Berlin in English since 2002
153
€3.90 October 2016
www.exberliner.com
TRUMP
Yes, there are Republicans here
– and they’re thinking about
choosing the “lesser evil”. pg.8
SECRETS
A Floridian comes to Berlin and
finds out the truth about why his
grandpa fl ed Nazi Germany. pg.20
BLUES
Singer Eb Davis on what it was
like being a “blues ambassador”
behind the Wall. pg.26
Election
Quiz 2016
How well do you know
the US presidential
candidates? pg.6
The Amis left 22 years
ago... but thanks to army
brats, redneck bars and
expat burger flippers, US
presence is alive and kicking.
And with the election
looming, Berliners have
America on the brain.
Martin-Gropius-Bau Berliner Festspiele
16 September 2016 – 9 January 2017
Pina Bausch and
the Dance Theatre
Organizer: An exhibition of the Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik
Deutschland, Bonn. In cooperation with the Pina Bausch Foundation, Wuppertal.
# PinaBausch
Pina Bausch tanzt ein Solo in Danzón (Ausschnitt), Fotografie © Jochen Viehoff
30 September 2016 – 8 January 2017
+ultra.
knowledge & gestaltung
Organizer: Cluster of Excellence »Image Knowledge Gestaltung. An Interdisciplinary
Laboratory«. Supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
(DFG) and the foundation Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin (DKLB).
Curator: Nikola Doll in collaboration with Katharina Lee Chichester
# plusultraMGB
David Georges Emmerich: Structure autotendante © Collection FRAC Centre, Orlé ans /
Photographie: Franç ois Lauginie
8 October 2016 – 9 January 2017
The British View:
Germany –
Memories of a Nation
Organizer: Berliner Festspiele / Martin-Gropius-Bau. An exhibition of the
British Museum accompanied by a book of Neil MacGregor. Made possible
by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media. With kind
support of the The German Historical Museum. Curator: Barrie Cook
# ErinnerungenEinerNation
Gerhard Richter, Betty (Edition 23/25), 1991, Offsetdruck auf Karton, 97,1 × 66,2 cm. Sammlung Olbricht,
© Atelier Gerhard Richter
21 October 2016 – 15 January 2017
Building with Timber –
Paths into the Future
Organizer: Technische Universität München. An exhibition of the Associate
Professorship of Architectural Design and Timber Construction and the
Architekturmuseum der Technischen Universität München in cooperation
with Deutsches Architektur Zentrum DAZ, supported by the German
Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU), the German Wood Council
(DHWR), the German Association of Housing Enterprises and Housing
Cooperatives (GdW) and proHolz Bavaria.
# BauenmitHolzMGB
© Gassner Redolfi KG
Berliner Festspiele
Martin-Gropius-Bau
Niederkirchnerstraße 7, 10963 Berlin
T +49 30 254 86 0
Wed – Mon 10am – 7pm, closed Tue
Online-tickets: www.gropiusbau.de
www.gropiusbau.de
CONTENTS
Exberliner 153 – October 2016
Special: America
06
Quiz: Test your US election smarts!
Which candidate said what?
The answers may surprise you!
08
Berliners for Trump?
Yes, there are real, live Republicans
in Berlin, and they’ve got mixed
opinions about The Donald
10
The angry Americans
Two generations of expats voice
their dissidence
12
The new old guard
Burgers, TV and rock ‘n’ roll:
The Amis who’ve changed Berlin’s
cultural landscape
14
An American atlas
From the old American sector
to New York bagels, mapping
US influence in Berlin
16
Berlin’s army brats
Meet the soldiers’ kids who grew up
in a West Berlin American bubble
18
The last cowboy in Reinickendorf
Where have all the German
Americana fanatics gone? A line
dancing cultural expedition
20
Grandpa’s secret history
An American comes to Berlin
to discover the real reason his
grandfather left
Regulars
03
Werner’s political notebook
Populism isn’t that popular
04
Best of Berlin A planetarium
makeover, a Deutschrap bar,
cheap operas and Kotti coffee
23
NEW! Page 23 Girl
Activist Kimberly Emerson on
blue skies, books and Berghain
50
Start-ups Apps that help you work
differently and N26’s growing pains
53
The gay Berliner Walter Crasshole
writes a letter to queer Touris
54
Berlin bites American meat
and Dandy Diner’s vegan grub
56
Comic Ulli Lust:
Friends of Germany
57
Ask Hans-Torsten
Voting and the Bürgeramt
58
Ask Dr. Dot Your Berlin
sex questions answered
59
Save Berlin When private
art bunkers go public
What’s on
26 Interview EB Davis of
How Berlin Got the Blues
28 .............................. Film
32 ........................... Music
36 ................................. Art
40 ............................ Stage
44 Events calendar
46 The Berlin Guide
LOFT.DE
FACEBOOK.COM/LOFTCONCERTS
DUB FX
19.10. HUXLEYS
WARHAUS
19.10. PBHFCLUB
OH PEP!
19.10. PRIVATCLUB
OKTA LOGUE
24.10. LIDO
BIFFY CLYRO
24.10. MAX-SCHMELING-HALLE
BREATHE ATLANTIS
25.10. MUSIK & FRIEDEN
THE CAT EMPIRE
27.10. COLUMBIAHALLE
LLOYD COLE
27.10. HEIMATHAFEN
DIGITALISM
29.10. GRETCHEN
THE LION & THE WOLF
30.10. MONARCH
WARPAINT
1.11. ASTRA
JOHN MORELAND
3.11. KANTINE AM BERGHAIN
TICKETS: KOKA36(.DE)
BOOKA SHADE
4.11. HEIMATHAFEN
MARIAN HILL
5.11. KANTINE AM BERGHAIN
BLAUDZUN
6.11. MUSIK & FRIEDEN
QUILT
9.11. AUSTER-CLUB
HANNAH GEORGAS
9.11. MUSIK & FRIEDEN
JPNSGRLS
9.11. BADEHAUS
MUTUAL BENEFIT
12.11. BADEHAUS
HOW TO DRESS WELL
16.11 GRETCHEN
ROYAL REPUBLIC
25.11. COLUMBIAHALLE
DANIEL LIONEYE
2.12. MUSIK & FRIEDEN
ST. PAUL & THE BROKEN BONES
17.1. COLUMBIA THEATER
THE FLAMING LIPS
24.1. COLUMBIAHALLE
Exhibition
23.09.2016 – 29.01.2017
JUNE 2016 1
Daily 10am – 8pm, Mondays 10am – 10pm jmberlin.de/golem/en
Design: Cee Cee Creative / Bild: Courtesy Joachim Seinfeld / Jewish Museum in Prague
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anything
Berlin in English since 2002
TRUMP
Yes, there are Republicans here
– and they’re thinking about
choosing the “lesser evil”. pg.8
SECRETS
A Floridian comes to Berlin and
finds out the truth about why his
grandpa fl ed Nazi Germany. pg.20
€3.90 October 2016
www.exberliner.com
BLUES
Singer Eb Davis on what it was
like being a “blues ambassador”
behind the Wall. pg.26
COLUMN— Political Notebook
Election
Quiz 2016
153
How we l do you know
the US presidential
candidates? pg.6
Populism isn’t that popular
Konrad Werner explains German politics.
This month: Why is the AfD winning?
The Amis left 22 years
ago... but thanks to army
brats, redneck bars and
expat burger flippers, US
presence is alive and kicking.
And with the election
looming, Berliners have
America on the brain.
Editor-in-chief
Nadja Vancauwenberghe
Deputy editor
Rachel Glassberg
Web editor
Walter Crasshole
Film
Paul O’Callaghan
Music
Michael Hoh
Art director
Stuart Bell
U1 Cover 153.indd 3 23/09/16 00:14
Cover illustration by
Agata Juszczak
Publishers
Maurice Frank
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Editorial
Design
Art
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Stage
Lily Kelting
Food
Françoise Poilâne
Start-ups
Sophie Atkinson
Feature / Politics
Ruth Schneider
Graphic design
Maria Runarsdottir
This month’s contributors
Dani Arbid, Victoria Barnes, Tom Cox, Dyllan
Furness, Anna Gyulai Gaal, Jean-Michel Hauteville,
Ava Johnson, Julyssa Lopez, Kaya Payseno, Kate
Richards. Photography: Karolina Spolniewski, Maria
Runarsdottir, Erica Löfman. Illustration: Catherine
Franck, Ulli Lust, Agata Sasiuk.
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Germany has had five state elections
this year and, since our media is a fevered
gaggle of click-merchants, each
one has been reported as a catastrophe for
Angela Merkel: the German people’s angry
verdict on the chancellor’s refugee policy.
The reason why reporters reported this is
mainly because the losing candidates fielded
by her party, the Christian Democratic
Union (CDU), went round to
any hack that would listen and
told them that this was why
they lost.
Lorenz Caffier in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,
Julia
Klöckner in Rheinland-Palatine,
and then Frank Henkel in Berlin
all ran “we’re-not-Merkel”
campaigns that featured talk of
burqa bans and “upper limits”
on asylum seekers and ended up STILL
losing voters to the far-right Alternative
für Deutschland party. A moderate exception
was Reiner Haseloff, the state premier
of Sachsen-Anhalt, who led the CDU to a
smaller loss of votes and was re-elected.
Even though the AfD is deciding what politics
is in Germany at the moment (helped
by the media’s obsession with one particular
minority group), when the big government
parties pretend they’re protest parties –
banging and blaming and coming up with
pointless policies like banning burqas – it
only helps the AfD. No voter wants Diet
Coke when they can get Fat Coke.
The truth is, though, that Germany’s “refugee
policy” is actually the most restrictive
it could be under the constitution, whose
Article 16a guarantees the right of asylum
to anyone under political persecution. The
populist-right talk about imposing an “upper
limit” on asylum seekers is – as every single
one of the politicians who keep demanding
it knows – unconstitutional. So the next
best thing, which Merkel has already done, is
extend the list of “safe countries of origin”.
That legal amendment, made in 1993, made
it easier to speed up asylum applications and
keep large groups of people out, and thanks
to Merkel’s supposedly pro-refugee government,
it’s a list that is now longer
than ever – including all of
the Balkan countries and soon
Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.
Meanwhile, the government
continues to bring in regulations
that will hinder integration – it
is now almost impossible to
bring spouses and children here,
refugees have to help pay for
their own integration courses
and cash allowances have been replaced
by food tokens. You think finding a flat in
Berlin is hard? Try finding a flat, then telling
the landlord they will have to wait four to
six weeks while a local authority processes
your application to move from your statedesignated
home.
In other words, even if the AfD won a
massive 40-percent-plus victory in all the
states in Germany and then went on to
take over the federal government in next
year’s general election, they would find
that Merkel has already imposed most of
the changes they would. The rest is noise,
because what “populist” voters are actually
voting for is a political “fuck you”. It’s a
good feeling for isolated, riled-up people in
Meck-Pom or Sachsen-Anhalt, but it doesn’t
have much to do with making laws to administer
problems more easily. Or running the
country, as it’s also known. n
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BEST OF BERLIN — October 2016
BY THE EXBERLINER
EDITORIAL TEAM
Cafés
BEST KOTTI
COFFEE
Kottbusser Tor – yes, Berlin’s
most hyped crime hotspot – is
now gaining an improbable
rep as a coffee hub. Just in the past
several months, two shiny new cafés
have opened in courtyards off the scuzzy
main drag of Adalbertstraße. First, a
second branch of decade-old Penzlauer
Berg caffeine scene staple BONANZA.
It’s a bigger, grander location: less neighbourhood
hang, more coffee temple.
Here, refurbished vintage roasters lightly
toast the (ethically sourced) beans for
both cafés (and all the other businesses
around town that sell Bonanza coffee),
giving them that acidic, fruity flavour
profile we’ve come to expect, like in the
€5 bottomless drip. But Bonanza looks
positively antiquated next to THE VISIT
(photo), a newbie roaster down the
street opened by Berliner Cihan Kocak
(also of Mitte coffee shop The Refinery)
and Polish Bonanza alumnus Damian
Durda. Picture an Apple store dedicated
to coffee: polished, white, filled with
futuristic gizmos that gauge the colour
of each roast and help conduct water
through grounds in a million different
ways. The speciality here is “nitro coffee”:
cold-brew coffee treated with nitrogen
and served out of a tap. The result is a
Guinness-like concoction, refreshing and
creamy whether served black or white.
At €3.50 it isn’t exactly cheap, but then
again, caffeine’s still the least expensive
drug sold in the area. — KP
Bonanza Kreuzberg Adalbertstr. 70,
Kreuzberg, Mon-Fri 9-17, Sat-Sun 10-17
The Visit Adalbertstr. 9, Kreuzberg,
Mon-Sun 8-20
Karolina Spolniewski
Frank-Michael Arndt
Science
BEST TREK TO THE STARS
At the newly renovated ZEISS
PLANETARIUM, every show
begins with a rousing overture
of classical music as the moon rises
and sets in a field of 3500 stars. These
stars are really just small streams of
light projected onto a giant, 23-metre
dome, but as you recline your seat and
stare at the simulated sky, you start
wondering: Why are we here? Are we
alone in the universe? And, if you don’t
speak German: What the hell are they
saying? Yes, the two-year, €12.8 million
makeover of the futuristic, GDR-era
sphere on Prenzlauer Allee included a
metal screen laser-perforated to form
a perfect dome and a state-of-the-art
HD projector to display the stars that
were previously poked out by hand,
but no English subtitles. An app with
simultaneous translation should be
available this month, so bring your cell
fully charged and a pair of headphones.
Or skip the comprehensive galaxy tour
(€8/6 reduced) for the rockin’ laser
show “Queen Heaven” (€9.50/7.50).
With a movie theatre and restaurant
(menu by “star chef” Tim Raue) to
open this winter, the latest incarnation
of the planetarium hopes to be more
of a cultural centre than a grade school
field trip destination – maybe even a
place you’d bring a date. Which might
be why the new credo is “to teach AND
entertain”, although we’re still unsure
of how Queen fulfils either. — KP
Zeiss-Großplanetarium
Prenzlauer Allee 80, Prenzlauer Berg,
programme at stdb.de
4 EXBERLINER 153
BEST OF BERLIN — October 2016
Teen fun
BEST DEUTSCH-
RAP BAR
If you’re a German aged 16-20 looking to
piss off your parents, you’ll be happy to
hear TRAILERPARK has their own bar in
Berlin. The six-year-old rap label and supergroup
has made a name for itself through
profanity (last single: “Dicks Sucken”),
misogyny and bodily-fluid-filled live shows.
Surprisingly, though, you won’t experience
much of this at the Friedrichshain hangout
and merch shop opened in August at the
behest of Berlin-based member Sebastian
“Basti” Krug. The crowd on our visit was
half female and hardly the types you’d
imagine singing along to lyrics like “If your
girlfriend wants to fuck me, I’ll buy her.”
The vibe might be different when the band
and their labelmates visit for autograph
signings or listening parties, but on most
other nights it’s a chill enough space where
you can drink Warsteiner (€2.60/0.3L)
under blown-up portraits of the band on a
boat, or smoke in a cosy back room boasting
a video projector and bass-heavy sound
system. No fancy drinks here, though they
make a pretty great Moscow Mule for €5.50
(as unhesitatingly proffered when we asked
about the Deutschrap equivalent of “gin and
juice”). But let’s face it, if you’re old enough
to be discerning about your alcohol, you’ve
already aged out of Trailerpark’s target
audience. — AJ
Trailerpark Bar and Shop
Boxhagener Str. 19-20, Friedrichshain,
Tue-Sat 19-close (bar), Mon-Sat 14-19 (shop)
Erica Löfman
OCTOBER 2016
Culture
BEST TWENTY-
SOMETHING
PERK
Okay, maybe it wasn’t your first
criteria for settling in, but Berlin is
a capital of high culture with more
concert halls and opera houses than the
city can even sustain thanks to the Mauerera
insistence that there be two of everything.
And those greying institutions want
to get kids hooked with the CLASSIC CARD,
a €15/year pass that enables under-30s to go
to the Staatsballett, the Konzerthaus, performances
by Berlin’s Rundfunk ensembles
and all three operas for dirt-cheap. Just
show up an hour before doors open and,
provided the show isn’t sold out, you’ll only
have to pay €8-10 for seats that normally
cost an arm and a leg. If you’re really lucky,
you’ll get a box or front row seat reserved
by a season ticket holder who couldn’t
make it. So take advantage of your youth,
order a card online or at Dussmann and
check out The Nutcracker at the Deutsche
Oper for just €10. Or, hey, we hear that
Berghain qualifies as high culture now (at
least for tax purposes), so maybe you’ll be
able to use the card there? — VB
ClassicCard
See details at www.classiccard.de
Above: The Nutcracker, playing at the Deutsche Oper on
Oct 8, costs €10 with a ClassicCard.
Fernando Marcos
proudly presents:
Wed, Oct 12, 20:00
Two films directed by
Alice Diop
Vers la tendresse
36 min., French with English subtitles
La Permanence
97 min., French with English subtitles
Starts October 13:
American Honey
163 min., English with German subtitles
tip Preview every first
Wednesday of the month,
OV with German subtitles
Since 20 years Berlin’s
leading cinema for the
international community
Original language versions
with German subtitles,
German movies
with English subtitles
Programme, info, tickets:
www.hoefekino.de
5
AMERICAN BERLIN
TEST
YOUR USA
ELECTION
SMARTS!
They’re running to be the
58th President of the US.
They talk a lot. But do you
know who said what?
Research by Kaya Payseno
It doesn’t matter whether you can vote
on November 8 or not: America’s policies
impact everyone, even us Berliners.
With that in mind, we chose the top
four candidates – not only Democrat Hillary
Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, but
also Green Jill Stein and Libertarian Gary
Johnson – and screened their speeches,
interviews and platforms to find out their
thoughts on the issues we care about.* It’s up
to you to guess who said what! (A tip: sometimes,
the same candidates have more than
one opinion.) See next page for answers.
1. Marijuana is still illegal on a federal level,
although medical weed is legal in 24 US
states. Where to go from here?
A — “Legalisation... in some ways I think
it’s good and in other ways it’s bad. Medical
marijuana? I’m in favour of it a hundred
percent.”
B — “Marijuana is dangerous – because it’s
illegal. It’s not inherently dangerous. It’s certainly
less harmful than alcohol and tobacco,
which are perfectly legal.”
C — “Marijuana is still used as a gateway drug
and the drug cartels from Latin America use
marijuana to get footholds in states, so there
can’t be a total absence of law enforcement.”
D — “The parallels between drug policy today
and Prohibition in the 1920s are obvious, as
are the lessons our nation learned. Prohibition
was repealed because it made matters worse.”
2. What do they think about us and our
leader over here in Germany... if anything?
A — Germany is moving to a 100 percent
renewable energy economy. The German
Green Party is the reason why Germany is
ahead of America.”
B — “I think Merkel is the greatest leader in
Europe; I think she is a great leader globally,
I think she carried Europe on her shoulders
and it wasn’t easy.”
C — “Merkel is probably the greatest leader
in the world today. She’s fantastic...”
D — “You know what a disaster this massive
immigration has been to Germany. Crime
has risen to levels that no one thought they
would ever see.”
3. We all love LGBTQ voters...
but what about gay marriage?
A — “We should commit to building an
America where every lesbian, gay, bisexual,
and transgender person can live, work, learn,
raise a family, and marry free from discrimination
or prejudice.”
B — “Marriage has got historic, religious and
moral content that goes back to the beginning
of time, and I think a marriage is, as a
marriage has always been, between a man
and a woman.”
C — “As your president, I will do everything
in my power to protect LGBTQ citizens.”
D — “The government ought to get out of the
marriage business.”
4. Ed Snowden is longing to get back home.
What kind of welcome should we give him?
A — “I’d pardon Snowden. Not only pardon
him, but welcome him home as a hero... and
I’d bring him into my administration as a
member of the Cabinet...”
B — “Snowden is a spy who has caused great
damage to the US. A spy in the old days,
when our country was respected and strong,
would be executed.”
C — “This is someone who has divulged
information – that the United States government
is spying on all of us as US citizens. I
don’t want to see him in prison.”
D — “He stole very important information
that has unfortunately fallen into a lot
of the wrong hands. So I don’t think he
should be brought home without facing
the music.”
5. From Iraq and Afghanistan to Libya to Syria...
how productive is America’s war on terror?
A — “Iraq was a mistake”... but “Military action
is critical, in fact I would say essential,
to try to prevent [ISIS’] further advance and
their holding of more territory.”
B — “All this has done is create failed states.
Whether you look at the Taliban, the globalisation
of Al-Qaeda or the creation of ISIS,
this has been an utter, unmitigated disaster.”
C — “I was against the war in Iraq. I thought
it would destabilise the Middle East, and it
did. All of this tremendous death, destruction...
is just incredible. We’re far worse off
today than we were 15 years ago or 10 years
ago in the Middle East.”
D — “I initially thought the intervention
in Afghanistan was warranted – we were
attacked and we attacked back – but we’ve
wiped out Al-Qaeda and here we are; we’re
still there.”
6. How relevant is NATO in today’s world?
A — “NATO is obsolete. When NATO was
formed many decades ago, there was a different
threat, the Soviet Union. But terror today
is the big threat.”
B — “Putin already hopes to divide Europe,
so the US needs to strengthen its alliances.”
C — “We’ve got treaties with apparently 69
countries where we are obligated to defend
their borders?”
D — “Who exactly is NATO fighting? … Other
than enemies we invent to give the weapons
industry a reason to sell more stuff.”
7. Everyone agrees ISIS is the enemy – but
who’s responsible?
A — “ISIS was primarily the result of the
vacuum in Syria caused by Assad, aided and
abetted by Iran and Russia. Let’s put responsibility
where it belongs.”
B — “Obama is the founder of ISIS. I would
say the co-founder would be crooked Hillary
Clinton.”
C — “Terrorism is a response to drones that
sneak up on you in the night. This is where
6
EXBERLINER 153
AMERICAN BERLIN
we recruit and enable ISIS and al-Qaeda to
continue expanding...”
D — “The rise of ISIS can actually be traced
back to instability created by our meddling
in the affairs of others. We need to build a
strong military. But we should not use our
military strength to try to solve the world’s
problems.”
8. The US needs to create jobs. How?
A — “A ‘New Deal’ which creates an emergency
programme, establishing 20 million livingwage
jobs to green the economy, our energy,
food, and transportation, building critical
infrastructure, restoring ecosystems, etc.”
B — “If I could wave a magic wand I would
eliminate corporate tax… If there was a zero
percent corporate tax rate, tens of millions
of jobs would be created.”
C — “Put an end to China’s illegal export
subsidies and lax labour and environmental
standards. No more sweatshops or pollution
havens stealing jobs from American workers.”
D — “We will put Americans to work, building
and modernising our roads, our bridges, our
tunnels, our railways, our ports, our airports.
We are way overdue for this, my friends.”
9. Who stands where with Israel and Palestine?
A — “If we’re going to negotiate a peace
settlement, which every Israeli wants... I
would like to have the other side think I’m
somewhat neutral to them. It’s probably the
toughest negotiation of all time, but maybe
we can get a deal done.”
B — “We have encouraged the worst tendencies
of the Israeli government as it pursues
policies of occupation, apartheid, assassination,
illegal settlements... and defiance of
international law.”
C — “The United States and Israel must be
closer than ever, stronger than ever... We
must take our alliance to the next level.”
D — “You truly have a great prime minister
in Benjamin Netanyahu. Vote for Benjamin –
terrific guy, terrific leader, great for Israel.”
10. What about the crisis in Ukraine?
A — “We helped foment a coup where ultranationalists
and ex-Nazis came to power. So
we should be leading the way in establishing
a neutral Ukraine that would allow Russia to
not feel under attack.”
B — “We need a tougher response to Russia.
I remain convinced that we need a concerted
effort to really up the costs on Russia, and in
particular on Putin. I think we have not done
enough.”
C — “It’s a mess. But you know, the people of
Crimea, from what I’ve heard, would rather
be with Russia than where they were. And
you have to look at that...“
D — “When you look at Ukraine right now, I
think that would be analogous to Russia getting
involved in Puerto Rico. We shouldn’t
get involved in Ukraine.”
11. Fighting terrorism on US soil: How?
A — “You know, in Israel, they’ve done an
unbelievable job… They see somebody that’s
suspicious, they will profile. They will take
that person in.”
B — “Create stricter screenings for visa applicants
who have been to a country in Islamic
State-controlled areas in the last five years.”
C — “Share intelligence and information.
That now includes the internet... That means
we have to work more closely with our great
tech companies.”
D — “I have a plan. If I win, I don’t want to broadcast
to the enemy exactly what my plan is...”
12. We’re all involved in Syria. Who are our
foes and allies?
A — “You know, Putin, our arch-enemy Putin,
was actually trying to create a peace process
in Syria... We need to begin talking with Russia
and with other countries.”
B — “The best way to help Israel deal with
Iran’s growing nuclear capability is to help
the people of Syria overthrow the regime of
Bashar Assad.”
C — “The approach of fighting Assad and ISIS
simultaneously was madness, and idiocy.
They’re fighting each other, and yet we’re
fighting both of them. I’m not saying Assad
is a good man, but our far greater problem is
ISIS... and Russia doesn’t like ISIS any better
than we do.”
D — “Remove Assad and bring Syria’s communities
together to fight ISIS”... “We have
to support Arab and Kurdish fighters. They’re
doing the fighting. We’re doing the support
and enabling.”
13. Bonus round: Election campaigns are expensive.
Who’s raised what and where from?
A — About $190 million, 33 percent selffinanced
by the candidate.
B — About $2.6 million with donations averaging
$48 – and no donor allowed to contribute
more than $2700 at a time.
C — About $530 million, including $7 million
from Israeli mogul Haim Saban and $10 million
from Saudi Arabia (via a philanthropic
foundation).
D — About $9 million from individual donors.
*For space reasons, we took the liberty to condense
quotes while remaining loyal to context
and candidates’ overall programmes.
ANSWERS
1. A: Trump B: Stein C: Clinton D: Johnson
2. A: Stein B: Clinton C: Trump (2015) D: Trump (2016)
3. A: Clinton (2015) B: Clinton (1997) C: Trump D: Johnson
4. A: Stein B: Trump C: Johnson D: Clinton
5. A: Clinton B: Stein C: Trump D: Johnson
6. A: Trump B: Clinton C: Johnson D: Stein
7. A: Clinton B: Stein C: Johnson D: Trump
8. A: Stein B: Johnson C: Trump D: Clinton
9. A: Trump (2016) B: Stein C: Clinton (2016) D: Trump (2013)
10. A: Stein B: Clinton C: Trump D: Johnson
11. A: Trump (2016) B: Clinton (2015) C: Clintton (2015) D: Trump (2016)
12. A: Stein B: Clinton C: Trump (2016) D: Trump (2015)
13. A: Trump B: Stein C: Clinton D: Johnson
Illustrations by
Catherine Franck
OCTOBER 2016 7
AMERICAN BERLIN
Yes, there are Republicans in Berlin. But like many American rightwingers,
they’re finding their loyalties tested by the most divisive candidate
in US presidential history. Will they choose the “lesser evil”?
By Tom Cox
At first, trying to find an American
Berliner who’s willing to admit
they’re voting for Donald Trump
seems like an exercise in futility. For one, it’s
a bit tricky to find any outspoken right-wing
expats at all in this liberal city. While the
group Democrats Abroad is thriving, there
is no active Republican branch in Berlin.
Frankfurt-based group Republicans Overseas
Germany claim to have 1500–2000 members
nationwide, but rare meetings in the capital
gather six or seven attendees, at best.
And even the most outspoken right-wingers
are torn on whether to cast their vote for
the ex-reality TV host. Mirroring the dilemma
experienced by their left-wing, Sanders-supporting
counterparts, they’re contemplating
whether to choose the “lesser evil”, go for a
third party or just refuse to vote altogether.
One of them is Ned Wiley, who came to
Germany to work as a marketing executive
and has lived in Prenzlauer Berg for 15
years. A lifelong Republican, he was vicechair
of Republicans Overseas when Trump
announced his candidacy, and watched as
divisions started to form within the group.
“There were three groups,” he says, referring
to the Republican Overseas Whatsapp chat
he took part in. “The Trumpists, which were
very small. On the other side there were the
never-Trumpers. And in the middle were
the people who evolved over the course:
anything-but-Hilary. They gradually came
up with a justification for or came to terms
with the candidate: ‘So he’s not perfect, but
Hilary is the devil incarnate.’ The discussions
started to get really personal and vicious.”
Trump becoming the party’s official presidential
candidate on July 19 was too extreme
a step for Wiley. “At that point, I said, ‘It’s
over, I can’t possibly play any role in this.’
Just taking out my Republicans Overseas
card was a real embarrassment. Trump’s
like a little kid who started playing a game
and then got out of control, and there he is,
running around. The wall is nonsense, he’s
not gonna do that. Sending away immigrants
who were responsible for the revolution in
Silicon Valley, like Syrian heads of computer
science companies – these guys are not dangerous
immigrants! We should be encouraging
them to come.” A Romney voter in 2012,
Wiley switched to the Libertarians, who hold
no seats in the Senate but are the thirdlargest
party in America, polling at about 10
percent. “I guess I was a closet libertarian
and didn’t know it, so I decided to come out
of the closet!” As the chair of new group Libertarians
Abroad, he now speaks in favour of
candidate Gary Johnson and gives interviews
with the local and US press. “Though it’s
probably too little, too late,” he admits.
“I SAID, ‘IT’S OVER.’
JUST TAKING OUT MY
REPUBLICANS OVER-
SEAS CARD WAS A REAL
EMBARRASSMENT.”
Chris Roberts, a 27-year-old customer
care agent who came to Berlin a year ago
with his German wife, initially sympathised
with some of Trump’s policies, even though
that made him something of a “lone ranger”
here. “My American friends think it’s a total
outrage,” he admits. His wife still makes him
watch Trump skits on American comedy
shows. He’s hesitant about making himself
publicly known as a right-winger in Berlin,
and requested to be called by his middle
name for this article.
Though born in Canada, he moved to San
Diego when he was 14 and has American
citizenship. He says: “With the Mexico wall... I
lived in Texas for a year, so I know of the stories.
A lot of Mexicans die on the way. Coyotes
[smugglers] lead them through the routes,
but a lot of them end up raping them or they
die from exhaustion. The amount of them
coming in and working can cause a problem
– they bring wages down. They’ve also caught
Middle Eastern people coming in... if a terrorist
wanted to come into the country that way,
they could. Trump wants Mexicans to come
the right way.” Roberts believes the candidate
has been unfairly maligned. “When people
hate on Donald Trump, they don’t know
what they’re talking about. He’s never said
anything that I can think of where it’s hate
against a particular race.” He also relates to
the Republican candidate’s anti-establishment
discourse. “Trump breaks the political norm.
People really relate to that. He doesn’t feel he
has to be politically correct. People are sick of
scripted politics.”
But Roberts became disillusioned by a
series of campaign excesses in July and August,
starting with Trump’s criticism of the
parents of a dead Muslim-American soldier
during the Democratic National Convention.
Now, neither option appeals to him. “I don’t
like Clinton because I think America has
better candidates than the same old families.
The email scandal is enough. She’s too much
part of the establishment.” He’s still unsure
how he’ll cast his vote.
At least one Berlin-based Republican will
stick to his party. Sixty-nine-year-old Hans
Theerman fits into the never-Hillary category.
An American citzen born in Germany but
raised in Missouri, he travelled to east Berlin
in 1993 to open a branch of a Pentecostal
institution offering BAs in Bible studies and
theology, then called ICI University. In 2011
he retired and spent three summers motorcycling
around America; he currently lives a
more sedentary life in Zehlendorf.
Though liberal in his 1960s youth, Theerman
has voted Republican since finishing
college. He claims the party stands for freedom
and individual opportunity – that it was
“anti-slavery” while “the Democratic party
was the party of the Klu Klux Klan”. Like
Roberts, he’s in favour of stricter immigra-
8
EXBERLINER 153
AMERICAN BERLIN
“I’M NOT DOING
THIS SO I CAN
BE A PURIST.
I’M DOING THIS
SO SOMETHING
CAN BE DONE
FOR THE COUN-
TRY. WOULD I
VOTE FOR TRUMP
IN ANY OTHER
SITUATION? I
WOULDN’T VOTE
FOR HIM AS A
DOG CATCHER!”
Hans Theerman is
planning on voting
for Trump in November,
if only to vote
against Clinton.
tion control. “Every country has a right
to say who gets in. When somebody
wants to come in to eat your lunch,
kill your kids and rape your wife, I’m
sorry, but a guy’s gotta do something,”
he says in a congenial Missouri twang
over a steaming glass of red fruit tea.
His discourse – “Muslims are synonymous
with terrorism” – clashes rather
colourfully with his choice to meet at a
Kreuzberg Turkish café. But Theerman
sees no contradiction, and he’s eager
to stress that he knows many Muslims
in Berlin and has no problem socialising
with them.
This year, he plans to vote Republican
again, albeit unenthusiastically.
“I’m sorry to say I will vote for Trump,
if only to vote against Hillary. Clinton
says absolutely nothing. She has never
accomplished anything successfully.
Look at her record, it’s like a failed
state. At least Trump is out there defining
some policy issues and saying what
he would do. He’s a buffoon, and we
had 10 other people that would have
been better. But he’s what we’ve got
right now. He’s the best of a bad couple,
the least worst. And he’s open to influence.
He will accept a lot of help.”
Tom Cox
He’s virtually the only outspoken
Trump voter in Berlin, but Theerman
has no qualms about speaking his mind
to Germans. He says: “I find among
educated Germans a willingness to
exercise the give and take of vibrant
disputation. Generally speaking, most
seem to really want to know a different
and foreign viewpoint, and are willing
to defer to someone more intimately
connected than themselves.”
Like many, Theerman believes that
Trump has successfully brought up
issues that nobody else would touch.
“He’s saying what a lot of other people
weren’t saying. When you’re at rock
bottom, almost anything could be up,”
continues the Berlin reverend. “I’m not
doing this so I can be a purist. I’m doing
this so something can be done for the
country. Would I vote for Trump in any
other situation? I wouldn’t vote for him
as a dog catcher!” n
Photo © Claudia Bühler
Gianni Versace’s life depicted as a voguing-ball
With Brandt Brauer Frick, Amber Vineyard, Alexander Geist, Claron McFadden, Seth Carico
Director: Martin Butler. World premiere: 1 October 2016
Tischlerei der Deutschen Oper Berlin
Richard-Wagner-Straße / Zillestr., 10585 Berlin
Tickets and Information: +49 [30]-343 84 343
www.deutscheoperberlin.de
OCTOBER 2016
9
AMERICAN BERLIN
THE
ANGRY
AMERICANS
Disillusioned by the politics
in their home country, more
and more expats from the US
are voicing their dissidence
here in Berlin. We spoke with
two different generations to
see how they were coping.
By Julyssa Lopez
“
In America, we have this weird superiority
complex. We’re in a country built
by genocide and slavery – that’s not
just some black militant screaming in Times
Square; this is literally how we were built.
And we think we’re superior.”
The words sound eerily grave coming from
32-year-old David Hailey, a good-natured comedian
and start-up employee with a billowing
Afro who was cracking jokes and grinning
just moments ago while sitting on the banks
of Kreuzberg’s Landwehrkanal. He is usually
upbeat and buoyant, but the California-born
Black Lives Matter activist gets serious when
anyone brings up American politics.
He’s unabashed when it comes to reciting
the failings of his home country: an idolisation
of consumer culture, economic disparities
and, most important of all, a violent tradition
of gaping racial inequalities. The political
dissonance he feels has become the main
reason Hailey, who came to Europe at age 19
for college, has decided to make a life abroad.
As an African-American, Hailey has spent a
lot of time thinking about America’s troublesome
relationship with race, and that’s only
intensified since coming here. He admits that
European countries have their own issues
with race, but he still feels the approach is
more progressive – especially in Berlin. “In
your day-to-day, you don’t feel different as a
black person here. And it’s a luxury as a black
person living in the West to feel like you can
be you – in the US, you’re not seen as an individual,”
he explains. He also adds that police
aggression doesn’t exist in Berlin the way it
does in America: “I feel safer here. The cops
aren’t going to shoot me in Germany,” he says.
Though he’s been settled in Berlin since
2013, when he took a job at recruiting startup
Webcrowd, he always keeps close tabs
on what’s happening back home. He began
paying special attention around 2013, when
reports of police brutality began reverberating
in news cycles. Hailey observed quietly at
first, thinking that violence against African-
Americans was “nothing new” in the United
States. Still, in 2014, after a jury failed to
indict police officer Darren Wilson for the
shooting of black teenager Michael Brown,
Karolina Spolniewski
“I FEEL SAFER
HERE. THE COPS
AREN’T GOING
TO SHOOT ME IN
GERMANY.”
Hailey remembers feeling outraged. On Facebook,
he noticed a few friends were organising
a Black Lives Matter protest outside
Berlin’s US embassy. He arrived excitedly,
only to find a meek crew of about five people
gathered awkwardly. One woman held a
small picture of Michael Brown. Someone lit
a candle, then blew it out. It felt pathetic. But
at least he’d made an effort.
The urge to increase those efforts grew
more intense as the names of dead black
people piled up in headlines from the US:
Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, Alton
Sterling. Hailey started emailing friends,
angrier each time, and organising Black
Lives Matter rallies in Berlin. He helped
corral more than 200 people for a protest
on Hermannplatz on July 10, where he
was moved to find that supporters weren’t
just American; many were from Germany
and other parts of Europe. The Black Lives
Matter message seems to resonate in Berlin
especially, and he says that it helps raise the
profile of the movement. Here, he can wear
his disillusionment on his sleeve and engage
anyone he meets in conversation about the
pitfalls of the United States.
And he’s not the only one. In an era of
growing poverty, police brutality, and wars
abroad, combined with Obama disillusionment
and less-than-ideal candidates on both
sides of the two-party electoral spectrum,
many Americans living in Berlin feel ill at
ease with their country. Some, like Hailey,
organise demonstrations. Others, like Richard
and Ellen Rosen, turn to a quieter but no
less effective form of resistance.
Both Jewish and in their seventies, the
Rosens lived and worked in Boston before
their progressive politics brought them to
Berlin in 2009. They had wanted to retire
in a more “socialist-leaning country”, and
Richard wanted to be closer to the continent
because he was curious about how the European
Union was evolving. He also wanted to
examine how Germany’s attitudes toward the
Jewish community had changed since WWII.
After considering language barriers in Europe,
the Rosens felt that Berlin had a mix of
history and culture they could settle comfortably
into and purchased a home in Prenzlauer
Berg’s Husemannstraße.
Don’t let the beautiful, massive flat fool you:
“We’ve been radical through and through,”
Richard jokes. The couple met at Camp
10
EXBERLINER 153
AMERICAN BERLIN
Above: Ellen and
Richard Rosen in
their Prenzlauer
Berg home.
Left: Black Lives
Matter activist
David Hailey.
Webatuck, a left-leaning retreat founded
to promote liberal values in kids. Before
working as a professor of sociology
at Massachusetts’ Nichols College,
Ellen was an activist who marched on
Washington in 1963 and joined women’s
conciousness groups. Richard was a
member of the civil rights group SNCP
as a student at MIT and dedicated his
career to energy policy.
But their optimism began waning in
the 1980s under Reagan, and they’ve
only grown more frustrated with America
since then. “When we were younger,
we were hopeful things would change,
but it seems like things are neglected,”
Ellen says. “The US is an empire that’s
reached its limit. It’s gone down and
keeps going slowly downward. The
army is much too big, And more money
just keeps being spent on it.”
The couple reads the International
New York Times every morning, and
they find themselves disappointed
with what they see. They question
President Barack Obama’s foreign
policy and ability to work with Republicans.
Ellen blames political gridlock,
but Richard is far more critical: “When
he first came in office, he said he would
try to work with Republicans and get
more moderate things through. He
was completely unrealistic... he was
naïve,” he says. And with the upcoming
election, the pair, who supported
Bernie Sanders’ campaign, has gotten
increasingly disillusioned. “If you vote
OCTOBER 2016
Karolina Spolniewski
for Trump or Hillary, it’s not much of a
difference,” Ellen says. They talk about
Trump being an embarrassment, but
they’re not happy with Clinton either.
Whether with Iraq, Libya or Syria, and
in her approach to the Ukraine crisis,
“she just seems to be gung-ho on war
– she’s too confrontational,” Richard
says, pointing out that both he and Ellen
were active in the anti-war movement
in their student days. “We’ve
been on the left since we were born,
certainly since the Civil Rights movement
and the Vietnam War.”
Their radical ways have mellowed
with age, but not their convictions:
“Now we have more money and less
energy,” Richard says. Although they
do make it out to the occasional demo
(like the one against the EU-US TTIP
trade deal in September), they mostly
try to provoke change directly from
their sunny Prenzlauer Berg apartment.
Their approach is to lend both financial
and volunteer support to organisations
that align with their beliefs, like climate
change research, worker’s rights and
social equality. Ellen has been an active
member of the Massachusetts Bail Fund,
designed to help post bail for people who
can’t afford it themselves, and is working
on a biography about Frances Perkins
Wilson, the US Secretary of Labor who
established the first minimum wage and
overtime laws for American workers.
Richard, meanwhile, continues to lecture
on energy policy and is involved with
the leftist group Science For the People.
Berlin is an especially good place to be,
he says. “German culture seems far more
interested in energy alternatives”.
The couple has also found community
here. They are involved with
American Voices Abroad, a group of
Berlin expats who came together during
the Iraq War to “promote peace,
oppose wars of aggression by the
United States, and take action toward
these ends in relation to US policy.”
These days, their demographic skews
older, and they function primarily as
a discussion group. They’re currently
making efforts to attract the attention
of younger Americans living in Berlin.
The Rosens return home to Boston
frequently, but Richard says it
hasn’t made their views on the US
any less critical. In fact, his forecast is
bleak – but that’s nothing new. “Our
opposition has spanned over 50 years,
so Trump and this election is just another
little wrinkle,” he says. “To me,
being pessimistic about the United
States is being realistic.” n
Uniting
Backgrounds
THEATRE
ON DEMOCRACY
festival
8–23/October/2016
ALL PLAYS WITH
ENGLISH SURTITLES
MAXIM GORKI THEATER
Am Festungsgraben 2, 10117 Berlin
Box Office: 0049 30/ 20 221 115
11
Tickets online: www.gorki.de
AMERICAN BERLIN
THE
NEW OLD
GUARD
After the Wall came down but
before Berlin was the place to
be, these Americans came to
town and helped shape the city’s
cultural landscape – from
burgers to TV to rock ‘n’ roll.
THE BURGER KING:
Wally Potts
The name “White Trash Fast Food” says
it all: the product (burgers, tats and rock
music), the give-no-fucks attitude which has
sustained Walter “Wally” Potts’ enterprise
through four locations and multiple backlashes,
the dash of irony which, given White
Trash’s current incarnation as a sprawling
tourist magnet on the edge of insolvency, has
faded somewhat.
With his huge full beard, handlebar mustache,
tattoos and omnipresent hat, Potts
remains proudly American, although – despite
White Trash’s reputation for Englishonly
waitstaff – his German is actually quite
fließend. He first came here on an exchange
programme in 1990, while he was still in art
school; after his graduation, in 1993, he decided
“Berlin was the most interesting place to
be” and came back to what was then the city’s
premier destination for arty expats: Mitte.
It was there that Potts, raised between
California and Oklahoma, found his niche.
“I was living in a squat on Auguststraße,
doing Volksküche to make money. When
the Germans were cooking, it was a white
plate. Cabbage, rice, potato. No sauce, just
salt and pepper. I started making Mexican.”
In keeping with the DIY spirit of the times,
he opened a pop-up by Hackescher Markt
in 2000. “The DJ played out of a portable
stereo, and we didn’t have a liquor license. I
didn’t even wash my hands!” Potts jokes, taking
it back a second later.
White Trash’s first official location, opened
in 2002 in a former Chinese restaurant on
Torstraße, is the one all the longtime expats
like to reminisce about: an underground,
“members-only” restaurant and club where
Berlin’s bohemian crowd (Peaches was an
early regular) gathered for raucous all-night
parties and what were, back then, the city’s
only proper hamburgers. But by the time
Potts expanded into a multifloor operation
on Schönhauser Allee, the neighbourhood
was already on its way out. “We had 178
noise complaints!” Potts says angrily. By
2014, the landlord had nearly doubled White
Trash’s rent, and that was the last straw.
Rather than simply move house, Potts
created a multiplex shrine to Americana,
located by Badeschiff in Treptow. The latest
White Trash boasts a biergarten, a stateof-the-art
BBQ pit, a 900-capacity concert
hall, a tattoo parlour, a large indoor dining
area and a skateboard ramp. No wonder
Potts had to file for bankruptcy this year.
“It was more like a restructuring,” he
maintains. “The bank was asking for their
money back, but we weren’t finished with
construction yet.”
The underground crowds are long gone,
but the burgers (made from organic Brandenburg
beef), barbecue and Tex-Mex fare
are as satisfying as ever. “If somebody had
once told me that one day I’d be making a
burger restaurant here as an American, I
would’ve been pissed off,” Potts admits. “I’m
not interested in being the best restaurateur
out there. I still feel like I’m faking it. I
guess that’s the charm.” He pauses, catching
himself midway. “I don’t know if it’s still
charming.” — Dani Arbid/Rene Blixer
THE SCENE MUM:
Melissa Perales
To call Melissa Perales a multitasker would
be putting it lightly. As a booker, promoter,
music supervisor, co-organiser of Torstraßenfestival
and co-founder of the musician support
network Music Pool Berlin, the Berliner
of 21 years fosters the city’s indie music scene
while also raising two boys, aged two and 15.
Call it an American thing. “I hated how slow
Berlin was when I first came here,” the 46-yearold
Chicago expat admits. “People were
hanging out in the park. Why are these people
so lazy? I was pissed.” And so, after “three
or four months of partying,” the Columbia
College grad got to work – first organising the
underground film festival Circles of Confusion
at the Volksbühne and Babylon Kino in
1995, then, after a three-year spell back in the
States, joining the collective at the squat and
venue Schokoladen in 1998. Later, in 2002, she
opened the restaurant Urban Comfort Food on
Zionskirchstraße, serving three-course meals
for €7.50. “I like to bring people together,” she
says. “Set a scene. Like making a film.”
The ultimate way to do that, she discovered,
was through music. On leaving her restaurant
in 2004, she began putting on regular shows at
Schokoladen under the name M:Soundtrack, a
mix of international acts (the Canadian band
Great Lake Swimmers was her first concert)
12
AMERICAN BERLIN
Anna Winger is
currently working
on Deutschland
83’s follow-up,
Deutschland 86.
I will
be
brief.*
Theatre with English surtitles
Karolina Spolniewski
and underlooked Berlin performers. “Live
music wasn’t as appreciated back then compared
to the clubs, so it was a good time to
start helping local acts out,” she says.
Helping has been her mission from then
on, both at Schokoladen, “where I can do
experiments with bands that have no following”,
and at Music Pool, where she counsels
fledgling musicians on promotion, licensing
and the dreaded GEMA. She was an early
proponent of the band Fenster, who lovingly
refer to her as their “mom”. “With some
bands, it’s like, I’ve seen them grow up,”
Perales says. “Some of them even have their
own kids now – that’s weird.”
She moved out of Schokoladen in 2009
(“My son Elvis asked, ‘Where am I gonna
have my birthday party now?’”) but she still
books around two shows a month there,
and it’s where she feels most at home.
“There, I know I have control. I’ll greet
people at the door, choose what music
plays before or after the show, do the lights
if I can... it’s like setting up a film, and then
the soundtrack starts.” — Rene Blixer
THE AMBASSADOR:
Anna Winger
“My seven-year-old daughter came home
from school one day a few years ago saying,
‘You know there used to be a wall here?’ It
was the science-fiction-like way she described
Berlin’s history that made me realise
I had something to write about.” While other
US expats import American culture into
Berlin, Anna Winger has done something
different: export Berlin history to the States,
in German no less, in the form of Deutschland
83. Written by Winger and produced
and translated by her husband Jörg, the
Cold War-set TV show is the first Germanlanguage
series aired in the US. And her
Berlin spy story proved to be a huge hit there
– more so than in Germany, even. “To me,
writing a history of Berlin from that period is
also writing an American history of the Cold
War. People there forgot how big of a part
the US played in all this.”
It’s hard to believe someone now so
connected to Berlin was ambivalent about
coming here. “I never thought I’d ever live
in Germany!” she says. But after meeting
Jörg, she decided to leave New York, where
she’d been working as a photographer for 10
years, and follow him to his home country
in 2002. “Jörg’s work was based in Leipzig,
and so Berlin was a happy medium for us.”
After settling in on Savignyplatz and giving
birth to two children, Winger could’ve lived
a typical bourgeoise housewife life – instead,
she turned to writing, penning the
2009 Berlin-set novel This Must Be The Place
and rejuvenating the then-stagnant NPR
Berlin radio station by producing some 150
English-language segments for their Berlin
Stories series. “It was a labour of love – everyone
there was a volunteer. It was a mix of
worlds, generations and cultures.”
The one thing Winger’s works have in
common is a decidedly down-to-earth, nonhipster
approach to Berlin. “I didn’t come to
Berlin for the underground scene. I was 32 by
the time I got here – I had all of my young developmental
experiences in New York. Even
though I have been embraced by the city, I
can also view it very objectively.” Also helpful
is that Berlin wasn’t her first international
experience. “Both my parents are anthropologists,
and as a child we lived all over, including
Africa and Mexico. My father is American
and my mother is British – I even met my
husband in Chile! I’ve spent more time living
abroad than I have living in America, but I still
feel very American. I don’t know why, but it’s
such a hard culture to lose.” — Victoria Barnes
»Hedda Gabler«
by Henrik Ibsen
Direction: Thomas Ostermeier
On October 1, 8 pm
»Richard III«
by William Shakespeare
Direction: Thomas Ostermeier
On October 4, 7.30 pm
*»Hamlet«
by William Shakespeare
Direction: Thomas Ostermeier
On October 8, 7.30 pm
»The Invention of the Red Army Faction
by a Manic-Depressive Teenager
in the Summer of 1969«
by Frank Witzel
Direction: Armin Petras
On October 10, 8 pm
»Beware of Pity«
by Stefan Zweig
Direction: Simon McBurney
On October 15 and 16, 8 pm
»TRUST«
Text: Falk Richter
Direction and Choreography:
Falk Richter and Anouk van Dijk
On October 18, 8 pm
»FEAR«
A play by Falk Richter
Text and Direction: Falk Richter
On October 28, 29 and 30, 8 pm
»A Piece of Plastic«
by Marius von Mayenburg
Direction: Marius von Mayenburg
On October 30, 8 pm
OCTOBER 2016
13
Tickets: 030 890023 www.schaubuehne.de
AMERICAN BERLIN
THE
FRENCH
SECTOR
THE
BRITISH
SECTOR
R E I N I C K E N D O R F
PA N KOW
The United States’ influence is
all over Berlin, if you know where
to look. Here are 14 spots where
the Amis have left their mark.
S PA N DA U
WEDDING
M O A B I T
B R A N D E N B U R G E R T O R
P R E N Z L A U E R
B E R G
By Kaya Payseno and Kate Richards
Z O O L O G I S C H E R
G A R T E N
F R I E D R I C H S -
H A I N
NYU BERLIN
Inside Prenzlauer Berg’s Kulturbrauerei, New
York University’s Berlin campus (one of 14 satellites
around the world) takes in about 120 NYU
students each semester to study everything from
psychology to German cinema to music tech
start-ups – plus mandatory German for everyone.
Perfect for kids who want to expand their horizons
(and, you know, party) while still enjoying a
not-too-exotic, dorms-and-all college experience.
G R U N E WA L D
C H A R L O T T E N B U R G
– W I L M E R S D O R F
S T E G L I T Z – Z E H L E N D O R F
T E M P E L H O F
– S C H Ö N E B E R G
K R E U Z B E R G
T E M P E L H O F E R
F E L D
NEUKÖLLN
HAUS DER KULTUREN
DER WELT
In 1956, mostly to thumb their noses at the
Soviets, the Americans constructed a massive,
oddly shaped conference centre and concert hall
then known as the Kongresshalle, just metres
away from the border with East Berlin, five years
before the Wall divided the city. The money for
this symbol of Western power was finagled by
American stateswoman Eleanor Dulles who,
through hard bargaining and downright tomfoolery,
raised a total of $1 billion for reconstruction
and employment projects in Berlin. Now serving
as a multimedia art forum focussed on global
issues, HKW is currently closed for repairs till
January 2017, when the “Pregnant Oyster” can get
back to indoctrinating the public with an American
agenda – just kidding, they’re funded by the
German government now!
AMERIKA HAUS
Built as an innocuous American reading room
and cultural centre in the 1950s, the building on
Hardenbergstraße found itself a target of anti-
US sentiment around the time of the Vietnam
War, when German students pelted it with eggs
WA N N S E E
and, later, incendiary devices. It was given
over to the German government in 2006
and reopened two years ago as the new
home for C/O (see page 36) after the
prominent photo gallery was gentrified
out of Mitte. It only took 7947 litres of
paint, 27,568 screws, and 241,000 invitations
to make it happen.
US EMBASSY
THE
AMERICAN
SECTOR
As if it weren’t enough that the German
government had to divert Ebertstraße to
pacify America’s rigorous security demands
when their embassy was moved to
Pariser Platz back in 2008, Ed Snowden
revealed to us in 2013 that the NSA had
been using special rooftop panels on this
beige Brillo pad of a building to listen in on
Angela Merkel’s phone calls at the Reichstag
some 600 metres away.
AMERICAN ACADEMY
Today, on the west bank of Wannsee, Rebecca
Boehling from University of Maryland
is investigating the Allies’ approach
to de-Nazification, Tom Franklin from
the University of Mississippi is writing
a novel about rural Alabama, and Ioana
Uricaru is making a film about America’s
recruitment of German academics after
WWII – just to name a few. Since 1994,
24 American fellows have been coming to
14
EXBERLINER 153
AMERICAN BERLIN
LICHTENBERG
BERLIN
WALL
SOVIET
EAST
BERLIN
M A R Z A H N -
H E L L E R S D O R F
T R E P T OW
Illustration by Josh Young
the American Academy each year to conduct
research projects and learn from each other
(and the Germans). For one semester, these
lucky scholars enjoy a room in the upstairs of
the lakeside villa and a €5000/month stipend
mostly funded by the building’s original owners,
the Arnolds, a prominent Jewish banking
family who had to flee during World War II.
CHECKPOINT CHARLIE
Here’s the only place in town where you can
still have your photo taken with a GI... or an
actor dressed as one, anyway. It’s all so touristy
you forget this was the site of a 16-hour
standoff between US and Soviet tanks in 1961.
Nowadays, the recreated American Sector sign
by the onetime border crossing (the original
is at the Allied Museum, see #13) is more an
indicator that you are entering a busy US-style
business district, with buildings designed by
renowned American architects including postmodernist
star Philip Johnson.
AMERIKA-
GEDENKBIBLIOTHEK
Opened in 1954 with the help of a $5 million
donation from the US, the boxy building by
Hallesches Tor was the first public library
in Europe where bookworms could freely
wander the stacks without having to order
books over the counter from a librarian. It’s
all about “unlimited freedom of the human
mind”, according to the Thomas Jefferson
quote over the entrance. The sign normally
just reads “Gedenkbibliothek”, but though
October 13, you can finally see “Amerika”
atop the building courtesy of an artist initiative
co-funded by the US Embassy. Sadly for
American visitors, only a few shelves’ worth
of its 900,000 books are in English.
BARCOMI’S
Ami cuisine is all over Berlin today (see page
52), but even before White Trash, there was
Cynthia Barcomi’s Kreuzberg café. The New
York pioneer started selling her cheesecake
and bagels in Kreuzberg in 1994; a second
location, the more spacious Barcomi’s Deli
in Mitte, followed soon after in 1997. It’s still
one of the only places in town where the
bagels are made by hand.
FREE UNIVERSITY
A mini-city of 28,000 in the middle of placid
Dahlem, the Freie Universität was founded
in 1948 under orders from US military commander
Lucius D. Clay, to provide Berlin
students with a place where they could
study “free” from Soviet influence. These
days lots of expat students, including some
550 from the US, come to FU for the nearlyfree
tuition (€304 per semester, but that
includes a BVG pass) and the freedom to
not learn German – 25 masters programmes
are taught in English. You can even get a
bachelor’s degree in North American Studies
at the university’s JFK Institute, established
in 1963. Germans, for their part, can take
advantage of FU’s longstanding exchange
programme with Stanford and study in
California for nearly nothing. Pro tip: FU’s
library is home to over 1.75 million-plus
English-language books, and you don’t have
to be a student there to check them out.
SILVERWINGS CLUB
Before Tempelhof was a park and refugee
shelter, it was a US military complex. The
only reminder of that time is the 1952-built
Silverwings, now a somewhat cheesy German
nightclub that hosts private parties,
then a place where NCOs went to play
pool, eat a cheeseburger and watch artists
like Johnny Cash. If you had a local
sweetheart, you could bring her by on
weekend “German-American nights”. She’d
have to exchange her deutschmarks for US
dollars at the door, but as a military man
you could pick up the tab with “Tempelhof
Tokens”, currency distributed to soldiers
to encourage them to stay on base. Times
may have changed, but the décor hasn’t –
you can still see the gold lacquered mosaic
from the 1950s, and even the beat-up white
trash can from the 1980s.
ALLIED MUSEUM/
OUTPOST CINEMA
If you want a more legit version of Checkpoint
Charlie, head to this museum in
Dahlem, where you’ll find the original
guardhouse building outdoors alongside
the famous “You are leaving the American
sector” sign and a Hastings TG 503 plane
(which transported coal during the Berlin
Airlift). Go inside the former Nicholson Memorial
garrison library and Outpost armed
forces cinema for exhibitions on the history
of Berlin’s Western occupation, as well as
the sign that used to flash before every Outpost
screening: “National Anthem is playing
now. Please wait.”
TEUFELSBERG
Thank the NSA for the giant, dilapidated
domes protruding above the Berlin skyline
in the west. Built atop a dumping zone for
tens of millions of cubic metres of World
War II rubble, the Teufelsberg spy station
was used by American intelligence to tap
into Soviet, East German, and Warsaw Pact
nations’ military communications from
1961 till the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
It’s now in the hands of investor Marvin
Schütte, who magnanimously lets you check
out the domes’ still-impressive acoustics on
daily guided tours (€7).
COLUMBIA THEATER
Part of a recreation centre for US troops,
the cinema near Tempelhof opened on
October 13, 1951 with a screening of Captain
Horatio Hornblower starring Gregory Peck.
It closed soon after reunification but found
new life in 1998 as a concert hall and event
space; last year it was taken over by a quartet
of Berlin bookers and promoters who
restored its 1950s vibe and classed up the
programme (American indie singer Angel
Olsen hits it this month). n
OCTOBER 2016 15
AMERICAN BERLIN
“DON’T YOU SAY MY
MOTHER TONGUE
IS GERMAN. MY
MOTHER TONGUE
IS ENGLISH, AMERI-
CAN ENGLISH!”
BERLIN’S
ARMY
BRATS
While the Wall still stood,
dozens of thousands of US
soldiers were stationed in the
American sector of the divided
capital. Their children lived in
an American bubble, complete
with their own schools, supermarkets
and bowling alleys.
Decades later, many still
call Berlin home.
By Jean-Michel Hauteville
Gardening seems to be all the rage
in Mariendorf. The leafy neighbourhood
just south of Tempelhof
is dotted with over 20 Kleingartenkolonien,
each subdivided into dozens, sometimes
hundreds, of neatly fenced garden allotments
and summer bungalows. Whenever
the weather is good enough, local resident
Gary Planz heads to his own garden plot in
the “Union” colony, a short walk from the
Teltow Canal. But as soon as he gets there,
things take a rather unusual turn.
“The first thing I do every morning is to
raise the flag,” Planz cheerfully explains as he
hoists a large star-spangled banner up a tall
white mast in the morning sun. The rotund
61-year-old matter-of-factly describes himself
as “proudly American and very patriotic”. But
this proud American patriot, dressed casually
in a T-shirt adorned with stars, stripes and
a picture of a large bald eagle taking flight,
actually lived less than a quarter of his life in
the United States. Planz is an army brat. The
New Jersey-born son of a US soldier spent
his childhood moving to a new base every
couple of years with his stepfather, also a
soldier, and his German mother.
Planz started school in Mannheim, in the
former American-occupied zone of West
Germany, before moving to West Berlin,
where he attended the fourth and fifth
grades at the Thomas A. Roberts (TAR)
School, named after the first American to
have lost his life in the Battle of Berlin in
1944. After a spell in the States, his stepfather
was sent back to Berlin in the 1970s, and
the young Planz went to TAR again – now
located in Dahlem and renamed the Berlin
Karolina Spolniewski
American High School (BAHS). He returned
to Georgia to graduate from high school. “All
the traveling was fantastic, but missing my
friends was hard,” Planz recalls. He enjoyed
his teenage years in the German capital so
much that after graduation, he joined the
army himself and gave Berlin as his preferred
stationing place, ahead of Hawaii. The young
private Planz was sent to the McNair army
barracks in Lichterfelde in early 1974 and has
been a Berliner ever since. When the time
came to choose between the army and his
German wife, he chose the latter and stayed
on, working at the now-defunct Reemtsma
tobacco company in Wilmersdorf until he
went into early retirement a few years ago.
He fondly remembers his years as a soldier
as “fantastic!”.
* * *
Tina Holmes spent most of her childhood in
Berlin. Born on the Kaiserslautern Air Force
Base in 1975 to a US air traffic controller and
his German wife, she was six years old when
her father started working – and living – at
Tempelhof airport, which back then was
“full of people and full of shops,” she vividly
remembers. Holmes and her brother grew up
in a sheltered US Army bubble: they’d go to
the Truman Plaza shopping mall on Clayallee,
where she could “choose between a
million cereal flavours” at the PX shop (“for
us, it was like a big Lidl”) and pay for them
in US dollars, then attend a matinee at the
Outpost Theater in Zehlendorf or the Columbia
Theater in Tempelhof. Before the film
started, the American national anthem was
played – and everybody actually stood.
“I thought it was very normal. Only after
the Wall came down did I realize how crazy
it all was,” the short-haired brunette says as
she excitedly recalls her teen memories in
what she today calls an “American Disneyland”.
Today an IT recruiter, she’s thinking
of writing a book about those years. “I
mean, we even had rodeos at the base every
summer, isn’t that crazy? My father’s from
Philadelphia, he probably saw his first rodeo
here in Berlin too,” she laughs.
The number of American soldiers stationed
in Berlin during its 49 years of division
is shrouded in mystery, or possibly a
military secret. There are, however, some
readily accessible records on how many
16
EXBERLINER 153
AMERICAN BERLIN
Right: American
Berliner Gary
Planz hoists the
flag outside his
allotment garden
in Mariendorf.
BERLIN’S LITTLE
AMERICA (1945-1989)
children of American soldiers spent
time in Berlin. According to the
online Berlin Brats Alumni Association,
exactly 10,485 kids went either
to the TAR school or to the BAHS.
In the 1970s and 1980s, between 500
and 900 boys and girls were schooled
there each year. However, 43 percent
of them spent just one year in Berlin,
while only nine percent stayed for
four years or longer. But the Brats’
scrupulous record-keeping does not
show the full picture, since many
other sons and daughters of US army
personnel, like Holmes, attended the
John F. Kennedy School, a German-
American institution founded in
Zehlendorf in 1960. In the 1980s,
one-quarter of the school’s students
were army brats, its website says.
* * *
Another JFK school alumnus, the
45-year-old Eric Hess, was born at
the US army hospital in Zehlendorf.
His parents, both Americans, had
moved to Berlin where they worked
as linguists for the US Air Force.
Hess remembers his family’s regular
shopping trips to East Berlin. “They
sold excellent dictionaries there,
and better music than in the West,
and everything was dirt cheap.” The
socialist GDR used to promote blues
and jazz music as propaganda tools
to highlight the oppression of black
people in the West (see page 26), “so
indirectly we were kind of supporting
their propaganda,” Hess winks. But
that was nothing serious compared to
one US general’s wife who reportedly
bought a piano out East. “That was a
bit too much for the army. Afterwards
The American sector encompassed the entire south
of West Berlin, from Kreuzberg and Neukölln all the
way to Wannsee. With the British and French sectors,
it was besieged by the Soviets in 1948-49 and
then physically cut off from its surroundings when
they erected the Berlin Wall in 1961, at the height of
the Cold War. The Wall fell 28 years later and all the
foreign troops subsequently left Berlin, restored
to its status as the capital of unified Germany.
The Berlin Brigade of the US Army ceased to exist
when it got officially inactivated by President Bill
Clinton, on July 6, 1994. There are no available official
records of how many American soldiers were
stationed in Berlin during those years – estimates
vary between 30,000 and 100,000.
they slowed things down,” he laughs.
“Of course we knew we were privileged,”
Hess, now a father of three,
explains. “We had these amazing facilities,
the bowling alleys, the movie
clubs, the yacht clubs, tax-exempt
shops and lots of things for free with
a military ID,” all subsidised courtesy
of the German taxpayer. “We were in
denial that it was a very artificial life.”
Sometimes things got more artificial
still, like when a German film
crew came to the BAHS looking for
extras for Just a Gigolo, the 1978 film
starring David Bowie and Marlene
Dietrich. Jesse Greene, an army brat
born on the Fort Benning base in
Columbus, Georgia who’d arrived
in Berlin in 1975, was among the
chosen few. The 11th-grade student
had to spend a very long day wearing
a SA uniform, but had a great
time. “Berlin, as a walled-up city, was
extremely cool,” the IT manager recalls.
Greene went on to occasionally
DJ at his favourite progressive
rock clubs Bowie and Superfly
near Adenauerplatz in Charlottenburg,
a neighbourhood that was then
the epicentre of West Berlin nightlife.
When he turned 18, the army offered
him a trip back to the US, since his
father had retired. But he declined.
* * *
The Wende caught everybody by surprise.
After a few heady days and wild
November nights where the younger
Berlin brats (like Hess) celebrated
with ecstatic Berliners on top of the
Wall while the older ones (like Planz)
gave away packs of cigarettes or
bottles of alcohol, history was set in
motion. Just as the whole city around
them was changing beyond recognition,
the safe bubble of the US army
barracks was irremediably punctured.
“Actually, after the Wall came down,
many Americans left because their
perfect West Berlin world no longer
existed,” Hess says. So did he: feeling
neither German nor American,
he found an escape at the American
University of Paris. After 11 years at
the NATO Headquarters in Brussels
as a translator, he moved back to Berlin
with his family just last summer.
Not all Berlin US army brats are
created equal when it comes to identity,
or even citizenship. Some lucky
ones were able to obtain dual German-American
passports, like Holmes
and Alan Benson, a translator who
came to Berlin as a child in 1965 but
didn’t speak proper German for a long
time. Today a member of both the
German SPD and the Berlin chapter of
Democrats Abroad, he’s actively taking
part in the political debate of his
two countries, Benson explains over a
milkshake in a McDonald’s restaurant
on Ku’damm (where else?). Greene,
however, was never able to obtain
German citizenship without giving up
his US passport, despite having a German
mother. “I’ve been paying taxes
here all my life, so it would be nice
to be able to vote in local elections at
least,” Greene shrugs. As for Berlinborn
Eric Hess, he only has an American
passport, just like his two parents,
although he has been working for the
German Foreign Ministry for over a
decade. As a foreigner, he will never
become a Beamte, a fully-fledged German
civil servant.
Contentedly sitting on his bungalow
porch in Mariendorf next to
his Berliner wife Eveline, Planz says
he is not bothered at all not to have
German citizenship, even though he
grew up speaking only German at
home with his mother and fell behind
at school because his English wasn’t
good enough at first. “Don’t you say
my mother tongue is German. I’m
too proud of my American heritage
for that. My mother tongue is English,
American English,” he says with a
jovial if slightly imperative tone, as he
watches squirrels frolic in the garden.
Planz switches seamlessly to Berliner
dialect with a man who has walked in
unannounced – the head of the local
garden club. “I’m the zweiter Vorsitzende,”
Planz points out in Denglish.
Hey, isn’t being the vice-chairman of
a Kleingartenkolonie the epitome of
German-ness? “Look, I love Berlin.
It’s a fantastic city. But my heart is
and will always stay American.” n
Karolina Spolniewski
OCTOBER 2016
17
AMERICAN BERLIN
Karolina Spolniewski
THE LAST
COWBOY IN
REINICKENDORF
Berliners’ fascination with Americana and county
music ain’t what it used to be. But there’s a holdout
of redneck culture in the suburbs: the American
Western Saloon. Rachel Glassberg went for a
visit and gave line dancing a try.
There’s a certain perverse pleasure
we US expats get out of seeing our
culture exoticised, exaggerated and
not-so-accurately simulated by Germans.
Who among us hasn’t gawked at the caramel
popcorn yogurt and barbecue noodles
offered during “America Week” at Lidl, or
contemplated eating burgers and schnitzel
under portraits of Elvis and Marilyn at
Mitte’s Route 66 Diner? But this uncanny
valley of Deutsch-Americana is shrinking, at
least in Berlin. The city’s biggest celebration
of “America”, the kitschy German-American
Volksfest, was called off in 2016 for the first
time in its 55-year history, officially due to
a lack of space. With that off the table, we
decided to journey to the Wild Northwest –
Reinickendorf, to be exact. There, in the halfbarren
Markisches Viertel, Berliner Frank
Lange has been indulging his obsession with
the USA for over two decades, complete
with country music, €4.50 bottles of Coors
Lite and line dancing four nights a week. Say
howdy to the American Western Saloon.
“Franky” is a lifelong Reinickendorfer,
born in 1956 when the neighbourhood was
still governed by France; he speaks French
and English but is most comfortable in his
native Berlinerisch. His fascination with
America sprang mainly from romanticised
European depictions of it, like Bud Spencer’s
spaghetti Westerns and the Wild West tales
of German author Karl May, who famously
never set foot in the States until a few years
before his death.
When he wasn’t vacationing in Florida, Tennessee
or Arizona, Lange spent early adulthood
like any red-blooded American man: working
as a truck driver and playing in a Creedence
Clearwater Revival cover band. In 1994, he
opened the first version of his Western Saloon
in Ollenhauer Straße. Six years later, it moved
to the nearby Fontane Haus cultural centre,
where the bar, restaurant and venue has remained
more or less unchanged since.
A WALL-MOUNTED
LED DISPLAYS THE
BAR’S OFFICIAL
SLOGAN: “OUR
BEERS ARE AS COLD
AS YOUR EX-WIFE!”
There are several homages to the American
West in and around Berlin, like Spandau’s
“Old Texas Town” and the popular El Dorado
theme park in Brandenburg, but Lange’s is
the only one to take an earnest stab at actual
21st-century redneckery. Bras, panties and
stuffed chickens hang from the ceiling alongside
cowboy boots and a mirror-plated 10-gallon
hat. A wall-mounted LED displays the
bar’s official slogan: “Our beers are as cold as
your ex-wife!” 1 The 14-page menu offers 335g
burgers, “Brokeback Mountain” salad and the
aforementioned Coors (the cheap alternative
is the house “Moose Beer”, actually a
bog-standard pilsner brewed by Wolters). It
also serves as an almanac of truly heinous
Denglish humour (“Onion rings = Zwiebel ruft
an”) and advertises t-shirts printed with the
phrase “I pee on toilet seats.”
The only thing missing is a Confederate
flag, and in fact, a giant one used to fly
from the roof of the saloon’s predecessor in
Ollenhauer Straße. “Until a couple of black
guys walked in and asked if I was a Nazi or
something,” Lange recalls. “But here in Germany,
the ‘rebel flag’ doesn’t have anything to
do with Nazism or hating foreigners. It’s just
a lifestyle thing.” Granted, those attracted
to that lifestyle tend to share certain sentiments,
and it’s probably no accident that Berlin’s
“Western” restaurants and attractions
are located in its most conservative neighbourhoods.
Reinickendorf, for example, had
one of the highest proportions of right-wing
voters in last month’s state elections.
Tonight’s short on Confederate flags – or
cowboys at all, for that matter. We’re here
for the line dancing, of course, although if
we’d come on a Saturday we could’ve caught
a show by country-Schlager superstar Larry
Schuba 2 . Tonight’s instructor is Natalie
Redlitz, a 29-year-old radiologist who caught
the line dancing bug at age 11 and boasts several
world championship titles as a member
of the Berlin-based dance club InCahoots.
To our group of seven, she patiently demonstrates
the choreography to “Boot Scootin’
18
EXBERLINER 153
AMERICAN BERLIN
Boogie”: three steps, 24 bars, repeat
for the song’s duration or until your
last shred of dignity has vanished. As
we stumble over our own feet and
Brooks & Dunn sing “Heel, toe, do-sido”
for what feels like the 50th time,
the lone man in the group flashes us
a helpless “I’ve been dragged here by
my wife” kind of look.
The rest of the participants are 40-
and 50-something nurses, teachers
and business consultants, and when
we ask them why they’re here we keep
getting the same answer: “Because
you don’t need a partner to dance.”
Rather than the anticipated peek into
Germany’s Western subculture, we’re
getting an unvarnished look at life as a
single, middle-aged woman in suburban
Berlin. “Ten years ago, there were
lots of people showing up in cowboy
hats and boots,” Redlitz tells us when
we express our puzzlement. “Now
it’s women who come here on their
own to make friends, have fun... The
music’s getting more modern, too. It’s
not just country anymore.”
Sure enough, as the night progresses
from “beginner” to “advanced”
and the group swells to about 10, the
music switches over to an electro
cover of “Oh, Susanna!”, then to
RedOne’s “Don’t You Need Somebody”.
Unbelievably, we do see one
cowboy-hatted German scooting his
boots to the latter. Michael Künne is a
salesman and recreational horse rider
who also attends country meetups in
Pullman City, the 200,000sqm Westernstadt
in Harz, Bavaria. He started
line dancing here seven years ago and
enjoys it, even though, he says, “I’ve
met real cowboys in America, and
they’ve barely even heard of it.”
Hobbyists like Künne are an exception
at the Western Saloon these
days, Lange sighs. “Ten, 15 years
ago, they were everywhere, but now
when someone like him comes in,
it’s exotic.” He’s on the patio with
his friend Lars Bethke, a country DJ
and longtime regular, discussing the
future of German country music. “It’s
dying out,” Lange says 3 . “The only
ones left are dinosaurs. Larry Schuba
is how old, 65? How many more
years does he have?” Is it because
Americans just aren’t as fascinating
anymore? Bethke, who grew up in
Steglitz, thinks so. “I remember going
out to the GI clubs, the ones where
you could only pay in dollars and they
only served American beer. They were
playing all these country records I’d
never heard before – you couldn’t
buy them anywhere in Germany, but
somehow they were here. It was like
entering another world. But now all
you’ve got to do is go on Youtube...”
The increasing number of Berlin bars
and restaurants owned by actual US
expats hasn’t escaped Lange’s notice,
but he has never been to White Trash
Fast Food (see page 12) or The Bird
(page 52). “They don’t have a parking
lot, and I’m not much of a walker,” he
says. Spoken like a true American.
One reliable highlight of Lange’s
year, at least, remains the Country
Music Meeting, a weekend-long
annual gathering of German and
international country and Western
enthusiasts that takes over the entire
Fontane Haus. The next one is in
February 2017, and he hands us a
flyer for it. On the back are lyrics to
a song Irish musician Padraic “Tiny”
McNeela composed for the occasion:
“You can sip Jack Daniels whisky,
wear a hat like Daniel Boone
And if ya wanna ‘sit a spell’, hit the
Western Saloon
We’re off to get some chicken
wings, and a nice cold big Moose beer
And we’d really like to see you all
back again next year...” n
Above: Participants
in Natalie Redlitz´s
intermediate line
dancing course.
1. Lange’s own ex-wife’s
name is Heike, and he
thanks her quite warmly
in the liner notes to the
2016 compilation CD
AWeSome 15 Years at
the American Western
Saloon.
2. Larry Schuba’s discography
comprises 20
albums, all in German,
including Barrooms,
Bedrooms and Bad Bad
Boys and Sex-A-Billy.
3. “Like print magazines,”
Lange adds later,
poking the copy of
Exberliner we gave him.
Karolina Spolniewski
ci
h l
die englischen
j a h r e
5.10.2016 bis
2 7 . 2 . 2 0 1 7
OCTOBER 2016
19
Lucia Moholy: Porträts von »Charlady« (Mrs. Palmer), Edward Garnett
und Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett, 1936 © VG Bild-Kunst Bonn 2016
AMERICAN BERLIN
GRANDPA’S
SECRET
HISTORY
David Shield came to Berlin to find
out more about his beloved grandfather’s
life before he fled Nazi
Germany for Florida. He wasn’t
prepared for what he’d discover...
As told to Anna Gyulai Gaal
In 2010, Floridian David Shield moved to
Berlin – not for the usual reasons a 27-yearold
budding film composer might do so, but
to learn more about his beloved grandfather. He
knew that Joseph Shield was born Josef Seidel in
the German capital in 1921 and fled the country for
the US in 1944, where he changed his last name.
But Joseph had always been secretive about his
German past. It wasn’t until David came to Berlin
that he found out why. Now working as a barista
in a hip Kreuzberg café, he told us his story.
“I adored my grandfather as I was growing up. He
would take me on fishing trips all over Florida,
and we’d sit in a boat for hours – sometimes we’d
even stay out all night. He taught me about plants
and animals and told me so many great stories.
I always thought he’d made them up, but now I
know they were German fairytales.
Grandpa was always a very reserved person. He
wouldn’t talk about his difficulties at work or the
fact that he’d been bullied throughout his whole
life because of his very strong accent. He was in
his late twenties when he arrived in the US and
for some reason, he never managed to master the
language. Even my brother would make fun of
him sometimes. I remember really wanting him
to tell me more about his childhood and early life
because all we knew was that he’d come ‘from
Europe’, but we didn’t know why or how.
We often spent weekends at our grandparents’.
One day Grandpa was napping and my
brother and I were sitting in the kitchen drinking
the hot chocolate my grandmother would
always prepare for us – full-fat milk, real dark
cocoa powder, lots of sugar and even marshmallows.
I remember how on that day, after
we nagged her, she finally decided to tell us:
Grandpa was actually a Jew who hid in Germany
until the situation got really bad, and he fled the
country to America. She also said he had lost all
his family in the war. I remember how sorry I
felt for him. My dad knew already, but I think he
just accepted it and didn’t necessarily want to
know more details. Neither did my brother. I, on
the other hand, was extremely curious! I was in
sixth grade at the time, and from that day on, I
would proudly tell people that my Grandpa Joseph
was a hero and a survivor, and I was a Jew!
I kept asking my grandmother, but it seemed
she didn’t know more about her husband’s
previous life either. My grandfather must have experienced
so many terrible things before fleeing,
we thought, that it felt natural that he wouldn’t
want to wake those dark memories. Our family
wasn’t really into opening Pandora’s box, anyway.
Above: A teenage Josef
Seidel (right) and his
cousin, helping out on
his grandfather’s farm
in the mid-1930s.
Right: Joseph Shield and
his wife May honeymooning
in Florida in the early
1950s. May was pregnant
with their first child.
20
EXBERLINER 153
AMERICAN BERLIN
I remember him sitting on the porch in the
evenings, looking straight into nothing, and
I kept thinking: I’ll take him back to Berlin
one day, we’ll relive all of his bad and good
memories and he’ll open up to me like he’d
never opened up to anyone before! I really
wanted to be that one special grandchild who
had an exceptional connection with him.
But I never got the chance. He died from
cancer in 2008. After that, I gathered the few
documents my grandfather had left. I knew
his original name and I had a few old photos
of him as a kid, surrounded by friends. I
decided to apply for German citizenship – I
knew from friends that as a descendant of
Jews who fled to the US from Germany, I
should have no problem. But they couldn’t
find my grandfather’s name on the official records.
Apparently he’d been presumed dead
during the war. I told myself that he might
not have wanted to talk about his religion
upon his arrival in the US… I was determined
to find all the answers.
Finally, in the fall of 2010, I came to Berlin.
All my hope rested on the one address where
my family had lived before the war, near
Tiergarten in Mitte. I found the house was
miraculously still standing but, of course,
the people who lived there before were long
gone! So I turned to the American Jewish
Committee for help. They were incredible,
they really put so much work and effort into
trying to unveil the identity of that young
boy and his family. But it was fruitless. One
day, I went to their office on Leipziger Platz
to meet with the lady researching my case.
After looking through all the results, she
stood up and closed the door. She sat back in
her chair and asked me very softly: ‘Are you
sure your grandfather was on the victims’
side of this war?’ I laughed at her, got very offended
and left the office. I walked for hours
that afternoon in Tiergarten, feeling disgusted.
I was considering leaving right away,
but eventually I decided to stay and find out
more. Otherwise, I knew it would bother me
for the rest of my life.
I waited in lines from one Amt to the
next, dealing with unsympathetic bureaucrats.
I didn’t speak any German back
then, and they made little effort to speak
English. But then there were all these
old people who’d invite me in for coffee
and start to show me old photos, which
usually just turned out to be of their own
families and children and grandchildren.
Old people love to talk about their lives,
especially if they’re lonely, so I eventually
learned a lot about Berlin during the
war: the bombing, the Nazi concentration
camps in Prenzlauer Berg, how you used to
be able to hear people screaming around
the water tower area… But still nothing
about my own grandfather!
Finally, the Bürgeramt in Prenzlauer
Berg gave me one of my grandfather’s last
addresses, where his family had lived till
about 1935, a building on the northern end of
Prenzlauer Allee all the way on the edge of
Weissensee. It was already spring 2011 when
I rang Elizabeth Stock’s doorbell. And then...
it turned out she knew my family! She was
young at the time, only seven or eight years
old, but she remembered my grandfather,
“SHE STOOD UP,
CLOSED THE DOOR
AND ASKED ME
VERY SOFTLY: ‘ARE
YOU SURE YOUR
GRANDFATHER WAS
ON THE VICTIMS’
SIDE OF THIS WAR?’”
who’d been around 14 then. She befriended
Elke, his sister, who was 10 – they would play
together in the small back garden while their
mothers would share cooking tips. Elizabeth
told me how beautiful my great-grandmother
was, and that my great-grandfather was a very
loud man. They even knew that he was hitting
his kids with his belt – sometimes Joseph
would even show the marks on his side. I
couldn’t believe it! She showed me more
photos of the years they’d all lived there. We
talked for hours, and eventually I asked her
about how it had been possible for these Jews
to hide for so long and finally escape. Elizabeth
looked at me with these big, questioning
eyes and she said, ‘The Seidels were not
Jewish, my dear. The father and the son both
joined the SS. My father often talked about
them later, saying what a shame it was that
they turned so easily.’
I didn’t know what to say. For a moment,
I thought she must be mixing them up with
someone else, or that she had dementia,
or… anything! But she looked so convinced…
After I left her house I called my dad back in
Florida and told him what the lady had said.
He was just as doubtful as I was. Grandpa
was such a gentle, quiet man, he said, donating
to Vietnam War veterans, always giving a
few cents to the homeless in town. He could
have never done anything bad to anyone! It
reassured me, but not for long. The next day
my dad called me crying and said it all made
sense to him somehow. He said Grandpa was
always refusing to watch or read anything
about World War II, especially when it came
to footage of Berlin. He would switch the TV
off. Suddenly, it made sense why he was so
reserved about his past, why he never wanted
to be part of the Jewish community in
OCTOBER 2016
21
AMERICAN BERLIN
America even though it would have been
more than safe in Florida.
So I continued researching, going through
Elizabeth to other people who used to know
my family. At the Potsdam public library,
I found a lot of data on Nazi followers
and Hitler’s military, notes on attacks and
battles, lists of Jews they rounded up and put
in camps around Berlin and other German
cities and the list of soldiers completing the
orders. From all of these sources and stories
people told, I figured out that Grandpa
Joseph, aka Josef Seidel, had been part of the
Hitler Youth movement. Then, in 1940, he
joined the SS at the age of 19, alongside his
father Hendrik. He took part in several missions
to round up Jews in Germany and force
them into concentration camps. He probably
later fought in Denmark and Norway,
although we couldn’t find out for sure. What
was for certain, was that he was a Nazi.
My father eventually also came to Berlin
to help me fill in the blanks. We learned
Joseph’s father was killed in the British
bombing of Hamburg in 1943. Joseph would
have returned to Berlin and found his old
flat abandoned and looted. With his father
dead and his mother and sister missing, he
probably started fearing for his own life.
Apparently many SS people got scared at the
beginning of 1944 and were trying to hide
and escape. We heard that if you had some
money, it was possible to get fake papers and
get smuggled through the borders, but there
was no exact information on his escape. He
just disappeared, so they put him on the
list of dead. But he was very much alive for
another 64 years!
How could he keep it a secret for so long?
How could we all not have known about this?
I was devastated for a long time. I actually
kept seeing Elizabeth till the day she died
two years ago. I wanted to hear nice stories
about how they played and that Joseph was a
handsome, kind and generous boy, but very
scared of his father. She told me how, as the
situation got worse in Berlin and the war was
about to begin, their families would share
what they had and they’d often have dinner
together. I slowly accepted the truth. The
truth that the grandfather I had idolised had
followed Hitler. That my grandfather was in
the SS. The truth that he was a Nazi.
I felt ashamed, and it took me years till I was
actually able to tell other people. One person
I never told the truth to is my grandmother.
Somehow she must have suspected something,
but she never wanted to know more. Our family
in general wasn’t the curious type, so that’s
what we got used to: not to ask.” n
“THERE WAS NO
INFORMATION ON
HIS ESCAPE. HE
JUST DISAPPEARED,
SO THEY PUT HIM
ON THE LIST OF
DEAD. BUT HE WAS
VERY MUCH ALIVE
FOR ANOTHER 64
YEARS!”
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> for all under 30s
REGULARS
PAGE 23 GIRL
Blue skies, books
and Berghain
Our brand new series spotlights
Berlin’s Powerfrauen. This
month: Kimberly Marteau
Emerson is an American attorney
and human rights activist
(Human Rights Watch), a mum
of three daughters and wife of
US Ambassador to Germany
John B. Emerson.
One sentence that proves you’re a woman!
“It makes me feel more powerful to look
good while doing good.” I don’t agree with
women who think that if you like to dress
stylishly and groom yourself smartly, it
makes you less serious. It’s important not to
be self-conscious about style, but to absolutely
embrace this fun and wonderful tool
of self-expression.
How do you define being a feminist
today? Intuitive, self-possessed,
confident, unhindered by gender
norms. Having a seat at the economic
and/or political power table.
Your most treasured possession? My diary.
I started it two and a half years ago, and I
write a few sentences every day. Hopefully
one day it’ll be a basis for a book on the
many roles I have played here!
What are you afraid of? The lack of empathy
in the world, and arriving at the tennis court
as it begins to rain.
What’s your idea of ultimate freedom? Blue
sky, one metre of fresh powder, tuned skis
and a long, untracked slope in front of me.
Take off!
What superpower would you like to have and
how would you use it? The power to heal
bodies, hearts and minds... and flying would
be cool, too.
What’s currently on your bedside table?
Scott Anderson’s Lawrence in Arabia: War,
Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the
Modern Middle East, Anthony Doerr’s All
the Light We Cannot See, my mobile, iPad, a
bottle of water and earplugs.
Your craziest Berlin adventure: A night
at Berghain with Claire Danes and Hugh
Dancy... That’s all I can say. What happens
at Berghain stays at Berghain! n
Emerson speaks at Women & Leadership:
The Path Ahead on Wed, Oct 12, 7pm at
the Volkswagen Group Forum.
The best/worst thing about
being a woman? Best: high
heels. Worst: high heels.
The most sexist question
you’ve ever been asked?
It’s too outrageous to
repeat here.
Who are you named
after? Kim Novak,
the famous American
actress from the 1950s.
Photo: Karolina Spolniewski
Last time you laughed out
loud? I look for the humour
in life, so my hearty laugh can be
heard frequently. A few days ago at
a cocktail party, my girlfriend asked a
server for a glass of champagne. He shook
his head and said, “No, we don’t have it.”
Then he winked and added: “I want some,
too!” That cracked me up. It’s so very Berlin.
An offer you can’t say no to? An invitation
to talk about Human Rights Watch... and
almost any opportunity to dance!
EXBERLINER 153
23
ADVERTORIAL — Shopping in Berlin
Iittala: Timeless Design
In the market for unique, beautiful houseware that will last a lifetime?
Look no further than Iittala, an outpost of Finnish and Nordic design
with three locations here in Berlin.
Upon entering Iittala’s flagship
German store, located on bustling
Friedrichstraße, you are met with
timeless elegance at every angle your curious
head might turn. The home accessories
that garnish the shelves ooze luxury.
They look almost too good to touch. But
be brave – get your fingers on those beautiful
bowls! In fact it’s their hardiness and
durability that’s the other half of the Iittala
charm. Because that’s the company philosophy:
designer home accessories that
will last a lifetime.
The company, named after the small
Finnish town where it was founded back
in 1881, is proud of its design heritage,
and shares this with its customers. With
each collection, you’ll find information
about the designer and the year of conception.
In fact, nearly all of their ranges
herald from the 20th century, proving
that the timelessness of the products continues
to transcend.
Products such as their famous Aalto
vase, this year celebrating its 80th
birthday, establish the company concept
perfectly. First designed in 1936 by architect
Alvar Aalto and inspired by Finnish
lakes, the vase is still mouth-blown in
the company’s factory in Finland. You
can even visit the factory and have a look
for yourself if you fancy the journey! The
vase is now their best-selling item, and
has grown to become a statement piece.
Below: Iittala’s famous
“Aalto” vase celebrates its
80th birthday this year.
24
ADVERTORIAL — Shopping in Berlin
Each year Iittala
re-releases the
vase, using bold,
tasteful colours to
reinvent the Aalto
again and again.
Above: Originally designed
in 1964, the Kastehelmi
Votive is still stylish.
Each year the company re-releases the vase,
using bold, tasteful colours to reinvent the Aalto
again and again.
Iittala’s mindfulness for the ‘right now’ is one
of the reasons why customers still put faith in
their products. Constantly staying true to their
designs while constantly making minimal changes
keeps them up-to-date. From their seasonal
ranges to their Moomin collection (featuring
Finland’s most famous cartoon export), Iittala
adapts to your wants and needs.
Torben Pahl, manager of Iittala’s Friedrichstraße
branch, told us of his own ‘love for the
Finnish work ethic, of creating and delivering a
good quality product that speaks for itself. Other
home accessory stores that have a long heritage
tend to stick to a traditional image.’ But Iittala
is very much aware of the 21st century, demonstrated
most recently through their collaboration
with Issey Miyake. The famed Japanese designer
has created an exclusive range of textiles and ceramics
that blend his own renowned design style
with Iittala eclecticism. The fusion of Japanese
feng shui with Nordic cool is elegance optimised!
Here in Berlin, they’re even having a party to
celebrate on October 29 (10am-7pm), with plenty
of Asian food to go around.
With three outlets here in Berlin alone (Friedrichstraße,
Münzstraße and KaDeWe), Iittala has
been promoting Nordic elegance in design since
it first opened doors here in Germany back in
2008. So indulge, and buy yourself something
that is more than just a product, but a concept
that has been building itself since 1881. n
Above: Torben Pahl, store manager, is passionate
about being involved with the Finnish brand.
Right: The flagship
store in Friedrichstraße
is a mecca
of Finnish design.
TEXT: VICTORIA BARNES. PHOTOS: KAROLINA SPOLNIEWSKI
25
WHAT’S ON — How Berlin Got The Blues
HOW BERLIN
GOT THE BLUES
Interview
Film and concert,
Oct 12, 20:00, Babylon
Kino, Mitte
The blues propagandist
Eb Davis in six dates
1943: Born in Elaine,
Arkansas.
1954: Moves to
Memphis and starts
playing music.
1966: Moves to
New York City to
continue his blues
career.
1981: Sent to West
Berlin by the US
military.
1986: Starts playing
music and lecturing
in East Germany.
1994: After leaving
the army, forms the
Eb Davis Superband
in Berlin.
In Cold War Berlin, Arkansas-born musician and
military communications officer Ebylee “Eb” Davis
was sent on special expeditions behind the Wall.
His mission? To bring East Berliners the blues.
By René Blixer. Additional reporting by Dani Arbid.
Davis’ unique story is told in
the new documentary How
Berlin Got The Blues. Victoria
Luther’s film sees its European
premiere at Babylon on October 12,
followed by a concert from the man
himself, now 73 and performing
with his “Superband”. The singer sat
down with us at his house in Zehlendorf
where he lives with his German
wife Nina, a blues pianist herself.
How did you get into the blues?
The first time I heard blues, it was
back home in Arkansas. I was maybe
six or seven years old. There was a
guy living next door to us. He was a
guitar player, singer. I’d come home
from school and he’d be sitting out
there playing, singing... I went to the
house and asked my mother what
he was playing because I’d only ever
heard gospel or country music, and
it didn’t touch me like what he was
doing. She said, “Well, that’s blues,
you stay away from that.”
What was it that touched you so
much? The church was singing
about the pie in the sky, and this
guy was singing, you know, the
pie in the sky is good, but I want
a piece of pie now, with some ice
cream on top of it. That got me
more. And then I moved to Memphis,
and there were guys like BB
King just hanging around... There
was another guy who was a preacher,
but a blues singer at night. One
time I told him, “I’ve been taught
that you can’t serve on both sides.”
And he said, “Boy, let me tell you
something. There is no big difference
between gospel and the blues,
only the words.” The preacher gets
up and says “Oh God.” Then when
you’re singing the blues it’s “Oh
baby.” It’s the same thing. It’s the
yearning.
But then you joined the army, at
16, even lying about your age to
get in. How come? Back then you’d
get drafted, and then you had no
choice, they just put you somewhere.
If you volunteered, though,
they gave you some choices. So I
chose New Mexico, and I did music
at the same time – I had a band
in the army. When I finished with
those three years, I went back to
Memphis and went full time with
the music. There was a record producer
who took me to New York. I
put together a band there, The Soul
Groovers – we were the house band
at his club in Brooklyn for quite
a while. But then came the disco
boom, and that put us out of work.
All the people said, “Why should I
pay all this money for a band when
I can pay one guy just to stand
there?” Disco killed live music. So I
went back into the military.
26
EXBERLINER 153
WHAT’S ON — How Berlin Got The Blues
And that’s when you got sent to West
Berlin... I didn’t want to come to Berlin!
I wanted to go into southern Germany! I
said, it’s a divided city, behind the Wall and
all that stuff. But they said, who asked you?
What did you do here, officially? I got
hired by this unit called the United States
Liaison Mission. It was an interesting unit
because it was the only unit where the
military could cross over the Glienicke
Bridge, now called the Bridge of Spies
[between the American Sector in Wannsee
and Potsdam in East Germany]. We had
what’s called a safe house there in the East
– the Russians had theirs in West Germany.
I was just working as a reports civilian. The
guys would go out and get the information,
and I would be one of the people who would
type it up. We had one guy review it, then it
would be transferred over to Langley, to DC.
What was it like to be an African American
in Berlin at the time? It was fantastic!
When I first came I met a lot of older people,
older Germans, and they would explain
the love that they had for black Americans.
Back when they were kids the city was
totally destroyed and they had nothing, so
they’d go up to the US military compounds
to see if they could get something. They
said only the black guys would give them
food – the white guys would chase them
away, throw rocks at them. But that was
back then. Of course, the younger ones
don’t remember anything like that today.
You started playing music with a German
group called the Bayou Blues Band... Yeah
it was a nine-piece with horns and stuff
like that. The bandleader made yearly trips
to New Orleans... they’d done their homework!
I sat in with them one night, and
after that he said, “We’ve been looking for
someone like you.” So I started doing the
military thing by day and working the West
Berlin club circuit at night. The majority of
the people at the shows were Germans and
for a lot of them it was just curiosity, to see
a black American doing blues.
Whose idea was it to send you to East
Germany? I was approached by the State
Department, but who exactly invited me,
I don’t know. They just said, we notice
you speak pretty good, so we would like
you to go to some of the universities and
give speeches about American culture and
stuff like that, and then you play a little
bit of music after. The first one I did was
at a university in Halle. Did something at
Humboldt, in Leipzig as well. Days before
the Wall came down, I was playing at Palast
der Republik.
OCTOBER 2016
“I knew why I was sent
there. They were all told,
‘America is this, America
is that, black people are
still slaves.’ I was used to
counteract that.”
Did you know you were being used as a
political tool? I knew why I was sent there.
They were all told, “America is this, America
is that, black people are still slaves.” I was
used to counteract that. I told my boss, “Sir,
if you think that I’m smart enough that you
put me in this job, don’t you think I’m also
smart enough to figure out why y’all sending
me all over the East?” He said, “Well, you
know, my orders come from above, too.” But
for me it was okay. It was exciting.
So was it okay with the East Germans
for you to cross over to play? I couldn’t
just say “I’m going over.” It had to be approved,
of course. When I went over to a
gig I always had to have one American and
two Russian escorts. They would stay there
the whole time, and when the gig was over
they would escort me back to the border to
make sure I stepped over the line without
speaking to anybody.
Did they like the music? Some of them did.
But you couldn’t really tell because there
would be some head sergeant or something
standing in front, and when you finished
a song the guy would go like this [lifts up
hands] and then like this [brings hands
down]. Then you’d play the next song. They
were told when to applaud. The guy would
give the applause signal.
What happened to your unit after the
Wall came down? Well, they didn’t have any
use for us anymore, so they were giving people
money to leave. They called me into the
office and asked me, “Do you want to take
your chance and stay in, or take the money
and run? If you stay in, we might throw you
out anyway.” I said, “Okay, I like money.”
Why did you decide to stay in Berlin? I
was quite established in the music scene
here. Plus, I was getting a lot of offers from
Switzerland, Sweden, France, Spain... I
thought I could always go back once a year
for a gig in the US, and that’s what we normally
do now. But Berlin is the home base.
In the United States they don’t see blues as
an art form; here, they do. n
From Sep. 15th
to October 16th
office
for postidentical
living
(Büro für postidentisches Leben)
A Speculation about Freedom
A German-Spanish-Catalan
team under the direction of
Matthias Rebstock is opening
an OFFICE FOR POST-
IDENTICAL LIVING: here,
seven young creative people
will develop surprising
questions and answers to
what keeps us together at
our core: freedom, borders
and identity.
In English, German and
Spanish – with German
surtitles
neukoellneroper.de
Karl-Marx-Str. 131–133
D-12043 Berlin
Tel.: 030 / 68 89 07 77
tickets@neukoellneroper.de
WHAT’S ON — Film
Editor’s Choice
Secrets and lies
A trio of this month’s releases are built around fiercely
guarded truths and acts of deception. By Paul O’Callaghan
Frantz
Greats by Garrel
All month, Arsenal
presents the first
German retrospective
of work by the French
master Philippe
Garrel, including
collaborations with
Warhol superstar
Nico, his muse and
former partner.
Cult Kung Fu
Fresh from his appearance
at Comic
Con Berlin, legendary
martial artist Taimak
will introduce the film
that made his name,
1985 cult classic The
Last Dragon. Oct 21,
Babylon Kino
A visit from Wenders
On Oct 11, none other
than Wim Wenders
will head to Lichtblick
Kino to introduce
a newly restored
version of his sublime
1977 neo-noir The
American Friend.
European Art Cinema Day
On Oct 9, over 1000
cinemas across Europe
will celebrate the
diversity of European
film with a programme
of previews, old
favourites and kids’
films. Participating
Berlin venues include
every member of the
Yorck group.
Adrien (Pierre Niney), the
mysterious stranger at the
heart of François Ozon’s
lavish period melodrama Frantz,
harbours an all-consuming secret.
The young Frenchman’s arrival in a
small German town arouses intrigue
and hostility among residents still
processing the fallout of World War
I. The plot thickens when local girl
Anna (Paula Beer) spots Adrien
leaving flowers on the grave of her
late fiancé. Those familiar with
Ozon’s back catalogue might think
they know exactly where this is
heading, but after a spot of wilful
misdirection, it becomes apparent
that this is an instance of the
queer auteur playing it straight. By
confiding in Anna, Adrien partially
alleviates his own guilt, but makes
his secret her cross to bear.
Loosely based on Ernst Lubitsch’s
Broken Lullaby, the film
does a fine job of evoking the stiff
formality and repressed emotion of
a bygone era. But despite a nuanced
central performance from Beer,
the filmmaking is too mannered
and meticulous to allow much of
an emotional connection. Heavyhanded
visual motifs and a syrupy
string score push things further
towards middlebrow mediocrity.
Perhaps most damaging of all, it’s
nigh-on impossible to watch this
monochrome portrait of early-20thcentury
Germany without thinking
back to Michael Haneke’s infinitely
more daring The White Ribbon.
While Adrien’s motives for
guarding his secret are understandable,
the same can’t be said for Edward
Ruscha, the enigmatic subject
of Where is Rocky II? In 1979, the
revered American artist created a
sculpture of a boulder – the “Rocky
II” of the title – and hid it in the
Mojave Desert, where it would be
impossible to spot among real rock
formations. Fellow artist Pierre
Bismuth (see page 30) was fascinated
to find that, decades later,
Ruscha was completely unwilling
to discuss the project. That discovery
planted the seed for this deviously
slippery quasi-documentary,
which sees Bismuth hire a cleancut
private detective to locate the
rock, and a pair of screenwriters
to speculate wildly about what
Ruscha might have to hide.
Bismuth is best known as the
Oscar-winning co-writer of Michel
Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless
Mind, and Gondry’s influence
can be felt all over the relentlessly
idiosyncratic Swiss Army Man. The
striking feature debut by Dan Kwan
and Daniel Scheinert has become
one of the year’s most-discussed
indie films thanks to its outlandish
premise – a man named Hank
(Paul Dano) stranded on a desert
island discovers a flatulent corpse
(Daniel Radcliffe), rides it like a jetski
to safety, and befriends it once
it magically stirs back to life. The
big narrative-driving secret here is
Hank’s back story: for the majority
of the time, we’re offered no explanation
as to how he ended up in
such dire circumstances. The film's
flashes of inspired originality are too
often outweighed by an irritating
tendency towards whimsy, but once
Hank is forced to confront his own
past, the darker final scenes pack an
unexpected punch. For once, that
hoary critic’s cliché bears some truth
– you’ve never seen something quite
like this before. n
Starts Sep 29 Frantz HH D: François Ozon (France, Germany 2016)
with Paula Beer, Pierre Niney | Starts Oct 13 Swiss Army Man HHH D:
Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert (USA 2016) with Paul Dano, Daniel Radcliffe |
Starts Oct 20 Where is Rocky II? HHHH D: Pierre Bismuth (France, Germany,
Belgium, Italy 2016) documentary
28
EXBERLINER 153
WHAT’S ON — Film
Review
Notes On Blindness
Worth a thousand words
Documentary festival Doku.Arts returns
with a focus on game-changing essay films.
One of the most reliably compelling shindigs in the Berlin
film calendar is back for a landmark 10th instalment, under
the moniker “Essaydox” and with video essays on the
mind. The fest opens strong with the acclaimed Note on Blindness,
a compassionate, formally daring work which takes the personal
audio recordings of the late Australian theologian John Hull, who
went blind at the age of 45, and brings them to the screen via lipsynched
actors and evocative cinematography. Also screening Oct
7 and 11, it’ll be accompanied by English-language narration for
blind audience members and even its own VR app. Closing night
selection Beyond Zero: 1914-1918, the latest by film archaeologist
Bill Morrison, arranges damaged footage from WWI to Aleksandra
Vrebalov’s disjointed string compositions, using the degradation
of celluloid to remind us of the otherworldly trauma of war. In
between these tentpole screenings, check out an examination of
Samuel Beckett’s foray into filmmaking (Notfilm: a Kino-Essay by
Ross Lipman); a riveting account of ethnographer Ella Maillart’s
1939 journey to Afghanistan (Ella Maillart – Double Journey); and a
master class with late American auteur Sidney Lumet (By Sidney
Lumet)... and so much more! — Rory O'Connor
Doku.Arts Oct 6-23 Zeughauskino, Mitte
Peter Middleton/James Spinney
Preview
Tear jerkers
The PornFilmFestival is back, and it's
time to get out the tissues.
Not like that, you perv – you'll need the Kleenex for the
touching, troubling features on offer this year, from the
explicit yet heartwarming Berlinale fave Théo & Hugo to Todd
Verow’s heartbreaking tale of artists, gentrification and
loneliness (co-starring Penny Arcade!), This Side of Heaven,
to Europe, She Loves, a take on intimacy during economic
hardship. Documentaries also tug at the soft spots, even for
terrifying reasons, like the excellent Chemsex, about gay sex
and hard drugs. For long-term hope, gay old-age docs Sex and
the Silver Gays and Desert Migration will do the trick. What of
“porn” porn? The feminists are in your face with opening film
The Bedroom and Michelle Flynn’s Momentum Vol. 4. Three
focusses take centre stage: AIDS, racial politics and, uh, virtual
reality! A host of lectures, workshops and a party are all there
to stimulate hearts, minds and crotches, so don’t miss out.
Full preview at exberliner.com. — Walter Crasshole
PornFilmFestival Oct 26-30 Kino Moviemento, Kreuzberg
OCTOBER 2016
Brussels-based artist Pierre Bismuth on his playful
and confounding quasi-documentary Where is Rocky II?
By Paul O’Callaghan
WHAT’S ON — Film
“It was not my intention to
do something this weird!”
Saint Amour
D: Benoît Delépine,
Gustave de Kervern
(France, Belgium, 2016)
HHH
The directors of
Mammuth return with
this broad, silly and
surprisingly touching
riff on Alexander
Payne’s Sideways,
featuring Gérard Depardieu's
strongest
performance in years
as an ageing farmer
trying to reconnect
with his feckless son.
Starts Oct 13.
Sausage Party
D: Conrad Vernon, Greg
Tiernan (USA, 2016)
HH
This outlandish
animated tale of sentient
edibles realising
their grim fate offers
a few surprisingly
smart laughs, but
soon gets stuck in a
profanity cul-de-sac.
Starts Oct 6.
What happened to Edward
Ruscha’s 1979 sculpture
of a boulder hidden in
California's Mojave Desert, and why
is Ruscha so secretive about the
project now? Bismuth attempts to
find out in a film that deftly explores
the way secrets and intangible truths
stoke the fires of creativity.
When did you first learn about
“Rocky II”? I first read about it in
2006, and I soon realised that no
one in the art world knew about the
piece. I persuaded a friend of mine
to ask Ed Ruscha about it, but Ed
really didn’t want to discuss it. So I
thought that was extremely weird. In
2009 I went to London to confront
Ed directly during a press conference.
I felt that if I made the film
without evidence, nobody would
believe the piece existed. The confrontation
was perfect, because you
can see the surprise in his eyes – he’s
taken aback by the fact that I know
about it. That was exactly what I
needed to start the movie.
How did you envisage your film at
that point? The initial project was
an art movie, a slow journey into
the desert to look for something
that was impossible to find. Then I
moved towards the idea of a documentary,
but I found myself simultaneously
moving away from the conventions
of the form. The finished
film is really about the different
regime of reality we’re confronted
with in TV and film. I’d noticed
that filmmakers often have to add
signs of reality to make the audience
believe that something‘s genuine. I
decided to respect the documentary
methology of unscripted events, but
hide the signs of reality where possible.
Would the audience still perceive
it as true, or would we destroy
the feeling of authenticity? That was
the game I wanted to play.
And why decide to depict screenwriters
creating fiction based on
the story? There were two questions
I wanted answers to – where is the
piece, and why did this artist decide
to create something that was totally
invisible? When I started casting for
the detective, I found people who’d
be able to find the piece, but wouldn’t
necessarily be able to answer the question
of meaning. Because the private
detective is such a common cinematic
element, I realised I already had one
foot in the film world. That led me to
think that the best people to explore
the meaning would be screenwriters.
What was it about Michael Scott
that won him the private detective
role? The main reason is that he was
very square! He’s an ex-army officer
and ex-policeman, totally overqualified
for the job. I liked the fact that
he made no judgement about the
case – he didn’t think it was stupid.
Did you know in advance that
you’d be pairing him up with Jim
Ganzer, the founder of skate brand
Jimmy’z and inspiration for The
Dude in The Big Lebowski? The
way it appears in the film is exactly
how it was. Michael really wanted
to find Jim after flying to London
and watching him in an old BBC
documentary about Ruscha. And Jim
turned out to be this totally amazing
character. What I didn’t expect is
that Michael would somehow fall in
love with him – it was great to watch.
Was it always your goal to make
something this unusual? To be
honest, I just thought I was making
a documentary with a little twist. It
was not my intention to do something
this weird! The strange thing
is if you try and explain the film,
it sounds like something that not
many people would be interested in.
But the reaction we’ve seen at festivals
is that audiences find it very
entertaining and easy to follow. n
Welcome to Norway!
D: Rune Denstad Langlo
(Norway, 2016)
HHHH
This wonderfully wry
migrant crisis comedy
follows the exploits
of a casually racist
wannabe entrepreneur
as he attempts
to convert his family’s
hotel into a refugee
centre. Starts Oct 13.
30
EXBERLINER 153
WHAT’S ON — Film
Reviews
his motley crew on a road trip through the
backwaters of the Midwest, with a 16-seater
van as their vessel, and a soundtrack
that spans country, rock, hip-hop and
Rihanna to carry them along. Working once
again with masterly cinematographer Robbie
Ryan, Arnold forges her own raw brand
of Americana and, in the process, delivers
perhaps the freshest film about young
people in America since Larry Clark’s Kids
in 1995. A triumph. — ROC
Starts Oct 20
Parched
Starts Sep 29
War Dogs
D: Todd Phillips (USA 2016) with Jonah Hill,
Miles Teller
HHH
Based on a true story first published in
Rolling Stone, War Dogs tells the tale of
two bros who lie, scam and skew their
moral compasses to become big-money
arms dealers for troops in post-9/11 Iraq
and Afghanistan. Phillips (The Hangover)
breaks new ground by helming an amorality
tale that nakedly yearns to be this
generation’s Goodfellas: a crime drama
about the warped pursuit of the American
Dream, laced with slick comedic beats
and voiceover narration. He emulates but
fails to equal Scorsese’s significantly more
ambitious efforts – the film frequently feels
devoid of substance, and lacks insight
into how governments and corporations
benefit from conflict. Thankfully, Jonah
Hill justifies the price of admission, stealing
the show with his larger-than-life, scenerychewing
turn as a progressively sinister
antihero. — David Mouriquand
Starts Oct 13
American Honey
D: Andrea Arnold (USA 2016) with Sasha Lane,
Shia LaBeouf
HHHHH
Arnold wrestles with the American Dream
in this seductive head-rush of a road
movie, her first film set Stateside. Star
(newcomer Sasha Lane) is a young woman
stuck in a bad relationship and a nowhere
town, until she meets Jake (Shia LaBeouf),
the enigmatic, Bill Sikes-esque ringleader
of a gang of teenage outcasts who sell
dodgy magazine subscriptions. Star joins
OCTOBER 2016
Théo & Hugo
D: Olivier Ducastel, Jacques Martineau
(France 2015) with Geoffrey Couët, François
Nambot
HHH
You don’t even realise how deep-rooted
our Disney-enforced notions of romance
are until you see the titular heroes of this
sizzling film d’amour lock eyes for the first
time. The connection is unmistakable, but
the context seems all wrong. Kudos to the
director duo for opening their 90-minute
movie with a near 20-minute orgy in the
basement of a gay sex club, where reason
is drowned out by lust and no names are
involved. Can there be love? Thanks to
skilled, candid writing addressing the proud
but lonely post-AIDS generation, the affirmative
answer doesn’t feel lazy or sugarcoated.
If anything, it’s characterised by a
tenaciously uncynical tone of voice which,
despite recognising the elusive quest for
happily-ever-afters, wouldn’t trade anything
for the ride. — Zhuo-Ning Su
Starts Oct 27
Parched
D: Leena Yadav (India, UK, USA 2015) with
Tannishtha Chatterjee, Radhika Apte, Surveen
Chawla, Lehar Khan
HHH
Filmed on location in the dust-swept
deserts of Rajasthan, Parched is a powerful
portrait of four women – mother and
widow Rani (Chatterjee), childless Lajjo
(Apte), dancer and prostitute Bijli (Chawla)
and Rani’s new daughter-in-law Janaki
(Khan) – taking on patriarchy in rural India.
Set against the (male) village elders, drunk
abusive husbands and a new generation
of angry young men, Leena Yadav’s film
puts female emancipation firmly in the
hands of women as, through the character
of Rani, the endless cycle of loveless
marriages and conjugal rape is called into
question. It’s brash in its schemata of
abuse and exploitation, and sometimes
clumsy in its broad-stroke storytelling.
Nevertheless, Parched packs a punch with
its superb performances, moments of
intimacy and life-affirming league of ladies
defying convention. — Mark Wilshin
Intro, ByteFM & KulturNews präsentieren:
SEKUOIA
Di. 18.10. Einlass 19:00 Prince Charles
virtualnights.com präsentiert:
twocolors
Do. 17.11. Einlass 20:00 Prince Charles
CON BRIO
Mo. 05.12. Einlass 19:00 Maschinenhaus
NICOLAS JAAR
Fr. 09.12. Einlass 19:00 Columbiahalle
Faze, KulturNews & ByteFM präsentieren:
SHOBALEADER ONE
Do. 30.03.2017 Einlass 19:00 Berghain
Infos unter www.mct-agentur.com
tickets > www.tickets.de und 030-6110 1313
verlegt auf
Thu Sep 29 // Maschinenhaus // 8 pm
PATRICIA VONNE
sin city actress & sister of director Robert Rodriguez
with her own mix of tex mex and desert roots rock
Wed Oct 12 // Kesselhaus // 8 pm
MAGMA
the French prog rock pioneers
Fri Oct 14 // Kesselhaus // 8 pm
FEUERENGEL
a tribute to Rammstein
Thu Oct 27 // Maschinenhaus // 8 pm
BÊ IGNACIO
with brand new album “Tropical Soul”
Sun Nov 13 // Kesselhaus // 8 pm
BILLY COBHAM
the drumming jazz icon in concert
Sat Nov 26 // Kesselhaus // 8 pm
SCALA & KOLACNY BROTHERS
20 years SCALA – the stage anniversary
TICKETS 030 44 31 51 00 // WWW.KESSELHAUS.NET
WHAT’S ON — Music
Editor’s Choice
Scheiß auf deutsche Texte!
Don’t know your der from your das? Time to brush up
on Germany’s top native-tongue talents. By Michael Hoh
Doctorella
Music news
Reenacting Fichte
From his ethnopoetic
travelogues to his infamous
book reading at
Hamburg’s Star Club,
HKW celebrates literary
pop star Hubert
Fichte’s work with a
series of films, talks
and performances at
ACUD. Oct 1, 17:00
Better than selfies
Between Oct 9 and
Dec 31, Harald Weiss’
composition Vor dem
Verstummen (“Before
Silence Falls”), which
premiered inside the
Holocaust Memorial in
2008, will be available
again via smartphone
app for visitors to
listen to on-site.
Ode to Joy
On their fourth album
Joy, Berlin’s multigenre
wizards Brandt
Brauer Frick once
again infuse their
analogue roots with
digital concoctions
mutually suited for
concert halls and club
venues. Out Oct 28.
You’ve been attending the
odd Stereo Total gig and you
know an entire verse of “99
Luftballons”, but you’re still hesitant
to go see some local acts because of
possible language barriers? Disregarding
Die Sterne’s advice “Scheiß
auf deutsche Texte” (“Don’t give a shit
about German lyrics”), you’re missing
out on a world of good music if
you limit yourself to lyrics auf Englisch.
Worry not: with these bands,
you won’t need a B2 certificate to
enjoy the show.
Starting out as Die Kleingeldprinzessin
(“small change princess”)
playing solo gigs in the streets in
the early 2000s, Berlin-based singer
Dota has been spreading her highly
dense poetics for the past decade.
Even if you don’t understand what
her lyrics mean, you’ll surely notice
her expressive and rhythmic rhyme
patterns, whether coated with
electro pop, folk, bossa nova or, as at
her Volksbühne gig, backed up with a
band and a string ensemble.
Also from Berlin, Sandra and Kerstin
Grether have been leaving their
mark on the German pop discourse
since the 1990s, as avid advocates of
(pop) feminism with riot grrrl influences
aplenty. Apart from their pro-
LGBTQ rights single “Testosteron,
Get It On!”, their joint music project
Doctorella concentrates more on the
lighter side of things (compared to,
let’s say, Sandra’s former band Parole
Trixi), which will make it easier
for you to let lyrics be lyrics. The
attitude alone is worth checking out.
Trickier to get for non-Germans
will be PeterLicht, taking the stage
at Theater am Ku’damm the same
day. No less political than the
Grethers, he appeared on screen
with his existential, synth-heavy debut
single “Sonnendeck” in 2001, and
turned from indie pop sensation
to Feuilleton darling in a heartbeat.
Known for his penchant for poetics,
he conquered the literary world by
winning the Ingeborg Bachmann
Prize in 2007 for his novella The
History of My Assessment at the
Beginning of the Third Millennium.
Between that and albums like Lieder
vom Ende des Kapitalismus (“Songs
about the end of capitalism”), he
skilfully bridges the gaps between
übercool, high culture and political
statement – which you might not
guess from his sometimes cheesy
arrangements. Lyrics vary from
deliberately simplistic to cunningly
complex, so there’s something for
every skill level.
So much for the old school. Let’s
take a look at some of Germany’s
up-and-coming talents whose albums
are fresh off the printing press.
When he’s not manically strumming
his guitar on stage with the Stuttgart
noise-rock combo Die Nerven, Max
Rieger certainly seems to enjoy a
bit of gloomy introspection. After
three successful Nerven albums, he
decided to go solo under the moniker
of All diese Gewalt, boasting a
dense and droning post-punk palette
with brooding vocals. Catch him
live on his first ever-tour with his
debut Welt in Klammern (“World in
Braces”) at Roter Salon.
Meanwhile, fellow noise-rockers
Friends of Gas have been doing the
toilet tours for about two years
now. With their debut album Fatal
Schwach (“Fatally weak”) out on Staat-sakt
on Oct 28, they’re due to skyrocket
in no time. And if you need
a little break from all the Deutsche
Texte but aren’t ready to toss out
your textbook yet, this might be
your best choice: frontwoman Nina
Walser sings almost half the band’s
songs in English. ■
Dota Sun, Oct 9, 20:00 Volksbühne, Mitte | Doctorella Fri, Oct 21, 20:00 Monarch,
Kreuzberg | PeterLicht Fri, Oct 21, 20:00 Theater am Kufürstendamm,
Charlottenburg | All diese Gewalt Mon, Oct 24, 20:00 Roter Salon, Mitte |
Friends of Gas Sat, Oct 29, 20:00 West Germany, Kreuzberg
32
EXBERLINER 153
WHAT’S ON — Music
Preview
Bringing buzuk back
Radwan Ghazi Moumneh of Montreal audiovisual
duo Jerusalem In My Heart on his love
affair with the Middle Eastern instrument.
The root of everything we do is something I composed on the
buzuk, even the crazy electronic stuff. The buzuk’s pretty
much been our source of inspiration – and frustration,
because of my sometimes limited ability to translate ideas properly
onto the instrument. Music is not a thing in our family. I didn’t play
instruments; I knew nothing about it. So, the buzuk seemed like the
one Middle Eastern instrument that I could pick up, compared to say
an oud or a violin or a ney where you have to have formal training.
The instrument itself isn’t really common. It’s very much a
shepherd’s instrument; very basic and lute-like. People always
play it in informal settings. In a typical Middle Eastern orchestra,
you’d never see a buzuk. The Rahbani Brothers, both very accomplished
composers [and playwrights], brought the buzuk back
into popular culture in the 1960s. I remember seeing one of their
plays on TV. The sound was so thin and wiry, and the guy was just
improvising on it. It sounded so beautiful to me.
On stage, I have my buzuk that I got custom-made here in Montreal,
this crazy pedal board with granular delays, pedals that cut
up the sound and a device that converts pitch to midi. Basically
I’m playing all these electronic synthesizers with my buzuk. The
instrument becomes like a tool more than a musical instrument.
So, my relationship with it is constantly changing. — MH
Jerusalem in My Heart Thu, Oct 20, 19:00
Ehemaliges Stummfilmkino Delphi, Weißensee
Clubbing
Black Lives Matter Soli-Party
Berlin’s queer, feminist and sex-positive clubbing collectives,
from Mint to Berries, come together to raise money
for Berlin black initiatives at Schwuz. Oct 2, 23:00
Trade
Seeking some mid-week club action? Merge on the
dance floor on Wednesdays at Ohm. Turning from zero to
cutting-edge in a year, Trade presents Jay Boogie, Rasuul
and Luke Isaac this month. Oct 5, 21:00
BeatGeeks WKND SPCL
The fifth edition of this producer-focussed hip hop shindig
at Gretchen sees performances by Dexter, KevBeats
(K.I.Z. producer) and a first: up-and-comer Bluestaeb
complete with band. Oct 14-16, 20:00
OCTOBER 2016
ryan sheridan
very special guest: mrs. greenbird
08.10.16 · Columbia Theater
red fang
+ torche
12.10.16 · Huxleys
watsky
+ jez dior
14.10.16 · Bi Nuu
soja
Jospeh Yarmush
14.10.16 · PBHFCLUB
daughter
+ dan croll
14.10.16 · Columbiahalle
all them witches
+ the great machine
15.10.16 · White Trash
søren juul
16.10.16 · Grüner Salon
toseland
17.10.16 · Musik & Frieden
jaimi faulkner + band
+ belle roscoe
17.10.16 · Auster Club
the mahones
23.10.16 · Musik & Frieden
jamie lidell and
the royal pharaohs
23.10.16 · Astra Kulturhaus
seasick steve
24.10.16 · PBHFCLUB
julia jacklin
24.10.16 · Maze
jay brannan
25.10.16 · Privatclub
drowners
+ the esprits
25.10.16 · Maze
bear‘s den
+ matthew & the atlas
26.10.16 · Huxleys
the album leaf
27.10.16 · Bi Nuu
the low anthem
+ christopher paul stelling
30.10.16 · Lido
white lies
+ the ramona flowers
31.10.16 · Huxleys
loyle carner
31.10.16 · Lido
silversun pickups
+ pærish
01.11.16 · Columbia Theater
adam green
01.11.16 · Musik & Frieden
lucky chops
02.11.16 · Huxleys
allah-las
02.11.16 · PBHCLUB
doug seegers
03.11.16 · Privatclub
john grant
+ arc iris
03.11.16 · Berghain
slaves
06.11.16 · Frannz
jeremy loops
07.11.16 · PBHFCLUB
jamie t
07.11.16 · Astra Kulturhaus
donavon
frankenreiter
08.11.16 · White Trash
la pegatina
09.11.16 · Lido
iamx
09.11.16 · Heimathafen Neukölln
banks & steelz
14.11.16 · PBHFCLUB
www.trinitymusic.de
the lumineers
+ bahamas
15.11.16 · Tempodrom
the cadillac three
+ tyler bryant & the shakedown
15.11.16 · Frannz
katie melua
16.11.16 · Admiralspalast
archive
+ dr(dr)one
21.11.16 · Admiralspalast
saxon
+ last in line + girlschool
22.11.16 · Huxleys
bizarre ride ii
the pharcyde live
25.11.16 · Cassiopeia
kari bremnes
25.11.16 · Columbia Theater
bastille
+ rationale
25.11.16 · Max-Schmeling-Halle
outlandish
30.11.16 · Bi Nuu
abc
14.12.16 · Huxleys
lindsey stirling
09.03.17 · Max-Schmeling-Halle
WHAT’S ON — Music
Interview
“We had trouble removing a ‘cunt’.”
Hyper-literate Norwegian musician Jenny Hval brings her mix
of experimental pop, performance art and feminist body horror
to Berghain Kantine on October 26. By Rachel Glassberg
Don’t miss
DAT Festival
Noise DJs, experimental
beatmakers
and other electroacoustic
weirdos get
together at Kesselhaus
for workshops
and general merriment.
Expect sets
from T.Raumschmiere,
Peter Knoll, Xing and
more. Oct 7-9, 19:00
Angel Olsen
The indie-folker’s
latest release My
Woman is a peppier
follow-up to 2014’s
excellent countrytinged
Burn Your
Fire for No Witness.
She’ll bring her more
upbeat effort to Columbia
Theater. Oct
25, 20:00
Noura Mint Seymali
Hailed as the voice
to bring Mauritania to
the musical forefront,
Noura Mint Seymali
draws on Moorish
tradition and psychedelic
rock. She stops
by Lido to tour her
new album Arbina.
Oct 27, 20:00
Kelly Lee Owens
Coming to Kantine
am Berghain, the
London-based
singer-songwriter/
producer is preparing
to release her new
EP Oleic, an eclectic
collection of dreamy,
ambient-inspired
gems. Oct 30, 20:00
Latest album Blood Bitch (Sacred
Bones) takes on menstruation
and vampirism to
a soundtrack of Gothic organ lines,
motorik beats and spoken-word
collages. Like any Hval record, it
requires careful lyrical unpacking,
so much so that to prepare for our
interview, we made a word map
connecting Blood Bitch’s themes
and references: “vagina”, “desire”,
“Adam Curtis”, “Tilda Swinton”. We
showed it to her.
Be honest: is any of this on point?
“Dogs”! “Cake”, nice. Well, this
looks like what I do. I make these
when I write an album, or when we
record. I have walls filled with this
stuff. Let me show you... [pulls up a
smartphone photo] Ah, it’s mostly
in Norwegian. But there’s “Europe”.
“Jess Franco”. “Antonioni”. I wrote
this for the press release, probably,
but some of these were there early,
as a sort of conceptual framework
before we started recording. “Club”
would’ve been there. “No social
commentary”. “Getting lost”. “Eternal
life” – I’m interested in eternal
life as a club rhythm, something that
feels like it comes out of forever and
goes on forever.
So you interpret your lyrics after
you’ve written them? A lot of the
more clear themes came after the
album was finished. While I was
writing and recording it, it was more
about just wanting to explore things,
seeing what the word “blood” would
do in a lyric that otherwise would’ve
seemed like social commentary. Put
in drips of the supernatural. Take
“Female Vampire”. The title, the fact
that it’s about a mysterious vampire
world, allowed me to write the lyric
“I’m so tired of subjectivity”. It’s not
just me in my regular clothes, saying,
“I’m so tired of subjectivity, guys!”
Is [co-producer] Lasse Marhaug
involved in your writing process?
Yeah, we decide things like: Should
I say “blood” here? How do we
remove the “cunt” from this lyric?
We had one song, “Conceptual
Romance”, where we had trouble
removing a “cunt”. It was where
“blood bitch” is now. We were trying
to move out of the more explicit
language and into a more mysterious
investigation.
It’s like the opposite of your last
album, Apocalypse Girl, which gets
quite explicit – “soft dick rock”
and all that. It is. That time we
wanted to work with something raw,
and dry. There are several songs on
that album with no reverb, which is
quite unusual for a recorded piece. It
doesn’t sound very natural.
If that one’s dry, this one’s... wet?
It’s very wet.
How will you capture that onstage?
Fake blood? No, I’ve already
done that a lot. I think that was actually
an inspiration for the album, the
fact that I’ve been covered in blood
paint so much. Lasse and I kept discussing
Carrie. It’s a wonderful and
“That was actually
an inspiration for the
album, the fact that
I’ve been covered in
blood paint so much.”
34
EXBERLINER 153
WHAT’S ON — Music
terrible way to embody what’s inside on
the outside: what if you were menstruating
all over yourself?
Festival
Inga Copeland
You didn’t want to be photographed
during this interview. Why not? Casual
photo shoots – I understand why they’re
necessary, but I find it very hard to give
something that’s meant to be “natural”
and “me”, when I don’t know what
“natural” and “me” is. Photography, to
me, is a medium that’s lying. I kind of
agree with the Australian aborigines...
That we’re stealing your soul? Exactly!
Except you’re not, because you’re
capturing what you think is the soul,
but it’s just the surface. So I’m critical
of the overuse of photos. I’m a media
critic, and that’s very hard to combine
with being an artist. I’m a media critic
when I can have distance, sit at home
and be like, “Grr!” [imitates pounding
on computer keyboard]. We call it
“thunder speech” in Norwegian. But
then when I actually meet a journalist, I
want to be that nice person... I think the
best way for me to handle the situation
is to see it as surrendering, as a ritual.
You and I are having a ritual. I don’t
want to try to control your piece – I’d
rather go work on my songs and say
something with music.
Jenny Hval Oct 26, 20:00
Berghain Kantine, Friedrichshain
Tips
Classical
Internationales Klangkunstfest
Get a healthy dose of contemporary
classical with exhibitions, sound walks
and interactive performances at
Bibliothek am Luisenbad in Wedding.
Oct 6-8, 19:00
Arnold Dreyblatt Ensemble
With Dreyblatt, the second generation
of New York minimal composers
makes an appearance at the BKA Theater’s
club concert series together
with The Orchestra of Excited Strings.
Oct 21, 23:30
Trio Mondrian
Trio Mondrian juxtaposes Piano Trio Op.
87 by Johannes Brahms with Diverging
Roads, a new piece by Gilad Hochman,
as part of the ID Festival at Radialsystem
V (see page 42). Oct 22, 18:30
Creamcake’s crop
Looking for some arty
with your party? The 3hd
festival won’t disappoint.
Always leaning toward the abstract
when they’re not bumping Beyonce,
Berlin party organisers Creamcake
launched the first-ever 3hd Festival last year,
an explosion of music, visual art and talks
billed as a “new breed” of festival. This year
seems even more spacey and philosophical:
From Oct 11-15, performances at venues
throughout the city (HAU, OHM and Vierte
Welt, to name a few) will “offer potential
solutions for fixing the problems of the present”.
The question mark deployed at the end
of the title “There is nothing but the future?”
strikes up just the right amount of confusion.
Even when their goals are ambiguous, the
Creamcake gang excels when it comes to
solid, multi-faceted music lineups. Former
Hype Williams member and name-changer
extraordinaire Inga Copeland fits into 3hd’s
experimental bent with her amorphous,
deconstructed beats. She’ll be at HAU2 on
Oct 14 as part of a concert showcasing talent
scoured from the internet, which will also
feature dreamy soundscapes from AGF. A
second performance at HAU2 will include
Berlin’s moody synth-pop duo Easter and
meditative sounds from Swiss-born, Nepalese-Tibetan
electronic artist Aïsha Dev.
Music aside, the program boasts other
artsy events, advertised with lots of cryptic
buzzwords like “violent”, “oppression”,
“boundaries” and “healing”. The creative
team DIY Church is working on an abstract
symposium on social sculpture through sound
and silence, whatever that means. If you leave
feeling more uncertain than when you got
there, just dance your anxieties away on the
last night – Uniiqu3, DJ NJ Drone and Geng
will be spinning during the closing bash at
OHM. — Julyssa Lopez
3hd Festival Oct 11-15 Various venues, see
3hd-festival.com for details
Luci Lux / Electronic Beats
WILD BEASTS
20.10. Berlin, Kesselhaus
THE PARLOTONES
Support: KYLES TOLONE
06.10. Berlin, Bi Nuu
BEATY HEART
Credit?
Support: BAYONNE
11.10. Berlin, Berghain Kantine
PARQUET COURTS
Support: PILL
18.10. Berlin, SO36
CALIBRO 35
03.11. Berlin, Lido
MILD HIGH CLUB
28.10. Berlin, Badehaus Szimpla
C DUNCAN
02.11. Berlin, Grüner Salon
ROOSEVELT
30.11. Berlin, Lido
meltbooking.com
facebook.com/wearemeltbooking
KELLY LEE OWENS
Support: HOPE
30.10. Berlin, Berghain Kantine
MURA MASA
Support: BONZAI
06.11. Berlin, Postbahnhof
GLASS ANIMALS
Support: PUMAROSA
07.11. Berlin, Columbia Theater
65 DAYS OF STATIC
Support: THOUGHT FORMS
09.11. Berlin, Columbia Theater
BEAK>
Support: MARIO BATKOVIC
14.11. Berlin, Columbiatheater
PEACHES
plus SPECIAL GUESTS
24.11. Berlin, Columbiahalle
OCTOBER 2016
WHAT’S ON — Art
EUROPEAN
MONTH OF
PHOTOGRAPHY
BERLIN
Oct 1-31
Editor’s Choice
Picture windows
This month, 129 photo exhibitions invite you into
other worlds and times. By Amanda Ribas Tugwell
Art news
Art’s a-brewing
October 22 is the
opening of the KINDL
Centre for Contemporary
Art, adding
1200sqm of art space
to Berlin. The exbrewery’s
first exhibitions:
contemporary
group show How Long
Is Now? and a solo of
Berlin-based painter
Eberhard Havekost.
A never-ending
Manifesto
Julien Rosefeldt’s
video installation at
the Hamburger Bahnhof,
featuring Cate
Blanchett reading a
variety of manifestos,
has been extended
for a second time,
from September 18 to
November 11. By which
time it’ll have been
on for 10 months, so
there’s no excuse not
to’ve seen it.
Money in the scene
At the ABC art fair, the
brand-new OUTSET
museum benefit fund
bought works by GCC
and Dirk Skreber
and donated them
to the Neue Nationalgalerie.
The latter
pictures Skreber’s
(non-Muslim) girlfriend
topless in what looks
like a niqab – a bit of a
controversial choice.
Part of a Europe-wide initiative
between photo institutions
in eight cities, locally organised
by Kulturprojekte Berlin (the
same folks behind Long Night of the
Museums and Berlin Art Week), the
biannual European Month of Photography
Berlin feels more like a marketing
angle than a thoughtfully curated
festival. Which doesn’t mean there’s
nothing to see. The 129 exhibitions
going on from October 1-31 cover
a huge range of venues, places and
times: from photography giant C/O
Berlin to tiny pop-up galleries; from
modern-day Romania to 1900s Mitte.
By now it might be too late to
catch the official kick-off at C/O
(Sep 29-Oct 2). But it’s still worth
a trip out west to see the institution’s
headlining exhibition of work
by American photographer, filmmaker,
writer and activist Gordon
Parks, titled I am You. His powerful
photos capturing the US civil rights
movement haven’t lost any of their
resonance today; they’ll be displayed
along with Parks’ other work from
the 1940s-70s, including fashion
spreads for Condé Nast and clips
from his cinematic oeuvre (Shaft!).
The Bauhaus Archiv also reaches
into the past to spotlight the unsung
hero of Bauhaus photography, Lucia
Moholy, and the works she made
after fleeing from Berlin to London
at the start of the Nazi era. Another
prolific and historically important
female photographer, Berenice Abbott,
will show her famous large-format
masterpieces of 1930s New York
City at Martin-Gropius-Bau.
Berlin’s own history won’t be
neglected. Berlinische Galerie is
digging into its collection to present
photos of the city and its inhabitants
from 1900-1980, ranging from Heinz
Hajek-Halke’s playful experiments
to Fritz Brill’s advertisements, even
to Nazi propaganda from their Volk
und Welt conservative newspaper
archive. Many smaller institutions
have followed suit: the Museum for
Fotografie is showing lesser-known
Mauer-era journalistic street shots
by Bernard Larsson, and architecture
buffs won’t want to miss Otto Hagemann’s
documentation of Berlin’s
iconic buildings from the 1920s-60s
at the Landesarchiv. For those who
want a glimpse into a very different
Prenzlauer Berg, East Berliner Bernd
Heyden’s bleak 1960s-era shots are
up at the Willy-Brandt-Haus, alongside
“Berlin Fragments” captured by
architect Rainer König.
Stefan Moses’ work at Johanna
Breede Photokunst will offer up
portraits of artists and thinkers who
were influential here, like Hannah
Höch, Otto Dix and Theodor W.
Adorno. Zwitschermaschine’s Wild
Wild Berlin brings together three
different artists’ takes on Berlin
over three decades, up to Mitte
nightlife circa 2000. Even IMAGO,
housed in Moritzplatz’s Aufbau-
Above: Bernard
Larsson, Straßenszene
in Paris (1961)
© Bernard Larsson
Left: Gordon Parks
Homeless Couple,
Harlem, New York,
(1948) © The Gordon
Parks Foundation
36
EXBERLINER 153
WHAT’S ON — Art
haus, will open its doors to show life-size
images taken with the 1970s predecessor of
its massive 1:1 camera.
With all that travelling back, what about
going forward? Sprüth Magers has invited
German photo art star Andreas Gursky to
curate work by his MFA students at the
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, who frame the
world in bizarre, cold landscapes – one even
shooting with an iPhone 5. Swedish artist
Martina Hoogland Ivanow also abstracts
her surroundings in her solo at Grundemark
Nilsson Gallery, and Abigail Reynolds and
Lilly Lulay both independently challenge the
two-dimensionality of the medium in their
solos at Kuckei + Kuckei.
All told, EMoP Berlin’s varied shows reaffirm
photography’s tenuous position between
document and art object, reality and fiction,
past and present. One thing is for sure –
photographs still offer us some of our best
opportunities to be transported to worlds
that have since vanished, and see through the
eyes of artists long gone. n
European Month of Photography Berlin
Through Oct 31 citywide, see
www.emop-berlin.eu for details
Through Nov 12
Chiharu Shiota:
Uncertain Journey
Blain|Southern, Schöneberg
HHHHH
The Berlin-based Shiota was
dubbed the “most Instagrammed
artist” by Sleek at last month’s
Art Week for a reason. Uncertain
Journey, which picks up where
her showstopping Japanese
Pavillion installation at last year’s
Venice Biennale left off, is profoundly
complex, utterly beautiful
and a total must-see. Bright
red thread interlocks hundreds
of thousands of times in 3D triangulation,
arching down to the
hollow iron frames of what could
be sunken ships. Awe, confusion,
sadness and connectedness
are woven into the random yet
sophisticated structure, which
brings form to everything from
neural synapses to the circulatory
system, the internet to infinity.
In eight pieces upstairs, the
same threaded triangles find their
way onto canvases and houseshaped
metal frames. At this smaller
scale, lines and density can be
more tangibly contemplated. But
ever-lingering is the subconscious
terrain of the consuming installation,
which, when seen from above
on the first floor, is so dense it’s
pure red. A video of the installation
process, which took 10 people
three weeks to complete, will
make its way onto Blain|Southern’s
website soon. — ART
Uncertain Journey,
courtesy of
the artist and
Blain|Southern
Christian Glaeser
Berliner Festspiele
Matana Roberts
Michael Schiefel + Wood & Steel Trio
Julia Hülsmann Quartet + Anna-Lena Schnabel
Mette Henriette
Wadada Leo Smith’s Great Lakes Quartet
Mary Halvorson + Ingrid Laubrock
Oddarrang
Joshua Redman / Brad Mehldau duo
Globe Unity Orchestra
Myra Melford’s Snowy Egret
Ingrid Laubrock + Aki Takase
Yazz Ahmed’s Family Hafla
Achim Kaufmann + SKEIN Extended
Angelika Niescier / Florian Weber Quintet
Nik Bärtsch / hr-Bigband
DeJohnette / Coltrane / Garrison
Aki Takase + Charlotte Greve
Lucia Cadotsch Trio
Wadada Leo Smith + Alexander Hawkins
Julia Holter + strings
Steve Lehman Octet
Eve Risser’s White Desert Orchestra
In cooperation with radio broadcasters ARD and Deutschlandradio
www.berlinerfestspiele.de
WHAT’S ON — Art
Interview
“It’s like the future suddenly started”
High-profile digital detective Constant Dullaart wages war with
Facebook in Synthesising the Preferred Inputs. By Amanda Ribas Tugwell
Don’t miss
Hicham Berrada
The beauty is in the
details in abstract HD
shots of magnetised
iron particles at WN-
TRP. Through Oct 30.
Yves Scherer
Found objects, paintings
and taxidermy
make a “space collage”
in this rumination on
being single at Galerie
Guido Baudach.
Through Oct 31.
Sinta Werner
See 3D photographs
and the mindblowing
illusion of pixels in
real space at Alexander
Levy. Through
Oct 30.
The British View
Six hundred years’
worth of German
history come to the
Martin-Gropius-Bau
via 200 pieces from
the British Museum’s
collection. Through
Jan 9.
Up now at Future Gallery, two
of the Dutch-born, Berlinbased
artist’s new bodies
of work delve into hidden systems
within the ever-more corporatised
spaces of the internet. In one,
pattern-seeking AI convolutional
networks “draw” images using data
from the photos we post on Facebook
and Instagram, which are then outsourced
to China to be painted. In the
second, Dullaart incorporates the
third-world-country SIM cards used
to generate the Facebook bot army
he created in his studio last year.
Why make art that involves
Facebook and Instagram? A lot of
people don’t know about the whole
business of fake Facebook identities,
but they’re huge in politics, and
in quantifying cultural validity. I’m
saying: hey, this is a huge market,
look at how construed and weird
this social validation system is. Even
when I bought 2.5 million Instagram
followers as part of a piece, I actually
thought I was a better
person because more people
“liked” me. It’s so easy
to make yourself believe
in this kind of competitive
social validation system.
Of course I see big dangers,
and I think everyone has
to keep their minds open,
educate themselves as
much as they can, and take
a position. I think a lot of
these issues are political,
and yet they are not reflected
in the political debate.
Is your work a warning
to us all? I do see it as
a warning, but I’m not a
preacher or a teacher or
anything. I don’t want to be
too didactic, or mansplain.
I sometimes make the
analogy that now there are
more people looking at a
screen than looking out the
window. This contemporary
landscape is so incredibly
complex, and we need comparably
complex reflections on it. We need
to make new contemporary paintings
– we can’t just make the same
old paintings of this new landscape.
The iPhone came out in 2007. That’s
only nine years ago, not even a generation,
and we all think it’s normal.
And there were enormous cultural
shifts, like now everyone can wander
around a strange city and find their
way. That’s huge! It’s like the future
suddenly started.
Art about digital technology tends
to be relegated to niche categories
– net art, post-internet art,
etc. Why do you think that is?
With every new medium there are
complexities that not everyone understands.
When I started out in the
early 2000s, there were people who
said, “We don’t know the dialect
that you’re speaking,” and I had to
validate my work by saying, “Well,
I’ve read this Dutch book and I
think it’s the best book ever but it’s
not translated. I can’t ignore that
I think it’s one of the best books.”
Now even my mom understands
that maybe there’s some cultural
relevance to talking about the decisions
that are made within software
and on the internet.
So you’re not discouraged by the
categories? I’m just really happy
that I’m a part of the conversation.
It’s interesting to speculate about
the potential of how all this technology
is being used, and I think
this is what art should be doing.
We should ask, “What would happen
if somebody used this tool in
that way? That would be weird, or
that would be fucked up.” I think
it’s a responsibility of artists to
misuse the tools.
Synthesising the Preferred Inputs
Through Oct 15 Future Gallery,
Schöneberg
Karolina Spolniewski
38
EXBERLINER 153
WHAT’S ON — Art
Through Oct 22
Roger Ballen and
Asger Carlsen: No Joke
Dittrich & Schlechtriem, Mitte
HHHII
Ballen and Carlsen are showing the results
of their artistic exchange over email and
Skype for the last few years – and they’re
pretty disturbing. Black and white, primarily
nude photographs have been drawn on and
digitally collaged, disfiguring body parts and
infusing American Apparel-esque shots with
McCarthy, Basquiat, Kentridge and Sherman.
The works confront the dark corners of the
mind, where alien forms, creepy masks, giant
spiders and dead animals lurk. Drawn figures
loom voyeuristically around young, classically
beautiful female bodies combined with the
ageing bodies of the artists. Due to the flawless
digital collage characteristic of Carlsen’s
work everything feels “real” even after it has
met Ballen’s charcoal-smudged dark spaces,
which went big with his 2012 Die Antwoord
video “I Fink You Freeky”.
The horrifically captivating series of 37 images
is being shown in full for the first time,
and mark the perfect fusion of the two artist’s
terribly individual ways of imagining the
intangible world around them. You’ll wish you
could un-see them, but you won’t be able to
look away. — ART
Right: Roger Ballen
and Asger Carlsen,
courtesy of Dittrich
& Schlechtriem
Top centre: Trisha
Baga, LOAF, Société
Far right: Florian
Misenberg, courtesy
of the artist
and Wentrup
Through Nov 5
Trisha Baga: LOAF
Société, Schöneberg
HHHHI
The NYC artist’s solo is visual free association
in high form. Both of her 3D video installations
suck you into her deep curiosity with
subjects and objects. Home-video-style
footage of people, bizarre everyday scenes
of mannequin legs hanging above a clothing
store and taxidermied animals are equally
intriguing through her lens.
Light and darkness vie for screen time, and
in 3D, flashlight beams elevate the leaves of
a bush to a psychedelic vision. In another
darkened room, small spots and black lights
illuminate the surface of an IRL cat scratching
tower turned shelf, holding everything
from hand sanitiser to a rough ceramic
sculpture of a cat. Another bright room with
white carpet covered pedestals showcases
more ceramics, of a printer, a painting and
Wonder Bread. Baga’s scattered universe
confidently walks the line between art made
post-internet, and the aesthetics of the material
world. Ultimately it reads as a development
in age old questions: what is real? What
can we truly know? — ART
Through Oct 19
Florian Meisenberg:
“Um, nice guy, good hospitality,
but.. y’know (...)”
Wentrup, Kreuzberg
HHHII
Meisenberg’s third solo at Wentrup covers
the walls of a large bright room with
canvases of different shapes – circles,
arches and teardrops – each evoking a
window or an icon from afar. Lines on the
beige-backgrounded paintings create vague
spaces within them, and in the foreground
are abstracted symbols, cartoonish clouds
and figures and even planetary forms.
A 30-minute video shows banal tennis
court scenes, and scrolling on top of it in
large white letters is a meandering monologue
from a secret recording of a banker
complaining on the phone as he commutes
from New Jersey to Wall Street. In front of
the video is a white carpet, and more words
are projected onto it, detailing confidential
content including Hillary’s leaked emails.
The exhibition text reveals that the font was
extracted from WikiLeaks docs.
The problem here is that the connecting
points between all these intriguing elements
seem just out of reach. We recommend you
try and decrypt it, but you might leave with
more questions than answers. — ART
Trevor Good
Schloss
Neuhardenberg
in concert
PHOTOS: © ROBERT DAY,
JOHANNES LOVUND, ULRIKE MÖNNIG
Silver Tour
Friend’n Fellow
Saturday, 08. 10. 2016
Switch
Nils Petter Molvær & Band
Saturday, 29. 10. 2016
Only Yule
Flying Pickets
Saturday, 12. 11. 2016
Bookings
schlossneuhardenberg.de
033476 600-750
WHAT’S ON — Stage
Editor’s Choice
Hexes and history
Sophiensaele’s Witch Dance Project unearths and
updates a spooky choreographic classic. By Lily Kelting
Jocelen Janon
Stage news
Waltzing into the ballet
Spanish choreographer
Nacho Duato is
ending his supershort
leadership
of the Staatsballet
Berlin in 2019, to be
replaced by freescene
Berliner Sasha
Waltz. A bit of a
controversial choice,
but we’re into it.
Berlin stages on top
In case you needed
proof that Berlin has
the best theatre in
the world: Germany’s
Theater heute
magazine calls a tie
between the Maxim
Gorki and the Volksbühne
for “stage of
the year.”
Free-scene networking
Looking to crack
into the industry?
Talk shop at the
Branchentreff, the
annual meeting of
Berlin’s independent
theatre scene. This
year’s conference
will be held October
6-8 at Heimathafen
Neukölln.
Weimar Germany, 1926.
Mary Wigman sits with
her knees bent on a bare
stage, no music. She spreads her fingers
wide and pumps her bent arms
through the air, as if she’s swimming,
then opens her knees to a straddle
and stomps forward in a squat, as
though charging the audience. This
dance, Hexentanz II (Witch Dance II),
was the nail in the coffin of classical
ballet. At the time, Wigman was a
fresh young artist who dared to dance
without pointe shoes and move in
angular, expressionist ways. In 2016,
she is known as one of the most important
figures in dance, ever.
Hexentanz II is about two minutes
long – you can watch it on You-
Tube (and I recommend that you
do!). But the short piece’s impact is
larger than ever. From October 6-9,
Sophiensaele is hosting the four-day
symposium Witch Dance Project.
It’s produced by a group called
Tanzfonds Heritage, a production
company that funds projects bringing
dance history to life. Since 2014,
they’ve produced both restagings of
and riffs on dance classics so they
don’t die out of popular consciousness.
Take Oskar Schlemmer’s Bauhaus-era
Triadic Ballet: you could go
your whole life not recognising the
distinctive, geometric costumes – or
you could see the piece and then begin
to see his influence everywhere.
Or Anita Berber – she’s known more
for her scandalous biography than
for her gender-blurring dance moves,
which another Tanzfonds Heritage
project attempted to correct.
Even though they’re all about heritage,
these projects are ultimately
concerned with the future of these
canonical performances. Even a
relatively straightforward attempt to
stage a historically important piece
runs into a fundamental problem
with dance history: it’s kind of an
oxymoron. Dance is ephemeral,
there’s no script, no good notation
for movement. Even minor film buffs
can tell their Tarantino from their
Tarkovsky, but only real die-hards
know about someone like Mary Wigman
– which makes events like Witch
Dance Project so important. In the
second half of Hexentanz II, Wigman
lept from her concave crouch into
the air: huge, expansive. But since it
wasn’t caught on film, nobody really
knows how it goes. And so much
is lost on film, anyway – her heavy
breathing, the smell of sweat.
All of which is to say: it is so, so
hard to talk about dance. It’s easier,
though, to dance about dance, which
is why inviting 10 choreographers to
riff on Hexentanz is a pretty brilliant
way to keep Wigman’s impulse alive
and the conversation going. These
10 pieces might not look like the
original, but they’re asking the same
question: how does the figure of the
witch disturb ideas about what it
means to move like a woman?
Then there’s another question: can
you divorce historical dances from
their historical contexts? What about
the fact that the “natural movement”
that became so important for German
expressionist dance sounds an
awful lot like Nazi descriptions of
the “natural body” that bubbled up
around the same time? Or Wigman’s
uneasy appropriation of “primitive”
movements based on a problematicat-best
understanding of non-Western
dance? Here, the Witch Dance
Project team intervenes via its invited
choreographers, many of whom are
queer, feminist and/or non-white. It
makes sense – feminist reclaiming of
witchiness is nothing new. Layer this
on top of a non-European perspective
and you can kind of see where
the Witch Dance Project is coming
from. If the lectures and film screenings
aren’t your thing, maybe a modern
wicca workshop by someone who
goes by Warbear might be more your
speed? Understanding the impact of
Hexentanz means looking at dance
history in new ways – maybe even
looking beyond dance itself. ■
Witch Dance Project Oct 6-9
Sophiensaele, Mitte
40
EXBERLINER 153
WHAT’S ON — Stage
Preview
AT MARTIN-GROPIUS-BAU
Roma TV
Playing at the Delphi this month,
The Journey/Drom turns the Balkan
migration crisis into a live talk show.
A
story
about the plight of the Roma people, caught between
discrimination in the Western Balkans and rejection in
Germany, has the potential to get pretty bleak. Since Germany
added more Balkan countries to its “safe list” last year, the
chance the community has at gaining asylum here has become
virtually nonexistent. Sounds like the perfect fodder for a serious
documentary or overly sentimental dramatisation, but leave it
to the team at Delphi, the former silent film house turned alt
performance venue, to turn it into something totally unexpected.
An international collaboration helmed by Delphi artistic director
Brina Stinehelfer, The Journey/Drom, illustrates the struggles of
the Roma by assuming the format of an absurdist television talk
show – think “the worst made-for-TV version of the OJ Simpson
trial, combined with Dr. Phil,” Stinehelfer says.
The style is a wink at the sensationalised depiction of Roma
people in the media, but an absurd approach might also be one of
the only ways to depict some of the struggles they face. Through
a partnership with Berlin’s Roma Trial, Serbia’s Kulturanova and
Budapest’s Pro Progressione, Stinehelfer and her artistic team
produced the show, making sure they travelled along the Balkan
route themselves to get a first-hand look at the dead ends Roma
people face no matter what direction they go. Germany is a closed
door, and southeastern Europe is almost horrifically hopeless.
“People are living in shacks that they’ve made themselves out
of scrap metal and cardboard. They have no electricity, they have
no running water, babies get bitten by rats...” Stinehelfer says.
“This is Europe in 2016, and there are people dying of dysentery
because they’re eating from the garbage.”
The Gorki presented a sneak peek of the show back in April as a
work-in-progress, coinciding with the International Day of the Roma.
Stinehelfer now brings a fully realised version to the Delphi’s singular
space, in which theatregoers will double as a live studio audience.
The script, which came directly out of actual experiences with
people in the Balkans, plays with stereotypes and prejudices in
a way Stinehelfer says doesn’t fall into the “refugee victim” trap
and brings new depth to trite gypsy images and stories. “Everything
onstage happened to a real person – and everything we’re
saying is a theatrical version of the truth,” she says. Sounds like
the talk show ideal. — Julyssa Lopez
Nihad Nino Pušija
PINA BAUSCH
and the Tanztheater
until 9 January 2017 in Berlin
Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin
Niederkirchnerstraße 7 • D-10963 Berlin
www.pina-bausch-ausstellung.de
21-23 Oct 2016
RADIALSYSTEM V
In Kooperation mit
der Pina Bausch
Foundatioan, Wuppertal
Media partner
www.idfestival.de
Laurent Philippe, performance of the Pina Bausch piece Vollmond © Laurent Philippe
The Journey/Drom Oct 27, 29, 20:00
Ehemaliges Stummfilmkino Delphi, Weißensee
OCTOBER 2016
Migration told through
Israeli-German art
WHAT’S ON — Stage
Don’t miss
Berlin Burlesque
Festival
Not to be confused
with Burlesque Week,
the fest’s expanded
programme brings
together neo-burlesque
and cirque
with old-school
glamorous disrobing.
Oct 20-23, various
venues
Clap.
This piece begins
where most
performances end
– it’s an exploration
of applause by the
free-scene group
Objective Spectacle.
Oct 21-23, 20:00,
Ballhaus Ost
Schaubühne for a fiver
Berlin theatre tickets
are always pretty
cheap, but October
10 is “Theatre day”,
which means half-off
even the €10 tickets
at the Schaubühne’s
English-surtitled
production of The
Invention of the RAF.
No excuses!
Interview
“ Where is my family?”
Portland, Oregon-based playwright Andrea Stolowitz
searches for answers about her family in Berlin Diary
– Schlüterstraße 27.
The play is a conversation
between a character named
“Andrea Stolowitz” and her
great-grandfather, Max, as she tracks
down her family members in archives
and graveyards.
Can you tell us a bit about Berlin
Diary? The play is an epic odyssey
that starts in my real life, when I am
handed this diary. My great-grandfather
fled Berlin in 1936 and left a
diary for his grandchildren. Which
I didn’t read for a very long time,
because it’s half in German with very
small script. After a shooting in my
house when I lived in North Carolina,
I turned back to this question of
“Who is my family, and why is it so
Preview
Jerusalem in our hearts
On Oct 22, the
ensemble Sferraina
will be performing
a combination
of 17th-century
Baroque music
and the Yemenite
music of the same
period.
small?” How is the past the present
and the present the past? So I came
to Berlin and used this diary to track
down the mysteries of the past so I
can solve them.
This feels like a very Berlin story.
There’s so much history upon
history upon history – and it’s
all labelled. Everything. I mean,
when you think of everything that
has happened in any one spot for
the last 900 years... but then, it’s
another level when it’s just personal
and there are no signs at the
addresses that you find.
Why base the play on your own
life? I really don’t like one-person
shows or confessional memoirs. All
that stuff is really dangerous terrain,
because it’s mostly, in my view,
bad. And then the Holocaust itself
is a whole other thing. It feels like
there is nothing you can say about it.
And so that’s another writing trap.
“Semi-autobiographical”, “one-person
show”, “the Holocaust” – these
are all “ugh, not that topic” topics.
So this is a play about now, and what
this historical event means in my
life right now: Where is my family? I
want a family. — LK
Berlin Diary – Schlüterstraße 27
Oct 6-9, 12-15, 20:00 English Theater
Berlin, Kreuzberg
There are parts of Neukölln where the patois of
Hebrew and Arabic might make you think you’re in
Tel Aviv. Delve in at the ID Festival at Radialsystem
V: the annual festival showcasing German artists
with an Israeli background. Of which there are
many. The word on everyone’s lips: migration! Still,
it seems more than a little tone-deaf to make this
the theme of a festival by and about Israelis. One of
the few pieces which tackles the theme explicitly is
Makembo!, an adaptation of the Joseph story “drawing
on classical rabbinic exegesis” not only featuring
a bunch of Nazi references but with an abused
African refugee as the lead character. We’d say it’s
a little on the nose, except that it sounds like an
absolute mess. The more abstract end of the program
looks better, like the visual-art-inspired dance
theatre piece Dancing to the End by the group Total
Brutal. Or No Mad, which places a trombonist and a
dancer into surreal situations both in film projections
and on stage. The chamber music performances,
at the very least, won’t offend. — LK
ID Festival Oct 21-23
Radialsystem V, Friedrichshain
Grrr. I’m dancing.
This performance, in
which Mathis Kleinschnittger
wears a fur
coat and becomes a
dancing bear, looks
about as weird and
wonderful as you
would expect. Oct
1-2, 19:00, Dock 11
Neda Navaee
42
EXBERLINER 153
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OCTOBER 2016 43
WHAT’S ON
Calendar
October 2016
Picks, highlights and can’t-miss events
for this month in Berlin.
Left: The Kills. Above: German Comic Con,
photo by Tobias-Droigk. Right: Pornfilmfestival:
The Bedroom.
SAT
1
Sophie Calle Artist Talk
— Photography At C/O,
the European Month of
Photography (see page 36)
opening continues with the cult
French conceptual artist on her
intimate and sometimes
voyeuristic work. Starts 18:00.
SUN
2
Black Lives Matter
Soli-Party — Party
Dance against racism!
Berlin’s queer/feminist/
non-white party scene comes
together to present this all-night
fundraiser for local black
initiatives. Schwuz. Starts 23:00.
MON
3
Day of German Unity
— Holiday Enjoy your
day off to celebrate the
26th anniversary of German
reunification – there’ll even be a
funfair at the Brandenburg
Gate! Just don’t forget to stock
up at Lidl the Saturday before.
TUE
4
Lucia Moholy: The English
Years — Photography
The European Month of
Photography gives the underappreciated
Bauhaus photographer
the spotlight with an exhibition
showcasing the work she made
after fleeing Nazi Germany for
London. Through Feb 27.
Bauhaus Archiv. Opens 19:00.
WED
5
Gold Panda — Music
With his loud yet
relaxed indie electronica,
British producer/musician
Derwin Schleckers is a perfect
fit for Berghain, even if it is
only Wednesday. Starts 20:00
THU
6
Doku.Arts — Film
The 10th edition of the
international art film
festival (see page 29) delves
into essay cinema. This year
features a great lineup with
many directors present, like at
striking opener Notes on
Blindness. Through Oct 23.
Zeughauskino. Starts 20:00.
Italian Film Festival — Film
The four-day celebration of
cinema Italiano includes a retrospective
on director Paolo
Virzì, who’ll be present at the
opening screening of his 1997
comedy Ovosodo. Babylon.
Starts 20:00.
Witch Dance Project — Dance
Discover your inner queer
shaman over four days of
performances, films, readings
and interactive rituals based on
Mary Wigman’s groundbreaking
Hexentanz (see page 40).
Through Oct 9. Sophiensaele.
Starts 18:30.
FRI
7
Festival of Lights
— Installation
An upside of it getting
dark earlier: 10 nights of fantastical
light projections illuminating
Berlin’s most famous
monuments and landmarks,
plus live music and art events.
Through Oct 16. Starts 19:00.
SAT
8
Lichtspiele Youth Film
Festival — Film Let’s
hear it for the kids at
this showcase of shorts made
by children, teens and young
adults. City Kino Wedding.
Starts 11:30.
The British View — Exhibition
How do the Brits see Germany?
Curated by the British Museum,
this show displays 200 objects
that retell German history
through a British lens, from
Albrecht Dürer’s Rhinocerus to
Napoleon’s hat. Through Jan 9.
Martin-Gropius-Bau.
SUN
9
Easterndaze — Film/Music
Eastern Europe’s
fertile, noisy DIY scene
comes to Berlin for 10 days of
concerts and documentaries.
It all wraps up tonight with a
screening of Belgrade music
doc Beograd Underground.
Lichtblick. Starts 20:00.
MON
10
EXBlicks: Rebirth of a
Nation — Film/Party Join
Exberliner and American
Voices Abroad for a pre-election
warm-up with voter registration,
drinks and snacks, then catch the
DJ Spooky remix of one of the
most notorious American films in
history. Lichtblick. Starts 20:00.
TUE
11
3hd Festival — M usic/Art
Screw the future, let’s
focus on the present at
the Creamcake collective’s music,
performance and visual art fest.
Through Oct 15. Various locations.
Starts 18:00. (see page 35)
WED
12
How Berlin Got the
Blues — Film/Music
A soldier by day and
bluesman by night, Eb Davis
changed the city’s musical
landscape pre-Mauerfall. Catch
the European premiere of the
documentary on his life, followed
by a live concert by the
man himself. Babylon Kino.
Starts 20:00. (See page 26)
Women & Leadership: The Path
Ahead — Discussion Panel The spirited
ladies of The American Women’s
Club of Berlin have invited
four female executives (from
IBM to Siemens) to share their
experiences. Kimberly Emerson of
44
EXBERLINER 153
WHAT’S ON
Human Rights Watch (see page 23)
will open the evening. Volkswagen
Group Forum. Starts 19:00.
FRI
14
Uncertain States — Art
This group exhibition
matches objects from the
likes of Walter Benjamin and
Bertolt Brecht with 25 contemporary
works reflecting crisis, flight,
instability, violence and loss.
Through Jan 15. AdK. Starts 19:00.
SAT
15
German Comic Con
— Conference Get your
cosplay gear ready for
Berlin’s first-ever Comic Con,
featuring an impressive guestlist
of nerd-approved names like
Christopher Lloyd, James
Marsters and Robert Englund (aka
Doc, Spike and Freddy). Through
Oct 16. Messe Berlin. Starts 10:00.
TUE
18
The Cure — Music
Who doesn’t want to
re-experience those angsty,
dramatic teenaged days when The
Cure was your perfect medicine?
Mercedes Benz Arena. Starts 19:30.
THU Berlin Burlesque Festival
20 — Cabaret Acts from all
over the world spin fire,
do flips and get naked. Whether
you’re watching people take their
clothes off or twirling those nipple
tassels yourself, it’ll be a blast.
Through Oct 23. Various venues.
FRI
21
ID Festival — Stage
This year’s German-Israeli
arts and culture festival
bears the timely theme of “migration”
and “refuge”, as explored
through three days of performance.
Through Oct 23. Radialsystem V.
Starts 17:00. (See page 42)
SAT
22
The Kills — Music
Get your post-punk
grunge on with chainsmoking
badass Alison Mosshart
(also of The Dead Weather),
touring latest album Ash & Ice.
Tempodrom. Starts 20:00.
TUE
25
Angel Olsen — Music
Whether backed up by a
rock cacophony or
shockingly sparse folk arrangements,
the indie darling’s voice
is always centre stage. She hits
Berlin with her brand-spankingnew
album My Woman. Columbia
Theater. Starts 19:00.
WED
26
Pornfilmfestival — Film
Berlin’s raunchiest underground
film festival
returns to Germany’s oldest
cinema for the 11th time. Bring
your mom! (Seriously – it’s
not all hardcore). Through
Oct 30. Moviemento. (See
page 29)
THU
27
Scores — Art/Music
Toss out your sheet
music at this
audiovisual exhibition, for
which artists like Saâdane
Afif and Ari Benjamin Meyers
created far-out interpretations
of the musical score.
Through Nov 13. Hamburger
Bahnhof. Starts 19:00.
Tacit Futures — Conference
Can movement and borders
be controlled through
democratic processes? The
Berliner Gazette investigates
this question through workshops,
performances, talks
and... cooking! Through Oct
29. Volksbühne.
MON
31
Adia Victoria — Music
Celebrate Halloween
with ghostly Southern
gothic blues courtesy of the
up-and-coming Nashvillebased
singer-songwriter.
Privatclub. Starts 20:00.
October Programme in English
28.9.–8.10. / HAU1, HAU2, HAU3 FESTIVAL
The Aesthetics of
Resistance –
Peter Weiss 100
Festival with Judica Albrecht, Alexand
Liane, Halil Altındere, Mareike Bernien,
Boris Buden, Guillermo Calderón,
Volkan Cidam, Phil Collins, Ekaterina
Degot, T**lin, Ion Dumitrescu, Nicoleta
Esinencu, Liz Fekete, Oliver Frljić, Bogdan
Georgescu, Alex Gerbaulet, Enna
Gerin, Fabian Hinrichs, Sandra Hüller,
Serhat Karakayali, Jana König, Tomasz
Konicz, Nina Kronjäger, Anja Lemke,
Hannah Lichtenberger, Doris Liebscher,
Agnes Julia Mann, Rabih Mroué, Grigoris
Panoutsopoulos, Mira Partecke,
Miquel Ramos, Raze de Soare, La Resentida,
Stefanie SchülerSpringorum,
Mima Simić, DJ Sohrab, Andreas Spechtl,
Robert Stadlober, Valery Tscheplanowa,
Joseph Vogl, Mark Waschke, Zeev
Sternhell a.o.
11.10. / HAU2 / Concert MUSIC
Mark Ernestus’
Ndagga Rhythm
Force / afterwards: DJ Mark Ernestus
My Perfect Berlin Weekend
New York native and Neuköllner
Brina Stinehelfer is a theatre/performance
artist and the artistic
director of Ehemaliges Stummfilmkino
Delphi, a former silent
film theatre hosting two of this
month’s must-sees: musicians
Jerusalem In My Heart (see page
33) and play The Journey/Drom
(see page 41).
Karolina Spolniewski
OCTOBER 2016
FRIDAY
19:00 Dinner at my fave sushi spot Tabibito
(Karl-Marx-Str. 56, Neukölln), a really tiny,
cute and delicious family-owned place. 21:00
See my friends at Engels (Herrfurthstr. 21,
Neukölln) for the Friday drag show. 23:00
Some serious dancing at Schwuz (Rollbergstr.
26, Neukölln) or Sameheads (Richardstr. 10,
Neukölln) – I like to keep it local when I have
work the next day.
SATURDAY
13:00 I go to Ehemaliges Stummfilmkino
Delphi (Gustav-Adolf-Str. 2, Weißensee) to prepare
for the event that night. No matter if it’s
theatre, music, dance or a film, it’s always a joy
to be in this beautiful space. 20:00 Showtime! I
stay till the bitter end to lock up.
SUNDAY
14:00 If the weather is nice I love grilling in
Hasenheide (Neukölln). 20:00 Either see a
show at HAU (Stresemannstr. 29, Kreuzberg)
or a film at Rollberg Kino (Rollbergstr. 70,
Neukölln).
14.+15.10. / HAU2 MUSIC PERFORMANCE
Creamcake
3hd Festival: There is nothing left
but the Future?
With AGF, Inga Copeland, Soda Plains ft.
Negroma, COOL FOR YOU, Nile Koetting,
Aïsha Devi & Emile Barret, Easter, HVAD,
KaraLis Coverdale
16.10. / HAU3 DIALOGUE
Violence of
Inscriptions #0
Sandra Noeth & Arkadi Zaides
21.–23.10. / HAU1 THEATRE
She She Pop
50 Grades of Shame
Ein Bilderbogen nach Wedekinds “Frühlings Erwachen”
German with English surtitles
21.–23.10. / HAU3 DANCE
Adam Linder
Kein Paradiso / English (language no problem)
28.–30.10. / HAU2 THEATRE
Kornél Mundruczó /
Proton Theatre
Látszatélet / Imitation of Life
Hungarian with German and English surtitles
www.hebbel-am-ufer.de
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CAFÉS
GODSHOT — Prenzlauer Berg
Godshot belongs to the top of the
league, with excellent coffee and
super-friendly staff. Above all, they
know their stuff. Take your time and
enjoy the casual, laid-back atmosphere
of a great neighbourhood and
one of their delicious cakes.
Immanuelkirchstr. 32, U-Bhf Senefelderplatz,
Mon-Fri 8-18, Sat 9-18,
Sun 13-18, www.godshot.de
BARETTINO — Neukölln
The name means “small bar”, and
this is a unique combination of great
food and good coffee from Italy and
Brandenburg. Everything is fresh
and made with love: The huge breakfast
selection, Italian dishes, lots
of delicacies, toasted paninis and
homemade cakes… Join our events!
Reuterstr. 59, U-Bhf Hermannplatz,
Tel 0176 6464 5307, Mon-Sun
9-22, www.barettinoberlin.com
NAPOLJONSKA — Mitte
Located just off Zionskirchplatz,
this vegetarian café offers organic
and homemade delicacies. Enjoy a
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range of hearty breakfasts reaching
from spinach omelettes to pancakes
and French breakfast. Here you
can sip your organic latte in a cosy
atmosphere with the young and old,
locals and travellers. Kastanienallee
43, U-Bhf Rosenthaler Platz, Tel
030 3117 0965, Mon, Fri 08.30 -18.00,
Tue-Thu 8.30-16:00 Sat- Sun 09-
19.00, www.napoljonska.de
CAFÉ IM LITERATURHAUS
— Charlottenburg Enjoy a coffee in
one of Berlin’s finest cafés, known
for its courteous staff and pleasant
atmosphere in the elegant and
much-loved Literaturhaus villa. The
perfect stop during a shopping trip
on nearby Ku’damm. Fasanenstr.
23, U-Bhf Uhlandstr., Tel 030
8825 414, Mon-Sun 9:30-24, www.
literaturhaus-berlin.de
PRACHTWERK — Neukölln One of
a kind in Neukölln, Prachtwerk is a
spacious café, music venue and gallery.
With a wide variety of local and
organic items, Prachtwerk serves
up Five Elephant Coffee, beer from
Neukölln’s Rollberg Brauerei, housemade
baked goods, tasty cocktails
SPLUFFIN STORE — Friedrichshain
Spluffin Store is a new kind of small
bakery specialising in hybrid pastries,
mainly Spluffins, which cross
muffins with Berlin’s very own Splitterbrötchen.
The store offers more
than 20 different sweet and savoury
Spluffin variations, and even some
vegan options. Best enjoyed with
a great cup of coffee. Revaler Str.
12, U-Bhf, S-Bhf Warschauer Straße,
Thu-Fri 9-18, Sat-Sun 10-20, www.
spluffin.berlin
KREMANSKI — Kreuzberg
Kremanski offers tasty breakfast,
high-quality coffee, lunch (Mon to
Fri), homemade cakes and icecream,
special beers, drinks, good
music and cultural events. The
friendly and talented staff will make
you feel welcome, inspired and
relaxed. The perfect hangout right
at Kotti, all day long! Adalbertstr.
96, U-Bhf Kottbusser Tor, Mon-Thu
8.30-23, Fri 8.30-2, Sat 12-2, Sun 12-
23, www.kremanski.de
RESTAURANTS
CHUTNIFY — Prenzlauer Berg, Neukölln
Desperate for an alternative to the
usual over-sauced curry? Get set
to rejoice! Boasting a lip-smacking
selection of South Indian fare,
Chutnify is the go-to spot if you’re
hunting for authenticity. Be it crispy
dosas, tantalising thalis or zinging
salads, there’s a dish for everyone to
CHUPENGA — Mitte
When the lunchtime queue for a
burrito looks like Berghain, you
know there’s got to be something
good waiting. Luckily, it moves
quickly, thanks to Chupenga’s
efficient production line. You can
pick and choose the ingredients for
your burrito, naked burrito, salad or
tacos for a fixed price. Mohrenstr.
42, Tel 030 239 369 61, U-Bhf
Hausvogteiplatz, Mon-Fri, 11:30-20,
www.chupenga.com
BASTARD — Kreuzberg From Bastard
with love: whether it’s breakfast,
lunch or dinner, this restaurant is
not just for those who were born out
of wedlock. Choose from the changing
seasonal menu created with love
for fresh ingredients and fine food.
Our tip: try the homemade stoneoven
bread! Reichen berger Str. 122,
U-Bhf Görlitzer Bahnhof, Tel 030
5482 1866, Mon, Wed-Sun 9-16.30,
www.bastard-berlin.de
AUSTERNBANK — Mitte
Fresh oysters, premium fish and
exceptional meat dishes are served
at Austernbank. Culinary splendor
as well as the extraordinary
architecture make this a must-go-torestaurant.
The former bank vault is
located inside the Humboldt Carré,
one of Berlin’s most beautiful buildings.
For gourmets: lobster cocktail
“à la Rosso” is prepared in front of
the guests. Behrenstr. 42, U-Bhf
Französische Str. Tel 030 7677 52724
46
EXBERLINER 153
ADVERTORIAL — The Berlin Guide
NO HABLO ESPAÑOL
— Friedrichshain The best Californiastyle
Mexican street food joint in
Friedrichshain. Delicious freshly
made burritos and quesadillas
served by a collection of fun-loving
international people. Once a week,
challenge the NHE team in a game
of rock-paper-scissors and win a
half-price meal! Kopernikusstr. 22,
S+U-Bhf Warschauer Str., Mon-Sun
from 12, www.nohabloespanol.de
CRUNCH KANTINE — Moabit
Crunch Kantine is about quick,
simple, affordable food made from
fresh and cooked with love. Our
philosophy on vegetarian cooking:
everything fresh and delicious and
we hope that meat eaters won‘t
notice that there is NO meat. 12
dishes on the buffet each day with
80% of them vegan. Siemensstr.
16, S-Beusselstr., Tue-Sat 12-20, Sun
12-17, www.crunchkantine.com
MANI IN PASTA — Kreuzberg
Many restaurants claim to offer
hand-made tagliatelle, but at Mani
in Pasta you can actually see it happening!
The Italian trio prepares and
sells fresh pasta at Markthalle IX.
They also offer daily traditional or
experimental dishes to enjoy on the
spot. Some meaty, some vegetarian,
all delicious! Eisenbahnstr. 42-43,
U-Bhf Görlitzer Bahnhof, Mon, Wed,
Sat 10-18, Tue, Fri, 10-20, Thu 10-22,
www.maniinpasta.de
3 SCHWESTERN — Kreuzberg
Housed in a former hospital
turned art centre, this spacious
restaurant with big windows
overlooking a lovely garden serves
fresh, seasonal German and
continental dishes at reasonable
prices. Breakfast on weekends and
holidays. Live music and parties
start after dessert. Mariannenplatz
2 (Bethanien), U-Bhf Kottbusser
Tor, Tel 030 6003 18600,
Mon-Sat from 11, Sun from 10,
www.3schwestern-berlin.de
DABBAWALLA — Schöneberg
Dabbawalla’s tasty vegan lunch
offerings are freshly made and
inspired by the ayurvedic cuisine.
Main dish is the generous Thali
which changes daily; also popular
are the salads, cakes and the sweet
‘Chia-dream’. The cosy deli is also a
small health food store. Hohenstaufenstr.
64, U-Nollendorfplatz or
U-Eisenacher Str.; Mo-Sa 11.30h-16h,
www.dabbawalla.berlin
CAFÉ MORGENLAND — Kreuzberg
On weekends and holidays you’ll
find a great buffet here, complete
with gourmet cheese, fresh fruit and
veg, crêpes and other vegetarian
dishes, cold cuts, shrimp cocktails
and more. Set menus from €5.
During Happy Hour drinks are just
€3.50 after 20:00. Reservations
suggested. Skalitzer Str. 35, U-Bhf
Görlitzer Bahnhof, Tel 030 6113 291,
Mon-Fri 9-1, Sat-Sun from 10,
www.morgenland-berlin.de
English menus and serve organic
meat. Kantstr. 148, S-Bhf Savignyplatz,
Tel 030 3138 038, Mon-Sun all
day, www.schwarzescafeberlin.de
ZEROSTRESS PIZZA
— Friedrichshain All Italian, delicious
handmade pizza to-go or enjoy
with the relaxed and fun crew.
They have been feeding Berliners at
festivals, parties and markets, and
recently opened their own restaurant
in Friedrichshain. One of the
best pizzas in town, made with love
for food. Vegetarians and vegans
are also welcome! Colbestr. 3,
U-Bhf Samariterstraße, Mon-Sat
12-23, Sun 17.30-23, facebook.com/
zerostresspizza
PUNE — Prenzlauer Berg The place to
go to especially on Sundays for a
great Indian buffet after a stroll on
the nearby Mauerpark fleamarket.
They offer a large menu with various
meaty, vegetarian and vegan dishes,
and daily lunch specials. Don’t skip
the cocktail happy hour! Oderberger
Str. 28, U-Bhf Eberswalder Str.,
Tel 030 4404 2762, Mon-Sat 12-24,
Sun 11-24, www.pune-restaurant.de
DOLORES — Mitte & Schöneberg
Founded 10 years ago as a street food pioneer in the German capital,
Dolores serves excellent California-style burritos and quesadillas
– inspired by San Francisco’s Mission district. Recommended by
Time Out, New York Times and Lonely Planet. Voted #1 value for
your money by Exberliner readers. Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 7, S+U-Bhf
Alexanderplatz, Tel 030 2809 9597, Mon-Sat 11:30-22, Sun 13-22.
Bayreuther Str. 36, U-Bhf Wittenbergplatz, Mon-Sun 11-22, www.
dolores-berlin.de
SCHWARZES CAFÉ
— Charlottenburg Since the 1970s,
Schwarzes Café on Savignyplatz has
been a cult favourite among artists,
anarchists, foreigners and Charlottenburgers.
They‘re open 24/7, have
NALU DINER — Prenzlauer Berg
They call themselves the Homeland
of the Freefill, but Nalu is much
more: here you’ll score US-style
breakfasts, comfort food and great
cheeseburgers plus tasty lunch
and dinner specials. Finish your
meal with a malted milkshake or
root beer float! Dunckerstr. 80a,
S-Bhf Prenzlauer Allee, Tel 030
8975 8632, Mon 9-16, Tue-Sun 9-22,
www.nalu-diner.com
OCTOBER 2016 47
ADVERTORIAL — The Berlin Guide
TO PLACE YOUR AD HERE
CONTACT ADS@EXBERLINER.COM
SHOPS & SERVICES
BARS & NIGHTLIFE
17-20, S-Bhf Hacke scher Markt,
Mon-Fri from 12, Sat-Sun from 10,
www.kilkenny-pub.de
SOYLENT BAR — Friedrichshain
The bohemian bar with its shabbychic
style, flea-market furniture,
boom boxes and street art collection
is the place to go to knock back a
few cocktails or try the unique selection
of premium vodkas and hear
an eclectic range of music from soul
to electronic in a local and intimate
atmosphere. Gabriel-Max- Str. 3,
S+U-Bhf Warschauer Str. Mon-Sun
18–open end cafesoylent.eu
KUMPELNEST 3000 — Schöneberg
The legendary bar that made the
Berlin nightlife scene what it is
today. This brothel-turned-bar was
Bono’s hangout during his visits to
West Berlin 25 years ago. Kumpelnest
hasn’t lost any of its authenticity
or wild side over the years. Hipsters
beware! Lützowstr. 23, U-Bhf
Kurfürstenstr., Mon-Fri 19-5, Sat-Sun
from 19, www.kumpelnest3000.com
LPG BIOMARKT — Prenzlauer Berg & Kreuzberg
Your all-organic neighbourhood supermarket supplies fruit and veggies,
vegan groceries, meats, cheese and even cosmetics. They offer a
huge selection of local and regional products, preferably from within
200km from Berlin. Fill your basket with freshly baked bread and treat
yourself to a selection of homemade sweet and savoury goodies. Found
already in 8 locations in Berlin to offer you the fairest, cleanest and
most delicious products nearby, from nearby. Reichenberger Str. 37,
U-Bhf Kottbusser Tor, Mon-Sat 8-21, bakery from 7 Kollwitzstr. 17, U-
Bhf Senefelderplatz, Mon-Sat 9-21, bakery from 7 www.lpg-biomarkt.de
unfussy and original approach to
every kind of event. 0179 1877838,
www.marblesauce.com
HOPS & BARLEY — Friedrichshain
Serving home-brewed pilsner and
dark beer, this is the place to go to
get that proper brew-pub vibe in
Friedrichshain. Cider and wheat
beers are also on tap. Part brewery,
part bar, the interior is beautifully
decorated with antique tiles. Wühlischstr.
22-23, S+U-Bhf Warschauer
Str., Tel 030 2616 918 Mon-Sun 17-2,
www.hopsandbarley-berlin.de
SCHILLERBAR — Neukölln
Fantastic breakfast well into the
afternoon, and great cocktails at
night. Behold the authentic red paint
on the outside wall intended to
threaten the bar upon opening, left
there and affectionately responded
to with hearts stating “Schiller loves
you anyway” (in German, of course).
Herrfurthstr. 7, U-Bhf Boddinstr.,
Tel 0172 9824 427, Mon-Sun 9-2,
www.schillerbar.com
DR. POGO VEGANLADEN
KOLLEKTIV — Neukölln A veganonly
grocery store with a tiny café in
cosy Rixdorf. Vegans will find almost
anything they need. Non-vegans
are welcome to discover interesting
plant-based alternatives and organic
products amongst 2000 items, fresh
vegetables and lots of bulk ware for
small portions. Karl-Marx-Platz 24,
S+U-Bhf Neukölln, Mon-Tue, Thu-
Fri 9-20, Wed 12-20, Sat 9-16,
www.veganladen-kollektiv.net
COMPUTER SERVICE JULIEN
KWAN — Schöneberg Julien Kwan’s elegant
store for Apple computers and
other high-tech goodies is the place
for those who want more than just
a shop-and-go experience. Personalised
service makes browsing the
latest technology a true pleasure.
Vorbergstr. 2, U-Bhf Kleistpark,
Tel 030 6170 0510, Mon-Fri 10-14, 16-
19, Sat 12-16, www.deinmac.de
KILKENNY IRISH PUB — Mitte
Natives and visitors alike converge
to drink and party at this pub under
the beautiful Hackescher Markt
station. Enjoy homemade and
international pub grub plus a vast
selection of beers and spirits. Catch
all the international sports on big
screens. Live concerts two to three
nights a week. Easy 24h access to
public transport. Am Zwirngraben
MONSTER RONSON’S ICHIBAN
KARAOKE — Friedrichshain
Monster Ronson’s is the world’s
craziest karaoke club. Make out on
their super-dark dance floor, get
naked in the private karaoke boxes
and sing your favourite songs all
night. Warschauer Str. 34, S+U-Bhf
Warschauer Str., Mon-Sun from 19,
www.karaokemonster.de
MARBLE SAUCE is a vibrant catering
project in Berlin which focuses
on contemporary cross-over food
culture. Started by Caique Tizzi
alongside a team of cooks and artists,
Marble Sauce takes a unique
and creative approach to event
catering and has tailored its fresh,
HOSENANFERTIGUNG NICOLA
GEBHARD — Friedrichshain
The talented master tailor makes
trousers with a perfect fit according
to your wishes and measurements.
Go in, get measured, choose the
48
EXBERLINER 153
ADVERTORIAL — The Berlin Guide
fabric, and receive the best trousers
of your life at her Berlin workshop.
Her focus on detail guarantees that
you will leave a happy customer.
Schreinerstr.21, U-Bhf Samariterstr,
Tel 030 293 687 37, www.nicola-gebhard-hosenanfertigung.de
comes to life! Expect the unexpected!
Rosenthaler Str. 39, S-Bhf Hackescher
Markt, Thu 18.30-21.30, Fri-Sat 16.30-
21.30, www.monsterkabinett.de
TIB-SPORTZENTRUM — Tempelhof
At Berlin’s oldest sport club you’ll find
sports for young and old. Baseball,
softball, ultimate frisbee, tennis, dance
and more. Their sport centre has a
gym, sport courses, 8 badminton and 2
tennis indoor courts, and a sauna.
Columbiadamm 111, U-Bhf Südstern,
Mon-Fri 8-23:30, Sat 9-20:30, Sun
9-23:30, www.tib1848ev.de
HUMBOLDT-INSTITUT — Mitte Total
beginner or advanced learner: the
Humboldt-Institut has the right course
for everyone. Small classes with intensive
tuition ensure swift and effective
learning. Intensive German courses
are also available with accommodation
on campus. Or choose a part-time
course in the morning, evening or on
Saturdays. Invalidenstr. 19, S-Bhf
Nordbahnhof, Tel 030 5551 3221, www.
humboldt-institut.org
IITTALA SHOPS — Mitte, Schöneberg
The Finnish brand Iittala designs timeless homeware which oozes luxury
and elegance. The company founded in the 19th century is loyal to many
classic and famous designs, but manages to combine them with modern
graphics, bold colours and fresh ideas. The designs are meant for special
moments or for everyday use, and to last a lifetime. Their colourful
bowls, plates and cups let you enjoy your meals on a whole new level,
and those beautiful candle votives will light up your autumn nights.
Münzstr. 7, U-Bhf Weinmeisterstraße Friedrichstr. 158-164, S+U-Bhf
Friedrichstraße KaDeWe Tauentzienstr. 21-24, U-Bhf Wittenbergplatz
MONSTERKABINETT — Mitte
Join us on a trip to Berlin’s underground
art scene! A unique theme park
inhabited by automatic, singing, dancing
monsters. Your guides: our performance
artists from Transylvania. Visitors
of all ages are invited to enjoy an
invaluable art event where technology
AMORE STORE — Kreuzberg
The contemporary mom-and-pop
store offers traditional Italian products
but with a fun touch. Make great
discoveries varying from cheese graters
to freshly baked bread, and from
colourful cotton socks to organic
olive oil. All items sold are picked
specifically to match the concept
of the store: traditional Italian
delicatessen and goods, with a pinch
of pop culture and of course amore!
Sanderstr. 12, U-Bhf Schönleinstr.,
Tue-Fri 12-20, Sat 12-18
ROLLBERG KINO — Neukölln With
five screens, Babylon Kreuzberg’s
bigger but lesser-known sister boasts
one of the largest original language
movie selections in Berlin. Located
on the U8 near Hermannstraße in
the Kindl Boulevard shopping centre.
Rollbergstr. 70, U-Bhf Boddinstr.,
Tel 030 6270 4645, www.yorck.de
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OCTOBER 2016 49
REGULARS
Start-ups
By Sophie Atkinson
Working
the system
A day of custom
shoemaking is
one of the many
Descapes on offer.
Looking to escape the daily, fulltime
grind? Whether you’re looking
to try on a new career or share your
job with a buddy, Berlin start-ups
Descape and Tandemploy promise
to solve your work woes... how
convincingly, though? By Sophie Atkinson
Descape
If you’re anything like yours truly, the onset
of autumn is giving you some heavy
back-to-school vibes and with them,
renewed focus on all things career-related.
You’re in Berlin, you’re part of the digital native
generation, so there’s every chance you
might look to start-ups for salvation.
Descape offers work placements across the
globe for money. Yup, you heard that right:
you’re paying to work on your holiday. This
is theoretically because the jobs on offer are
dream jobs. This isn’t you fetching coffees
and doing photocopying for a marketing
department, but the opportunity to “try out”
being a chocolatier, a llama breeder, a sailor, a
vintner or even a ranger at a game reserve in
Namibia. Plus, as co-founder Lena Felixberger
clarifies, while the experience is authentic (“If
you do a Descape at a bakery, obviously you
have to get up early”), you shouldn’t be doing
the gruntwork. “The idea is that you get an
insight but you also have a really good experience
because you paid for it.”
Markus Hoffmann is the co-founder of the
Costa Rica-based project Aiko Logi Tours,
which offers Descape guests the chance to
become rainforest rangers: planting trees,
maintaining paths and reintegrating different
kinds of animals. He argues that Descape
works well for both sides: “It helps finance
the rainforest preservation, but Descapers
also show a special interest in our work.
Since many Descapers stay for extended
time periods, we can give them real projects,
which in turn also speeds up our work.”
Still, chasing your bliss doesn’t always
come cheap. The cheapest Descape costs
only €35, but the job’s not exactly thrilling:
you’re paying to squat a cabin and cook for
hikers in France for a day. Compare this
with the most expensive work placement,
which offers Descapers the opportunity to
make their own pair of shoes in Baden-Baden
for €2880 – ouch. But the role that really
induced a spasm of eye-rolling was “barista”.
You can pay the Berlin School of Coffee €260
to learn how to make, well, coffee. Dude,
ask your closest barista friend (it’s Berlin,
This isn’t you doing
photocopying for a marketing
department, but
the opportunity to “try
out” being a chocolatier
or a llama breeder.
we all have one) for tips instead and spend
the money you’ve saved on a trip to Rome to
suck down some really impressive caffeine.
This said, most Descapes seem to be priced
around the €200 mark, which isn’t that big of
a sum to invest towards some Oprah-esque
dream following, or a holiday spent with
exotic animals.
If you’re looking for a longer-term work
solution, Tandemploy might prove a tempting
alternative. The premise: split a full-time job
with another person so that you can do interesting,
fulfilling work while still having time
to do... whatever else it is you do in Berlin.
Co-founder Jana Tepe set up the company after
working in recruitment, and her lightbulb
moment came when two candidates made
a “tandem” application for one role: they
would both work the job part-time, creating
one full-time candidate. Two days later Tepe
and her colleague Anna Kaiser quit their jobs
at the recruitment company to found their
own startup, hoping to popularise a more
flexible form of working.
The free service offers vacancies from
companies across Germany that are open to
tandem workers, and allows people to team
up and apply for jobs with fellow workers
in their industry. Tepe argues this benefits
employers every bit as much as it does
employees, with employers getting “what recruiters
usually look for: someone who can
speak five languages, who’s really creative
but can also be analytical” by filling the one
role with two candidates. It’s also pretty
good for the employees: part-time roles, by
law in Germany, all come with the health
insurance, holiday leave and sick leave you’d
associate with a non-freelance position. The
number of days of paid leave assigned is proportional
to how much you work, so you’d
only get half the normal amount of holiday
if you split the job 50-50, but who needs
holidays if you’re only working half time,
anyway? Plus, 20 of the companies who use
the service are based in Berlin so you won’t
have to relocate for your new part-time
working life. So far, so blissful.
50
EXBERLINER 153
REGULARS
On the other hand, the interesting jobs
don’t look so interesting: you won’t be
applying for the role of scriptwriter on
Deutschland 86 or something. They’re
mostly office jobs: marketing, sales, HR
and a sprinkling of tech, though Outfittery
does offer Berlin-based fashion roles if
you’re an aspiring stylist.
Count Anna Kollenberg and Jens Landmann
among Tandemploy’s success stories. The
two work together in an account manager
role at Skill Hero, which Kollenberg stresses
is “very well paid by Berlin standards”. Their
job is mostly based around customer service
– training customers to use Skill Hero’s apps
and filling the apps with content – but also
has marketing and sales components and,
given its complexity, Kollenberg believes it
can be helpful to have a second person who
knows exactly what she should be covering.
Kollenberg referred to multiple occasions
when she or Landmann acted to preempt
each other’s mistakes – her failure to book
a restaurant for a coding workshop she was
organising, his idea to stage a workshop at
their stall at a business fair that wasn’t open
to spontaneous presentations. But it’s not all
plain sailing. Kollenberg stresses, “Communication
is a really tough thing in tandem.” She
recalls a day when, thanks to a miscommunication,
she ended up working from the wrong
document, losing a day’s work and riling the
CEO, who couldn’t understand why she was
asking all the same questions Landmann had
asked in a meeting a few days earlier.
However, it sounds like the extra communication
was well worth it for the pair
– Kollenberg has used her spare time to
become a part-time philosopher, offering
“analytic thinking” philosophical seminars
and workshops while Landmann volunteers
at a refugee project where he is mentoring a
young Afghan man and “helping him a bit to
manage his day-to-day life here in Germany.”
While we’d all love to become Lebenskünstler,
with rising costs of living in Berlin, it’s
a lucky few who can find jobs well-compensated
enough to allow for halving working
hours. If you’re really hoping for a working
revolution, maybe the smartest option isn’t
a start-up at all, but campaigning for the
Pirate Party-supported unconditional basic
income. But until that happens, if you need
something to take the edge off the death
throes of late capitalism, Descape or Tandemploy
will have to do for now. ■
AZ_B_Exberliner_Okt.16.indd 1 13.09.16 10:42
Karolina Spolniewski
Jana Tepe and Anna Kaiser of tandem working start-up Tandemploy (left, centre)
and Lena Felixberger of paid work placement company Descape (right).
OCTOBER 2016
REGULARS
Start-ups
By Sophie Atkinson
N26’s growing pains
Berlin’s fintech start-up N26 is now an honest-togoodness
bank – ATM fees included. Is this really the
future of banking? By Dyllan Furness
Located on the top two floors of an old
Stasi spy centre in Mitte, N26’s office
space looks like a successful start-up
starter pack: ergonomic chairs, bald and
bearded product developers, a concrete wall
graffitied by local artists. The custom-made
carpeting is stitched with lines of code.
As newbies in an industry as old as money,
the banking app is on a mission improbable
in Berlin and Europe at large, where
big banks still roam like dinosaurs. Since its
launch in January 2015, the start-up has progressed
inch by inch, grown by tens of users
at a time, and established itself as a digital
alternative to antique institutions.
But, up until two months ago, “Europe’s
most modern bank” wasn’t even a bank.
Number26 customers’ money was handled by
Wirecard Bank, who held the banking license
and eased the regulatory headache for the
Berlin-based startup. Then, in July, with a
customer base of over 200,000 and tens of
millions of euros in investments, Number26
earned its banking license and started batting
in the big leagues. To celebrate the event, it
simplified its name (a reference to the number
of dice in a Rubik’s Cube) to N26.
The banking license came as a metamorphosis
for the start-up. The Wirecard partnership
had limited how quickly N26 could expand
but gave it a sense of security, enabling it
to develop its IT system, infrastructure, user
interface, and – perhaps most importantly –
its relationship with its customers.
“Banks have suffered as brands of trust since
the financial crisis,” co-founder and CEO Valentin
Stalf said. “But today, with all the transparency
on the web, you can create a brand
and create trust quite quickly.” He pointed to
his company’s 4.5-star App Store rating.
N26 builds its relationships in many
ways. For one, it takes just eight minutes to
register for an account online (in English,
if you want) – a godsend for newbie expats
intimidated by the prospect of walking into
a Sparkasse. The mobile app is seamless
and intuitive, and N26’s hip, digital brand
provides a stark contrast to the concrete
aesthetic of traditional banks – never mind
that Trump-supporting German-American
billionaire Peter Thiel is one of its most
prominent investors.
But the start-up’s biggest draw, for Berliners
at least, was its lack of fees. This changed
in July, when N26 started charging for cash
withdrawals in Germany – a feature that
was previously free and unlimited from
any Mastercard ATM. In its Fair Use policy,
customers who have their salary paid directly
into their N26 account, who deposit at least
€1000 into the account per month or who
are younger than 26 are given five free ATM
withdrawals per month; all others are offered
three free withdrawals. After that, users have
to fork up €2 per transaction. With plenty of
traditional German banks offering free cash
withdrawal and banking apps of their own,
N26 no longer looked quite as sexy.
From a business perspective, the move was
necessary. For over a year, N26 swallowed
the costs of its customers’ ATM withdrawals,
as high as €2 per transaction in Germany. But
cash is king in this country, and the constant
withdrawal charges weren’t viable. For many
customers who’d grown accustomed to freebies,
the change felt like betrayal.
As a matter of consequence, the start-up
encourages its customers to pay with their
card as much as possible. “It’s much better
for our society to not use cash in terms of
overall costs and fairness,” Stalf said, citing
the “black money” system commonly used
in Berlin restaurants and cafés. “Anyone
who isn’t a criminal would benefit from
getting rid of cash… And there will be much
more effort from the EU to stop issuing
cash to control issues like taxation and terrorist
financing. The less cash there is, the
more transparency there is.”
Going cashless is a pretty tall order in
Berlin, though. To walk his company’s talk,
N26’s CTO Christian Rebernik decided to
abandon cash and pay only with his bank
card in March. “I like the transparency and
I like the security of cards,” he says, but the
effort came with inconveniences. Rebernik’s
neighbourhood bakery and Späti only accept
cash, so he began to buy his bread and beer
at the supermarket. He had to ask a friend
to cover the tab at a cash-only bar. “I didn’t
know what I was getting into,” he admits.
And N26’s transparency may come at
the cost of security. It’s not always obvious
which online actions are secure and which
may be compromised. When you sign up
for an account online, for example, you’re
directed to a third party webcam chat to
verify ID by snapping a screenshot of their
face and passport – a modern process that
feels somewhat intrusive. N26 also retains
data about spending habits and locations,
which Rebernik insists is kept for the sole
goal of giving customers insight into their
own transaction trends.
Only a week after it earned its banking
license, the start-up began to stretch its
wings, partnering with Frankfurt investment
start-up Vaamo to launch N26 Invest. The intuitive
tool lures users into the stock market
by letting them choose from three portfolio
profiles – “cautious, balanced, or bold” – and
invest with just a few clicks. In the coming
months, N26 plans to introduce savings and
credit features as well. As the app increasingly
begins to resemble established banks,
only time will tell if Berliners stick around
for N26’s vision of the future. ■
52
EXBERLINER 153
COLUMN— The Gay Berliner
Letter to
gay Touris
Walter Crasshole empties his fag bag and vents
on the issues of the day. This month: queer
tourist do’s and don’ts.
Summer has officially drawn to a close and with it, the end of
tourist hook-up season. In some ways, I’ll be sad. And in a
lot of ways, I’m shitting rainbows of happiness at all the stuff
I won’t have to put up with for at least the next six months. Like
that message on Grindr from “English visitor” I got in early September:
“I want you to breed me,” with an accompanying picture
of his asshole. That’s often a not-so-subtle code for chemsex: fucking
on drugs like crystal meth or GHB without a rubber. “I don’t do
drugs,” I told him – which is a lie, but I knew where this was going.
And subsequent messages proved me right. I’m not the judgmental
type – if that’s your thing, that’s your thing. But the truth is,
I rarely get that kind of message in Berlin unless it’s high tourist
season. Seems that visitors get the wrong impression from reading
too much of the “gay sex mecca” hype! So on that note, here’s an
open letter to next summer’s batch of Touris.
Dear gay tourist: Welcome to our city. You make it brighter and
more diverse, and are the lifeblood of much of our economy. Many
of you don’t remain tourists for very long and decide to stay, contributing
to the colourful shimmery fabric that makes Berlin different.
On a gayer note, you fill up my Grindr grid so it’s not just the
same 12 guys at Kottbusser Tor every night. That said, you’re not a
Berliner yet, and it wouldn’t kill you to keep a few things in mind...
Germans, and by extension Berliners, are a punctual folk. Assimilate
a little and instead of trying to make a sex date for between
6-9pm (or am!): commit, damn it. We’re not waiting on an IKEA
desk delivery.
I expect that you have a job back home, so why don’t you expect
we have one here? I know it’s a common myth that we don’t work,
but we do. So just because we were up until dawn Saturday night/
Sunday morning, don’t get butthurt that I can’t meet at 2am
Wednesday night.
Be upfront about leaving the next day. Berliners may be hard,
and its gays nonchalant about dating, but this isn’t just a petting
zoo. Letting me know that you have a plane to catch in 18 hours
informs how we play the game.
Our lives don’t revolve around Berghain. Do you really need to
spend all your time in the world’s most famous darkroom? How
about a walk down Engeldamm? Even if romance isn’t in the cards,
we can always duck into a bush.
And chemsex: I’ve seen the documentary. I’m for whatever
substances you indulge in, but at the same time, I’ve no desire to
see Berlin turn into London. Otherwise I’d live in London, being
a banker during the week and slamming tina come Friday. Berlin’s
got its own kind of hedonism. Luckily, it seems our two cities have
different ideas about being “open-minded” (another strangely
ironic code for chemsex).
And I’ve got an open mind for you, kids. Come, play, socialise
and fraternise, build new communities and enjoy our city. Just
don’t be an asshole. Or send me any more snapshots of yours. ■
Learning
german!
goethe.de/berlin
OCTOBER 2016
Sprache. Kultur. Deutschland.
REGULARS
Food
By François Poilâne
Meat the Americans
Get your barbecue, burger and beer fix at three recent
restaurants that beef up Berlin’s US food scene.
The Pit
If you’re wondering why Dallas native Adam
Ramirez charges an extra euro for barbecue
sauce, it’s because he doesn’t want you to use
it. This is BBQ Texas-style, where the flavour
comes from the meat (high-grade wagyu beef
shipped in from Nebraska; pork from Brandenburg)
and the oakwood smoke, imparted
overnight via a room-sized custom-built
smoker stashed in Marzahn. One bite of brisket
and this August’s transition from pop-up
to brick-and-mortar makes sense: it’s almost
obscenely tender and juicy, with a pitch-black
outer crust (“bark”) that’s addictive, if highly
carcinogenic. That and the pork belly are so
rich that we were begging for mercy by the
end of our mixed platter (€38.50/two people),
which also came with a slice of cornbread, a
heap of coleslaw and a bowl of sweet-spicy
beans stewed with leftover brisket ends. You’ll
likely need a Stone IPA (€4.90) to cut through
it all. Texans’ only authenticity quibble will be
with the price – the much-beloved Wednesday
short rib special runs €9 per 100g, and
that’s without any sides! But good meat
should be expensive, and for the sake of
your own health, you ought to make this a
once-every-six-months indulgence anyway.
— JS Reichenberger Str. 120, Kreuzberg,
Wed-Sun 18-22
The Bird Express
Originally conceived as a compact, take-outfriendly
version of Berlin’s premier gourmet
burger emporium (thus the “Express” in the
name), The Bird’s newest location is actually
a rather expansive sit-down bar and grill that
took over Mitte’s hip hop club Kurvenstar in
February. The menu’s expanded as well, from
burgers to BBQ. Thanks to a smoker shipped
over from Nashville, the dinner menu boasts
American Angus brisket and pulled pork,
available plain or in a sandwich (for which
they use actual buns and not those English
muffins that continue to ineffectually contain
their burgers). Co-owners Jonathan Cook,
from New York, and Michael Heiden, from
Cologne, don’t pretend to be purists and
offer a near-infinite array of sauces, from
mustard to vinegar to salsa verde (hot, albeit
one-note). We needed some to moisten up
the dry-ish pulled pork, but the brisket (€16
including bread, pickles and a side of beans
or coleslaw) stood on its own, as did the
Iberico pork loin ribs (€14), basted in a sweet
Kansas-style glaze. It can’t compete with
The Pit’s wagyu, but it’s solid barbecue. The
menu still includes burgers (around €12), also
available in miniature “slider” form at a competitive
price (€2-3.50), appealing to Mitte
business lunchers who don’t want to spend
Karolina Spolniewski
Above: Ribs,
brisket, pulled pork
and sliders from
The Bird Express
in Mitte.
Left: A brisket and
pork belly platter
from The Pit in
Kreuzberg.
the rest of the day’s pitch meetings staving
off the meat sweats. Vegans, rejoice: there’s
even a beetroot-bean “Lousy Hunter” version,
guaranteed animal-free. — JS Kleine
Präsidentenstr. 3, Mitte, daily noon-midnight
Stone Brewing Berlin
Last month, at their year-old European brew
hub in far-west Mariendorf, the San Diegan
makers of Arrogant Bastard Ale unveiled their
giant World Bistro and Gardens. It’s a meaty
venture indeed: think upscale, sanitised White
Trash with a spacious indoor dining area and
tastefully landscaped California-esque outdoor
patio. On tap are dozens of Stone’s palettebending
ales, stouts and other medicinalstrength
concoctions, like the 9.5 percent alcohol,
Belgian-style “Victory Brewing Golden
Monkey” (€5.80/0.3L). Food-wise, it’s all
gastropub gourmet with that rough-aroundthe-edges
quality you’d expect from bearded
craft brewers. Stuff like “Chai-Spiced Moroccan
Beef” with couscous (€18). The “chai” was
hard to identify (it’s supposedly a blend of
cinnamon, cardamom, star anise, ginger and
saffron), but the organic beef was undeniably
tasty. Then there are the homemade beef and
pork merguez-style sausages (lamb and veal
don’t jibe with their “philosophy”, €14) with
braised onions, fried potatoes and mustard infused
with Stone Ruination IPA. Yum. For the
meat-averse, there’s stir-fried German-made
“local tofu” with braised pairs and a decent
homemade kimchi (€12)... With beers so far
away from the German mainstream, Stone’s
menu, while not cheap, could play a key role in
getting locals to come back for seconds. — SG
Im Marienpark 23, Mariendorf, daily noonmidnight
(kitchen until 22)
Maria Runarsdottir
Updates on the Berlin food scene, in your inbox every
two weeks. Sign up at exberliner.com/newsletter
54
54 EXBERLINER 150 153
REGULARS
Review
Dandy Diner:
Fast vegan in Neukölln
The pink neon sign with a pig’s
face on Karl-Marx-Straße is
misleading: is this a butcher or a
street food place serving pulled pork?
The word “vegan” is invisible from the
outside, and is found just once in tiny
letters on the menu above the counter.
Dandy Diner – weirdly, an offshoot
of men’s fashion blog Dandy Diary –
opened last April with a widely ridiculed
hipster PR stunt gone wrong, their offer
of free food on social media resulting in
a veritable mob of thousands gathering
outside. Nestled amidst Spätis and kebab
shops, the cruelty-free burger joint
attracts far fewer fans today. Around
7pm on a recent Monday, only six or
seven seats were filled. The interior is
more pleasant than the exterior lets on.
Vintage Tribe Called Quest is playing
loud; a mellow pink light envelops a
massive communal cast-concrete table.
The menu is simple, like a welldesigned
app: on the left, vegan burgers,
Dandy Diner’s
vegan cheeseburger:
You want
some chia pudding
with that?
on the right, vegan sandwiches. Our order
came within a few minutes, and the
Asian burger (marinated tofu, kimchi,
daikon radish, crunchy nori and wakame
topped with teriyaki sauce, €5.50) was a
spicy bundle of flavour. The Italian one,
though (shiitake-red bean patty with
vegan cheese and aubergine sauce, €5.50)
was formless, mushy and – sorry Dandy –
a little boring.
As for the sandwiches, served on hip
chia-seed toast, they punch above their
weight: small but dense. The avocado
(€4.50) is just avo, chilli and radish on
crunchy bread, a people-pleasing nobrainer.
But the virtuoso of the night,
which has sadly since been discontinued,
was the pork-free “pulled mushroom”
(€6.50): marinated, shredded ‘shroom
topped with coleslaw, baby spinach and
chipotle mayo. This was vegan food at its
best, and we can only hope its replacement
on the menu, “Berlin’s first vegan
ceviche sandwich”, lives up to the same
standard. Pile on a portion of decent fries
(€2) and/or the excellent slaw made with
egg-free mayo (€2.50), and your tummy
will be perfectly happy going home without
their chia pudding (€3).
One significant criticism: Dandy’s
claim is to be animal-free, not environmentally
friendly. But still, does a vegan
dinner have to generate so much waste?
A tray full of burger boxes, sandwich
paper and chip bags doesn’t really gel
with the high eco-ethical standards set
by veganism, does it? Dandy, you should
work on that. — SG
Dandy Diner Karl-Marx-Str. 9,
Neukölln, Sun-Thu 12-22, Fri-Sat 12-23
COMIC —Ulli Lust
56
EXBERLINER 153
NOW IN BERLIN
COLUMN — Ask Hans-Torsten
Voting for Amis
Hans-Torsten Richter answers your questions
on surviving and thriving in Berlin.
Write to hanstorsten@exberliner.com.
GOOD IDEAS FOR
EVERYDAY LIFE
Q
Dear Hans-Torsten: I’m an American
who lived in a couple different
states before coming to Berlin – I’m not
actually sure which one I’m registered to
vote in. Still, I’d like to vote in the upcoming
elections. How do I do that? And will my
vote be counted for my ex-home-state, or in
a separate pool of “overseas” votes? —Nicole
A
Dear Nicole: I guess this is the
“American” issue, so I will ausnahmsweise
answer a question about the tangled
laws of your strangely organised democracy.
The first thing to know is that the laws
governing the election of POTUS are local –
every state has its own peculiarities. But one
thing seems to be clear: Americans living
overseas should register in their last state
of residence. You can register and request
an absentee ballot quite effortlessly at www.
votefromabroad.org, a nonpartisan website
run by the group Democrats Abroad. A tool
will create a “Voter Registration and Absentee
Ballot Request” which you can print and
send, fax or email (depending on local regulations).
The “find answers” page will tell
you the deadlines to submit registration and
Write in and win!
Don Giovanni
Confused by German bureaucracy? Baffled
by native customs? Send in your question
to Hans-Torsten by noon on October 15
and you could win two free tickets to a live
high-definition broadcast of Mozart's Don
Giovanni performed at the Metropolitan
Opera New York at Cinestar Original Potsdamer
Platz on October 22, 19:00.
For giveaway terms and conditions see
www.exberliner.com/terms
ballot requests, and whether or not documents
can be submitted electronically or
only by post. Does your vote end up in some
mysterious pile of overseas ballots? No, it
counts towards the votes in your ex-homestate,
obviously somewhat demotivating if
your state isn’t a “swing” state.
Q
Dear Hans-Torsten: I moved here to
work as an app developer for a start-up.
This city is supposed to be leading the way
into a high-tech future, but you still can’t pay
by credit card anywhere. And what about the
Bürgeramt?? You are required to register to be
able to do anything, even get a bank account.
Yet there are no appointments available
online till December... arrgh. — Ken
A
Dear Ken: Sadly, not all of life can be
remote-controlled with an app, though
I agree the state of Berlin needs to rapidly do
something about its overloaded, antiquated
Bürgeramt registration system. The city is
growing at a rate of 40,000 people per year
and the authorities can't keep up. These
days there are myriad ways of proving your
identity online without actually showing your
passport to a grumpy bureaucrat with dozens
of kitten photos on her desk. Until that happens,
though, one trick is to just show up at a
Bürgeramt (any one will do, preferably one at
the edge of the city, like in Pankow-Buch) and
“bring some time with you” as we Germans
say. They can’t kick you out if you show up
during opening hours.
Alternatively, as a high-earning developer
you might be able to afford the €95
all-inclusive service offered by the start-up
www.buergeramt-termine.de. You don’t
need to go anywhere, they actually go to the
Amt for you. But if you savour the challenge
of “cheating” a little bit in the dog-eat-dog
competition for appointments, consider
monitoring Berlin’s official online calendar
for openings using a browser plug-in like
Check4Change for Firefox or PageMonitor
for Chrome. If set up correctly, the software
will inform you when someone cancels an
appointment – a cue for you to swoop in
and snap it up for yourself.
Workshops | Classes | Talks
in English & German
SELECTIVE ARTISTS PRÄSENTIERT IM ADMIRALSPALAST
LUBOMYR MELNYK
www.lubomyr.com
Classroom & Shop
Lychener Str. 7, 10437 Berlin
WWW.THESCHOOLOFLIFE.COM/BERLIN
+ GUESTS
+ GREGORY ALAN ISAKOV
+ BABY KREUZBERG
+ FOG
JOSÉ GONZÁLEZ
& THE STRING THEORY
06.12.2016 17.01.2017
www.jose-gonzalez.com
WWW.ADMIRALSPALAST.DE WWW.SELECTIVEARTISTS.DE WWW.TICKETMASTER.DE
0382_AZ_Exberliner_BIG_03.indd 1 21.09.16 15:
OCTOBER 2016
COLUMN — Sex
Ask Dr. Dot
Our sex columnist answers
your hard, pressing questions
about doin’ it in Berlin.
Drinking problem?
You are not alone!
alcoholics-anonymous-berlin.de
030 787 5188 or 01803-AA HELP
Meetings in English
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Tel: 0049 30 47372964,
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Office hours: 10.00 to 14.00
58
Q
I am a Texan girl living here in Berlin
for work. I’ve been dating a German
guy for four years; he’s 30 and I’m 38. I’m
crazy in love, but we break up and reconcile
over and over again. I catch him cheating
with other girls online, and when I confront
him, he gets super angry and leaves me. Just
as I’ve started to heal, he returns with a vengeance:
flowers, poems, promises and lots of
cunnilingus. So I take him back and we have
a few months of bliss, until my inner voice
urges me to check his iPhone and I see the
same old bullshit again. Am I crazy for taking
him back? Please lay it down straight for me.
— Taste of Texas
A
Reading this reminds me of the film
Groundhog Day. Same shit over and
over again; a leopard never
changes his spots. Staying
with him will merely age
you faster and turn you into
a suspicious, vicious shrew,
which is unappealing. The
next time this happens, shut
the door behind him and
never take him back. Avoid
alcohol, love songs and romantic movies for
at least six months, as they will only make
you susceptible to his pleas. Try dating older
men, who are usually grateful and have most
of that hunting shit out of their system.
Q
Is it normal to have a cock that
points downwards, even when it’s
hard? Mine looks like he is hanging his head
in shame all the time. It’s embarrassing.
— Downward Doug
A
Cocks, like tits, come in all shapes
and sizes and point in every direction.
Some curve to the side, some
upwards (like a coat rack) and some
downwards. There is no “norm” with pink
parts. If you feel like your downward dick
is a minus, try to make up for it: be funnier,
more generous and give your partner plenty
of firm foot rubs and they will let the odd
shape slide. Consider yourself lucky if that
is your main worry in life.
Q
Send all questions
or problems, whatever
they are, to:
drdot@drdot.com
What do you have to do in Berlin to
keep a guy’s eyes just on you? I am 23,
from Holland, and know that I am very hot.
But still any guy I date or fuck is chasing
other girls – either on the street, in person,
or on their phones. Does true love not exist
here, or what? —Dutch Delight
A
Sorry to break the news to you, but
you are pretty much correct. Thanks
to the internet, romance, love and giving
someone your undivided attention have all
left the building. Fuck the phone ninjas!
Men live for challenge; this is why they
play sports and fight wars. But dating is no
longer a challenge now. No more calling a
landline to see if their sweetheart is home.
No yearning to see their lover or wondering
how sex might be – they just
open an app and shop for
another lover or watch porn
online. It’s not just Berlin,
it’s a worldwide dilemma.
So perhaps you should try
to find a guy who does NOT
have a smartphone or Facebook
page, and you might
find what you are looking for: real interaction
from a grateful partner.
Q
Ciao, I am an Italian who has lived
in Berlin for eight years. Lately, all
of my female Italian friends have noticed
that the men we date are bragging a lot,
straight away, about how “great” they are
at oral sex. Is this now normal behaviour?
Men selling themselves like a product?
We find it very off-putting. What are your
thoughts? — Modest Monica
A
Short and blunt about this one: Men
who brag about giving amazing oral
sex before they have even had sex with you
usually have a tiny dick. In other words “I
have a small penis but I can make up for
it with my oral techniques”. If you don’t
believe me, try one of those bragging idiots
out and get back to me. It’s the quiet, confident
ones that are always the best in the
sack. Fact.
EXBERLINER 153
REGULARS
High art for the
little people
Dan Borden on the ulterior motives
behind the city’s private art bunkers.
Save Berlin
By Dan Borden
Does a painting exist if no one can see
it? Today’s art collectors are confronting
that existential question head on,
throwing open their doors to the public to
maximise eyeballs on their once-vaulted art.
They’re also changing the cultural face of
cities worldwide by creating landmark buildings
– see the around-the-block lines at Los
Angeles’ new Broad Collection.
As with many things, Berlin set the trend...
200 years ago. In 1815, Prussia’s King Friedrich
Wilhelm III gave his subjects a one-time
look at his royal art hoard. The exhibition
was such a hit, he made it permanent – and
Berlin’s Museum Island was born.
Like today’s collectors, there was more to
the king’s generosity than meets the eye. He
was celebrating his triumph over Napoleon
and showing off the war booty his troops
had hauled back from Paris. Today’s magnanimous
Berlin collectors get substantial
tax benefits and a boost in value by “branding”
their collections. Still, it’s an artful
win-win: These open-door collections raise
Berlin’s cultural profile and invent smart
new uses for unloved-but-historic buildings
that might otherwise face demolition.
While these collectors
soak up good karma,
they also take comfort in
knowing their treasures
are still their own.
The Boros bunker
houses works by
Ólafur Elíasson,
Alicia Kwade,
Ai Weiwei and
myriad others.
The duke and duchess of
Scheunenviertel
As West German art lovers Rolf and Erika
Hoffmann watched Germany’s peaceful
revolution of 1989, they hatched a vision of
East Berlin as Europe’s new capital of Kunst.
By the mid-1990s, they were lording it over
Mitte’s arty makeover from atop their refurbished
machine factory on Sophienstraße. At
street level: art galleries and the beloved Barcomi’s
café. Upstairs: artists’ studios and loft
apartments. The topper was a luxurious new
glass penthouse by architects Becker Gewers
Kühn & Kühn where the Hoffmanns could
live among modern artworks by premium
names like Andy Warhol, Frank Stella and
Bruce Nauman. The Sammlung Hoffmann
not only jump-started Mitte’s transformation
into an international art centre, it was
also the first collection to open its doors to
the public. Since 1997, tours are available by
reservation every Saturday.
Your bunker is my castle
Taking his lead from the Hoffmanns, communications
magnate Christian Boros moved
his West German collection into the heart
of Mitte, but picked a building with a much
higher profile. The castle-like Reichsbahnbunker
(photo) was built in 1943 to shelter
train passengers from Allied bombs. When
Boros bought it in 2003, the windowless
concrete behemoth hosted a techno club
and weekly sex parties. This ultimate white
elephant got a genius makeover by designers
Jens Casper, Petra Petersson and Andrew
Strickland with galleries highlighting 21stcentury
conceptual art (which even Herr Boros
admits he doesn’t entirely understand)
and, once again, a glass penthouse on the
roof. The Boros Collection has eclipsed the
Hoffmanns as Berlin’s must-see art mecca,
with tours Thursday through Sunday booked
out months in advance.
Subterranean zen
Berlin’s latest private museum is Désiré
Feuerle’s stunning reuse of another World
War II bunker. The shelter was built to
protect S-Bahn electrical panels, but became
flooded in 1945 when missiles punched a
hole in an adjacent S-Bahn tunnel under the
nearby Landwehr Canal. British architect
John Pawson’s minimal re-do exploits the
bunker’s otherworldly serenity, even keeping
some of that water as an underground pond.
Feuerle’s collection of ancient Asian artefacts
contrasts with cleverly chosen contemporary
work. Open for previews since April,
the Feuerle Collection officially opens for
weekend tours this month.
While these collectors soak up good karma
by putting their treasures in the public eye,
they also take comfort in knowing those
treasures are still their own. That beats the
old way of sharing art: donating it to museums.
These savvy collectors get to share
their cake and keep it, too. And those doors
that swung open to the little people can just
as quickly slam shut. It’s no coincidence
that these collections sit in isolated, even
fortified buildings. They provide the ideal
shelters for these multimillionaires to safely
watch, surrounded by their treasures, when
the next revolution comes. n
NOSHE
OCTOBER 2016
59
REGULARS
Advertorial
Berlin essentials
Stuff and events selected from the
best of what the city has to offer.
Rock ‘n’ roll turkey
Are you an American looking for a taste of home,
or has reading this issue gotten you hungry for that
most Ami of meals? Every year Hard Rock Café Berlin
serves a traditional Thanksgiving menu. On November
24 they offer a full three-course menu, which includes
a corn chowder soup, a freshly carved turkey
(served with traditional stuffing, mashed potatoes,
fresh vegetables, gravy and cranberry sauce) and
pumpkin pie with whipped cream. You can enjoy the
whole three-course dinner for €25.95 or just select
your favourite part. Reserve your spot now! Hard
Rock Cafe Berlin, Kurfürstendamm 224, Charlottenburg,
reservations at berlin_events@hardrock.
com or 030 884 620
Eye spy
Sick of the same €99-and-under glasses brands overtaking
Berlin? Treat yourself to an exceptional specs
experience at eyeLounge.berlin. The optician and glasses
store on Winterfeldtplatz celebrated its grand opening
in July. It's a chic, cozy space where you can chill
with a drink while shopping for new frames and getting
your eyes examined. Check out German and European
designer brands like Lindberg, Markus T., Munic Eyewear
and Berlin's own Mykita. Get custom lenses made for you
by German glass supplier Rupp + Hubrach or get fitted
for daily, weekly or monthly contact lenses. Either way,
you'll see better and come away with a brand-new look!.
eyeLounge. berlin, Winterfeldtstr. 52, Schöneberg,
Mon-Fri 11-19, Sat 11-16
Picture this
Want to learn more about photography than just how to take perfect
selfies and instagram pics? Then PopUp GPP Berlin is for you! On the
last weekend of October, Berliners get the chance to learn from four
top photographers what it takes to get a good photo. Joe McNally, Zack
Arias, Gregory Heisler and David Hobby share their insights and get you
inspired at their intensive sessions held at Babylon Kino. Whether you
want to learn about technique, boost your creativity and career or hear
the stories behind some famous shots, the weekend offers something
for everyone from beginners to pros. Get your camera ready and book
your ticket at popupgpp.com for €299. PopUp GPP, October 29-30,
9:30-18, Babylon Kino, Rosa-Luxemburg-Str. 30, Mitte
Halloween heroines
Halloween falls on a school night this year, so on October 29, the
Heroine Artists are jumping the gun at Bassy Club. This time, Berlin's
most sexy indie-rock-wave-music party enters the club with a live
band: Eat Lipstick. The crazy, drunk and trashy punk rock group
fronted by the drag queen bastard child of Divine and Vivienne Westwood,
Anita Drink, is set to put on a glitter-and-stardust-covered
show to blow you off your high heels. Once you've recovered, you
can dance your ass off to the best of rock, punk, new wave, NDW
and electro served by DJ The Shredder and Damon Zurawski. Plus
a special performance by Valentina DeMonia, sexy shot girls Betty
Dynamite & Vega Vargas & a special guest performer Come dressed
up and you'll save money and have fun! Oct 29, 21:00, Bassy Club,
Schönhauser Allee 176a, Prenzlauer Berg
To be featured on this page, contact ads@exberliner.com
60
EXBERLINER 153
14|10
A Night for
LILI BOULANGER
LILI BOULANGER | PAUL HINDEMITH
ARNOLD SCHÖNBERG | GYÖRGY LIGETI
MAX REGER | FREDERICK DELIUS
Phillip Moll Piano
Michael Alber Conductor
Friday | October 14 2016 | 20:00
Philharmonie Berlin Kammermusiksaal
Tickets: +49 (0)30 20 29 87 25
www.rias-kammerchor.de
#rias
ein Ensemble der
Foto © aiisha
Poster series inspired by an idea of AlexandLiane / Design: Jürgen Fehrmann / Photo: Dorothea Tuch
➞ www.hebbel-am-ufer.de
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