with the city both as a
panoply of social and sexual inspiration and a
palimpsest of his own engagement with the city’s
morality and politics: a love-hate relationship which
ended only with the director’s violent death near
Ostia in November 1975. EL/YC RETROSPEKTIVE
PIER PAOLO PASOLINI | Arsenal, Potsdamer Str. 2, Mitte,
S+U-Bhf Potsdamer Platz Pasolini’s Roma | Martin-Gropius Bau,
Niederkirchnerstr. 7, Mitte, S+U-Bhf Potsdamer Platz
SEP 10-OCT 12
Secondhand cinema
Last year, DOKU.ARTS reintroduced us to Harry
Dean Stanton, Mark Cousins’ Story of Children and
Film and Room 237 in the Overlook Hotel. The
meaty festival returns throughout this month to the
Deutsches Historisches Museum’s handsome
Zeughaus Kino (still, somehow, one of the city’s
hidden gems) armed with a new batch of documentaries,
each casting a curious eye over the arts.
The festival’s big-hitter is undoubtedly Martin
Scorsese’s documentary on The New York Review of
Books, A 50 Year Argument, but there are plenty
more treasures to unearth this month on the
Kupfergraben quay. Enjoy a lifetime of quips and
defiance with Gore Vidal: The United States of
Amnesia; find fury and subversion in Belarus’ free
theatre movement in the HBO-funded Dangerous
Act and bulk it all up with studies on the ever-fascinating
Susan Sontag, the post-war Hollywood
maverick Sam Fuller, the surprisingly bright
recesses of Michael Haneke and the unsurprisingly
dark recesses of Ingmar Bergman: Regarding Susan
Sontag, A Fuller Life, Michael H. Profession: Director
and Trespassing Bergman respectively. There’s
plenty of meat on them bones; be sure to dig in.
For dates and times, check www.doku-arts.de. ROC
DOKU.ARTS| Zeughaus Kino, Deutsches Historisches Museum,
Unter den Linden 2, S-Bhf Hackescher Markt
ALL MOVIES ARE IN OV WITH GERMAN SUBTITLES UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED

EXBLICKS
Sep 25
SURVEILLANCE SPECIAL
SEP 11-14
Berlin goes Down Under
Returning to Moviemento for its fourth year, DOWN
UNDER BERLIN AUSTRALIAN FILM FESTIVAL offers four
days of the best that Australian cinema has to offer.
United under the theme “Make it home”, the
programme is a varied, cross-genre selection of films
with a special focus on indigenous cinema, exploring
both the history and current issues of the world’s
oldest living civilisation; Berlinale regular Warwick
Thornton’s Rosalie’s Journey tells the story of
Aboriginal activist Rosalie (Ngarla) Kunoth-Monks
whose life took a sharp turn when she was cast to
star in Australia’s first color film, Charles Chauvel’s
Jedda. Fittingly, artist Tracy Moffatt’s Night Cries – A
Rural Tragedy deals with themes similar to Jedda albeit
set in a completely artificial milieu in which subject
matter is subverted to the point of tragedy. The
festival also features upcoming directorial talent, but
most interesting perhaps is the work from Australians
abroad such as Berlin-based Diane Busuttil’s Fresh
Fruit, a dialogue-less, experimental exploration of one
woman’s imagination, or US-based Sarah Doyle’s You
Me & Her, a short about a woman who meets with
selves from 30 parallel universes and discovers that
she is her own worst version. Finally, a new and
welcome innovation this year is the presence of
Xposed International Queer Film Festival, on board to
curate an offering of queer Australian shorts from the
past. MH AUSTRALIAN FILM FESTIVAL | Moviemento Kino,
Kottbusser Damm 22, Kreuzberg, U-Bhf Schönleinstr.
SEP 25, 20:30
Surveying the Stasi
Keeping up with our focus on the pernicious vagaries
of big-brotherdom, this month’s special-edition
EXBLICKS at Lichtblick Kino features a unique
programme of films from the Stasi vaults. In addition
to internal surveillance footage, we’ll also be showing
training films, commemorative music clips produced
by the Stasi’s own film unit as well as short documentaries
about Cold War espionage in Berlin. Presented
by Exberliner in co-operation with Interfilm and the
Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State
Security Service of the Former German Democratic
Republic (BStU), the screenings will be followed by the
customary complimentary wine and a discussion with
Hubertus Knabe (see interview, page 20): Stasi
researcher, human rights activist and director of the
memorial site at the former Stasi prison in Berlin-
Hohenschönhausen. EL/MY EXBLICKS: SURVEILLANCE
SPECIAL | Lichtblick Kino, Kastanienallee 77, Prenzlauer Berg,
U-Bhf Senefelderplatz
Undubbed at CineStar Original
HERCULES 3D
From September 4
Both man and myth, Hercules (Dwayne Johnson)
leads a band of mercenaries to help end a bloody civil
war and return the rightful king to his throne.
A tormented soul from birth, Hercules has the
strength of a God but feels the suffering of a human.
More info and tickets at cinestar.de
39

What’s on
STAGE
SEP 2-3, 5-6, 20:00, SEP 7, 15:00
Letzte Tage. Ein Vorabend.
One hundred years after
WWI began, how to make
a theatre project on the
nationalism and racism
that cast a shadow
over the last century?
Christoph Marthaler
chose the most subtle
way, letting the victims’
music be played and the
persecutors’ words be
quoted. First conceived for the historical Austro-Hungarian
Parliament of Wien, the project aims to link past and
present: music composed by Jewish persecuted musicians
is performed and terrible texts are read. An attempt
to echo contemporary forms of racism and discrimination.
NF Staatsoper im Schillertheater, Bismarckstr. 110,
Charlottenburg, U-Bhf Ernst-Reuter-Platz
SEP 3, 5-7, 20:00
Jobs in Himmel
In this whimsical and
existential piece, multimedia
performance company
“post theater” unpacks
some of the changes
that come along with
technological innovation,
reflecting on two major
visionaries: Apple cofounder
Steve Jobs and
German engineer Robert
Bosch. Featuring a projected set and some audience
participation via smartphones and tablets, this innovative
Berlin premiere is sure to provide new and entertaining
ways of incorporating technology into art. LI Theaterdiscounter,
Klosterstr. 44, Mitte, S+U-Bhf Jannowitzbrücke
SEP 11-14, 18-21, 25–28, 19:00
We Are the Play
“We are the people”
was the chant of the
protestors on the streets
of East Germany, but what
happened when the two
states became one? We
Are the Play by Sisyphos
der Flugelefant uses the
site of the Berlin Wall Memorial
as an interactive
performance playground,
where the audience can examine personal stories of
immigrants and Germans of various descent during the
fall of the Wall. Part of the ETB/IPAC project “25 Jahre
Mauerfall or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love
the Ossis/Wessis”. SC Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer,
Bernauer Str. 119, Mitte, U-Bhf Bernauer Str.
GERMAN THEATRE
Premieres:
■ ON MY WAY HOME, a piece on collateral damages
experienced by “suitcase children” – the immigrants’
second generation, Sep 2, 20:00, Ballhaus Naunynstr.
■ NEVER FOREVER, the first collaboration between
Falk Richter and Nir de Wolff’s dance company TOTAL
BRUTAL, Sep 9, 20:00, Schaubühne
■ HOUSE FOR SALE, Volksbühne’s season opens with a
René Pollesch variation on love, Sep 10, 19:30, Volksbühne
With English surtitles:
■ TALES FROM THE VIENNA WOODS, Sep 14,
19:00, Deutsches Theater
■ LITTLE FOXES, Thomas Ostermeier’s remarkable take
on Lillian Hellman’s text, with Nina Hoss in the main role,
Sep 18, 20:00, Schaubühne
FRANK KLEINBACH
MICHAEL TIBES
“How can you
get under your
own skin?” By NATHALIE FRANK
Director SEBASTIAN NÜBLING and choreographer
IVES THUWIS come together to create Fallen, the
summer’s last open-air show, dealing with the
intrinsic violence of men’s bodies.
It is not the first time that Nübling, who’s been
collecting invitations to prestigious festivals
since he was named young director of the year by
the magazine Theater heute in 2002, and Thuwis,
whose 2009 piece Noch 5 Minuten was rewarded
with the Faust theatre prize for directing, have
worked together. Last time, they made a stage
out of tonnes of sand and let 14 young people
struggle with it (Sand, Schauspielhaus Zürich,
2011). With their new project, showing with
English surtitles in front of the Gorki Theater,
sand is back, this time hosting 10 actors dealing
with violence.
Did you base this work on real cases of
violence?
SEBASTIAN NÜBLING: We are not quoting one
case in particular, but got intrigued by a few
hard-to-explain phenomena of extreme brutality
that happened in Germany in the past few
years – like that man violently beaten up in the
subway in Munich in 2008 because he asked
two young men to stop smoking. How can you
describe that, or can you explain that? Especially
if you don’t interpret it as a single case but as a
social phenomenon.
So you see this phenomenon as
something new?
IVES THUWIS: It is not necessarily about an
increasing number of violent cases, but what we
can observe is indeed a new type of violence,
without grounds: it is not about robbing or
avenging; it is violence for itself.
SN: This is what makes those cases so special: the
motive is not immediately understandable, there
is neither material motivation nor a personal relationship
between the victim and the offender,
just an emotive explosion of aggression. In our
work we don’t mean to reproduce those cases
but we reflect the phenomenon of men’s violence
with the abstract method of non-verbal dance
and theatre.
Why do you focus on men?
SN: Well, only men participate in this particular
form of violence. I don’t know of any case that
would imply a woman. That being said, we focus
on the body’s energy and image. This constant
need to upgrade your body is also something
new, it was different when I was young. Now
it seems important to have a muscular, defined
body. It is not just
an ideal of beauty,
it is also about
strength – and
what do you want
to do with this
strength?
STAGE
editor’s
pick
How
do you
work
together with
the actors?
SN: First we talked
a lot about violence – what kind of violence did
we experience, how did we react, what did that
arouse or provoke? Now we work a lot with
tasks: we invent some tasks and try to give the
actors enough space to create a situation out of
them with the help of their own ideas, thoughts
and experiences.
What kind of tasks?
SN: We worked for example on the idea of pumping
up the body – and from there we developed
a sequence of movements. It started with a
thought about this whole fitness studio culture
and muscle constructions. We tried out repetitive
processes as solos and observed what happens
when you keep a repetitive movement going,
and when the body starts to be tired. What
kind of energy is contained in the body when it
is alone or interacting with another person or
with a group of 10.
IT: We try out different constellations – how
the men interact together when you place one
person against one group, one group against
one person, two persons against each other, two
against one... or, what is much more abstract:
how can you get under your own skin?
Has anything in particular come out of it?
SN: Of course, all the time. For example, at the
moment, we observe almost self-aggressive
movement patterns. The predisposition to
endure a movement that hurts or is exhausting,
because you have to maintain it for a long
time. It´s like working out: it also creates those
situations where people are alone and literally
torturing themselves. Obviously people want it
somehow, or they wouldn’t do it.
40 • SEPTEMBER 2014

ESRA ROTTHOFF
IT: And we are interested at how people look
at that.
SN: Yes, we create this ‘looking’ situation as well.
The stage is covered with sand and people are
sitting all around, it is kind of an arena situation,
so it is a lot about watching and being watched
– everyone sees everything, you see what is happening
in the arena and you see what the others
are looking at.
What made the two of you come back to
sand as a material?
IT: We really felt like working with sand again – it
creates a frictional area that you have to fight
against, it is not easy but that is what makes it interesting.
It opens many possibilities that are not
there with the normal ground. You cannot bury
yourself or just fall or plunk on a normal ground.
SN: It is interesting as a counterproductive material,
it pulls the movement out instead of raising
and helping it as a traditional dance floor would
do. And it is perfect to
deal with violence: it is
a material that resists
by itself and provokes
aggressiveness as well.
Anyone who’s played
beach volleyball knows
what I’m talking
about! ■
FALLEN Sep 11-13,
16-17, 19-21, 24-25,
28-29, 20:30 |
open-air stage by the
Maxim Gorki Theater,
Am Festungsgraben
2, Mitte, S+U-Bhf
Friedrichstr.
The truth about Turkish men
Under what seems to be a thousand lights, they
stand in suits and watch us in silence. Rapidly
they start to talk, one after another. The youngest
joined the army and left it. The oldest hasn’t seen
his children for years and regrets it. One of them
spent his best years working in Budapest before he
came back to Kreuzberg for the sake of his family.
There is a Kurd who can’t speak Kurdish. The last
one’s story is heartbreaking: slowly, like a captivating
thriller, he recounts how his father used to beat
him up and how Elvis Presley saved him until his
own experience with crime. The men’s memories
create a mosaic of hopes, tries, small successes
and big disappointments, religious issues and
family life;
regularly interrupted
by
the cute attempt
– and
failure – to
sing together
Goethe’s
“Der
Erlkönig”.
Behind these
SUPERMÄN-
NER there
is a woman:
celebrated
actress Idil
Üner. Her
wish was to
find out, with
the help of theatre, who the Turkish men really are
beyond the stereotypes of violent fathers and lazy
machos. Obviously, she rapidly realised that there
is no ‘Turkish man’. And so she decided to bring a
few of her research subjects onstage, not to talk
about identity issues, but to answer the apparently
simple question: “What has been the most
beautiful and the worst part of your life?” Their
answers, full of honesty, humor and self-distance,
make a powerful, sober performance, spiced up
with a glamorous touch – a French pianist and red
roses. And when the younger man talks about how
his grandfather taught him the way to prepare a
dead fish and shows it at the same time, a smell
is added to
this delicate
harmony. A
charming
documentary
cabaret. NF
UTE LANGKAFEL
SUPERMÄNNER Sep
13, 20:00, 14, 19:00,
15-16, 20:00 (with
English surtitles) |
Ballhaus Naunynstr.,
Naunynstr. 27,
Kreuzberg, U-Bhf
Kottbusser Tor
schaubühne
+++With English surtitles+++
Hamlet
by William Shakespeare
Direction: Thomas Ostermeier
14.9. > 7:30 p.m.
The Little Foxes
by Lillian Hellman
Direction: Thomas Ostermeier
18.9. > 8:00 p.m.
41
Tickets: 030.890023 | www.schaubuehne.de

What’s on
STAGE
SEP 11-13, 20:00
bodieSLANGuage
What is the body’s
jargon? Performers coming
from eight different
countries, including
the choreographer duo
matanicola (Nicola
Mascia and Matan Zamir)
and the performer and
sign language interpreter
Gal Naor (the progressive
wave) try out different
body language forms between sign language, contemporary
dance and pop culture gestures. An experiment that
gives the main roles to 16 hands – they are strangers, get
in touch, become friends and drift again from one another
– in a hurly-burly of communicative movement. NF
Ballhaus Ost, Pappelallee 15, Prenzlauer Berg, U-Bhf
Eberswalder Str.
SEP 14-30, TUES-FRI 20:00, SAT-SUN 18:00
CROSSROADS
For its 10th anniversary,
theatre company
Chamäleon teams up with
Circa for a mash-up of
circus, song and dance
in an attempt to dissolve
the boundaries between
body and instrument,
between movement and
music. Singer Iza Mortag
Freund and an acrobatic
ensemble create an original live soundtrack of wooing
punk cabaret, flickering electro sounds and sizzling death
waltzes that summon life itself. It promises to be a night
of grace, delusion and fun. SC Chamäleon Theater, in
den Hackeschen Höfen, Rosenthaler Str. 40/41, Mitte,
U-Bhf Weinmeisterstr.
SEP 24-28
Männer in Garagen
The Sophiensaele takes
over a row of abandoned
garages nestled in the
outskirts of Pankow
for a multi-disciplinary
performance festival. A
group of over a dozen
artists (including – among
others – Cora Frost, copy
& waste and Markus
& Markus) will present
a series of conceptual pieces, bizarre installations
and rigorous discussions intended to examine these
oft-ignored heterosexual, male spaces for work, play and
storage – and provoke new ways of thinking about our
own “Garagenzeilen”. LI Gründergaragen, Breite Str.
42a, Pankow, SU-Bhf Pankow
COMEDY IN ENGLISH
■ MAGGIE LOUNGE, a brand-new open mic with a
twist – after the usual open spots, the headliner has to
perform while getting heckled by another comedian. Sep
10, 20:30, Maggie Lounge
■ OFF THE CUFF, tear-inducingly funny format where
comedians improvise from topics they have never seen.
Sep 12, 20:30, T Berlin
■ BAUM HAUS COMEDY OPEN AIR, Berlin’s biggest
outdoor comedy showcase in a beautifully dystopian setting.
Sep 25, 20:30, Grießmuehle
■ NIGHT SHOW BERLIN, Madcap ‘late show’ style
entertainment with guests and games hosted by Daniel
Stern, Sep 26, 20:30, T Berlin
For more listings, visit comedyinenglish.de
IZRA
KATJA RENNER
All booked up
This year’s INTERNATIONAL
LITERATURE FESTIVAL includes
15 events in English – here’s
what to watch out for.
“Haven’t you ever felt like there has to be more?
Like there’s more out there somewhere, just
beyond your grasp, if you could only get to it?”
writes two-time Carnegie Medal winner Patrick
Ness in his newest acclaimed young-adult novel
More Than This. His opening speech at 9:30am on
Sep 10 paves the way for the 6pm official opening
of the fest, at which contentious Anglo-Indian
writer Pankaj Mishra, winner of the 2014 Leipzig
Book Prize, will address criticism of his awardwinning
novel From the Ruins of Empire. Concluding
day one of the festival, Pulitzer Prize winner
Jhumpa Lahiri presents her most recent novel The
Lowland which pits the fate of an Indian couple in
the US against the reverberations of early violence
on the subcontinent. In a rich programme of readings,
poetry nights and political panels, one
particular focus is literature from writers with
African backgrounds. On Sep 13, British-Nigerian
novelist-prodigy Helen Oyeyemi presents Boy,
Snow, Bird, her modern adaptation of Snow White
in which an American family’s racial background
does some impressive mirror cracking. Sep 15
brings a reading from Caine Prize winner Yvonne
Adhiambo Owuor’s Dust, examining post-colonial
Kenyan corruption with stunning linguistic acuity.
On Sep 16, Owuor, Ishmael Beah (Sierra Leone/
USA) and Tope Folarin (Nigeria/USA) will discuss
fundamentalism in the sub-Sahara and on Sep 19,
Kenyan-raised Cornell professor Mukoma Wa
Ngugi presents his novel Nairobi Heat. Other
Three questions for…
Wolfgang Rihm
The 10th edition of MUSIKFEST, the Berliner
Festspiele’s annual orchestra extravaganza, has a
special focus on horn – a perfect opportunity for
the German premiere of star composer Wolfgang
Rihm’s new Concerto for Horn and Orchestra,
performed on Sun, Sep 14 in advance of Schumann’s
Concerto for Four Horns and Orchestra. Other
works by Rihm can be heard on Sep 6, 7, 12 and 17.
What was the starting point for the new
piece? The line, the melody. I have a penchant
for melody, in particular in concert works. I
simply don’t like the digital jabbering that by its
length and breadth is considered ‘virtuoso’.
Concerts for me are about the horizon of spun,
melodic lines. About tensions and relaxations of
a vocal tone.
What is your relationship with the horn as
an instrument? It took me a long time to find
my way to horn. Its psychology is very complex.
You need time to understand horn. What is its
highlights include Nadeem
Aslam on Sep 11, laying bare
terrorist affiliations in The Blind
Man’s Garden, a microcosmic study
of love and family in the Pakistan/Afghanistan
border zone; Oscar Wao Pulitzer winner Junot Diaz
appears twice, talking about ‘‘Trust, Mistrust,
Faithfulness, and Unfaithfulness’’ on Sep 13 and
telling “Stories of Lyrical, Brutal Love” on Sep 14;
on Sep 17, young expat US novelist Brittani
Sonnenberg discusses What is Home about
so-called “Third Culture Kids”; also on Sep 17,
larger-than-life environmental activist and novelist
John Burnside examines a cruel variant on
language acquisition in The Dumb House. On Sep
18, the peerless Amy Tan presents her latest novel;
also that day, Chinese transparency advocate and
novelist-filmmaker Xiaolu Guo narrates climate
change with Mirko Bonné from Germany and
Tony Birch from Australia; and on Sep 19,
American up-and-comer Tao Lin (US) presents
the “Kafka of Generation Facebook”.
As a special series, “Culture of Trust” invites 15
authors to write essays about “trust” in their
culture and present them in religious places, from
a mosque to a church and a Buddhist parish
house. And don’t miss the Graphic Novel Day on
Sep 14, dealing with the reflection of reality in
comics, be it social and political issues, biographies
or autobiographies, ending with a live
drawing performance by artists Stefano Ricci
(Italy) and Ileana Surducan (Romania).
To get a two-day jumpstart on the fest, head to
the Berliner Festspiele on September 8 for a
reading of Edward Snowden interview excerpts,
part of a worldwide initiative. Full programme at
www.literaturfestival.com. NF/EL
place in the orchestra?
Wood? Brass?
Breakout? Line?
Signal? And then: the
position. It can
disappear faraway
– an expression of its
huge presence. And it
can shake our bowel
– before it penetrates
our heart.
In a few concerts
your works are
presented together
with Brahms – do
you think your
music goes well
together? Yes. Very
LITERATURE
FESTIVAL
SEP 10-20
MUSIKFEST Sep 2-22|
Berliner Philharmoniker,
Herbert-von-Karajan-
Str. 1, Mitte, S+U-Bhf
Potsdamer Platz
well. The better the neighbourhood – the better
the man himself. This applies of course only for
concert programmes. Mozart would also be
right... and all the others...
Want more from Rihm? Go to www.exberliner.com for Nathalie
Frank’s full interview.
KAI BIENERT
42 • SEPTEMBER 2014

tICKEtS: (030) 30 10 6 80 88
www.trinitymusic.de
What’s on
MUSIC AND NIGHTLIFE
16.09.14 . max-schmeling-halle 13.10.14 . Postbahnhof
MUSIC
editor’s
pick
23.10.14 . tempodrom
the axis
of awesome
04.09.14 . C-Club
watsky
+ the lafontaines
20.09.14 . Bi nuu
Jennie
aBrahamson
21.09.14 . Privatclub
rhodes
21.09.14 . Grüner salon
25.10.14 . Columbiahalle
antemasque
+ le ButCherettes
06.10.14 . Bi nuu
Joanne shaw
taylor
13.10.14 . C-Club
allah-las
15.10.14 . C-Club
fka twiGs
21.10.14 . kesselhaus
Don’t call it a comeback By D. STRAUSS
When I’m not vacillating between cheap white
and slightly-less-cheap brown mushrooms at
Lidl, I’m pocketing jumbo shrimp at corporate
trade fairs; in aspic they can last into the next
season. They’re not the only shrimp with an
extended shelf life. A couple of months ago, I
crashed an Adidas Fashion Week party after staring
at skewers of asparagus through frosted glass;
the diminutive PHARRELL WILLIAMS (photo) was
the guest-of-honour and, though older than 40,
was as well maintained as any frozen seafood I
have encountered. The same can be said for his
career, which is sort of like what Elvis’ would
have been like if his comeback had been bigger
than his initial onslaught of fame. And if Elvis
had possessed the capability of writing a song.
Both appear fond of showgirls, however.
Pharrell got his start with Teddy Riley (whose
verse he penned for “Rump Shaker” – the best
one!). You know who else worked with Riley? Fellow
New Jack Swingsters K-CI & JO-JO, with the
slime of Nickelodeon 1990s nostalgia generated
by their current tour feeling like a Buzzfeed .gif
listicle. Some artists are meant to represent their
era, while others are meant to signify it. Interpretive
artists, such as Snoop Dogg or TONY
BENNETT (and, yes, they have collaborated) have
it easier. If one can manage through a period of
unfashionability, followed by a period as an out
joke, followed by a period as an in-joke, followed
by a period as a kitsch figure, followed by a
period as a self-knowing kitsch figure – one can
claw one’s back toward iconic respectability.
Though most acts languish in the Hasselhoffian
shadows of the second-to-last state.
Comebacks are an amorphous thing: partly
the positioning of public relations, partly the
judgement of history and partly the fickleness of
the crowd. Though they can cement one’s status
as a legend (U2, Snoop Dogg), and transform an
entertainer into an auteur (Tom Jones, Snoop
Dogg), once the initial comeback fades, it can
seem sadder than the initial dip in fame. The brief
late-period success of some artists, such as Prince
and Duran Duran, actually appeared to tarnish
the polish of their busts as it receded along with
the millennium (those comebacks have since
been forgotten and status has been restored). The
Rolling Stones, certain of their stature, have come
back so often without it sticking that it has become
a tongue-in-cheek part of their legend, with
consequent tour revenues as unaffected as “Doom
& Gloom” was unhummable.
But then, one shouldn’t necessarily view a paucity
of resonance as a negative. In rock, macho is
as effective a communicator as melody, no more
so than in metal. HELMET, “the thinking person’s
heavy metal band”, is touring the 20th anniversary
of their Betty album, recorded during the
dying days of when “angular” was still a compliment.
A bridge between Nirvana and Korn, I
always found them neither a bridge too far nor a
bridge far enough, but their sound does sum up
a type of dying of the grunge dream. Drummer
John Stanier is now the centrepiece of Battles,
math rock’s last great hope.
I’m from the math rock generation, but I’ve
never been very good with numbers. So, during
my youth, I turned to other genres such as industrial
music, which at the time was generally concerned
with totalitarian methods, mind control,
fundamentalism and, um, a little too often, white
power. Now we have Facebook for all of that, so
it’s no wonder that Genesis P-Orridge of PSYCHIC
TV has gone retro, embracing cock rock – the last
time I saw them, they played no less than three
Hawkwind covers. Needless to say, if nostalgia is
evidence of a sense of paradise lost, P-Orridge’s
life exemplifies it. And, sadly, paradise maintains
too much dignity to make a comeback. n
Music Editor D.Strauss may be contacted at strauss@exberliner.com
HELMET Mon, Sep 15, 20:00 | SO36, Oranienstr. 190, Kreuzberg, U-Bhf Kottbusser Tor PHARRELL WILLIAMS W/FOXES &
CRIS CAB Tue, Sep 16, 20:00 | Max-Schmeling-Halle, Am Falkplatz, Prenzlauer Berg, U-Bhf Eberswalder Str. TONY BENNETT
Thu, Sep 18, 20:00 | Admiralspalast, Friedrichstr. 101, Mitte, S+U-Bhf Friedrichstr. PSYCHIC TV Sat, Sep 20, 19:00 |
Gretchen, Obentrautstr. 19-21, Kreuzberg, U-Bhf Hallesches Tor K-CI & JO-JO Sun, Sep 28, 21:00 | C-Club, Columbiadamm
9-11, Kreuzberg, U-Bhf Platz der Luftbrücke
the fat white family
+ Charlie Boyer & the voyeurs
26.09.14 . Privatclub
azealia Banks
26.09.14 . huxleys
the liBertines
04.10.14 . arena Berlin
the Growlers
07.11.14 . Bi nuu
linkin Park
+ of miCe & men
19.11.14 . o2-world
Bryan ferry
26.11.14 . tempodrom
ELIOT SUMNER
Di. 16.09. Einlass 20:00 Grüner Salon
StarFM & Zitty präsentieren:
LIAM FINN
Do. 18.09. Einlass 19:00 Machinenhaus
FluxFM präsentiert:
JACK GARRATT
Fr. 19.09. Einlass 20:00 Machinenhaus
MELANIE DI BIASIO
Sa. 20.09. Einlass 20:00
F101 Club im Admiralspalast
TINY RUINS
Mo. 29.09. Einlass 20:00 Grüner Salon
Spex, putpat tv, Radio Eins & Mit Vergnügen präsentieren:
LYKKE LI
Mi. 05.11. Einlass 19:00 Admiralspalast
intro, faze, Radio Eins & KulturNews präsentieren:
LITTLE DRAGON
Mo. 08.12. Einlass 19:00 Admiralspalast
BRAVO, vevo & Radio Fritz präsentieren:
KATY PERRY
Prismatic World Tour
Fr. 13.03.2015 Einlass 18:00 O2World
Infos unter www.mct-agentur.com
Online Tickets unter www.tickets.de Ticket Hotline: 030 - 43 6110 1313

What’s on
MUSIC AND NIGHTLIFE
CLUB PICKS
FRI, SEP 5 - SUN, SEP 9, 23:59
Klangkost Spektakel (Tech-Tech-Techno)
By fall, the winter is finally
far enough behind us that
the line between open air
and lost weekend is all
but eradicated, even if the
rain starts collecting on
your translucent visor. The
society of this Spektakel
includes Mobilee’s
TAPESH, Defected’s
DAYNE S, Moodmusic’s
BENNY GRAUER, Klassik Kater BRITTA ARNOLD, Watergate
reg ROBIN DRIMALSKI, Klangkost’s TOM NOWA (photo)
and WONKERS, Stil Vor Talent’s HRRSN, and a dozen other
locals playing multiple gigs to pay off the rent on their
tech-houses. Kosmonaut, Wiesenweg 1-4, Friedrichshain,
S+U-Bhf Frankfurter Allee
SAT, SEP 6, 23:59
Morgan Geist (Tech-Tech-House)
Showing a flair for melody
since his late-1990s
collaboration with Darshan
Jesrani in the aptly named
Metro Area (they were
all over NYC at the time),
MORGAN GEIST unexpectedly
broke through last
year when “Look Right
Through,” recorded under
his Storm Queen guise,
sauntered to a UK #1, giving a boost to all the aging DJs of
EDM after Danny Tenaglia’s public freak-out. He’ll be joined
by Freerange’s JIMPSTER, Rinse.FM’s DEAN DRISCOLL,
H-Productions CARI LEKEBUSCH and the Stattbad regulars.
Stattbad, Gerichtstr. 65, Wedding, S+U-Bhf Wedding
SAT, SEP 13 - SUN, SEP 14, 23:59
5 Years Get Deep (Hou-Tech-House)
Get Deep gets the drill out
on its wood anniversary
with youthful, era-hopping
Stuttgart-ite Danillo
Plessow aka MOTOR
CITY DRUM ENSEMBLE
(photo), who claims hip
hop as his bread and
butter though he tends to
explore every electronic
genre except rap. He’s on
Saturday, joined by the even greater eclecticism of Mule
Musiq label leader TOSHIYA KAWASAKI, whose Endless
Flight comps transform yesterday’s influences into today’s.
Also on the bill: FRANCIS INFERNO ORCHESTRA and
Tartelet’s MAX GRAEF, while Sunday brings MCDE and
NANON NANSEN & CHARLIE SMOOTH. About Blank,
Markgrafendamm 24c, Friedrichshain, S-Bhf Ostkreuz
FRI, SEP 26, 23:30
Keep It Unreal!: Mr. Scruff (Scruff Ups)
Exemplifying the edge
between international
downtempo and arty
hip hop that Mo’ Wax
and Ninja Tune defined
in the late 1990s, the
latter’s longtime keystone
MR. SCRUFF made the
big time on a Moondog
sample and a knack for
the coldcut, though the
creator of “Jazz Potato” probably prefers Del Monte to
Oscar Mayer. For the second time in our highlights, MAX
GRAEF makes up the bottom of the bill, along with the
Gretchen/Oye regulars: the hip-hop happy DELFONIC and
BOX AUS HOLZ SOUNDSYSTEM. Gretchen, Obentrautstr.19-21,
Kreuzberg, U-Bhf Hallesches Tor
Who do you love?
By BETTI HUNTER
Now that they’re electro-grandpas celebrating a 10th
anniversary, it’s easy to forget that Hamburg’s Digitalism
– the duo of Ismail “Isi” Tüfekçi and JENS “JENCE”
MOELLE (photo, left), were once the odd duck of dance
music, merging Francophilic electropogo Justice with
German indie melancholy.
Makes sense, then, that they’ve ended up on the
fashion-y French Kitsune label for their latest
endeavour, the Lift EP. Spending the last couple
of years generating new material has led to
recent collaborations with The M Machine and
Steve Duda and Youngblood Hawke, with whom
they’ve taken a marked detour from their signature
grit-heavy electro through the anthemic,
synth-tinged track “Wolves”. That’s not to say
they’ve abandoned their homeland and homesound
entirely. Jence and Isi have pencilled in a
one-off DJ-set at Berlin Music Week’s cornerstone,
the Berlin Festival (September 5-7), now at
Arena Park and surrounding sprawl.
You’re famous for recording in an abandoned
WWII bunker. Why? Err, money.
They’re only good for rehearsals or storage, so
it’s very cheap and we didn’t have any money. But
then it turned out that it was perfect for what
we want to do – we can go in there and be loud
until six in the morning on a weekday, it doesn’t
matter. No one cares: the walls are six feet thick.
We had the first bunker in Hamburg, and then
we moved to a different one after a couple of
years. Of course, we needed to treat it a little
bit, because it’s concrete, so if you leave it raw it
sounds terrible. It’s also, I think, a big influence
on our music, because it’s very isolated. There’s
no sense of time or space, there are no windows,
so you have to come up with something; otherwise
it’s empty!
You can spend days at a time down there
without feeling the pressure of sunlight.
That’s how it was when we started but now it’s
a little bit more 9-5, or sometimes 5-9. We go
in and get a lot of looping material that we can
work with, which we then roll out and see which
pieces we can post together and want to listen to
for four minutes. The music always comes first
for us because we’re not classic songwriters, and
then we sometimes try to write on top, which is
a very long process. If you do both things at the
same time it’s usually faster but that’s just how
we work. On the last album, we started working
with Oblique Strategies, that setup with a deck
of cards that Brian Eno came up with [with Peter
Schmidt]. You draw one and have
to stick to certain rules with whatever
you choose. If it doesn’t fit, just
discard it.
DIGITALISM DJ SET
Berlin Festival, Fri,
Sep 5 - Sun, Sep
7 | Arena Park,
Eichenstr. 4, Treptow,
S-Bhf Treptower Park
Stuck in the bunker, you must be
completely isolated from what’s
happening around you in Hamburg.
We’ve got a lot of great people
coming from Hamburg. One of them
is my neighbor; he’s part of the Adana
Twins. They’re playing around the world
now. Tensnake, from Hamburg, he’s on
Radio 1 all the time. Solomon has gone
massive – I mean, I used to sell him
records at the shop! It used to be big
for house music at the end of the 1990s,
but then house music was dead, no one
knew what to play; there was a bit of a
void and that’s how we took over. I’m
not sure how much we influenced the
development but maybe we ignited a
spark in people to think, “Oh, it is possible,
let’s go and do it.” However I don’t
know exactly how that translates to the
club scene because I’m usually not in
Hamburg! I’m always on tour.
Hamburg is known for hip-hop and grad
school indie, not really for its EDM. When
you’re from Hamburg, you like being independent.
That’s one of the mottos of the city, actually.
Because we are from Hamburg we are not and we
were never part of any scene or clique. We were
quite isolated and we liked that. It’s always annoyed
me when people start putting you into certain
categories and tags. It’s always a bit draining
but you get used to it. And it’s OK in some cases.
I mean, if they put you in the same category as
Daft Punk or The Chemical Brothers, then it’s a
compliment. But the tags have changed over the
years and it’s always funny because our music has
more-or-less stayed the same.
How do a couple of independent Hamburgers
stick together for a decade? I think
we’ve stayed on the same wavelength. Maybe
in-between there were times when both of us
went into whatever direction we were going
towards and it went a bit more extreme. Isi is
more positive but I’m the darker guy. If I watch
a movie, I prefer the baddies, so it went more
in that direction. But it’s never really too far off
anything we’ve done for the last 10 years, really.
We’re with each other almost every day, so there
hasn’t been any time to part and come back with
different things to bring to the table.
Also, I don’t think our tastes completely
changed over the years. It’s
sometimes hard for us to keep up to
date with the latest developments in
music, but we always get around and
incorporate everything into the core
that forms our sound.
44 • SEPTEMBER 2014

PHOTO CREDIT
Which changed with “Wolves.” It’s gotten
an amazing reception thus far. Yeah, it’s
crazy because we came up with this instrumental
track and people started asking about it. I think
that the core of the Digitalism musical universe
would be kind of romantic, melancholic music,
usually riff-heavy, but because we don’t really
play guitars we have to program it – soundtrack-y
music that makes you move. But “Wolves” is a
bit of a departure for us. It’s a bit gloomy, a bit
nighttime but it’s also quite energetic and it just
clicked into place. I came to the conclusion that
if you take our last album, which was very songbased,
a bit further and add some more electronics,
you kind of end up at “Wolves.” It just totally
makes sense.
To Berliners, as well? Well, it will be great to
be back in Berlin. We’ve had a bit of time off, so
that’s given us time to come up with new stuff,
and people know already that there’s always
a good chance of us drop-testing new tunes.
I’m also curious to see how it goes because the
Festival has moved [from Flughafen Tempelhof],
right? So, I don’t know if that’s great, yet. I think
the line up is pretty good. Though I’m just a bit
gutted because I really like Jimmy Edgar and I
think he’s playing the same time. We’re basically
starting up all the engines again to do this and
then go on a US tour.
At long last, the US is finally profitable for
electronic music. Some people have mixed
views about the American electronic scene because
maybe it’s a bit more mainstream. But the
fact is that the big acts like David Guetta have
opened the doors over there for acts like us. It’s
interesting, because we used to have a fan base in
the US and now there are all these new people,
and they’ve never heard of us, so it’s kind of like
starting from the beginning again. Because we’ve
been around for awhile, but people there are asking
us, “What, you’ve got albums out? When did
you start making EDM?” It’s a tricky one, but it’s
getting there now. ■
Digitalism in
five dates
2000: Jens “Jence”
Moelle and Ismail “Isi”
Tüfekçi meet whilst
working at the
Underground Solution
record store in
Hamburg. They begin
DJing together.
2003-4: Start working in an old WWII bunker.
Remix songs by The Futureheads, Klaxons
and The White Stripes for their DJ sets.
Release their first original track “Idealistic”,
which leads to them signing with Kitsune.
2007: Digitalism release their debut album,
Idealism (Virgin) in May.
2011: Release I Love You Dude (PIAS/
Cooperative), the follow-up to their debut.
Collaborate on original material for the first
time with The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas.
2014: The duo returns to Kitsune to produce
the Lift EP.
45

What’s on
MUSIC AND NIGHTLIFE
CONCERT PICKS
TUE, SEP 9, 20:00
Doc Chad (Konstruktivist Kountry Klowning)
Countrified avant-garde
diddler Eugene Chadbourne
has displayed his
paranoiac’s virtuosity in a
variety of contexts – from
pure improv to twisted
rockabilly to political
comedy – for almost four
decades. His latest persona
is that of DOC CHAD,
in tandem with the drummer
Schroeder: rumors are there’s a lot of banjo as well as
a double electric rake demonstration. Opener Joerg Hiller
aka KONRAD SPENGLER is more of a conceptual-art type,
heavy on the electronic processing. But the same can
be said of Elvis’ vocals on his Sun sessions. Ausland,
Lychner Str. 60, Prenzlauer Berg, U-Bhf Eberswalder Str.
MON, SEP 15, 20:00
Roger McGuinn (Byrd Balladeer)
The Byrds were one of the
odder configurations of
the 1960s, long-lasting
yet only briefly hitmakers,
with an ever-shifting
line-up centred around
the chiming ROGER
MCGUINN, who, despite
leading an ensemble that
innovated in a few different
genres, wrote sparingly.
Perhaps it’s McGuinn’s folk roots that allowed him
to lead by absorbing the cultural fabric that surrounded
him and it’s in the guise of folk singer that he shows up at
Passionskirche. Where have all the flowers gone? They’re
here. Passionskirche, Marheinekeplatz 1-3, Kreuzberg,
U-Bhf Gneisenaustr.
FRI, SEP 26, 20:00
Azealia Banks (Diva Rap)
It’s been almost two
years since Rihanna went
seapunk and AZEALIA
BANKS transformed into
what Spin Magazine
called “a dolphin-lover’s
wet dream”. Yes, the
bisexual art-school girls
have taken over the
former Thug Life McMansion
and although Banks
was cynically marketed as an underground sensation, the
groundswell for her acid-stabby “212” was real enough.
That said, it’s been a couple of years – an eternity this
millennium – since her breakthrough and one wonders if
she’s already soured on the game a la Angel Haze. If so,
there’s always vaporwave. Huxleys Neue Welt, Hasenheide
107-113, Neukölln, U-Bhf Hermannplatz
SUN, SEP 28, 21:00
Oval/Frank Bretschneider (Glitch ’n’ Pitch)
The original ghost in
the machine, Markus
Popp, aka OVAL (photo),
managed a brief period
of indie headiness in the
post-rock 1990s, despite
the insularity of his music,
usually generated from his
own software and sometimes
from the scratches
of CDs. After years of low
profile, we’ve been privileged with a surprisingly melodic
hard drive dump, as of late. Raster-Norton/Mille Plateaux
mainstay FRANK BRETSCHNEIDER is well paired with Popp.
Bring your soldering iron and join in on the fun. Roter
Salon, Linienstr. 227, Mitte, U-Bhf Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz
A few questions for…
The Space Lady By D. STRAUSS
Those who encountered THE SPACE LADY on the streets of San
Francisco in the 1980s and 1990s rarely forgot her. With her
accordion and Casio, Moondog-esque winged helmet and lo-fi light-up
suit, she’d sing echo-heavy covers of “Major Tom” and futurist-themed
originals written by her first husband, Joel “The Cosmic Man” Dunsany.
Years after relocating to Colorado, TSL
(real name: Susan Dietrich Schneider)
was rediscovered as an antecedent to
Ariel Pink and Julia Holter. The Space
Lady’s Greatest Hits (Night School) has
led to her first ever European tour;
she’ll be all shook up at Marie-Antoinette
on Mon, Sep 29.
To what extent was The Space
Lady pure theatre and to what extent was
she ideology? Gosh, that’s a tough question. I
believe that everything I did was The Space Lady,
pretty much. Joel and I had a close encounter, not
with alien beings in the physical form, but we
certainly felt a strong connection after we were
scanned by that UFO on Mount Shasta, and
probably before that as well, just from our
psychedelic experiences. So, I really felt like all
the things we came up with as The Space Lady
were somehow channelled or inspired from some
cosmic guardian that was protecting us.
Did you feel like the San Francisco street
scene was a creative community? Joel and I
pretty much isolated ourselves. We were still
afraid that that there would be some repercussions
for him, having resisted the draft back in
the day. And not having children registered –
they didn’t have birth certificates or go to school.
Maybe that lifestyle lent itself to my being what
people called so original [laughs].
You were less extroverted than your Space
Lady identity. I was pathologically shy! [laughs]
Joel and I were paralysed by fear. Back in Boston,
we put together a band and called ourselves Blind
Juggler, which pretty much describes what we
were doing – feeling our way in the dark. And the
THE SPACE
LADY W/SLOW
STEVE Mon, Sep
29, 21:00 |
Marie-Antoinette,
Holzmarktstr. 15-
18, Mitte, S+U-Bhf
Jannowitzbrücke
one time we really performed, Joel
played with his back to the audience.
He was afraid of being seen.
Didn’t Jimmy Carter give amnesty
to the draft-dodgers in the late
1970s? Um, that’s the nature of
paranoia. No matter what had
happened in that political world, it
wouldn’t have assuaged Joel’s fear. You
know, the CIA: “They don’t care, they’ll bust me
anyway, they don’t like what I’m doing as an
artist.” But I wasn’t afraid of being seen in public
as much as he was, so I was able to go out and
scrounge for a livelihood, selling artworks,
pan-handling, finally playing music… I really
loved being The Space Lady. Yet, it was wrenching
me apart from my family. Once, I was walking
down the subway stairs with all my gear, and a
businessman looked at me and said, “How long
have you been doing this anyway?” I took it that
he meant, “You’ve been whipping this dead horse
for way too long, girl.” And, in fact, I became
discouraged and thought, “Boy, I wasted a lot of
time, to be such a crackpot.” I couldn’t find a
balance, so I finally hung it up and left.
With other musicians, like Sun Ra, space is
a metaphor for alienation. You said a
mouthful. I never felt like I fit in anywhere, but I
created my own niche and that was very
comfortable. People could approach me and talk
one-on-one. What really scared me was, “Oh my
gosh, I have to talk between songs.” You know, I
could play songs for six hours straight, but even
on the street, I didn’t really say anything. I guess
I was probably afraid that people would see that
I was really just a human being, and a very
ordinary American girl-next-door. ■
TERRI LOEWENTHAL
46 • SEPTEMBER 2014

www.exberliner.com
U1 cover 121.indd 2
Issue 121 • €2.90 • November 2013
François ozon: “It was so boring to film sex, real sex.” (p.30)
Felix kubin: “I really like to be dominated; by guys like you,
for example.” (p.40)
shermin langhoFF: “You hear such a variety of languages in the
audience. They go even though they don’t understand.” (p.34)
From Grozny to
Berlin – why do so
many make the
hopeless journey?
what can the
lampedusa refugees
expect now?
An inside look
into an emergency
refugee shelter
monika
herrmann:
legal cannabis in
kreuzberg?
10/23/13 7:08 PM
Ich will nicht nach Berlin
ACUD reloaded By MIKE FLECK
Upon entering the courtyard of ACUD, with
its bright blue façade and multicoloured
picnic tables, it’s almost impossible to imagine
that this was once a near-derelict (if
populous) ramshackle, a place of decadence,
substance inhalation and all-night parties.
The current state of Veteranenstraße,
where the multi-purpose building still
resides, doesn’t help. It’s the picture-perfect
cliché of gentrified Berlin; well-groomed
parents push newborns around in expensive
strollers whilst tourists lounge in the sun
outside fancy bars sipping on the ubiquitous
Aperol Spritz.
It wasn’t always like this. For a few years,
Veteranenstraße was at the heart of the
Prenzlauer Berg party scene (and yes, there
was one). Around the turn of the millennium,
bars such as Bergstub’l and the
still-operative FC Magnet hosted sidewalk
crowds that would spill down the hill to
Brunnenstraße. Much to the profit of the
dealers that worked ACUD’s basement club,
which often hosted a weirdly synchronous
mix of Africans and goths.
Poet/performer/booker Corbett Santana
was part of the regular lineup in the
early days of the club. “It was a complete
shithole. It was trashed and the toilet was so
disgusting that I had to flush it with my foot
because I didn’t want to touch it. But we
didn’t care – the air was laced with hashish.
It was groovy and fun!”
Back then, ACUD was run mostly by
a post-Wall art collective, and its rocky
relationship with the drug world helped
contribute to the building’s original foreclosure
warning. “That connection was mostly
made by the guy who was running the club,”
explains new co-owner Julie Gayard. “The
people of ACUD rented the two floors to
this guy who was running these drum ’n’
bass/reggae parties. And he actually ran off
with lots of debts and it was those parties
that kind of pissed off the neighbours.”
In 2001, the collective managed to
purchased the complex, but following a
series of extensive renovations they filed
for bankruptcy nine years later. “They
were just about to be put on forced auction.
That’s when we heard about it and
thought something should be done,” says
Gayard. Since early this year the complex
has been co-managed by two groups: the
original art collective, which now runs the
cinema, theatre space and café, and what
the French/German Gayard and her business
partner Johannes Braun call “ACUD
Macht Neu” (literally, ACUD Makes New)
consisting of the gallery, club/bar and studio
spaces. Aren’t they worried about stepping
on the toes of the old collective? Not at all,
according to Gayard. “Eventually we want
to have a common website with the old
ACUD people and merge.”
The maze-like geography of ACUD’s
architecture lets the duo run multiple
events at the same time. They’ve organised
events ranging from highbrow conferences
discussing the works of Walter Benjamin
and Deleuze & Guattari to the electronic
jazz outfit Spleen, as well as hosting the
Torstraßen Festival’s closing party. “The
interesting thing about this house is that
you don’t have to conform to the old
stereotypes anymore,” adds Braun. ‘‘You
feel free in this house. It’s not 100 percent
renovated. We don’t want to keep it perfect;
we want it to be a transformative space.”
Celebrate ACUD's official re-opening on Saturday,
September 27.
CULTURE. INTERVIEWS. REPORTAGE.
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interview
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47

What’s on
ART
Ai Weiwei – Framed
He may be on lockdown
but that hasn’t stopped
dissident artist Ai Weiwei
from popping up all over
Berlin in the past several
months. In addition to
the massive exhibition
Evidence at Martin-
Gropius Bau and a piece
in this summer’s Berlin
Biennale, the Chinese
sculptor and activist is also appearing at Neugerriemschneider,
a high-end art showroom notorious for
exhibiting exclusive, well-known artists. Since Weiwei
is as creative as he is unpredictable, there’s no telling
what surprises are in store. CM Sep 17-Nov 1,
Neugerriemschneider, Linienstr. 155, Mitte, U-Bhf
Rosenthaler Platz, Tue-Sat 11-18
Bruce Nauman – Unlimited
American artist and neon
video genius Bruce Nauman’s
work has a touch
of madness and a clean
polish. For fifty years the
multimedia experimentalist
has been reinventing
himself and his voyeuristic
works that illicit both
confusion and agitation.
A longtime friend of Art
Basel, the Indiana-born artist became a household
name in the 1970s and won multiple international
art prizes. His video work will be exhibited at Haubrok
for a mere two weeks, so get in and get out while
there’s still time. CM Sep 12-27, Haubrok projects,
Herzbergstr. 40-43, Lichtenberg, U-Bhf Magdalenenstr,
open by appointment
Giuseppe Gonella – Evidence of Time
We’re pleased to announce
Gonella’s official
debut on the Berlin art
scene! His large-scale
paintings of oil and
acrylic on canvas make
use of different transparent
layers. Gonella
paints fast and furiously,
starting with poeticto-the-cliff-of-troubling
dream sequence subject matter and overlapping it
with an entirely new scenario. Always moving forward
and sometimes literally peeling back layers of paint to
reveal what’s underneath, Gonella peeks over the edge
into chaos, making the images swim before your eyes
like your own reflection in water. FM Sep 6-Oct 18,
Egbert Baqué Contemporary Art, Fasanenstr. 37, Wilmersdorf,
U-Bhf Spichernstr., Tue-Fri 14-19, Sat 12-18
Jennifer Oellerich – Liquid Landscapes
Kwadrat Gallery wraps up
its end of summer break
with a brand new space
and a colourful show by
40-year-old Berlin-based
German artist and
UDK graduate Jennifer
Oellerich. Part painter
and illustrator, part
anthropologist, she uses
a variety of media to portray
a remembrance to natural forms and landscapes.
Not afraid to incorporate photography and printing,
Oellerich’s painterly touch is never lost, as well as a
repeated reference to water, its movement, and the
correlation to human beings. CM Sep 13-Oct 11,
Kwadrat, Manteuffelstr. 92, Kreuzberg, U-Bhf Görlitzer
Bhf, Wed-Sat 13-19
“Show some
respect to
the people
who brought
you up” By FRIDEY MICKEL
A gallerist with an eye for raw
talent, ALEX DUVE hosts one of
Berlin Art Week’s most
anticipated exhibitions.
If the week is to be seen as a reflection of the
state of art in Berlin or even globally, one must
not overlook Chris Succo’s painting expo at
DUVE Berlin. Duve first appeared on the Berlin
art landscape in 2007, and his gallery quickly
gained a reputation as the number-one spot to
see emerging artists just a split second before
their meteoric rise to the top.
You started your gallery in 2007 as Duvekleeman
with Birte Kleeman. Then after five
months, she left the project to move to New
York City (where she now heads Michael
Werner Gallery). Was it clear that you would
continue? At that time Birte left, I was like, what
am I going to do? Go on myself? I realised then
that I could decide about aesthetics and concept
all by myself, do what I wanted to do. But then I
realised I had no contacts, none. Nobody had a
fucking clue who I was! When you think about it
economically, I should have stopped. Birte knew
everybody when we did the gallery together, and
when she left, I was really standing there, saying:
should I do it? But everything had just started. We
had put so much effort into the project.
Has your programme become more commercial?
Yeah, I am more commercial now,
doing painting shows more than performance
things, but I have to survive. When we started,
we had lots of conceptual, risky shows, Like Jen
Denike doing nude, dancing performances in
the gallery. Over time, I realised “Fuck, I need to
make money.” I didn’t want to close the gallery.
If I could, I would also do other shows. Cool
shows, amazing shows, every second show like a
freak-out crazy mega non-commercial show… but
I can’t sell them. There are galleries like Chert
that are so hardcore conceptual, but you wonder:
how do they pay their bills?
What’s your collecting aesthetic? My
parents collected abstract art for like 40 years.
I like abstract painting. I know that it’s commercially
good to sell at the moment, but I also
like it. More than other things. So I am selling
what I like and I can only sell what I like. My
programme was always very Americanised, I was
always looking for interesting American artists.
I just continued with what I always did, and that
suddenly got really in. I showed Sebastian Black,
Paul Cowen, Ed Fornieles, and Markus Amm
(okay, he’s German, but he also has an American
market) – all these guys who are now exploding.
And what’s it like to work with artists and
build a gallery programme these days?
Working with an artist is like being in a relationship
– you marry somebody because you want
to be with a person for the rest of your life, but
these days it mostly doesn’t work out. It’s the
same with the new art market. Galleries used to
start working with an artist at a young age and
would continue with them for all their lives. Now,
artists emerge and jump around from one gallery
to another, which I don’t necessarily understand.
Exactly the artists who you put so much effort
into and build up – the ones who really could
pay your bills – suddenly leave the gallery. It’s
disappointing. Show some dignity and respect to
the people who brought you up. All the effort the
young gallery puts into the artist’s work, being
loyal to its artists, in a way making their career
possible. Pushing the Bruce High Quality Foundation
was lots of work, I showed them at Artissima
– people were laughing at me, “what kind of
bullshit is this?”. Then, just when they blew up,
they left the gallery to work with Vito Schnabel.
How did you start working with the Bruce
High Quality Foundation? I discovered them
with Birte Kleemann. We saw them in early
2007, in their studio in Brooklyn, and we thought
“Perfect. These guys rock.” A big reason they
left the gallery was because it’s five guys, selling
artworks that were not really expensive. Just
imagine, selling an artwork for €10,000 is €5000
for the gallerist and €5000 for them, divided by
five, so everybody gets €1000… how do you want
to live from that? Now the funny thing is that
they are big. They no longer show with young,
48 • SEPTEMBER 2014

cool galleries. They show with Bruno
Bischofberger, at Ammann Gallery – the
massive, very big Swiss galleries, with
really cool things at Art Basel. The collectors
come back to me and say, “Ugh,
why didn’t I listen to you?”, but then I
say, there are still some new chances, you
can buy Chris Succo...
ART
editor’s
pick
CHRIS SUCCO Sep
12-Oct 31 | DUVE
Berlin, Gitschiner Str.
94, Kreuzberg, U-Bhf
Hallesches Tor, Tue-Fri 11-
18, Sat 12-16
Succo is becoming quite big right
now. Where’d you find him? I found
him at his MFA Diploma Show at Kunstakademie
Düsseldorf. I was like “Hey
man, you wanna have a solo show?”
“YES!” I just liked his work, and then
I showed him at every art fair – that
I did – I really worked my ass off for
him. When he was at the Royal College
in London, we would meet up and go
together to Frieze. People started to
know us together, which was also good.
There are galleries coming who are
really interested in Chris, like now it’s
the question: will Chris be so clever and
start working with them, but also stay
with his young gallery?
What would you do if he left? If
Chris left, then I would really have to
second-guess... I don’t think I would
close the gallery, but I would have to
build up somebody again, and again and
again... With all the stress, you get a
heart attack. But it’s a passion, and I like
it too much. ■
Street art on an (Urban) Spree
For the past 30 years, the art world has had a playful fascination with
street art: Basquiat, Banksy, Fab 5 Freddy. Shepard Fairey’s command for
us all to “OBEY“ has left us in a trance. These days, the milieu has
reached such a hype that it ensures a sort of ‘backdoor pass’ to many
self-educated artists who got their cred painting public walls, both urban
and rural. While huge galleries worldwide vie for exhibitions aiming to
somehow recreate the magic one finds in the street, the social and
political commentary and dialogues that underlie the work in its true
element are lost. While this genre has thrived on our cultural radar for
three decades now, it’s largely gone without any art historical analysis.
This and the lack of context leaves many art lovers high on the hype
without any true understanding of what is going on, preferring to call the
artwork in the gallery ‘art’ and on the street
‘vandalism’. This month Urban Spree presents
an exposé on the state of urban art through the
eyes of the international street crew DUBL
TRUBL, who have invited more than 80 of their
friends to Berlin to create and collaborate on
works to be presented in Urban Spree’s rough
Revaler Straße space. The artists are paired off
in twos, the collaborations
both displaying the presence
of the social aspect in street
art, while examining each
artist’s personal style in
tandem. Miss Van and Ciro,
Ghost Patrol and Merde,
Lush and Dscreet, Tizer and
Ebot will all be there. Come
check it out. FM
DUBL TRUBL
Sep 18-Oct 26 |
Urban Spree, Revaler
Str. 99, Friedrichshain,
S+U-Bhf Warschauer
Str., Tue-Sat 12-19
Wed-Mon 10am-7pm, closed Tue
49
Pabst © Walker Blue Evans Ribbon Archive, The Sign, Metropolitan Chicago, Museum Illinois, of Art 1946, Gestaltung: Collection Ta-Trung, of Clark Berlin and Joan Worswick

What’s on
ART
Katharina Grosse
German abstract painter,
art professor and newly
published author Katharina
Grosse has been developing
her monumental
space-scapes in Berlin for
over a decade. Meanwhile,
Grosse has gained global
recognition and a slew of
international exhibitions
with swooping object
and painting installations that tower over visitors like giant
kaleidoscopes. Her paintings use colour relationships to
maximize the perceived size of a space, making it feel bigger
than it is. Rich and forceful brush strokes convey movement,
characterising her specialised installation style. CM
Sep 20-Nov 7, N.B.K. Showroom, Chausseestr. 128/129,
Mitte, U-Bhf Oranienburger Tor, Tue-Fri 12-18, Thu 12-20
Markus Keibel – Brute Force
Brute force is a hacker’s
term for a method of
illegal, fast access
to secured computer
systems to overcome
virtual walls. Markus
Keibel reappropriates
this meaning, drawing a
storyline between his new
cycle of works, in order to
examine and implement
both unthought and individual thoughts into society.
The show’s leitmotif works quite interestingly, as it truly
brings the already-living circular drawing to life. Working
with undertones dealing with the element of fire and the
diversity of creative destruction, the show moves from
two-dimensionality into a full-on space installation. FM
Through Oct 4, AJL Gallery, Potsdamer Str. 98A, 2. Courtyard,
Schöneberg, U-Bhf Kurfürstenstr., Tue-Sat 14-18
Rui Calçada Bastos – Passagem de Nível
Lisbon-based curator
Joao Silvério leads
Bastos’ epic photography
on a journey of chance
encounters. The images
bear a slightly blurred
indiscipline of gaze, which
betray a personal feeling
in each captured motive,
making them more than
just documentation. His
multiplicity of approaches questions the images as proof
of different occurrences in a yet-to-be-named reality. Interceding
through the space are minimalised sculptures and
“marks” that play three-dimensionally with poetic memory
and the reality that continues beyond the photographic
edge. FM Sep 4-Oct 18, Invaliden1 Galerie, Schönleinstr.
25, Kreuzberg, U-Bhf Schönleinstr., Tue-Sat 11-18
Petrus Wandrey: Digitalism Art
This exhibition takes the
visitor to the birth of new
frontiers of contemporary
art through the works of
digital art pioneer Petrus
Wandrey. Wandrey, who
died in 2005, worked with
a fascination of science
and technology to create
the Digitalist Movement,
which started in 1978 in
New York City. He played a lot with pixels at a time where
most people had no idea that they existed, exploring
media from two-dimensional imagery on monitors all the
way to large-scale sculptures made from computer junk or
individually manufactured hardware. FM Through Sep
28, Zitadelle Spandau, Am Juliusturm 64, Spandau, U-Bhf
Zitadelle, Mon-Sun-10-17
Has the
autumn of art
lost its heart?
It happened quickly and quietly
in summer, arousing minimal
attention. Shortly before initiating
a new auction-style format,
Berlin’s self-proclaimed
“emerging” art fair Preview
Berlin was submerged – permanently
– behind the backs
of two of its three organisers in
only a handful of weeks. It’s the third
founder, Kristian Jarmuschek, whose
facile shuffling of ideas into new
hands has birthed a brand new art
BERLIN ART
WEEK
SEP 16-21
fair, POSITIONS. The new fair promises, as Preview
used to, a new kind of art fair that sheds the predictable
white cubes, adapting itself to Kaufhaus
Jandorf, a decrepit Berlin-style department store
building – or, as the awkwardly translated English
on the slapped-together homepage boasts, a
“renovated former house of fashion”. It seems the
only difference now between Berlin Art Week and
Berlin Fashion Week is the absence of some deep
pockets called Mercedes & Benz. Airport, factory,
or department store, the story is all too familiar,
and not the first or even second time Berlin’s
fairs have played musical chairs during the city’s
touristy art season.
The art fair biz started in Cologne, of all places,
with the beginnings of Art Cologne in 1967. The
world’s first fair of its kind, it prompted a global
audience to descend on Cologne to buy art. After
the German city started attracting buyers formerly
flocking to Paris or New York, artists like Joseph
Beuys and Wolf Vostell channelled the idea of a
contemporary marketplace towards Berlin in the
1990s – thus the four-week Kunstherbst (autumn
of art) was born. Themes like “Art for Everyone”
(2007), “In Union with Art” (2005) and “Art and
the Market” (2004) employed by FU Professor
Klaus Siebenhaar, incorporated the artists’ direct
involvement. Since 1996 there was one fair at the
forefront around which the others were scheduled,
Art on the cheap
If you’re just as repulsed as we are by the printed
canvases sold in Ikea’s “art” section, you’ll be
thrilled to hear that a Berlin startup project is
launching SCHAU
FENSTER an affordable
art shop
with unique silkscreen
prints, editions,
catalogues
and other objects.
Many pieces are
priced at €100
or under,
and are
produced
by the local
art crowd,
including
44
Flavours,
SCHAU FENSTER
RAUM FÜR KUNST
Lobeckstr. 30-35,
Kreuzberg, U-Bhf
Moritzplatz
JOHANNA SCHMITZ
and up until 2011 its name was Art Forum, reigning
on Berlin for 15 years.
That is, until organisational efforts with rival ART
BERLIN CONTEMPORARY, a four-year-old independent
fair with roots in spring’s Gallery Weekend, fell
through and Art Forum was scuttled. Just one year
later, Berlin Art Week was born, drowning with it the
memory of Art Forum and its sister fair Kunstsalon,
organised by Edmund Piper, which succumbed
to substantial budget cuts in 2012. The entire
concept of a Kunstherbst was gone, and with it its
intentions. Berlin Art Week uttered little mention of
its founding fathers, and ABC ascended into head
position, where it resides today. But now the closest
resemblance to an actual marketplace is BERLINER
LISTE. It has the highest concentration of self-represented
artists and art universities, and is produced
separately from ABC and Positions. The problem
is, as soon as the artists themselves ceased to be
part of the production process, Kunstherbst lost its
edge. CAMILLE MORENO
POSITIONS BERLIN Sep 18-21 | Kaufhaus Jandorf,
Brunnenstr. 19-21, Mitte, U-Bhf Rosenthaler Platz
ART BERLIN CONTEMPORARY Sep 18-21 | Station Berlin,
Luckenwalder Str. 4-6, Mitte, U-Bhf Gleisdreieck
BERLINER LISTE Sep 18-21 | Postbahnhof, Straße der
Pariser Kommune 8, Friedrichshain, S-Bhf Ostbahnhof
Emess, Klub7, Stohead and Various&Gould. The
creators of the shop have been organising the
city’s Party Arty since 2003, which has always
incorporated art with music, urban culture and
performance. As part of the opening, 44Flavours,
Klub7 and Stohead
will each offer an
exclusive print only
available from the
shop. In a time
when Berlin flounders
to support the
arts, the accessibility
factor of cheap
art for sale is undeniable.
Celebrate
the launch at the
second edition of
the urban art fair
Conturbanaries,
happening September
18-21. CM
50 • SEPTEMBER 2014

The language school directory
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47

BERLIN BITES By FRANÇOISE POILANE
ERICA LÖFMAN
Masel Topf: Un-kosher delights
Since Masel Topf is conveniently located across
the street from the Rykestraße synagogue, passersby
and tourists are expected to get the pun.
It might not amuse believers exiting the temple,
though. Not that they’ll eat here anyway – the
only kosher thing on the menu is the excellent
Tishbi 2011 Merlot from Israel. And there’s even
pork shashlik, titled “The allure of the forbidden”.
Playful touches include a taxi door imprinted
with a faux stamp of kosher certification
hanging over the bar, created by an artist friend
of the restaurateurs.
In other words, don’t expect textbook Jewishness
at Masel Topf. Obviously there is no single
Jewish cuisine, and the owners decided to serve
dishes inspired by three places Jews live: Israel,
New York and Eastern Europe. In short: falafel,
burger, borscht. The latter has the strongest
presence – unsurprising, as the owners have
chalked up one success after another with a number
of Russian restaurants across town – with
many dishes “inspired by” Russian grandmas’
recipes. One of the owner’s sisters oversees the
all-Russian kitchen staff, throwing her own contemporary,
at times ‘fusiony’, touch in the mix.
All the usual suspects of Russian cuisine make an
appearance: soljanka soup (the poultry version),
borscht (white bean vegetarian), blinis (veg or
not), vareniki dumplings (filled with potato,
cheese or mushrooms and pan fried), etc... but
don’t be surprised if some lime yoghurt or mango
sauce shows up with your food.
The “Tel Aviv” vegetarian starter plate (€9)
feels like something you’d get in a Californian
café, arranged on a white platter: falafel filled
with feta, hummus, fried eggplant, slices of
oven-roasted Hokkaido pumpkin, avocado, and
a veggie aubergine dip. The Berlin appetiser
combo (€17) will feed two hungry souls (or 4-6 if
ordered as a starter) with most of the above cold
‘tapas’ and many more, including herring tartar
on baked apple (Vorschmack); trout mousse with
delicious Borondinsky bread (the famous Sovietstyle
sweet dark rye with a distinctive coriander
flavour), cured salmon on potato pancakes, a
convincing Russian take on ratatouille, breaded
goat-cheese balls... all-in-all, 14 homemade
delicacies served in charming little glass jars arranged
along a boat-shaped platter. There’s even
a sample generous of the home-cured pastrami
with (also homemade) pink berry mustard; the
flavourful, very lean meat can also be ordered in
typical NYC sandwich style on rye bread with
mustard and coleslaw. They also make their own
challah bread, damn good soft white slices.
Though we were already pleasantly stuffed
ourselves, the meal continued with two examples
of Jewish stuffing: the Pulke (€14) and the
gefilte fish (€17). The former – with the exception
of the apple-mango sauce – seems a lot like
a dusted-off granny classic from Ukraine, where
the restaurant’s manager hails from: take a
chicken leg, carefully remove the skin, strip the
meat from the bone, chop it and blend it with
chicken liver, then stuff the skin with the mix,
creating a funny boneless drumstick. Served
with three small latke potato pancakes. Delicious,
though perhaps lacking a veggie side.
As for the fish, it is ‘gefilte’ only in name. It’s
more of a vertical roulade, a hefty zander filet
rolled around a mix of cured salmon, spinach
and walnuts. The intended result is a ‘volcano’ on
your plate, although our horseradish sauce wasn’t
bubbling the way it was supposed to (apparently,
on some days, it does!). The plate is prettified
with a dollop of apple chutney, a colourful
carpaccio of red and yellow beetroot and some
caramelised sweet shallots.
A well-executed wintery dish is braised lamb
shank, so perfectly cooked for hours that the meat
slides off the bone sumptuously – served with
mashed potatoes, spicy prunes and Zimmes (slowcooked
carrots with cinnamon). All mains come in
portions that will satisfy the biggest of eaters.
This is a place for long, autumnal nights, when
you’re craving elaborate meals, slow-stewed
meats, hearty roasts, braised vegetables and
mashed potatoes. We were served by a friendly
English-speaking waitress who laid the silver
cutlery on the table with a cotton glove. The interior
reassuringly evokes elegant Czarist times:
starched serviettes, Biedermeier-style furniture
and Art Deco touches
as well as the retro wallpaper
and baroque chis-
MASEL TOPF
Rykestr. 2, Prenzlauer
Berg, U-Bhf
eled glass chandeliers.
For those in the know:
Senefelderplatz,
more Pasternak than Mon-Sun 18-1
Gorki. ■
52 • SEPTEMBER 2014

Oui, Madame:
French for
Germans
Although dance music producer Jean-Baptiste
Martin was brought up in a part of France
where kids were given plum brandy to sleep
well (Exberliner disclaims responsibility for this
advice), neither he nor his co-founder, Chileborn
former store manager Christian Fonseca
have wine backgrounds. Consequently, their
wine bar Oui, Madame, open since mid-June,
has nothing esoteric to it. Hidden on a cosy
corner behind Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, it
might feel a little remote. Yet there are already
regulars, many of them French, and the owners
seem to befriend most guests – which is potentially
what makes the service a little slow. Apart
from word-of-mouth, they attract customers
through events like Tuesday boules and pastis
by the Volksbühne (€5, including 2 pastis) and
monthly improv theatre evenings.
The wine blackboard is limited (four whites,
five reds, two rosés and a handful of sparklings,
€4.80-7/glass) but changes at least once a month.
Work your way through them with a generous
cheese plate (€9), normally containing three
cow cheeses, one goat and one sheep, decorated
with strawberries, sliced peaches, dried figs and
a pile of rocket salad and bread. Fruity, unoaked
Cabernet-Grenache blend Le Petit St. Jacques
ERICA LÖFMAN
from Languedoc (€4.80/glass, €18/bottle) is
easy to enjoy with the nutty, savoury and mature
hard cow cheese Salers (from Auvergne) or the
musty, gamey sheep milk Tomme d’Estaing from
the Pyrénée mountains. Both owners favour
Abondance, an aromatic, semi-hard mountain
cheese similar to Comté, which pairs surprisingly
well with crispy Tourain Sauvignon blanc Clos du
Porteau Le Courlis (€5.50/glass; €24/bottle).
As for the buttery, salty blue cheese Bleu
d’Auvergne (think Roquefort, only creamier),
aim for something sweet rather than the dry
reds you’re recommended. Our tip: ask for the
honey-coloured Ratafia de Bourgogne, a special
kind of aperitif with complex flavours of dried
fruits and elderflower that will knock you off
your feet. The only disappointment is the bread,
some generic whole-grain
slices that can’t match a
nice cripsy baguette. But
they also offer a great
salami plate, and the
French don’t need bread
to eat saucisson! HW
OUI, MADAME
Almstadtstr. 43,
Mitte, U-Bhf Rosa-
Luxemburg-Platz,
Mon-Sat 17-24
Vego chocolate:
Nut just for vegans
While most dark chocolate is dairy-free by default, the hunt for creamier versions
is a minefield for strict vegans. Thank Prenzlauer Berg company Vego Good Food
for their new (and massive!) Vegobar, a gianduja-like treat made from Italian chocolate
and hazelnut cream with whole hazelnuts embedded throughout. Though politically correct
(vegan, organic, gluten-free, fair trade), we’d buy it for the rich, nutty taste: think Nutella, turned into a
hard, slightly crumbly bar. Buy your 150g XL chocolate bar at your local organic store for around €3.50. HW
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53

FASHION By JESSICA SALTZ
■ FASHIONISTAS
“She’s done it again!”
BAG IN
BUSINESS
Part of Berlin’s growing constellation of young
menswear designers, SISSI GOETZE is well on her
way to a stellar career.
Goetze founded her eponymous label in Berlin in 2011
after completing her master’s degree at London’s
renowned Central St. Martin’s College, and has not
looked back. She won Berlin’s Start Your Fashion
Business award in 2012 as the “menswear label
to watch”, and many in the local fashion
business and beyond are indeed taking notice;
she is a firm fashion editor favourite and has
been picked up by stores as local as Berlin’s Voo
Store and as far away as Japan. “It was
really strange to be in Tokyo and see a
client walk in off the street in my
clothes,” Goetze says modestly.
She acknowledges the “focus on
menswear” developing in
fashion at the moment, but
explains that her interest in
men’s clothing came from the
challenge of working within
strict parameters: “With
women’s clothing everything
has to be new each season,” she
explains. “You have to think about
new silhouettes and fabrics. Men’s
wear is always consistent; part of the
challenge is doing something new
with the same standard pieces.”
Despite the limitations, Goetze is
breathing a new life into wardrobe
■ SHOP OF
THE MONTH
Prag Pop-up
The Prag PR agency
represents some of our
favourite Berlin labels
like Lala Berlin, Lika Mimika
and Michael Sontag.
Their stylish but
diminutive Mitte store
is like a fantasy walk-in
wardrobe. Friedrichstr.
40, Mitte, U-Bhf Kochstr.,
Tue-Fri 11-19, Sat 12-17
staples – her most
recent packed-out
presentation during
July’s Mercedes
Benz Berlin
Fashion Week saw
the designer’s
ability to mix
fabric, cuts
and – for the first time – a print, whilst staying
within the remit of her purist outlook. As one top
fashion editor sighed at the show: “She’s done it
again.” Her inspirations may come out of left field
(that show for example was, according to
Goetze, “a mix of American B-boy and
Mediterranean style”), but the clothes
themselves make perfect sense: fitted
blouson jackets, high waists and the stripe
down the side of pants “that makes me
think of the Italian Carabinieri,”
Goetze laughs. She has been much
credited for her signature shoulder cut
– a rounded raglan form “that is is
rounded but accented,” the designer
explains. This trademark is consistent in
her collections and makes for a relaxed,
contemporary look that lends itself to shirts
and jackets. A tiered bib front on the front of
a white shirt, or a tactile mélange cotton
fabric – her knack for mix-and-match details is
what makes her one of this city’s most
promising young talents. www.sissigoetze.com
ANDREAS MÜHE PRINT
SANDRA RATKOVIC
Whether you are heading
back to the office, school,
or just back to bed this
September, you should
at least look like you
mean business. Suits are
generally regarded with
suspicion in Berlin, but a
job-appropriate accessory
is always a good thing
whether employment is
something you’re into or
not. A leather work bag,
such as this one by Deepmello,
will lend its carrier,
male or female, an immediate
sense of gravitas.
Briefcase-y in form, it just
looks like it is full of important
documents, even
if it actually just contains
a half-eaten kebab and a
dog toy. I’ve ranted about
canvas bags in this column
before, but flimsy cotton
never did a business
leader make, let’s face it.
The satchel’s time in the
fashion spotlight – and all
the awkward schoolgirl
connotations it brought
with it – is thankfully behind
us and rucksacks are
the preserve of DJs and
backpackers. So for God’s
sake get yourself a leather
holdall for autumn and
let your bag do the work
for you.
54 • SEPTEMBER 2014

SPOTLIGHT
ARTICLE TAG
Tepees on the Spree By Dominic Mealy. Photo by Veronica Jonsson.
Sandwiched between the overgrown shoreline of
the Spree River and the graffitied husk of the old
ice factory by Jannowitzbrücke is the shambolic
strip of improvised huts and tarpaulin tents
known as Teepee Land. First conceived in 2012
as a proto-native Indian utopia by the Odinworshipping
neo-pagan Flieger Fischer (photo),
the camp has since turned into a more prosaic
squatter settlement – a “public land development”,
as longterm resident Olly calls it. Says
the ponytailed Englishman, “We’re looking to
improve the land, not just use it.”
Approaching from the Schillingbrücke, you
hear a mix of German, English and southern and
eastern European languages coming from an array
of figures: some sweeping, one rolling a shopping
trolley of Pfand bottles, others relaxing with
a beer. There are 13 permanent residents and a
constantly changing cast of up to 30 guests, from
young idealists to grizzled veteran squatters,
from the destitute to the homeless-by-choice.
“I wanted to experience communal living,” says
Sara, a New Zealand anthropology graduate. “It’s
a great experiment.” Meals are communal and a
by-donation café covers tobacco, toothpaste and
a fund for medicines. Decisions are made in a
weekly group meeting that can take hours. Everyone
pitches in, even though it’s not mandatory.
Besides a programme of free film screenings,
skill sharing workshops and the obligatory Balkan/reggae/punk
concerts, the group has joined
forces with local residents and businesses to
rejuvenate Spreeuferweg, the currently dilapidated
riverside strip, and protest against city
government plans for the area to be developed
into a wide concrete “promenade”. Teepee
Landers clear the path through the camp on a
daily basis and are building vegetable patches to
complement the nearby ID22 urban gardening
project. An alliance has also been fostered
with the site’s neighbours, the five-year-old
120-strong cooperative housing project Spreefeld.
“Some members of the cooperative might
prefer if they weren’t there,” says Spreefeld
resident Manfred, a retired academic. “But that’s
a minority opinion. We get along well, the Teepee
people are friendly people.” The thing he’s most
excited about? “They’re talking about raising
chickens! I’d love to buy eggs on my doorstep.”
It’s not all buttercups and daisies for our erstwhile
Indians. “Sanitation remains a really big
issue,” says Sara bluntly. Yet spirits remain high.
“We just have to keep working at it,” says Polish
resident Alex enthusiastically. “Look at Christiania,
it has lasted because of the work people
have put in. We could achieve something like
that… without the drug dealing, of course!” n
55

ADVERTORIAL
The Berlin guide
The new directory to help you find your way around Berlin.
To advertise, contact ads@exberliner.com
mitte
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
Konk This charming boutique
has a huge selection of Berlinbased
designer fashion including labels
Anntian, Boessert Schorn, Hanna
Pordzik, Isabell de Hillerin, Hui Hui,
Kiesel, Mikenke, Naoko Ogawa, Nico
Sutor, Penelope‘s Sphere and Thone
Negrón. Support your local designers
and look fab! Kleine Hamburger Str.
15, U-Bhf Rosenthaler Platz, Mon-Fri
12-19, Sat 12-18, www.konk-berlin.de
Roland Weiss, Lawyer
Are employment law problems getting
you down? Roland Weiss (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. Tucholskystr. 18-20, S-
Bhf Oranienburger Str., Tel 030 3406
0390, www.weisslegal.de
Fire Bar After reunification, Berlin
exploded with underground bars.
In Fire Bar you can still feel the spirit
of the Berlin underground. Che-
Icons
Food
Drinks
Coffee
Shop
Gallery/Art
Entertainment
Music
Languages
Wellness/Fitness
Beauty
Services
ap drinks, sofas, funky lights. The
fire is always burnin’ in this cosy cellar
bar. Krausnickstr. 5, S-Bhf Oranienburger
Str., Mon-Sun from 20,
www.fire-club.de
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. Plus a sun terrace and
easy 24h access to public transport.
Am Zwirngraben 17-20, S-Bhf Hackescher
Markt, Mon-Sun from 10,
www.kilkenny-pub.de
Hinterm Horizont Enjoy
an authentic Berlin story about
Germany’s reunification at Potsdamer
Platz, the site where the wall once
stood, and experience a moving love
story between East and West featuring
the greatest hits of Udo Lindenberg.
Relive the most significant
moment of German-German history
up close. An absolute must for every
visit to Berlin! Stage Theater at
Potsdamer Platz, Marlene-Dietrich-
Platz 1, S+U-Bhf Potsdamer Platz,
Tel 03871 2115 530, www.hintermhorizont.com
Blue Man Group New look,
new scenes, new songs and all the
popular classics combine to create
Blue Man Group’s best show ever.
Over the past decade, it has developed
into the most successful show
in the German capital. An absolute
must for every Berliner and tourists
from all over the world. Stage
BLUEMAX Theater, Marlene-Dietrich-
Platz 4, S+U-Bhf Potsdamer Platz,
Tel 03871 2115 530, www.bluemangroup.de/international
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, 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.
Weinbergsweg 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
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
Engelberg has exactly the thing
to satisfy your South German comfort
food cravings. Besides the rotating
weekly menu, there’s Alpine
cheese, sausage from a small southern
butcher, delicatessen breakfast,
cake, bread, wine and Likör galore.
Oderberger Str. 21, U-Bhf Eberswalder
Str., Tel 030 4403 0637, Tue-Sat
10-22, Sun 10-20, www.engelbergberlin.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
Nalu They call themselves the
Homeland of the Freefill, but Nalu
is much more: here you’ll score USstyle
breakfasts, comfort food and a
great cheeseburger plus tasty lunch
and dinner specials. Finish your meal
with a malted milkshake or root beer
float! Dunckerstr. 80a, S-Bhf Prenzlauer
Allee, Mon 9-16, Tue-Sun 9-22,
www.nalu-diner.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
friedrichshain
Hirsch At first glance you
might be excused for overlooking
this pub, but upon entering you’ll be
glad you didn’t. This bar combines
intimacy reminiscent of an English
pub with traditional southern German
food, like Spätzle and Maultaschen,
and a huge selection of beer.
Kopernikusstr. 3, S+U-Bhf Warschauer
Str., Mon-Sun from 16, www.
hirsch-friedrichshain.de
iMazing Looking for Apple
products? At iMazing, friendly and
well-trained staff are ready to assist
you with all your equipment needs
and IT services. Whether you’re interested
in buying or have a warranty
repair, you’ll find quick, efficient
help here. Gürtelstr. 42, U+S-Bhf
Frankfurter Allee, Tel 030 2005 3660,
Mon-Fri 10-13/14-19, Sat 12-16,
www.imazing.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
No Hablo Espanol Delicious,
freshly made San Franciscostyle
quesadillas and burritos served
by a collection of fun-loving international
folks. Every Wednesday, challenge
the NHE team in a game of
rock paper scissors and win a half-price
meal. Kopernikusstr. 22, S+U-Bhf
Warschauer Str., Mon-Sun from 12,
www.nohabloespanol.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.
56 • SEPTEMBER 2014

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
Kottbusser Tor, Tel 030 600 318 600,
Mon-Sun from 11, www.3schwesternberlin.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
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
AGATA SASIUK
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
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
Mexican Street Kitchen
Savour Mexican deliciousness in
Friedrichshain – as colourful as the
Kiez. Salads as green as the Yucatan
jungles and salsas as fiery as Mariachi
music. Don‘t be afraid of the Luchador
masks! “El Bosque” is ready to
protect, tortilla in hand. Simon-
Dach-Str. 7, S+U-Bhf Warschauer Str.,
www.facebook.com/MSKBerlin
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. Sonntagstr.
1, S-Bhf Ostkreuz, Tel 0176
6266 8459, Sun-Thu 8-24, Fri-Sat 8-2
kreuzberg
Blue Living The colour concept
store Blue Living 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. Südstern 6, U-Bhf Südstern,
www.blueliving-farben.de
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
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
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
3 Schwestern Housed in a former
hospital turned art centre, this
spacious restaurant with big windows
overlooking a lovely garden serves
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
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
Le Bon serves up some mean
eggs Benedict, yogi tea, French
toast, house-smoked salmon, croque
madame, pulled pork burgers and
shashuka. All-in-all, a mean breakfast
and some great coffee, just like its
sister café Kaffeebar around the corner
on Graefestraße. Boppstr. 1, U-
Bhf Schönleinstr., Mon 8-15, Wed-Fri
8-15, 18-23, Sat-Sun 9:30-16, 18-23,
www.lebon-berlin.com
57

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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
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. Oranienstr.
22, U-Bhf Kottbusser Tor, www.
modern-graphics.de
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
neukölln
Barettino Eat spaghetti with
your hands... oi, oi, oi! Wake up on
a church bench... Hallelujah! Italian
coffee! Or savour the first rays
of the morning sun with Italian delicacies...
Panino with Coppa... Subito!
Reuter str. 59, U-Bhf Hermannplatz,
Mon-Fri 8-19, Sat-Sun 10-19,
www.barettino.com
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. 5, U-Bhf Boddinstr., Tel
030 6796 2701, Mon-Tue,Thu 12-22,
Fri 12-23, Sat 15-23, Sun 15-22
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
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
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
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, breakfast and
homemade cake and coffee with
swing music on the speakers. Live
concerts once a month and swing
lessons every Saturday from 19:00.
Schinkestr. 14, U-Bhf Schönleinstr.,
Tue-Sat 10-24, Sun 10-21, www.
hepcatscorner.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
La Pecora Nera Experience
the original Venetian aperitif tradition
in this cosy neighbourhood osteria.
Enjoy an Aperol Spritz during daily
happy hour (18-20) and try the appetiser
platter with North Italian cheeses
and cold cuts. For dinner, polenta
and fresh pasta await you! On Tuesdays
they offer special, delicious vegetarian
dishes and on Fridays the
daily menu contains market-fresh fish.
Herrfurthplatz 6, U-Bhf Boddinstr.,
Tel 030 2501 3346, Tue-Sun from 18,
www.pecoraberlin.de
schöneberg
55 Limited Founded in May
2012, 55 limited is an Intaglio printmaking
workshop and gallery specialising
in small, limited editions (no
more than 55 prints), photo-mechanical
processes (in particular, photogravure)
and limited-edition artist’s
books. Feurigstr. 62, S-Bhf Julius-Leber-Brücke,
Wed-Sat 14-19,
www.55ltd.net
Belmér Mediterranean food
culture meets creative, beautifully
presented cuisine make with quality
ingredients. Don’t miss the brunch
buffet every Sunday from 10-15 with
Mediterranean delights and live piano!
Belziger Str. 34, S-Bhf Julius-Leber-Brücke,
Tel 030 8999 6735, Mon-
Fri 16-24, Sat from 12, Sun from 10,
www.belmer-restaurant.de
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 Ka-
DeWe. 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 hightech
goodies is the place for those
who want more than just a shop-andgo
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
charlottenburg
Futomania has been supporting
sleepers with traditional tatami
and futon-style beds since 1986.
Natural and organic bedding made to
order in their in-house workshop with
solid birch, cherry and oak wood bases.
New beds, cribs and more. Also
a source for meditation and shiatsu
equipment. Richard-Wagner-Str. 51,
U-Bhf Richard-Wagner-Platz, Mon-Fri
11-19, Sat 11-16, www.futomania.de
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
Lalaine Find everything from
tender Italian merino wool and mohair
in differing thickness and colour
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, S
Habitare With over 30 years
experience on Savignyplatz, Habitare
has become a real design institution.
If you’re searching for timeless
modern pieces and high-quality furniture
for your home, this is your best
bet among the many design and furniture
shops in the area. Great service
too! Savignyplatz 7-8, S-Bhf
Savignyplatz, Mon-Fri 10-20, Sat 10-
18, www.habitare.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. A smoker’s
lounge and a pleasant sun terrace
await you. Giesebrechtstr. 15,
U-Bhf Adenauerplatz, Mon-Sun from
10, www.harp-pub.de
FIND FULL
GUIDES AT
www.exberliner.com/
directory
58 • SEPTEMBER 2014

AMOK MAMA
By JACINTA NANDI
Don’t call me Jacinta!
“What do you think
about people calling
their parents by their
first names?” I ask my
British Berlin mummyfriend
Sally. “Like, you
know, Jana’s kids do.
Have you noticed? Jana’s
kids call her and her
husband Jana and Scott.
At first I thought Scott
was a stepfather or
something, but he isn’t,
he’s their dad. Bit weird,
huh? Nice. But weird.”
“It’s totally screwed
up!” is Sally’s immediate
reaction.
“It is a bit weird,” I say. “But I think it
sounds a little bit nice, too. Sometimes when
I’m 'round at Jana’s, I think the kids sound so
grown-up and sensible, I kind of wish Ryan
would call me Jacinta, too.”
“Do you?” Sally asks, genuinely shocked.
“I would throw mine out of the house if
they started pulling that Sally shit. I find it
bad enough when they say Mama instead of
Mummy.”
I can still remember the first time my son
called me Mummy and not Mama. We were
arguing about whether he was allowed to have
yoghurt BEFORE a sandwich. I wanted him
to eat his sandwich and THEN the yoghurt,
and I was really determined to win this one.
And then he said, suddenly, out of nowhere:
“Please, Mummy.” And I literally felt my heart
melt like softened butter in a frying pan. You
know when it gets all gooey and golden.
Fast-forward five years. My son and I are
arguing over whether Mount Everest is the
highest mountain in the world or not. He is
probably right, but I don’t care. I don’t agree
with his “If you count mountains which start
off in the sea” policy. I think he’s being really
pedantic, like when people say Muslims have
small brains and you call them racist and they
say, really proudly: “But Islam isn’t a race!”
“But you don’t count mountains that start
off in the sea, do you,” I say, gently.
“Look, this is what I’m trying to tell you,
Jacinta,” he answers.
I stare at him,
aghast. I might have
described myself staring
at Ryan aghast in
previous columns but
until today I never
stared at him THIS
aghast. I stare at him,
flabbergasted and
agape and dumbfounded
and boggled and all those
sorts of things.
“What did you just say?”
He says: “The tallest
mountain in the world is
not Mount Everest. I saw
it on YouTube–”
“No,” I say. “Ryan, what
did you just call me?”
“Jacinta!” he says.
“But why did you call
me that?”
“It’s your name, isn’t it?”
“You do not call me
Jacinta!” I say sternly.
“Why not?” he asks.
“You call me Mama or Mummy,” I say.
“And why?” he says.
“Because,” I say. “Because, because.”
“Do you call me Sonny?” he says.
I blink. “Do you want me to call you
Sonny?” I say.
“You told me once, Mama, about how
people in the 19th century made their kids call
them Sie and they called their kids Du. Well,
it’s the same with Mummy and Sonny. Why
are you allowed to call me Ryan but I have to
call you Mummy? It’s a Doppelmoral.”
I stare at him and my whole body is filled
with horror and shock and dismay and stuff. I
feel the horror and shock and dismay and stuff
slowly seeping into my soul, like heavy, thick,
black oil. It has actually happened. He is actually
cleverer than me now. This is like when
the robots take over the world and human
beings just get farmed for their body parts
in giant concentration camp-style human
resource factories. He has come up with an
argument I never thought of before. And the
argument he has come up with is a TOTALLY
GOOD ONE. Shit.
“If you call me Mummy and not Jacinta, I
will buy you a €25 App Store card next time
we go to Media Markt,” I say.
He puts his hand in mine. “Okay, Mum,” he
says. “I love you.”
I might be the worst mother in the whole of
Christendom, but at least my son doesn’t call
me Jacinta. ■
I STARE AT HIM AND MY WHOLE
BODY IS FILLED WITH HORROR AND
SHOCK AND DISMAY AND STUFF.
IT HAS ACTUALLY HAPPENED. HE IS
ACTUALLY CLEVERER THAN ME NOW.
MARTA DOMINGUEZ
SELL
YOUR
SOUL!
And everything else... on Exberliner classifieds
www.exberliner.com/classifieds
59

charmingly dilapidated building just
north of Torstraße. A photographer
and musician by trade, he is a
veteran of the underground Mitte
scene (Tacheles, IM Eimer,
Synlabor) and believes that the
struggles he has lived through in the
centre are only a precursor to
city-wide problems: “When capital
is the main interest there is very
little room for culture and art. You
can clearly see what has gone wrong
[in Mitte] but it can also happen in
Kreuzberg, Neukölln, Wedding,
Friedrichshain.”
The demise of any subculture or
scene is often predicted almost from
the outset. And Mitte after the Wall
came down has been no different.
Nevertheless, the recent spate of
forced closures and relocations paints
quite a grim picture for the area’s
nightlife. Anchored by the garish
erving frothy pils to the thirsty workers moved to Mitte in the early 1990s, living in a
opulence of members’ club Soho
of Mitte since 1893, Bierstube Alt Berlin squat on Auguststraße and learning to cook
House at the eastern end of
pulled down its shutters for the last time there in one of the soup kitchens. Explaining
Torstraße, expect more exclusive bars
at the end of April. Old Berlin in name the move, he says: “I’m fighting for a space
to emerge in the Scheunenviertel –
and nature, it sounded like a death rattle for the where I don’t get shut down by the neighbours…
I started not feeling so comfortable. I
of local, loud, late-night charm.
steamrolling all but a few tenements
authentic Mitte nightlife of yesteryear. Said to
have been frequented by Bertolt Brecht and just don’t think Mitte has a scene anymore.”
The German media often refer to
Alfred Döblin, the pub was a legend in its own Aside from the changing atmosphere of the
it as Clubsterben (club death) but
lifetime – a no-frills Raucherlokal where one area, the rocketing rent was ultimately one of
another, less frequently used term,
could well imagine Franz Biberkopf in the the deciding factors. Two years ago when White
Clubkarussel, might be more
corner, quietly serenading his three beers and Trash’s contract was up, the owner wanted to
accurate. Many of the old clubs and
Kümmel schnaps.
increase his earnings overnight by 40 percent.
bars – like Baiz and White Trash
As the last traditional place on Münzstraße Potts refused and continued to pay the old
– continue to flourish in their new
– awash in a sea of posh boutiques and flagships amount, around €7000 per month, until he was
locations. For further proof of this
– the small 70sqm thorn in the side of Mitte’s finally taken to court and ordered to pay it in
chopping and changing, just keep
gentrification remained, until the very end, as full – a situation he had to stomach until a new
an eye on Kiki Blofeld, a Mitte club
popular as ever. The sadly familiar story being venue was found. Recently his old property was
legend on par with Bar25 until its
that the whole building was sold to an investor put on the market again, this time marked up to four weeks, most of it given as an interest-free
recently the Chelsea Bar. However, it’s a corner where the long drinks start at €10.
untimely, Mediaspree-induced closure in 2011.
from afar, Harm Müller-Spreer in Hamburg, who €16,660 per month.
loan. Referring to the changes in Mitte,
just south of Rosenthaler Platz that is most One of the only Mitte success stories in recent This May, it re-opened in Oberschöneweide:
promptly demanded 10 times
Being unable (or unwilling) born-and-bred Berliner Bogisch says: “What I
indicative of the current changes...
years is that of Schokoladen. The writing was on “just a 30-minute tram ride from Friedrichshain,”
as its owner, Gerke Freyschmidt,
the rent as soon as the
to keep pace with the rent is see is that a lot of what makes up Berlin’s special
Delicious Doughnuts, a late night (and often the wall for the squat-turned-living project and
contract was up. Which
one thing, but being kicked identity, whether it’s certain clubs or bars or
all day too) stalwart of the Mitte scene opened in all-round cultural centre until the philanthropic pleaded in Tage s spiegel. With none other than
would have meant a rent of
out on principle is something alternative culture, is now being pushed out.”
1993, launched the careers of bigshot Berlin DJs Edith Maryon Foundation stepped in at the Bryan Adams set to open an artists’ complex in
around €800 per month
else. Baiz – everybody’s
And it seems to be happening faster these
like Ben Klock and was a trusty reliable for death in 2012 with a loan to buy the entire the desolate neighbourhood, will the far East
jumping up to around €8000
favourite leftie bar on
days. April also saw the end of King Kong Klub
nearly two decades – an unlikely place where you building. Schokoladen hopes that other alternative
and traditional locations will return to Mitte According to Potts from White Trash, “There
pick up where Mitte left off?
– an unfathomable amount
Torstraße – suffered this fate and Naherholung Sternchen. The former an old
might end up should your birthday fall on a
for any small Kneipe.
earlier this year. Although they hand of the Mitte club scene, the other more of
Tuesday with nowhere else open come 6am. (fingers crossed for Bierstube Alt Berlin), is no conspiracy theory. Berlin is becoming what
Although the Alt Berliners
could still afford the rent, a newcomer; nevertheless, both stood out thanks
Inhabited by a colourful assortment of ravers and although even its members when pushed believe it is. The nightlife will find its space and people
are searching for a new
which had doubled in 10 years, to a lovable DIY approach and an eclectic
reprobates, plus a few straggling tourists and the neighbourhood is something of a lost cause. will always be moving to the next free zone.” The
location to call home and refit
in the end the new owners programme of readings, concerts, comedy and
birthday kids, it too had to permanently close in “Realistically speaking, it’s going to get worse battle for alternative spaces in Mitte has been
with all the original fixtures,
decided that the Baiz motto parties. Naherholung Sternchen even suffered
2012. Reopening in its place last year was Dean in the direction of London or Paris or somewhere,”
says Chris Keller, who moved to Berlin another homogeneous metropolis, the fight for
largely lost, but if Berlin isn’t to become just
bar manager Dana Tucker is
of “Kein Bex, kein Latte, kein the indignity of having to cancel their weekendlong
‘last hurrah’ event because of pressure from
– and another golden-hued, swanky, dancey bar in 1990 and has a Hinterhof studio in the
the rest of city must rage on. n
– part of the proliferating Amano hotel group
still grieving several weeks
Bullshit” simply wasn’t for
after the closure. “It used to
Berlin-Mitte in 2014.
the nearby Amt. Cookies, a Mitte nightlife
be a city full of so many
According to the formal head epicentre in the 1990s, will throw its closing
possibilities and such freedom... Now it’s getting of the Baiz collective Matthias Bogisch: “They party on July 19. This year would have been its
more and more restricted.”
told us that the place didn’t match [the character 20th birthday.
This is the case even for a nocturnal institution
and tourist magnet like White Trash Fast After protesting in vain, they resolved to move over in Mitte. It has just mutated into something
of the building], so there was no new contract.” That is not to say that the party is completely
Food. After 13 years on and around Torstraße, the and found new digs up in Prenzlauer Berg, a altogether more grownup, more monied and, one
February 23: BAIZ April 19: KING KONG the East Side Gallery; April 25: Closing April 28: Münzstraße Mitte location in 2011,
moves from Torstraße KLUB, one of Mitte’s it moves downriver, party for NAHERHOL- pub ALT-BERLIN pours reopens in the wilds of
burger-and-music joint has upped sticks for a stone’s throw away from the bourgeois Kollwitzplatz.
“They’re not just idiots around here,” quips suits armed with clipboards and velvet ropes
might say, more generic. Late cocktail bars where
to Schönhauser Allee; last live music institutions,
forced to shut MAGDALENA. scrappy young club on brates with a surprise July 19: COOKIES
replacing the club UNG STERNCHEN, a its final beer; cele­
Oberschöneweide.
larger and cheaper location down by the Arena
the collective’s supporters
form a human down.
April 24: WHITE the Mitte/Friedrichs­
set by Bonaparte. (Friedrichstraße/Unter
complex in Treptow. Owner Wally Potts puts it Bogisch. Baiz belongs to the property-owning marshal the door; nightlife spots that wouldn’t
simply: “There’s no future in having a club in class too now, having bought their new 150sqm look out of place in London or New York. The
chain to carry its belongings,
one by one, plans squeeze YAAM last night in its Tor­
after pressure from BLOFELD, priced close its doors.
April 21: Mediaspree TRASH FAST FOOD’s hain border, cancelled May 25: KIKI
den Linden) set to
Mitte-Prenzlauer Berg.” And after all, he should corner spot. Asking around their circle of friends last couple years have thrown up the dress-toimpress
likes of Trust, The Liberate and more
to the new building. out of its location by straße location. the Ordnungsamt. out of its Spree­side
have a good feel for the district, having first and supporters, they raised the funds in a mere
8 • JULY/AUGUST 2014 9
FROM OUR READERS
In response to Seymour Gris’ “Sioux Indian
found guilty of Nazi salute” (www.exberliner.com),
members of Native American
sculptor Robert Packard’s former artist’s
association sent us their side of the story…
The case of the Sioux “Sieg Heil”
Robert A. Packard has been a member of our association
since 1999. Over the years, he has paid
his membership fee only sporadically. The club
accepted that for social reasons, and because he
was a very good sculptor. Working with him was
never easy, since he was an excessive alcoholic
and drug consumer for years, which may be the
reason for his current change in personality…
Last year, he would not speak with us for some
months, didn’t say hello, and ignored the management
... Even though he claims differently,
Packard applied a circle sign made of polishing
dust on a sand strip next to our parking space.
Management was not asked for permission. We
are definitely not hindering any member from
practicing his or her religion, but we are of the
opinion that our parking lot is an improper place
to do so. That Packard had rediscovered his Native
American roots was not known by us.
On April 30, a heated argument took place
because the so-called “piece of art” was hit by
water we used to water the lot. On May 2, he
called us Nazis for this reason and screamed
“Nazis raus!“ out of an open window.
On May 22, chairwoman Hella Zarski entered
the studio. Packard went on a rampage in the
kitchen. As the chairwoman left the building, he
screamed, “Nazischwein, hau ab!” The chairwoman
called the police, who declined to come because
nobody was hurt. When he saw board members
on the street on May 24, he did the Hitler salute
several times …. Unwilling to accept Packard’s
behaviour any
longer, we decided
to exclude him. –
Hella Zarski, Karin
Omoregbee, Ursula
Keil, Arbeitskreis
Spandauer Künstler
Berlin e.V.
just don’t think
Mitte has a
Our article on
scene anymore.”
Mitte “Club
death and
transfiguration”
(issue #129, July/
August 2014) drew gentrification defenders
out of the woodwork…
What’s wrong with Soho?
How on earth is Soho House “garish and
opulent”? It is so discreet there is no advertisement
of its existence at street level. Few
non-members even know it is there… I loved
Berlin when I first came here in 1990. I love it
now. Some things are much, much worse. Some
things are much, much better. But, guess what:
it’s a city – it evolves. Friction between generations
is probably a good thing too. However,
you can really like one thing without being
snide and condescending about something else
you don’t like. No one has a god-given right to
dictate how Berlin should be and what sort of
people should be moving to the city. Indeed, in
Berlin of all places, it really shouldn’t be neces-
TO THE EDITOR
NIGHTLIFE
Club death and
transfiguration
The spring saw a swathe of late-night institutions in Mitte
closing or moving away from the centre. Is the party over
for the formerly happening district and what does it spell
for the rest of Berlin? By Luke Atcheson
S
“I’m fighting for
a space where
I don’t get shut
down by the
neighbours… I
sary to point that
out. Your moaning
about change may
be a preoccupation,
a personally rewarding
one even,
but I assure you
that “change” is not
“a cause”. I can’t
help feeling sorry
A timeline: Clubsterben or Clubkarussel?
for all those people
who pick up your
magazine on their
first visit to Berlin
only to read how absolutely terrible the place is,
how much better it used to be and how they’re
to blame. – Barney Smith
MARC BRINKMEIER
WRITE TO US AND WIN
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60 • FEBRUARY 2014

DIE KUNSTSTADT
BERLIN IM ÜBERBLICK
Museen, Galerien, Termine
Ab dem 12. September
bestellen unter
shop.interabo.de/zitty/
oder
(030) 611 05 26 02
Foto: Christian Mentzel
Berlin
2 • SEPTEMBER 2014

aka: stILL LIFE
PREMIO ORIZZONTI
BESTE REGIE
EIN FILM VON
ubErtO PasOLINI
NINA Hoss
RoNAld ZeHrfeld
NINA KunZendorf
ab 25. September im Kino
Der neue Film von Christian Petzold
2 • SEPTEMBER 2014