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EXBERLINER Issue 130, September 2014

Berlin's monthly culture and reportage magazine. Germany's largest English-language publication. Founded in 2002.

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<strong>Issue</strong> <strong>130</strong> • €2.90 • <strong>September</strong> <strong>2014</strong><br />

MICHAEL OBERT: “I saw Louis at his worm-eaten table in the Rembrandt<br />

light of his lantern listening to this music, and I got goosebumps.” (p.36)<br />

DIGITALISM:”Now we work a little bit 9-5, or sometimes 5-9.” (p.44)<br />

ALEXANDER DUVE: “Working with an artist is like being in a relationship<br />

– these days it mostly doesn’t work out.” (p.48)<br />

THE WAR ON<br />

WHISTLEBLOWERS<br />

An MI5 spy and a workplace<br />

hero tell the truth – and get<br />

punished for it<br />

NSA’S LAPDOG?<br />

How Germany does<br />

America’s dirty work<br />

COVER UP!<br />

Seven encryption<br />

tools you should<br />

be using<br />

Berlin’s<br />

digital<br />

rebellion<br />

Whistleblowers, cypherpunks<br />

and hackers: The post-<br />

Snowden resistance is right<br />

on our doorstep. Are you<br />

ready to join the fight?<br />

www.exberliner.com<br />

JACOB<br />

APPELBAUM<br />

Our interview with<br />

the exiled hacktivist<br />

and new Berliner<br />

WHO’S<br />

WATCHING<br />

YOU?<br />

The government<br />

agencies (and<br />

Berlin start-ups)<br />

stealing your<br />

data<br />

What’s on? • Art • Fashion • Film • Food • Music • Nightlife • Stage<br />

100% made in Berlin.<br />

Printed on recycled<br />

paper.


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20 From Stasi to NSA… and back?<br />

Stasi expert Hubertus Knabe<br />

22 Big Brother in Berlin How the state<br />

spies on us<br />

ISSUE <strong>130</strong>, SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong><br />

24 Confessions of an MI5 whistleblower<br />

Annie Machon tells her story<br />

REGULARS<br />

02 Werner’s political notebook<br />

How the state and businesses collude<br />

04 Best of Berlin Coexist, Crazy Bastard<br />

Hot Sauce, Dimension Alley, Kallasch&<br />

52 Berlin bites Oui, Madame, Masel Topf,<br />

Vego chocolate<br />

54 Fashion What’s hot and what’s not<br />

55 Spotlight Teepeeland<br />

59 Amok Mama Don’t call me Jacinta!<br />

PAGE 18<br />

CW-DESIGN, PHOTOCASE.DE<br />

26 Germany’s should-be heroes Why<br />

workplace whistleblowers get punished<br />

28 You are the product The Berlin<br />

companies collecting your data<br />

30 Encryption for everyone Seven tools<br />

to take back your anonymity<br />

31 The disruptors The Berliners who<br />

play the system<br />

WHAT’S ON<br />

32 Events calendar<br />

SPECIAL: SNOWDEN<br />

AND SURVEILLANCE<br />

06 Intro The new Berlin dissidence<br />

08 Verbatim Jacob Appelbaum<br />

14 Snowden’s defender The whistleblower’s<br />

EU lawyer, Wolfgang Kaleck<br />

16 Where the spies are A map of Berlin’s<br />

surveillance hotspots<br />

34 Film<br />

40 Stage<br />

43 Music and nightlife<br />

48 Art<br />

12 Leaked but locked up Open the<br />

18 America’s lapdog The intimate<br />

56 The Berlin Guide<br />

Snowden files!<br />

relationship between the BND and NSA<br />

60 Letters to the editor<br />

DEUTSCH IN ENGLISH!<br />

MAXIM GORKI THEATRE<br />

WITH ENGLISH SURTITLES<br />

SEE yOU bACK fOR<br />

THE <strong>2014</strong>/15 SEASON!<br />

www.gorki.de<br />

1


An MI5 spy and a workplace<br />

hero tell the truth – and get<br />

punished for it<br />

How Germany does<br />

America’s dirty work<br />

Seven encryption<br />

tools you should<br />

be using<br />

www.exberliner.com<br />

<strong>Issue</strong> <strong>130</strong> • €2.90 • <strong>September</strong> <strong>2014</strong><br />

MICHAEL OBERT: “I saw Louis at his worm-eaten table in the Rembrandt<br />

light of his lantern listening to this music, and I got goosebumps.” (p.36)<br />

DIGITALISM:”Now we work a little bit 9-5, or sometimes 5-9.” (p.44)<br />

ALEXANDER DUVE: “Working with an artist is like being in a relationship<br />

– these days it mostly doesn’t work out.” (p.48)<br />

Our interview with<br />

the exiled hacktivist<br />

and new Berliner<br />

The government<br />

agencies (and<br />

Berlin start-ups)<br />

stealing your<br />

data<br />

THE WAR ON<br />

WHISTLEBLOWERS<br />

NSA’S LAPDOG?<br />

COVER UP!<br />

Berlin’s<br />

digital<br />

rebellion<br />

Whistleblowers, cypherpunks<br />

and hackers: The post-<br />

Snowden resistance is right<br />

on our doorstep. Are you<br />

ready to join the fight?<br />

JACOB<br />

APPELBAUM<br />

WHO’S<br />

WATCHING<br />

YOU?<br />

100% made in Berlin.<br />

Printed on recycled<br />

paper.<br />

What’s on? • Art • Fashion • Film • Food • Music • Nightlife • Stage<br />

ISSUE <strong>130</strong><br />

Cover art by<br />

Agata Sasiuk<br />

PUBLISHERS:<br />

Maurice<br />

Frank, Nadja<br />

Vancauwenberghe,<br />

Ioana Veleanu<br />

Printed in Berlin<br />

100% recycled paper<br />

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Nadja Vancauwenberghe<br />

BUSINESS MANAGER Maurice Frank<br />

ART DIRECTOR Erica Löfman<br />

COPY/DEPUTY EDITOR Rachel Glassberg<br />

WEB EDITOR Walter Crasshole<br />

OFFICE MANAGER Sara Wilde<br />

FEATURES EDITOR Ruth Schneider<br />

SENIOR/MUSIC D. Strauss<br />

FILM Eve Lucas<br />

STAGE Nathalie Frank<br />

ART Fridey Mickel<br />

FOOD Françoise Poilâne<br />

FASHION Jessica Saltz<br />

SALES & MARKETING EXECUTIVE Ines<br />

Montani<br />

AD SALES Marissa Medal, Ilektra Simou<br />

DESIGNERS Cristián Recabarren, Agata Sasiuk<br />

PHOTOGRAPHER Michal Andrysiak<br />

CONTRIBUTORS Tatiana Bazzichelli, Mary<br />

Biekert, Dan Borden, Michael Hald, Mike Fleck,<br />

Seymour Gris, Seán Kenehan, Ben Knight, Dominic<br />

Mealy, Camille Moreno (art), Rory O’Connor (film),<br />

Hanna Westerlund, Krystian Woznicki, Document<br />

Leaks: Anonymous<br />

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www.exberliner.com, Issn 1610-9015<br />

■ Werner's political notebook By KONRAD WERNER<br />

How the state and<br />

businesses collude<br />

in Germany<br />

Bernie Ecclestone says he grew to like Munich in<br />

the last few months, when he was forced to spend<br />

a couple of days there every week. No wonder. It<br />

turns out there are few nicer cities when you’re on<br />

trial for corruption. Last month, the head of Formula<br />

One wrapped up his bribery case by bribing<br />

the city’s court with €75 million of his €3.6 billion<br />

fortune. Not an out-of-court settlement, because<br />

it was (ahem) with the court, and<br />

not a fine, because Ecclestone<br />

wasn’t convicted. It was a straight<br />

payment to the Bavarian judiciary<br />

in exchange for dropping<br />

criminal charges against him. You<br />

might want to try that if you ever<br />

get arrested in Munich.<br />

Speaking after the trial, Bernie<br />

expressed mild unhappiness<br />

about paying up. But then again,<br />

he observed wisely, “It’d be worse<br />

not to have the money. I actually<br />

find this capitalist system good.” It definitely<br />

works for him, anyway.<br />

Germany is very proud of its successful businesses,<br />

which is why German businessmen don’t<br />

really take it too seriously when one of those many<br />

surveys come out revealing that Germany is in the<br />

same league as Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, and Namibia<br />

in the world’s corruption charts. The disconnect<br />

between perception and reality is striking – in the<br />

<strong>2014</strong> Global Fraud Survey carried out by accounting<br />

firm Ernst & Young, we learned that only six<br />

percent of German firms thought fraud was widespread,<br />

but 26 percent reported serious fraud cases<br />

in the last two years. That was not only more than<br />

almost everywhere else in Europe, but also more<br />

than Russia, with 16 percent.<br />

Ernst & Young – being a German company –<br />

downplayed the figures, saying they were just a<br />

sign that German businesses had increased their<br />

IF YOU’RE<br />

TOO CORRUPT<br />

FOR BRAZIL,<br />

YOU KNOW<br />

SOMETHING<br />

IS UP.<br />

“awareness” of the<br />

problem, as if they had<br />

merely started to realise<br />

what corruption was.<br />

Besides, the apologists<br />

argue, the stats show<br />

that German companies<br />

are cracking down<br />

on corruption more<br />

than ever before. One<br />

example consistently held up is that of Siemens, a<br />

company that became legendary for its corruption<br />

scandals in the past decade, but is now presented<br />

as model of corporate compliance. So it’s odd that<br />

earlier this year a court in Brazil<br />

excluded Siemens from competing<br />

for government contracts in<br />

the coming years. If you’re too<br />

corrupt for Brazil, you know<br />

something is up.<br />

The German government is<br />

mainly happy for German firms<br />

to deal with corruption internally,<br />

and German firms do all they<br />

can to keep cases away from the<br />

public (try getting details on the<br />

cases behind the above surveys –<br />

the firms never publicise anything beyond the raw<br />

data). That might be one reason why Germany<br />

remains one of only a handful of countries in the<br />

world that has signed but not ratified the United<br />

Nations Convention Against Corruption (UN-<br />

CAC) – a select group that includes Sudan, Bhutan<br />

and Syria.<br />

Or it might be that German politicians think of<br />

business as a branch of public life anyway, seeing<br />

as so many of them move so easily from one to<br />

the other. Most recently, Ronald Pofalla, Angela<br />

Merkel’s chief-of-staff, moved directly to a top<br />

job at national rail operator Deutsche Bahn, while<br />

minister-of-state Eckart von Klaeden moved to<br />

Daimler. The EU has complained regularly to<br />

Germany about this state of affairs – but cases<br />

like Ecclestone’s show that when the state and<br />

big business collude, the government is happy to<br />

simply shrug. ■<br />

2 • FEBRUARY 2013


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BEST OF BERLIN<br />

BY THE <strong>EXBERLINER</strong> EDITORIAL TEAM.<br />

Best 1990s flashback<br />

If you’re what the internet calls a “Nineties Kid”, then stepping<br />

into Friedrichshain clothing store COEXIST, with its<br />

purple plastic blow-up chairs, rainbow shag rugs and a VCR<br />

recording of Clueless playing in the corner, will send you into<br />

full-blown reverie. Crocheted crop tops in candy-necklace<br />

pastel colours, shiny Gwen Stefani-inspired bras and skirts<br />

trimmed with faux fur, itty-bitty backpacks – they’re all here.<br />

But Coexist is also a showcase for the designs of hip German<br />

owners Indira Töreki and Anna Heise, who met at the<br />

Schwerin Design School and combined their talents (and their<br />

names) to create the label Indyanna. After a few crucial years<br />

in London, they made their way to Berlin, opening Coexist<br />

in March. Each of their pieces is guaranteed hand-sewn,<br />

mostly made from upcycled materials; a craft that can often<br />

be witnessed live in Töreki and Heise’s back-room sewing<br />

studio. Their store also houses other independent designers,<br />

including LuLaLoop (which has clothed the likes of indie-pop<br />

princess Grimes). Even if you’re not one to wax nostalgic over<br />

flashy print leotards (€65-70), bomber jackets hand sewn out<br />

of vintage scarves (€126) or punk-y denim vests with a political<br />

twist (€85), the shop is still worth a visit – and those of us<br />

of a certain age will find it hard to resist the infamous tattoo<br />

choker necklace (€2). MB Coexist, Grünberger Str. 88, Friedrichshain,<br />

U-Bhf Samariterstr., Mon-Fri 12-20, Sat 12-18<br />

Best Neukölln bar in Moabit<br />

Okay, sure, KALLASCH& (whose name comes from the red sign<br />

on the back wall, scavenged from a nearby abandoned restaurant<br />

supply store called Kallasch & Jonas) boasts some signifiers<br />

you might recognise from Weserstraße: stripped walls, mismatched<br />

furniture, back-room concerts. But stick around and<br />

you’ll notice that a) everyone actually listens when someone’s<br />

playing; and b) you might even end up talking to someone you<br />

didn’t come in with. This is Moabit, after all, where despite a<br />

recent spate of rent increases, the streets remain quiet and the<br />

populace “down-to-earth”, as co-owner and barwoman Luisa<br />

Traumann puts it. Starting with a crumbling Eckkneipe, she and<br />

fellow Moabiter Dominik Borrmann planned and renovated<br />

tirelessly from the bar’s inception in October right up to its<br />

official opening in July, and the whole place still buzzes with a<br />

scrappy “can you believe they’re letting us get away with this?”<br />

energy. While the weather still allows, sip a Berliner Bären-Bräu<br />

(€2.50) on the outdoor patio while watching the sun set over<br />

the former train station that now houses the ZK/U art centre.<br />

Then head inside for music, probably played by a folky veteran<br />

of Borrmann’s three-year-old Musique Maudite concert series,<br />

and one of Berlin’s better Mexikaner shots (€1). AJ Kallasch&,<br />

Unionstr. 2, Moabit, U-Bhf Birkenstr., Thu-Sat 19-close<br />

4 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>


Best hot stuff<br />

Chilli fiends and locavores unite: Berlin’s<br />

finally got its own artisanal hot<br />

sauce. Irish expat Jonathan O’Reilly<br />

first began the culinary experiments<br />

that would lead to CRAZY BASTARD<br />

SAUCE three years ago. The final<br />

product – a paprika-tomatillo-habanero<br />

concoction with a pleasantly fruity<br />

burn – has been available since January,<br />

and a sweet-hot jalapeño-date version<br />

will be hitting the market soon.<br />

How good is it? A 100ml bottle sent<br />

to the Exberliner office disappeared in<br />

days, emptied out onto sandwiches,<br />

stir-frys, burritos… everything,<br />

basically. Order it online (€5/100ml,<br />

€9/200ml, plus postage) or pick up a<br />

bottle at Neukölln’s Cabslam (€6) – a<br />

fitting natural habitat for a hot sauce<br />

created by a “reluctant illustrator/<br />

dedicated barman/sometime musician”.<br />

JS Crazy Bastard Hot Sauce, www.<br />

crazybsauce.com<br />

von ensemble mosaik<br />

ERICA LÖFMAN<br />

Best 3D selfie<br />

There’s an odd moment – somewhere<br />

between doing a 360 degree full-body swivel<br />

whilst being scanned from head to toe, and<br />

when you witness a miniature version of<br />

yourself being squirted out by a printer –<br />

where you think, “Jesus, is my posture really<br />

that bad?” If such revelations hold no fear<br />

for you, then we’ve got a café that’s right up<br />

your alley… DIMENSION ALLEY, that is. The<br />

future of the selfie is here, nestled unassumingly<br />

in Prenzlauer Berg, and predictably<br />

enough it’s 3D. Offering a variety of digital<br />

fabrication workshops that cater to children<br />

(upon request) and adult novices (€40), the<br />

world’s third “fab café” goes to great lengths<br />

to walk you through the potentially infinite<br />

applications of 3D printing: organic tissue,<br />

aeronautical engine parts, even entire buildings.<br />

Then, they give you the opportunity to<br />

design… a keychain. Yet the more technically<br />

savvy can rock up with preconceived<br />

designs and bring them to life with the help<br />

of the outfit’s affable owners, examples of<br />

which can be seen around the workshop:<br />

the aforementioned mini-me (from €25),<br />

miniaturised landscapes, a Mars Rover and<br />

models of actual bone scans, to name but a<br />

few. Height and width were good while they<br />

lasted, but modern Berliners need something<br />

more: they need depth, and that’s exactly<br />

what this techno-caff is serving up, in<br />

viscous thermoplastic form. SK Dimension<br />

Alley, Liselotte-Herrmannstr. 1, Prenzlauer Berg,<br />

S-Bhf Greifswalder Str., Mon-Fri 10-18, Sat 11-18<br />

Filme: Distruktur – Melissa Dullius,<br />

Gustavo Jahn<br />

Künstlerische Leitung: Bettina Junge,<br />

Thomas Fiedler / Kommando Himmelfahrt<br />

Clemens Gadenstätter:<br />

Sad Songs (2012)<br />

Mark Barden:<br />

viscosity (<strong>2014</strong>)<br />

Mauro Lanza / Andrea Valle:<br />

Regnum vegetabile (<strong>2014</strong>)<br />

3. & 4. <strong>September</strong> <strong>2014</strong><br />

20 Uhr im Berghain<br />

Am Wriezener Bahnhof, 10243 Berlin<br />

Eintritt 9 € – Karten an der Abendkasse<br />

Eine Produktion des ensembles mosaik<br />

in Koproduktion mit dem Internationalen<br />

Musikinstitut Darmstadt; gefördert aus<br />

Mitteln des Hauptstadtkulturfonds.<br />

MICHAL ANDRYSIAK<br />

5


ARTICLE FROM THE TAG EDITOR<br />

BERLIN’S<br />

DIGITAL<br />

REBELS<br />

ILLUSTRATIONS BY CATHERINE FRANCK<br />

Berlin might well be home to the highest concentration of<br />

“Snowdenistas” in the world – starting with the small circle<br />

of trusted confidants. There’s Edward Snowden’s first ally, US documentary<br />

filmmaker Laura Poitras, who in January 2013 received a pseudonymous<br />

email, trusted a certain whistleblower’s story and met and filmed the<br />

young NSA runaway in his Hong Kong hotel room – resulting in a video that<br />

was to make history. After being on a watchlist, detained and interrogated<br />

countless times, she made Berlin her base. There’s Sarah Harrison, the Wikiangel<br />

sent by Julian Assange, who spent 40 nerve-wracking days in Moscow’s<br />

Sheremetyevo airport while escorting Snowden to safe haven. Advised by her<br />

lawyers that it wasn’t safe to return home to the UK, Harrison decided to<br />

go to Berlin, joining another exile, the US hacktivist Jacob Appelbaum (see<br />

interview, page 8), a close associate of Assange and friend of Poitras. There’s<br />

also former MI5 agent Annie Machon (see page 24), herself a former whistleblower<br />

turned outspoken anti-surveillance campaigner.<br />

It is not a coincidence that so many Snowden allies have ended up here.<br />

Berlin has always been a centre of crypto-dissidence – starting with the<br />

founding of the Chaos Computer Club 30 years ago, now represented by<br />

the likes of Andy Müller-Maghun and Constanze Kurz. Add to these Daniel<br />

Domscheit-Berg, WikiLeaks spokesman turned renegade, now a member of<br />

digital transparency champions the Pirate Party. They form the nexus of a<br />

constellation of collectives and organisations from the non-profit Digitale<br />

Gesellschaft to the international NGO Tactical Tech, a collective focused<br />

on technology and activism, to the Courage Foun dation, an international<br />

whistleblower support organisation set up by Harrison last June – not to<br />

forget the benevolent techies who patiently teach Berlin’s crypto-illiterates<br />

the art of online privacy at open workshops they misleadingly call cryptoparties<br />

(no music, booze optional). United by a strange mix of digitally<br />

enabled awareness and cyber-utopianism, they meet with whistleblowers,<br />

human rights activists, academics and lawyers at international conferences<br />

the world over. Here, they socialise at a certain weekly Mitte Stammtisch<br />

or at events across Berlin’s alternative bars, like Citizen Kino’s evenings<br />

of media-subversion. It’s an underworld populated with Club Mate<br />

drinkers who don’t necessarily live in Neukölln, rarely own Macbooks<br />

and don’t exhibit their lives on Facebook. Instead, they send each other<br />

encrypted messages from computers covered in “Tor Project” or “Asylum<br />

for Snowden” stickers. They often carry outdated mobile phones – the<br />

rare smartphone owners take their batteries out, knowing that even a<br />

switched-off phone can easily be turned into a tracking device and a networked<br />

microphone. They want to change the world but fear journalists.<br />

They’re distrustful. Realistic, stoic, idealistic. Often bespectacled. Mostly<br />

male, but not entirely.<br />

The only one missing is “Ed”, as his supporters affectionately call him.<br />

In the meantime, lamp posts are plastered with stickers emblazoned with<br />

an Obama-campaign-esque replica of his face; even my vet has “Asyl”<br />

postcards in his office among the cute cat photos. In the age of ‘normcore’,<br />

digital nerds have grown hotter (I heard it: “Snowden is a sexy<br />

man.”) Snowden-sploitation?<br />

The Berlin literati are catching up: this year’s International Literature<br />

Festival warms up with a Snowden support evening on <strong>September</strong> 8 (not<br />

sure who’s supporting whom here), complete with a panel discussion and<br />

a reading (a collage of Snowden’s wisest quotes). They’ve also initiated a<br />

petition demanding Germany to grant him asylum: we all want him in<br />

Berlin. Except for the German government, that is. Had Snowden been<br />

Chinese, they would have welcomed him with open arms as a political<br />

6 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>


Laura Poitras<br />

Sarah Harrison<br />

Jake Appelbaum<br />

dissident (see our interview with Snowden’s lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck,<br />

page 14). The issue is that in many ways, the German political establishment<br />

has remained a lapdog of the US (see page 18) – from Cold War<br />

times, when the NSA had its Berlin roost in Teufelsberg, up till now.<br />

Germany is the NSA’s most important base of operations in Europe. The<br />

infamous XKeyscore is ope rated from the Hesse town of Griesheim, as<br />

revealed by one of the many documents in the Snowden cache.<br />

Now we know about the collusion of the NSA and Britain’s GCHQ, to<br />

a lesser extent Germany’s BND, and half of Silicon Valley in the ambition<br />

to turn the world into what Snowden called a vast “digital panopticon”.<br />

Comparisons with 1984 seem as hackneyed as they’re apt: Big Brotherhood<br />

has descended upon us. We’ve entered the most monitored and<br />

spied-on age in human history. Our everyday habits and deeds are recorded,<br />

sorted and analysed by data collection agencies to the profit of online<br />

and offline businesses without our consent or knowledge (see page 28).<br />

The digital economy has turned into a vast milking operation, and we’re<br />

the cows. Put that information in the wrong hands – we’re dead cows.<br />

Now we know. Does this mean we’re more aware? Beyond the stickers<br />

and the outcry, what measures are we taking? Are we using Tor to<br />

browse the internet or encrypting our email? Or reverting to typewriters<br />

to outsmart the spies, as contemplated by the Bundestag’s NSA<br />

parliamentary commission: back to analogue? For its part, Exberliner<br />

is embracing digital enlightenment: we’re working on an open-source<br />

whistleblower submission system and, from this month on, we’ll be<br />

the first Berlin magazine with full digital privacy. As well as enabling<br />

our journalists to communicate securely when they need to, it is also a<br />

symbolic gesture, an act of political rebellion.<br />

In times of impunity from governments, it is up to us, citizens, to<br />

stand up for our rights. Snowden, like Manning, Assange and many others<br />

before them (let’s not forget local whistleblower Brigitte Heinisch, whose<br />

legal battle changed the way whistleblowers are treated in Germany, page<br />

26) is a classic example of what Albert Camus called a “rebel” – the man<br />

who says “no” in the face of what he considers to be illegal but also immoral,<br />

who fights against the kind of world he doesn’t want to live in.<br />

Citizens of Berlin, join the whistleblowers, cypherpunks and hacktivists<br />

– it’s time to rebel. NADJA VANCAUWENBERGHE<br />

7


SNOWDEN SPECIAL<br />

MICHAL ANDRYSIAK<br />

“We’ve entered<br />

revolutionary times”<br />

Jacob Appelbaum: New Berliner, exiled hacktivist, passionate idealist<br />

By Ruth Schneider<br />

8 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>


A<br />

longtime collaborator of Julian Assange, a close friend of Edward<br />

Snowden confidants Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald<br />

and now himself a trusted ally of the NSA whistleblower, this is<br />

a man with some serious cred on the Snowden scene.<br />

Jacob Appelbaum is a natural-born dissident with a fighting spirit and<br />

serious oratory skills. Starting off as a campaigner for medical marijuana<br />

in California at age 15, Appelbaum spent more time worrying about<br />

planet Earth (later with Greenpeace and Rain Forest Action Network)<br />

and his computer’s ecosystem than his schoolwork. By his early twenties<br />

he was busy helping friends bring technology to Iraq (installing internet<br />

satellites in Kurdistan) or de-constructing Apple’s encrypted disk storage<br />

system. His involvement with the Tor Project (from 2004) and Wiki-<br />

Leaks were soon to follow. In 2010, Rolling Stone tagged him the “most<br />

dangerous man in cyberspace”, a label that still pisses him off today.<br />

He would hate the idea, but the Snowden affair has boosted his career –<br />

as a freelance writer with access to the NSA files, and as a public speaker<br />

who’s been both an expert on and victim of digital surveillance. Appelbaum<br />

was among the few cyber-security brains who engineered the Tor<br />

anonymity software. This and his connection to WikiLeaks earned him<br />

harassment from US intelligence agencies – relentless pressure which<br />

culminated in his girlfriend being spied on in her bedroom. In June of<br />

last year, he decided to bid home and friends farewell and join the likes of<br />

Poitras and WikiLeaks’ Sarah Harrison in self-imposed Berlin exile.<br />

Appelbaum – a man with over 76,000 Twitter followers – is coy about<br />

his new celebrity on the digital scene. Yet today it’s hard to conceive<br />

of a conference with the words “surveillance” or “Snowden” in the title<br />

without his participation. Like many of his techie peers, he encrypts<br />

his email, and if he does have a smartphone on him, the battery travels<br />

separately in his bag.<br />

“I’m a journalist, a computer security researcher/programmer, as well<br />

as an artist – all three are on my visa,” a freelance visa Germany has just<br />

renewed for another two years.<br />

He’s also bit of a rabble-rouser – like when this year, after winning<br />

the respected Henri Nannen prize for journalism, Appelbaum publicly<br />

expressed his shame at winning an award named after a one-time Nazi<br />

(the famous Stern founder was a Waffen-SS propaganda man in Italy), and<br />

pledged to melt his award together with those of other winners, creating<br />

a new artwork.<br />

In person, “Jake”, as his friends call him, comes across as a rather shy,<br />

aloof type. But get him on topic and this 31-year-old tattooed product<br />

of “generation so-what” metamorphoses into an uncompromising yet<br />

endearing idealist.<br />

Last year, you decided to move to Berlin after<br />

years of harassment by the US government.<br />

Why then? I had enough. For years I had<br />

terrible interactions with the police, with border<br />

control, with the FBI. All sorts of different<br />

encounters that my family had experienced, that<br />

my partner had experienced, who is no longer my<br />

partner now partially due to this stress. Unbelievable<br />

things really.<br />

Can you tell me about one of these unbelievable<br />

things? Sure. A couple of years ago my<br />

mother was arrested in a small town in California.<br />

This is not necessarily out of the ordinary<br />

for her, she is a troubled person. But the police<br />

kicked down the door and arrested her on the<br />

toilet and dragged her out of the apartment<br />

while recording the entire happening on an audio<br />

recorder. I flew to California to try and bail her<br />

out of jail. I thought that this is just what would<br />

happen to any person’s mother in these sort of<br />

circumstances. But it became increasingly clear to<br />

me that there was something else happening by<br />

the way that they treated her. She was handcuffed<br />

and tied down; her wrists and ankles and waist<br />

were all chained together. At one point she was<br />

interrogated about my role in WikiLeaks. I had<br />

never told my mother about Julian Assange or<br />

WikiLeaks. She doesn’t use the internet.<br />

So they transferred her to a mental hospital<br />

eventually. I met her there and she told me that<br />

they were drugging her against her will. They had<br />

been given an order by the judge to forcibly drug<br />

her. They interrogated her again about my role in<br />

WikiLeaks. She spent 18 months in jail without<br />

a trial. She has been on probation for three years<br />

and because I have left the US, I haven’t seen her<br />

in this period of time. It is a very sad situation.<br />

You were also followed, harassed... When<br />

I was in Iceland, I received a panicked message.<br />

My now ex-fiancée had woken up with men wearing<br />

night vision goggles watching her sleep in her<br />

home. When we travelled together, I would go<br />

through customs with her and they would literally<br />

take me away in front of her and deny to her<br />

that I existed. I experienced this for years.<br />

When did it start? It really started in 2009, but<br />

I had been very quiet about it. It really started to<br />

heat up in 2010 and 2011 and got gradually worse.<br />

In May 2013 I had dinner with my aforementioned<br />

ex-girlfriend, and at this dinner we were<br />

physically followed by at least two agents we<br />

think were with the FBI. We negotiated over the<br />

internet to have dinner at a specific restaurant<br />

“I feel safer in East<br />

Berlin as an immigrant<br />

than I ever have as a<br />

citizen in the United<br />

States.”<br />

at a specific time and she picked me up and we<br />

drove there. The email was encrypted and we<br />

used all sorts of stuff, but it’s clear that both of<br />

our computers were probably compromised and<br />

they knew everything. What is weird is that we<br />

didn’t go to the restaurant that we planned on.<br />

At the last second I had a nervous twitch and<br />

I said, let’s take a left right here and go to this<br />

restaurant. And not 10 minutes later a guy with<br />

a buzz cut sits down right next to us, puts his<br />

cell on the table, the microphone of his phone<br />

directly pointed at me. Twenty minutes later a<br />

woman comes and sits down next to him. And<br />

she also puts her cell phone on the table. They<br />

pretended to be on a first date but they never<br />

said anything about what they do, why she was<br />

late... At some point my fiancée really broke<br />

down crying from the pressure. The day before,<br />

Laura Poitras had come to visit us in Seattle. So<br />

it’s quite clear that this surveillance had been<br />

linked, they wanted to know what had happened<br />

with Laura. And of course that wasn’t the topic<br />

of our dinner conversation.<br />

Was it during the Snowden revelations?<br />

No, Laura was just visiting me. Laura and I have<br />

been dear friends for a long time. That kind<br />

of harassment started much before Snowden.<br />

And this led me to realise that when these leaks<br />

started coming out, something big was happening.<br />

When we learned about Edward Snowden<br />

and Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, I was<br />

actually in Munich – on my way to Seattle from a<br />

trip to India. A friend from the Chaos Computer<br />

Club walked up to me while I was having dinner<br />

and he said to me, “Did you hear the source of<br />

the leaks?” I was travelling with Laura’s producer<br />

Caity, and we were filming together... I think she<br />

even filmed me loading the page of The Guardian,<br />

learning the name of Edward Snowden and learning<br />

why we couldn’t reach Laura all that time.<br />

I put everything together and realised that if I<br />

were to go back now, these years of harassment<br />

about WikiLeaks would be nothing compared to<br />

what was coming next. So I cancelled my return<br />

flight and I never went home again. That was in<br />

early June of 2013.<br />

All those years of harassment – it was because<br />

of your involvement with Wiki Leaks?<br />

The data trail you leave behind tells a story about<br />

you, but not necessarily one that is true. Even if<br />

it’s made up of facts. For years the US government<br />

harassed me because they thought Bradley<br />

Manning, now Chelsea Manning, had given me<br />

documents. But that is not true.<br />

How do you know they thought that?<br />

Because they dragged friends of mine into a<br />

grand jury in Virginia and threatened them<br />

with indefinite detention if they did not testify<br />

against me, waive their constitutional liberties<br />

9


and talk about me specifically. When I realised<br />

that they had a completely incorrect theory and<br />

that they tried to destroy my life for years, I<br />

thought to myself that there will be no end to<br />

what they do to harass and to destroy. So, I felt I<br />

shouldn’t return.<br />

So why Berlin? Berlin has an incredible culture<br />

of resistance. I have been coming to Berlin for<br />

many years because of the Chaos Computer<br />

Club, and I’ve worked with<br />

Der Spiegel in the context of<br />

WikiLeaks. I have a lot of<br />

close friends here in the art<br />

world and in the computer<br />

hacker world and in the<br />

journalistic world. I exist<br />

at the intersection of those<br />

three worlds, and Berlin<br />

makes me very happy. We<br />

often joke that it’s this sort<br />

of last stand for democracy.<br />

Where people are really<br />

having real dialogues. The<br />

people in Chaos Computer<br />

Club, Der Spiegel, taz, Exberliner,<br />

etc. said to me that they were with me, and<br />

so I have been here for a year and have applied<br />

for a temporary residence visa, as everyone does,<br />

and I received it. Frankly, I feel safer in East Berlin<br />

as an immigrant than I ever have as a citizen<br />

in the United States.<br />

You never felt like applying for asylum?<br />

I do not relish the idea of being a refugee. I<br />

hope it never comes to that. I have been offered<br />

political asylum by other countries. I don’t want<br />

to say which ones. The US government is out<br />

to get everyone associated with WikiLeaks and<br />

Snowden in any way they can. It is political<br />

persecution. I think that Germany has done a<br />

good job by letting me stay. I want the same for<br />

everyone who needs it.<br />

It is a beautiful irony to be an exile here.<br />

Berlin has a crazy history of surveillance<br />

from the Cold War to the present day. We<br />

know from the Snowden files that Germany<br />

is the NSA’s closest ally in Europe.<br />

Even with Berlin’s history, even with the intense<br />

irony of East Berlin being a place where we<br />

work on these things now, it is not necessarily an<br />

endorsement that Berlin is perfect. There is an<br />

immense amount of spying here by the German<br />

government and the NSA. We now know how<br />

closely they work together. For example, as far as<br />

we can tell all the American drone assassinations<br />

are relayed through Germany...<br />

You and Laura both worked with Der<br />

Spiegel – how did it happen? Well, Andy<br />

Müller- Maguhn and I had been working with<br />

Spiegel in various capacities over the years and<br />

we both convinced her to come and work with<br />

us. Marcel Rosenbach and Holger Stark are two<br />

of the greatest living journalists; they are goodnatured,<br />

have good ethics and I trust them both.<br />

Were you ever tempted to join Glenn<br />

“The Guardian<br />

is a petty, shitty<br />

newspaper with<br />

an axe to grind<br />

about WikiLeaks<br />

and Julian<br />

Assange.”<br />

Greenwald and The Guardian? Well, I was<br />

working with Glenn, and I asked The Guardian<br />

for a letter to be covered under their editorial<br />

secrecy privileges, and they declined. I think it’s<br />

because they’re a petty, shitty newspaper with<br />

people at the helm like Luke Harding, Alan<br />

Rusbridger and David Leigh who have an axe to<br />

grind about WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, and<br />

they decided that that was more important than<br />

anything else including protecting me. When, in<br />

<strong>September</strong> 2013, Leigh and<br />

Harding were here at Hundt<br />

Hammer Stein bookstore for<br />

a reading of their book on<br />

WikiLeaks, they lied about<br />

about Julian endlessly. Do<br />

you know that when Julian<br />

first went to the [Ecuadorian]<br />

embassy, The Guardian sent<br />

him a basket with clean socks<br />

and soap in it? That is the attitude<br />

that The Guardian has<br />

towards serious journalists!<br />

Don’t you think they<br />

did a good job with the<br />

Snowden leaks? They broke the story despite<br />

considerable pressure... Until you consider<br />

the fact that they said they wouldn’t even<br />

touch anything related to Afghanistan or Iraq,<br />

for example. I mean, that’s unbelievable... They<br />

have done a good job in some of this reporting,<br />

but to me it is very sad that they view this as a<br />

competition between news organisations or egos<br />

as opposed to understanding the importance<br />

overall. You see this with Harding’s book about<br />

the Snowden files. What does he know about<br />

Snowden? He has no contact to Snowden, no<br />

idea about any of this stuff, and he writes this<br />

totally exploitative book to try and present to us<br />

the full history and it is completely preposterous<br />

– this is The Guardian. The fact that they<br />

have all these documents but they are basically<br />

done reporting on them – to me that’s another<br />

example of how unbelievably irresponsible they<br />

are as a publication. We don’t need organisations<br />

like these who serve the state, we have enough<br />

of those. We need organisations who serve the<br />

public interest, and this is what the press is supposed<br />

to do.<br />

Why didn’t you follow Laura and Glenn to<br />

The Intercept? I really like The Intercept, and I<br />

think the people working there are of the highest<br />

calibre. I’m glad Pierre [Omidyar] is financing it,<br />

but you’ve gotta ask yourself, why? It is purely to<br />

make money. My interest is very much aligned to<br />

increase justice in the world, to try and improve<br />

human rights issues. So I care very much about<br />

the things that Jeremy Scahill writes on The Intercept<br />

about drone strikes. I care what Glenn is doing,<br />

I care what Laura is doing. I have the utmost<br />

respect for publications that get the truth out for<br />

the public interest. But each of these places have<br />

different limits and different goals.<br />

You are being overly diplomatic now. I’m<br />

not! People who work as effective journalists in<br />

the US are harassed, they are bothered... They<br />

are arrested and they live with serious fear of<br />

repercussions even if they won’t admit it.<br />

So, would you say that’s the reason why The<br />

Intercept withheld the fact that Afghanistan<br />

had been under total NSA surveillance<br />

in their exposure of the so-called Bahamas<br />

story – too much pressure? I think it is quite<br />

clear that organisations like The Intercept are<br />

explicitly under pressure. And The Washington Post<br />

is also explicitly under pressure – they got the<br />

story and actually didn’t publish the names of any<br />

of those countries... When you talk to the people<br />

who work at these organisations they all have a<br />

great deal of fear.<br />

But look, Glenn and Laura are two heroes<br />

of fearless journalism. They proved their<br />

integrity many times and now they’ve gone<br />

on to found a new media platform... you<br />

would expect that organisation to be more<br />

‘independent’. So what does that tell you<br />

about what’s possible?<br />

It tells me that apparently it’s not possible.<br />

That is the answer to the question then. What is<br />

possible for The Intercept, The Washington Post or<br />

The Guardian? There are all different things in<br />

terms of possibilities. Could The Intercept publish<br />

anything they want? Potentially, but there are<br />

consequences that come with it. Political, legal<br />

and maybe even technical consequences. The<br />

reality of the situation is that there is a reason<br />

why WikiLeaks exists. WikiLeaks is a publisher<br />

of the last resort.<br />

So, without WikiLeaks, the Afghan people<br />

wouldn’t have been informed... I am happy<br />

that WikiLeaks exists because they serve as a<br />

balancing factor. Right? When publications like<br />

The Intercept fear to publish something like that<br />

or worry that it could be harmful, WikiLeaks<br />

is able to come in and talk about it. It really<br />

behooves governments not to pressure places<br />

like The Intercept or The Washington Post because<br />

that creates a space where it’s absolutely clear<br />

that WikiLeaks is a necessity, even now. I think<br />

it’s sad that there is an environment where news<br />

publications are not allowed to tell you certain<br />

facts, but it is also the reality of the situation<br />

that we are living in.<br />

What do you think was the most significant<br />

thing about the Snowden files? I think that it<br />

is important to understand that Snowden serves<br />

as an example that it is not only possible to<br />

resist, it is possible to resist and to survive. What<br />

Snowden has done is a brave act of whistleblowing.<br />

He has paid dearly for it, and many people<br />

are working to ensure that he doesn’t pay with<br />

his life. Of course the impact of the documents<br />

was important, but the impact of surviving alone<br />

was just as important in some sense for inspiring<br />

other people. I mean, [NSA whistleblower William]<br />

Binney doesn’t have legs anymore. He is a<br />

double amputee from the diabetes and the stress<br />

of his life. Thomas Drake’s life has been in some<br />

ways completely ruined. Chelsea Manning has<br />

ended up with a 35-year prison sentence.<br />

10 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>


But is being stuck in Russia under Putin’s<br />

guardianship really an enviable option?<br />

Well, that’s a really loaded statement; how do<br />

you know that Putin has anything to do with<br />

Edward Snowden? Let me just say that it’s better<br />

to be alive and stuck in one of the largest<br />

countries in the world than to be imprisoned<br />

or to be dead. But some people deny this and<br />

suggest that he is a pawn or a puppet. They<br />

criticise his choice of asylum. But he applied<br />

for asylum in as many countries as possible, and<br />

nearly every single one refused on a technicality.<br />

Sarah Harrison and Julian Assange saved his life<br />

because WikiLeaks takes source protection seriously.<br />

Just imagine, those three people managed<br />

to embarrass the entire intelligence community.<br />

That is so powerful.<br />

Then there are those who say things like,<br />

“Well, what did we learn from Snowden<br />

that we didn’t know before?” There is a<br />

difference between suspecting and absolutely<br />

knowing something like the fact that the Bahamas<br />

are under complete surveillance. There is a<br />

difference between understanding that metadata<br />

programs are being used to help kill people with<br />

drone strikes and speculating about it. There is a<br />

difference between understanding that Chancellor<br />

Merkel is spied on as a head of state in theory<br />

and finding out it is entirely the case. Because of<br />

my experiences, I know something about the difference<br />

between probability and certainty, what<br />

is legal versus what is happening. I, for the rest<br />

of my life, will never lie down in a bed in a house<br />

and not know that my house is monitored. I will<br />

never be able to have a free conversation in my<br />

home for as long as I live...<br />

Stuff like that used to be called paranoia.<br />

So, you’re saying it vindicates the paranoid<br />

ones among us? When Julian Assange and I<br />

wrote Cypherpunks, many people said that we<br />

were crazy, paranoid, etc. Well now, thanks to<br />

Snowden, we know it is no longer unreasonable<br />

to think that our phones are being tapped or that<br />

the internet is being monitored. It is a fact. It<br />

might be oppressive in a sense, but it is still a liberating<br />

phase because it is no longer a question.<br />

Every person who doesn’t work to change it is<br />

complicit. That’s the difference. There is a huge<br />

split between a bunch of cynical people who<br />

say they already knew and don’t need to think<br />

further about it, and a number of not-so-cynical<br />

people who say it’s what we suspected and what<br />

we feared, now let’s change it.<br />

Were you personally shocked by those revelations?<br />

I moved beyond shock. I am horrified and<br />

I want things to change. One way to change these<br />

things is to publicise them so that people know<br />

about them, and another way is to build alternative<br />

solutions to them. And this is what we are doing<br />

with the Tor Project, for example, and many other<br />

people are working on exactly that as well.<br />

So, how do you get people to go to the next<br />

level – from awareness to action? We have to<br />

have a lot more than just individual actions. My<br />

recycling does not save the environment. It is a<br />

useful part of a much bigger picture. We need industrial<br />

action on a planetary scale. For example<br />

we have to re-engineer the way telecommunication<br />

systems work. Why can the NSA wiretap<br />

entire countries? Because the infrastructure is designed<br />

to be wiretapped and they exploit it. And<br />

that needs to be changed. The reality is that most<br />

people trust the defaults of their electronic devices.<br />

Until the architecture is privacy by design,<br />

we will have privacy by policy. Privacy by policy<br />

will always be violated by<br />

people who do not feel that<br />

they are constrained by that<br />

policy. We have to work to<br />

change the way our infrastructure<br />

works. To make it<br />

actually secure.<br />

But many don’t feel that<br />

concerned – as internet<br />

users, they just want to<br />

accomplish certain tasks<br />

and are unbothered<br />

about corporate or political<br />

use of their personal<br />

data.... Saying, “Oh I’m<br />

not interesting, no one will want to watch me” as<br />

a way of coping with this stress is understandable.<br />

But I would re-frame it as “intelligence agencies<br />

are normal people”. The capabilities necessary to<br />

tap a cell phone costs €1000 or less. The methods<br />

are available to everyone – an ex-lover, a competitive<br />

journalist… So, it’s about choice, not whether<br />

or not you have something to hide. There are<br />

businesses that exploit people’s lack of knowledge,<br />

and, yes, we should question the centralisation of<br />

businesses like Facebook and Twitter. We have to<br />

deal with corporate surveillance and government<br />

surveillance and the ties between them. It is a big<br />

problem. But it is something we can solve.<br />

You called Facebook Stasibook… Yes,<br />

because of its close collaboration with the state.<br />

They have an entire department that does nothing<br />

but turn over data to police, governments and<br />

other requesting parties. I’m sure that the FBI<br />

went to Facebook for any data that they had on<br />

me. The Department of Justice went to Twitter<br />

and Google for me. I think the big fallacy is to<br />

think that because people use Facebook they<br />

don’t care about privacy. But what is the alternative<br />

for most people? The reality is that if you live<br />

in London, when you walk down the street, it’s<br />

a privacy-violating channel of information. But<br />

what can you do? You won’t stay inside all the<br />

time, which doesn’t mean you don’t care about<br />

the cameras. So, we must build alternatives so<br />

that people can choose. And we can do it.<br />

You seem unexpectedly confident, even<br />

optimistic. I don’t think there is a divide<br />

between the physical and digital world anymore<br />

and history shows us that it is possible to resist<br />

and it is necessary to do so. With the Snowden<br />

files and WikiLeaks we’ve entered revolutionary<br />

times, big changes are ahead.<br />

Do you think that Snowden sparked a<br />

revolution? Yes. I think Julian Assange, Edward<br />

Snowden, Laura Poitras, Chelsea Manning,<br />

Glenn Greenwald and others have all contributed<br />

a great deal to history. We live in times of<br />

extreme upheaval. I see that we have already<br />

built the beginning of alternative structures that<br />

exist already. Like the Tor network. Millions of<br />

people use it everyday. Whistleblowers, journalists,<br />

doctors... It is not a promise of the future,<br />

it is an optimistic reality. I would say there is a<br />

long struggle, and we are in the middle of this<br />

struggle. We may not<br />

win all these battles and<br />

“There was never a<br />

time in history<br />

where this many<br />

people could be<br />

under surveillance.<br />

This is new, and it<br />

is not okay.”<br />

we may not stop mass<br />

surveillance, but there<br />

is an opportunity to do<br />

that, and with those tools<br />

many people are not as<br />

vulnerable to surveillance<br />

as the rest of the planet<br />

is by default right now.<br />

So, it’s about empowering<br />

ourselves<br />

as citizens of the<br />

digital age? The point<br />

is whether you want to<br />

support the fundamental tenets of a democratic<br />

society. If you do, then you should use these<br />

types of programs. What is most important is<br />

to think about the big picture in order to restore<br />

balance to a lot of what has been lost. We<br />

fundamentally need to re-architect and re-affirm<br />

things, we need our policies and our technologies<br />

to line up, we need to re-affirm fundamental<br />

principles about human rights. When I first<br />

went to the European Court of Human Rights<br />

in Strasbourg, I cried.<br />

I thought you belonged to “generation<br />

so-what”. You’re turning out to be such an<br />

idealist! The court in Strasbourg is one of the<br />

most utopian visions. This notion that any person<br />

can lodge a case or a claim, that any person<br />

has the right to have injustices done to them by<br />

states redressed in this manner, and for states<br />

to have to do something about it… well, this to<br />

me is something almost unimaginable. But then<br />

I think of people like Assange, Snowden and<br />

Poitras and I think, of course we need to reaffirm<br />

these values that were hard-won after the<br />

Second World War. We can’t solve it in a cynical<br />

way. There was never a time in history where<br />

this many people could be under surveillance.<br />

This is new and it is not okay. And we can stop it<br />

and we should stop it. Things like cryptoparties<br />

are part of a grassroots response to stop that on<br />

an individual level and they are great. We need<br />

people to do this in law, we need companies to<br />

take a strong stance to ensure that these types<br />

of communications are secure, to have opportunities<br />

for anonymity, that there is a possibility<br />

for a data-retention-free society. These kinds of<br />

things are critical. I think there are actually ways<br />

in which we know how to do it now. We can use<br />

some of the existing apparatuses to change the<br />

world. And it is already happening. Every time<br />

you anonymise, every time you encrypt, every<br />

time you assert your rights and refuse submission,<br />

we’re winning. n<br />

11


SNOWDEN SPECIAL<br />

Leaked but locked up:<br />

Who controls the Snowden files?<br />

Edward Snowden risked his life to leak documents for<br />

the sake of “informing the public”. But how much<br />

wiser are we, the public, really? How much has<br />

actually been leaked so far, and who decides what<br />

gets published and on what grounds?<br />

We first heard about the NSA files in June of last year over two successive<br />

scoops by The Guardian (June 5), and The Washington Post (June 6) that<br />

left the world screaming with outrage. Never had a single leak unleashed<br />

such a firestorm; never had a leaker been turned into such an instant hero.<br />

(His confessional video was uploaded to Youtube on June 9; it has since<br />

been viewed by over three million people). By <strong>September</strong> 2013, Der Spiegel<br />

released the story about Angela Merkel’s cell phone being monitored by<br />

the NSA, scandalising the Germans and their Kanzlerin. More documents<br />

have been published since, bringing ever more shocking evidence of the<br />

NSA’s total impunity in its ambition of total surveillance. It seems that not<br />

a single country, community or activity escapes America’s all-seeing eye.<br />

How many more revelations are still to come?<br />

In other words: how much has been published so far? Does anyone<br />

actually know the exact size of Snowden’s NSA<br />

cache? NSA Director Keith Alexander initially<br />

estimated that the former contractor had copied<br />

anywhere from 50,000 to 200,000 NSA documents.<br />

Today US officials claim it was 1.7 million<br />

– Snowden said he took far fewer, but never gave<br />

an actual number. Wild speculations concluded<br />

that at the current publication rate, it would take<br />

another half decade to go through Snowden’s<br />

bounty. Who knows?<br />

What we do know is that what has been made<br />

public so far is only a small portion of what<br />

Snowden risked his life to tell the world. What we<br />

also know is that the flow and the content of<br />

At the current<br />

publication rate,<br />

it could take<br />

another half<br />

decade to go<br />

through<br />

Snowden’s bounty.<br />

revelations to the public is controlled by those who have access to the<br />

precious archive. “Who’s that?” you might ask. There’s the original duo<br />

Snowden met in a Hong Kong hotel on June 2, 2013 and entrusted with<br />

the leak – documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras and journalist/blogger<br />

Glenn Greenwald. They, in turn, enrolled the Washington Post and The<br />

Guardian, which was soon to share the spoils with The New York Times. The<br />

circle has grown to include Der Spiegel, since Poitras moved to Berlin with<br />

the files in her luggage to join old companions-in-digital-dissidence,<br />

cypherpunks Jacob Appelbaum and Andy Müller-Maguhn to work with<br />

the German newsweekly. For his part, and while keeping his cooperation<br />

with The Guardian, Greenwald shared his own set of files with outlets in<br />

India and Brazil (he lives in Rio) and the French Le Monde. Ultimately he<br />

left the UK newspaper in October of last year to concentrate on an<br />

ambitious new venture, The Intercept, an ‘independent’ news site generously<br />

funded by Ebay mogul Pierre Omidyar. The site was launched in<br />

March with Poitras as a co-founder. The presence of both of Snowden’s<br />

initial confidentes on the masthead bestowed instant credibility upon the<br />

new online medium. Its mission statement? “To provide a platform to<br />

report on the documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward<br />

Snowden,” pledging fearless, adversarial journalism.<br />

The pressure on media organisations to not publish information is<br />

enormous. It has, for one, driven The Guardian to do away with their own<br />

copy of the Snowden files in a highly publicised case of spy-media drama<br />

– complete with a self-promotional video showing editors laboriously<br />

destroying computer hardware with angle-grinders and drills under the<br />

watchful eyes of two representatives from the GCHQ, the British NSA<br />

equivalent. We also know that The Guardian and The Washington Post<br />

withdrew some information from articles they published – probably after<br />

negotiation with the authorities, mostly for ‘security’ reasons. But what<br />

about when even the more ‘fearless’ ones succumb to the pressure? That’s<br />

what happened last May, when The Intercept failed to disclose the name of a<br />

country outed by a Snowden document as one of the five targets of total<br />

NSA telecom surveillance. It took WikiLeaks’ insider knowledge and<br />

Julian Assange’s outrage at what he called “censorship” to reveal that<br />

“country X” was actually Afghanistan. The Intercept’s defence, “credible<br />

concerns that it could lead to increased violence”, didn’t impress everyone.<br />

So, who are we to trust? RUTH SCHNEIDER<br />

AGATA SASIUK<br />

12 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>


OPINION:<br />

“Open the Snowden Files!” By KRYSTIAN WOZNICKI<br />

More than one year after “NSA-Gate”, access to<br />

Edward Snowden’s documents remains closed.<br />

They have been rendered inaccessible again,<br />

devoid of public control.<br />

A small circle of people decides who can<br />

access, read, analyse, interpret and publish the<br />

Snowden files. Those who belong to this small<br />

circle tend to argue that this has to do with<br />

security reasons – the leaked files have been “secured”<br />

in order to prevent greater harm. There<br />

is also the obvious argument that this method<br />

enables the long-lasting media narrative to<br />

enfold – the “life insurance” of the whistleblower.<br />

But what if, in the very sense that “data is the<br />

oil of the 21st century” – what if the Snowden<br />

files have been privatised by people who try to<br />

exploit them according to their own interests?<br />

Many researchers, activists and technology<br />

experts (not to mention journalists, other than the<br />

“lucky few”) have a great interest to work with the<br />

Snowden files. Imagine the historical impact on<br />

sciences, social movements and IT infrastructures<br />

if those files would become public domain and<br />

serve as material to study as well as to learn from.<br />

In July, I confronted The Guardian’s Luke<br />

Harding (The Snowden Files) with the issue while<br />

at a Netzwerk Recherche summit in Hamburg<br />

(the big gathering of the investigative community).<br />

Harding seemed unprepared to reflect on<br />

the possibility to open the small circle currently<br />

dealing with the Snowden files.<br />

To paraphrase his response: Yes, it is a<br />

dilemma that only few people can look at the<br />

Snowden files and draw their own conclusions.<br />

However, this limitation is a natural result of<br />

their very precarious nature (files containing<br />

state secrets) and a consequence of the influence<br />

exerted by the government. Nonetheless, “if you<br />

have a special project” you could contact Guardian<br />

editor Alan Rusbridger and probably get him<br />

to provide you with the requested material.<br />

A request for files – such a request is usually<br />

directed towards obscure organisations or<br />

corporations, and it is usually articulated by the<br />

press. The request is usually denied at first, but<br />

as the history of investigative journalism shows,<br />

including many successful court cases, one must<br />

fight for one’s right to access information. Now,<br />

you must make these requests to the press itself.<br />

This is absurd. To whom are organisations like<br />

The Guardian, The Washington Post, The New York<br />

Times, Der Spiegel and individuals like Glenn<br />

Greenwald accountable? Are they subject to any<br />

democratic control?<br />

I was also able to ask the investigative reporter<br />

Seymour Hersh what he thought of the fact that<br />

the Snowden files are locked away by people<br />

who actually represent freedom of speech: “I<br />

don’t think there is much chance of getting<br />

either Greenwald or anyone at the Times or Post<br />

or Guardian to open up their files. The reporters<br />

and editors will all claim they have done<br />

the public a great service… meanwhile, they all<br />

continue to hoard what they have and share it<br />

with no one. Newspapers turn out to be not very<br />

interested in spreading the wealth.”<br />

What I’m trying to suggest: we should work<br />

out a new model for transferring the Snowden<br />

files (and big data leaks in general) into the<br />

public domain – taking into account the obvious<br />

problems of security, government pressure and<br />

Snowden’s “life insurance”.<br />

All of this should be addressed on an international<br />

level, starting in the countries where the<br />

files are currently being<br />

processed – in the US, in<br />

the UK and in Germany.<br />

Perhaps it should begin<br />

in Berlin, where the<br />

public interest in the<br />

Snowden disclosures<br />

is probably the biggest<br />

worldwide. The main<br />

actors here, including<br />

journalists at Der Spiegel<br />

and key figures from<br />

the hacker scene, are<br />

accumulating what late<br />

French sociologist Pierre<br />

Bourdieu would call<br />

“cultural capital” due to<br />

their exclusive access, while making non-transparent<br />

decisions about what is accessible to the<br />

public and what is not.<br />

Ultimately, “it is the choice of the leaker to<br />

tell the journalist what to do with the material,”<br />

as Stefan Candea, a central figure in the<br />

Offshore Leaks project, reminds us. So we need<br />

to convince people like Snowden to consider<br />

open access to their files. Maybe this is not such<br />

a futile endeavour when you take into account<br />

the fact that Snowden may not be too satisfied<br />

about how his material has been processed so far.<br />

In any case, we are facing a lot of work. We need<br />

to raise awareness among whistleblowers and we<br />

need to craft an adequate concept for platforms<br />

that allow open access to their leaks. In six<br />

points, here is what we need to consider:<br />

1. Any responsible disclosure of leaked source<br />

material should come with information about<br />

the whole body of documents, as long as this<br />

kind of information does not reveal the identity<br />

of the leaker.<br />

2. The public version should be cleared of all<br />

names. Ewan Tarkan, a journalist pursuing (undercover)<br />

research on issues like the surveillance<br />

industry, states: “In the past there have been several<br />

cases in which the names of people who had<br />

just done simple IT services were visible. Their<br />

lives are at stake when documents containing<br />

visible names are published. At the same time,<br />

this can’t be brought forth as an argument to<br />

withhold all the files. As the case of WikiLeaks<br />

shows, it is possible to remove names from documents<br />

before publishing them.” Yet, who decides<br />

Do we have to<br />

decide between<br />

Snowden’s life<br />

insurance and<br />

open access to the<br />

files? Or are there<br />

ways to reconcile<br />

both concerns?<br />

which names should be deleted? Who designs<br />

the interface in a way that is also attractive to a<br />

broad, non-technical audience?<br />

3. The files need to be made accessible in a<br />

manner that allows everybody working with<br />

them a certain degree of anonymity – you don’t<br />

want the files on your desktop, but in the cloud,<br />

at a publicly known location that is accessible in<br />

a secure way. But hosted by whom? For instance,<br />

a public institution like a library?<br />

4. The question how to work with the files<br />

is central to the model: Are the respective files<br />

machine-readable? Or do they need to be rendered<br />

that way? There are various tools that will<br />

solve that problem, e.g. DocumentCloud.<br />

5. You need to understand the language in<br />

which the files are written. Solicit the help of<br />

someone who is fluent,<br />

learn it yourself or have<br />

your machine do it for<br />

you. Needless to say, any<br />

publication would have<br />

to provide links to the<br />

sources, openly accessible<br />

to anyone.<br />

6. In Snowden’s case,<br />

we need to make sure<br />

that the whistleblower<br />

does not lose his life<br />

insurance and consequently<br />

his life. The<br />

next big step would<br />

be to open access to<br />

the files – at least 50<br />

percent of them. In Julian Assange’s case, some<br />

files remained undisclosed in order to back up<br />

his publishing activity. This approach could also<br />

work for Snowden.<br />

Is this all our model needs to consider? Probably<br />

not. But for now, we could start by asking: why is<br />

there only one publicly available counter of the<br />

Snowden files in the world, maintained by John<br />

Young’s Cryptome under the project name Tally<br />

Update? Why aren’t those in the circle of the<br />

lucky few providing such a service? Or at least<br />

helping Young with fact checking? Why are the<br />

Snowden files not handled in a less restrictive<br />

manner? Aren’t there smarter ways to go about<br />

it? And when thinking about public interest: Do<br />

we have to make a decision between Snowden’s<br />

life insurance and open access to the files? Or<br />

are there ways to reconcile both concerns?<br />

The discussion entails reflections on the foundations<br />

of our democracy. It is not the worst<br />

moment in history to rethink most of them. n<br />

Krystian Woznicki is a<br />

journalist, cultural critic and<br />

publisher of the Berliner<br />

Gazette, an online<br />

newspaper he founded in<br />

1999. The Gazette will be<br />

holding its annual<br />

conference, this year<br />

entitled “Slow Politics”, at<br />

Supermarkt on Nov 13-15.<br />

YASUHIRO YAMAGUCHI<br />

13


SNOWDEN SPECIAL<br />

Snowden’s defender<br />

Berlin-based lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck is the NSA whistleblower’s legal support in Europe<br />

and a dedicated fighter in the struggle against state surveillance. The co-founder of the<br />

European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights regularly takes states and<br />

corporations to court for human rights abuses around the globe from his office on the<br />

fifth floor of a large factory building in Kreuzberg’s Zossener Straße. By Ruth Schneider<br />

Edward Snowden has two American lawyers<br />

and a Russian one. You are officially his<br />

European lawyer – what’s been your role so<br />

far? We’ve been exploring the possibility of him<br />

getting to some type of safe haven in Europe. One<br />

country specifically was under discussion over the<br />

last 12 months: Germany. The German parliament<br />

set up an NSA investigation committee,<br />

and part of their discussion<br />

was to invite him to come<br />

to Germany to testify and<br />

give him some type of<br />

state security. It wasn’t very<br />

realistic, because obviously<br />

the two governing parties<br />

are not willing to have him<br />

here. People tried to make it<br />

happen, but there were still<br />

some legal issues. There are<br />

other European countries<br />

that want him as an expert<br />

and to hear his opinion on<br />

the issues that he raised,<br />

but it seems that for now he<br />

might stay in Russia...<br />

So countries want him<br />

to testify, yet they don’t<br />

want to give him any<br />

guarantee... That is typical<br />

hypocrisy when it comes<br />

to civil liberties and human<br />

rights. My enemy’s whistleblower<br />

is my friend and my<br />

own whistleblower is my<br />

enemy. You should expect<br />

a more principled position,<br />

especially from Western<br />

Europea n countries. This<br />

is not only about Edward<br />

Snow den, it is about a fundamental<br />

principle of transparency<br />

and democracy and<br />

enabling us, the national,<br />

European and global public,<br />

to discuss certain things.<br />

If he hadn’t come out with<br />

these revelations, we would<br />

have had no chance to participate<br />

in these discussions on a knowledgeable<br />

basis. None of us can deny that even our European<br />

democracies are violating laws. We need to<br />

balance that out, and whistleblowers do this.<br />

Do you see hypocrisy in Germany? Sure! The<br />

rule of law played a bigger role in Germany than<br />

in US policy over the last 15 years, that is for<br />

sure. Germany was much more willing to obey<br />

and advocate for international law. There is a<br />

difference between torturing suspects yourself, as<br />

the US did post-9/11, and some actions somehow<br />

evading German law, which is what we are<br />

talking about now. But still in the issue of secret<br />

services there is much hypocrisy, and if their conclusion<br />

from the NSA scandal is to better equip<br />

German, French and Swiss<br />

secret services, then we are<br />

not on the same page. I’m<br />

fighting for a less superficial<br />

critique of the US and a<br />

more principled discussion.<br />

MICHAL ANDRYSIAK<br />

What about the right<br />

to privacy ? Aren’t there<br />

any laws? Privacy laws<br />

do exist, but with a lot of<br />

exceptions. When it comes<br />

to a confrontation between<br />

privacy and national security,<br />

privacy never wins. We as<br />

Western societies allow our<br />

secret services a lot. And it’s<br />

not only a problem in the<br />

US or since 9/11. We had<br />

the problems before, and<br />

it is not helpful to use the<br />

scandal to blame others...<br />

This is much more than accusing<br />

the NSA of collecting<br />

too much data. The idea<br />

that America is the bad guy<br />

prevents you from thinking<br />

and from really considering<br />

the big picture.<br />

What about Snowden<br />

being recognised as a<br />

political dissident and<br />

granted political asylum<br />

in Europe? Not possible?<br />

Unless you are a whistleblower<br />

from China or from<br />

Russia – then, it’s considered<br />

political persecution.<br />

If you come from those<br />

countries you won’t have a<br />

14 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>


problem being acknowledged, but if you come<br />

from a ‘friendly’ country you will have a problem.<br />

But there can be other exceptions in international<br />

law where you have the guarantee of a safe stay.<br />

So, concretely, what would happen if<br />

Snowden travelled to Berlin? I don’t know.<br />

This is a political decision. If he took a plane<br />

from Moscow to Berlin, he would run the obvious<br />

risk of being arrested and extradited to the<br />

US. There would be an extradition procedure<br />

where he would have to defend himself. That is a<br />

very realistic scenario.<br />

He wouldn’t have very good chances, would<br />

he? It is not about a good chance. He’ll only<br />

enter the country if he has the assurance that he<br />

won’t be imprisoned or extradited or somehow<br />

rendered to the US.<br />

Isn’t it crazy that in 21stcentury<br />

Europe there isn’t<br />

one country that could<br />

guarantee this? Most of European<br />

history was the opposite<br />

of what Europeans think of<br />

themselves. Yes, they claimed<br />

to follow the various paths of<br />

enlightenment and protect<br />

human rights everywhere… but<br />

at the same time, European<br />

history is a history of colonialism<br />

and post-colonial exploitation. On the one<br />

hand they hold speeches for human rights, and<br />

on the other they exploit indigenous populations<br />

all over the world in order to find cheaper natural<br />

resources. It’s not enough to only see one side.<br />

Here in Germany, there’s a strong pro-<br />

Snowden movement... As far as I can see,<br />

the media and the hype about Edward Snowden<br />

didn’t improve his situation regarding getting<br />

asylum in Germany or elsewhere. The government<br />

didn’t change its stance much from the<br />

beginning. It was a very self-centred discussion.<br />

It was news about nothing. The whole time, he<br />

was saying, “I don’t think I should be in the centre<br />

of this discussion. You shouldn’t discuss me,<br />

you should support the cause of anti-surveillance<br />

and protection of whistleblowers.” And that<br />

hasn’t happened so much. The discussion was<br />

about him, but it wasn’t his initiative... and that<br />

is not in his interest.<br />

From early on he decided to show his face.<br />

Was it a smart gesture? It was a catch-22. If he<br />

didn’t show his face, people would have accused<br />

him of being a coward. Now that he did, he’s<br />

criticised too. I think he has very strong arguments<br />

for the way he did it. It is a good way to<br />

prove that he is a bona fide whistleblower.<br />

Is being recogniseable good legal protection<br />

for him, or just the opposite? It’s not only<br />

about the law; it is law, morality and politics. He<br />

obviously gets a lot of moral support because he<br />

showed his face and is willing to answer questions.<br />

Whether this will lead to the right political conclusions,<br />

we will see. It’s not the end of the story.<br />

“My enemy’s<br />

whistleblower<br />

is my friend<br />

and my own<br />

whistle blower<br />

is my enemy.”<br />

Personally, you don’t think it makes any difference?<br />

No, no, I’m not saying that. I have my<br />

sympathy for someone who does it that way. It<br />

makes it easier to defend him. The political outcome<br />

of these revelations is not Edward Snowden<br />

versus the NSA or Edward Snowden versus the<br />

US – it is the public, the defenders of human<br />

liberties plus Edward Snowden. It is an ongoing<br />

battle. You can’t draw conclusions. It is about<br />

taking up the cause and trying to enforce it.<br />

Hubertus Knabe (see page 20) and others<br />

have filed charges against the NSA… I think<br />

that the litigation so far may not have hit the<br />

right point. There was this interesting piece that<br />

Constanze Kurz [of the Computer Chaos Club]<br />

filed with others in the UK. They went to the<br />

European court in Strasbourg against the UK for<br />

the violation of privacy laws. I think it’s a crucial<br />

problem that we don’t have<br />

appropriate laws. We have to<br />

reform our laws to deal with the<br />

dangers of massive interception<br />

of information by secret services.<br />

This is the perfect time.<br />

Like working on drafting<br />

laws to protect whistleblowers?<br />

The Council of Europe<br />

wants to propose an additional<br />

protocol for the European Convention<br />

of Human Rights. Many<br />

people are proposing reforms, and we have to see<br />

if the Snowden revelations serve as a long-term<br />

solution for whistleblowers. The national parliaments<br />

have to decide.<br />

Are you hopeful? Is the political will there?<br />

I’m not interested in whether the political will is<br />

there or not. My task is to work on it.<br />

When you see what happened to Chelsea<br />

Manning and people forget that Julian Assange<br />

is stuck in an embassy, what are your<br />

hopes for Snowden – and beyond? Whistleblowers<br />

who get into trouble need strong allies,<br />

people who will take a high personal risk, not<br />

for them, but for the future. It is a long-term<br />

struggle. At this point in time it is more dangerous<br />

for whistleblowers; maybe we will be in a<br />

better situation in three to five years, but only if<br />

other people join this struggle. Let’s prepare to<br />

lay the ground for a better situation for Edward<br />

Snowden today or tomorrow, and for other<br />

whistleblowers in the future. Are you ready for<br />

the struggle? Yes or no?<br />

Berlin ended up being a centre of<br />

Snowden support. Do you think that<br />

exiles like Laura Poitras, Sarah Harrison<br />

or Jacob Appelbaum are safer here?<br />

I hope that they are all safe, but there is no<br />

guarantee. The point is that if some prosecutor<br />

in the world decides to issue an international<br />

or European arrest warrant, how do German<br />

authorities deal with that? We can hope that<br />

public opinion here is strong enough and that<br />

the community would back them up, but the<br />

test hasn’t come yet. n<br />

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15


ARTICLE SNOWDEN TAGSPECIAL<br />

WHERE THE SPIES ARE<br />

By Dan Borden<br />

Last year, Edward Snowden’s NSA files revealed that America was<br />

listening in on German citizens’ phone calls, right up to Chancellor<br />

Angela Merkel. Then in June, two German intelligence workers were<br />

accused of spying for the US, in part to keep an eye on Russia. Berlin<br />

is once again a capital of international espionage and, in an uncanny<br />

mirroring of its Cold War heyday, a proxy battleground between<br />

Washington and Moscow. These revelations have turned a spotlight<br />

on the Hauptstadt’s cast of intelligence agents and imbued some<br />

otherwise mundane office buildings with an aura of intrigue…<br />

Bendlerblock<br />

Stauffenbergstr. 13-14, Mitte<br />

Today a group of conspirators planting bombs to overthrow the<br />

government would be labelled a terrorist cell, but when said group<br />

targeted Adolf Hitler, they were rightfully heralded as heroes. Colonel<br />

Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg led the July 20, 1944 plot to<br />

assassinate the Nazi leader from this 1914 neo-classical edifice, then<br />

the Wehrmacht headquarters. Hours after their plot failed, he and<br />

fellow conspirators were executed in the building’s inner courtyard.<br />

Today, the Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand, or German Resistance<br />

Memorial Centre, commemorates Von Stauffenberg and other Germans<br />

who actively opposed the Nazi regime out of conscience. But<br />

this memorial to violent subversion shares Bendlerblock with one of<br />

modern Germany’s largest bureaucracies, the Federal Ministry<br />

of Defence and, specifically, the office of accused spy Leonid<br />

K. Investigators say the 37-year old bureaucrat passed<br />

secrets to American agents and, on July 9, raided<br />

Leonid’s Bendlerblock office and Potsdam home. Der<br />

Spiegel reports that, like Stauffenberg, Leonid K. is of<br />

aristocratic birth, but his motivation for betraying his<br />

country – conscience or money? – is still a mystery.<br />

The American Embassy<br />

Pariser Platz 2, Mitte<br />

When it opened in July 2008, the worst that German<br />

critics could say about the new embassy was<br />

that it was ugly. The building had a tortured birth.<br />

California-based architects Moore Ruble Yudell<br />

got design credit, but their unofficial partner was<br />

Osama bin Laden. The 1998 African embassy<br />

bombings and <strong>September</strong> 11, 2001 attacks forced<br />

ever-stronger security measures. Even the Holocaust<br />

Memorial across the street was squeezed<br />

to make room for a buffer zone. But the new embassy’s<br />

too-public location – a stone’s throw from<br />

the Reichstag, Kanzleramt and other embassies<br />

– made it perfect for high-tech eavesdropping.<br />

Last year, amid the uproar over news that the NSA<br />

tapped Angela Merkel’s phone, Der Spiegel magazine<br />

outed the building as a secret listening post.<br />

Its windowless penthouse, they contend, hides the<br />

super-sensitive antennae of the Special Collection<br />

Service (SCS), an elite agency run<br />

jointly by the NSA and CIA. These<br />

accusations have made the<br />

American Embassy more<br />

than just ugly – it’s<br />

turned into a symbol of<br />

paranoia and distrust.<br />

16 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>


The Bundesnachrichtendienst<br />

Schwartzkopffstr., Mitte<br />

Construction began on the enormous new<br />

home for the Bundesnachrichtendienst<br />

(BND), Germany’s version of the CIA or<br />

MI6, way back in 2006. When it opens in<br />

2017 – three years behind schedule and<br />

€1.5 billion over budget – Berlin will become<br />

home to the highest concentration<br />

of German spies, 4000 agents and support<br />

staff. The city can also expect a boom in<br />

private companies and start-ups specialising<br />

in surveillance and high-tech gadgetry.<br />

The anticipated influx of well-paid bureaucrats<br />

is already transforming this quiet<br />

corner of Mitte. Across Chausseestraße<br />

from the BND, a plot of land once divided<br />

by the Berlin Wall is morphing into The<br />

The Russian Embassy<br />

Unter den Linden 63-65, Mitte<br />

Garden, a complex of 214 luxury condos.<br />

Sales prices: €3500-5000 per square metre,<br />

above the city average of €3000.<br />

Why relocate the BND’s spies from<br />

Pullach, in suburban Bavaria, to the<br />

Hauptstadt? Berlin needs the money – the<br />

agency’s <strong>2014</strong> budget was €550 billion.<br />

And it allows for more secure, non-digital<br />

communication between the BND<br />

and Angela Merkel’s<br />

office. Hand-delivered,<br />

typewritten<br />

messages? Or<br />

maybe tin cans<br />

with really long<br />

strings?<br />

Why is the US really spying on Germany? According to some<br />

experts, to keep up with the Russians. Washington suspects the<br />

German intelligence agencies are already riddled with Russian<br />

spies. Ironically, America’s BND mole Markus R. was discovered<br />

only because he got greedy and also offered his services to<br />

the Russian Embassy in Berlin. When it opened in 1951, the<br />

then-Soviet Embassy broke a lot of rules: it’s set back from Unter<br />

den Linden and taller than its neighbours. Stalin demanded a<br />

symbol of dominance over a conquered enemy and a model for<br />

future development in the capital (see Karl-Marx-Allee). Stalin<br />

fan and ex-KGB agent Vladimir Putin has kept the Cold War-era<br />

Russian-German spy machine at full throttle. A Marburg couple<br />

convicted of espionage in July 2013 had been relaying EU and<br />

NATO secrets to Moscow nonstop since the Reagan era. The US<br />

complains that ex-GDR comrade Merkel has been too soft on<br />

Putin: Markus R. offered his secrets to both the US and Russia.<br />

Both accepted, but only the US was punished – the CIA’s Berlin<br />

station chief, posted at the US Embassy, was expelled in July.<br />

WHERE THE<br />

SPIES WERE<br />

n Glienicke Brücke (Wannsee/<br />

Potsdam) First termed the “Bridge of Unity”<br />

because it linked West Berlin with Potsdam<br />

in the East, it earned the sexier title “Bridge<br />

of Spies” after hosting a series of high profile<br />

East-West agent exchanges.<br />

n NSA listening post (Teufelsberg,<br />

Grunewald) The US National Security<br />

Agency picked this man-made hill, West<br />

Berlin’s highest point, to eavesdrop on<br />

Soviet military communications (see page<br />

18). Today it’s a picturesque ruin.<br />

n Cafe Adler (Friedrichstr. 206, Mitte)<br />

Where East met West. A hub of journalists,<br />

diplomats and spies loved for its ornate glass<br />

ceiling and view to Checkpoint Charlie across<br />

the street. It closed in 2008.<br />

n Former US Embassy to East<br />

Germany (Neustädtische Kirchstr. 4-5,<br />

Mitte) From 1974-1990, this 19th-century<br />

palace two blocks from Unter den Linden<br />

was officially an island of Yankee soil and, no<br />

doubt, a nest of Cold War spies.<br />

n Café Moskau (Karl-Marx-Allee 34,<br />

Mitte) Soviet bloc VIPs flocked to this icon<br />

of 1960s chic for the best Russian food in<br />

town. Across the street was East Berlin’s<br />

premier hotel, the Berolina, today a lowly<br />

Bürgeramt.<br />

n Stasi headquarters (Ruschestr. 103,<br />

Lichtenberg) East Germany’s dreaded secret<br />

police operated from this not-so-secret<br />

Lichtenberg compound. It’s now a museum<br />

run by Stasi survivors.<br />

Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz<br />

Kasernengelände Am Treptower Park, Treptow<br />

The two Germans caught spying for the US were<br />

uncovered by Germany’s domestic intelligence<br />

agency, the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, or<br />

BfV. Its Berlin headquarters sits just west of the<br />

Treptower Park S-Bahn station, a high-tech office<br />

building nestled between 19th-century brick army<br />

barracks. Like the FBI in the US, the BfV keeps<br />

tabs on internal threats to the nation’s security.<br />

But critics say the agency’s title, literally ‘Protection<br />

of the Constitution’, smacks of Orwellian<br />

doublespeak as its agents are regularly caught<br />

breaking laws while exercising their duties. The<br />

BfV’s dodgy reputation dates back to its founding<br />

in 1950 when the Allies staffed the new agency<br />

with ex-members of the Gestapo, the Nazis’<br />

secret police, but cases of illegal wiretapping and<br />

secret closed trials continue to this day. Critics<br />

allege the agency is preoccupied with left-wing<br />

threats – half the members of Die Linke party in<br />

the Bundestag were found to be under surveillance<br />

– while turning a blind eye to right-wing<br />

extremists. A neo-Nazi group, the National<br />

Socialist Underground (NSU), carried out a terror<br />

campaign against immigrants from 2000 to 2006<br />

undetected because the BfV’s agents blamed the<br />

10 murders on organised crime. Whether this was<br />

due to incompetence or complicity, as its critics<br />

accuse, will never be known since a BfV manager<br />

shredded dozens of key documents. Last year,<br />

Cem Özdemir, Chairman of the Green Party, said<br />

the BfV’s institutionalised xenophobia makes<br />

it unable to combat right-wing extremism and<br />

called for the agency to be dismantled.<br />

17


SNOWDEN SPECIAL<br />

America’s lapdog<br />

From the Cold War to reunified Germany, surveillance has a long history in Berlin, which might<br />

be why Berliners have been so touchy about the Snowden affair. But then again, the country’s<br />

relations with the NSA have always been intimate – and slightly unhealthy. By Ben Knight<br />

As tour guides go, Bernie is a bit eccentric. Unshaven<br />

and chain-smoking, the ageing Berliner<br />

leads people round the smashed, leaky ruin on<br />

Teufelsberg explaining things in a sarcastic tone<br />

that keeps you constantly unsure whether the<br />

things he says are true. He spent 16 years guarding<br />

the “Devil’s Mountain” when it was an Allied<br />

military field station, and his favourite parts of<br />

the tour are when he can hint mysteriously at<br />

the decadence and destruction that used to go<br />

on when the Cold War ended. He stops next to a<br />

pile of warped wheels and cracked metal inside a<br />

lift shaft. “See this? I helped cut the cables once,”<br />

he says, as if telling a that-was-some-party story.<br />

“We did it to block off the lower floors.” What<br />

used to happen on the lower floors? “No, not<br />

telling you that. That stays down there.” Then he<br />

cackles, puts a finger up to his toothless mouth<br />

and makes a very serious face.<br />

Teufelsberg is a godforsaken place where manmade<br />

plans usually come to nothing – Albert<br />

Speer’s military academy, whose foundation<br />

stone was laid here by Hitler, was stopped midconstruction<br />

by the Second World War. David<br />

Lynch’s “New Age University” nearby was never<br />

given planning permission. And all that’s left of<br />

the luxury apartments planned for the disused<br />

military listening station is some parquet flooring<br />

in the decrepit showroom. Even Bernie’s<br />

lift-destroying debauchery was ended by the<br />

authorities.<br />

So now there are only the tours, conducted<br />

by the fascinating, inscrutable people who used<br />

to work here. Out on the roof, with its vista of<br />

the whole of Berlin and what looks like half of<br />

Brandenburg, Bernie is being secretive again.<br />

This time he refuses to tell us what the middle<br />

surveillance dome – the one set higher up than<br />

the other two, on top of a tower – was used<br />

for. “You said that one was for picking up radio<br />

signals, and that one was for monitoring air traffic,<br />

so what else could the middle one be? Maybe<br />

satellites?” Bernie shrugs, narrows his eyes, and<br />

presses his lips together.<br />

“Why is it still a secret?” someone asks.<br />

“There are things about this place that are officially<br />

a secret until 2022,” he says.<br />

“Come on, it’s not like America still cares.<br />

There’s nothing here.”<br />

“You’re only half right there,” says Bernie.<br />

“The Americans still keep an eye on this place.”<br />

Some of the tourists can’t help but look around,<br />

while Bernie wanders off.<br />

Bernie guarded the Teufelsberg field station<br />

from 1976 to 1992, checking the IDs on the<br />

American and British soldiers as they came into<br />

work every day (via separate entrances). Germans<br />

weren’t allowed in. And if they needed a plumber<br />

or a repairman, Bernie says solemnly, they were<br />

blindfolded as they were led through the windowless<br />

corridors inside.<br />

The point of this field station was to eavesdrop<br />

on the communists. There were Russian<br />

specialists for Russian communications and<br />

German linguists to handle the East Germans.<br />

Another tour guide, Chris McLarren, spent two<br />

years – from 1973 to 1975 – as a signals traffic<br />

analyst at Teufelsberg, tracking the East German<br />

army as they marched around the Brandenburg<br />

countryside. “It was our job to know the other<br />

army almost as well as the people serving in it,” is<br />

how he remembers it. As far as he is concerned,<br />

intelligence work in the Cold War meant preserving<br />

world peace: “The important thing is that<br />

the Soviets also had a listening post. The biggest<br />

dangers were surprise, panic and military overreaction.<br />

But because we were both listening,<br />

there was no surprise, no panic and no overreaction.<br />

And we’re all still here. But the world is<br />

very different now.”<br />

Which is why, even though he’s an ex-intelligence<br />

agent, McLarren is on Edward Snowden’s<br />

The Stasi’s files on<br />

the NSA were<br />

handed over to the<br />

Americans, without<br />

any copies being<br />

kept: “The tracks<br />

were successfully<br />

covered.”<br />

side. “I admire whistleblowers greatly,” he says.<br />

“They are usually people trying to do the right<br />

thing, and they see other people trying to do the<br />

right thing, but not obeying the rules. And the<br />

rules are there for a purpose.” Then again, he<br />

admits he might not have felt so righteous back<br />

in the 1970s. Would he have been concerned if<br />

he’d found out that the NSA was spying on West<br />

German citizens? “I would have to be persuaded<br />

now. I don’t know if that would have been the<br />

case then, because young people tend to be very<br />

enthusiastic about their work.”<br />

As it is though, McLarren insists that his work<br />

at Teufelsberg was exclusively military. “So far as<br />

I know, mine was totally a military institution.<br />

This was the US Army’s intelligence agency, and<br />

we provided our information up the military<br />

chain.” But then he adds, “I don’t know if<br />

there were NSA workers there, and it may have<br />

changed after I left.”<br />

Defining the difference between military and<br />

civilian intelligence work is central to the NSA<br />

scandal – some surveillance targets are more ‘legitimate’<br />

than others. But drawing the line was tricky<br />

even when enemies were more visible, and since<br />

the end of the Cold War it has become a lot more<br />

difficult. William Binney, the former NSA technical<br />

director who resigned and turned whistleblower<br />

in 2001, believes the agency he worked for was<br />

effectively using the Teufelsberg listening station<br />

from the very beginning. After all, the NSA has a<br />

military component, called the Central Security<br />

Service (CSS), and that is usually headed by a US<br />

army general.<br />

The combination of the end of the Cold War<br />

and 9/11 dramatically ramped up the political<br />

power of the intelligence community in the US.<br />

A couple of months ago, Binney testified to the<br />

German parliament that the NSA had become<br />

a “totalitarian organisation.” It was a remark<br />

that was used in plenty of headlines because it<br />

confirmed the Germans’ biggest fear: the NSA<br />

equals the Stasi. Quite a few people have drawn<br />

that comparison, including, according to The<br />

New York Times, Angela Merkel during an angry<br />

phone call with Barack Obama (she denied<br />

it). It’s an obvious point to make, and it’s the<br />

apparent reason why Germans have been more<br />

outraged about the Snowden case than most. But<br />

according to Stasi expert Hubertus Knabe (see<br />

18 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>


page 20), while it might<br />

be valid in terms of methodology,<br />

it’s also fraught<br />

with historical inaccuracy.<br />

Klaus Eichner might be<br />

one of the best people<br />

to judge. He had a<br />

33-year career at East<br />

Germany’s Ministry<br />

of State Security (MfS,<br />

aka Stasi) and became<br />

an officer specialised in<br />

combating the West’s<br />

secret services. Eichner<br />

recently published a<br />

withering book called<br />

Empire Without Mysteries:<br />

What the GDR’s Intelligence<br />

Services Already Knew<br />

About the NSA, which<br />

tells the dark stories of<br />

how the Stasi infiltrated<br />

Teufelsberg. He doesn’t<br />

think much of the comparison.<br />

“Secret services<br />

are always formed by the<br />

political system from<br />

which they originate and<br />

in which they function,”<br />

he says. “So there can be<br />

no equivalence between<br />

the secret services of the<br />

East and the West.”<br />

But, he added, that<br />

doesn’t mean you can<br />

simply define the East as<br />

dictatorial and the West<br />

as democratic. “One<br />

argument is as wrong as<br />

the other,” he says. In his<br />

book, Eichner even dares<br />

to turn the equivalence<br />

on its head: “I share the<br />

chancellor’s view that<br />

the comparison between<br />

the Stasi and the NSA<br />

is unacceptable, though<br />

for a different reason: we<br />

stuck to the laws.”<br />

Whatever you think of that claim, the discussion<br />

itself is a little academic, given that the<br />

Stasi doesn’t exist anymore. A bit more pertinent<br />

for us is the relationship between the NSA and<br />

reunified Germany’s intelligence agency, the<br />

Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND). Another NSA<br />

whistleblower, Thomas Drake, gave the German<br />

press more headlines earlier this year when he<br />

told the German parliamentary committee that<br />

the BND was nothing more than an “appendix”<br />

to the NSA. Though he says that the German<br />

press misinterpreted that – he didn’t mean a useless,<br />

subordinate bodily organ, but appendix as<br />

in what you put at the end of a book. “Sort of an<br />

afterthought,” as he puts it.<br />

But whichever metaphor you use, the relationship,<br />

says Drake, is intimate and slightly unhealthy.<br />

“It’s fair to say it’s a subservient relationship...<br />

the NSA is very much the big brother.”<br />

The BND’s obedience to the NSA stems from<br />

West Germany’s former dependence on the<br />

USA. That had dramatic consequences in the<br />

aftermath of reunification, when the Stasi’s files<br />

on the NSA were inherited by the new German<br />

government. In Empire Without Mysteries, Eichner<br />

claims that the authority in charge of administering<br />

the Stasi files (headed by the future German<br />

President Joachim Gauck) and the Interior<br />

Ministry under Wolfgang Schäuble, broke German<br />

law to make sure that all the Stasi’s files on<br />

the NSA were handed over to the Americans,<br />

without any copies being kept. “The tracks were<br />

successfully covered,” Eichner writes. It was now<br />

“impossible to prove black on white how the<br />

Americans spied on the GDR and the Federal<br />

Republic of Germany in the 1970s and 1980s.”<br />

Eichner’s implication is that if the German<br />

government had followed its own rules, we would<br />

have known a lot more<br />

about the NSA before<br />

Binney, Drake, and<br />

Snowden came along. The<br />

whistleblowers merely<br />

made obvious what the<br />

Stasi already knew. “The<br />

surveillance of German<br />

telecommunications by<br />

the NSA is not the core<br />

of the problem. The problem<br />

is the imperial urge<br />

of the USA superpower<br />

to impose its global ambition<br />

for domination with<br />

the help of the NSA in<br />

the electronic war against<br />

both friend and foe.”<br />

A decade after<br />

reunification, the<br />

BND’s relationship to<br />

the NSA became even<br />

more obsequious when<br />

Germany’s intelligence<br />

agencies caught flak<br />

for failing to catch the<br />

Hamburg cell that took<br />

part in the <strong>September</strong> 11<br />

attacks in the US. “The<br />

attitude was, ‘wait a<br />

minute, there were actual<br />

9/11 terrorists living in<br />

Hamburg and you didn’t<br />

stop them?’” says Drake.<br />

After that, “the BND<br />

became eager to provide<br />

as much as it could. The<br />

2002 agreement that I<br />

saw was very broad in<br />

terms of information<br />

sharing and access. The<br />

NSA has always had this<br />

attitude to third parties<br />

[those outside the US,<br />

UK, Canada, Australia<br />

and New Zealand, the<br />

so-called ‘Five Eyes’]: you<br />

give us whatever we ask<br />

for, and then we’ll decide<br />

what we give you.”<br />

Then, as the age of Facebook and mass online<br />

data dawned and the NSA’s mass surveillance programmes<br />

began to fire up their engines, it became<br />

clear that Germany was in an ideal geographical<br />

position. It was a staging post for data flying in<br />

from the Middle East, North Africa and Afghanistan,<br />

as well as across Europe. That agreement in<br />

2002 marked the sea change. According to Drake,<br />

before 2002, especially during the Cold War,<br />

mass data about citizens wasn’t collected and<br />

even targeted data wasn’t kept for longer than<br />

was necessary for analysis. Afterwards, he says, “it<br />

didn’t matter. The mindset was ‘we need all the<br />

data’... and the NSA had particular leverage over<br />

the BND.”<br />

All this has left Germany in what you’d call<br />

an awkward position: it is both the NSA’s most<br />

obedient lapdog and its bitterest, most outraged<br />

critic. n<br />

CW-DESIGN / PHOTOCASE.COM<br />

19


SNOWDEN SPECIAL<br />

From Stasi to NSA… and back?<br />

Head of the Stasi prison memorial Hubertus Knabe knows a thing or two about state<br />

surveillance. He’s suing the NSA for spying on Germans. By Sara Wilde<br />

Born in the West in 1959 to GDR exiles,<br />

the historian and human rights<br />

activist Hubertus Knabe campaigned<br />

to release East German dissidents,<br />

attracting the attention of the East German<br />

secret police, the Stasi. In 1992, he was one<br />

of the first to access his personal file, where<br />

he learned that a close friend had reported<br />

him for smuggling “forbidden literature” into<br />

the GDR. As director of the memorial in the<br />

former Stasi Hohenschönhausen prison, he<br />

has fought tirelessly against trivialisation of<br />

the crimes of the former communist state.<br />

He’s also drawn ire for his staunch criticism<br />

of the German Left Party (Die Linke) and<br />

uncompromising rejection of Ostalgie in all its<br />

forms. After information about NSA activity<br />

in Germany came to light in the Snowden files<br />

last year, he filed a criminal complaint against<br />

the United States with the German Federal<br />

Prosecutor’s office for illegally collecting and<br />

analysing the data of German citizens.<br />

You filed a lawsuit against the NSA. Why?<br />

The media reported that large-scale telephone<br />

and email monitoring had taken place in<br />

Germany. This is forbidden by our constitution,<br />

hence illegal – therefore I believe it is<br />

the duty of the German Federal Prosecutor to<br />

investigate. Much to my regret, they decided to<br />

start investigating only in the case of Chancellor<br />

Merkel’s phone and not in the many likely<br />

cases of other affected people. I guess that my<br />

longtime concern with surveillance and the<br />

GDR has made me especially sensitive when it<br />

comes to misuse of governmental power. The<br />

GDR was a surveillance society par excellence<br />

and this should never be allowed to exist again.<br />

Can we compare the NSA with the Stasi?<br />

Did the Americans, thanks to the digital<br />

means at their disposal, achieve what the<br />

East Germans tried with analogue means:<br />

total surveillance of every citizen? I see<br />

one fundamental difference between the Stasi<br />

and the NSA. The Stasi tried to subjugate the<br />

population by creating fear and through the<br />

persecution of differently minded people and<br />

people who would have liked to lead a different<br />

life to the one the government had planned out<br />

for them. The NSA, at least according to its<br />

own claims, tries to protect the population.<br />

What about their methods? The means of<br />

communication have changed a lot, of course.<br />

There were no mobile phones and emails in the<br />

GDR. The Stasi worked mainly with human<br />

surveillance, a huge surveillance network run by<br />

informants. There were over 180,000 informal<br />

members of the Stasi – that is the highest population/informant<br />

ratio in history. But the Stasi’s<br />

technological surveillance was actually more<br />

sophisticated than what people think. They completely<br />

monitored the phone exchange between<br />

the GDR and the FRG, for example. But also<br />

within the FRG they were tapping the chancellor’s<br />

phone and the phones of all the members<br />

of parliament, the federal president and the<br />

president of the Bundesverfassungsschutz (domestic<br />

security agency). The<br />

idea to listen in on Angela<br />

Merkel’s cell phone<br />

isn’t that new! Of course<br />

it didn’t concern that<br />

many people back then<br />

because only very few<br />

could afford a mobile<br />

phone...<br />

Besides the chancellor’s<br />

phone – and<br />

more shocking<br />

somehow – was the<br />

impulse to ‘spy’ on<br />

normal citizens. Is<br />

“The idea to listen<br />

in on Angela<br />

Merkel’s cell phone<br />

isn’t that new! The<br />

Stasi was already<br />

tapping the West<br />

German chancellor’s<br />

phone…”<br />

that another similarity? Well, in a constitutional<br />

state, surveillance of a citizen can only<br />

take place when he has committed a criminal<br />

act or the strong suspicion of a crime exists. Random<br />

monitoring of people is not allowed. In the<br />

GDR the enormous network of informants was<br />

there to report on people’s activities but also on<br />

their thoughts and their plans, even before they<br />

had planned anything objectionable. The good<br />

informant would be able, so to speak, to see into<br />

people’s heads. So, yes, somehow, surveillance as<br />

it is used today resembles this kind of precautionary<br />

surveillance. Everyone is being checked<br />

on to filter out who is dangerous.<br />

Many similarities... The philosophy is very<br />

similar. However the aim is different and it is<br />

important to emphasise this. The Stasi worked<br />

most of all with fear and everyone knew that if<br />

he or she would say the wrong thing, they would<br />

quickly end up in prison. We’re not subjected<br />

to the same amount of fear anymore, thank<br />

God. In the GDR, everyone knew that the Stasi<br />

was everywhere. If there were more than three<br />

people together, then one of them would<br />

be a spy. Therefore, people would be careful<br />

what they would say in a pub, for example.<br />

We don’t have that anymore. We are also not<br />

afraid of the police anymore but feel safer<br />

when an officer is around – very different to<br />

the GDR.<br />

Still, isn’t it shocking to know you’re<br />

under surveillance even if it is not used<br />

as an instrument of rule by fear? Of<br />

course, the fact that such extensive surveillance<br />

took place in a democratic country<br />

like Germany came as a surprise. Until<br />

Snowden’s files, people<br />

would assume that, as<br />

the law says, no one<br />

could be monitored<br />

without a court order.<br />

It’s not easy to get a<br />

court order. Can they<br />

just spy on someone?<br />

Can they bully someone<br />

to testify? Can they tap<br />

someone’s phone or bug<br />

someone’s apartment<br />

when they entertain<br />

a suspicion? I learned<br />

that the possibilities are<br />

very restricted and that<br />

is a fundamental difference to the methods<br />

the Stasi used. It is a very secure system<br />

that keeps the police from randomly doing<br />

as they please. Unfortunately, next to these<br />

strict rules protecting civil liberties, there is<br />

a different kind of surveillance. The danger<br />

is now that the information that is not controlled<br />

in any way could be misused. Who<br />

controls the NSA and what they do with the<br />

information they gather?<br />

Do you believe the government when<br />

they say they were unaware of the NSA<br />

activities – here, in Germany, where<br />

American intelligence has their biggest<br />

presence outside the US? All we can say<br />

is that if the Verfassungsschutz, the BND<br />

and the Militärische Abschirmdienst (Military<br />

Counterintelligence Service) had done their<br />

job, then they would have known about it. If<br />

a foreign country is doing a huge amount of<br />

spying in Germany and the German national<br />

security services are not aware of it, it’s a<br />

confession of failure.<br />

20 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>


Or naïveté? It reminds me a bit of the<br />

naïveté of the West Germans during the<br />

Cold War. The national security service<br />

somehow believed – and they told the<br />

public back then – that long-distance calls<br />

(from Hamburg to Munich, for example)<br />

were safe from tapping. After the Wall<br />

came down, it was disclosed that that was<br />

not the case at all and that the GDR had<br />

its monitoring station and recorded everything<br />

that went from southern Germany<br />

to northern Germany and back, as well as<br />

everything between West Germany and<br />

West Berlin. Therefore, there are only two<br />

possibilities: Either the German national<br />

security services are really lousy or they<br />

have tolerated the surveillance because<br />

they probably profited from it.<br />

During the Cold War, the US was West<br />

Germany’s trusted ally and protector.<br />

Twenty-five years later, although<br />

now a unified, sovereign country, it<br />

seems that somehow Germany has<br />

remained America’s lapdog. Certainly,<br />

the difference between now and then is that<br />

until 1994, Germany was de facto still under<br />

occupation, therefore the Allies had certain<br />

rights. Since 1994, Germany is sovereign.<br />

So, if there is surveillance in Germany it<br />

would have to be done by a German agency,<br />

not by a foreign power. That is the problem.<br />

Do you think Germans might have<br />

lost their trust in the US? Well, it is<br />

politically dangerous. Such impunity on the<br />

part of the US leads to a loss of credibility.<br />

In the long run it feeds a certain anti-<br />

Americanism that has always been present<br />

in Germany. Many feel confirmed in their<br />

belief that the US is not an example of<br />

freedom and democracy. It is very sad<br />

when the most important democracy in the<br />

world finds a projection that reads “United<br />

Stasi of America” on its embassy. That is<br />

how you can damage your own image.<br />

Do you think that Germans are more<br />

sensitive to surveillance issues due<br />

to their recent history? Presumably,<br />

but the outcry has been relatively modest.<br />

Even more so in East Germany. In the<br />

West, critics are louder because people<br />

can’t make the comparison. But the East<br />

Germans know it: as much as it might be<br />

working outside of the law, you don’t have<br />

to fear the NSA the way we used to fear<br />

the Stasi. n<br />

Hubertus Knabe will be at Lichtblick Kino on<br />

<strong>September</strong> 25 for a special edition of Exblicks,<br />

featuring a rare screening of internal Stasi videos<br />

and a discussion.<br />

21


<strong>2014</strong><br />

Big Brother in Berlin<br />

SNOWDEN SPECIAL<br />

Facebook knows your friends and political affinities, your mobile service<br />

provider knows your whereabouts, Instagram knows what you had for<br />

dinner. But who are they telling? As Orwell’s dystopian world turns 30,<br />

are Berliners in danger of becoming transparent citizens?<br />

By Hanna Westerlund and Seán Kenehan<br />

On your U-Bahn to work, most likely<br />

under the eye of one of the 3165 cameras<br />

on BVG trains and platforms,<br />

you pull out your phone and start<br />

typing a comment on Facebook. Realising it may<br />

be too polemical (who could tell if your future<br />

boss is snooping around?), you erase it instead of<br />

posting. A common practice, seven out of 10 users<br />

do it. Facebook knows these figures, because<br />

they saved what you just erased. Last year, the<br />

company made a survey analysing data from the<br />

‘self-censored’ messages of nearly four million<br />

users. (Why? Less generated content equals less<br />

‘social value’, which may harm their service.)<br />

As you get off the train, 500 metres away<br />

from you a bag is being snatched. The incident<br />

has nothing to do with you, but afterwards the<br />

police may nevertheless find out who you are,<br />

who you called and when, just<br />

because your cell phone was<br />

in the area. They may request<br />

this data from all mobile<br />

network operators and filter<br />

it to find potential suspects.<br />

This practice, called Funkzellenabfrage,<br />

is only supposed<br />

to be used in investigations<br />

of severe crimes. However,<br />

since it was revealed that the<br />

Dresden police used it against<br />

anti-neo-Nazi demonstrators<br />

in 2011, it has been subject to<br />

public debate. Last year, the<br />

Berlin police gathered 50 million<br />

records of phone traffic metadata, more than<br />

ever before. That means, provided you hang out<br />

in areas with average crime rates, your data was<br />

collected 14 times.<br />

The post-Snowden landscape<br />

Known for some of the strictest data protection<br />

laws in the world, Germany has blocked the harmonising<br />

of laws in the European union, afraid<br />

they wouldn’t be able to keep their high standards.<br />

Germans have had Google blur their houses<br />

on map street views, and Facebook remove facial<br />

“It’s not a<br />

matter of<br />

having<br />

anything to<br />

hide or not,<br />

but a human<br />

rights issue.”<br />

recognition. Yet, never before has it been so difficult<br />

to maintain one’s anonymity, such that the<br />

average German is in risk of becoming a gläserner<br />

Bürger – a transparent or “glass citizen”.<br />

In the words of Edward Snowden himself, in<br />

a June 2013 interview with The Guardian: “Even<br />

if you’re not doing anything wrong, you’re being<br />

watched and recorded.” Since the revelations<br />

concerning mass surveillance through programmes<br />

like the NSA’s PRISM and XKeyscore,<br />

it appears our personal information is up for<br />

grabs. Should we assume everything we do online<br />

is being monitored? “In principle, yes,” says<br />

Alexander Dix, Berlin’s Data Protection and<br />

Freedom of Information Commissioner. “That<br />

is probably the reality, unless one takes certain<br />

steps to prevent that from happening. But if<br />

someone is not a nerd in that sense of the word,<br />

then everything he does online<br />

is under surveillance.”<br />

The brunt of this intrusion<br />

stems from the NSA, whose<br />

guiding philosophy has been<br />

referred to as the ‘haystack<br />

method’: compile as much information<br />

as possible, and sift<br />

through it to find that one useful<br />

‘needle’. According to Dix,<br />

Germany’s foreign intelligence<br />

agency, the Bundes­nachrichtendienst<br />

(BND) operates under<br />

stricter conditions as the only<br />

German government body<br />

that can secretly screen our<br />

calls: “Under German law, this [haystack method]<br />

is only legal in the very particular case of international<br />

telecommunications, where you can screen<br />

contents of conversations indiscriminately based<br />

on certain keywords.” This keyword scanning and<br />

recording method is applied to all international<br />

telephone calls and internet traffic with a link<br />

to Germany. Recorded calls are then crossreferenced<br />

with other databases to determine<br />

whether a communication appears suspicious.<br />

There are restrictions, though. Only one-fifth<br />

of the communication data traffic that has a ‘foreign<br />

element’ can be<br />

copied and reviewed by<br />

the BND. Also, they’re<br />

not supposed to be spying<br />

on German citizens.<br />

But in an online world,<br />

that is largely theoretical.<br />

Email addresses<br />

ending in .de could of<br />

course be erased, but<br />

what about Germans<br />

with Gmail accounts,<br />

Facebook and Skype?<br />

Or Al-Qaida members<br />

with .de accounts?<br />

Victim or<br />

accomplice?<br />

“It is hard to believe<br />

that they didn’t<br />

know,” says Dix, on<br />

the BND’s complicity<br />

with the<br />

US intelligence<br />

agency’s surveillance<br />

programmes. “At<br />

least that they didn’t<br />

know more than<br />

they admitted later<br />

on.” In the wake of<br />

the NSA’s tapping<br />

of Angela Merkel’s<br />

mobile phone, one<br />

might view the<br />

German government<br />

as a victim of<br />

espionage, rather<br />

than an accomplice.<br />

Yet around<br />

50 of Snowden’s<br />

documents detail<br />

Germany’s collusion<br />

with the<br />

NSA. According<br />

to Der Spiegel,<br />

the NSA and<br />

AGATA SASIUK<br />

22 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>


BND cooperate at the Bad Aibling listening post<br />

near Munich to monitor possible terrorist activity<br />

in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It’s known<br />

that the BND has used XKeyscore intel<br />

– “for testing purposes”, they claim –<br />

and through documents leaked to<br />

netzpolitik.org it was revealed<br />

that the Bundes kriminal amt<br />

(Federal Criminal Police) has<br />

acquired FinFisher spyware<br />

which allows “remote intrusion”<br />

of digital devices.<br />

Though this spyware was<br />

recently deemed illegal,<br />

research is already<br />

underway to develop new<br />

software that remains<br />

within the restrictions of<br />

the German constitution.<br />

Says Dix, “Infiltration of computers by<br />

malware only seriously began after 9/11,” when<br />

German intelligence agencies were escalating in<br />

surveillance. With two new sets of laws, the Anti-<br />

Terror-Paket I and II, they were allowed to request<br />

customer data from airlines, postal services<br />

and banks. “The detection networks become<br />

more dense, the observation-free zones smaller,”<br />

Heribert Prantl, Süddeutsche Zeitung journalist<br />

and author of Glanz und Elend der Grund rechte<br />

(Splendour and Misery of Fundamental Rights),<br />

said in an interview with Telepolis. “For security<br />

reasons, people are now being tapped and observed,<br />

computers are being searched. People are<br />

being imprisoned, even tortured.”<br />

While law enforcement must procure a warrant<br />

to perform surveillance operations such as<br />

Funkzellenabfrage, the BND must justify itself to<br />

the G10 Commission (named after the article<br />

of the German constitution that safeguards<br />

communications privacy) and the Parliamentary<br />

Control Commission. This sounds like reassuring<br />

oversight, yet the process is entirely opaque,<br />

Dix says. “We do have laws regulating surveillance,<br />

but the key issue is to what extent can<br />

they really be enforced, and controlled.”<br />

Trouble in Neuland<br />

Although ridiculed for her comment, “The<br />

internet is Neuland for us all,” Chancellor Merkel<br />

was correct – in legislative terms, the internet is<br />

nigh-uncharted territory. Posteo.de, a Berlinbased<br />

email provider dedicated to its customers’<br />

privacy, had a rough encounter with this legal<br />

minefield. “Last year, the police came to our<br />

offices with a warrant to claim inventory data<br />

which we didn’t have, but they didn’t believe our<br />

lawyer,” says founder Patrik Löhr. German email<br />

providers that store Bestandsdaten (the names<br />

and phone numbers of clients who may be under<br />

suspicion of illegal activity) are legally obliged<br />

to submit it – but Posteo.de does not retain this<br />

information. “They tried to intimidate us and<br />

were very forceful. In the end, they had to leave<br />

empty-handed.”<br />

According to Dix, surveillance laws are so<br />

broad that they cannot cover every situation,<br />

leaving many loopholes: “For example, a new<br />

power is given to investigate a serious crime,<br />

but as society changes the definition of a ‘serious<br />

crime’ changes... Police legislation always<br />

uses broad language, they need to become more<br />

specific.” Malte Spitz, Green Party member and<br />

activist for media and internet policy, speaks of<br />

the system’s inadequacies: “How can parliamentarians<br />

oversee something if they don’t understand<br />

the concrete process of how intelligence<br />

agencies monitor people, or if they have no<br />

possibility to ask experts on specific cases? The<br />

oversight system in Germany isn’t working; the<br />

idea of oversight is there, but it’s not a powerful<br />

and controlling oversight.”<br />

Metadata is content<br />

If citizens are being subjected to surveillance,<br />

don’t they have a right to<br />

know the extent? After<br />

a lengthy battle with the<br />

mobile service provider<br />

Deutsche Telekom, Spitz<br />

finally won back data that<br />

had been recorded over<br />

six months of his life: the<br />

times and locations of his<br />

phone calls, from which<br />

extensive personal information<br />

could be extrapolated.<br />

“I was surprised by<br />

the amount,” says Spitz.<br />

“I didn’t expect there<br />

would be 35,000 lines...<br />

every few minutes you<br />

could see where I was,<br />

what I was doing.” German<br />

phone companies<br />

are obliged to save this<br />

metadata, but they’re not allowed to store the<br />

actual calls. From a surveillance perspective,<br />

Spitz says, metadata is easier to analyse anyway:<br />

“If you see that a person is texting someone at<br />

3am, you can assume this person doesn’t have a<br />

job for which he needs to wake up at 6am, and<br />

that he has friends who don’t either... That’s how<br />

metadata works.”<br />

Politicians have asserted harvesting times and<br />

locations of phone calls and emails is less invasive<br />

than collecting actual content, and that the<br />

two could be separated. Privacy activists argue<br />

that collecting metadata can in fact be more intrusive<br />

in people’s privacy than listening to content<br />

– as Spitz outlined with compelling graphics<br />

in a TED Talk in 2012. The type of information<br />

that can be piled up under the term ‘metadata’<br />

now consists of much more than the time and<br />

the person involved in the communication.<br />

You can read out the location, device number,<br />

language setting of the cell phone or computer,<br />

operating system... “The old distinction between<br />

metadata and content is outdated. You can<br />

create content out of metadata,” says Jan-Peter<br />

Kleinhans from the data protection initiative<br />

Privacy Project. “And still the law doesn’t treat<br />

metadata as content. This is just wrong!”<br />

Hacker’s paranoia or human rights issue?<br />

Does heightened awareness of your transparency<br />

make you care? In Berlin, groups like Digitale<br />

Gesellschaft, netzpolitik.org and Chaos Computer<br />

Club have been talking for years about data protection.<br />

“But they were the nerds and the hackers,<br />

who could easily be perceived as ‘IT people’ or<br />

conspiracy theorists,” says Kleinhans. Privacy<br />

Project wants to change the focus of the public<br />

debate from an ‘internet topic’ to a question of<br />

human rights: “It’s not a matter of having anything<br />

to hide or not, but a human rights issue. The right<br />

to privacy, to form your opinion.” He thinks the<br />

BND works according to double standards: “The<br />

EU Charter of Human Rights assumes everyone is<br />

equal. At the same time, our intelligence agencies<br />

operate on national terms, where foreigners have<br />

NO rights. Zero protection.”<br />

So how to proceed? Once or twice a week,<br />

hordes of Berlin hackers full of confidence about<br />

“taking back what<br />

is already written<br />

“If you see that a<br />

person is texting<br />

someone at 3am, you<br />

can assume he doesn’t<br />

have a job for which<br />

he needs to wake up<br />

at 6am, and that he<br />

has friends who don’t<br />

either... That’s how<br />

metadata works.”<br />

into our constitutions”<br />

gather<br />

to teach you all<br />

they know about<br />

anonymous surfing<br />

and encrypting<br />

your email.<br />

Michael Schmidt<br />

spends 10-15 hours<br />

a week organising<br />

these so-called<br />

cryptoparties.<br />

“How would you<br />

feel if you knew<br />

as we’re sitting<br />

here that someone<br />

is in your flat, in<br />

your bedroom?<br />

You’d want to go<br />

home and throw him out. Do you have anything<br />

to hide? Not really. You could just live there and<br />

ignore him, but you don’t. And that’s a healthy<br />

feeling.”<br />

Data Protection Commissioner Dix is in favour<br />

of encryption. He wants more state money<br />

to inform the public, and says it should “definitely<br />

be taught in schools.” He doesn’t encrypt<br />

emails himself, though: “It’s too complex.”<br />

Interestingly, Germany’s domestic intelligence<br />

agency, the Bundesverfassungsschutz (BfV), wrote<br />

in their annual report 2013 that “closed fora and<br />

encryption programs are mostly useful as communication<br />

tools for potentially violent extremists.”<br />

Does using encryption services then make<br />

you a target? Potentially. After Angela Merkel,<br />

the second German proven to be spied on by the<br />

NSA is Sebastian Hahn, a 27-year-old computer<br />

science student in Bavaria, for hosting a Tor<br />

server (see page 30).<br />

There is a point in doing it anyway, though.<br />

The more of a default procedure it is and the<br />

more people encrypt, the less suspicious it will<br />

be to spying eyes. The encryption software pioneer<br />

Philip Zimmerman compared it in 1991 with<br />

using envelopes for your correspondence, instead<br />

of writing everything on postcards.<br />

How can we be sure that we will hold on to<br />

our privacy and not become transparent citizens?<br />

In the optimistic words of cryptoparty organiser<br />

Schmidt: “We don’t earn money, we just know<br />

it’s the right thing. Passion is in the centre of the<br />

movement. Governments have no passion.” n<br />

23


SNOWDEN SPECIAL<br />

Confessions of an MI5<br />

whistleblower<br />

Former UK spy Annie Machon knows first-hand what happens to people who tell the truth about<br />

intelligence agencies. She blew the whistle in 1997 with fellow agent and then-boy friend David<br />

Shayler, triggering a two-year manhunt that culminated in Shayler’s arrest. We met the part-time<br />

Berliner on Potsdamer Platz a few metres away from RT’s bureau, where she regularly appears as<br />

a consultant for the 24-hour Russian news channel. She told her story to Ruth Schneider.<br />

“<br />

I didn’t want to be a spy. In 1990, I was<br />

21, and I wanted to have a job that would<br />

make a difference. So I sat the Foreign Office<br />

exams. But then I received a mysterious<br />

letter from the Ministry of Defence saying<br />

that “there were other jobs I might find more<br />

interesting” and there’s a phone number. I actually<br />

ended up ringing up this number because my<br />

father – he’s an investigative journalist – wanted<br />

to see if it was indeed MI5. “Oh go on, just see...”<br />

They said that they wanted a ‘new generation’<br />

intelligence officer who would be working against<br />

terrorist targets, that they no longer did the old<br />

“let’s investigate political activists” stuff because<br />

the Cold War was over, etc.. But then I started<br />

there and my first post was in the political activism<br />

section, doing precisely what they said they<br />

no longer wanted to do. I could not understand<br />

how they saw these groups as a threat. It was<br />

a shock, and I seriously considered resigning<br />

towards the end of my time there.<br />

That’s when my relationship with David<br />

Shayler started. He had been recruited as part<br />

of the same generation as me, and he was also<br />

shocked at the scale of it. But then the two of us<br />

were moved to the Irish section, where it felt like<br />

we could do some good because at that point the<br />

IRA was putting bombs down at will. But even<br />

then we saw so many things going wrong. And<br />

then we went to the Middle Eastern section and<br />

saw even worse things, which is why we resigned<br />

after only six years.<br />

Shut up and follow orders<br />

Throughout the recruitment process you are<br />

grilled about these ethical issues. Things like<br />

internment without trial, torture, shoot to kill...<br />

I was quite outspoken about it then and they<br />

said, “Well you know, we agree with you, we don’t<br />

do this sort of thing.” So when we found out that<br />

they did, many of us were unhappy. But when we<br />

spoke out, we were told, “Shut up, don’t rock the<br />

boat, just follow orders.”<br />

There was an intergenerational problem.<br />

The management at that time had been under<br />

the Cold War era, gathering intelligence slowly<br />

and looking at “reds under the bed”, and suddenly<br />

they were managing groups who had<br />

been brought in to investigate terrorist targets,<br />

where you have to gather evidence that you can<br />

put people on trial for. It’s a very different skill<br />

set and the targets move much more quickly.<br />

So there was a cultural clash, and I think that’s<br />

where all this disaffectation came from.<br />

David was the head of the Libya section<br />

between 1994-96 and he was briefed on the case<br />

that made us quit, which was<br />

the Gaddafi assassination<br />

plot. We decided that we<br />

had to do something, but it<br />

took more than just one day.<br />

There were a lot of heartwringing<br />

episodes where we<br />

thought, “Why us?” because<br />

we knew we’d have to leave<br />

the UK, we knew we’d have<br />

to face prosecution and we<br />

knew we’d be unemployable<br />

afterwards… but it just felt<br />

like the right thing to do, I<br />

suppose.<br />

We took the decision to go public in early<br />

1996, and he resigned in autumn. He had already<br />

taken steps to approach the media – he decided<br />

on the Mail on Sunday because the owner of the<br />

Mail group at the time, Viscount Rothermere,<br />

was known to be very anti-intelligence agency.<br />

I wasn’t terribly involved in those early stages<br />

because David wanted to protect me. He acted<br />

as a buffer between me and them.<br />

Life in exile<br />

It took 10 months for the story to break. My<br />

understanding is that only three days beforehand<br />

they suddenly said, “This is what’s going to<br />

happen this weekend, what do you want to do?<br />

Get out of the country or what?” He said “yes”.<br />

They offered him a certain amount of money<br />

to live in exile for up to six months. Of course<br />

the establishment in the UK made great play of<br />

this and said, “Oh yes, he sold documents.” We<br />

actually offered to give it back if we could return<br />

“We couldn’t even<br />

warn our families.<br />

So the first they<br />

heard of it was on<br />

the front page of<br />

the newspaper<br />

with David’s<br />

picture on it…”<br />

to the UK without arrest and give evidence in<br />

parliament. MI5 refused.<br />

We flew out on the morning of August 23,<br />

1997, 12 hours ahead of the newspapers hitting<br />

the streets in the UK. There had already been<br />

certain indications that MI5 were beginning to<br />

get suspicious, so we were pretty strung out with<br />

tension. We felt like we couldn’t talk in our flats,<br />

we couldn’t even warn our families that we were<br />

going to do it. So the first they heard of it was on<br />

the front page of the newspaper<br />

with David’s picture on<br />

it. That was quite dramatic!<br />

First we went to Amsterdam,<br />

then Utrecht.<br />

We moved around all over<br />

the Netherlands for the<br />

first week and fled all the<br />

way down the southwest<br />

of France to Bayonne. We<br />

wanted to get as far away<br />

from where they knew we<br />

were. Then we just moved<br />

around from town to town<br />

in the south of France and<br />

Spain, staying in cheap hotels, fake names, cash<br />

payments, the whole thing.<br />

After a month, I went back to the UK for<br />

a week to pack up our flat. I was picked up at<br />

Gatwick airport and taken off to a counterterrorism<br />

suite in London and grilled for a day.<br />

But they never charged me with anything – I was<br />

just David’s girlfriend at that point, I hadn’t done<br />

anything, so how could they? When I made it to<br />

our flat, I saw it had been smashed up in a raid;<br />

they had ripped it apart for no reason.<br />

While I was in the UK, David found this little<br />

place to hide in the centre of France in Lachaux,<br />

which is in the middle of nowhere! We were sort<br />

of stuck there with no car, no TV, no nothing.<br />

It was surreal, actually, because on one hand we<br />

were supposed to be on the run but on the other<br />

hand we were living in this strange rural idyll.<br />

It was two kilometres outside the local village.<br />

We had a little van that came round once a week<br />

with food and things and the bread van every<br />

24 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>


MICHAL ANDRYSIAK<br />

“The worst part<br />

of the whole<br />

thing was the<br />

media rape of<br />

our reputations<br />

– that’s what it<br />

felt like.”<br />

day, it was that primitive. So, from the centre of<br />

London to that was quite a culture shock!<br />

Back then there was no Facebook, there<br />

was no Google, there was nothing. Whereas of<br />

course now if someone did this and you were on<br />

the run, it would make it more difficult … but<br />

then there would be much more media exposure<br />

of what you were saying and what you were doing,<br />

so it’s horses for courses I suppose.<br />

David’s arrest<br />

At that time, the most serious allegations had<br />

not yet been reported by the UK media because<br />

they were too scared of the Gaddafi plot, they<br />

wanted to try and investigate it themselves. So<br />

the early disclosures were only files on government<br />

ministers and activists, which were bad<br />

enough. The British government took out an<br />

injunction against the whole of the UK media,<br />

and David Shayler personally, to ban any new<br />

revelations in the summer of 1997.<br />

Finally – after a year! – the BBC exposed the<br />

Gaddafi plot, in summer 1998. They had to<br />

submit the story for approval under the terms<br />

of the injunction. This happened on a Friday<br />

afternoon within two hours. We were in Paris at<br />

that point, working with the journalists on the<br />

story, so we were in a hotel. David went out, and<br />

he got arrested coming back in. The first I heard<br />

of it was the knock on the door from the DST<br />

saying, “We’ve got Mr. Shayler downstairs and<br />

you can’t see him.” I asked, “Are you arresting<br />

him?” and they said no, and I didn’t see him<br />

for two months. They said he was a traitor. But<br />

when the French got the paperwork from the<br />

British government, they realised he was actually<br />

a whistleblower, so then they eased up and let me<br />

see him in prison.<br />

After four months, Dave was actually released<br />

by the French and we had another two years in<br />

Paris, got the stories out, more campaigning,<br />

etc. But then he decided to go back in 2000 to<br />

go on trial. It took two years and he was only<br />

ever charged with a very early disclosure, not the<br />

Gaddafi plot. Of course he was inevitably found<br />

guilty, there was no defence under UK law. Even<br />

the judge said what he had done lay in the public<br />

interest and he hadn’t done it for financial reasons.<br />

But if you work for the intelligence agency<br />

and you blow the whistle, you are guilty, that’s it.<br />

There’s a clear bright line.<br />

He was sentenced to six months – but you can<br />

serve a third of your sentence if you are then<br />

electronically tagged, so he got it down to two<br />

months. It’s not that bad when you think he<br />

was facing six years with three charges. But, you<br />

know, to have your liberty taken away for exposing<br />

the crimes of others is difficult. The process<br />

was a very, very high price to pay even then.<br />

Now what whistleblowers are facing is 35 years<br />

in prison, at least in America. So the courage it<br />

takes for people to do that is huge.<br />

The war on whistleblowers<br />

The worst part of the whole thing was the<br />

media rape of reputations – that’s what it felt<br />

like. Where each media organisation has its<br />

agenda, doesn’t actually listen to the evidence<br />

of the whistleblower but wants to use it for<br />

whatever purposes and how it can be controlled<br />

and spun. The fact that David went to<br />

prison and took “his beating like a man” as the<br />

judge said was actually minor compared the<br />

reputation damage done to him forevermore.<br />

People who blow the whistle have no experience,<br />

they’re virgins when it comes to the<br />

media. So what I try to do is explain to potential<br />

whistleblowers the issues they might need<br />

to think about before they go ahead. I think<br />

that seeing what Snowden did has shown that<br />

people do learn from earlier cases and do try<br />

to do it more safely and more effectively because<br />

the key thing is to get the message out.<br />

It’s not about narcissism or personal glory.<br />

I have seen so many whistleblowers from<br />

different backgrounds... the whole idea is to<br />

crush them, destroy them. I think particularly<br />

coming out of intelligence you’re automatically<br />

criminalised. It’s even harder. There’s<br />

that polarisation of being a hero and being<br />

a traitor, which is very difficult to live with<br />

over the years, and it took its toll on David.<br />

The last time I saw him was in the summer<br />

of last year, and he seemed happy in his new<br />

life. He seemed at peace. But I don’t know<br />

what he’s up to. Considering the intensity of<br />

the years we had together it’s sad that we’ve<br />

lost touch. I just hope he stays safe and stays<br />

happy. n<br />

25


SNOWDEN SPECIAL<br />

Germany’s should-be heroes<br />

While Snowden risked his life to enlighten the world about the NSA, the ‘little guys’ who<br />

disclose corruption and wrongdoing at their jobs face huge obstacles in Germany, where<br />

whistleblower protection is virtually non-existent.<br />

By Seymour Gris<br />

Working in a home for bed-ridden,<br />

sick elderly patients is a demanding<br />

job by any measure. But to<br />

work in a home which is chronically<br />

understaffed to the point that residents are<br />

lying in their own vomit and urine – that’s when<br />

it becomes unbearable. For Brigitte Heinisch<br />

(photo), a carer in a Berlin home belonging to<br />

the state-owned health care company Vivantes,<br />

workplace conditions became so bad she was<br />

compelled to act. She and her colleagues were<br />

so overworked they became sick; staff were expected<br />

to document care that hadn’t even been<br />

provided. Her numerous complaints to Vivantes<br />

management went unheeded.<br />

Finally, in 2005, she felt compelled to file a<br />

criminal complaint against Vivantes for failing to<br />

fulfil basic standards of care. “I would have made<br />

myself criminally responsible if I had continued<br />

to work in those conditions – also ethically and<br />

morally,” she explains. “There really wasn’t much<br />

of a choice. Basically, they wanted to make a<br />

profit, at the cost of dependent, highly vulnerable<br />

people.”<br />

Little did she know that her story would<br />

become one of the most important cases of<br />

whistleblowing in Germany to date. Vivantes<br />

reacted to the criminal charges by firing Heinisch<br />

without notice. She received no severance<br />

pay. Meanwhile, the public prosecutor’s office<br />

deemed the case unimportant and discontinued<br />

its investigations. For the next six years,<br />

Heinisch went from one German court to the<br />

next – but the judges always ruled that her act<br />

of lodging a criminal complaint against Vivantes<br />

was a “compelling reason” for them to fire her.<br />

Supported by friends and the Verdi trade union,<br />

Heinisch was finally able to get her case heard<br />

by the European Court of Justice in Strasbourg.<br />

In a groundbreaking decision in 2011, the court<br />

blamed Germany and ruled that publicly disclosing<br />

serious problems at one’s workplace fell<br />

under freedom of expression and could not be<br />

used as grounds for dismissal. In 2012, Heinisch<br />

took Vivantes back to court and won €90,000<br />

in severance pay. The ruling appears to have<br />

strengthened the position of other whistleblowers<br />

in Germany. “There are been numerous cases<br />

in the labour courts that have referred to my<br />

case,” says Heinisch.<br />

A truckful of spoiled meat<br />

But workplace whistleblowers still have trouble<br />

finding their way back into their career. Heinisch<br />

stopped working altogether because of the<br />

immense stress caused by the entire saga. She’s<br />

not the only one. Brandenburg trucker Miroslav<br />

Strecker suffered serious consequences after<br />

exposing criminal activity by<br />

one of his employer’s clients.<br />

In 2007, he discovered he<br />

was delivering a truckload<br />

of years-old slaughterhouse<br />

remains, the kind of ‘meat’<br />

that is only allowed to be<br />

used in pet food, to a sausage<br />

factory in Bavaria. He<br />

reported the factory to the<br />

authorities, who ended up<br />

uncovering the far-reaching<br />

Gammelfleisch (rotten meat)<br />

scandal – including the<br />

discovery of hundreds of<br />

tonnes of old meat and offal in Berlin döner<br />

kebabs. Strecker was later recognised for his<br />

“civil courage” with various awards. Yet he still<br />

faced problems with his employer: squealing on<br />

a customer is a no-no. After the revelations, he<br />

took time off from work due to a shoulder operation.<br />

Once back on the job, Strecker says his<br />

employer deliberately gave him the deliveries involving<br />

the most heavy lifting. He was eventually<br />

fired and had to fight for severance pay in court.<br />

He now works as a bus driver in Brandenburg.<br />

‘Nest dirtiers’<br />

In Germany’s pro-industry culture, where those<br />

who report criminal activity at their workplace<br />

are still called Nestbeschmutzer or ‘nest dirtiers’,<br />

whistleblower protection legislation remains<br />

virtually non-existent. The Beamten­status­gesetz<br />

of 2009 protects civil servants who report gross<br />

misconduct and corruption to state prosecutors,<br />

but there is nothing similar for the private sector.<br />

“Lobbyists and<br />

politicians are<br />

scared their<br />

shadowy sources<br />

of side income will<br />

be exposed. It’s<br />

corruption, plain<br />

and simple.”<br />

As a signatory of the G20’s Anti-Corruption<br />

Action Plan, Germany promised to implement<br />

whistleblower protection by the end of 2012.<br />

This obligation and the Heinisch decision in<br />

Strasbourg prompted the SPD (then still in<br />

opposition), the Greens, and Die Linke to attempt<br />

to pass a law protecting Hinweis­geber (a<br />

neologism meaning ‘tip givers’) in the Bundestag<br />

in June 2013. This was thwarted by Angela<br />

Merkel’s government – ironically, just days after<br />

Snowden’s revelations on the NSA came to<br />

light – with the justification<br />

that current labour law sufficiently<br />

protects whistleblowers<br />

(and now that the<br />

SPD is in the governing<br />

coalition, they suddenly<br />

agree!).<br />

Heinisch is jaded about<br />

the judicial and political system<br />

in Germany: “It quickly<br />

became clear to me that<br />

state prosecutors were working<br />

for business interests –<br />

by simply dropping cases, or<br />

just not following up. I was<br />

invited for a talk with the Greens and everything<br />

was just wishy-washy. It wasn’t about actually<br />

helping the whistleblowers.” She is a member<br />

of the non-profit Whistleblower Network, but<br />

finds their tactics too timid: “I’m a little more<br />

radical when it comes to pursuing our demands.<br />

I said we should just get as many whistleblowers<br />

as possible together in a protest camp out in<br />

front of the Reichstag for a week. But a lot of<br />

people didn’t want to do that. There’s no other<br />

way. Politicians just represent the interests of<br />

business, that’s the way it is.”<br />

You can’t fight the system<br />

Guido Strack, founder of the Whistleblower<br />

Network, who himself lost his job and was subjected<br />

to a Kafkaesque legal nightmare after he<br />

exposed waste and corruption as an EU official,<br />

is equally pessimistic. The affair and associated<br />

stress destroyed his career, destroyed his marriage<br />

and weakened his faith in “the system”. In<br />

26 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>


an interview with filmmaker Ian Hawkins,<br />

he summed up his sentiment: “If you do<br />

something that they don’t like, then you are<br />

considered to be someone going against the<br />

system. And then the system fights back<br />

with every means it has. I thought it was<br />

a just system and that you could achieve<br />

something if you do the right thing. I don’t<br />

think that any more.“<br />

Corruption in the courts<br />

To Andrea Fuchs, a former stockbroker<br />

who reported insider trading at DG Bank<br />

in Frankfurt 18 years ago, the situation for<br />

whistleblowers in Germany is “disastrous”.<br />

According to her, even countries without the<br />

reputation of being strong democracies, like<br />

Indonesia, have a functioning whistleblower<br />

protection law. Her actions destroyed her<br />

career in banking forever. In a immensely<br />

complicated legal ordeal in eight courts<br />

that continues till this day, Fuchs was officially<br />

fired 19 times from the same job, even<br />

though she says the grounds for her dismissal<br />

were dismissed in court each time. She hasn’t<br />

worked in 18 years. Germany’s highest court,<br />

the Constitutional Court, refused to hear her<br />

case without even giving a reason. For her,<br />

the German system is riddled with corruption:<br />

for example, she once received an anonymous<br />

letter stating that a labour court judge<br />

who had heard her case had also worked on<br />

the arbitration board of DG Bank.<br />

Like Heinisch, Fuchs is hoping the court<br />

in Strasbourg will serve justice after nearly<br />

two decades – lawyers are currently assessing<br />

the viability of her case. “Europe needs<br />

to give the Germans a slap on the hand!”<br />

Meanwhile Fuchs, also a member of the<br />

Whistleblower Network, is advising three<br />

people who have not yet gone public with<br />

their accounts of corruption in the organisations<br />

they work for.<br />

What is Germany’s problem with<br />

whistleblowers? Fuchs believes the “experience<br />

of the Third Reich and the GDR<br />

left people with the [negative] idea of the<br />

‘informant’, hence the reluctance to protect<br />

people making claims against wrongdoing.<br />

But it’s all an excuse for the lobbyists and<br />

the politicians who are scared their shadowy<br />

sources of side income will be exposed.<br />

It’s corruption, plain and simple.”<br />

For the sakes of those who’ve sacrificed<br />

their careers and even marriages to expose<br />

uncomfortable truths, let’s hope the spirit<br />

of the Age of the Whistleblower ushered<br />

in by Edward Snowden will rub off on Germany<br />

for good. n<br />

MICHAL ANDRYSIAK<br />

27


SNOWDEN SPECIAL<br />

You are the product<br />

Behind today’s ‘free and open’ internet lie shadowy firms who have made your data<br />

their business – many of them based in Berlin. By Mary Biekert and Rachel Glassberg<br />

If you didn’t look for them, you wouldn’t even<br />

know they were there. But install a simple<br />

privacy tool like Ghostery and you’ll find them<br />

lurking on nearly every website you visit, like a<br />

swarm of cockroaches underneath spotless floorboards.<br />

Their names are nonsensical: Eyeota,<br />

Nugg.Ad, Quantcast, Zanox. You don’t know<br />

them. But they know you.<br />

These are the invisible engines that power the<br />

internet today: data mining companies that determine<br />

which ads you are shown by monitoring<br />

what you do online. As the €27.3 billion industry<br />

continues to expand, these companies are devising<br />

ever-cleverer ways to get at that information<br />

while staying within Europe’s strict, yet pliable,<br />

privacy laws. And many of them have their roots<br />

in Berlin’s own blossoming start-up scene.<br />

One of those companies is Nugg.ad, once<br />

a start-up, now an international corporation<br />

owned by Deutsche Post specialising in “Predictive<br />

Behavioural Targeting” with eight offices<br />

across Europe. Accepting us into their cheerfully<br />

yellow Friedrichshain headquarters, consulting<br />

director Sema Saglik was all smiles as she explained<br />

the company’s business model – and,<br />

of course, their amazing privacy record.<br />

Nugg.ad partners with the publishers<br />

of over 4000 sites (including<br />

those in the Axel Springer group,<br />

such as Bild.de) to log users’ pageviews<br />

via the invisible graphics<br />

known as “tracking pixels”. They<br />

correlate data about what kind<br />

of content you view – “sports”,<br />

“health and beauty”, etc. – with<br />

“anonymous survey responses”<br />

about age, gender and other interests<br />

to put together your likely<br />

profile. This profile (minus your IP<br />

address, which is cut off using third-party software)<br />

is relayed via browser cookie to the original<br />

website as well as advertising networks, who<br />

use this information to show you the ads and<br />

content they think you’re likely to click on via<br />

an automated process called “real-time bidding”.<br />

This all happens in a matter of milliseconds.<br />

Saglik estimates 85 percent of German users<br />

have a Nugg.ad cookie on their computer – so<br />

even if you’re not clicking on the ads they’ve<br />

helped to place, chances are someone is. “Just<br />

one percent is enough,” says Jonas*, a tech-savvy<br />

Berliner who used to work at digital marketing<br />

company Neue Digital<br />

(now Razorfish). “A lot of<br />

people won’t click on the<br />

ads, but the ones who do<br />

offer enough revenue.”<br />

The ‘good<br />

ol’ shopping<br />

experience<br />

Welcome to the new<br />

digital economy: an<br />

internet where we’re<br />

given access to seemingly<br />

unlimited amounts<br />

of information… which we’re paying for, largely<br />

unbeknownst to us, with information of our<br />

own. As author and documentarist Astra Taylor<br />

writes in The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power<br />

and Culture in the Digital Age, “Web 2.0 is not<br />

about users buying products. Rather, the users<br />

are the product.”<br />

Not that the organisations buying and selling<br />

this product will admit to it. Nugg.ad claims<br />

they’re benefiting not only advertisers but users,<br />

by showing them only the ads that<br />

are relevant to them. Says Saglik:<br />

“When you’re a 25-year-old male, you<br />

don’t want to see ads for diapers.”<br />

Another such company, TheAdex –<br />

with offices in Berlin, Düsseldorf,<br />

London and Switzerland – justifies<br />

their practices similarly on<br />

their website: “We dream of the<br />

‘good ol’ days’ when you went<br />

to the local butcher or baker<br />

and they knew exactly what you<br />

wanted and why. It seems like a<br />

serious breach of privacy viewed<br />

through a modern prism, but for<br />

some reason we don’t feel that way when it’s a<br />

small business owner. The intent is the same:<br />

to make a better shopping experience for the<br />

customer.”<br />

It sounds innocuous enough. But in the case<br />

of the butcher you know exactly what information<br />

you’re giving out and what he’s doing with<br />

it. To the average internet user, this isn’t quite as<br />

clear when it comes to “predictive behavioural<br />

targeting” and “next generation data management<br />

solutions”. And in the case of people<br />

who publish on platforms such as Blogger, the<br />

analogy is closer to the butcher’s landlord getting<br />

information about you<br />

behind the butcher’s<br />

back.<br />

Companies thus take<br />

advantage of consumers’<br />

ignorance to pull<br />

some seriously sneaky<br />

manoeuvres – conflicting<br />

the programmers<br />

who are working behind<br />

the scenes. “If you want<br />

to work in the start-up<br />

scene now, you’ve got to<br />

navigate tonnes of dodgy<br />

job offers,” says Nicolas*, a programmer from<br />

Finland. Niels*, also from Scandinavia, moved<br />

to Berlin to work in the hyped start-up scene.<br />

He found himself at the “ad attention measuring<br />

technology” company Meetrics, which runs<br />

scripts on over 2000 sites including Spiegel<br />

Online, Germany’s most influential news site.<br />

Their technology allows them to see and store<br />

data about how people’s mice move about a web<br />

page – “where they click, where they scroll. The<br />

information is sold both to the webpage owners<br />

and advertisers so that they can see which<br />

advertisements are most successful for whom.<br />

We could also pull up specific IP addresses and<br />

replay how a person navigated a specific web<br />

page.” According to him, there was also a plug-in<br />

that they developed that would be installed, usually<br />

without awareness of the consequences, by a<br />

user who clicked on a certain ad, survey or offer<br />

to ‘win a free Ipad’. “This plug-in had the full<br />

potential to take over that person’s web browser,<br />

to take their private information such as bank<br />

account numbers, passwords…”<br />

Hidden terms and conditions<br />

How much of this is legal? Surprisingly, nearly<br />

all of it – even in Germany, the country with<br />

some of the strictest data protection laws in the<br />

world. “Basically, in the US, you can do anything<br />

you want with data as long as you don’t infringe<br />

the rights of the person,” says Jana Moser, a<br />

lawyer specialising in digital privacy law. “In<br />

Germany, you can only use data to provide the<br />

service specified by the website – that which is<br />

really, strictly mandatory, nothing more.” But<br />

there is a catch.<br />

Under current law, there is a difference in<br />

the treatment of personally identifiable data<br />

ILLUSTRATIONS BY AGATA SASIUK<br />

28 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>


(names, addresses, credit card<br />

numbers) and anonymous or<br />

pseudonymous data: numbers<br />

that are not personally<br />

identifiable, but might be in<br />

combination with each other.<br />

The difference between the<br />

two can be as simple as a string<br />

of three digits: in Germany, IP<br />

addresses are considered personally<br />

identifiable information,<br />

yet with cookies and tracking<br />

pixels, logging these numbers<br />

is inevitable. That’s why many<br />

companies, including Nugg.<br />

ad, use an outside program or<br />

“third-party anonymiser” to randomise<br />

or truncate users’ IPs.<br />

You only need the last three digits to be removed<br />

for the address to be rendered anonymous. Still,<br />

information about the router used or the city of<br />

origin might remain.<br />

While companies can only gather personally<br />

identifiable data with users’ explicit consent,<br />

usually obtained when they click “Agree” after<br />

skimming through some nigh-unreadable “Terms<br />

of Service”, the collection of pseudonymous data<br />

is done by default, legal so long as the user is<br />

given the option to opt out on the “Privacy<br />

Policy” or Datenschutz section of the website<br />

using the tracker. “The link to opt out is usually<br />

positioned in the last sentence in the terms and<br />

conditions, poorly written and often with white<br />

on white background, so it’s impossible to see or<br />

barely visible,” says Jonas. Not to mention that<br />

there is no simple way to manually opt out of<br />

every single company’s data collection policy at<br />

once – and once you’ve opted out of a tracker, its<br />

cookie will remain until you delete it.<br />

The more “anonymous data” companies collect,<br />

the easier it is to correlate their ‘profile’ of<br />

you. “It gets to the point that it’s not anonymous<br />

at all,” says Jonas. “Companies never technically<br />

break the law because they use exchange binaries<br />

and work together to collect data and pass it<br />

along. They can take your data from several<br />

different sources and correlate it all in a matter<br />

of seconds and come up with a profile linked to<br />

your name.” This is possible, he says, through<br />

application process interface (API) technology, a<br />

tool that allows web applications<br />

to share data<br />

from cookies. “It’s happening<br />

all the time. The<br />

law in Germany is that you<br />

are not allowed to collect something<br />

like this, but companies<br />

are doing it anyway – if you get<br />

caught, you have to pay a fine,<br />

but usually the company will<br />

just pay it because the chance<br />

of actually getting caught doing<br />

this is pretty small and the risk<br />

is usually worth it.”<br />

It’s a common tactic for<br />

companies to spread information<br />

around different servers<br />

in different countries, taking<br />

advantage of differing privacy<br />

laws. Or they can move around<br />

within Germany, says Moser:<br />

“All companies have to respect<br />

the same laws, but when<br />

it comes to interpretation of the law,<br />

different autho ri ties in different<br />

federal states have different<br />

opinions. The more they<br />

know about the technical<br />

infrastructure, the faster<br />

they react. So, you’ll<br />

hear about the authorities<br />

in Hamburg going<br />

against Facebook… but the<br />

autho rities in Saxony? Never.”<br />

Perpetually obsolete regulations<br />

A better, comprehensive data protection policy is<br />

clearly needed to keep up with the times – and in<br />

fact, since 2012 the EU has been putting together<br />

such a policy, a reform of the current laws (which<br />

were passed in 1995). Yet keeping digital privacy<br />

laws vague and open to interpretation might be<br />

the most effective tactic at regulating Big Data,<br />

says Moser. “The more detailed regulation we<br />

have, the more difficult it will be to catch up in<br />

the future. We can’t just say, ‘We have to regulate<br />

iBeacons’, for example, because in one year we<br />

might not have iBeacons anymore.”<br />

The data industry is therefore counted on<br />

to regulate itself, through a series of (optional)<br />

privacy programmes like the European Privacy<br />

Seal, a certification awarded to companies that<br />

pass inspection by third-party IT experts, and<br />

the Deutscher Datenschutzrat Online-Werbung<br />

(DDOW), the industry body that came up<br />

with a codex of guidelines for German digital<br />

advertising companies. In the wake of the<br />

Snowden revelations and increasing consumer<br />

uneasiness, Big Data players have also come to<br />

recognise the value of transparency – so long as<br />

they’re the ones doing the revealing. The Your<br />

Online Choices program, for instance, displays<br />

a tiny blue icon in the corner of ads; click on it<br />

and you’ll be brought to a website, created by<br />

the European Digital Advertising Alliance, that<br />

informs you why and how your data’s being used<br />

and includes a “Preference Management” section<br />

in which you can opt out of data collection<br />

by over 80 companies in one fell swoop (theoretically<br />

– it’s plagued with “connection problems”).<br />

Nugg.ad CEO Stephan Noller is even putting on<br />

a “Data Days” festival this October, complete<br />

with talks on “Data-driven Applications vs. Ethics<br />

and Policies.”<br />

“I think self-regulation can be good,” says<br />

Moser. “But what should never happen again is<br />

this Safe Harbour concept.” That’s the agreement,<br />

dating back to 1998, by which US-based<br />

companies like Google and Facebook are<br />

currently allowed to gather data on EU citizens.<br />

They only need to “self-certify” that they are in<br />

compliance with European data protection law,<br />

as enforced, by all accounts ineffectively, by the<br />

US Federal Trade Commission. In August, the<br />

US consumer rights advocacy group Center for<br />

Digital Democracy (CDD), accused 30 American<br />

data companies – including Adobe, AOL and<br />

data brokerage giant Acxiom – of “compiling,<br />

using and sharing EU consumers’ personal<br />

information without their awareness and<br />

meaningful consent”. The group called for the<br />

suspension of Safe Harbour, which would<br />

prohibit any US-based site from collecting<br />

data in Europe.<br />

Instead of counting on corporations<br />

to conform to bendable,<br />

perpetually obsolete<br />

regulations, the best option<br />

would be for users<br />

to take their data into<br />

their own hands. You<br />

can start small, by blocking<br />

cookies or deleting them after every browsing<br />

session and downloading a browser plug-in like<br />

Disconnect, Scriptpolicy or Ghostery to display<br />

and block all advertising and analytical requests.<br />

If every internet user was as informed as<br />

possible and chose to opt out of everything,<br />

“the entire industry would collapse,”<br />

says one Berlin insider.<br />

You can see the beginnings<br />

of this for yourself.<br />

Block every<br />

single cookie and<br />

tracker and your<br />

personal internet<br />

experience will<br />

fundamentally<br />

change – videos<br />

won’t load, for<br />

example. In<br />

the long run,<br />

though, it might<br />

be a small sacrifice to<br />

make yourself a totally free<br />

member of the new digital<br />

economy order. n<br />

*Names changed.<br />

If every internet user<br />

was as informed as<br />

possible and chose to<br />

opt out of everything,<br />

“the entire industry<br />

would collapse”.<br />

29


Whether you’re plotting a revolution or making brunch plans, here are some<br />

simple (and free!) tools to evade unwelcome eavesdroppers. As Edward<br />

Snowden says: “Encryption works – it’s one of the things you can rely on.”<br />

By Michael Hald<br />

EMAIL<br />

THUNDERBIRD<br />

with Enigmail and PGP<br />

(Windows, OS X, Linux)<br />

WHAT IT IS WHAT IT IS WHAT IT IS WHAT IT IS WHAT IT IS WHAT IT IS WHAT IT IS<br />

An email client (Thunderbird)<br />

with an add-on (Enigmail)<br />

that encrypts your emails<br />

using PGP (Pretty Good Privacy).<br />

To send an encrypted<br />

email, ask the recipient for<br />

their “public key” (a string of<br />

characters; each person has<br />

their own). Once the email is<br />

sent, the recipient then uses<br />

their “private key” to decrypt<br />

your message and vice versa.<br />

Anyone else will just see a<br />

garble of random characters.<br />

CHAT TEXT CALLS THE WEB FILES ALL-IN-ONE<br />

JITSI<br />

(Windows, OS X, Linux)<br />

A program that offers encrypted<br />

instant messaging<br />

over services like Facebook<br />

Chat, Google Talk and<br />

AIM as well as video and<br />

audio calls using the Jabber<br />

protocol. Just give it your<br />

login credentials (this can<br />

be kept secure via a master<br />

password) and chat away<br />

securely. It also offers OTR<br />

(Off-The-Record) messaging,<br />

an independent encrypted<br />

service, for the ultimate protected<br />

chat experience.<br />

TEXTSECURE<br />

(Android, iOS under<br />

development)<br />

An app that automatically<br />

encrypts your texts (and<br />

sexts; it works with pictures<br />

too) – as long as the recipient’s<br />

also using the app.<br />

REDPHONE/<br />

SIGNAL<br />

(Android, iOS)<br />

A VoIP (Voice over Internet<br />

Protocol) service that<br />

encrypts the data of your<br />

cell phone calls, preventing<br />

outsiders from listening in.<br />

It will automatically detect if<br />

the person you’re trying to<br />

reach also uses RedPhone<br />

or Signal and offer to encrypt<br />

the call.<br />

TOR BROWSER<br />

(Windows, OS X, Linux)<br />

A program that hides your<br />

internet traffic through<br />

multiple layers of encryption<br />

and sends it through<br />

multiple servers in multiple<br />

countries, allowing for<br />

anonymous internet browsing.<br />

It also gives you access<br />

to the hidden Tor network,<br />

aka the “Deep Web”.<br />

TRUECRYPT<br />

(Windows, OS X, Linux)<br />

A program that lets you<br />

create a so-called ‘encrypted<br />

volume’ to protect<br />

your files (with the power<br />

of math!) It’s concealed as<br />

a normal document, but<br />

works as a virtual hard drive<br />

which you can easily add or<br />

remove files from.<br />

TAILS<br />

(Portable operating system)<br />

Also called The Amnesic<br />

Incognito Live System, this<br />

OS comes on a handy USB<br />

stick and contains Pidgin<br />

with OTR for chatting,<br />

email through Claws (similar<br />

to Thunderbird), the Tor<br />

Browser and file encryption.<br />

Unless you set it to save files<br />

permanently, everything<br />

is deleted once you shut<br />

down and remove the stick,<br />

leaving no trace on the<br />

computer you used.<br />

USER EXPERIENCE USER EXPERIENCE USER EXPERIENCE USER EXPERIENCE USER EXPERIENCE USER EXPERIENCE USER EXPERIENCE<br />

Once you’ve installed Thunderbird,<br />

Enigmail and the<br />

GnuPG program, it’s actually<br />

pretty hassle-free. Now you<br />

can use your regular email<br />

account to send and receive<br />

encoded messages to and<br />

from fellow encrypters,<br />

should you so choose.<br />

Collecting all of your chat<br />

services in one program is<br />

definitely convenient, but<br />

in order for it to actually<br />

encrypt, the person you’re<br />

chatting with also needs to<br />

use the program or another<br />

OTR-enabled chat.<br />

Ridiculously easy. There’s<br />

no need to remember any<br />

passwords, and it can easily<br />

replace your standard messaging<br />

app.<br />

Very intuitive – you can just<br />

call people like you normally<br />

would. Because it uses wi-fi<br />

or data to make the encrypted<br />

calls, it will not use<br />

up any of your minutes.<br />

The Tor Browser is preconfigured<br />

for safe use right<br />

out of the pack and works<br />

just like Chrome or Firefox.<br />

However, because of all the<br />

encryption, it will always<br />

be slower than normal<br />

browsing. There are only<br />

early, experimental mobile<br />

versions so far, like Orfox<br />

(with Orbot) for Android or<br />

Onion Browser for iOS.<br />

Making your encrypted<br />

volume can be a bit complicated;<br />

there are different<br />

types of volumes, methods<br />

and file systems to choose<br />

from, and it’s not always<br />

clear what’s best. But once<br />

you’ve done it, it works<br />

like any other USB stick or<br />

memory card, except all of it<br />

is digital.<br />

The installation can be a bit<br />

tricky, so it might be a good<br />

idea to have a tech person<br />

on standby. Once it’s<br />

installed, it works like any<br />

other OS (it’s most similar<br />

to Linux). The best part is<br />

that it can boot from almost<br />

any computer.<br />

LEVEL OF SECURITY LEVEL OF SECURITY LEVEL OF SECURITY LEVEL OF SECURITY LEVEL OF SECURITY LEVEL OF SECURITY LEVEL OF SECURITY<br />

For 23 years now, PGP<br />

encryption has repeatedly<br />

proven itself to be one of the<br />

hardest types of encryption to<br />

crack. That said, if someone<br />

manages to steal your private<br />

key or you lose it you’re<br />

screwed, so keep it somewhere<br />

safe. The Thunderbird<br />

add-on TorBirdy can also add<br />

an extra layer of protection by<br />

sending your emails through<br />

the Tor network.<br />

While it does encrypt otherwise<br />

unprotected chat, the<br />

real privacy comes with OTR<br />

chat, which circumvents<br />

companies like Google or<br />

Facebook. Alternatively,<br />

you can also use Pidgin with<br />

OTR, Adium with logging<br />

disabled or ChatSecure (for<br />

your smartphone).<br />

To the extent of public<br />

knowledge no one – not<br />

even the NSA – has been<br />

able to break it yet. Bonus:<br />

it encrypts your texts locally,<br />

so your 3am booty requests<br />

will remain safely locked<br />

away even if you lose your<br />

phone.<br />

Both apps use the so-called<br />

ZRTP protocol to provide<br />

‘forward secret’ encryption<br />

of the phone calls. Recommended<br />

by Snowden (along<br />

with TextSecure). We hear<br />

it makes it hard for the NSA<br />

to listen!<br />

Stick to the Tor network<br />

for optimal safety, and use<br />

caution when inputting personal<br />

info and passwords,<br />

lest a cookie give away your<br />

identity. Outsiders can still<br />

see you’re using Tor – which<br />

could be seen as suspicious<br />

in itself. You might want to<br />

install it on a USB stick to<br />

ensure that it doesn’t save<br />

any data to your computer.<br />

The program offers a level<br />

of encryption similar to what<br />

the US uses for ‘Top Secret’-<br />

level files. The programming<br />

behind it is all free software,<br />

so anyone can review the<br />

code and find security<br />

holes. Just remember that<br />

the German intelligence service<br />

considers people who<br />

encrypt files as potential<br />

terrorists, even if they’re just<br />

locking up cake recipes.<br />

It doesn’t get more secure<br />

than this (without, say,<br />

building a grsec-enabled<br />

kernel for your corebootenabled<br />

X60…). Of course,<br />

if you bought the USB stick<br />

online there’s still the risk<br />

that a shady figure added<br />

a tattle-tale component<br />

somewhere in transit. If you<br />

fear that might be the case,<br />

you can install Tails on a<br />

read-only DVD instead.<br />

30 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>


SNOWDEN ARTICLE TAGSPECIAL<br />

The disruptors<br />

Hugs”, which analyses whether users need a<br />

hug) under the motto “Your Data. Our Future.”<br />

This provoked Google to demand them to stop<br />

confusing their consumers and hand over their<br />

google-nest.org domain, offering $100 for the<br />

trouble. But the site had already gone viral,<br />

prompting many a media discussion on whether<br />

Google had overstepped its boundaries.<br />

CHART BY TATIANA BAZZICHELLI<br />

Don’t fight the system – disrupt it! Meet the subversive,<br />

satirical, risk-taking Berliners trying to effect change<br />

from within. By Tatiana Bazzichelli<br />

The Snowden revelations have generated<br />

an intense debate in Berlin. But trying<br />

to deal with the topic, it is easy either<br />

to become paralysed by its complexity,<br />

disillusioned by its grand scale, or deterred by<br />

fears of surveillance and repression.<br />

Can we imagine new tools and new answers<br />

that are not merely based on the idea of hiding<br />

if there really is No Place To Hide, as the title of<br />

Glenn Greenwald’s book on Snowden suggests?<br />

Perhaps we should start focusing on how to<br />

empower people to act consciously in society,<br />

culture and the media environment.<br />

Some Berlin-based artistic and activist groups<br />

have been trying to do just that. Their tactic?<br />

Disruption.<br />

Here, the idea of disruption means to generate<br />

criticism by “performing the machine” which we<br />

want to fight – oftentimes from within.<br />

This practice is nothing new in Germany.<br />

Take journalist Günter Wallraff, who in the<br />

1960s went undercover to get insight into power<br />

structures and abuses, assuming identities such<br />

as a homeless person, an alcoholic and a worker<br />

in a chemical factory as described in his popular<br />

13 unerwünschte Reportagen (13 Undesired Reports).<br />

His name has even become a verb in Swedish,<br />

meaning “to expose misconduct from the inside<br />

by assuming a role”. This approach has a double<br />

effect: from one side it reveals previously hidden<br />

information to the public, and from the other, it<br />

empowers them to adopt this methodology and<br />

keep the ball of exposure rolling.<br />

Today, in the context of increasingly invasive<br />

corporations and government agencies, Berlin<br />

collectives have had to get creative. While their<br />

methods vary wildly, the goal is the same: to<br />

rip away the veil of secrecy around institutions<br />

and media corporations, and to get unexpected<br />

feedback and reactions – whether positive or<br />

negative.<br />

With HEDONIST INTERNATIONAL, whose Fifth<br />

Congress took place last June near Berlin, the<br />

strategy of infiltration meets the practice of disruption.<br />

In their manifesto the members of the<br />

“communication guerrilla collective”, as activist<br />

Alexander Müller describes it, introduce “hedonism<br />

as the engine of a society as the chance to<br />

overcome present circumstances”. In their view,<br />

“where fun ends, hierarchy begins”. Instead of<br />

“playing the system”, their playful interventions<br />

liberate or “queer” power structures.<br />

The group’s activities go beyond dancing<br />

naked in neo-Nazi hotspots or holding hedonistic<br />

nude flat viewing rallies to oppose Berlin<br />

gentrification. In 2011, when German defence<br />

minister Karl-Theodor Guttenberg was accused<br />

of plagiarism of his doctoral dissertation and<br />

forced to resign, the Hedonists organised a fake<br />

demonstration of solidarity for the minister, attracting<br />

many of his conservative supporters and<br />

consequently making them very confused with<br />

ironic slogans like “Jetzt oder nie – Monarchie!”.<br />

The Hedonists also applied the strategy of<br />

disturbance by generating fake Twitter accounts.<br />

In the wake of the Fukushima catastrophe, they<br />

created an account on behalf of the Atom Forum,<br />

the German nuclear lobby, to question their<br />

arguments and point out the consequence of the<br />

meltdown – until the Atom Forum decided to<br />

take legal action against the Hedonists, demonstrating<br />

that the system can always force its truth<br />

on you, even if you play with the truth itself.<br />

Fake-tweeting for the company DigiTask,<br />

manufacturer of the “Staatstrojaner” government<br />

spyware exposed by the Chaos Computer Club<br />

in 2011, again earned the Hedonists a Cease and<br />

Desist letter. To justify its legal action, DigiTask<br />

claimed that the spyware was not used in the<br />

countries the activists were stating, rather in<br />

other countries, including Austria – generating<br />

another boomerang effect and causing a scandal<br />

among Austrian activists.<br />

Meanwhile, the tactic of the German PENG!<br />

COLLECTIVE is to intrude into corporate conferences.<br />

In December 2013 they hijacked the<br />

Science Slam in Berlin, organised by Shell to<br />

promote innovation by inviting young scientists<br />

to present new ideas. The collective showed up<br />

with an “amazing machine” that, when turned<br />

on, flipped open to reveal the message “Slam<br />

Shell” and began gushing oil on the presenters<br />

as they demanded cleaner business practices<br />

in Nigeria and the end of drilling in the Arctic.<br />

They used a similar tactic at the May <strong>2014</strong><br />

re:publica festival, where, inspired by Google’s<br />

acquisition of home-device manufacturer Nest,<br />

they posed as Google employees to deliver a<br />

presentation about their new, seemingly utopian<br />

“Google Nest” technology (for example, “Google<br />

Another Berlin-based group that has made<br />

disruption a source of artistic practice is the<br />

TELEKOMMUNISTEN collective, initiated by<br />

Canadian developer and “venture communist”<br />

Dmytri Kleiner (an early critique of the existing<br />

copyright norms but also the Creative Commons<br />

movement, to which he opposed a Copyfarleft<br />

licence system). Active in Berlin for around 10<br />

years, the Telekommunisten have been demonstrating<br />

how it is possible to work from within<br />

the logics of centralised online (and offline)<br />

systems, by imagining a series of “miscommunication<br />

technologies” which “don’t work<br />

as expected, or work in an unexpected way”.<br />

Their last work, the Numbers Station, responds<br />

directly to the recent debate on surveillance<br />

and the need for data encryption. Addressed<br />

ironically to all spies and whistleblowers, the<br />

system is based on decryption cards, which help<br />

participants decode phrases delivered by radio<br />

communications. By bringing together playfulness<br />

and encryption, and making crypto-tools<br />

accessible as an artwork, Numbers Station shows<br />

that to perform disruption you have to become<br />

aware of the possibilities of your Internet presence,<br />

and you need to explore its strength while<br />

testing its limits.<br />

In this post-Snowden, post-digital era, disruption<br />

tactics have never been more accessible.<br />

What Edward Snowden did, what Chelsea<br />

Manning did and what other whistleblowers<br />

did before them demonstrate that disruption is<br />

ready to be applied by everyone. Holes in the<br />

systems are everywhere, ready to be exploited.<br />

What are you waiting for? n<br />

Tatiana Bazzichelli is a curator<br />

and researcher, author of<br />

the books Networked<br />

Disruption and Disrupting<br />

Business (2013). She was<br />

programme curator at<br />

the transmediale festival<br />

and she is planning a new<br />

series of events under the<br />

name Disruption Network Lab<br />

(upcoming 2015), to bring into<br />

dialogue local and international hackers,<br />

activists, networkers, and critical thinkers<br />

within the framework of art, hacktivism and<br />

network economy.<br />

GISELLA SORRENO<br />

31


What’s on<br />

CALENDAR<br />

<strong>September</strong> <strong>2014</strong><br />

CLASSICAL TUESDAY, SEP 2 The<br />

Berlin Philharmonie runs a<br />

marathon in cooperation with<br />

Berliner Festspiele, with 31 instrumental<br />

and vocal performances.<br />

The opening is a tribute<br />

to Johannes Brahms’ Piano<br />

Concertos. Through Sep 22.<br />

Starts 19:00. (see page 42)<br />

Musikfest<br />

15 Years Post Theater<br />

THEATRE SUNDAY, SEP 7 Paragon<br />

of both traditional and<br />

contemporary theatre and<br />

dance performances – Post<br />

Theater turns 15. It closes out<br />

with Jobs im Himmel but catch<br />

what you can starting Sep<br />

3. Theaterdiscounter. Starts<br />

20:00.<br />

15<br />

Erotic Crisis<br />

THEATRE MONDAY, SEP 15 The<br />

new piece from Yael Ronen<br />

gives Gorki a more erotic<br />

charge. Exploring sexuality<br />

among a myriad of social<br />

constellations, tonight is the<br />

first staging with English subs.<br />

Maxim Gorki. Starts 19:30.<br />

ULRICH “ULI”<br />

SCHREIBER founded<br />

Berlin’s International<br />

Literature Festival<br />

(Sep 10-20, see<br />

page 42) in 2001 and<br />

remains its illustrious<br />

head to this day.<br />

FRIDAY 20:00 A film at<br />

Delphi Filmpalast (Kantstr.<br />

12a, Charlottenburg).<br />

22:00 Drinks and<br />

maybe dinner at Paris<br />

Bar (Kantstr. 152,<br />

Charlottenburg).<br />

SATURDAY 8:00 Coffee<br />

and croissant at Literaturcafé<br />

(Else-Ury-Bogen<br />

599-601, Charlottenburg).<br />

Reading the last<br />

pages of Judith Hermann’s<br />

novel Aller Liebe<br />

Anfang. 10:00 Shopping<br />

at the weekly market<br />

(Karl-August Platz,<br />

Charlottenburg). 12:00<br />

Aglio e olio and cold<br />

white wine at Biscotti<br />

(Pestalozzistr. 88, Charlottenburg);<br />

talking with<br />

friends, watching people<br />

passing happily with<br />

beautiful flowers in their<br />

Moderat, Berlin Festival, Sep 5<br />

0<br />

10<br />

the city embraces 11 days of<br />

International Literature<br />

Festival<br />

LITERATURE WEDNESDAY, SEP 10<br />

Bookworms of Berlin rejoice as<br />

literary celebration. Over 180<br />

guests give lectures, workshops<br />

and readings from prose to poetry.<br />

Through Sep 21. Various<br />

venues. (see page 42)<br />

Erotic Crisis, Sep 15<br />

My perfect Berlin weekend<br />

0<br />

arms. 14:00 Sanssouci<br />

bread (my favourite)<br />

at Butter Lindner<br />

(Voßstr. 35, Charlottenburg).<br />

15:00 Listening<br />

to Tom Waits while cooking<br />

and preparing my<br />

flat for an evening party.<br />

16:00 Waiting for wine<br />

delivery from Klemke<br />

(Mommsenstr. 9, Charlottenburg).<br />

20:00 My<br />

first guests arrive. Soon<br />

I won’t be a noticeable<br />

host any more, just<br />

part of the crowd.<br />

SUNDAY 12:00 Sit<br />

on my balcony, reading<br />

Dave Eggers’ The<br />

Circle. 14:00 Maybe<br />

I will take a walk in<br />

Schlosspark Charlottenburg,<br />

maybe not.<br />

3<br />

Berlin Music Week<br />

MUSIC WEDNESDAY, SEP 3<br />

Music is an industry, too. Aside<br />

from the 100 artists drawn to<br />

the city, there’ll be a conference<br />

with 2000 industry suits<br />

from 30 countries hanging<br />

around to find the next<br />

big thing. Through Sep<br />

7. Various venues.<br />

11<br />

Pasolini Roma<br />

ART FILM THURSDAY, SEP 11<br />

Auteur or agitator? Explore<br />

the life and work of one of the<br />

most controversial yet important<br />

directors of all time – Pier<br />

Paolo Pasolini. Through Jan<br />

5. Martin-Gropius-Bau. Starts<br />

10:00. (see page 38)<br />

Berlin Art Week<br />

ART TUESDAY, SEP 16 Although<br />

alt-fave Preview has dissolved,<br />

Berlin’s abuzz with art through<br />

16<br />

three fairs: ABC, Preview successor<br />

Positions and unofficial<br />

affiliate Liste. The city-wide<br />

hobnobbing goes on through<br />

Sep 21. (see page 50)<br />

22<br />

Miss Kenichi<br />

MUSIC MONDAY, SEP 22 Back<br />

with new album The Trail, Miss<br />

Kenichi has appeared in these<br />

pages a few times over the<br />

years, both as highlight and as<br />

writer. She hits the stage with<br />

Lonski and Classen as support.<br />

Lido. Starts 20:00.<br />

Azealia Banks<br />

MUSIC FRIDAY, SEP 26 The<br />

shade-throwing hip hop Amazon<br />

brings her trademark<br />

26<br />

breakneck flow and pottymouth<br />

and, hopefully, a taste<br />

of her upcoming album Broke<br />

with Expensive Taste. Huxley’s<br />

Neue Welt. Starts 20:00. (see<br />

page 46)<br />

Also Sep 3-4:<br />

Transduction<br />

concert<br />

installation at<br />

Berghain<br />

4<br />

Jewish Culture Days<br />

FESTIVAL THURSDAY, SEP 4<br />

Shalom! For 10 days Berlin<br />

will celebrate everything Jewish<br />

through concerts, children’s<br />

workshops, synagogue<br />

tours, exhibitions and<br />

Pasolini Roma, Sep 11<br />

street festivals. Through<br />

Sep 14. Various locations.<br />

Starts 8:00.<br />

0<br />

17<br />

Blonde Redhead<br />

MUSIC WEDNESDAY, SEP 17<br />

Blonde Redhead return just<br />

in time for the release of their<br />

new album Barragán: something<br />

for both new and old<br />

fans of the early-2000s indie<br />

rock dreamers. Frannz Club.<br />

Starts 20:00.<br />

23<br />

Funk style costumes and emit<br />

Goat<br />

MUSIC TUESDAY, SEP 23 The<br />

psychedelic-experimental-fusion<br />

band from Sweden don P-<br />

eccentric live voodoo vibes<br />

that would make even the likes<br />

of James Brown proud. Postbahnhof.<br />

Starts 20:00.<br />

Mary Ocher, Sep 27<br />

0<br />

STEPHAN WHITE ANGELO NOVI, FONDAZIONE<br />

CINETECA DI BOLOGNA<br />

32 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>


Jewish Culture Days, Sep 4<br />

0<br />

12<br />

Colourbox<br />

ART FRIDAY, SEP 12 Wolfgang<br />

Tillman’s project space hosts<br />

a retrospective on 4AD electronic<br />

band Colourbox. Aheadof-their-time<br />

in album art, they<br />

beat Einstürzende Neubauten<br />

to the horse penis punch by<br />

six years. Between Bridges.<br />

Starts 19:00.<br />

Der Anständige<br />

FILM THURSDAY, SEP 18 Catch<br />

Vanessa Lapa’s documentary<br />

on one of history’s greatest vil-<br />

18<br />

lains, Heinrich Himmler. Using<br />

private letters only made public<br />

in February, this is a personal<br />

glimpse into the Nazi’s<br />

mind. Volksbühne. Starts<br />

20:00.<br />

24<br />

GusGus<br />

MUSIC WEDNESDAY, SEP 24<br />

Twenty years into a varied career,<br />

Icelandic electronic outfit<br />

GusGus released the techhouse-tinged<br />

Mexico this year.<br />

The show will be Obnoxiously<br />

Sexual. Also Sep 23. Berghain.<br />

Starts 20:00.<br />

27<br />

Mary Ocher<br />

MUSIC SATURDAY, SEP 27 Berlin’s<br />

multi-talented songstress<br />

is leaving the Government behind<br />

(just for one show) to entertain<br />

us solo, spiced up with<br />

piano. Lucrecia Dalt supports.<br />

Roter Salon. Starts 21:00.<br />

Also Sep 12-13:<br />

Beer & Beef and<br />

the last Bite Club<br />

Mitte...<br />

5<br />

MUSIC FRIDAY, SEP 5 The fest<br />

moved camp last minute this<br />

year from Tempelhof to Arena<br />

Park for a 48-hour lineup including<br />

Mount Kimbie, Hudson<br />

Mohawke, Moderat, Jessie<br />

Ware and Digitalism (see page<br />

44). Through Sep 7.<br />

Berlin Festival<br />

13<br />

lead guided tours of museums<br />

Day of Open Memorials<br />

TOURS SATURDAY, SEP 13 Over<br />

two days archaeologists, restorers<br />

and conservationists<br />

and concert halls, letting audiences<br />

in on the secret side<br />

of Berlin’s listed buildings.<br />

Through Sep 14. Various<br />

locations.<br />

0<br />

Dubl Trubl, Sep 19<br />

25<br />

EXBlicks: Stasi night<br />

FILM THURSDAY, SEP 25<br />

A unique programme from the<br />

Stasi vaults including spy training<br />

and GDR propaganda films,<br />

plus a doc on Cold War espionage<br />

and a discussion with Hubertus<br />

Knabe, head of the Stasi<br />

Museum. Lichtblick Kino. Starts<br />

20:30. (see page 39)<br />

28<br />

of handbikers, power walkers<br />

Berlin Marathon<br />

SPORTS SUNDAY, SEP 28 Clear<br />

the streets! Berlin gets taken<br />

over for a city-wide marathon<br />

and runners. If you wanna strap<br />

on the rollerblades or bring the<br />

kiddies, there’s a special race<br />

for them the day before.<br />

Also Sep 13-14:<br />

Folsom Street<br />

Europe<br />

6<br />

Experimentdays<br />

POLITICS & ACTIVISM SATURDAY,<br />

SEP 6 The annual urban development<br />

fest runs from Sep<br />

5-13. Today, catch an exhibition<br />

and discussion with South African<br />

artist Terry Kurgan, whose<br />

work concerns the public versus<br />

private realm. Bootshaus.<br />

Starts 11:00.<br />

25 Jahre Mauerfall<br />

– We Are The Play<br />

STAGE SUNDAY, SEP 14 Part of<br />

English Theatre Berlin’s month-<br />

14<br />

long exploration, this site-specific<br />

interactive performance<br />

piece focuses on Germans and<br />

Ausländer during the fall of the<br />

Wall. From Sep 11. Berlin Wall<br />

Memorial. Starts 19:00.<br />

19<br />

brought here to mix and match<br />

DUBL TRUBL>>Ich bin<br />

in Berlin<br />

ART FRIDAY, SEP 19 More than<br />

80 international artists are<br />

skills and disciplines in surprising<br />

ways: from art to film<br />

to music. Opening party on<br />

Sep 18. Through Oct 26. Starts<br />

12:00. (see page 49)<br />

Berlin Marathon, Sep 28<br />

0<br />

29<br />

The Space Lady<br />

MUSIC MONDAY, SEP 29<br />

Spaced-out covers and originals<br />

from a San Francisco<br />

street musician turned rediscovered<br />

cult heroine with a<br />

fascinating life story (see page<br />

46). Marie Antoinette. Starts<br />

20:00.<br />

1.10.–31.12.<br />

Meg Stuart /<br />

Damaged Goods<br />

Phil Collins<br />

Sarah Vanhee<br />

Dries Verhoeven<br />

Ivo Dimchev<br />

Farid Fairuz<br />

Forced<br />

Entertainment<br />

Philippe Quesne<br />

Gob Squad<br />

andcompany&Co.<br />

Kat Válastur<br />

Hans-Werner<br />

Kroesinger<br />

Damian Rebgetz<br />

Rimini Protokoll<br />

Laurent<br />

Chétouane<br />

Isabelle Schad<br />

Mouse On Mars<br />

Jefta van Dinther<br />

Adam Linder<br />

Nicoleta<br />

Esinencu<br />

u.v.m.<br />

<br />

33<br />

www.hebbel-am-ufer.de


What’s on<br />

FILM<br />

STARTS AUG 28<br />

Wolfskinder<br />

D: Rick Ostermann<br />

(Germany 2013) with<br />

Levin Liam, Helena Phil,<br />

Vivien Ciskowski ◆◆◆◆<br />

Ostermann’s debut film<br />

and winner of the <strong>2014</strong><br />

“Friedenspreis des<br />

deutschen Films”, this<br />

portrait of the odyssey<br />

undertaken by Hans<br />

(Liam) as he struggles<br />

through post-WWII occupational and partisan brutalities<br />

on his way to Lithuania searching for his younger brother<br />

should be seen twice: once to appreciate the artistic<br />

mastery of a largely ‘voiceless’ screenplay and soberly<br />

stunning cinematography. And again: as a filter for the<br />

millions of children’s voices currently undergoing something<br />

similar – in reality. EL<br />

DANIEL MCFADDEN<br />

FILM<br />

editor’s<br />

pick<br />

STARTS SEP 4<br />

Hercules<br />

D: Brett Ratner (USA<br />

<strong>2014</strong>) with Dwayne Johnson,<br />

Ian McShane<br />

◆◆ It’s “Lions and<br />

hydras and boars, oh<br />

my!” as the usually<br />

likeable Johnson and the<br />

much maligned Ratner<br />

join a selection of fine<br />

British thesps for this<br />

moderately diverting<br />

retelling of the demi-god’s slightly latter years. Taking<br />

place after his widely eulogised trials, we find Hercules<br />

as a myth turned mercenary; trekking the wilderness<br />

with his grumbling comrades until that one last lucrative<br />

job offers an early way out. Credit for choosing to<br />

debunk the hero’s mythology: aside from that, we all<br />

know the drill. ROC<br />

STARTS SEP 4<br />

Deliver Us From Evil<br />

D: Scott Derrickson (USA<br />

<strong>2014</strong>) with Eric Bana, Édgar<br />

Ramírez, Olivia Munn<br />

◆◆ When New York<br />

police officer Ralph Sarchie<br />

(Bana) investigates a<br />

series of inexplicable but<br />

somehow interconnected<br />

crimes, he crosses the<br />

path of an unorthodox<br />

priest. Together they combat<br />

the evil spreading amongst Iraq vets, revealing his<br />

own hidden guilt in the process. Adopting many elements<br />

from the real-life Sarchie’s actual cases, this film is a<br />

post-Iraq-war take on exorcism where horror genre meets<br />

action and crime drama – with few surprises. YC<br />

STARTS SEP 11<br />

Song From The Forest<br />

D: Michael Obert (Germany<br />

2013) documentary<br />

with Louis Sarno<br />

◆◆◆◆ Following Sarno,<br />

a musician who lived with<br />

and recorded the music of<br />

pygmy Bayaka tribe in a<br />

Central African rainforest<br />

for over 25 years, on his<br />

journey back to his native<br />

New York with his young<br />

son Samedi, Obert’s film (see interview, page 36) is an intelligent<br />

portrait of a hunter-gatherer people losing its way<br />

of life, a man finding his way again and a boy embracing a<br />

globalised future. Reverberating with polyphonies from the<br />

Renaissance and the heart of Africa, this baroque sense<br />

fest captivates heart and soul. MW<br />

34 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong><br />

The flesh hell of Hollywood<br />

By EVE LUCAS<br />

A scene in David Cronenberg’s MAPS TO THE<br />

STARS (photo) shows ‘ageing’ movie actress Hannah<br />

Segrand (Moore) rushing onto her pool patio<br />

for a little elated gig with chore-whore Agatha<br />

(Wasikowska). A rival’s little boy has drowned in<br />

another pool somewhere in Hollywood. Things<br />

are looking up.<br />

States of extreme confusion are Cronenberg’s<br />

stock in trade and a Hollywood populated by<br />

emotionally distant and deceptively close stars<br />

and gods is a natural choice of habitat. Not<br />

surprisingly, Bruce Wagner’s screenplay is selfconsciously<br />

heavy on the invocation of grand<br />

themes from Greek mythology: brother-sister incest,<br />

emotional infanticide and a bevy of visitors<br />

from the netherworld. All quite apart from the<br />

regular cast of treachery, greed and ambition that<br />

humdingers its way through Segrand’s coterie:<br />

her feel-good spin-guru Stafford Weiss (Cusack),<br />

his tormented wife (Williams), recently detoxed<br />

child-star son Benjie (Bird) and the bad daughter<br />

who’s back in town. Watching it all through his<br />

rear-view mirror is the hired limo driver Jerome<br />

(Pattinson in a neat inversion of his role in Cosmopolis).<br />

He’s working on his own screenplay, so<br />

yeah, “everything is research”.<br />

Jerome’s role is loosely based on Wagner’s own<br />

experiences starting out in Hollywood. His view<br />

of indolent, detached curiosity has been done<br />

before (Altman’s The Player to name just one).<br />

What Cronenberg/Wagner bring to this game is<br />

the detachment of meta-textual commentary on<br />

stardom, presenting Hollywood as a firmament<br />

of humans “acting” as celestial bodies. It’s a consistently<br />

unpleasant and deliberately unnatural<br />

angle, contextualised by DP Peter Suschitsky,<br />

whose background in still photography imparts<br />

a predatory stasis to Rodeo Drive and Hollywood<br />

Boulevard. Characters move through these<br />

abeyant spaces as people but also as merchandise.<br />

They are human subjects (evidenced by a<br />

constipated Moore straining on the loo), but<br />

see themselves as god-like objects of adulation<br />

and emulation. These are freshly and viciously<br />

observed dualities, albeit slightly overdrawn<br />

and slackly edited. But as the curtain closes on<br />

a last shot of tragedy there’s little question that<br />

Cronenberg has again framed some pretty bad<br />

lands. This Hollywood is Medea and she’s a titled<br />

logo beaming in the distance: an impervious<br />

signifier of status, watching the slaughter of her<br />

children from her perch in the hills.<br />

The ‘Map to the Stars’ (as in map of stars’ addresses)<br />

also plays a small role in Mike Myers’<br />

SUPERMENSCH: THE LEGEND OF SHEP GORDON as<br />

Gordon recalls how he posted the notice “Alice<br />

doesn’t live here anymore” on Alice Cooper’s<br />

Hollywood home during the star’s stint in rehab.<br />

Originally intent on becoming a probation officer,<br />

Gordon literally stumbled into Hollywood<br />

via the legendary Landmark Motel, where he<br />

tried to separate what he thought was a couple<br />

fighting. It turned out to be Janis Joplin and Jimi<br />

Hendrix. Hendrix suggested Gordon try his hand<br />

at talent management: specifically, Alice Cooper.<br />

Gordon rose to become an impresario extraordinaire:<br />

other clients include Anne Murray and<br />

Luther Vandross. As a producer (Prince of Darkness)<br />

he pioneered US independent film. He’s also<br />

friendly with the Dalai Lama. With the exception<br />

of a few quirky graphics, Myers’ documentary on<br />

his friend Gordon is straightforward. It’s also an<br />

engagingly frank reflection on an anomaly: a generous<br />

man whose “compassionate business” ethic<br />

has kept him afloat and decent in that very same<br />

environment evoked so darkly by Cronenberg. ■<br />

STARTS SEP 11<br />

Maps to the Stars ◆◆◆<br />

Directed by David Cronenberg (Canada, USA, France, Germany<br />

<strong>2014</strong>) with Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, John Cusack<br />

STARTS SEP 18<br />

Supermensch: the Legend of Shep Gordon ◆◆◆<br />

Directed by Mike Myers (USA 2013) documentary with Shep<br />

Gordon<br />

ALL MOVIES ARE IN OV WITH GERMAN SUBTITLES UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED


STARTS AUG 28<br />

Begin Again<br />

(Can A Song Save Your Life?) D: John<br />

Carney (USA 2013) with Mark Ruffalo, Keira<br />

Knightley, Hailee Steinfeld, Adam Levine,<br />

Catherine Keener ◆◆◆ If, as freshly<br />

unemployed music producer/exec<br />

indie label founder Dan (Ruffalo)<br />

says, music has the ability to<br />

“invest banality with meaning”, you<br />

won’t find a better example of that<br />

maxim than right here, in Carney’s<br />

follow-up to the endearing Once.<br />

That’s better – as in “between<br />

good and best”. Because let’s just<br />

say that this story of singer-songwriter<br />

Gretta (Knightley doing her<br />

own vocals) who’s about to leave<br />

NY after her rising rock-star<br />

boyfriend (Levine) dumps her, is<br />

discovered by Dan and agrees to<br />

joint venture an album of her<br />

songs street-recorded live in New<br />

York – well, it doesn’t re-invent the<br />

plot wheel. It does take the<br />

age-worn tropes of disillusioned<br />

passion and artistic integrity,<br />

fine-tune them via solid performances<br />

from main and subsidiary<br />

stars (with Keener/Steinfeld<br />

notably good as Dan’s wife and<br />

daughter) and whoop the whole<br />

thing up with a couple of wellplaced<br />

set-piece performances<br />

(albeit studio synced) against<br />

some classic NY backdrops. Add<br />

CeeLo Green as verse-rapping<br />

sponsor Troublegum, a bit of<br />

trans-Atlantic chemistry and a light<br />

hand behind the camera and the<br />

mic and you got yourself some<br />

nicely observed female empowerment.<br />

Summer ain’t over yet. See<br />

it out with this. EL<br />

AHA.<br />

DEUTSCH!<br />

STARTS AUG 28<br />

Guardians of the Galaxy<br />

D: James Gunn (USA <strong>2014</strong>) with Chris<br />

Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin<br />

Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Benicio Del Toro<br />

◆◆◆◆ There was a time when<br />

the little red Marvel logo on a<br />

film poster inspired feelings of<br />

childlike wonder and excitement<br />

in even the average filmgoer. Unfortunately,<br />

as of late, the oncereliable<br />

publishing company has<br />

churned out a spate of sub-par,<br />

kitsch, forgettable blockbusters<br />

that have paled in comparison<br />

with their predecessors. Guardians<br />

of the Galaxy, however, has<br />

completely (and thankfully) put a<br />

stop to this trend. It’s an origins<br />

tale of the adventures of Peter<br />

Quill, a human kidnapped from<br />

his home planet Earth and thrust<br />

into a new life of interstellar<br />

thievery. Upon obtaining a mysterious<br />

and coveted orb as part<br />

of a lucrative deal with an alien<br />

jeweller, he is attacked by an<br />

unlikely group of bounty hunters:<br />

a mutant raccoon, a tree-man<br />

and an oddly attractive bright<br />

green spacewoman... and thus,<br />

the Guardians of the Galaxy are<br />

born. It’s the breath of fresh air<br />

Marvel needed to recover from its<br />

recent stagnancy and the surprising<br />

amount of belly laughs are<br />

enough to win over even the most<br />

superhero-weary of viewers. MF<br />

goethe.de/berlin<br />

Sprache. Kultur. Deutschland.<br />

35


What’s on<br />

FILM<br />

STARTS SEP 4<br />

Another Me<br />

(Another Me – Mein<br />

zweites Ich) D: Isabel<br />

Coixet (UK, Spain 2013)<br />

with Sophie Turner,<br />

Jonathan Rhys Meyers,<br />

Gregg Sulkin ◆<br />

Sophie Turner (Game of<br />

Thrones) stars as Fay,<br />

a teen whose grasp on<br />

reality disintegrates after<br />

she gets the lead in her<br />

school’s rendition of Macbeth. Add a bit of doppelgänger<br />

psychodrama and you have Isabel Coixet’s loose adaptation<br />

of Catherine MacPhail’s eponymous teen novel. It<br />

might sound promising on paper but not even the acting<br />

of Turner or Rhys Meyers can save the script’s forced<br />

esotericism and, well, plain bad writing. MH<br />

STARTS SEP 18<br />

Concerning Violence<br />

D: Göran Olsson, (Sweden<br />

<strong>2014</strong>) with Lauryn Hill<br />

◆◆◆◆ With Lauryn Hill<br />

reading excerpts from<br />

Frantz Fanon’s incendiary<br />

work on decolonisation<br />

The Wretched Of<br />

The Earth over Swedish<br />

television archive footage<br />

documenting the struggle<br />

for independence for<br />

colonised nations in Africa, Concerning Violence is an<br />

intelligent and even-handed interrogation of the use<br />

of violence both by the colonial powers on oppressed<br />

natives and by freedom fighters wresting the power back.<br />

Its Nine Scenes From The Anti-Imperialistic Self-Defence<br />

are by turns beautiful, funny and disturbing, allowing the<br />

images and people to speak for themselves. MW<br />

STARTS SEP 18<br />

A World Not Ours<br />

D: Mahdi Fleifel (UK, Lebanon,<br />

Denmark, UAE 2012)<br />

documentary ◆◆◆◆<br />

Before the Syrian troubles,<br />

the Palestinian refugee<br />

camp Ain El-Helweh in<br />

Southern Lebanon housed<br />

70,000. Even in 2012,<br />

when Fleifel made this<br />

film, it was crowded.<br />

Watch this film and<br />

imagine double that number trying to give their kids the<br />

kind of cheerful Woody Allen misery invoked by Fleifel to<br />

describe the soccer and semi-automatics that dominated<br />

his childhood – before descending into the desperation<br />

now suffered by his contemporaries. EL<br />

STARTS SEP 18<br />

Gemma Bovery<br />

D: Anne Fontaine, (France<br />

<strong>2014</strong>) with Gemma<br />

Arterton, Fabrice Luchini,<br />

Jason Flemyng ◆◆◆<br />

Fontaine returns to<br />

France for her adaptation<br />

of Posy Simmonds’ novel<br />

of French-speaking Brits<br />

abroad. At its core, it’s<br />

a humdrum comedy<br />

about men’s fascination<br />

with beautiful women, but blessed with a deliciously<br />

asinine performance from Luchini as the curtain-twitching<br />

neighbour who insists on turning Gemma (Arterton) and<br />

her extramarital relations into Gustave Flaubert’s fictional<br />

philanderer Emma Bovary – and turns a small town baker<br />

with an over-baked literary imagination into a hero. Once<br />

again, it seems, “Gemma Bovery, c’est moi.” MW<br />

36 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong><br />

“He’s my rainforest”By MARK WILSHIN<br />

In his debut documentary Song from the Forest<br />

(see review, page 34), Obert, a Berlin-based<br />

journalist turned filmmaker, follows Sarno and<br />

his son Samedi as they journey from their home<br />

among the Bayaka tribe to the US.<br />

Adventurer, journalist, writer, filmmaker<br />

– how would you describe yourself ?<br />

Storyteller. Or traveller and storyteller maybe. I<br />

think travelling brought me to writing, and<br />

writing brought me to filmmaking basically. But<br />

it’s mainly my interest in stories of human beings.<br />

I like these stories that ask existential questions<br />

basically, and that make me think about my own<br />

life, my own path, my own story, my own<br />

decisions. And that’s the way I write my stories.<br />

Song From The Forest is your first film. You<br />

must have faced a lot of challenges… No<br />

electricity, obviously. No running water. Dense<br />

vegetation. It’s always dark, incredibly humid.<br />

But the biggest challenge was shooting in the<br />

US, because of Louis’ deep culture shock. Very<br />

often I had to leave the camera and just turn<br />

from filmmaker to human being, to friend. To<br />

support him. I think that was a lot harder than<br />

anything we experienced in the jungle.<br />

How does that work? How do you know<br />

when to put the camera down? I don’t really<br />

consciously reflect on this. If I feel if this is a<br />

moment to help and act in a human way, then I<br />

just act. I think my filmmaking and my journalistic<br />

work is always happening on a very human<br />

level. At eye-level. So the people I’m dealing<br />

with, they usually trust me. I don’t want to<br />

disappoint them when they need my help.<br />

It’s a nostalgic film about lost people –<br />

both Louis Sarno and the Bayaka. Do you<br />

SONG FROM<br />

THE FOREST<br />

Sep 11<br />

A song on the radio led American Louis Sarno to the Central African<br />

rainforest. Twenty-five years later, MICHAEL OBERT found him there.<br />

think a documentary film can do more<br />

than just document? Personally, I don’t care<br />

about genre definitions. I like to treat the<br />

subject almost as if it was a feature film. I hate<br />

talking head films. I hate the whole biopic thing<br />

as well. For information, you can just go online.<br />

It’s definitely not a film about answers. I hate<br />

answers in movies. It’s a poetic work, and poetry<br />

is all about space I think. So the movie opens<br />

spaces and you can wander around the spaces as<br />

an audience, and then you come out with your<br />

questions. That’s the type of storytelling I’m<br />

interested in.<br />

It’s very observational and spontaneous<br />

– do you have a favourite moment? What<br />

really touches me still is whenever the 16thcentury<br />

music comes up. The whole idea to use<br />

William Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices as the<br />

backbone of the whole movie, it’s an experiment,<br />

but I think it worked out really well.<br />

What’s the story behind that music ? That<br />

first night after our encounter, he took me to his<br />

hut and we were talking randomly for hours. At<br />

one point, I was so exhausted I just lay down on<br />

the earth floor, and maybe a couple of hours later<br />

I woke up and I heard this music, the first piece<br />

that we use to open the movie – the Kyrie of the<br />

Mass, sung by the Oxford Camerata. I had the<br />

feeling I was between a dream and reality. And<br />

then I opened my eyes and saw Louis at his<br />

worm-eaten table in the Rembrandt light of his<br />

lantern listening to this music, and I got<br />

goosebumps. I think the music Louis had heard<br />

on the radio lured him into the rainforest, but<br />

this music lured me into his life. It will be five<br />

years ago this autumn, and I’m still there. He’s a<br />

major part of my life, I’m a major part of his life.<br />

He’s my rainforest, basically. ■<br />

ALL MOVIES ARE IN OV WITH GERMAN SUBTITLES UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED


DIGITAL<br />

OFFSET PRINT<br />

STARTS SEP 4<br />

Still Life<br />

(Mr. May und das Flüstern der Ewigkeit) D:<br />

Uberto Pasolini (UK, Italy 2013) with Eddie<br />

Marsan, Joanne Froggatt ◆◆◆◆ The art<br />

of framing a still life demands deference<br />

to detail and atmosphere.<br />

And although he’s actually related<br />

to Visconti, Vermeer feels more<br />

genetically relevant to this second<br />

film from Uberto Pasolini (producer<br />

of The Full Monty) as he steps<br />

delicately, frame-by-frame, through<br />

the life of Mr. May (Marsan), a<br />

London council worker tasked with<br />

tracing the relatives of people who<br />

have died alone and, failing that,<br />

to arrange their solitary funerals.<br />

Pasolini’s first film Machan<br />

followed a group of Sri Lankans<br />

who successfully applied for exit<br />

visas to Germany by pretending<br />

to be the national handball team.<br />

His eye for the humanely absurd<br />

is clothed here in the poetry of<br />

intimacy. As May, Marsan personifies<br />

a dedication to honouring the<br />

fast-disappearing lives of his case<br />

files, picking over their modest possessions<br />

to get a feeling for their<br />

unsung interests and translating<br />

these pathetic accretions into moving<br />

obituaries. As the potential love<br />

interest Downton Abbey’s Froggatt<br />

adds a note of potential salvation.<br />

But it’s the directorial effort<br />

that’s truly redemptive. Echoing<br />

May’s own role as a re-creator of<br />

existence, Pasolini burnishes a life<br />

of unpromising bits and pieces –<br />

turning unravelled existence into a<br />

lustrous epigraph to loneliness. EL<br />

New!<br />

large<br />

format<br />

print<br />

instant service<br />

STARTS SEP 11<br />

A Most Wanted Man<br />

D: Anton Corbijn (UK, Germany 2012)<br />

with Philip Seymour Hoffmann ◆◆◆◆<br />

Following his 2007 debut Control,<br />

Dutch-born photographer turned<br />

director Corbijn returns to form<br />

with a version of Le Carré’s<br />

eponymous novel, filmed in Hamburg<br />

and Berlin in just 40 days.<br />

The constraints imposed by this<br />

schedule are evident, but logically<br />

so, in the movie’s delineation of<br />

post 9/11 counter-terrorist urgency<br />

as a sequence of grey zones that<br />

start with a thin, dishevelled man<br />

climbing out of Hamburg’s port<br />

waters and running to take shelter.<br />

A semi-official anti-terror unit operating<br />

under one Günther Bachmann<br />

(Hoffmann) with the grudging<br />

complicity of Germany’s secret<br />

services soon identifies this most<br />

wanted man as a Muslim Chechen<br />

who has evidently come to Hamburg<br />

following the money deposited<br />

there by his deceased father, a<br />

Russian officer. As Bachmann and<br />

his team (staffed by Nina Hoss and<br />

Daniel Brühl) negotiate playing-time<br />

and the support of an idealistic<br />

human-rights lawyer (Rachel Adams),<br />

the greater powers (including<br />

Robin Wright as a CIA operative)<br />

engage in their own cat-and-mouse<br />

games. Undermining morality with<br />

zealous conviction, the ensemble<br />

cast pursues agendas marked by<br />

delusion and righteousness. And<br />

PSH locks it all together: scruffily<br />

benevolent, sharp yet slovenly,<br />

his performance will make you<br />

weep for what is – and what might<br />

have been. EL<br />

cards documentations brochures softcover<br />

manuals hardcover paperbacks photobooks<br />

newsletters presentations<br />

variable data printing whatever you need.<br />

WE ARE FAST!<br />

PRINTPRODUCTION<br />

PRENZLAUER BERG:<br />

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Wörther Str. 29 · call 44 03 77 0<br />

visit our website: www.solid-earth.de<br />

´TIL MIDNIGHT<br />

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37<br />

anything


What’s on<br />

FILM<br />

STARTS SEP 18<br />

The Decent One<br />

(Der Anständige) D:<br />

Vanessa Lapa (Israel, Germany<br />

<strong>2014</strong>) documentary<br />

◆◆◆ Working with<br />

virgin material taken from<br />

the diaries and letters of<br />

Himmler and his family,<br />

Lapa tells the story of<br />

the SS-Reichsführer and<br />

Holocaust architect “in<br />

his own words”. Merging<br />

original photos and texts with contemporary found footage,<br />

Lapa deliberately (and sometimes confusingly) blurs<br />

the essentially factual with fictional structures, creating<br />

a portrait of a fond family man utterly unaware of his<br />

vicious inhumanity – whose daughter describes a 1941<br />

(pre-Final Solution) outing to Dachau as a “wonderful<br />

trip to a large enterprise”. EL<br />

STARTS SEP 18<br />

Shirley: Visions of Reality<br />

D: Gustav Deutsch (Austria<br />

2013) with Stephanie<br />

Cumming, Christoph Bach<br />

◆◆◆ Found footage<br />

filmmaker Deutsch uses<br />

13 of Edward Hopper’s<br />

paintings as tableaux vivants<br />

and starting points<br />

for an exploration of the<br />

troubled realities behind<br />

the artist’s serene solipsism.<br />

Re-presenting what<br />

appear to be private reflections as historic moments on<br />

August 28/29 in 1937, 1939, 1940, etc., Deutsch’s<br />

trajectory ends with the Civil Rights March in 1963. It<br />

helps to know both of Hopper’s reactionary misogyny<br />

and the director’s idealist counterpoint (a liberal feminist<br />

agenda). Then, it works. EL<br />

STARTS SEP 25<br />

Walking on Sunshine<br />

D: Max Giwa, Dania<br />

Pasquini (UK <strong>2014</strong>)<br />

with Annabel Scholey,<br />

Giulio Berruti, Greg Wise<br />

◆◆ There are a couple<br />

of reasons to watch<br />

this film about two sisters<br />

and their holiday romance<br />

gone serious with the<br />

same man: the 1980s<br />

feel-good vibe of Katrina<br />

et al, and the ice-cutting jaw line of Latin lover Giulio<br />

Berruti. And maybe one or two flash mob dance scenes.<br />

Oh, and maybe Greg Wise’s roguish smirk? You’ll stay in<br />

your seat for the duration but comparisons afterwards to<br />

Mamma Mia might make you wish you hadn’t. EL<br />

STARTS SEP 25<br />

I Origins<br />

D: Mike Cahill (USA,<br />

<strong>2014</strong>) with Michael<br />

Pitt, Brit Marling, Astrid<br />

Bergès-Frisbey ◆◆<br />

The molecular biologist<br />

Dr. Ian Gray, in the grip<br />

of an obsession with<br />

human eyes, falls in love<br />

with Sofi’s eyes at first<br />

sight. As their romance<br />

advances and starts to<br />

intermingle with Ian’s research, these eyes eventually lead<br />

Ian to cut all ties with his previous scientific and spiritual<br />

beliefs. This is an ambitious project in terms of its mixture<br />

of genres, international production and alternative<br />

ideology; yet the overall eye-pleasing aesthetics cannot<br />

conceal a flawed script and general imbalance. YC<br />

38 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong><br />

Flicks our picks<br />

Special screenings, festivals and retrospectives you shouldn’t miss this month<br />

DOWN UNDER<br />

BERLIN<br />

Sep 11-14<br />

AUG 27-SEP 7<br />

Fancy fantasy<br />

Opening with The Rover, David Michôd’s study of a<br />

lawless Australia post-economic collapse whose<br />

bleak consistency of vision impressed critics at<br />

Cannes, this year’s collated mind-games, aka the<br />

hugely popular FANTASY FILMFEST, also presents<br />

(finally) a chance to catch Jonathan Glazer’s Under<br />

the Skin, featuring Scarlett Johansson’s best<br />

innocuous predatory zombie, before the movie gets<br />

its October DVD release. Best zombie title must go<br />

to the wickedly entertaining All Cheerleaders Must<br />

Die (Mckee/Sivertson, <strong>2014</strong>). Aliens are well<br />

represented in insider-acclaimed Coherence,<br />

Texan-noir gets an outing in We Gotta Get out of this<br />

Place (Hawkins Bros, 2013) and mockumentary<br />

suburban Gothic from New Zealand should find an<br />

instant fan base in What we do in the Shadows<br />

(Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi, <strong>2014</strong>). With a<br />

special premiere screening of The November Man<br />

(Roger Donaldson, <strong>2014</strong>), plenty of fresh blood in<br />

the Fresh Blood Section and a special performance<br />

of Epstein’s 1928 classic The Fall of the House of<br />

Usher vamped up with a DJ set, genres are again<br />

up for grabs. If you don’t see things that others do,<br />

you’ll have only yourself to blame. Details at www.<br />

fantasyfilmfest.com. EL FANTASY FILMFEST | Cinemaxx<br />

Potsdamer Platz, Kino 7, Potsdamer Str. 5; Cinestar im Sony<br />

Center, Kino 5, Potsdamer Str. 4, Mitte, S+U-Bhf Potsdamer Platz<br />

SEP 2-OCT 17<br />

Pasolini’s passions<br />

PIER PAOLO PASOLINI’s diverse oeuvre, showing in<br />

a retrospective at Arsenal, is united by his ability<br />

and determination to re-scape tropes of radical<br />

sexuality, heretical religiosity and social ferment<br />

with innovative combinations of sound and image.<br />

Beginning at the relatively old age of 40 after his<br />

move to Rome, Pasolini’s debut film Accattone<br />

(1961) takes the lives of petty thieves and pimps<br />

and threads them into themes of biblical sacrifice<br />

echoed by a soundtrack from Bach’s St. Matthew’s<br />

Passion – a subject that he tackled directly in his<br />

re-telling of St. Matthew’s Gospel (Il vangelo<br />

secondo Matteo, 1964). In or out of mythology<br />

(Edipo re in 1967 and Medea, 1969), Pasolini’s<br />

fascination with sexuality is always present. Whether<br />

fictively explored in Teorema (1968) or bannered<br />

by explicit questions put to members of the public<br />

in the documentary Comizi d’Amor (1964), the<br />

fusion of relationships and their socio-political<br />

setting merges tenderly with proto-Marxist<br />

heresies. Arsenal complements its choice of films<br />

NIGHT CRIES – A RURAL TRAGEDY<br />

with two filmic diaries made by Pasolini during trips<br />

to India and Palestine, as well as documentaries<br />

made on the director: Pasolini l’enragé (Jean-André<br />

Fieschi, 1966) and A future memoria: Pier Paolo<br />

Pasolini (Micheli, 1985) to name but two. In<br />

association with this retrospective, an exhibition<br />

organised by Berliner Festspiele and dedicated to<br />

Pasolini’s very public affair with Rome will run from<br />

mid-<strong>September</strong> to January 2015 at Martin-Gropius-<br />

Bau, highlighting the director’s role as a Friulian<br />

poet, novelist, political essayist, draftsman and<br />

painter – and a dazzling post-war European<br />

intellectual. The exhibition delineates phases of<br />

Pasolini’s engagement with the city both as a<br />

panoply of social and sexual inspiration and a<br />

palimpsest of his own engagement with the city’s<br />

morality and politics: a love-hate relationship which<br />

ended only with the director’s violent death near<br />

Ostia in November 1975. EL/YC RETROSPEKTIVE<br />

PIER PAOLO PASOLINI | Arsenal, Potsdamer Str. 2, Mitte,<br />

S+U-Bhf Potsdamer Platz Pasolini’s Roma | Martin-Gropius Bau,<br />

Niederkirchnerstr. 7, Mitte, S+U-Bhf Potsdamer Platz<br />

SEP 10-OCT 12<br />

Secondhand cinema<br />

Last year, DOKU.ARTS reintroduced us to Harry<br />

Dean Stanton, Mark Cousins’ Story of Children and<br />

Film and Room 237 in the Overlook Hotel. The<br />

meaty festival returns throughout this month to the<br />

Deutsches Historisches Museum’s handsome<br />

Zeughaus Kino (still, somehow, one of the city’s<br />

hidden gems) armed with a new batch of documentaries,<br />

each casting a curious eye over the arts.<br />

The festival’s big-hitter is undoubtedly Martin<br />

Scorsese’s documentary on The New York Review of<br />

Books, A 50 Year Argument, but there are plenty<br />

more treasures to unearth this month on the<br />

Kupfergraben quay. Enjoy a lifetime of quips and<br />

defiance with Gore Vidal: The United States of<br />

Amnesia; find fury and subversion in Belarus’ free<br />

theatre movement in the HBO-funded Dangerous<br />

Act and bulk it all up with studies on the ever-fascinating<br />

Susan Sontag, the post-war Hollywood<br />

maverick Sam Fuller, the surprisingly bright<br />

recesses of Michael Haneke and the unsurprisingly<br />

dark recesses of Ingmar Bergman: Regarding Susan<br />

Sontag, A Fuller Life, Michael H. Profession: Director<br />

and Trespassing Bergman respectively. There’s<br />

plenty of meat on them bones; be sure to dig in.<br />

For dates and times, check www.doku-arts.de. ROC<br />

DOKU.ARTS| Zeughaus Kino, Deutsches Historisches Museum,<br />

Unter den Linden 2, S-Bhf Hackescher Markt<br />

ALL MOVIES ARE IN OV WITH GERMAN SUBTITLES UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED


EXBLICKS<br />

Sep 25<br />

SURVEILLANCE SPECIAL<br />

SEP 11-14<br />

Berlin goes Down Under<br />

Returning to Moviemento for its fourth year, DOWN<br />

UNDER BERLIN AUSTRALIAN FILM FESTIVAL offers four<br />

days of the best that Australian cinema has to offer.<br />

United under the theme “Make it home”, the<br />

programme is a varied, cross-genre selection of films<br />

with a special focus on indigenous cinema, exploring<br />

both the history and current issues of the world’s<br />

oldest living civilisation; Berlinale regular Warwick<br />

Thornton’s Rosalie’s Journey tells the story of<br />

Aboriginal activist Rosalie (Ngarla) Kunoth-Monks<br />

whose life took a sharp turn when she was cast to<br />

star in Australia’s first color film, Charles Chauvel’s<br />

Jedda. Fittingly, artist Tracy Moffatt’s Night Cries – A<br />

Rural Tragedy deals with themes similar to Jedda albeit<br />

set in a completely artificial milieu in which subject<br />

matter is subverted to the point of tragedy. The<br />

festival also features upcoming directorial talent, but<br />

most interesting perhaps is the work from Australians<br />

abroad such as Berlin-based Diane Busuttil’s Fresh<br />

Fruit, a dialogue-less, experimental exploration of one<br />

woman’s imagination, or US-based Sarah Doyle’s You<br />

Me & Her, a short about a woman who meets with<br />

selves from 30 parallel universes and discovers that<br />

she is her own worst version. Finally, a new and<br />

welcome innovation this year is the presence of<br />

Xposed International Queer Film Festival, on board to<br />

curate an offering of queer Australian shorts from the<br />

past. MH AUSTRALIAN FILM FESTIVAL | Moviemento Kino,<br />

Kottbusser Damm 22, Kreuzberg, U-Bhf Schönleinstr.<br />

SEP 25, 20:30<br />

Surveying the Stasi<br />

Keeping up with our focus on the pernicious vagaries<br />

of big-brotherdom, this month’s special-edition<br />

EXBLICKS at Lichtblick Kino features a unique<br />

programme of films from the Stasi vaults. In addition<br />

to internal surveillance footage, we’ll also be showing<br />

training films, commemorative music clips produced<br />

by the Stasi’s own film unit as well as short documentaries<br />

about Cold War espionage in Berlin. Presented<br />

by Exberliner in co-operation with Interfilm and the<br />

Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State<br />

Security Service of the Former German Democratic<br />

Republic (BStU), the screenings will be followed by the<br />

customary complimentary wine and a discussion with<br />

Hubertus Knabe (see interview, page 20): Stasi<br />

researcher, human rights activist and director of the<br />

memorial site at the former Stasi prison in Berlin-<br />

Hohenschönhausen. EL/MY EXBLICKS: SURVEILLANCE<br />

SPECIAL | Lichtblick Kino, Kastanienallee 77, Prenzlauer Berg,<br />

U-Bhf Senefelderplatz<br />

Undubbed at CineStar Original<br />

HERCULES 3D<br />

From <strong>September</strong> 4<br />

Both man and myth, Hercules (Dwayne Johnson)<br />

leads a band of mercenaries to help end a bloody civil<br />

war and return the rightful king to his throne.<br />

A tormented soul from birth, Hercules has the<br />

strength of a God but feels the suffering of a human.<br />

More info and tickets at cinestar.de<br />

39


What’s on<br />

STAGE<br />

SEP 2-3, 5-6, 20:00, SEP 7, 15:00<br />

Letzte Tage. Ein Vorabend.<br />

One hundred years after<br />

WWI began, how to make<br />

a theatre project on the<br />

nationalism and racism<br />

that cast a shadow<br />

over the last century?<br />

Christoph Marthaler<br />

chose the most subtle<br />

way, letting the victims’<br />

music be played and the<br />

persecutors’ words be<br />

quoted. First conceived for the historical Austro-Hungarian<br />

Parliament of Wien, the project aims to link past and<br />

present: music composed by Jewish persecuted musicians<br />

is performed and terrible texts are read. An attempt<br />

to echo contemporary forms of racism and discrimination.<br />

NF Staatsoper im Schillertheater, Bismarckstr. 110,<br />

Charlottenburg, U-Bhf Ernst-Reuter-Platz<br />

SEP 3, 5-7, 20:00<br />

Jobs in Himmel<br />

In this whimsical and<br />

existential piece, multimedia<br />

performance company<br />

“post theater” unpacks<br />

some of the changes<br />

that come along with<br />

technological innovation,<br />

reflecting on two major<br />

visionaries: Apple cofounder<br />

Steve Jobs and<br />

German engineer Robert<br />

Bosch. Featuring a projected set and some audience<br />

participation via smartphones and tablets, this innovative<br />

Berlin premiere is sure to provide new and entertaining<br />

ways of incorporating technology into art. LI Theaterdiscounter,<br />

Klosterstr. 44, Mitte, S+U-Bhf Jannowitzbrücke<br />

SEP 11-14, 18-21, 25–28, 19:00<br />

We Are the Play<br />

“We are the people”<br />

was the chant of the<br />

protestors on the streets<br />

of East Germany, but what<br />

happened when the two<br />

states became one? We<br />

Are the Play by Sisyphos<br />

der Flugelefant uses the<br />

site of the Berlin Wall Memorial<br />

as an interactive<br />

performance playground,<br />

where the audience can examine personal stories of<br />

immigrants and Germans of various descent during the<br />

fall of the Wall. Part of the ETB/IPAC project “25 Jahre<br />

Mauerfall or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love<br />

the Ossis/Wessis”. SC Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer,<br />

Bernauer Str. 119, Mitte, U-Bhf Bernauer Str.<br />

GERMAN THEATRE<br />

Premieres:<br />

■ ON MY WAY HOME, a piece on collateral damages<br />

experienced by “suitcase children” – the immigrants’<br />

second generation, Sep 2, 20:00, Ballhaus Naunynstr.<br />

■ NEVER FOREVER, the first collaboration between<br />

Falk Richter and Nir de Wolff’s dance company TOTAL<br />

BRUTAL, Sep 9, 20:00, Schaubühne<br />

■ HOUSE FOR SALE, Volksbühne’s season opens with a<br />

René Pollesch variation on love, Sep 10, 19:30, Volksbühne<br />

With English surtitles:<br />

■ TALES FROM THE VIENNA WOODS, Sep 14,<br />

19:00, Deutsches Theater<br />

■ LITTLE FOXES, Thomas Ostermeier’s remarkable take<br />

on Lillian Hellman’s text, with Nina Hoss in the main role,<br />

Sep 18, 20:00, Schaubühne<br />

FRANK KLEINBACH<br />

MICHAEL TIBES<br />

“How can you<br />

get under your<br />

own skin?” By NATHALIE FRANK<br />

Director SEBASTIAN NÜBLING and choreographer<br />

IVES THUWIS come together to create Fallen, the<br />

summer’s last open-air show, dealing with the<br />

intrinsic violence of men’s bodies.<br />

It is not the first time that Nübling, who’s been<br />

collecting invitations to prestigious festivals<br />

since he was named young director of the year by<br />

the magazine Theater heute in 2002, and Thuwis,<br />

whose 2009 piece Noch 5 Minuten was rewarded<br />

with the Faust theatre prize for directing, have<br />

worked together. Last time, they made a stage<br />

out of tonnes of sand and let 14 young people<br />

struggle with it (Sand, Schauspielhaus Zürich,<br />

2011). With their new project, showing with<br />

English surtitles in front of the Gorki Theater,<br />

sand is back, this time hosting 10 actors dealing<br />

with violence.<br />

Did you base this work on real cases of<br />

violence?<br />

SEBASTIAN NÜBLING: We are not quoting one<br />

case in particular, but got intrigued by a few<br />

hard-to-explain phenomena of extreme brutality<br />

that happened in Germany in the past few<br />

years – like that man violently beaten up in the<br />

subway in Munich in 2008 because he asked<br />

two young men to stop smoking. How can you<br />

describe that, or can you explain that? Especially<br />

if you don’t interpret it as a single case but as a<br />

social phenomenon.<br />

So you see this phenomenon as<br />

something new?<br />

IVES THUWIS: It is not necessarily about an<br />

increasing number of violent cases, but what we<br />

can observe is indeed a new type of violence,<br />

without grounds: it is not about robbing or<br />

avenging; it is violence for itself.<br />

SN: This is what makes those cases so special: the<br />

motive is not immediately understandable, there<br />

is neither material motivation nor a personal relationship<br />

between the victim and the offender,<br />

just an emotive explosion of aggression. In our<br />

work we don’t mean to reproduce those cases<br />

but we reflect the phenomenon of men’s violence<br />

with the abstract method of non-verbal dance<br />

and theatre.<br />

Why do you focus on men?<br />

SN: Well, only men participate in this particular<br />

form of violence. I don’t know of any case that<br />

would imply a woman. That being said, we focus<br />

on the body’s energy and image. This constant<br />

need to upgrade your body is also something<br />

new, it was different when I was young. Now<br />

it seems important to have a muscular, defined<br />

body. It is not just<br />

an ideal of beauty,<br />

it is also about<br />

strength – and<br />

what do you want<br />

to do with this<br />

strength?<br />

STAGE<br />

editor’s<br />

pick<br />

How<br />

do you<br />

work<br />

together with<br />

the actors?<br />

SN: First we talked<br />

a lot about violence – what kind of violence did<br />

we experience, how did we react, what did that<br />

arouse or provoke? Now we work a lot with<br />

tasks: we invent some tasks and try to give the<br />

actors enough space to create a situation out of<br />

them with the help of their own ideas, thoughts<br />

and experiences.<br />

What kind of tasks?<br />

SN: We worked for example on the idea of pumping<br />

up the body – and from there we developed<br />

a sequence of movements. It started with a<br />

thought about this whole fitness studio culture<br />

and muscle constructions. We tried out repetitive<br />

processes as solos and observed what happens<br />

when you keep a repetitive movement going,<br />

and when the body starts to be tired. What<br />

kind of energy is contained in the body when it<br />

is alone or interacting with another person or<br />

with a group of 10.<br />

IT: We try out different constellations – how<br />

the men interact together when you place one<br />

person against one group, one group against<br />

one person, two persons against each other, two<br />

against one... or, what is much more abstract:<br />

how can you get under your own skin?<br />

Has anything in particular come out of it?<br />

SN: Of course, all the time. For example, at the<br />

moment, we observe almost self-aggressive<br />

movement patterns. The predisposition to<br />

endure a movement that hurts or is exhausting,<br />

because you have to maintain it for a long<br />

time. It´s like working out: it also creates those<br />

situations where people are alone and literally<br />

torturing themselves. Obviously people want it<br />

somehow, or they wouldn’t do it.<br />

40 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>


ESRA ROTTHOFF<br />

IT: And we are interested at how people look<br />

at that.<br />

SN: Yes, we create this ‘looking’ situation as well.<br />

The stage is covered with sand and people are<br />

sitting all around, it is kind of an arena situation,<br />

so it is a lot about watching and being watched<br />

– everyone sees everything, you see what is happening<br />

in the arena and you see what the others<br />

are looking at.<br />

What made the two of you come back to<br />

sand as a material?<br />

IT: We really felt like working with sand again – it<br />

creates a frictional area that you have to fight<br />

against, it is not easy but that is what makes it interesting.<br />

It opens many possibilities that are not<br />

there with the normal ground. You cannot bury<br />

yourself or just fall or plunk on a normal ground.<br />

SN: It is interesting as a counterproductive material,<br />

it pulls the movement out instead of raising<br />

and helping it as a traditional dance floor would<br />

do. And it is perfect to<br />

deal with violence: it is<br />

a material that resists<br />

by itself and provokes<br />

aggressiveness as well.<br />

Anyone who’s played<br />

beach volleyball knows<br />

what I’m talking<br />

about! ■<br />

FALLEN Sep 11-13,<br />

16-17, 19-21, 24-25,<br />

28-29, 20:30 |<br />

open-air stage by the<br />

Maxim Gorki Theater,<br />

Am Festungsgraben<br />

2, Mitte, S+U-Bhf<br />

Friedrichstr.<br />

The truth about Turkish men<br />

Under what seems to be a thousand lights, they<br />

stand in suits and watch us in silence. Rapidly<br />

they start to talk, one after another. The youngest<br />

joined the army and left it. The oldest hasn’t seen<br />

his children for years and regrets it. One of them<br />

spent his best years working in Budapest before he<br />

came back to Kreuzberg for the sake of his family.<br />

There is a Kurd who can’t speak Kurdish. The last<br />

one’s story is heartbreaking: slowly, like a captivating<br />

thriller, he recounts how his father used to beat<br />

him up and how Elvis Presley saved him until his<br />

own experience with crime. The men’s memories<br />

create a mosaic of hopes, tries, small successes<br />

and big disappointments, religious issues and<br />

family life;<br />

regularly interrupted<br />

by<br />

the cute attempt<br />

– and<br />

failure – to<br />

sing together<br />

Goethe’s<br />

“Der<br />

Erlkönig”.<br />

Behind these<br />

SUPERMÄN-<br />

NER there<br />

is a woman:<br />

celebrated<br />

actress Idil<br />

Üner. Her<br />

wish was to<br />

find out, with<br />

the help of theatre, who the Turkish men really are<br />

beyond the stereotypes of violent fathers and lazy<br />

machos. Obviously, she rapidly realised that there<br />

is no ‘Turkish man’. And so she decided to bring a<br />

few of her research subjects onstage, not to talk<br />

about identity issues, but to answer the apparently<br />

simple question: “What has been the most<br />

beautiful and the worst part of your life?” Their<br />

answers, full of honesty, humor and self-distance,<br />

make a powerful, sober performance, spiced up<br />

with a glamorous touch – a French pianist and red<br />

roses. And when the younger man talks about how<br />

his grandfather taught him the way to prepare a<br />

dead fish and shows it at the same time, a smell<br />

is added to<br />

this delicate<br />

harmony. A<br />

charming<br />

documentary<br />

cabaret. NF<br />

UTE LANGKAFEL<br />

SUPERMÄNNER Sep<br />

13, 20:00, 14, 19:00,<br />

15-16, 20:00 (with<br />

English surtitles) |<br />

Ballhaus Naunynstr.,<br />

Naunynstr. 27,<br />

Kreuzberg, U-Bhf<br />

Kottbusser Tor<br />

schaubühne<br />

+++With English surtitles+++<br />

Hamlet<br />

by William Shakespeare<br />

Direction: Thomas Ostermeier<br />

14.9. > 7:30 p.m.<br />

The Little Foxes<br />

by Lillian Hellman<br />

Direction: Thomas Ostermeier<br />

18.9. > 8:00 p.m.<br />

41<br />

Tickets: 030.890023 | www.schaubuehne.de


What’s on<br />

STAGE<br />

SEP 11-13, 20:00<br />

bodieSLANGuage<br />

What is the body’s<br />

jargon? Performers coming<br />

from eight different<br />

countries, including<br />

the choreographer duo<br />

matanicola (Nicola<br />

Mascia and Matan Zamir)<br />

and the performer and<br />

sign language interpreter<br />

Gal Naor (the progressive<br />

wave) try out different<br />

body language forms between sign language, contemporary<br />

dance and pop culture gestures. An experiment that<br />

gives the main roles to 16 hands – they are strangers, get<br />

in touch, become friends and drift again from one another<br />

– in a hurly-burly of communicative movement. NF<br />

Ballhaus Ost, Pappelallee 15, Prenzlauer Berg, U-Bhf<br />

Eberswalder Str.<br />

SEP 14-30, TUES-FRI 20:00, SAT-SUN 18:00<br />

CROSSROADS<br />

For its 10th anniversary,<br />

theatre company<br />

Chamäleon teams up with<br />

Circa for a mash-up of<br />

circus, song and dance<br />

in an attempt to dissolve<br />

the boundaries between<br />

body and instrument,<br />

between movement and<br />

music. Singer Iza Mortag<br />

Freund and an acrobatic<br />

ensemble create an original live soundtrack of wooing<br />

punk cabaret, flickering electro sounds and sizzling death<br />

waltzes that summon life itself. It promises to be a night<br />

of grace, delusion and fun. SC Chamäleon Theater, in<br />

den Hackeschen Höfen, Rosenthaler Str. 40/41, Mitte,<br />

U-Bhf Weinmeisterstr.<br />

SEP 24-28<br />

Männer in Garagen<br />

The Sophiensaele takes<br />

over a row of abandoned<br />

garages nestled in the<br />

outskirts of Pankow<br />

for a multi-disciplinary<br />

performance festival. A<br />

group of over a dozen<br />

artists (including – among<br />

others – Cora Frost, copy<br />

& waste and Markus<br />

& Markus) will present<br />

a series of conceptual pieces, bizarre installations<br />

and rigorous discussions intended to examine these<br />

oft-ignored heterosexual, male spaces for work, play and<br />

storage – and provoke new ways of thinking about our<br />

own “Garagenzeilen”. LI Gründergaragen, Breite Str.<br />

42a, Pankow, SU-Bhf Pankow<br />

COMEDY IN ENGLISH<br />

■ MAGGIE LOUNGE, a brand-new open mic with a<br />

twist – after the usual open spots, the headliner has to<br />

perform while getting heckled by another comedian. Sep<br />

10, 20:30, Maggie Lounge<br />

■ OFF THE CUFF, tear-inducingly funny format where<br />

comedians improvise from topics they have never seen.<br />

Sep 12, 20:30, T Berlin<br />

■ BAUM HAUS COMEDY OPEN AIR, Berlin’s biggest<br />

outdoor comedy showcase in a beautifully dystopian setting.<br />

Sep 25, 20:30, Grießmuehle<br />

■ NIGHT SHOW BERLIN, Madcap ‘late show’ style<br />

entertainment with guests and games hosted by Daniel<br />

Stern, Sep 26, 20:30, T Berlin<br />

For more listings, visit comedyinenglish.de<br />

IZRA<br />

KATJA RENNER<br />

All booked up<br />

This year’s INTERNATIONAL<br />

LITERATURE FESTIVAL includes<br />

15 events in English – here’s<br />

what to watch out for.<br />

“Haven’t you ever felt like there has to be more?<br />

Like there’s more out there somewhere, just<br />

beyond your grasp, if you could only get to it?”<br />

writes two-time Carnegie Medal winner Patrick<br />

Ness in his newest acclaimed young-adult novel<br />

More Than This. His opening speech at 9:30am on<br />

Sep 10 paves the way for the 6pm official opening<br />

of the fest, at which contentious Anglo-Indian<br />

writer Pankaj Mishra, winner of the <strong>2014</strong> Leipzig<br />

Book Prize, will address criticism of his awardwinning<br />

novel From the Ruins of Empire. Concluding<br />

day one of the festival, Pulitzer Prize winner<br />

Jhumpa Lahiri presents her most recent novel The<br />

Lowland which pits the fate of an Indian couple in<br />

the US against the reverberations of early violence<br />

on the subcontinent. In a rich programme of readings,<br />

poetry nights and political panels, one<br />

particular focus is literature from writers with<br />

African backgrounds. On Sep 13, British-Nigerian<br />

novelist-prodigy Helen Oyeyemi presents Boy,<br />

Snow, Bird, her modern adaptation of Snow White<br />

in which an American family’s racial background<br />

does some impressive mirror cracking. Sep 15<br />

brings a reading from Caine Prize winner Yvonne<br />

Adhiambo Owuor’s Dust, examining post-colonial<br />

Kenyan corruption with stunning linguistic acuity.<br />

On Sep 16, Owuor, Ishmael Beah (Sierra Leone/<br />

USA) and Tope Folarin (Nigeria/USA) will discuss<br />

fundamentalism in the sub-Sahara and on Sep 19,<br />

Kenyan-raised Cornell professor Mukoma Wa<br />

Ngugi presents his novel Nairobi Heat. Other<br />

Three questions for…<br />

Wolfgang Rihm<br />

The 10th edition of MUSIKFEST, the Berliner<br />

Festspiele’s annual orchestra extravaganza, has a<br />

special focus on horn – a perfect opportunity for<br />

the German premiere of star composer Wolfgang<br />

Rihm’s new Concerto for Horn and Orchestra,<br />

performed on Sun, Sep 14 in advance of Schumann’s<br />

Concerto for Four Horns and Orchestra. Other<br />

works by Rihm can be heard on Sep 6, 7, 12 and 17.<br />

What was the starting point for the new<br />

piece? The line, the melody. I have a penchant<br />

for melody, in particular in concert works. I<br />

simply don’t like the digital jabbering that by its<br />

length and breadth is considered ‘virtuoso’.<br />

Concerts for me are about the horizon of spun,<br />

melodic lines. About tensions and relaxations of<br />

a vocal tone.<br />

What is your relationship with the horn as<br />

an instrument? It took me a long time to find<br />

my way to horn. Its psychology is very complex.<br />

You need time to understand horn. What is its<br />

highlights include Nadeem<br />

Aslam on Sep 11, laying bare<br />

terrorist affiliations in The Blind<br />

Man’s Garden, a microcosmic study<br />

of love and family in the Pakistan/Afghanistan<br />

border zone; Oscar Wao Pulitzer winner Junot Diaz<br />

appears twice, talking about ‘‘Trust, Mistrust,<br />

Faithfulness, and Unfaithfulness’’ on Sep 13 and<br />

telling “Stories of Lyrical, Brutal Love” on Sep 14;<br />

on Sep 17, young expat US novelist Brittani<br />

Sonnenberg discusses What is Home about<br />

so-called “Third Culture Kids”; also on Sep 17,<br />

larger-than-life environmental activist and novelist<br />

John Burnside examines a cruel variant on<br />

language acquisition in The Dumb House. On Sep<br />

18, the peerless Amy Tan presents her latest novel;<br />

also that day, Chinese transparency advocate and<br />

novelist-filmmaker Xiaolu Guo narrates climate<br />

change with Mirko Bonné from Germany and<br />

Tony Birch from Australia; and on Sep 19,<br />

American up-and-comer Tao Lin (US) presents<br />

the “Kafka of Generation Facebook”.<br />

As a special series, “Culture of Trust” invites 15<br />

authors to write essays about “trust” in their<br />

culture and present them in religious places, from<br />

a mosque to a church and a Buddhist parish<br />

house. And don’t miss the Graphic Novel Day on<br />

Sep 14, dealing with the reflection of reality in<br />

comics, be it social and political issues, biographies<br />

or autobiographies, ending with a live<br />

drawing performance by artists Stefano Ricci<br />

(Italy) and Ileana Surducan (Romania).<br />

To get a two-day jumpstart on the fest, head to<br />

the Berliner Festspiele on <strong>September</strong> 8 for a<br />

reading of Edward Snowden interview excerpts,<br />

part of a worldwide initiative. Full programme at<br />

www.literaturfestival.com. NF/EL<br />

place in the orchestra?<br />

Wood? Brass?<br />

Breakout? Line?<br />

Signal? And then: the<br />

position. It can<br />

disappear faraway<br />

– an expression of its<br />

huge presence. And it<br />

can shake our bowel<br />

– before it penetrates<br />

our heart.<br />

In a few concerts<br />

your works are<br />

presented together<br />

with Brahms – do<br />

you think your<br />

music goes well<br />

together? Yes. Very<br />

LITERATURE<br />

FESTIVAL<br />

SEP 10-20<br />

MUSIKFEST Sep 2-22|<br />

Berliner Philharmoniker,<br />

Herbert-von-Karajan-<br />

Str. 1, Mitte, S+U-Bhf<br />

Potsdamer Platz<br />

well. The better the neighbourhood – the better<br />

the man himself. This applies of course only for<br />

concert programmes. Mozart would also be<br />

right... and all the others...<br />

Want more from Rihm? Go to www.exberliner.com for Nathalie<br />

Frank’s full interview.<br />

KAI BIENERT<br />

42 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>


tICKEtS: (030) 30 10 6 80 88<br />

www.trinitymusic.de<br />

What’s on<br />

MUSIC AND NIGHTLIFE<br />

16.09.14 . max-schmeling-halle 13.10.14 . Postbahnhof<br />

MUSIC<br />

editor’s<br />

pick<br />

23.10.14 . tempodrom<br />

the axis<br />

of awesome<br />

04.09.14 . C-Club<br />

watsky<br />

+ the lafontaines<br />

20.09.14 . Bi nuu<br />

Jennie<br />

aBrahamson<br />

21.09.14 . Privatclub<br />

rhodes<br />

21.09.14 . Grüner salon<br />

25.10.14 . Columbiahalle<br />

antemasque<br />

+ le ButCherettes<br />

06.10.14 . Bi nuu<br />

Joanne shaw<br />

taylor<br />

13.10.14 . C-Club<br />

allah-las<br />

15.10.14 . C-Club<br />

fka twiGs<br />

21.10.14 . kesselhaus<br />

Don’t call it a comeback By D. STRAUSS<br />

When I’m not vacillating between cheap white<br />

and slightly-less-cheap brown mushrooms at<br />

Lidl, I’m pocketing jumbo shrimp at corporate<br />

trade fairs; in aspic they can last into the next<br />

season. They’re not the only shrimp with an<br />

extended shelf life. A couple of months ago, I<br />

crashed an Adidas Fashion Week party after staring<br />

at skewers of asparagus through frosted glass;<br />

the diminutive PHARRELL WILLIAMS (photo) was<br />

the guest-of-honour and, though older than 40,<br />

was as well maintained as any frozen seafood I<br />

have encountered. The same can be said for his<br />

career, which is sort of like what Elvis’ would<br />

have been like if his comeback had been bigger<br />

than his initial onslaught of fame. And if Elvis<br />

had possessed the capability of writing a song.<br />

Both appear fond of showgirls, however.<br />

Pharrell got his start with Teddy Riley (whose<br />

verse he penned for “Rump Shaker” – the best<br />

one!). You know who else worked with Riley? Fellow<br />

New Jack Swingsters K-CI & JO-JO, with the<br />

slime of Nickelodeon 1990s nostalgia generated<br />

by their current tour feeling like a Buzzfeed .gif<br />

listicle. Some artists are meant to represent their<br />

era, while others are meant to signify it. Interpretive<br />

artists, such as Snoop Dogg or TONY<br />

BENNETT (and, yes, they have collaborated) have<br />

it easier. If one can manage through a period of<br />

unfashionability, followed by a period as an out<br />

joke, followed by a period as an in-joke, followed<br />

by a period as a kitsch figure, followed by a<br />

period as a self-knowing kitsch figure – one can<br />

claw one’s back toward iconic respectability.<br />

Though most acts languish in the Hasselhoffian<br />

shadows of the second-to-last state.<br />

Comebacks are an amorphous thing: partly<br />

the positioning of public relations, partly the<br />

judgement of history and partly the fickleness of<br />

the crowd. Though they can cement one’s status<br />

as a legend (U2, Snoop Dogg), and transform an<br />

entertainer into an auteur (Tom Jones, Snoop<br />

Dogg), once the initial comeback fades, it can<br />

seem sadder than the initial dip in fame. The brief<br />

late-period success of some artists, such as Prince<br />

and Duran Duran, actually appeared to tarnish<br />

the polish of their busts as it receded along with<br />

the millennium (those comebacks have since<br />

been forgotten and status has been restored). The<br />

Rolling Stones, certain of their stature, have come<br />

back so often without it sticking that it has become<br />

a tongue-in-cheek part of their legend, with<br />

consequent tour revenues as unaffected as “Doom<br />

& Gloom” was unhummable.<br />

But then, one shouldn’t necessarily view a paucity<br />

of resonance as a negative. In rock, macho is<br />

as effective a communicator as melody, no more<br />

so than in metal. HELMET, “the thinking person’s<br />

heavy metal band”, is touring the 20th anniversary<br />

of their Betty album, recorded during the<br />

dying days of when “angular” was still a compliment.<br />

A bridge between Nirvana and Korn, I<br />

always found them neither a bridge too far nor a<br />

bridge far enough, but their sound does sum up<br />

a type of dying of the grunge dream. Drummer<br />

John Stanier is now the centrepiece of Battles,<br />

math rock’s last great hope.<br />

I’m from the math rock generation, but I’ve<br />

never been very good with numbers. So, during<br />

my youth, I turned to other genres such as industrial<br />

music, which at the time was generally concerned<br />

with totalitarian methods, mind control,<br />

fundamentalism and, um, a little too often, white<br />

power. Now we have Facebook for all of that, so<br />

it’s no wonder that Genesis P-Orridge of PSYCHIC<br />

TV has gone retro, embracing cock rock – the last<br />

time I saw them, they played no less than three<br />

Hawkwind covers. Needless to say, if nostalgia is<br />

evidence of a sense of paradise lost, P-Orridge’s<br />

life exemplifies it. And, sadly, paradise maintains<br />

too much dignity to make a comeback. n<br />

Music Editor D.Strauss may be contacted at strauss@exberliner.com<br />

HELMET Mon, Sep 15, 20:00 | SO36, Oranienstr. 190, Kreuzberg, U-Bhf Kottbusser Tor PHARRELL WILLIAMS W/FOXES &<br />

CRIS CAB Tue, Sep 16, 20:00 | Max-Schmeling-Halle, Am Falkplatz, Prenzlauer Berg, U-Bhf Eberswalder Str. TONY BENNETT<br />

Thu, Sep 18, 20:00 | Admiralspalast, Friedrichstr. 101, Mitte, S+U-Bhf Friedrichstr. PSYCHIC TV Sat, Sep 20, 19:00 |<br />

Gretchen, Obentrautstr. 19-21, Kreuzberg, U-Bhf Hallesches Tor K-CI & JO-JO Sun, Sep 28, 21:00 | C-Club, Columbiadamm<br />

9-11, Kreuzberg, U-Bhf Platz der Luftbrücke<br />

the fat white family<br />

+ Charlie Boyer & the voyeurs<br />

26.09.14 . Privatclub<br />

azealia Banks<br />

26.09.14 . huxleys<br />

the liBertines<br />

04.10.14 . arena Berlin<br />

the Growlers<br />

07.11.14 . Bi nuu<br />

linkin Park<br />

+ of miCe & men<br />

19.11.14 . o2-world<br />

Bryan ferry<br />

26.11.14 . tempodrom<br />

ELIOT SUMNER<br />

Di. 16.09. Einlass 20:00 Grüner Salon<br />

StarFM & Zitty präsentieren:<br />

LIAM FINN<br />

Do. 18.09. Einlass 19:00 Machinenhaus<br />

FluxFM präsentiert:<br />

JACK GARRATT<br />

Fr. 19.09. Einlass 20:00 Machinenhaus<br />

MELANIE DI BIASIO<br />

Sa. 20.09. Einlass 20:00<br />

F101 Club im Admiralspalast<br />

TINY RUINS<br />

Mo. 29.09. Einlass 20:00 Grüner Salon<br />

Spex, putpat tv, Radio Eins & Mit Vergnügen präsentieren:<br />

LYKKE LI<br />

Mi. 05.11. Einlass 19:00 Admiralspalast<br />

intro, faze, Radio Eins & KulturNews präsentieren:<br />

LITTLE DRAGON<br />

Mo. 08.12. Einlass 19:00 Admiralspalast<br />

BRAVO, vevo & Radio Fritz präsentieren:<br />

KATY PERRY<br />

Prismatic World Tour<br />

Fr. 13.03.2015 Einlass 18:00 O2World<br />

Infos unter www.mct-agentur.com<br />

Online Tickets unter www.tickets.de Ticket Hotline: 030 - 43 6110 1313


What’s on<br />

MUSIC AND NIGHTLIFE<br />

CLUB PICKS<br />

FRI, SEP 5 - SUN, SEP 9, 23:59<br />

Klangkost Spektakel (Tech-Tech-Techno)<br />

By fall, the winter is finally<br />

far enough behind us that<br />

the line between open air<br />

and lost weekend is all<br />

but eradicated, even if the<br />

rain starts collecting on<br />

your translucent visor. The<br />

society of this Spektakel<br />

includes Mobilee’s<br />

TAPESH, Defected’s<br />

DAYNE S, Moodmusic’s<br />

BENNY GRAUER, Klassik Kater BRITTA ARNOLD, Watergate<br />

reg ROBIN DRIMALSKI, Klangkost’s TOM NOWA (photo)<br />

and WONKERS, Stil Vor Talent’s HRRSN, and a dozen other<br />

locals playing multiple gigs to pay off the rent on their<br />

tech-houses. Kosmonaut, Wiesenweg 1-4, Friedrichshain,<br />

S+U-Bhf Frankfurter Allee<br />

SAT, SEP 6, 23:59<br />

Morgan Geist (Tech-Tech-House)<br />

Showing a flair for melody<br />

since his late-1990s<br />

collaboration with Darshan<br />

Jesrani in the aptly named<br />

Metro Area (they were<br />

all over NYC at the time),<br />

MORGAN GEIST unexpectedly<br />

broke through last<br />

year when “Look Right<br />

Through,” recorded under<br />

his Storm Queen guise,<br />

sauntered to a UK #1, giving a boost to all the aging DJs of<br />

EDM after Danny Tenaglia’s public freak-out. He’ll be joined<br />

by Freerange’s JIMPSTER, Rinse.FM’s DEAN DRISCOLL,<br />

H-Productions CARI LEKEBUSCH and the Stattbad regulars.<br />

Stattbad, Gerichtstr. 65, Wedding, S+U-Bhf Wedding<br />

SAT, SEP 13 - SUN, SEP 14, 23:59<br />

5 Years Get Deep (Hou-Tech-House)<br />

Get Deep gets the drill out<br />

on its wood anniversary<br />

with youthful, era-hopping<br />

Stuttgart-ite Danillo<br />

Plessow aka MOTOR<br />

CITY DRUM ENSEMBLE<br />

(photo), who claims hip<br />

hop as his bread and<br />

butter though he tends to<br />

explore every electronic<br />

genre except rap. He’s on<br />

Saturday, joined by the even greater eclecticism of Mule<br />

Musiq label leader TOSHIYA KAWASAKI, whose Endless<br />

Flight comps transform yesterday’s influences into today’s.<br />

Also on the bill: FRANCIS INFERNO ORCHESTRA and<br />

Tartelet’s MAX GRAEF, while Sunday brings MCDE and<br />

NANON NANSEN & CHARLIE SMOOTH. About Blank,<br />

Markgrafendamm 24c, Friedrichshain, S-Bhf Ostkreuz<br />

FRI, SEP 26, 23:30<br />

Keep It Unreal!: Mr. Scruff (Scruff Ups)<br />

Exemplifying the edge<br />

between international<br />

downtempo and arty<br />

hip hop that Mo’ Wax<br />

and Ninja Tune defined<br />

in the late 1990s, the<br />

latter’s longtime keystone<br />

MR. SCRUFF made the<br />

big time on a Moondog<br />

sample and a knack for<br />

the coldcut, though the<br />

creator of “Jazz Potato” probably prefers Del Monte to<br />

Oscar Mayer. For the second time in our highlights, MAX<br />

GRAEF makes up the bottom of the bill, along with the<br />

Gretchen/Oye regulars: the hip-hop happy DELFONIC and<br />

BOX AUS HOLZ SOUNDSYSTEM. Gretchen, Obentrautstr.19-21,<br />

Kreuzberg, U-Bhf Hallesches Tor<br />

Who do you love?<br />

By BETTI HUNTER<br />

Now that they’re electro-grandpas celebrating a 10th<br />

anniversary, it’s easy to forget that Hamburg’s Digitalism<br />

– the duo of Ismail “Isi” Tüfekçi and JENS “JENCE”<br />

MOELLE (photo, left), were once the odd duck of dance<br />

music, merging Francophilic electropogo Justice with<br />

German indie melancholy.<br />

Makes sense, then, that they’ve ended up on the<br />

fashion-y French Kitsune label for their latest<br />

endeavour, the Lift EP. Spending the last couple<br />

of years generating new material has led to<br />

recent collaborations with The M Machine and<br />

Steve Duda and Youngblood Hawke, with whom<br />

they’ve taken a marked detour from their signature<br />

grit-heavy electro through the anthemic,<br />

synth-tinged track “Wolves”. That’s not to say<br />

they’ve abandoned their homeland and homesound<br />

entirely. Jence and Isi have pencilled in a<br />

one-off DJ-set at Berlin Music Week’s cornerstone,<br />

the Berlin Festival (<strong>September</strong> 5-7), now at<br />

Arena Park and surrounding sprawl.<br />

You’re famous for recording in an abandoned<br />

WWII bunker. Why? Err, money.<br />

They’re only good for rehearsals or storage, so<br />

it’s very cheap and we didn’t have any money. But<br />

then it turned out that it was perfect for what<br />

we want to do – we can go in there and be loud<br />

until six in the morning on a weekday, it doesn’t<br />

matter. No one cares: the walls are six feet thick.<br />

We had the first bunker in Hamburg, and then<br />

we moved to a different one after a couple of<br />

years. Of course, we needed to treat it a little<br />

bit, because it’s concrete, so if you leave it raw it<br />

sounds terrible. It’s also, I think, a big influence<br />

on our music, because it’s very isolated. There’s<br />

no sense of time or space, there are no windows,<br />

so you have to come up with something; otherwise<br />

it’s empty!<br />

You can spend days at a time down there<br />

without feeling the pressure of sunlight.<br />

That’s how it was when we started but now it’s<br />

a little bit more 9-5, or sometimes 5-9. We go<br />

in and get a lot of looping material that we can<br />

work with, which we then roll out and see which<br />

pieces we can post together and want to listen to<br />

for four minutes. The music always comes first<br />

for us because we’re not classic songwriters, and<br />

then we sometimes try to write on top, which is<br />

a very long process. If you do both things at the<br />

same time it’s usually faster but that’s just how<br />

we work. On the last album, we started working<br />

with Oblique Strategies, that setup with a deck<br />

of cards that Brian Eno came up with [with Peter<br />

Schmidt]. You draw one and have<br />

to stick to certain rules with whatever<br />

you choose. If it doesn’t fit, just<br />

discard it.<br />

DIGITALISM DJ SET<br />

Berlin Festival, Fri,<br />

Sep 5 - Sun, Sep<br />

7 | Arena Park,<br />

Eichenstr. 4, Treptow,<br />

S-Bhf Treptower Park<br />

Stuck in the bunker, you must be<br />

completely isolated from what’s<br />

happening around you in Hamburg.<br />

We’ve got a lot of great people<br />

coming from Hamburg. One of them<br />

is my neighbor; he’s part of the Adana<br />

Twins. They’re playing around the world<br />

now. Tensnake, from Hamburg, he’s on<br />

Radio 1 all the time. Solomon has gone<br />

massive – I mean, I used to sell him<br />

records at the shop! It used to be big<br />

for house music at the end of the 1990s,<br />

but then house music was dead, no one<br />

knew what to play; there was a bit of a<br />

void and that’s how we took over. I’m<br />

not sure how much we influenced the<br />

development but maybe we ignited a<br />

spark in people to think, “Oh, it is possible,<br />

let’s go and do it.” However I don’t<br />

know exactly how that translates to the<br />

club scene because I’m usually not in<br />

Hamburg! I’m always on tour.<br />

Hamburg is known for hip-hop and grad<br />

school indie, not really for its EDM. When<br />

you’re from Hamburg, you like being independent.<br />

That’s one of the mottos of the city, actually.<br />

Because we are from Hamburg we are not and we<br />

were never part of any scene or clique. We were<br />

quite isolated and we liked that. It’s always annoyed<br />

me when people start putting you into certain<br />

categories and tags. It’s always a bit draining<br />

but you get used to it. And it’s OK in some cases.<br />

I mean, if they put you in the same category as<br />

Daft Punk or The Chemical Brothers, then it’s a<br />

compliment. But the tags have changed over the<br />

years and it’s always funny because our music has<br />

more-or-less stayed the same.<br />

How do a couple of independent Hamburgers<br />

stick together for a decade? I think<br />

we’ve stayed on the same wavelength. Maybe<br />

in-between there were times when both of us<br />

went into whatever direction we were going<br />

towards and it went a bit more extreme. Isi is<br />

more positive but I’m the darker guy. If I watch<br />

a movie, I prefer the baddies, so it went more<br />

in that direction. But it’s never really too far off<br />

anything we’ve done for the last 10 years, really.<br />

We’re with each other almost every day, so there<br />

hasn’t been any time to part and come back with<br />

different things to bring to the table.<br />

Also, I don’t think our tastes completely<br />

changed over the years. It’s<br />

sometimes hard for us to keep up to<br />

date with the latest developments in<br />

music, but we always get around and<br />

incorporate everything into the core<br />

that forms our sound.<br />

44 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>


PHOTO CREDIT<br />

Which changed with “Wolves.” It’s gotten<br />

an amazing reception thus far. Yeah, it’s<br />

crazy because we came up with this instrumental<br />

track and people started asking about it. I think<br />

that the core of the Digitalism musical universe<br />

would be kind of romantic, melancholic music,<br />

usually riff-heavy, but because we don’t really<br />

play guitars we have to program it – soundtrack-y<br />

music that makes you move. But “Wolves” is a<br />

bit of a departure for us. It’s a bit gloomy, a bit<br />

nighttime but it’s also quite energetic and it just<br />

clicked into place. I came to the conclusion that<br />

if you take our last album, which was very songbased,<br />

a bit further and add some more electronics,<br />

you kind of end up at “Wolves.” It just totally<br />

makes sense.<br />

To Berliners, as well? Well, it will be great to<br />

be back in Berlin. We’ve had a bit of time off, so<br />

that’s given us time to come up with new stuff,<br />

and people know already that there’s always<br />

a good chance of us drop-testing new tunes.<br />

I’m also curious to see how it goes because the<br />

Festival has moved [from Flughafen Tempelhof],<br />

right? So, I don’t know if that’s great, yet. I think<br />

the line up is pretty good. Though I’m just a bit<br />

gutted because I really like Jimmy Edgar and I<br />

think he’s playing the same time. We’re basically<br />

starting up all the engines again to do this and<br />

then go on a US tour.<br />

At long last, the US is finally profitable for<br />

electronic music. Some people have mixed<br />

views about the American electronic scene because<br />

maybe it’s a bit more mainstream. But the<br />

fact is that the big acts like David Guetta have<br />

opened the doors over there for acts like us. It’s<br />

interesting, because we used to have a fan base in<br />

the US and now there are all these new people,<br />

and they’ve never heard of us, so it’s kind of like<br />

starting from the beginning again. Because we’ve<br />

been around for awhile, but people there are asking<br />

us, “What, you’ve got albums out? When did<br />

you start making EDM?” It’s a tricky one, but it’s<br />

getting there now. ■<br />

Digitalism in<br />

five dates<br />

2000: Jens “Jence”<br />

Moelle and Ismail “Isi”<br />

Tüfekçi meet whilst<br />

working at the<br />

Underground Solution<br />

record store in<br />

Hamburg. They begin<br />

DJing together.<br />

2003-4: Start working in an old WWII bunker.<br />

Remix songs by The Futureheads, Klaxons<br />

and The White Stripes for their DJ sets.<br />

Release their first original track “Idealistic”,<br />

which leads to them signing with Kitsune.<br />

2007: Digitalism release their debut album,<br />

Idealism (Virgin) in May.<br />

2011: Release I Love You Dude (PIAS/<br />

Cooperative), the follow-up to their debut.<br />

Collaborate on original material for the first<br />

time with The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas.<br />

<strong>2014</strong>: The duo returns to Kitsune to produce<br />

the Lift EP.<br />

45


What’s on<br />

MUSIC AND NIGHTLIFE<br />

CONCERT PICKS<br />

TUE, SEP 9, 20:00<br />

Doc Chad (Konstruktivist Kountry Klowning)<br />

Countrified avant-garde<br />

diddler Eugene Chadbourne<br />

has displayed his<br />

paranoiac’s virtuosity in a<br />

variety of contexts – from<br />

pure improv to twisted<br />

rockabilly to political<br />

comedy – for almost four<br />

decades. His latest persona<br />

is that of DOC CHAD,<br />

in tandem with the drummer<br />

Schroeder: rumors are there’s a lot of banjo as well as<br />

a double electric rake demonstration. Opener Joerg Hiller<br />

aka KONRAD SPENGLER is more of a conceptual-art type,<br />

heavy on the electronic processing. But the same can<br />

be said of Elvis’ vocals on his Sun sessions. Ausland,<br />

Lychner Str. 60, Prenzlauer Berg, U-Bhf Eberswalder Str.<br />

MON, SEP 15, 20:00<br />

Roger McGuinn (Byrd Balladeer)<br />

The Byrds were one of the<br />

odder configurations of<br />

the 1960s, long-lasting<br />

yet only briefly hitmakers,<br />

with an ever-shifting<br />

line-up centred around<br />

the chiming ROGER<br />

MCGUINN, who, despite<br />

leading an ensemble that<br />

innovated in a few different<br />

genres, wrote sparingly.<br />

Perhaps it’s McGuinn’s folk roots that allowed him<br />

to lead by absorbing the cultural fabric that surrounded<br />

him and it’s in the guise of folk singer that he shows up at<br />

Passionskirche. Where have all the flowers gone? They’re<br />

here. Passionskirche, Marheinekeplatz 1-3, Kreuzberg,<br />

U-Bhf Gneisenaustr.<br />

FRI, SEP 26, 20:00<br />

Azealia Banks (Diva Rap)<br />

It’s been almost two<br />

years since Rihanna went<br />

seapunk and AZEALIA<br />

BANKS transformed into<br />

what Spin Magazine<br />

called “a dolphin-lover’s<br />

wet dream”. Yes, the<br />

bisexual art-school girls<br />

have taken over the<br />

former Thug Life McMansion<br />

and although Banks<br />

was cynically marketed as an underground sensation, the<br />

groundswell for her acid-stabby “212” was real enough.<br />

That said, it’s been a couple of years – an eternity this<br />

millennium – since her breakthrough and one wonders if<br />

she’s already soured on the game a la Angel Haze. If so,<br />

there’s always vaporwave. Huxleys Neue Welt, Hasenheide<br />

107-113, Neukölln, U-Bhf Hermannplatz<br />

SUN, SEP 28, 21:00<br />

Oval/Frank Bretschneider (Glitch ’n’ Pitch)<br />

The original ghost in<br />

the machine, Markus<br />

Popp, aka OVAL (photo),<br />

managed a brief period<br />

of indie headiness in the<br />

post-rock 1990s, despite<br />

the insularity of his music,<br />

usually generated from his<br />

own software and sometimes<br />

from the scratches<br />

of CDs. After years of low<br />

profile, we’ve been privileged with a surprisingly melodic<br />

hard drive dump, as of late. Raster-Norton/Mille Plateaux<br />

mainstay FRANK BRETSCHNEIDER is well paired with Popp.<br />

Bring your soldering iron and join in on the fun. Roter<br />

Salon, Linienstr. 227, Mitte, U-Bhf Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz<br />

A few questions for…<br />

The Space Lady By D. STRAUSS<br />

Those who encountered THE SPACE LADY on the streets of San<br />

Francisco in the 1980s and 1990s rarely forgot her. With her<br />

accordion and Casio, Moondog-esque winged helmet and lo-fi light-up<br />

suit, she’d sing echo-heavy covers of “Major Tom” and futurist-themed<br />

originals written by her first husband, Joel “The Cosmic Man” Dunsany.<br />

Years after relocating to Colorado, TSL<br />

(real name: Susan Dietrich Schneider)<br />

was rediscovered as an antecedent to<br />

Ariel Pink and Julia Holter. The Space<br />

Lady’s Greatest Hits (Night School) has<br />

led to her first ever European tour;<br />

she’ll be all shook up at Marie-Antoinette<br />

on Mon, Sep 29.<br />

To what extent was The Space<br />

Lady pure theatre and to what extent was<br />

she ideology? Gosh, that’s a tough question. I<br />

believe that everything I did was The Space Lady,<br />

pretty much. Joel and I had a close encounter, not<br />

with alien beings in the physical form, but we<br />

certainly felt a strong connection after we were<br />

scanned by that UFO on Mount Shasta, and<br />

probably before that as well, just from our<br />

psychedelic experiences. So, I really felt like all<br />

the things we came up with as The Space Lady<br />

were somehow channelled or inspired from some<br />

cosmic guardian that was protecting us.<br />

Did you feel like the San Francisco street<br />

scene was a creative community? Joel and I<br />

pretty much isolated ourselves. We were still<br />

afraid that that there would be some repercussions<br />

for him, having resisted the draft back in<br />

the day. And not having children registered –<br />

they didn’t have birth certificates or go to school.<br />

Maybe that lifestyle lent itself to my being what<br />

people called so original [laughs].<br />

You were less extroverted than your Space<br />

Lady identity. I was pathologically shy! [laughs]<br />

Joel and I were paralysed by fear. Back in Boston,<br />

we put together a band and called ourselves Blind<br />

Juggler, which pretty much describes what we<br />

were doing – feeling our way in the dark. And the<br />

THE SPACE<br />

LADY W/SLOW<br />

STEVE Mon, Sep<br />

29, 21:00 |<br />

Marie-Antoinette,<br />

Holzmarktstr. 15-<br />

18, Mitte, S+U-Bhf<br />

Jannowitzbrücke<br />

one time we really performed, Joel<br />

played with his back to the audience.<br />

He was afraid of being seen.<br />

Didn’t Jimmy Carter give amnesty<br />

to the draft-dodgers in the late<br />

1970s? Um, that’s the nature of<br />

paranoia. No matter what had<br />

happened in that political world, it<br />

wouldn’t have assuaged Joel’s fear. You<br />

know, the CIA: “They don’t care, they’ll bust me<br />

anyway, they don’t like what I’m doing as an<br />

artist.” But I wasn’t afraid of being seen in public<br />

as much as he was, so I was able to go out and<br />

scrounge for a livelihood, selling artworks,<br />

pan-handling, finally playing music… I really<br />

loved being The Space Lady. Yet, it was wrenching<br />

me apart from my family. Once, I was walking<br />

down the subway stairs with all my gear, and a<br />

businessman looked at me and said, “How long<br />

have you been doing this anyway?” I took it that<br />

he meant, “You’ve been whipping this dead horse<br />

for way too long, girl.” And, in fact, I became<br />

discouraged and thought, “Boy, I wasted a lot of<br />

time, to be such a crackpot.” I couldn’t find a<br />

balance, so I finally hung it up and left.<br />

With other musicians, like Sun Ra, space is<br />

a metaphor for alienation. You said a<br />

mouthful. I never felt like I fit in anywhere, but I<br />

created my own niche and that was very<br />

comfortable. People could approach me and talk<br />

one-on-one. What really scared me was, “Oh my<br />

gosh, I have to talk between songs.” You know, I<br />

could play songs for six hours straight, but even<br />

on the street, I didn’t really say anything. I guess<br />

I was probably afraid that people would see that<br />

I was really just a human being, and a very<br />

ordinary American girl-next-door. ■<br />

TERRI LOEWENTHAL<br />

46 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>


www.exberliner.com<br />

U1 cover 121.indd 2<br />

<strong>Issue</strong> 121 • €2.90 • November 2013<br />

François ozon: “It was so boring to film sex, real sex.” (p.30)<br />

Felix kubin: “I really like to be dominated; by guys like you,<br />

for example.” (p.40)<br />

shermin langhoFF: “You hear such a variety of languages in the<br />

audience. They go even though they don’t understand.” (p.34)<br />

From Grozny to<br />

Berlin – why do so<br />

many make the<br />

hopeless journey?<br />

what can the<br />

lampedusa refugees<br />

expect now?<br />

An inside look<br />

into an emergency<br />

refugee shelter<br />

monika<br />

herrmann:<br />

legal cannabis in<br />

kreuzberg?<br />

10/23/13 7:08 PM<br />

Ich will nicht nach Berlin<br />

ACUD reloaded By MIKE FLECK<br />

Upon entering the courtyard of ACUD, with<br />

its bright blue façade and multicoloured<br />

picnic tables, it’s almost impossible to imagine<br />

that this was once a near-derelict (if<br />

populous) ramshackle, a place of decadence,<br />

substance inhalation and all-night parties.<br />

The current state of Veteranenstraße,<br />

where the multi-purpose building still<br />

resides, doesn’t help. It’s the picture-perfect<br />

cliché of gentrified Berlin; well-groomed<br />

parents push newborns around in expensive<br />

strollers whilst tourists lounge in the sun<br />

outside fancy bars sipping on the ubiquitous<br />

Aperol Spritz.<br />

It wasn’t always like this. For a few years,<br />

Veteranenstraße was at the heart of the<br />

Prenzlauer Berg party scene (and yes, there<br />

was one). Around the turn of the millennium,<br />

bars such as Bergstub’l and the<br />

still-operative FC Magnet hosted sidewalk<br />

crowds that would spill down the hill to<br />

Brunnenstraße. Much to the profit of the<br />

dealers that worked ACUD’s basement club,<br />

which often hosted a weirdly synchronous<br />

mix of Africans and goths.<br />

Poet/performer/booker Corbett Santana<br />

was part of the regular lineup in the<br />

early days of the club. “It was a complete<br />

shithole. It was trashed and the toilet was so<br />

disgusting that I had to flush it with my foot<br />

because I didn’t want to touch it. But we<br />

didn’t care – the air was laced with hashish.<br />

It was groovy and fun!”<br />

Back then, ACUD was run mostly by<br />

a post-Wall art collective, and its rocky<br />

relationship with the drug world helped<br />

contribute to the building’s original foreclosure<br />

warning. “That connection was mostly<br />

made by the guy who was running the club,”<br />

explains new co-owner Julie Gayard. “The<br />

people of ACUD rented the two floors to<br />

this guy who was running these drum ’n’<br />

bass/reggae parties. And he actually ran off<br />

with lots of debts and it was those parties<br />

that kind of pissed off the neighbours.”<br />

In 2001, the collective managed to<br />

purchased the complex, but following a<br />

series of extensive renovations they filed<br />

for bankruptcy nine years later. “They<br />

were just about to be put on forced auction.<br />

That’s when we heard about it and<br />

thought something should be done,” says<br />

Gayard. Since early this year the complex<br />

has been co-managed by two groups: the<br />

original art collective, which now runs the<br />

cinema, theatre space and café, and what<br />

the French/German Gayard and her business<br />

partner Johannes Braun call “ACUD<br />

Macht Neu” (literally, ACUD Makes New)<br />

consisting of the gallery, club/bar and studio<br />

spaces. Aren’t they worried about stepping<br />

on the toes of the old collective? Not at all,<br />

according to Gayard. “Eventually we want<br />

to have a common website with the old<br />

ACUD people and merge.”<br />

The maze-like geography of ACUD’s<br />

architecture lets the duo run multiple<br />

events at the same time. They’ve organised<br />

events ranging from highbrow conferences<br />

discussing the works of Walter Benjamin<br />

and Deleuze & Guattari to the electronic<br />

jazz outfit Spleen, as well as hosting the<br />

Torstraßen Festival’s closing party. “The<br />

interesting thing about this house is that<br />

you don’t have to conform to the old<br />

stereotypes anymore,” adds Braun. ‘‘You<br />

feel free in this house. It’s not 100 percent<br />

renovated. We don’t want to keep it perfect;<br />

we want it to be a transformative space.”<br />

Celebrate ACUD's official re-opening on Saturday,<br />

<strong>September</strong> 27.<br />

CULTURE. INTERVIEWS. REPORTAGE.<br />

chechens<br />

interview<br />

Looking for<br />

Asylum in Berlin<br />

Germany is Europe’s top destination for political refugees.<br />

Meet the people behind the numbers.<br />

o-PlAtz<br />

heim<br />

100% made in Berlin.<br />

Printed on recycled<br />

paper.<br />

What’s on? • Art • Fashion • Film • Food • Music • Nightlife • Stage<br />

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47


What’s on<br />

ART<br />

Ai Weiwei – Framed<br />

He may be on lockdown<br />

but that hasn’t stopped<br />

dissident artist Ai Weiwei<br />

from popping up all over<br />

Berlin in the past several<br />

months. In addition to<br />

the massive exhibition<br />

Evidence at Martin-<br />

Gropius Bau and a piece<br />

in this summer’s Berlin<br />

Biennale, the Chinese<br />

sculptor and activist is also appearing at Neugerriemschneider,<br />

a high-end art showroom notorious for<br />

exhibiting exclusive, well-known artists. Since Weiwei<br />

is as creative as he is unpredictable, there’s no telling<br />

what surprises are in store. CM Sep 17-Nov 1,<br />

Neugerriemschneider, Linienstr. 155, Mitte, U-Bhf<br />

Rosenthaler Platz, Tue-Sat 11-18<br />

Bruce Nauman – Unlimited<br />

American artist and neon<br />

video genius Bruce Nauman’s<br />

work has a touch<br />

of madness and a clean<br />

polish. For fifty years the<br />

multimedia experimentalist<br />

has been reinventing<br />

himself and his voyeuristic<br />

works that illicit both<br />

confusion and agitation.<br />

A longtime friend of Art<br />

Basel, the Indiana-born artist became a household<br />

name in the 1970s and won multiple international<br />

art prizes. His video work will be exhibited at Haubrok<br />

for a mere two weeks, so get in and get out while<br />

there’s still time. CM Sep 12-27, Haubrok projects,<br />

Herzbergstr. 40-43, Lichtenberg, U-Bhf Magdalenenstr,<br />

open by appointment<br />

Giuseppe Gonella – Evidence of Time<br />

We’re pleased to announce<br />

Gonella’s official<br />

debut on the Berlin art<br />

scene! His large-scale<br />

paintings of oil and<br />

acrylic on canvas make<br />

use of different transparent<br />

layers. Gonella<br />

paints fast and furiously,<br />

starting with poeticto-the-cliff-of-troubling<br />

dream sequence subject matter and overlapping it<br />

with an entirely new scenario. Always moving forward<br />

and sometimes literally peeling back layers of paint to<br />

reveal what’s underneath, Gonella peeks over the edge<br />

into chaos, making the images swim before your eyes<br />

like your own reflection in water. FM Sep 6-Oct 18,<br />

Egbert Baqué Contemporary Art, Fasanenstr. 37, Wilmersdorf,<br />

U-Bhf Spichernstr., Tue-Fri 14-19, Sat 12-18<br />

Jennifer Oellerich – Liquid Landscapes<br />

Kwadrat Gallery wraps up<br />

its end of summer break<br />

with a brand new space<br />

and a colourful show by<br />

40-year-old Berlin-based<br />

German artist and<br />

UDK graduate Jennifer<br />

Oellerich. Part painter<br />

and illustrator, part<br />

anthropologist, she uses<br />

a variety of media to portray<br />

a remembrance to natural forms and landscapes.<br />

Not afraid to incorporate photography and printing,<br />

Oellerich’s painterly touch is never lost, as well as a<br />

repeated reference to water, its movement, and the<br />

correlation to human beings. CM Sep 13-Oct 11,<br />

Kwadrat, Manteuffelstr. 92, Kreuzberg, U-Bhf Görlitzer<br />

Bhf, Wed-Sat 13-19<br />

“Show some<br />

respect to<br />

the people<br />

who brought<br />

you up” By FRIDEY MICKEL<br />

A gallerist with an eye for raw<br />

talent, ALEX DUVE hosts one of<br />

Berlin Art Week’s most<br />

anticipated exhibitions.<br />

If the week is to be seen as a reflection of the<br />

state of art in Berlin or even globally, one must<br />

not overlook Chris Succo’s painting expo at<br />

DUVE Berlin. Duve first appeared on the Berlin<br />

art landscape in 2007, and his gallery quickly<br />

gained a reputation as the number-one spot to<br />

see emerging artists just a split second before<br />

their meteoric rise to the top.<br />

You started your gallery in 2007 as Duvekleeman<br />

with Birte Kleeman. Then after five<br />

months, she left the project to move to New<br />

York City (where she now heads Michael<br />

Werner Gallery). Was it clear that you would<br />

continue? At that time Birte left, I was like, what<br />

am I going to do? Go on myself? I realised then<br />

that I could decide about aesthetics and concept<br />

all by myself, do what I wanted to do. But then I<br />

realised I had no contacts, none. Nobody had a<br />

fucking clue who I was! When you think about it<br />

economically, I should have stopped. Birte knew<br />

everybody when we did the gallery together, and<br />

when she left, I was really standing there, saying:<br />

should I do it? But everything had just started. We<br />

had put so much effort into the project.<br />

Has your programme become more commercial?<br />

Yeah, I am more commercial now,<br />

doing painting shows more than performance<br />

things, but I have to survive. When we started,<br />

we had lots of conceptual, risky shows, Like Jen<br />

Denike doing nude, dancing performances in<br />

the gallery. Over time, I realised “Fuck, I need to<br />

make money.” I didn’t want to close the gallery.<br />

If I could, I would also do other shows. Cool<br />

shows, amazing shows, every second show like a<br />

freak-out crazy mega non-commercial show… but<br />

I can’t sell them. There are galleries like Chert<br />

that are so hardcore conceptual, but you wonder:<br />

how do they pay their bills?<br />

What’s your collecting aesthetic? My<br />

parents collected abstract art for like 40 years.<br />

I like abstract painting. I know that it’s commercially<br />

good to sell at the moment, but I also<br />

like it. More than other things. So I am selling<br />

what I like and I can only sell what I like. My<br />

programme was always very Americanised, I was<br />

always looking for interesting American artists.<br />

I just continued with what I always did, and that<br />

suddenly got really in. I showed Sebastian Black,<br />

Paul Cowen, Ed Fornieles, and Markus Amm<br />

(okay, he’s German, but he also has an American<br />

market) – all these guys who are now exploding.<br />

And what’s it like to work with artists and<br />

build a gallery programme these days?<br />

Working with an artist is like being in a relationship<br />

– you marry somebody because you want<br />

to be with a person for the rest of your life, but<br />

these days it mostly doesn’t work out. It’s the<br />

same with the new art market. Galleries used to<br />

start working with an artist at a young age and<br />

would continue with them for all their lives. Now,<br />

artists emerge and jump around from one gallery<br />

to another, which I don’t necessarily understand.<br />

Exactly the artists who you put so much effort<br />

into and build up – the ones who really could<br />

pay your bills – suddenly leave the gallery. It’s<br />

disappointing. Show some dignity and respect to<br />

the people who brought you up. All the effort the<br />

young gallery puts into the artist’s work, being<br />

loyal to its artists, in a way making their career<br />

possible. Pushing the Bruce High Quality Foundation<br />

was lots of work, I showed them at Artissima<br />

– people were laughing at me, “what kind of<br />

bullshit is this?”. Then, just when they blew up,<br />

they left the gallery to work with Vito Schnabel.<br />

How did you start working with the Bruce<br />

High Quality Foundation? I discovered them<br />

with Birte Kleemann. We saw them in early<br />

2007, in their studio in Brooklyn, and we thought<br />

“Perfect. These guys rock.” A big reason they<br />

left the gallery was because it’s five guys, selling<br />

artworks that were not really expensive. Just<br />

imagine, selling an artwork for €10,000 is €5000<br />

for the gallerist and €5000 for them, divided by<br />

five, so everybody gets €1000… how do you want<br />

to live from that? Now the funny thing is that<br />

they are big. They no longer show with young,<br />

48 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>


cool galleries. They show with Bruno<br />

Bischofberger, at Ammann Gallery – the<br />

massive, very big Swiss galleries, with<br />

really cool things at Art Basel. The collectors<br />

come back to me and say, “Ugh,<br />

why didn’t I listen to you?”, but then I<br />

say, there are still some new chances, you<br />

can buy Chris Succo...<br />

ART<br />

editor’s<br />

pick<br />

CHRIS SUCCO Sep<br />

12-Oct 31 | DUVE<br />

Berlin, Gitschiner Str.<br />

94, Kreuzberg, U-Bhf<br />

Hallesches Tor, Tue-Fri 11-<br />

18, Sat 12-16<br />

Succo is becoming quite big right<br />

now. Where’d you find him? I found<br />

him at his MFA Diploma Show at Kunstakademie<br />

Düsseldorf. I was like “Hey<br />

man, you wanna have a solo show?”<br />

“YES!” I just liked his work, and then<br />

I showed him at every art fair – that<br />

I did – I really worked my ass off for<br />

him. When he was at the Royal College<br />

in London, we would meet up and go<br />

together to Frieze. People started to<br />

know us together, which was also good.<br />

There are galleries coming who are<br />

really interested in Chris, like now it’s<br />

the question: will Chris be so clever and<br />

start working with them, but also stay<br />

with his young gallery?<br />

What would you do if he left? If<br />

Chris left, then I would really have to<br />

second-guess... I don’t think I would<br />

close the gallery, but I would have to<br />

build up somebody again, and again and<br />

again... With all the stress, you get a<br />

heart attack. But it’s a passion, and I like<br />

it too much. ■<br />

Street art on an (Urban) Spree<br />

For the past 30 years, the art world has had a playful fascination with<br />

street art: Basquiat, Banksy, Fab 5 Freddy. Shepard Fairey’s command for<br />

us all to “OBEY“ has left us in a trance. These days, the milieu has<br />

reached such a hype that it ensures a sort of ‘backdoor pass’ to many<br />

self-educated artists who got their cred painting public walls, both urban<br />

and rural. While huge galleries worldwide vie for exhibitions aiming to<br />

somehow recreate the magic one finds in the street, the social and<br />

political commentary and dialogues that underlie the work in its true<br />

element are lost. While this genre has thrived on our cultural radar for<br />

three decades now, it’s largely gone without any art historical analysis.<br />

This and the lack of context leaves many art lovers high on the hype<br />

without any true understanding of what is going on, preferring to call the<br />

artwork in the gallery ‘art’ and on the street<br />

‘vandalism’. This month Urban Spree presents<br />

an exposé on the state of urban art through the<br />

eyes of the international street crew DUBL<br />

TRUBL, who have invited more than 80 of their<br />

friends to Berlin to create and collaborate on<br />

works to be presented in Urban Spree’s rough<br />

Revaler Straße space. The artists are paired off<br />

in twos, the collaborations<br />

both displaying the presence<br />

of the social aspect in street<br />

art, while examining each<br />

artist’s personal style in<br />

tandem. Miss Van and Ciro,<br />

Ghost Patrol and Merde,<br />

Lush and Dscreet, Tizer and<br />

Ebot will all be there. Come<br />

check it out. FM<br />

DUBL TRUBL<br />

Sep 18-Oct 26 |<br />

Urban Spree, Revaler<br />

Str. 99, Friedrichshain,<br />

S+U-Bhf Warschauer<br />

Str., Tue-Sat 12-19<br />

Wed-Mon 10am-7pm, closed Tue<br />

49<br />

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<br />

ART<br />

Katharina Grosse<br />

German abstract painter,<br />

art professor and newly<br />

published author Katharina<br />

Grosse has been developing<br />

her monumental<br />

space-scapes in Berlin for<br />

over a decade. Meanwhile,<br />

Grosse has gained global<br />

recognition and a slew of<br />

international exhibitions<br />

with swooping object<br />

and painting installations that tower over visitors like giant<br />

kaleidoscopes. Her paintings use colour relationships to<br />

maximize the perceived size of a space, making it feel bigger<br />

than it is. Rich and forceful brush strokes convey movement,<br />

characterising her specialised installation style. CM<br />

Sep 20-Nov 7, N.B.K. Showroom, Chausseestr. 128/129,<br />

Mitte, U-Bhf Oranienburger Tor, Tue-Fri 12-18, Thu 12-20<br />

Markus Keibel – Brute Force<br />

Brute force is a hacker’s<br />

term for a method of<br />

illegal, fast access<br />

to secured computer<br />

systems to overcome<br />

virtual walls. Markus<br />

Keibel reappropriates<br />

this meaning, drawing a<br />

storyline between his new<br />

cycle of works, in order to<br />

examine and implement<br />

both unthought and individual thoughts into society.<br />

The show’s leitmotif works quite interestingly, as it truly<br />

brings the already-living circular drawing to life. Working<br />

with undertones dealing with the element of fire and the<br />

diversity of creative destruction, the show moves from<br />

two-dimensionality into a full-on space installation. FM<br />

Through Oct 4, AJL Gallery, Potsdamer Str. 98A, 2. Courtyard,<br />

Schöneberg, U-Bhf Kurfürstenstr., Tue-Sat 14-18<br />

Rui Calçada Bastos – Passagem de Nível<br />

Lisbon-based curator<br />

Joao Silvério leads<br />

Bastos’ epic photography<br />

on a journey of chance<br />

encounters. The images<br />

bear a slightly blurred<br />

indiscipline of gaze, which<br />

betray a personal feeling<br />

in each captured motive,<br />

making them more than<br />

just documentation. His<br />

multiplicity of approaches questions the images as proof<br />

of different occurrences in a yet-to-be-named reality. Interceding<br />

through the space are minimalised sculptures and<br />

“marks” that play three-dimensionally with poetic memory<br />

and the reality that continues beyond the photographic<br />

edge. FM Sep 4-Oct 18, Invaliden1 Galerie, Schönleinstr.<br />

25, Kreuzberg, U-Bhf Schönleinstr., Tue-Sat 11-18<br />

Petrus Wandrey: Digitalism Art<br />

This exhibition takes the<br />

visitor to the birth of new<br />

frontiers of contemporary<br />

art through the works of<br />

digital art pioneer Petrus<br />

Wandrey. Wandrey, who<br />

died in 2005, worked with<br />

a fascination of science<br />

and technology to create<br />

the Digitalist Movement,<br />

which started in 1978 in<br />

New York City. He played a lot with pixels at a time where<br />

most people had no idea that they existed, exploring<br />

media from two-dimensional imagery on monitors all the<br />

way to large-scale sculptures made from computer junk or<br />

individually manufactured hardware. FM Through Sep<br />

28, Zitadelle Spandau, Am Juliusturm 64, Spandau, U-Bhf<br />

Zitadelle, Mon-Sun-10-17<br />

Has the<br />

autumn of art<br />

lost its heart?<br />

It happened quickly and quietly<br />

in summer, arousing minimal<br />

attention. Shortly before initiating<br />

a new auction-style format,<br />

Berlin’s self-proclaimed<br />

“emerging” art fair Preview<br />

Berlin was submerged – permanently<br />

– behind the backs<br />

of two of its three organisers in<br />

only a handful of weeks. It’s the third<br />

founder, Kristian Jarmuschek, whose<br />

facile shuffling of ideas into new<br />

hands has birthed a brand new art<br />

BERLIN ART<br />

WEEK<br />

SEP 16-21<br />

fair, POSITIONS. The new fair promises, as Preview<br />

used to, a new kind of art fair that sheds the predictable<br />

white cubes, adapting itself to Kaufhaus<br />

Jandorf, a decrepit Berlin-style department store<br />

building – or, as the awkwardly translated English<br />

on the slapped-together homepage boasts, a<br />

“renovated former house of fashion”. It seems the<br />

only difference now between Berlin Art Week and<br />

Berlin Fashion Week is the absence of some deep<br />

pockets called Mercedes & Benz. Airport, factory,<br />

or department store, the story is all too familiar,<br />

and not the first or even second time Berlin’s<br />

fairs have played musical chairs during the city’s<br />

touristy art season.<br />

The art fair biz started in Cologne, of all places,<br />

with the beginnings of Art Cologne in 1967. The<br />

world’s first fair of its kind, it prompted a global<br />

audience to descend on Cologne to buy art. After<br />

the German city started attracting buyers formerly<br />

flocking to Paris or New York, artists like Joseph<br />

Beuys and Wolf Vostell channelled the idea of a<br />

contemporary marketplace towards Berlin in the<br />

1990s – thus the four-week Kunstherbst (autumn<br />

of art) was born. Themes like “Art for Everyone”<br />

(2007), “In Union with Art” (2005) and “Art and<br />

the Market” (2004) employed by FU Professor<br />

Klaus Siebenhaar, incorporated the artists’ direct<br />

involvement. Since 1996 there was one fair at the<br />

forefront around which the others were scheduled,<br />

Art on the cheap<br />

If you’re just as repulsed as we are by the printed<br />

canvases sold in Ikea’s “art” section, you’ll be<br />

thrilled to hear that a Berlin startup project is<br />

launching SCHAU<br />

FENSTER an affordable<br />

art shop<br />

with unique silkscreen<br />

prints, editions,<br />

catalogues<br />

and other objects.<br />

Many pieces are<br />

priced at €100<br />

or under,<br />

and are<br />

produced<br />

by the local<br />

art crowd,<br />

including<br />

44<br />

Flavours,<br />

SCHAU FENSTER<br />

RAUM FÜR KUNST<br />

Lobeckstr. 30-35,<br />

Kreuzberg, U-Bhf<br />

Moritzplatz<br />

JOHANNA SCHMITZ<br />

and up until 2011 its name was Art Forum, reigning<br />

on Berlin for 15 years.<br />

That is, until organisational efforts with rival ART<br />

BERLIN CONTEMPORARY, a four-year-old independent<br />

fair with roots in spring’s Gallery Weekend, fell<br />

through and Art Forum was scuttled. Just one year<br />

later, Berlin Art Week was born, drowning with it the<br />

memory of Art Forum and its sister fair Kunstsalon,<br />

organised by Edmund Piper, which succumbed<br />

to substantial budget cuts in 2012. The entire<br />

concept of a Kunstherbst was gone, and with it its<br />

intentions. Berlin Art Week uttered little mention of<br />

its founding fathers, and ABC ascended into head<br />

position, where it resides today. But now the closest<br />

resemblance to an actual marketplace is BERLINER<br />

LISTE. It has the highest concentration of self-represented<br />

artists and art universities, and is produced<br />

separately from ABC and Positions. The problem<br />

is, as soon as the artists themselves ceased to be<br />

part of the production process, Kunstherbst lost its<br />

edge. CAMILLE MORENO<br />

POSITIONS BERLIN Sep 18-21 | Kaufhaus Jandorf,<br />

Brunnenstr. 19-21, Mitte, U-Bhf Rosenthaler Platz<br />

ART BERLIN CONTEMPORARY Sep 18-21 | Station Berlin,<br />

Luckenwalder Str. 4-6, Mitte, U-Bhf Gleisdreieck<br />

BERLINER LISTE Sep 18-21 | Postbahnhof, Straße der<br />

Pariser Kommune 8, Friedrichshain, S-Bhf Ostbahnhof<br />

Emess, Klub7, Stohead and Various&Gould. The<br />

creators of the shop have been organising the<br />

city’s Party Arty since 2003, which has always<br />

incorporated art with music, urban culture and<br />

performance. As part of the opening, 44Flavours,<br />

Klub7 and Stohead<br />

will each offer an<br />

exclusive print only<br />

available from the<br />

shop. In a time<br />

when Berlin flounders<br />

to support the<br />

arts, the accessibility<br />

factor of cheap<br />

art for sale is undeniable.<br />

Celebrate<br />

the launch at the<br />

second edition of<br />

the urban art fair<br />

Conturbanaries,<br />

happening <strong>September</strong><br />

18-21. CM<br />

50 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>


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47


BERLIN BITES By FRANÇOISE POILANE<br />

ERICA LÖFMAN<br />

Masel Topf: Un-kosher delights<br />

Since Masel Topf is conveniently located across<br />

the street from the Rykestraße synagogue, passersby<br />

and tourists are expected to get the pun.<br />

It might not amuse believers exiting the temple,<br />

though. Not that they’ll eat here anyway – the<br />

only kosher thing on the menu is the excellent<br />

Tishbi 2011 Merlot from Israel. And there’s even<br />

pork shashlik, titled “The allure of the forbidden”.<br />

Playful touches include a taxi door imprinted<br />

with a faux stamp of kosher certification<br />

hanging over the bar, created by an artist friend<br />

of the restaurateurs.<br />

In other words, don’t expect textbook Jewishness<br />

at Masel Topf. Obviously there is no single<br />

Jewish cuisine, and the owners decided to serve<br />

dishes inspired by three places Jews live: Israel,<br />

New York and Eastern Europe. In short: falafel,<br />

burger, borscht. The latter has the strongest<br />

presence – unsurprising, as the owners have<br />

chalked up one success after another with a number<br />

of Russian restaurants across town – with<br />

many dishes “inspired by” Russian grandmas’<br />

recipes. One of the owner’s sisters oversees the<br />

all-Russian kitchen staff, throwing her own contemporary,<br />

at times ‘fusiony’, touch in the mix.<br />

All the usual suspects of Russian cuisine make an<br />

appearance: soljanka soup (the poultry version),<br />

borscht (white bean vegetarian), blinis (veg or<br />

not), vareniki dumplings (filled with potato,<br />

cheese or mushrooms and pan fried), etc... but<br />

don’t be surprised if some lime yoghurt or mango<br />

sauce shows up with your food.<br />

The “Tel Aviv” vegetarian starter plate (€9)<br />

feels like something you’d get in a Californian<br />

café, arranged on a white platter: falafel filled<br />

with feta, hummus, fried eggplant, slices of<br />

oven-roasted Hokkaido pumpkin, avocado, and<br />

a veggie aubergine dip. The Berlin appetiser<br />

combo (€17) will feed two hungry souls (or 4-6 if<br />

ordered as a starter) with most of the above cold<br />

‘tapas’ and many more, including herring tartar<br />

on baked apple (Vorschmack); trout mousse with<br />

delicious Borondinsky bread (the famous Sovietstyle<br />

sweet dark rye with a distinctive coriander<br />

flavour), cured salmon on potato pancakes, a<br />

convincing Russian take on ratatouille, breaded<br />

goat-cheese balls... all-in-all, 14 homemade<br />

delicacies served in charming little glass jars arranged<br />

along a boat-shaped platter. There’s even<br />

a sample generous of the home-cured pastrami<br />

with (also homemade) pink berry mustard; the<br />

flavourful, very lean meat can also be ordered in<br />

typical NYC sandwich style on rye bread with<br />

mustard and coleslaw. They also make their own<br />

challah bread, damn good soft white slices.<br />

Though we were already pleasantly stuffed<br />

ourselves, the meal continued with two examples<br />

of Jewish stuffing: the Pulke (€14) and the<br />

gefilte fish (€17). The former – with the exception<br />

of the apple-mango sauce – seems a lot like<br />

a dusted-off granny classic from Ukraine, where<br />

the restaurant’s manager hails from: take a<br />

chicken leg, carefully remove the skin, strip the<br />

meat from the bone, chop it and blend it with<br />

chicken liver, then stuff the skin with the mix,<br />

creating a funny boneless drumstick. Served<br />

with three small latke potato pancakes. Delicious,<br />

though perhaps lacking a veggie side.<br />

As for the fish, it is ‘gefilte’ only in name. It’s<br />

more of a vertical roulade, a hefty zander filet<br />

rolled around a mix of cured salmon, spinach<br />

and walnuts. The intended result is a ‘volcano’ on<br />

your plate, although our horseradish sauce wasn’t<br />

bubbling the way it was supposed to (apparently,<br />

on some days, it does!). The plate is prettified<br />

with a dollop of apple chutney, a colourful<br />

carpaccio of red and yellow beetroot and some<br />

caramelised sweet shallots.<br />

A well-executed wintery dish is braised lamb<br />

shank, so perfectly cooked for hours that the meat<br />

slides off the bone sumptuously – served with<br />

mashed potatoes, spicy prunes and Zimmes (slowcooked<br />

carrots with cinnamon). All mains come in<br />

portions that will satisfy the biggest of eaters.<br />

This is a place for long, autumnal nights, when<br />

you’re craving elaborate meals, slow-stewed<br />

meats, hearty roasts, braised vegetables and<br />

mashed potatoes. We were served by a friendly<br />

English-speaking waitress who laid the silver<br />

cutlery on the table with a cotton glove. The interior<br />

reassuringly evokes elegant Czarist times:<br />

starched serviettes, Biedermeier-style furniture<br />

and Art Deco touches<br />

as well as the retro wallpaper<br />

and baroque chis-<br />

MASEL TOPF<br />

Rykestr. 2, Prenzlauer<br />

Berg, U-Bhf<br />

eled glass chandeliers.<br />

For those in the know:<br />

Senefelderplatz,<br />

more Pasternak than Mon-Sun 18-1<br />

Gorki. ■<br />

52 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>


Oui, Madame:<br />

French for<br />

Germans<br />

Although dance music producer Jean-Baptiste<br />

Martin was brought up in a part of France<br />

where kids were given plum brandy to sleep<br />

well (Exberliner disclaims responsibility for this<br />

advice), neither he nor his co-founder, Chileborn<br />

former store manager Christian Fonseca<br />

have wine backgrounds. Consequently, their<br />

wine bar Oui, Madame, open since mid-June,<br />

has nothing esoteric to it. Hidden on a cosy<br />

corner behind Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, it<br />

might feel a little remote. Yet there are already<br />

regulars, many of them French, and the owners<br />

seem to befriend most guests – which is potentially<br />

what makes the service a little slow. Apart<br />

from word-of-mouth, they attract customers<br />

through events like Tuesday boules and pastis<br />

by the Volksbühne (€5, including 2 pastis) and<br />

monthly improv theatre evenings.<br />

The wine blackboard is limited (four whites,<br />

five reds, two rosés and a handful of sparklings,<br />

€4.80-7/glass) but changes at least once a month.<br />

Work your way through them with a generous<br />

cheese plate (€9), normally containing three<br />

cow cheeses, one goat and one sheep, decorated<br />

with strawberries, sliced peaches, dried figs and<br />

a pile of rocket salad and bread. Fruity, unoaked<br />

Cabernet-Grenache blend Le Petit St. Jacques<br />

ERICA LÖFMAN<br />

from Languedoc (€4.80/glass, €18/bottle) is<br />

easy to enjoy with the nutty, savoury and mature<br />

hard cow cheese Salers (from Auvergne) or the<br />

musty, gamey sheep milk Tomme d’Estaing from<br />

the Pyrénée mountains. Both owners favour<br />

Abondance, an aromatic, semi-hard mountain<br />

cheese similar to Comté, which pairs surprisingly<br />

well with crispy Tourain Sauvignon blanc Clos du<br />

Porteau Le Courlis (€5.50/glass; €24/bottle).<br />

As for the buttery, salty blue cheese Bleu<br />

d’Auvergne (think Roquefort, only creamier),<br />

aim for something sweet rather than the dry<br />

reds you’re recommended. Our tip: ask for the<br />

honey-coloured Ratafia de Bourgogne, a special<br />

kind of aperitif with complex flavours of dried<br />

fruits and elderflower that will knock you off<br />

your feet. The only disappointment is the bread,<br />

some generic whole-grain<br />

slices that can’t match a<br />

nice cripsy baguette. But<br />

they also offer a great<br />

salami plate, and the<br />

French don’t need bread<br />

to eat saucisson! HW<br />

OUI, MADAME<br />

Almstadtstr. 43,<br />

Mitte, U-Bhf Rosa-<br />

Luxemburg-Platz,<br />

Mon-Sat 17-24<br />

Vego chocolate:<br />

Nut just for vegans<br />

While most dark chocolate is dairy-free by default, the hunt for creamier versions<br />

is a minefield for strict vegans. Thank Prenzlauer Berg company Vego Good Food<br />

for their new (and massive!) Vegobar, a gianduja-like treat made from Italian chocolate<br />

and hazelnut cream with whole hazelnuts embedded throughout. Though politically correct<br />

(vegan, organic, gluten-free, fair trade), we’d buy it for the rich, nutty taste: think Nutella, turned into a<br />

hard, slightly crumbly bar. Buy your 150g XL chocolate bar at your local organic store for around €3.50. HW<br />

LPG BioMarkt GmbH · Mehringdamm 20–30 · 10961 Berlin<br />

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Kreuzberg: Reichenberger Str. 37<br />

Prenzlberg: Kollwitzstr. 17<br />

Treptow: Bouchéstr. 12<br />

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53


FASHION By JESSICA SALTZ<br />

■ FASHIONISTAS<br />

“She’s done it again!”<br />

BAG IN<br />

BUSINESS<br />

Part of Berlin’s growing constellation of young<br />

menswear designers, SISSI GOETZE is well on her<br />

way to a stellar career.<br />

Goetze founded her eponymous label in Berlin in 2011<br />

after completing her master’s degree at London’s<br />

renowned Central St. Martin’s College, and has not<br />

looked back. She won Berlin’s Start Your Fashion<br />

Business award in 2012 as the “menswear label<br />

to watch”, and many in the local fashion<br />

business and beyond are indeed taking notice;<br />

she is a firm fashion editor favourite and has<br />

been picked up by stores as local as Berlin’s Voo<br />

Store and as far away as Japan. “It was<br />

really strange to be in Tokyo and see a<br />

client walk in off the street in my<br />

clothes,” Goetze says modestly.<br />

She acknowledges the “focus on<br />

menswear” developing in<br />

fashion at the moment, but<br />

explains that her interest in<br />

men’s clothing came from the<br />

challenge of working within<br />

strict parameters: “With<br />

women’s clothing everything<br />

has to be new each season,” she<br />

explains. “You have to think about<br />

new silhouettes and fabrics. Men’s<br />

wear is always consistent; part of the<br />

challenge is doing something new<br />

with the same standard pieces.”<br />

Despite the limitations, Goetze is<br />

breathing a new life into wardrobe<br />

■ SHOP OF<br />

THE MONTH<br />

Prag Pop-up<br />

The Prag PR agency<br />

represents some of our<br />

favourite Berlin labels<br />

like Lala Berlin, Lika Mimika<br />

and Michael Sontag.<br />

Their stylish but<br />

diminutive Mitte store<br />

is like a fantasy walk-in<br />

wardrobe. Friedrichstr.<br />

40, Mitte, U-Bhf Kochstr.,<br />

Tue-Fri 11-19, Sat 12-17<br />

staples – her most<br />

recent packed-out<br />

presentation during<br />

July’s Mercedes<br />

Benz Berlin<br />

Fashion Week saw<br />

the designer’s<br />

ability to mix<br />

fabric, cuts<br />

and – for the first time – a print, whilst staying<br />

within the remit of her purist outlook. As one top<br />

fashion editor sighed at the show: “She’s done it<br />

again.” Her inspirations may come out of left field<br />

(that show for example was, according to<br />

Goetze, “a mix of American B-boy and<br />

Mediterranean style”), but the clothes<br />

themselves make perfect sense: fitted<br />

blouson jackets, high waists and the stripe<br />

down the side of pants “that makes me<br />

think of the Italian Carabinieri,”<br />

Goetze laughs. She has been much<br />

credited for her signature shoulder cut<br />

– a rounded raglan form “that is is<br />

rounded but accented,” the designer<br />

explains. This trademark is consistent in<br />

her collections and makes for a relaxed,<br />

contemporary look that lends itself to shirts<br />

and jackets. A tiered bib front on the front of<br />

a white shirt, or a tactile mélange cotton<br />

fabric – her knack for mix-and-match details is<br />

what makes her one of this city’s most<br />

promising young talents. www.sissigoetze.com<br />

ANDREAS MÜHE PRINT<br />

SANDRA RATKOVIC<br />

Whether you are heading<br />

back to the office, school,<br />

or just back to bed this<br />

<strong>September</strong>, you should<br />

at least look like you<br />

mean business. Suits are<br />

generally regarded with<br />

suspicion in Berlin, but a<br />

job-appropriate accessory<br />

is always a good thing<br />

whether employment is<br />

something you’re into or<br />

not. A leather work bag,<br />

such as this one by Deepmello,<br />

will lend its carrier,<br />

male or female, an immediate<br />

sense of gravitas.<br />

Briefcase-y in form, it just<br />

looks like it is full of important<br />

documents, even<br />

if it actually just contains<br />

a half-eaten kebab and a<br />

dog toy. I’ve ranted about<br />

canvas bags in this column<br />

before, but flimsy cotton<br />

never did a business<br />

leader make, let’s face it.<br />

The satchel’s time in the<br />

fashion spotlight – and all<br />

the awkward schoolgirl<br />

connotations it brought<br />

with it – is thankfully behind<br />

us and rucksacks are<br />

the preserve of DJs and<br />

backpackers. So for God’s<br />

sake get yourself a leather<br />

holdall for autumn and<br />

let your bag do the work<br />

for you.<br />

54 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>


SPOTLIGHT<br />

ARTICLE TAG<br />

Tepees on the Spree By Dominic Mealy. Photo by Veronica Jonsson.<br />

Sandwiched between the overgrown shoreline of<br />

the Spree River and the graffitied husk of the old<br />

ice factory by Jannowitzbrücke is the shambolic<br />

strip of improvised huts and tarpaulin tents<br />

known as Teepee Land. First conceived in 2012<br />

as a proto-native Indian utopia by the Odinworshipping<br />

neo-pagan Flieger Fischer (photo),<br />

the camp has since turned into a more prosaic<br />

squatter settlement – a “public land development”,<br />

as longterm resident Olly calls it. Says<br />

the ponytailed Englishman, “We’re looking to<br />

improve the land, not just use it.”<br />

Approaching from the Schillingbrücke, you<br />

hear a mix of German, English and southern and<br />

eastern European languages coming from an array<br />

of figures: some sweeping, one rolling a shopping<br />

trolley of Pfand bottles, others relaxing with<br />

a beer. There are 13 permanent residents and a<br />

constantly changing cast of up to 30 guests, from<br />

young idealists to grizzled veteran squatters,<br />

from the destitute to the homeless-by-choice.<br />

“I wanted to experience communal living,” says<br />

Sara, a New Zealand anthropology graduate. “It’s<br />

a great experiment.” Meals are communal and a<br />

by-donation café covers tobacco, toothpaste and<br />

a fund for medicines. Decisions are made in a<br />

weekly group meeting that can take hours. Everyone<br />

pitches in, even though it’s not mandatory.<br />

Besides a programme of free film screenings,<br />

skill sharing workshops and the obligatory Balkan/reggae/punk<br />

concerts, the group has joined<br />

forces with local residents and businesses to<br />

rejuvenate Spreeuferweg, the currently dilapidated<br />

riverside strip, and protest against city<br />

government plans for the area to be developed<br />

into a wide concrete “promenade”. Teepee<br />

Landers clear the path through the camp on a<br />

daily basis and are building vegetable patches to<br />

complement the nearby ID22 urban gardening<br />

project. An alliance has also been fostered<br />

with the site’s neighbours, the five-year-old<br />

120-strong cooperative housing project Spreefeld.<br />

“Some members of the cooperative might<br />

prefer if they weren’t there,” says Spreefeld<br />

resident Manfred, a retired academic. “But that’s<br />

a minority opinion. We get along well, the Teepee<br />

people are friendly people.” The thing he’s most<br />

excited about? “They’re talking about raising<br />

chickens! I’d love to buy eggs on my doorstep.”<br />

It’s not all buttercups and daisies for our erstwhile<br />

Indians. “Sanitation remains a really big<br />

issue,” says Sara bluntly. Yet spirits remain high.<br />

“We just have to keep working at it,” says Polish<br />

resident Alex enthusiastically. “Look at Christiania,<br />

it has lasted because of the work people<br />

have put in. We could achieve something like<br />

that… without the drug dealing, of course!” n<br />

55


ADVERTORIAL<br />

The Berlin guide<br />

The new directory to help you find your way around Berlin.<br />

To advertise, contact ads@exberliner.com<br />

mitte<br />

Prêt-à-Vélo Carefully handcrafted<br />

bicycles from England, Italy<br />

and Belgium meet high-quality bags,<br />

smart accessories for a day of biking<br />

in the city, chic functional clothing<br />

and office-ready bike shoes. As premium<br />

partners of the brands Brooks<br />

England and Fahrer Berlin, they focus<br />

on sustainably designed products<br />

that are produced in Europe<br />

and that can often only be found in<br />

their store. Fehrbelliner Str. 17, U-<br />

Bhf Rosenthaler Platz, Mon-Fri 12-19,<br />

Sat 10-16, www.pret-a-velo.de<br />

Konk This charming boutique<br />

has a huge selection of Berlinbased<br />

designer fashion including labels<br />

Anntian, Boessert Schorn, Hanna<br />

Pordzik, Isabell de Hillerin, Hui Hui,<br />

Kiesel, Mikenke, Naoko Ogawa, Nico<br />

Sutor, Penelope‘s Sphere and Thone<br />

Negrón. Support your local designers<br />

and look fab! Kleine Hamburger Str.<br />

15, U-Bhf Rosenthaler Platz, Mon-Fri<br />

12-19, Sat 12-18, www.konk-berlin.de<br />

Roland Weiss, Lawyer<br />

Are employment law problems getting<br />

you down? Roland Weiss (German<br />

attorney at law) has advised<br />

German and international clients on<br />

labour law for more than ten years.<br />

He speaks German, English, Swedish<br />

and French. Tucholskystr. 18-20, S-<br />

Bhf Oranienburger Str., Tel 030 3406<br />

0390, www.weisslegal.de<br />

Fire Bar After reunification, Berlin<br />

exploded with underground bars.<br />

In Fire Bar you can still feel the spirit<br />

of the Berlin underground. Che-<br />

Icons<br />

Food<br />

Drinks<br />

Coffee<br />

Shop<br />

Gallery/Art<br />

Entertainment<br />

Music<br />

Languages<br />

Wellness/Fitness<br />

Beauty<br />

Services<br />

ap drinks, sofas, funky lights. The<br />

fire is always burnin’ in this cosy cellar<br />

bar. Krausnickstr. 5, S-Bhf Oranienburger<br />

Str., Mon-Sun from 20,<br />

www.fire-club.de<br />

Kilkenny Irish Pub<br />

Natives and visitors alike converge<br />

to drink and party at this pub under<br />

the beautiful Hackescher Markt station.<br />

Enjoy homemade Irish and international<br />

pub grub plus a huge vast<br />

selection of beers and spirits. Catch<br />

all the international sports on big<br />

screens. Live concerts two to three<br />

nights a week. Plus a sun terrace and<br />

easy 24h access to public transport.<br />

Am Zwirngraben 17-20, S-Bhf Hackescher<br />

Markt, Mon-Sun from 10,<br />

www.kilkenny-pub.de<br />

Hinterm Horizont Enjoy<br />

an authentic Berlin story about<br />

Germany’s reunification at Potsdamer<br />

Platz, the site where the wall once<br />

stood, and experience a moving love<br />

story between East and West featuring<br />

the greatest hits of Udo Lindenberg.<br />

Relive the most significant<br />

moment of German-German history<br />

up close. An absolute must for every<br />

visit to Berlin! Stage Theater at<br />

Potsdamer Platz, Marlene-Dietrich-<br />

Platz 1, S+U-Bhf Potsdamer Platz,<br />

Tel 03871 2115 530, www.hintermhorizont.com<br />

Blue Man Group New look,<br />

new scenes, new songs and all the<br />

popular classics combine to create<br />

Blue Man Group’s best show ever.<br />

Over the past decade, it has developed<br />

into the most successful show<br />

in the German capital. An absolute<br />

must for every Berliner and tourists<br />

from all over the world. Stage<br />

BLUEMAX Theater, Marlene-Dietrich-<br />

Platz 4, S+U-Bhf Potsdamer Platz,<br />

Tel 03871 2115 530, www.bluemangroup.de/international<br />

Dolores Founded 10 years ago<br />

as a street food pioneer in the German<br />

capital, Dolores serves excellent<br />

California-style burritos and quesadillas<br />

– inspired by San Francisco’s Mission<br />

district. Recommended by Time<br />

Out, New York Times, Lonely Planet.<br />

Voted #1 value for your money by Exberliner<br />

readers. Rosa-Luxemburg-<br />

Str. 7, S+U-Bhf Alexanderplatz, Tel<br />

030 2809 9597, Mon-Sat 11:30-22,<br />

Sun 13-22, www.dolores-berlin.de<br />

Sauerkraut In a cosy, woodpanelled<br />

room, German and American<br />

cultures (Donald Duck meets<br />

Hansel and Gretel!) clash head-on<br />

with a menu of meaty delights. Seven<br />

kinds of homemade Wurst, interesting<br />

burgers and original tapas.<br />

Daily lunch specials for €7.50.<br />

Weinbergsweg 25, U-Bhf Rosenthaler<br />

Platz, Tel 030 6640 8355, Mon-<br />

Fri 8-1, Sat-Sun 9-1, www.restaurantsauerkraut.de<br />

Tommi’s Burger Joint At<br />

this London import, you‘ll find classic<br />

no-nonsense black Angus beef burgers,<br />

medium grilled, just like Tommi<br />

likes it. Kick-ass veggie burgers for the<br />

non-Fleisch eaters and milkshakes that<br />

taste better than yours. Invalidenstr.<br />

160, U-Bhf Rosenthaler Platz, Mon-<br />

Sun 11:30-22, www.burgerjoint.de<br />

prenzlauer berg<br />

Godshot belongs to the top of<br />

the league, with excellent coffee and<br />

super-friendly staff. Above all, they<br />

know their stuff. Take your time, enjoy<br />

the casual, laid-back atmosphere<br />

of a great neighbourhood and one<br />

of their delicious cakes. Immanuelkirchstr.<br />

32, U-Bhf Senefelderplatz,<br />

Mon-Fri 8-18, Sat 9-18, Sun 13-18,<br />

www.godshot.de<br />

LPG Biomarkt Your all-organic<br />

neighbourhood supermarket<br />

supplies fruit and vegetables,<br />

meats, cheeses and even cosmetics.<br />

Fill your basket with freshly baked<br />

bread and treat yourself to a selection<br />

of sweet and savoury goodies.<br />

Kollwitzstr. 17, U-Bhf Senefelderplatz,<br />

Mon-Sat 9-21, bakery from 7,<br />

www.lpg-biomarkt.de<br />

Engelberg has exactly the thing<br />

to satisfy your South German comfort<br />

food cravings. Besides the rotating<br />

weekly menu, there’s Alpine<br />

cheese, sausage from a small southern<br />

butcher, delicatessen breakfast,<br />

cake, bread, wine and Likör galore.<br />

Oderberger Str. 21, U-Bhf Eberswalder<br />

Str., Tel 030 4403 0637, Tue-Sat<br />

10-22, Sun 10-20, www.engelbergberlin.de<br />

The Green Room is a centre<br />

for holistic, green medicine. Here<br />

you‘ll find an international team of<br />

complementary health practitioners<br />

who offer consultations in English<br />

and German. Holistic therapies at the<br />

Green Room include homoeopathy,<br />

psychotherapy, coaching, hypnosis<br />

and EMDR, Neurological Integration<br />

System and PSYCH-K, Ayurvedic and<br />

Tibetan massage, classical and pregnancy<br />

massage, past-life regression<br />

and yoga. Hufelandstr. 34, Tel 030<br />

4208 4030, www.thegreenroom.de<br />

No Wódka showcases the<br />

best of today’s lively Polish art and<br />

design scene. The concept store features<br />

a range of contemporary Polish<br />

fashion, homeware and furniture and<br />

also hosts exhibitions of work by Polish<br />

artists. Pappelallee 10, U-Bhf<br />

Eberswalder Str., Mon 12-19, Tue-Sat<br />

11-19, www.nowodka.com<br />

Nalu They call themselves the<br />

Homeland of the Freefill, but Nalu<br />

is much more: here you’ll score USstyle<br />

breakfasts, comfort food and a<br />

great cheeseburger plus tasty lunch<br />

and dinner specials. Finish your meal<br />

with a malted milkshake or root beer<br />

float! Dunckerstr. 80a, S-Bhf Prenzlauer<br />

Allee, Mon 9-16, Tue-Sun 9-22,<br />

www.nalu-diner.com<br />

Memory It’s easy to see why<br />

Kylie Minogue shops here: a haven<br />

for vintage lovers, the small boutique<br />

offers an extensive range of 1950s<br />

to 1970s treasures from handbags<br />

and suitcases to jewellery and evening<br />

dresses… at affordable prices!<br />

Schwedter Str. 2, U-Bhf Senefelderplatz,<br />

Mon-Sat 14-19<br />

friedrichshain<br />

Hirsch At first glance you<br />

might be excused for overlooking<br />

this pub, but upon entering you’ll be<br />

glad you didn’t. This bar combines<br />

intimacy reminiscent of an English<br />

pub with traditional southern German<br />

food, like Spätzle and Maultaschen,<br />

and a huge selection of beer.<br />

Kopernikusstr. 3, S+U-Bhf Warschauer<br />

Str., Mon-Sun from 16, www.<br />

hirsch-friedrichshain.de<br />

iMazing Looking for Apple<br />

products? At iMazing, friendly and<br />

well-trained staff are ready to assist<br />

you with all your equipment needs<br />

and IT services. Whether you’re interested<br />

in buying or have a warranty<br />

repair, you’ll find quick, efficient<br />

help here. Gürtelstr. 42, U+S-Bhf<br />

Frankfurter Allee, Tel 030 2005 3660,<br />

Mon-Fri 10-13/14-19, Sat 12-16,<br />

www.imazing.de<br />

Monster Ronson’s Ichiban<br />

Karaoke is the world’s craziest<br />

karaoke club. Make out on<br />

their super-dark dance floor, get<br />

naked in the private karaoke boxes<br />

and sing your favourite songs all<br />

night. Warschauer Str. 34, S+U-Bhf<br />

Warschauer Str., Mon-Sun from 19,<br />

www.karaokemonster.de<br />

No Hablo Espanol Delicious,<br />

freshly made San Franciscostyle<br />

quesadillas and burritos served<br />

by a collection of fun-loving international<br />

folks. Every Wednesday, challenge<br />

the NHE team in a game of<br />

rock paper scissors and win a half-price<br />

meal. Kopernikusstr. 22, S+U-Bhf<br />

Warschauer Str., Mon-Sun from 12,<br />

www.nohabloespanol.de<br />

Hops & Barley Serving<br />

home-brewed pilsner and dark beer,<br />

this is the place to go to get that proper<br />

brew-pub vibe in Friedrichshain.<br />

56 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>


fresh, seasonal German and continental<br />

dishes at reasonable prices. Breakfast<br />

on weekends and holidays. Live<br />

music and parties start after dessert.<br />

Mariannenplatz 2 (Bethanien), U-Bhf<br />

Kottbusser Tor, Tel 030 600 318 600,<br />

Mon-Sun from 11, www.3schwesternberlin.de<br />

LPG Biomarkt Your all-organic<br />

neighbourhood supermarket<br />

supplies fruit and vegetables,<br />

meats, cheeses and even cosmetics.<br />

Fill your basket with freshly baked<br />

bread and treat yourself to a selection<br />

of sweet and savoury goodies.<br />

Reichenberger Str. 37, U-Bhf Kottbusser<br />

Tor, Mon-Sat 8-21, bakery<br />

from 7, www.lpg-biomarkt.de<br />

Café Morgenland On weekends<br />

and holidays you’ll find a great<br />

buffet here, complete with gourmet<br />

cheese, fresh fruit and veg, crêpes<br />

and other vegetarian dishes, cold<br />

cuts, shrimp cocktails and more. Set<br />

menus from €5. During Happy Hour<br />

drinks are just €3.50 after 20:00. Reservations<br />

suggested. Skalitzer Str.<br />

35, U-Bhf Görlitzer Bahnhof, Tel 030<br />

6113 291, Mon-Fri 9-1, Sat-Sun from<br />

10, www.morgenland-berlin.de<br />

AGATA SASIUK<br />

Rosa Caleta You’ll find what<br />

is surely Berlin’s finest Jamaican food<br />

in a side street a stone’s throw from<br />

Görlitzer Bahnhof on the U1 line. Live<br />

music, art exhibitions, catering and<br />

an intimate dining atmosphere offering<br />

creative dishes with a European<br />

touch. Great homemade cake selection.<br />

Muskauer Str. 9, U-Bhf Görlitzer<br />

Bahnhof, Tel 030 6953 7859, Tue-<br />

Sat 18-23:30, Sun 14-1, kitchen until<br />

23:30, www.rosacaleta.com<br />

Cider and wheat beers are also on<br />

tap. Part brewery, part bar, the interior<br />

is beautifully decorated with antique<br />

tiles. Wühlischstr. 22-23, S+U-<br />

Bhf Warschauer Str., Mon-Sun 17-2,<br />

www.hopsandbarley-berlin.de<br />

Mexican Street Kitchen<br />

Savour Mexican deliciousness in<br />

Friedrichshain – as colourful as the<br />

Kiez. Salads as green as the Yucatan<br />

jungles and salsas as fiery as Mariachi<br />

music. Don‘t be afraid of the Luchador<br />

masks! “El Bosque” is ready to<br />

protect, tortilla in hand. Simon-<br />

Dach-Str. 7, S+U-Bhf Warschauer Str.,<br />

www.facebook.com/MSKBerlin<br />

Milja & Schäfa serves homemade<br />

pasta made fresh daily, crisp<br />

salads and daily specials in pleasant<br />

surroundings, blending urban style<br />

with woody rustic charm. Every day<br />

their open kitchen gives birth to a<br />

new lunch menu and breakfast variations.<br />

Pamper your sweet tooth with<br />

homemade desserts, cakes and cookies.<br />

The coffee is organic and the<br />

fine wines come from a hand-selected<br />

young German vintner. Sonntagstr.<br />

1, S-Bhf Ostkreuz, Tel 0176<br />

6266 8459, Sun-Thu 8-24, Fri-Sat 8-2<br />

kreuzberg<br />

Blue Living The colour concept<br />

store Blue Living stocks famous<br />

and beautiful English paint and wallpaper<br />

from Farrow & Ball, as well as<br />

furniture and fabrics from established<br />

manufacturers such as Moooi and<br />

Kvadrat and a range of vintage classics.<br />

Discover new design objects and<br />

wonderful collectibles each time you<br />

visit. Südstern 6, U-Bhf Südstern,<br />

www.blueliving-farben.de<br />

Bastard From Bastard with<br />

love: whether it’s breakfast, lunch or<br />

dinner, this restaurant is not just for<br />

those who were born out of wedlock.<br />

Choose from the changing seasonal<br />

menu created with love for fresh ingredients<br />

and fine food. Our tip: try<br />

the homemade stone-oven bread!<br />

Reichenberger Str. 122, U-Bhf Görlitzer<br />

Bahnhof, Tel 030 5482 1866,<br />

Mon-Sun 9-17, www.bastard-berlin.de<br />

Jivamukti Yoga The official<br />

outpost of NYC’s best-known yoga<br />

centre offers the opposite of “fastfood<br />

Western yoga”. Sounds too hippy?<br />

Don’t worry: yoga is a pleasure<br />

here. Stylish surroundings, classy<br />

equipment, English-speaking staff and<br />

two loft studios add to the relaxing,<br />

luxurious atmosphere. Four English<br />

classes. Oranienstr. 25, U-Bhf Kottbusser<br />

Tor, www.jivamuktiberlin.de<br />

Santa Maria Eat authentic<br />

Mexican street food right on Oranienstraße,<br />

with a bar offering a full range<br />

of mezcal, tequila and cocktails. Enjoy<br />

favourites like chilaquiles and tacos<br />

de carnitas plus the biggest, tastiest<br />

burritos in town. Oranienstr.<br />

170, U-Bhf Kottbusser Tor, Mon-Sun<br />

from 12, www.santaberlin.com<br />

3 Schwestern Housed in a former<br />

hospital turned art centre, this<br />

spacious restaurant with big windows<br />

overlooking a lovely garden serves<br />

Tiki Heart Café &<br />

Shop Looking for a weird, wonderful<br />

Hawaiian-Kreuzberg atmosphere?<br />

Then this is the best place<br />

to be. Open for diner-style breakfast,<br />

lunch and cocktails. Kick back<br />

amongst punk rock Schnickschnack,<br />

crazy clothing and footwear. Aloha &<br />

rock ‘n’ roll! Wiener Str. 20, U-Bhf<br />

Gör litzer Bahnhof, Mon-Sun from 10,<br />

www.tikiheart.de<br />

Piri’s Inspired by the flavours<br />

of Portugal, and Piri-Piri sauce in<br />

particular, Piri’s brings the flavours<br />

of Portuguese chicken in burger<br />

form, with their very own special<br />

recipe salsa, combined with delicious<br />

homemade aioli and soft, seeded<br />

buns. Wiener Str. 31, U-Bhf<br />

Görlitzer Bahnhof, Mon-Sun 12-22,<br />

www.piris-chicken.com<br />

Le Bon serves up some mean<br />

eggs Benedict, yogi tea, French<br />

toast, house-smoked salmon, croque<br />

madame, pulled pork burgers and<br />

shashuka. All-in-all, a mean breakfast<br />

and some great coffee, just like its<br />

sister café Kaffeebar around the corner<br />

on Graefestraße. Boppstr. 1, U-<br />

Bhf Schönleinstr., Mon 8-15, Wed-Fri<br />

8-15, 18-23, Sat-Sun 9:30-16, 18-23,<br />

www.lebon-berlin.com<br />

57


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time, anywhere. Deep Tissue is their<br />

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Modern Graphics Berlins<br />

best comic shop! Here you can<br />

find the biggest possible selection<br />

of German and English comic books,<br />

graphic novels, illustration/art/street<br />

art/tatoo/design books and magazines<br />

and cool toys. A weekly shipment<br />

with the newest US comics arrives<br />

each Thursday! They have a second<br />

store in Europa Center. Oranienstr.<br />

22, U-Bhf Kottbusser Tor, www.<br />

modern-graphics.de<br />

wedding<br />

Berlin Glas e.V. Their mission<br />

is to share the skill of making glass<br />

art with the public and provide a resource<br />

to international artists working<br />

with all media. Their underlying message:<br />

working in collaboration with<br />

artists of various cultures doesn’t just<br />

broaden someone’s artistic capacity,<br />

it actually creates a culture of peace.<br />

Provinzstr. 42a, S-Bhf Schönholz,<br />

www.berlinglas.org<br />

neukölln<br />

Barettino Eat spaghetti with<br />

your hands... oi, oi, oi! Wake up on<br />

a church bench... Hallelujah! Italian<br />

coffee! Or savour the first rays<br />

of the morning sun with Italian delicacies...<br />

Panino with Coppa... Subito!<br />

Reuter str. 59, U-Bhf Hermannplatz,<br />

Mon-Fri 8-19, Sat-Sun 10-19,<br />

www.barettino.com<br />

Mama Kalo Dig in to the<br />

best of both German and French<br />

cuisine at this cosy gem in Schillerkiez.<br />

Everything is homemade, from<br />

the Flammkuchen and Spätzle to<br />

the quiche, soups, salads and desserts.<br />

Freshly baked Kuchen, anyone?<br />

Herrfurthstr. 5, U-Bhf Boddinstr., Tel<br />

030 6796 2701, Mon-Tue,Thu 12-22,<br />

Fri 12-23, Sat 15-23, Sun 15-22<br />

Schillerbar serves fantastic<br />

breakfast well into the afternoon<br />

and great cocktails at night. Behold<br />

the authentic red paint on the outside<br />

wall intended to threaten the<br />

bar upon opening, left there, and affectionately<br />

responded to with hearts<br />

stating “Schiller loves you anyway” (in<br />

German of course). Herrfurthstr. 7,<br />

U-Bhf Boddinstr., Tel 0172 9824 427,<br />

Mon-Sun 9-2, www.schillerbar.com<br />

Pazzi X Pizza offers an amazing<br />

selection of pizzas and creative<br />

topping combinations including<br />

seasonal varieties with pumpkin or<br />

porcini. Innovative antipasti plates,<br />

salads, tasty frappés and a charming<br />

atmosphere. Slices from only €2!<br />

Herrfurthstr. 8, U-Bhf Boddinstr.,<br />

Mon-Sun 11:30-24<br />

Sala Da Mangiare Authentic,<br />

traditional Italian cuisine. Queens<br />

of the house: cappelletti, ravioli, tagliatelle,<br />

strozzapreti and gnocchi,<br />

handmade fresh every day. Ingredients<br />

are sourced from Emilia Romagna,<br />

organic farms and slow food<br />

suppliers. You’ll feel right at home<br />

in the intimate, friendly atmosphere.<br />

Mainzer Str. 23, U-Bhf Boddinstr.,<br />

Tel 0157 7068 3348, Tue-Sat 19-23,<br />

www.saladamangiare.de<br />

Rollberg Kino With five<br />

screens, Babylon Kreuzberg’s bigger<br />

but lesser-known sister boasts one of<br />

the largest original language movie<br />

selections in Berlin. Located on the<br />

U8 near Hermannstraße in the Kindl<br />

Boulevard shopping centre. Rollbergstr.<br />

70, U-Bhf Boddinstr., Tel 030<br />

6270 4645, www.yorck.de<br />

Hepcat’s Corner Swing,<br />

swing, swing! This comfy, warm Art<br />

Nouveau café and bistro offers a<br />

daily rotating menu, breakfast and<br />

homemade cake and coffee with<br />

swing music on the speakers. Live<br />

concerts once a month and swing<br />

lessons every Saturday from 19:00.<br />

Schinkestr. 14, U-Bhf Schönleinstr.,<br />

Tue-Sat 10-24, Sun 10-21, www.<br />

hepcatscorner.de<br />

Rixbox Espresso & Food<br />

offers top-quality signature espresso<br />

blends, mild and strong, fresh juice,<br />

homemade lemonade, shakes, sorbets,<br />

soups, stews and sandwiches.<br />

Their fresh ingredients come from local<br />

and regional suppliers and their<br />

meals are visually creative, always<br />

homemade, served quickly and of<br />

great value. Richardstr. 2, U-Bhf Karl-<br />

Marx-Str., Mon-Sat 8-21, Sun 10-18,<br />

www.rixbox.de<br />

Prachtwerk One of a<br />

kind in Neukölln, Prachtwerk is a spacious<br />

café, music venue and gallery.<br />

With a wide variety of local and<br />

organic items, Prachtwerk serves<br />

up Five Elephant Coffee, beer from<br />

Neukölln’s Rollberg Brauerei, housemade<br />

baked goods, tasty cocktails,<br />

and more. The best part? All profits<br />

benefit social projects. Ganghoferstr.<br />

2, U-Bhf Karl-Marx-Str.,<br />

www.prachtwerkberlin.com<br />

La Pecora Nera Experience<br />

the original Venetian aperitif tradition<br />

in this cosy neighbourhood osteria.<br />

Enjoy an Aperol Spritz during daily<br />

happy hour (18-20) and try the appetiser<br />

platter with North Italian cheeses<br />

and cold cuts. For dinner, polenta<br />

and fresh pasta await you! On Tuesdays<br />

they offer special, delicious vegetarian<br />

dishes and on Fridays the<br />

daily menu contains market-fresh fish.<br />

Herrfurthplatz 6, U-Bhf Boddinstr.,<br />

Tel 030 2501 3346, Tue-Sun from 18,<br />

www.pecoraberlin.de<br />

schöneberg<br />

55 Limited Founded in May<br />

2012, 55 limited is an Intaglio printmaking<br />

workshop and gallery specialising<br />

in small, limited editions (no<br />

more than 55 prints), photo-mechanical<br />

processes (in particular, photogravure)<br />

and limited-edition artist’s<br />

books. Feurigstr. 62, S-Bhf Julius-Leber-Brücke,<br />

Wed-Sat 14-19,<br />

www.55ltd.net<br />

Belmér Mediterranean food<br />

culture meets creative, beautifully<br />

presented cuisine make with quality<br />

ingredients. Don’t miss the brunch<br />

buffet every Sunday from 10-15 with<br />

Mediterranean delights and live piano!<br />

Belziger Str. 34, S-Bhf Julius-Leber-Brücke,<br />

Tel 030 8999 6735, Mon-<br />

Fri 16-24, Sat from 12, Sun from 10,<br />

www.belmer-restaurant.de<br />

Dolores Goes West The place<br />

that revolutionised Berlin fast food<br />

with awesome California-style burritos<br />

ten years ago has a second store<br />

on Wittenbergplatz, across from Ka-<br />

DeWe. This location serves their best<br />

classics and several great new spicy<br />

combos. Bayreuther Str. 36, U-<br />

Bhf Wittenbergplatz, Mon-Sun 11-22,<br />

www.dolores-berlin.de<br />

Kumpelnest 3000 The<br />

legendary bar that made the Berlin<br />

nightlife scene what it is today. This<br />

brothel-turned-bar 25 years ago was<br />

Bono’s hangout during his visits to<br />

West Berlin. Kumpelnest hasn’t lost<br />

any of its authenticity or wild side<br />

over the years. Hipsters beware!<br />

Lützowstr. 23, U-Bhf Kurfürstenstr.,<br />

Mon-Fri 19-5, Sat-Sun from 19,<br />

www.kumpelnest3000.com<br />

Computer Service Julien<br />

Kwan Julien Kwan’s elegant store<br />

for Apple computers and other hightech<br />

goodies is the place for those<br />

who want more than just a shop-andgo<br />

experience. Personalised service<br />

makes browsing the latest technology<br />

a true pleasure. Vorbergstr. 2, U-Bhf<br />

Kleistpark, Tel 030 6170 0510, Mon-<br />

Fri 10-19, Sat 12-16, www.deinmac.de<br />

charlottenburg<br />

Futomania has been supporting<br />

sleepers with traditional tatami<br />

and futon-style beds since 1986.<br />

Natural and organic bedding made to<br />

order in their in-house workshop with<br />

solid birch, cherry and oak wood bases.<br />

New beds, cribs and more. Also<br />

a source for meditation and shiatsu<br />

equipment. Richard-Wagner-Str. 51,<br />

U-Bhf Richard-Wagner-Platz, Mon-Fri<br />

11-19, Sat 11-16, www.futomania.de<br />

Café im Literaturhaus<br />

Enjoy a coffee in one of Berlin’s finest<br />

cafés, known for its courteous<br />

staff and pleasant atmosphere in the<br />

elegant and much-loved Literaturhaus<br />

villa. The perfect stop during a<br />

shopping trip on nearby Ku’damm.<br />

Fasanenstr. 23, U-Bhf Uhlandstr.,<br />

Tel 030 8825 414, Mon-Sun 9:30-24,<br />

www.literaturhaus-berlin.de<br />

Lalaine Find everything from<br />

tender Italian merino wool and mohair<br />

in differing thickness and colour<br />

to precious cashmere and smooth silk<br />

lingerie. Sure to please even the most<br />

demanding of customers. In short, a<br />

lovely boutique for all your knitting<br />

needs at Savignyplatz. Kantstr. 145,<br />

S-Bhf Savignyplatz, Mon-Fri 10-19, S<br />

Habitare With over 30 years<br />

experience on Savignyplatz, Habitare<br />

has become a real design institution.<br />

If you’re searching for timeless<br />

modern pieces and high-quality furniture<br />

for your home, this is your best<br />

bet among the many design and furniture<br />

shops in the area. Great service<br />

too! Savignyplatz 7-8, S-Bhf<br />

Savignyplatz, Mon-Fri 10-20, Sat 10-<br />

18, www.habitare.de<br />

The Harp is an Irish haven<br />

just a one minute stroll off of<br />

Ku’damm. Taste the homemade German<br />

and international food and the<br />

great Irish and German beers. Listen<br />

to live music every Friday and Saturday,<br />

play darts or join in the famous<br />

pub quiz on Thursdays. A smoker’s<br />

lounge and a pleasant sun terrace<br />

await you. Giesebrechtstr. 15,<br />

U-Bhf Adenauerplatz, Mon-Sun from<br />

10, www.harp-pub.de<br />

FIND FULL<br />

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58 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>


AMOK MAMA<br />

By JACINTA NANDI<br />

Don’t call me Jacinta!<br />

“What do you think<br />

about people calling<br />

their parents by their<br />

first names?” I ask my<br />

British Berlin mummyfriend<br />

Sally. “Like, you<br />

know, Jana’s kids do.<br />

Have you noticed? Jana’s<br />

kids call her and her<br />

husband Jana and Scott.<br />

At first I thought Scott<br />

was a stepfather or<br />

something, but he isn’t,<br />

he’s their dad. Bit weird,<br />

huh? Nice. But weird.”<br />

“It’s totally screwed<br />

up!” is Sally’s immediate<br />

reaction.<br />

“It is a bit weird,” I say. “But I think it<br />

sounds a little bit nice, too. Sometimes when<br />

I’m 'round at Jana’s, I think the kids sound so<br />

grown-up and sensible, I kind of wish Ryan<br />

would call me Jacinta, too.”<br />

“Do you?” Sally asks, genuinely shocked.<br />

“I would throw mine out of the house if<br />

they started pulling that Sally shit. I find it<br />

bad enough when they say Mama instead of<br />

Mummy.”<br />

I can still remember the first time my son<br />

called me Mummy and not Mama. We were<br />

arguing about whether he was allowed to have<br />

yoghurt BEFORE a sandwich. I wanted him<br />

to eat his sandwich and THEN the yoghurt,<br />

and I was really determined to win this one.<br />

And then he said, suddenly, out of nowhere:<br />

“Please, Mummy.” And I literally felt my heart<br />

melt like softened butter in a frying pan. You<br />

know when it gets all gooey and golden.<br />

Fast-forward five years. My son and I are<br />

arguing over whether Mount Everest is the<br />

highest mountain in the world or not. He is<br />

probably right, but I don’t care. I don’t agree<br />

with his “If you count mountains which start<br />

off in the sea” policy. I think he’s being really<br />

pedantic, like when people say Muslims have<br />

small brains and you call them racist and they<br />

say, really proudly: “But Islam isn’t a race!”<br />

“But you don’t count mountains that start<br />

off in the sea, do you,” I say, gently.<br />

“Look, this is what I’m trying to tell you,<br />

Jacinta,” he answers.<br />

I stare at him,<br />

aghast. I might have<br />

described myself staring<br />

at Ryan aghast in<br />

previous columns but<br />

until today I never<br />

stared at him THIS<br />

aghast. I stare at him,<br />

flabbergasted and<br />

agape and dumbfounded<br />

and boggled and all those<br />

sorts of things.<br />

“What did you just say?”<br />

He says: “The tallest<br />

mountain in the world is<br />

not Mount Everest. I saw<br />

it on YouTube–”<br />

“No,” I say. “Ryan, what<br />

did you just call me?”<br />

“Jacinta!” he says.<br />

“But why did you call<br />

me that?”<br />

“It’s your name, isn’t it?”<br />

“You do not call me<br />

Jacinta!” I say sternly.<br />

“Why not?” he asks.<br />

“You call me Mama or Mummy,” I say.<br />

“And why?” he says.<br />

“Because,” I say. “Because, because.”<br />

“Do you call me Sonny?” he says.<br />

I blink. “Do you want me to call you<br />

Sonny?” I say.<br />

“You told me once, Mama, about how<br />

people in the 19th century made their kids call<br />

them Sie and they called their kids Du. Well,<br />

it’s the same with Mummy and Sonny. Why<br />

are you allowed to call me Ryan but I have to<br />

call you Mummy? It’s a Doppelmoral.”<br />

I stare at him and my whole body is filled<br />

with horror and shock and dismay and stuff. I<br />

feel the horror and shock and dismay and stuff<br />

slowly seeping into my soul, like heavy, thick,<br />

black oil. It has actually happened. He is actually<br />

cleverer than me now. This is like when<br />

the robots take over the world and human<br />

beings just get farmed for their body parts<br />

in giant concentration camp-style human<br />

resource factories. He has come up with an<br />

argument I never thought of before. And the<br />

argument he has come up with is a TOTALLY<br />

GOOD ONE. Shit.<br />

“If you call me Mummy and not Jacinta, I<br />

will buy you a €25 App Store card next time<br />

we go to Media Markt,” I say.<br />

He puts his hand in mine. “Okay, Mum,” he<br />

says. “I love you.”<br />

I might be the worst mother in the whole of<br />

Christendom, but at least my son doesn’t call<br />

me Jacinta. ■<br />

I STARE AT HIM AND MY WHOLE<br />

BODY IS FILLED WITH HORROR AND<br />

SHOCK AND DISMAY AND STUFF.<br />

IT HAS ACTUALLY HAPPENED. HE IS<br />

ACTUALLY CLEVERER THAN ME NOW.<br />

MARTA DOMINGUEZ<br />

SELL<br />

YOUR<br />

SOUL!<br />

And everything else... on Exberliner classifieds<br />

www.exberliner.com/classifieds<br />

59


charmingly dilapidated building just<br />

north of Torstraße. A photographer<br />

and musician by trade, he is a<br />

veteran of the underground Mitte<br />

scene (Tacheles, IM Eimer,<br />

Synlabor) and believes that the<br />

struggles he has lived through in the<br />

centre are only a precursor to<br />

city-wide problems: “When capital<br />

is the main interest there is very<br />

little room for culture and art. You<br />

can clearly see what has gone wrong<br />

[in Mitte] but it can also happen in<br />

Kreuzberg, Neukölln, Wedding,<br />

Friedrichshain.”<br />

The demise of any subculture or<br />

scene is often predicted almost from<br />

the outset. And Mitte after the Wall<br />

came down has been no different.<br />

Nevertheless, the recent spate of<br />

forced closures and relocations paints<br />

quite a grim picture for the area’s<br />

nightlife. Anchored by the garish<br />

erving frothy pils to the thirsty workers moved to Mitte in the early 1990s, living in a<br />

opulence of members’ club Soho<br />

of Mitte since 1893, Bierstube Alt Berlin squat on Auguststraße and learning to cook<br />

House at the eastern end of<br />

pulled down its shutters for the last time there in one of the soup kitchens. Explaining<br />

Torstraße, expect more exclusive bars<br />

at the end of April. Old Berlin in name the move, he says: “I’m fighting for a space<br />

to emerge in the Scheunenviertel –<br />

and nature, it sounded like a death rattle for the where I don’t get shut down by the neighbours…<br />

I started not feeling so comfortable. I<br />

of local, loud, late-night charm.<br />

steamrolling all but a few tenements<br />

authentic Mitte nightlife of yesteryear. Said to<br />

have been frequented by Bertolt Brecht and just don’t think Mitte has a scene anymore.”<br />

The German media often refer to<br />

Alfred Döblin, the pub was a legend in its own Aside from the changing atmosphere of the<br />

it as Clubsterben (club death) but<br />

lifetime – a no-frills Raucherlokal where one area, the rocketing rent was ultimately one of<br />

another, less frequently used term,<br />

could well imagine Franz Biberkopf in the the deciding factors. Two years ago when White<br />

Clubkarussel, might be more<br />

corner, quietly serenading his three beers and Trash’s contract was up, the owner wanted to<br />

accurate. Many of the old clubs and<br />

Kümmel schnaps.<br />

increase his earnings overnight by 40 percent.<br />

bars – like Baiz and White Trash<br />

As the last traditional place on Münzstraße Potts refused and continued to pay the old<br />

– continue to flourish in their new<br />

– awash in a sea of posh boutiques and flagships amount, around €7000 per month, until he was<br />

locations. For further proof of this<br />

– the small 70sqm thorn in the side of Mitte’s finally taken to court and ordered to pay it in<br />

chopping and changing, just keep<br />

gentrification remained, until the very end, as full – a situation he had to stomach until a new<br />

an eye on Kiki Blofeld, a Mitte club<br />

popular as ever. The sadly familiar story being venue was found. Recently his old property was<br />

legend on par with Bar25 until its<br />

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<br />

recently the Chelsea Bar. However, it’s a corner where the long drinks start at €10.<br />

untimely, Mediaspree-induced closure in 2011.<br />

from afar, Harm Müller-Spreer in Hamburg, who €16,660 per month.<br />

loan. Referring to the changes in Mitte,<br />

just south of Rosenthaler Platz that is most One of the only Mitte success stories in recent This May, it re-opened in Oberschöneweide:<br />

promptly demanded 10 times<br />

Being unable (or unwilling) born-and-bred Berliner Bogisch says: “What I<br />

indicative of the current changes...<br />

years is that of Schokoladen. The writing was on “just a 30-minute tram ride from Friedrichshain,”<br />

as its owner, Gerke Freyschmidt,<br />

the rent as soon as the<br />

to keep pace with the rent is see is that a lot of what makes up Berlin’s special<br />

Delicious Doughnuts, a late night (and often the wall for the squat-turned-living project and<br />

contract was up. Which<br />

one thing, but being kicked identity, whether it’s certain clubs or bars or<br />

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<br />

would have meant a rent of<br />

out on principle is something alternative culture, is now being pushed out.”<br />

1993, launched the careers of bigshot Berlin DJs Edith Maryon Foundation stepped in at the Bryan Adams set to open an artists’ complex in<br />

around €800 per month<br />

else. Baiz – everybody’s<br />

And it seems to be happening faster these<br />

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<br />

jumping up to around €8000<br />

favourite leftie bar on<br />

days. April also saw the end of King Kong Klub<br />

nearly two decades – an unlikely place where you building. Schokoladen hopes that other alternative<br />

and traditional locations will return to Mitte According to Potts from White Trash, “There<br />

pick up where Mitte left off?<br />

– an unfathomable amount<br />

Torstraße – suffered this fate and Naherholung Sternchen. The former an old<br />

might end up should your birthday fall on a<br />

for any small Kneipe.<br />

earlier this year. Although they hand of the Mitte club scene, the other more of<br />

Tuesday with nowhere else open come 6am. (fingers crossed for Bierstube Alt Berlin), is no conspiracy theory. Berlin is becoming what<br />

Although the Alt Berliners<br />

could still afford the rent, a newcomer; nevertheless, both stood out thanks<br />

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<br />

are searching for a new<br />

which had doubled in 10 years, to a lovable DIY approach and an eclectic<br />

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<br />

location to call home and refit<br />

in the end the new owners programme of readings, concerts, comedy and<br />

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<br />

with all the original fixtures,<br />

decided that the Baiz motto parties. Naherholung Sternchen even suffered<br />

2012. Reopening in its place last year was Dean in the direction of London or Paris or somewhere,”<br />

says Chris Keller, who moved to Berlin another homogeneous metropolis, the fight for<br />

largely lost, but if Berlin isn’t to become just<br />

bar manager Dana Tucker is<br />

of “Kein Bex, kein Latte, kein the indignity of having to cancel their weekendlong<br />

‘last hurrah’ event because of pressure from<br />

– and another golden-hued, swanky, dancey bar in 1990 and has a Hinterhof studio in the<br />

the rest of city must rage on. n<br />

– part of the proliferating Amano hotel group<br />

still grieving several weeks<br />

Bullshit” simply wasn’t for<br />

after the closure. “It used to<br />

Berlin-Mitte in <strong>2014</strong>.<br />

the nearby Amt. Cookies, a Mitte nightlife<br />

be a city full of so many<br />

According to the formal head epicentre in the 1990s, will throw its closing<br />

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<br />

more and more restricted.”<br />

told us that the place didn’t match [the character 20th birthday.<br />

This is the case even for a nocturnal institution<br />

and tourist magnet like White Trash Fast After protesting in vain, they resolved to move over in Mitte. It has just mutated into something<br />

of the building], so there was no new contract.” That is not to say that the party is completely<br />

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<br />

February 23: BAIZ April 19: KING KONG the East Side Gallery; April 25: Closing April 28: Münzstraße Mitte location in 2011,<br />

moves from Torstraße KLUB, one of Mitte’s it moves downriver, party for NAHERHOL- pub ALT-BERLIN pours reopens in the wilds of<br />

burger-and-music joint has upped sticks for a stone’s throw away from the bourgeois Kollwitzplatz.<br />

“They’re not just idiots around here,” quips suits armed with clipboards and velvet ropes<br />

might say, more generic. Late cocktail bars where<br />

to Schönhauser Allee; last live music institutions,<br />

forced to shut MAGDALENA. scrappy young club on brates with a surprise July 19: COOKIES<br />

replacing the club UNG STERNCHEN, a its final beer; cele­<br />

Oberschöneweide.<br />

larger and cheaper location down by the Arena<br />

the collective’s supporters<br />

form a human down.<br />

April 24: WHITE the Mitte/Friedrichs­<br />

set by Bonaparte. (Friedrichstraße/Unter<br />

complex in Treptow. Owner Wally Potts puts it Bogisch. Baiz belongs to the property-owning marshal the door; nightlife spots that wouldn’t<br />

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<br />

chain to carry its belongings,<br />

one by one, plans squeeze YAAM last night in its Tor­<br />

after pressure from BLOFELD, priced close its doors.<br />

April 21: Mediaspree TRASH FAST FOOD’s hain border, cancelled May 25: KIKI<br />

den Linden) set to<br />

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<br />

likes of Trust, The Liberate and more<br />

to the new building. out of its location by straße location. the Ordnungsamt. out of its Spree­side<br />

have a good feel for the district, having first and supporters, they raised the funds in a mere<br />

8 • JULY/AUGUST <strong>2014</strong> 9<br />

FROM OUR READERS<br />

In response to Seymour Gris’ “Sioux Indian<br />

found guilty of Nazi salute” (www.exberliner.com),<br />

members of Native American<br />

sculptor Robert Packard’s former artist’s<br />

association sent us their side of the story…<br />

The case of the Sioux “Sieg Heil”<br />

Robert A. Packard has been a member of our association<br />

since 1999. Over the years, he has paid<br />

his membership fee only sporadically. The club<br />

accepted that for social reasons, and because he<br />

was a very good sculptor. Working with him was<br />

never easy, since he was an excessive alcoholic<br />

and drug consumer for years, which may be the<br />

reason for his current change in personality…<br />

Last year, he would not speak with us for some<br />

months, didn’t say hello, and ignored the management<br />

... Even though he claims differently,<br />

Packard applied a circle sign made of polishing<br />

dust on a sand strip next to our parking space.<br />

Management was not asked for permission. We<br />

are definitely not hindering any member from<br />

practicing his or her religion, but we are of the<br />

opinion that our parking lot is an improper place<br />

to do so. That Packard had rediscovered his Native<br />

American roots was not known by us.<br />

On April 30, a heated argument took place<br />

because the so-called “piece of art” was hit by<br />

water we used to water the lot. On May 2, he<br />

called us Nazis for this reason and screamed<br />

“Nazis raus!“ out of an open window.<br />

On May 22, chairwoman Hella Zarski entered<br />

the studio. Packard went on a rampage in the<br />

kitchen. As the chairwoman left the building, he<br />

screamed, “Nazischwein, hau ab!” The chairwoman<br />

called the police, who declined to come because<br />

nobody was hurt. When he saw board members<br />

on the street on May 24, he did the Hitler salute<br />

several times …. Unwilling to accept Packard’s<br />

behaviour any<br />

longer, we decided<br />

to exclude him. –<br />

Hella Zarski, Karin<br />

Omoregbee, Ursula<br />

Keil, Arbeitskreis<br />

Spandauer Künstler<br />

Berlin e.V.<br />

just don’t think<br />

Mitte has a<br />

Our article on<br />

scene anymore.”<br />

Mitte “Club<br />

death and<br />

transfiguration”<br />

(issue #129, July/<br />

August <strong>2014</strong>) drew gentrification defenders<br />

out of the woodwork…<br />

What’s wrong with Soho?<br />

How on earth is Soho House “garish and<br />

opulent”? It is so discreet there is no advertisement<br />

of its existence at street level. Few<br />

non-members even know it is there… I loved<br />

Berlin when I first came here in 1990. I love it<br />

now. Some things are much, much worse. Some<br />

things are much, much better. But, guess what:<br />

it’s a city – it evolves. Friction between generations<br />

is probably a good thing too. However,<br />

you can really like one thing without being<br />

snide and condescending about something else<br />

you don’t like. No one has a god-given right to<br />

dictate how Berlin should be and what sort of<br />

people should be moving to the city. Indeed, in<br />

Berlin of all places, it really shouldn’t be neces-<br />

TO THE EDITOR<br />

NIGHTLIFE<br />

Club death and<br />

transfiguration<br />

The spring saw a swathe of late-night institutions in Mitte<br />

closing or moving away from the centre. Is the party over<br />

for the formerly happening district and what does it spell<br />

for the rest of Berlin? By Luke Atcheson<br />

S<br />

“I’m fighting for<br />

a space where<br />

I don’t get shut<br />

down by the<br />

neighbours… I<br />

sary to point that<br />

out. Your moaning<br />

about change may<br />

be a preoccupation,<br />

a personally rewarding<br />

one even,<br />

but I assure you<br />

that “change” is not<br />

“a cause”. I can’t<br />

help feeling sorry<br />

A timeline: Clubsterben or Clubkarussel?<br />

for all those people<br />

who pick up your<br />

magazine on their<br />

first visit to Berlin<br />

only to read how absolutely terrible the place is,<br />

how much better it used to be and how they’re<br />

to blame. – Barney Smith<br />

MARC BRINKMEIER<br />

WRITE TO US AND WIN<br />

TICKETS TO HERCULES 3D<br />

Did we strike a nerve? Tell us what you<br />

think, hate or love about this issue and get<br />

the chance to win one of 3 pairs of tickets<br />

to HERCULES in 3D, playing in OV at Cinestar<br />

Original Sony Center, Potsdamer Platz<br />

on <strong>September</strong> 10​. Send your letter to editor@exberliner.com<br />

by noon on Thursday,<br />

<strong>September</strong> 7 for a chance to win!<br />

For terms and conditions, see www.exberliner.com/terms<br />

60 • FEBRUARY <strong>2014</strong>


DIE KUNSTSTADT<br />

BERLIN IM ÜBERBLICK<br />

Museen, Galerien, Termine<br />

Ab dem 12. <strong>September</strong><br />

bestellen unter<br />

shop.interabo.de/zitty/<br />

oder<br />

(030) 611 05 26 02<br />

Foto: Christian Mentzel<br />

Berlin<br />

2 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>


aka: stILL LIFE<br />

PREMIO ORIZZONTI<br />

BESTE REGIE<br />

EIN FILM VON<br />

ubErtO PasOLINI<br />

NINA Hoss<br />

RoNAld ZeHrfeld<br />

NINA KunZendorf<br />

ab 25. <strong>September</strong> im Kino<br />

Der neue Film von Christian Petzold<br />

2 • SEPTEMBER <strong>2014</strong>

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