EXBERLINER Issue 166, December 2017

#BERLINTOO?
Four years after #Aufschrei,
where are the German
Harvey Weinsteins?
— p.22
POLITICS REPORTAGE ZEITGEIST ART MUSIC FILM STAGE
Analogue
Berlin
This Christmas, ditch the
smartphone and spoil your
loved ones with cassette tapes,
Super 8 film cameras, printing
presses and modular synths.
p.6–21
166
€3.90 DECEMBER 2017
WWW.EXBERLINER.COM
100% MADE IN BERLIN
PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER

CARMEN
from 20 January 2018
Georges Bizet
Realgestalt
Ivan Repušić Conductor — Ole Anders Tandberg Stage Director
With Clémentine Margaine, Charles Castronovo et al.
Tickets: +49 [30] -343 84 343; www.deutscheoperberlin.de

CONTENTS
Exberliner 166 – December 2017
Special:
Analogue Berlin
06
Booked for the holidays
Seven Berlin page-turners you can
stuff your friends’ stockings with
08
Make analogue great again
Meet the Berliners who still believe
in film, vinyl and cassettes
12
It’s not your phone, it’s you
An expert on smartphones and
mental health cautions us against
smombie panic
14
Digital-free safe spaces
Cafés, bars and restaurants try to
ban devices... with mixed results
16
Meeting my offline match
A millennial switches from
Tinder to matchmaking, speed
dating and singles’ parties
18
Going against the current
Wi-fi-proof furniture, a
smartphone-blocking sleeve and
electrosensitive clothes
20
Erik Spiekermann’s
analogue revenge
A peek into the design legend’s
letterpress workshop
21
Charité’s blood labyrinth
The hospital’s surprising
steampunk delivery system
Features
22
#BerlinToo?
As harassers are outed overseas,
where are the German Weinsteins?
24
Exit Wilmersdorf
A makeshift refugee shelter’s
last days
Regulars
03
Konrad Werner
Fake debates
04
Best of Berlin
A doggie Christmas market,
customised coconuts, secret
samurais and Wedding comics
50
Berlin bites
A scene wine bar and
Neukölln sweets
52
Save Berlin
Dan Borden on the city’s
stymied skyscrapers
53
The Gay Berliner
Alone and gay on Christmas
54
Comic
Ulli Lust: Respecting the
ATM gatekeeper
55
Ask Hans-Torsten
Bike registration and green energy
What’s On
26
Best of 2017
Our critics look back at a year
of music, film, stage and art
28 .............................. Film
32 ........................... Music
37 ............................. Stage
40 ................................ Art
44
Events calendar
46
The Berlin Guide
18. OKTOBER 2017 – 15. APRIL 2018
1917. REVOLUTION.
RUSSLAND UND EUROPA
1917. REVOLUTION.
RUSSIA AND EUROPE
dhm.de/russische-revolution
NOVEMBER 2016 1
Olivia Hyunsin Kim / ddanddarakim
#Watch Me Dance :
Acker Stadt Palast, ada Studio, Akademie der Künste, Agora Collective, Ballhaus
Naunyn straße, Ballhaus Ost, Berliner Festspiele, Dock 11 & Eden*****, fabrik Potsdam,
Halle Tanzbühne Berlin, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Hochschul über grei fen des Zentrum Tanz
Berlin, Sasha Waltz & Guests, Studio laborgras, Lake Studios Berlin, Radialsystem V,
Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, Sophiensæle, Staatsballett Berlin, Tanzfabrik Berlin,
Tanz im August, TanzZeit e.V., Tatwerk | Performative Forschung, Theater Strahl, Theater
Thikwa, Uferstudios für zeitgenössischen Tanz, Volksbühne Berlin
tanzraumberlin.de :

Berlin’s most authentic French bistro
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COLUMN— Political Notebook
Fake debates
Konrad Werner explains German politics.
This month: AfD distractions.
Editor-in-chief
Nadja Vancauwenberghe
Deputy editor
Rachel Glassberg
Web editor
Walter Crasshole
Film
Paul O’Callaghan
Art director
Stuart Bell
Cover illustration by Stuart Mead
Publishers
Maurice Frank
Nadja Vancauwenberghe
Ioana Veleanu
Editorial
Design
Music
Michael Hoh
Art
Sarrita Hunn
Stage
Daniel Mufson
Food
Françoise Poilâne
Graphic design
Louise Yau
This month’s contributors
Jenny Browne, Alexander Durie, Emmanuelle
François, Anna Gyulai Gaal, Aske Hald Knudstrup,
Franziska Helms, Jim Kavanaugh, Amy Leonard,
Taylor Lindsay, David Mouriquand, Jane Silver.
Photography: Pavel Mezihorák. Illustration: Ulli Lust,
Agata Sasiuk.
Ad sales / Marketing
Maurice Frank (business manager)
Ori Behr (sales)
To discuss advertising please contact us:
Tel 030 2463 2564, ads@exberliner.com
Subscriptions
www.exberliner.com/subscribe
Iomauna Media GmbH
Max-Beer-Straße 48, 10119 Berlin-Mitte
Tel 030 2463 2563, Fax 030 4737 2963
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Every political debate in Germany is
fake. We’re living in a weird tunnel of
deflection and misdirection, complaining
the loudest about things that are offensive
but make no difference, while ignoring all
the real circumstances that actually need
changing. The way to win political arguments
these days is to piss people off so much that
they call you a Nazi. Then you can feel like a
victim and it means they’ve lost the argument
– even, and here’s the bizarre thing, if you
actually are a Nazi. It’s checkmate either way.
For instance, all the political parties tripped
over themselves last month getting angry about
how 50 AfD MPs were members of a Naziglorifying
Facebook group called
“The Patriots” that posted a horrible
Anne Frank joke. And, in the
same week, the newly elected AfD
Bundestag members chose one
of their most egregious MPs – a
Dresden judge called Jens Maier
– to represent them in the council
of the government’s “Alliance
for Democracy and Tolerance
against Extremism and Violence”
(BfDT), an organisation designed to educate the
population about Germany’s liberal values.
This is the same Jens Maier who once
called “mixed peoples” “intolerable” and
who expressed empathy with Norwegian
far-right terrorist Anders Breivik. “Breivik
became a mass murderer out of pure desperation,”
said Maier, redefining the concept
of desperation in a unique way.
To elect such a man to that particular government
agency is the kind of cynical decision
that the far-right has become so good at. They
know that the only way to report on it is to
point out what a horrible man Maier is, which
allows them to call the media “biased” and turn
the political debate away from what actually
matters. Jens Maier may or may not have any
influence on that particular council (which I’d
never heard of before), but it doesn’t matter –
he’s won already just by getting it on the news.
Meanwhile, smug Germany continues to
demand “integration” from its Muslim community
while hedging their religious freedoms
in favour of state-sanctioned Christianity.
By choosing Maier for that role, the AfD
once again successfully twisted everything to
make it look like there is a tolerance-preaching,
foreigner-friendly political establishment
that they are opposing on behalf of
“German” Germans. In fact, no such thing
exists, because beneath this
debate, Germany is just as conservative
as it always was.
Two rulings on religious
education by the same court
in Münster illustrated this last
month. First, judges decided
that a Muslim boy had to attend
the Catholic mass and
religious lessons in the state
school that was nearest his
home – or else go to another state school
several miles away that wasn’t being run by
a church. Then, the court decided that Muslim
organisations did not represent their religious
community – therefore they couldn’t
organise religious lessons, and so Muslim
children couldn’t have religious classes.
I think that religion is an impossible masochistic
game, but I also think that if you’re going
to allow churches to run schools for Christian
communities, you ought to allow Muslim communities
to have their own religious lessons.
But no. Germany doesn’t care. It’s too busy being
distracted by its futile AfD rage to actually
try and live the liberal society it thinks it is. n

BEST OF BERLIN — December 2017
BY THE EXBERLINER
EDITORIAL TEAM
Pavel Mezihorák
Collection
BEST SECRET
SAMURAI STASH
If you’re looking for Berlin’s most underground
museum, you’ll need to take a trip to
faraway Zehlendorf and descend three floors
beneath an old folks’ home known as Villa Clay.
Here you’ll find the Samurai Art Museum, the
city’s finest collection of art and artefacts related
to the legendary Japanese warrior tradition, with
objects more than a thousand years older than
the inhabitants residing above. The location is
no accident: this is the private collection of Villa
Clay owner Peter Janssen, a fervent Japanophile
who, when he wasn’t developing an empire of
over a dozen retirement homes across Germany,
toured Europe’s auction markets bidding for silklined
armour and ancient swords. Since October
11, you can see the fruits of his labour on Wednesday,
Friday and Sunday afternoons in an elegantly
minimal concrete space buried under Villa Clay’s
Feng Shui garden. There isn’t much information
on display among all the costumes, helmets,
masks and blades, but if it’s not too busy,
receptionist and samurai researcher Martyna
Lesniewska will be happy to provide you with
extensive explanations – not a bad deal for your
€10 entrance fee. With a collection that keeps
growing and upcoming workshops provided by
preservation experts, you won’t want to miss
this unexpectedly zen spot. Just don’t get too
sidetracked by the sound of the waltzing elderly
couples merrymaking above. — AD
On the day before she was to give
birth, self-confessed graphic
novel nerd Emilie Doerflinger,
realised her long-gestating dream, signing
a Mietvertrag on a former art gallery
in Wedding that she aimed to transform
into her own comic book store and café.
Three months on, both of Doerflinger’s
babies are thriving. As you enter Totem,
her quaint shop in the still-ungentrified
Kiez behind Silent Green, you’re welcomed
by the smell of fresh-baked cookies
(€1.50) and brewing French-press
coffee from local roasters Coffee Circle
(€1.60). Tunes from French radio station
FIP play in the background. An infant
tries to crawl his way to freedom beneath
a basket of plush ManyMornings Polish
socks (€6-9) as a bemused Chinese
Shar-Pei monitors the situation. But this
Books
BEST KID-FRIENDLY
KIEZ COMIC SHOP
is no mere Kindercafé – you might see a
visiting Parisian comic book publisher
checking out English titles like Guess
Who? (€12) and The Lines on Nana’s Face
(€15.90). You can flip through acclaimed
French releases like any of Penelope
Bagieu’s three tomes of Culottées (€24),
or German ones like an illustrated
version of Karl Marx’s iconic text “Der
Gott Des Geldes” (€18). And aside from
music classes and free storytime sessions
in English, French and German, Doerflinger
hosts special events for kids and
adults alike – from January 11, expect an
exhibition on the parent-child refugee
journey by photojournalists Markus Heine
and Björn Kietzmann, accompanied
by a workshop and debate. — JK
Maxstr. 1, Wedding, Mon-Fri 13-19, Sat 10-14
Clayallee 225D, Zehlendorf, Wed, Fri, Sun 14-18,
guided tours by request
4
EXBERLINER 166

BEST OF BERLIN — December 2017
Pavel Mezihorák
BEST NUTTY GIFT IDEA
This holiday season,
skip boring old tea and
scented candles and
treat your loved one to their
very own personalised coconut:
sanded down, gloss-coated and sculpted
into anything from an American football
to the Virgin Mary. Just off Schöneberg’s
Bayerischer Platz, behind a faux-Hawaiian
window display, you’ll find Berlin’s first
and only “coco-customiser” Wolfgang
Krewe hard at work. “People walk past and
think, ‘What the hell is he doing in there?’,”
chuckles the owner of Cool Coconuts, an
Passion Project
ex-actor who still gets recognised for his
work on countless German TV procedural.
He opened his shop with his wife this April,
after it grew from a hobby in his cellar to
an obsession and left him swamped with
online requests. Krewe paces up and down
proudly, radiating a childlike enthusiasm
as he shows off a coconut wedding ring
gasket and a BDSM leather-bound coconut
with metal studs. One customer has come
to pick up his set of coconut billiard balls.
The coconuts themselves come either from
Brazil, smuggled back by vacationing
friends or Krewe himself; or from
German supermarkets, though
Krewe laments the inferior quality
of the latter. Finished cocos vary
from €45 to €165, a decent price if
you consider that it takes Krewe
an average of three weeks to make
one. “There’s still a long way to go, you
know,” he beams, his wife grinning beside
him. “I have a lot of ideas still in my head.”
Get your Christmas orders in quick, and
don’t miss Wolfgang’s “Christmas Clash”
– with Glühwein, Lebkuchen and more – on
Dec 9 from 3pm. — JB
Stübbenstr. 8, Schöneberg, Mon-Fri 11-18,
order online at www.coolcoconuts.org
AFTER „RIVERS AND TIDES“
A NEW FILM BY
THOMAS RIEDELSHEIMER
WITH ANDY GOLDSWORTHY
LEANING
INTO
THE
WIND
ANDY GOLDSWORTHY
Pavel Mezihorák
Market
BEST CANINE
CHRISTMAS
Forget kids – with the proliferation
of four-legged Berliners
reaching near-epidemic
proportions, the real question is,
what are you gonna get your dog for
Christmas? Luckily, this puppy-loving
metropole has got you covered.
For the sixth time, Charlottenburg
shop Ally & Dotty is putting on the
weekend-long Berlin Dog Christmas
Market, with outdoor stalls from
some 40 German businesses. You’ll
find Barferquelle’s organic raw food, Perro Paolo’s pet coats, Herr Oscar’s antitheft
leashes... everything you need to spoil your furry friend rotten. If nothing
strikes your fancy, you can still enjoy the poodle shows or the showcase of masterly
trained bloodhounds. More of a cat person? At least you’ll feel good that
half of your €2 entrance fee is supporting Berliner Tiertafel’s pet food donation
efforts, and maybe you’ll even find the perfect “Merry Woof-mas” Christmas
card for one of the many, many dog owners in your life. — AHK
Dec 9-10 from 10am-6pm, Forsthaus Paulsborn, Grunewald
FILMSTART: DEC. 14
DECEMBER 2017
5

ANALOGUE BERLIN
GIFT GUIDE
For the Bukowski-loving whisky drinker
who goes home with randos “for the story”:
Berlin Notebook,
Edition 1 (€8)
Locally printed and bound with a cover
design by typographer Verena Gerlach, the
original Berlin Notebook (€4.95) was released
last year as a pocket-sized, 48-page blank
slate for your oh-so-inspired sketches and
scribblings. This new edition is a a zine-like
hybrid in which empty pages are interspersed
with poems and stories culled from Keith
Bar’s “Whisky & Words” open mic. Who
knows, the English-language musings on
pubic hair, Brötchen and U-Bahn encounters
might prove potent
jumping-off points after
a few single malts!
In the analogue spirit, we’ve rounded up the best
new local reads for every naughty-or-nice Berliner
on your Christmas gift list. By René Blixer
For anyone who thinks they’re edgy
because they’ve been to Berghain:
Miron Zownir:
Berlin Noir (PogoBooks, €58)
Released in March this year, this beautiful
232-page coffee table book is a hardcore
tome offering a unique photographic insight
into “eternal Berlin” by the veteran photographer/filmmaker/novelist
who’s called the
city home for 40 years. Junkies with needles
in their veins, tattooed bodies hung from
butcher’s hooks at Kit Kat, desolate ruins of
the old Palast der Republik, inflatable dolls,
nudity, police brutality... This is no material
for the faint of heart! Many photos date back
from the late 1970s and the 1990s; others are
more recent (the latest, of a street musician
playing guitar in a bear mask in Mauerpark,
is from 2015). But strangely enough, as shot
through Zownir’s signature high-contrast
B&W lens, they all show a city that’s retained
the same raw, hedonistic beauty that
made us fall in love with it. The sleaze, ruins
and junkyards so dear to this tough romantic
might be slowly growing extinct, but Zownir
hasn’t given up on “his” Berlin. A testament
to this city’s enduring dystopian beauty, by a
man who’s withheld his gaze.
For the Germanspeaking
BFF you share everything with:
Ulli Lust: How I tried
to be a good person
(Suhrkamp, €25)
Eight years after the award-winning Today
is the last day of the rest of your life, Exberliner’s
Austrian-born, Berlin-based resident
cartoonist Ulli Lust has released another
raucously funny book that puts the “graphic”
in graphic novel. How I tried to be a good person
is the autobiographical tale of a penniless
artist in 1990s Vienna embarking on a quest
for sexual awakening. Complete with threesomes,
realistic penises and orgasms, this
is happy-go-lucky sex as you’ve hardly ever
seen it drawn by a woman before. Through
Lust’s nakedly honest drawings, we enter
into a series of wholly relatable fantasies,
encountering the classic dilemma of “which
man?” – the secure(ish) older German Georg,
or the wildly jealous Nigerian Kimata – and
another, more modern one: when you’re assaulted
by your African immigrant lover, how
responsible is it to share your story? This and
many other struggles of (wo)mankind are
achingly well portrayed, from Lust’s setbacks
with the Arbeitsamt to her wavering faith
in herself as a lover. Men, too, will howl at
laughter at Georg’s irrational worries, but it’s
the female readers who will be sighing along
in agreement with every panel.
26
EXBERLINER 166

ANALOGUE BERLIN
For the queer-history scenester:
Magnus Hirschfeld:
Berlin’s Third Sex
(Rixdorf Editions, €12)
Pioneering sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld’s 1904
foray into the bars, brothels and private salons of
queer Berlin is worth picking up even if only for
the three pages devoted to early drag personas
– who could resist “Twangy Juste”, “Anita with
the Fangs” or “Minnehaha, the Smiling Waters”?
Of course, it wasn’t only a gay old time back
then. Same-sex relations were still illegal according
to Germany’s infamous Paragraph 175, and
Hirschfeld expounds on gay suicide and police
violence before ending his book with a petition
to abolish said law (which finally happened, 90
years later). It might not be riveting prose, but
it’s a fascinating insight into the lives of “uranians”
(a term Hirschfeld uses to emphasise that
homosexual identity encompasses more than just
gay sex) at the turn of the century, and this new
English version by boutique publishing house Rixdorf
Editions puts it all into context with copious
footnotes and a thoughtful afterword by Australian
translator James J. Conway.
For the expat who wishes they’d
moved here “before everyone else”:
City Primeval
(Litteraria Pragensia, €35)
As put together by American photographer Robert
Carrithers and Prague-based Australian writer
Louis Armand, City Primeval is that familiar kind of
self-congratulatory subculture chronicle wherein a
selection of the authors’ coolest friends reminisce
about being broke, doing drugs and making art. The
difference is that it’s a triptych, with 170 pages of
Berlin material sandwiched between chapters on
New York and Prague. Familiar faces include Lydia
Lunch, Mark Reeder, Steve Morell, Miron Zownir
(see left), Rummelsnuff... you get the picture. But
even if you won’t necessarily learn anything new
about the Hauptstadt, the glossy photos and bitesized
texts make City Primeval ideal for your coffee
table or bathroom, and the Prague section, at least,
covers some previously unexplored territory.
For the cultured punk:
Wolfgang Müller:
Die Tödliche Doris:
Performance
(Hybriden-Verlag, €99)
“Kavaliere!” chant German screen queen Tabea
Blumenschein and musician Käthe Kruse as they
sit atop a bent-over Wolfgang Müller and Nikolaus
Utermöhlen in “Hommage an Alan Jones”. This is just
one of the scenes from Die Tödliche Doris: Performance,
the new book and DVD set chronicling the exploits of
Müller’s 1980s West Berlin art-punk act. Going against
the traditionally cheap aesthetics of punk paraphernalia,
Müller’s 60th birthday present to himself is
published on beautiful paper stock, with text in
both German and English accompanying previously
unpublished videos and phenomenal photos of the
“ingenious dilettantes”. Plus, each of the 100 copies in
print comes with an original piece of Müller artwork.
If you can foot the €99 bill, nothing will prove your
commitment to Berlin subculture more than this.
For your loud arty friend whose
German is embarrassing you:
German for Artists
(Broken Dimanche, €10)
Now in its third print run, Danish artist Stine Marie
Jacobsen’s tongue-in-cheek combination of German
101 and Berlin art-world bigwigs isn’t much more
effective than Duolingo, but it does teach you some
phrases you might actually use at exhibition openings,
from “Olafur Eliasson geht durch den Raum” to “Ich
möchte eine Weißweinschorle.” The names haven’t been
updated since the 174-page guide first came out in
2015, so you won’t be able to talk about Anne Imhof or
what’s been happening at KW since Ellen Blumenstein
left. At least Omer Fast (“Omer Fast ist schnell”) and
Tino Sehgal (“Neben dem Tino Sehgal liegt ein Mann, der
Ed Boros heisst”) are still relevant, for now... ■
tickets
5€-15€
A Christmas Carol : DEC 1st - 23rd
theatreforum kreuzberg - Eisenbahnstrasse 21, BERLIN
www.bert.berlin
NOVEMBER 2017
27

ANALOGUE BERLIN
ROUND-UP
Dustin Quinta
Don’t call it a comeback: for these Berliners,
old-school formats like vinyl, film and tape never
went away in the first place. Now they cater to a
niche but growing crowd of enthusiasts.
By Jenny Browne, Alexander Durie and Aske Hald Knudstrup.
Photography
Home is where
your darkroom is
Thanks to a van named Kurt,
Sabine Alex is never far from a
place to ply her craft.
“When I shoot, I have to take my time,” Sabine
Alex declares as she pours a cup of tea and
offers a tour of her self-built darkroom in her
small, cosy studio close to Ostkreuz.
Despite the 31-year-old’s calm, patient
demeanor, her schedule is far from leisurely.
When she’s not leading her Mobile Dunkelkammer
(“mobile darkroom”) workshops
or running festivals and meetups as co-founder
of the organisation AnalogueNow, Alex is
behind the camera herself, taking large-scale
vintage portraits at festivals and markets for
€10-15 apiece – “like a photo booth that smiles
and talks,” she jokes.
Before permanently relocating to Berlin in
2014, the Dresden native spent two years on
the move, touring German festivals, schools
and museums in a bright orange Mercedes
minibus named “Kurt” that she personally
fitted out with photo processing equipment.
Now, she spends less time with Kurt and
more at her Lichtenberg home base, guiding
groups of up to five people through the basics
of photo developing (€89 for a nine-hour
session) or giving more specific lessons like
the monthly colour film special (€80 for two
hours). Courses are in German, with English
available on request.
Together with friends, Alex established
AnalogueNow three years ago; their first
festival of workshops and photo exhibitions,
held in 2015, drew over 1500 people out
to Lichtenberg. After a second successful
fest last year, they put it on hold to apply
for public funding, but have
kept busy with monthly
Fotostammtisch gatherings (the
next one is Dec 13), a Photo
Weekend in October and a live demonstration
at November’s Day of Analogue Photography.
Despite sometimes wishing she could have
a break to pursue her own creative projects,
Alex’s passion for photography is what keeps
her going. Whether in a van or a studio, she
says, “The magic [of the darkroom] never
ends.” — AD/RB See workshop schedule at
www.mobile-dunkelkammer.com, or find Sabine
taking portraits at the Külhaus the first two
weekends of December.
Film saviours
More than just a store, Fotoimpex
is Berlin’s ground zero for all things
analogue photography.
Tourists wander into the Fotoimpex store on
Alte Schönhauser Straße, attracted by the displays
of disposable, Polaroid and Lomography
cameras. Professional photographers pay for
packs of Kodak Portra 400, while others drop
off envelopes of negatives to process for €5
or develop on contact sheets and scan to CD
for €9.90. Longtime sales clerk Artur Kowallick
puts up a new flyer for his side business
Camera Minutera, offering black and white
portraits taken with an old box camera. A
sticker nearby reads #FilmIsNotDead. Indeed.
But there’s more to Fotoimpex than
a simple storefront. An hour away in
the town of Bad Saarow, you’ll find
an acre-sized warehouse and factory
complex devoted to the manufacture of
photographic film from brands that founder
Mirko Böddecker has “saved”.
“I kind of slipped into this,” explains the
native West Berliner, who was only 19 when
Fotoimpex’s Mitte store sells dozens of kinds of film,
including the “house brand” Adox.
he founded his company in 1992. The young
photography enthusiast had become fond of
certain film brands from the Eastern Bloc, from
ORWO to Foma, and when he noticed their
disappearance after the Wall fell, he saw an opportunity.
Using the money he’d received from
completing his civil service, he began buying
up film at flea markets and printing his own
catalogue. In 1994, he opened his first shop on
Rheinhardtsraße before moving it to its current
location four years later.
The digital revolution over the ensuing decades
would not hinder Böddecker’s vision one
bit. Instead, Fotoimpex helped save a number
of struggling film manufacturers from 2002 onwards,
from bringing back Agfa printing papers
to acquiring Ilford’s coating machine in Switzerland
after their second bankruptcy. The real
coup came in 2003 when Böddecker acquired
Adox, the revered German film brand that
dates back to 1860. At the Bad Saarow factory,
Fotoimpex now produces a full range of films,
papers and chemicals under the Adox name.
Sabine Alex with her mobile darkroom,
a Mercedes bus named Kurt.
8
EXBERLINER 166

ANALOGUE BERLIN
Three photo workshops
Analog Fineprint Service
At his own darkroom/lab by Landsberger
Allee, photographer, author and Fotoimpex
employee Mark Stache holds affordable
German-language introductions to
film development (€75 for an individual
session; €45 per person for groups of 2-3,
bring your own film). Cotheniusstr. 5,
more at fineprintservice.de
Stattlab
Originally founded at Stattbad Wedding, this
photo and screenprinting collective offers
weekly black and white photography workshops
for indiviuals or small groups in German
or English (€85/person), as well as special
offers like “Pinhole photography in a coffee
Although Böddecker acknowledges that it’s
difficult to keep his venture profitable nowadays,
he’s proud that Fotoimpex remains “the
only analogue photography shop in the world
which has its own production”. That production
is only set to increase: this year, Böddecker
unveiled plans for a new factory building in
Bad Saarow that would double the size of their
current complex. Meanwhile, business at
the Mitte store remains steady. Another staff
member, Sabrina, who also works at the longrunning
Neukölln shop Foto Braune, comments
that the fascination for analogue photography
among younger customers “strangely came at
the same time as social media. It slowly crept
up on us.” — AD Alte Schönhauser Str. 32B,
Mitte, Mon-Sat 12-20
can”. They’re also hosting a Christmas market
on December 1 with holiday card workshops,
Polaroid possibilities and a chance to see for
yourself what they do. Drontheimer Str. 34,
Wedding, more at stattlab.net
Berlin Foto Kiez
Organised by veteran British photographer
Michael Grieve, these five-day intensive
workshops are only for those truly committed
to taking their photography to the
next level. €900-1300 gets you Englishlanguage
instruction by pros like Antoine
d’Agata and Bruce Gilden, plus
a closing exhibition at Studio
Cherie in Neukölln. More at
berlinfotokiez.com
Back in the 1980s, Super 8 was the format
for arty Berliners like Wolfgang Müller of
Die Tödliche Doris (see page 7) to put their
experimental ideas on video; old-timers still
remember the regular Super 8 film nights
at Kreuzberg’s Eiszeit Kino. While the film
isn’t as cheap or accessible as it used to be,
one group is keeping the format – and its
DIY spirit – alive. Since 2009, LaborBerlin
in Wedding has offered a retreat for Berlin’s
Super 8 and 16mm film enthusiasts. The
non-profit collective mainly offers an open
office and workspace for its around 50 members
(€90 for a six-month
membership, plus €30 initial
Berlin Foto Kiez
fee), but LaborBerlin also
hosts workshops on everything
from alternative emulsions to
introductory courses for their Crass-brand
tabletop animation stand.
Workshops are available to non-members
for a fee, and the LaborBerlin crew has helped
Egyptian filmmakers establish offices in
Cairo, held workshops at schools and collaborated
with like-minded enthusiasts from
France and Holland. This year saw partnerships
with UdK (for October’s “Film in the
Present Tense”, a symposium on how to keep
analogue film “current and alive”) and Berlin’s
premier film institute Arsenal, for a sixday
comprehensive course on 16mm film. And
with 577 supporters chipping in for €33,000
Karolina Spolniewski
worth of new equipment for the workspace
at the end of last year, it’s clear these video
lovers aren’t alone. — AHK Prinzenallee 58,
Wedding, more details at laborberlin-film.org
Keeping it reel
Printing, processing, duplicating, digitising
– no job is too big for motion
film stalwarts Andec Filmtechnik.
In a backyard off Hermannplatz, owner
Ludwig Draser and his “video-only” staff
of 8-10 deal with formats which the iPhone
movie generation would render extinct. But
according to employee Ralf, “We’re always
in demand!” Andec is one of very few
places that work with all three film
formats (8mm, 16mm and 35mm),
and although business is sporadic,
they find a reliable customer base
among production companies
and individuals. In the warehouse
space full of decade-old machines,
the team doesn’t just convert old
movies into digital. “Believe it or not,
we can do this backwards – digital onto
film!” Ralf laughs. It’s a rare occurrence, but
occasionally chosen by those who want extra
protection for their films (for a hefty price:
€750 for five minutes!).
Prices vary by service: it’s around €140 to
digitise a 10-minute film, but the longer the
film, the cheaper it becomes. The process
can take a few weeks, but customers in the
know say they’re reliable and trustworthy.
You’d hope so anyway, if you were handing
over an old wedding video for duplication,
but these experts, around since 1984, seem
to have mastered the delicate art of preserving
your memories. — JB Hasenheide 9,
Neukölln, Mon-Wed 8-17, Thu 8-18, Fri 8-14
Pavel Mezihorák
Video
Super heroes
Video collective LaborBerlin is
bringing back the film formats
that time forgot.
Secret VHS party
On certain Monday nights on the third floor of an artists’ lot in Wedding, a small group of
mostly expat Berliners gather at VCR Bar for donation-based drinks, cosy vibes, music
on vinyl... and VHS recordings of old North American sports games. The owner, a chill
San Franciscan who built the space himself almost 10 years ago, inherited most of the
tapes from his dad. “I love the camera angles,” he says as he points to a tiny TV displaying
a 1994 NBA match between the Chicago Bulls and the Detroit Pistons. “It speeds up so
close to the court because it was made for people with shitty little TVs, so they had to
film it more experimentally. It was way better back then.”
After his nostalgic reflection, he plays John Lennon’s first solo album on vinyl and closes
his eyes tenderly as “Mother” engulfs the room on powerful surround-sound speakers.
It doesn’t really feel like we’re in Berlin, nor that it’s 2017. Because VCR Bar is operated
off the Ordnungsamt’s radar, we can’t divulge the owner’s name or the location – let’s just
say it’s as ghostlike as the name of the collective that practices yoga there during the day
– but if you feel like you’re out of time or out of place, then maybe it will find you before
you can find it yourself. — AD Secret location, Wedding
DECEMBER 2017 9

ANALOGUE BERLIN
Cassettes
The tape evangelist
Cassette culture is booming in
Berlin thanks to revivalists like
Tapedub’s Sara Valentino.
Initially drawn to analogue photography,
Sara Valentino fell for the humble cassette
tape when studying abroad in China. “They
have an incredible DIY cassette culture
there…” says the 27-year-old Italian expat,
describing the deeply underground experimental,
hip hop and minimalist scenes she
encountered in Beijing.
Post-China travels, she moved to Berlin in
2015 with Marco Pellegrino, a vinyl enthusiast
she’d met in Rome. Together, they began
mastering and cutting records in Marco’s
studio as Analogcut. Their joint interest in
tape machines spurred them on to producing
small runs of cassette as well, until Valentino
expanded into her own duplication
lab Tapedub in Neukölln in 2016. Working
with high-speed duplicators and printers,
she now produces limited runs of 20 to 500
copies. Everything is handmade, from the
artwork to the printing. Marco still assists
with mastering, and the two continue to cut
everything in “AAA”, or analogue domain.
Part of the reason for the expansion was
that Berlin musicians, like Chinese ones, are
beginning to realise the potential tapes offer.
“It’s like the rise in vinyl’s popularity, just
slower,” Valentino explains. At two weeks
from start to finish, tapes have a cheaper,
Sara Valentino with her tape duplication machine.
Berlin on tape
Total Black
Canadian-born Brett Wagg has been running
this Berlin-based noise/experimental/
industrial cassette and record label since
2008. Current projects include a limitededition
tape run, which Berlin label Holy
Geometry will release at the Tape Summit
(see left). totalblack.bandcamp.com
faster turnaround than records. Valentino’s
services will set you back up to €5 per tape,
but you do get it in limited-edition hot pink
with a personalised case, whereas with vinyl,
you’re talking around €30 for a 12-inch.
“Even with little exposure, indie labels can
still make a small profit,” says Valentino.
The warm bass and flexible length (10-100
min) also make tapes ideal for noise, drone
and industrial music.
Valentino is also the brains behind Tape
Summit, a cassette label market and artist
showcase at ACUD on
December 10. As an alternative
to “Cassette Store
Day” (which took place in
2015 and 2016 but failed to
show in Berlin this year),
she’s drawing together
friends and artists for a
day of live sets showcasing
the best new tape and vinyl
releases. She namedrops
Berlin’s Superb Recordings
and Das Andere Selbst
from a long list of labels,
along with DIY extraordinaire
DJ Schlucht, who
will be running a Tape loop
workshop at the event.
“You can actually see and
listen to their products,”
Valentino adds, grinning.
“It’s important for people
to reconnect with the
physical format.” — JB
Tape Summit, Sun, Dec 10,
15:00, ACUD; more info at
tapedub.com
Pavel Mezihorák
Noisekolln
Part-time tape DJ and Electronic Beats
social media chief Michael Aniser made
the leap to Berlin from Austria in 2009
and founded this cassette-focused label,
which began as “just some friends getting
together in a Friedelstraße basement”
back in 2011. It expanded into a platform
to celebrate new releases and performers,
becoming a household name until
going on hiatus in 2016. They’ll finally be
relaunching in January with a new release
party. Jan 11, 22:00, Sameheads,
Neukölln, more info at noisekoelln.
bandcamp.com
Staalplaat
Buy your experimental/underground/
noise/drone here! Berlin’s most revered
cassette spot and zine store, run by
Guillaume Siffert, shines a spotlight on
extreme genres and DIY tape culture.
Recent highlights include Steve Stoll’s
Resurrecting the Bull, 45 solid minutes
of drone music composed entirely on an
analogue synthesiser. Kienitzer Str. 108,
Neukölln, Mon-Sat 12-20
Vinyl
Cut it yourself
In an apartment off Karl-Marx-Straße,
the vinyl enthusiasts of Disc_Archive
are learning firsthand how to press
records from their living room.
“I guess we fall under the category of ‘niche’”,
laughs Kristin Lee Stokes, 29, who has been
producing music alongside husband Mikale
De Graff, 39, since they moved here from
the US in 2011. Early this summer, they were
joined by friend Joel Sagiv from Israel, 25,
who produces under alias Arad Acid. Backgrounds
in audio engineering, production and
analogue photography paved the way to their
self-funded project, Disc_Archive.
Their not-so-secret weapon: a €3200
vinyl-cutting machine, called the “Starter Set
T560”, designed by engineering wizard Ulrich
Sourisseau. Before they could buy it off him,
they had to take part in a mandatory 16-hour
crash course. “We all had to go to Baden-
Baden…” they laugh, “but it was worth it!”
Essentially a reverse record player, complete
with diamond stylus and cutter head, the
source (they use an iPad) feeds through the
machine and the mirror image of the sound is
cut into a €3-4 blank in real time.
“The industry standard of 300 copies only
suits bigger artists or labels,” explains De
Graff about their decision to create shortrun
vinyl. They market towards smaller
artists and independents, creating as few as
1-20 copies of a track, EP or album for €12-
26 per copy. Genre-wise, the door’s open.
They lean towards electronic, but have
Pavel Mezihorák
10
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ANALOGUE BERLIN
toyed with music from Dubai, and have even
been asked to press a vinyl of their friend’s
newborn crying. And, adds De Graff, “If
your dad has been a musician all of his life
but has never released anything, we can do
it.” — JB Get in touch at www.discarchive.de
A record refuge
Berlin is crammed with record
stores, but nowhere are the
vinyls better crammed in than at
Charlottenburg’s Platten Pedro.
Now in his seventies, Berlin-born Peter
“Pedro” Patzek has been filling up his shop
on Tegeler Weg for 41 years. The vinyl count
stands at around 100,000 – that’s 40,000
LPs and 60,000 singles, not including around
2000 shellacs. It’s easiest for Patzek to measure
his collection by the metre. The musty
corridor to the back of his shop are rammed
wall to ceiling with towers of seven-inches,
which he gets almost entirely from private
sellers. “I can’t do anything else,” he says, “I
started collecting early… I calculated I’ve been
studying this subject for 126 semesters.”
It’s no surprise he’s become a cult hero,
with vinyl fans travelling from Russia, Japan
and the US to dig through his treasure trove
(he just unearthed and sold a rare Joseph
Beuys record). His erratic opening hours add
further charm. “You can leave early if you start
early,” Patzek explains, “so I’m open 10:07-
16:53 weekdays, and 9:59-13:07 on Saturdays.”
The shop feels like a memento to a
forgotten time. Patzek’s sole concession
to the 21st century is the computer in the
corner, used for updating his website. “My
family bought me a phone, sometimes it
beeps and then I charge it – I don’t need it.
Everything’s made out of plastic now…” he
sighs. “If there was a wooden phone, I’d get
one.” — JB Tegeler Weg 102, Charlottenburg,
Mon-Fri 10:07-16:53, Sat 9:59-13:07
Joel Sagiv operates Disc_Archive’s record-cutting machine.
Synths
Mad for modular
For analogue synth lovers,
Schneidersladen isn’t just a
music store – it’s a playground.
A crowd of rapt Berliners, some holding
beers, stands in front of a wall-sized machine
resembling a telephone switchboard.
The man next to it flips one switch, and the
machine emits a low, barely audible hum.
A few more switches, and the hum turns
into a pulse. A couple of knobs turned and a
cable patched in, and it’s suddenly the kind
of minimal beat you’re more used to hearing
Pavel Mezihorák
Customers play around in Schneidersladen’s showroom.
at 3am on a Saturday night than 6pm on a
Thursday. That’s the magic of modular synthesis,
as demonstrated at Schneidersladen.
Tucked above Rewe on the bustling Kotti
roundabout, Andreas Schneider’s synth shop
is staffed by some 20 employees and patronised
by just about every DJ and producer
in the city. From a small telephone sales
programme that started almost 20 years ago,
the ex-musician’s “Büro” has grown to house
the largest collection of modular equipment
in Berlin. From basic A-100 systems
to oscillators and sequencers to the famous
Delptronics Thunderclap handclap machine,
it’s all here – and the best part is, even if
you don’t have €1500 for a high-end drum
sequencer like the Jomox Alpha Base, you’re
still welcome to walk in, grab a bench and
play for five hours straight.
“Nowhere else in Berlin has a space
where you can touch everything and
experiment without having to buy the
thing straight away,” ex-regular and newest
employee Timm says proudly. Every
second Thursday of the month is a free
beginners’ workshop, while every fourth
Thursday caters to more advanced synth
servants. Just be sure to get in there quick
– these events get busy! Regular customers
are already getting excited for Schneider’s
third annual Superbooth festival in May
2018, where you’ll be able to engage with
your favourite analogue manufacturers and
check out new kit. — JB Skalitzer Str. 135a,
Mon-Fri 14-18; workshops every second and
fourth Thursday, 18:00
DECEMBER 2017 11

ANALOGUE BERLIN
INTERVIEW
It’s not your phone, it’s you
The average user checks their smartphone 88
times per day. So what’s all this constant connection
doing to our heads? Berlin’s foremost expert
on smartphone use and mental health gives us his
surprising answer: Not much! By Alison Bell
all the internet things, and after a while I found
myself playing around with the weather app, because
it’s just about playing with something.
When does one start losing control? The first
thing our patients say is that most of them start to
lose control when they’re in a crisis. It’s not like
you’re healthy and then you get a smartphone and
then you get ill. It’s more like you’re already slightly
in a crisis, and then you use your smartphone to
hide. And it’s a very good place to hide because you
have this feeling of being slightly active, there’s
a level of interaction somehow. But this makes it
much more difficult to accept your crisis and get
help. It’s like a very uncomfortable in-between stage.
But looking around on the train or U-Bahn,
everyone seems to be glued to their phones. Are
we all in crisis? No! I think it’s great! We live in
such high density in cities. I mean, we’re aggressive
beings, we’re territorial. I think it’s a very nice strategy.
To me it’s very relaxing that I can disappear
with my smartphone on the train, along with all the
other people, so we don’t have to have this intensity
of constant social interaction. I think that’s
something very nice.
Dr. Jan Kalbitzer is a
specialist in psychiatry
and psychotherapy, and
the Head of Internet
and Mental Health
Research at Berlin’s
Charité hospital. He’s
part of the study
“Internet and Mental
Health”, a multi-centre
research project
funded by the Daimler
and Benz foundation.
Together with scientists
in Münster and Tübingen,
he aims to find out
what role the internet
plays in the development
of mental crises,
such as depression.
Since 2015, Jan Kalbitzer has been working
with depressive patients to assess the impact
of smartphone and internet use in the development
of mental crises. For the Charité psychiatrist,
if we are sick, it’s society as a whole we should
blame, not our screens.
Why is the temptation to check our phones so
hard to resist? It’s about filling the in-between
time because you don’t know what to do with
yourself. This is a problem of modern society, not
of smart phones. We increasingly have the opportunity
to distract ourselves – we can travel, we
can read, we can watch television. It’s a problem
of not being able to be with yourself. I think much
more important than putting away the smartphone
is to learn the ability to contain the feeling
of being uncertain, the feeling of anger, the feeling
of fear, what might be your future... We know from
research that when you feel that your environment
is dangerous, or unstable or uncertain, you
feel much more like checking all the time that
things are alright. That’s what people do with their
phones. There’s also the “play” part. I self-experimented
with that – I stripped my smartphone of
You think that burying your face in your smartphone
is ‘nice’? I think some things are really great
about using the phone to fill time. You have to see
that our days are heavily structured. We have our
whole day scheduled from morning to evening,
and most of these appointments are useless. The
smartphone is the only area in our day where we
can just float. And that’s a great experience. Usually
80 percent of what you think you should be doing
is just crap, so then you use your smartphone for
the whole day, and then at the end of the day you
do the 20 percent that’s important. It’s actually
quite a helpful thing.
That’s quite an interesting take on it. Why do we
feel so guilty when we do it, then? I think a lot of
it is our negative connotations. We believe that it’s
negative because it’s new, it’s something that we
don’t know. So immediately when you start to use a
smartphone you feel guilty, and that’s crap. It’s fun
to use a smartphone! I always use the example of
kids. If you give a kid a toy that makes a lot of noise
and lights, we think that’s great. But were I to give
my four-year-old son a smartphone and say, ‘Play
with that, it makes noise, it makes lights,’ everybody
would say, ‘You can’t do that, it’s wrong.’
Why do you think it’s viewed so negatively?
People like to think that new things are dangerous.
And the great problem with that is that avoidance is
never a solution: you never learn to deal with stuff
that you try to avoid. If you’re scared of something,
you don’t actively find a productive and constructive
way of dealing with it. I think we should speak about
people who write books about the evils of the smartphone
and get money for it, what they do to society.
It has a very heavy effect on our psyche.
12
EXBERLINER 166

ANALOGUE BERLIN
“We should speak about
people who write books
about the evils of the
smartphone and get
money for it, what they
do to society.”
What do you think the appropriate take
should be, then? We’re at the point now
where we need to decide how we want society
to be. And we can’t just let that happen, we
have to actively decide. But if we’re scared, or
if we feel guilty while we’re doing it, we’re not
in a position to do so. We have those enthusiasts
and we have those who feel guilty and
who are scared, but there’s no middle group
of people saying: this is something new, how
do we want that to be part of our lives?
Facebook on the brain
Is this something that comes up regularly
in your study? Part of what we do study is
how the assumptions come into people’s
heads: who told you that it’s bad to use the
smartphone? What we see is that a lot of it
is cultural. I’ve had interviews with elderly
people who sit there and play Candy Crush
on their iPads all the time, and nobody
worries about that because they’re old. We
always worry about the young; we never
worry about the old. Many of the worries
are projected on the smartphone, but it
has a lot to do with the pattern of experience
avoidance: we’re worried that our kids
might get too drunk so we stop them from
going out, or we’re worried that they might
get a tick when they play in the woods, so
we take away natural experience from them.
This is the background pattern… It’s about
much more than just the smartphone.
But surely the impact is greater
on young minds that are still
learning and forming? I
always say that we teach
kids to cross the street,
Freepik
Meanwhile in Dahlem, researchers at the Free University have carried out research
into the addictiveness of social media, with interesting findings. Led by cognitive
neuroscientist Dar Meshi, the research team found that people who share more information
about themselves online have heightened activity in a region of the brain
responsible for social cognition and reward-related processing. Using functional
magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the researchers found that both the medial
prefrontal cortex and the nucleus accumbens, areas in the brain that are associated
with reward processing, were activated when people decided to share selfrelated
information – much as they would be when playing slot machines.
Meshi also carried out research into the effects of social media on the brain,
examining existing studies. While a common fear is that smartphone and social
media use is rewiring our brains, the research found that while we may be more
stimulated than ever, no study has yet demonstrated that social media is changing
our brains in a way that is different or worse than having a conversation or
reading an article.
but we don’t teach them how to be online.
We just tell them they can’t be there until
they’re 12, and then we just let them go – and
that doesn’t work. I think there’s a lot of
things we need to teach people. For example,
that if you post a written message to a group
on Whatsapp, people don’t see your expression
and so they perceive it in a different way.
What do you think about the kind of social
pressure brought on by social media?
This again is the whole societal thing. If you
live in a small village or something and people
don’t understand you, it’s great to have
social media to be able to connect to people
who are similar. We see some online games,
such as World of Warcraft, with chat options
where people can speak very openly. Meanwhile,
in, say, football, it’s almost impossible
to be openly gay. So if you’re a young
homosexual football player, is it better to
play World of Warcraft all the time and chat
with your friends who understand you, or
play football? It’s not so easy to answer
that question. We have this image of
what is natural and what is right, and
that conception will change. But I
think we need to change it actively,
to decide about the advantages and
disadvantages of technology and not
focus on the panic part.
What advice would you give to someone
who’s worried about their smartphone
usage? If they are worried about the way
they use the internet, the first thing they
should do is to speak to someone they like
and trust. Often the worries we have in our
heads are much greater than they really are,
so it can help to get an outside perspective.
It’s also important not to put too much of
a negative perspective on it, because this is
extremely powerful. If you think of it too
negatively you will not be able to use it in a
productive and positive way. And if you decide
to go and see a therapist, be prepared
for the fact that the problem is probably
not your smartphone! n
Petrushka /
L’Enfant et les Sortilèges
Igor Strawinsky /
Maurice Ravel
Buy your
tickets
now!
1 / 13 / 28 DECEMBER 2017
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DECEMBER 2017 13

ANALOGUE BERLIN
TREND
Digital-free safe spaces
By now, smartphones and laptops are a ubiquitous
sight in Berlin’s cafés and bars. Yet some business
owners have been promoting good old analogue congeniality
thanks to screen-free zones – with varying
degrees of success. By Taylor Lindsay
There is something depressing about
row upon row of human beings
plugged into their laptops and
phones for hours, especially in public.
Most of us feel varying degrees of dismay
when we see them. And then there are
those consciously trying to escape it. We
all know neighbours who purposefully
have landlines instead of smartphones,
friends using apps helping them limit
their “screen time”, colleagues who own
a phone that doesn’t do much more than
text. Doesn’t the comeback of the Nokia
3310 (aka the “brick”) signal one of the
biggest purposeful regressions towards
less tech since Rihanna chose a flip phone?
In Berlin, we even have a Radikal Anti
Smartphone Front (RASF), a mini-movement
dedicated to “love instead of like”
that boasts a long ledger of media praise
and several enthusiastic testimonies
from (mostly young) Berliners. Their online
manifesto states that “interpersonal
communication is dying due to cat videos
and mindless feeds of internet junk....”
and continues: “We, the Radical Anti
Smartphone Front frankly state: NO! No
to ignoring present company in favour
of digital conversation, no to narcissistic
self-depiction and no to the further
divergence of our society!” Digital
abstinence may be harder than it seems,
however – since November, RASF is on a
break as one of its founders has left town
and the other has accepted a demanding
new job. No word on the reunion.
Meanwhile, convinced that something
about having a no-screen experience
is worth it, the owners of various bars,
restaurants and cafés across the city have
been attempting to offer ‘safe’ zones to
their patrons. Take the bookstore/café
Shakespeare & Sons in Friedrichshain.
In addition to quality English-language
books and excellent bagels, it’s had a
computer-free room built in since day
one, complete with a sign that threatens:
“Don’t cross us on this. We’re brutal.”
Light pours in through the window, making
this walled-off corner one of the nicest
places to sit. “We’re a bit nostalgic for that
time when you could walk into a cafe and
read, maybe flirt, maybe catch someone’s
eye from across the room,” says co-owner
Laurel Kratovichla. But, apparently, people
ignore the rule constantly and walk
into the room with their laptops. “We put
signs on the tables, people took them off.
Even when we try to tell them nicely that
this isn’t a place for their laptops, they
get upset,” Kratovichla confesses. Her
clientele is mostly in their twenties and
thirties, here to work on their computers
in a place that’s neither home nor
work. “It’s 2017 and of course you have
to go with the times, you can’t alienate
them,” she says. But to her, it’s a matter
of respect for those other customers who
come in just looking to sit and read. “I
wanna kill people who watch television on
their computers in here,” she says (twice).
“Do your work, that’s fine, but bringing
THAT level of alienation is on a whole
The entrance to Shakespeare & Sons’ laptop-free zone.
new level. And because we’re a bookstore,
it’s somehow antithetical to what we are
and should stand for.”
Does she know of non-digital places,
something 100 percent screen-free? “I’d
love a place like that...” she trails off. Her
husband and business partner Roman
gestures to his own computer in the back
office, surrounded by books. “Of course
it’s frustrating to see people staring into
their laptops all the time. It’s like they
live there. But you really can’t do away
with all things digital. I need this for my
work, and I suspect you’ll find that it’s
the same throughout Berlin.”
But no-phone zones do exist. The
high-end Mitte cocktail joint Buck &
Breck was one of the first bars in Berlin
to put a sign on the door with something
along the lines of “Hide your
phone, enjoy the drink.” It’s practically
a speakeasy, the way it’s low-lit and
enclosed. Between the darkly glowing
bar, black countertops, and comfy conversational
tone, it’s the kind of place
where it feels classy to have a drink
alone (albeit at a double-digit price for
a gin and tonic). Steven the bartender
explains the hidden-phone rule is part
of their general vibe. “This is our idea
of something analogue,” he says. “The
world stays outside when you come in.
You’re able to focus on everything that’s
not your phone.” Not even texting? He
shrugs. “Sure, as long as it’s not out on
the table and we can’t see it. That would
disturb the ambience.”
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“We put signs on the tables,
people took them off. Even
when we try to tell them nicely
that this isn’t a place for their
laptops, they get upset.”
Dustin Quinta
Similarly, at the “brutally local” Kreuzberg restaurant Nobelhart &
Schmutzig, no phones or photos are allowed inside – “to preserve
the atmosphere”, says owner and sommelier Billy Wagner. And while
he’ll just keep his eye on a diner if they start to text, he’ll throw out
someone who picks up a call. “Here, I want people to behave. Why
are people so in their own digital zone all the time? Dining is kind
of an emotional experience, I think. This should be about you, each
other, and, yes, the food... but not your phone!” He mentions a sauna
in Berlin, Vabali, that has a sign about experiencing “digital detox”
upon arrival by putting away your phone completely. “People could
use more of this digital detox.” What about photos – can you really
say you’ve had a 10-course meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant
if there’s no Instagram evidence? Naturally, the wine connoisseur
allows some leeway: “If you got a really nice bottle, okay, take a picture
of it. But respect the culture, the other people, the experience…
We have a message on our menu that says ‘Please take memories,
not pictures.’ But, sure, it’s not Berghain here. Things happen.”
It might be simpler for a cocktail bar and a fine dining restaurant
to control the environment. For cafés, however, there are two
sides to the problem. If you don’t allow laptops, you might deter
a lot of potential customers (as at Shakespeare & Sons). But if
you have no restrictions and free wi-fi, your floor could flood with
laptops, filling the space entirely with the continuous clicky-clicks
of typing. In the face of that dilemma, many places are going the
hybrid route. Take The Barn on Auguststraße, famous for great
croissants, caffeine snobbery and what we believed was a draconian
anti-laptop policy... until founder Ralf Rüller himself set us
straight. “Our roastery took an approach five years ago to create
an environment for our customers to slow down and be in our
space, not cyberspace. So we had a media area in which laptops
were restricted.” Just recently, though, they put in a bigger central
laptop area, complete with outlets and wi-fi. Now, the only space
prohibiting your 13-inch screens is by the windows at the front of
the shop – “so that bypassers know they can come in to meet and
talk to people.” Good intentions. Too bad that when we came back
with a friend, the atmosphere was hushed and anything but chatty.
It seems that the number of these hybrid spots, places with
limits on devices but not all or nothing, is on the increase. Silo
Coffee (Friedrichshain) doesn’t want laptops out during kitchen
hours (all day till 3pm on weekdays, and 5pm on weekends). The
incredibly Instagrammable Happy Baristas (Friedrichshain) and
Bonanza (Prenzlauer Berg) have moved to the “central laptop
area” option similarly to The Barn. And too many to count have
remained free of wi-fi, possibly to detract devices from the get-go.
Kaffee Kirsche (Kreuzberg) is a personal favourite. “We just find
it nicer when people talk to each other in here,” a barista told us.
Of course, what founder or employee would say “We just find
it nicer when people can come in, plug into their laptops, and
enter their own digital realm, free to ignore everyone and everything
around them for the sake of their cyber-pursuits”? But no
one needs to. Whether you’re a business expanding your digital
bandwidth or you’re trying to offer an experience as unplugged as
possible, people will do that on their own. n
Give away
big emotions!
CineStar vouchers starting from 10 € –
now at the cinema or at shop.cinestar.de
DECEMBER 2017
15

ANALOGUE BERLIN
DATING
Meeting my offline match
Tired of Tinder? Ground down by Grindr? You’re not alone.
Amy Leonard switched off her phone and waded into the
world of matchmaking, speed dating and singles’ parties.
Though reluctant to affiliate myself
with the word, I am a millennial.
So when I hear of people “putting
themselves out there” on the dating scene, I
imagine they’ve downloaded a couple more
apps or created a few new profiles. And it’s
not just me (honestly, I’ve asked around).
To us, dating is digital. Ever since the launch
of Match.com in 1995, searching for a soul
mate has become increasingly cybernated.
Germany, in fact, is home to 17 percent of
the world’s adults who pay for an online
dating service – the third largest proportion
behind the USA and the UK – and just think
how many more are using free versions.
With the revenue for the ‘Online Dating’
Her top dating tip for
her male clients? “Wear
a button-up shirt, definitely,
and pay for the
date. It’s old-fashioned,
but it works.”
sector here in Germany currently at approximately
€215 million, it looks like we’re set
to continue relying on virtual meetings to
quench our desires for love or lust.
But personally, I’m sick of the appscapades.
The last time I used Tinder I had
exchanges with two guys, one of whom
straight-up asked to meet for sex, and the
other of whom spent 10 minutes telling an
elaborate joke that ended in “Because your
pussy’s getting smashed tonight.” What happened
to “stepping out”, to good old courtship?
Surely an actual person is better than
a profile? Determined to prove that there is
more to love than swiping even for us trendy
app-dicts, I decided to venture into the alien
world of analogue dating.
THE HEADHUNTER
Where better to start than with an expert? A
quick Google for matchmakers in Berlin presented
me with Talya Shoup, 38. Earlier this
year, Shoup founded Berlin Matchmaker, a
“boutique dating agency” that offers personalised
matchmaking and dating coaching.
Rather disappointingly, I met her in a café
in Mitte. I’d had the vague notion of a plush,
pink office with a chaise longue overladen
with cushions, but it turned out Shoup works
from home and meets clients in “neutral
spaces”. I could see why people trust her with
their love lives. She is what I would describe
as very American: blonde, blue eyes, great
teeth, warm and friendly attitude, dressed
with preppy elegance in a pink button-up
shirt and dark blue jeans tucked into brown
equestrian boots. Of course I’d cycled through
a muddy park on the way and the lower half
of my jeans was covered in dirt as opposed to
expensive-looking leather. Great start.
Shoup told me she’d moved to Berlin
from the state of Georgia in 2010 with her
then-husband and three children. After her
marriage split, she’d tried her luck with the
Berlin dating scene, only to find out what
Exberliner had already discovered in our June
2014 “Loveless” issue: “It’s like a zoo, or a
circus! It’s this sort of Peter Pan Never Land
where it’s easy to make casual connections
but finding something deeper is much more
difficult.” And going online didn’t help. “I did
meet one nice guy on Tinder – he seemed
good on paper, but in real life it just didn’t
work.” Later, working in recruitment for tech
companies, she was astounded at how many
other “great singles were fumbling in the
dating darkness”. She decided to use her experience
and become a “dating headhunter”.
Her method is as old school as you can
get: no algorithms, no tricks, just plain old
intuition. The first meeting involves an hourlong
discussion of what the client wants. She
lists the most common topics as “personal
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background – have they got kids or been
married before; education; religion; age;
language.” She uses her contacts to put out
feelers, meets with potentials to pre-screen
them, and finally sets the pair up on a date.
The whole process can take two to four
weeks. What if she doesn’t succeed? You
won’t get your money back, but with the option
of paying monthly, you can call it quits
whenever you want.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have weeks’
worth of time to get set up. Plus I’m not
sure Shoup’s ideas and mine would exactly
match. In the year since she’s been doing
this she’s worked with six clients, all of
whom were middle-aged American or non-
German European men. With prices starting
at €300 per month, she’s mostly targeting
busy professionals that have cash to spare.
Her top dating tip for her male clients?
“Wear a button-up shirt, definitely, and
pay for the date. It’s old-fashioned, but it
works.” Obviously, this service isn’t for the
average Berliner.
PIRATE MISADVENTURES
I can’t say I felt any more prepared to head
out in search of a soul mate after that, but
I did nonetheless. Next on the list: speed
dating. At Shoup’s advice, I checked out
DateYork, a Stuttgart-based company that
organises supposedly regular speed dating
events all over Germany for €19 a head.
A cold, wet Sunday night was not the best
prelude to a night of romance. Nor was the
restaurant I arrived at, a tacky and uninviting
faux-Mexican number. Alas, it was not to
be; the event had been cancelled. Apparently
adverse weather is enough to keep Berlin’s
lonely hearts in the comfort of their homes.
Back to the bus then, and the drawing board.
I got knocked down, but I got up again.
Dressed to impress, I headed to a Friday
night singles’ party called Topf sucht Deckel at
Pirates Berlin, a hostel by Oberbaumbrücke.
After being greeted by two ladies dressed as
an angel and a devil, I was dismayed to see a
mostly empty room. “It’ll pick up later,” the
hostesses assured me as they handed me a
big numbered heart and a coloured wristband.
The number on my heart meant that
people could leave messages for me if I took
their fancy. The wristband announced my intentions
to the rest of the revellers: green for
open to flirting, blue for seeing what happens
or red for, well, DTF.
Eventually, numbers did swell, though
not with the tightly-clad bros and dolled-up
girls you’d imagine at a touristy hostel. I saw
people of all styles, shapes and sizes, including
one guy resembling a hunky Pirates mascot
and a creepy-looking sixtysomething in a
black and red leather jacket. Standing alone at
the bar, I realised how vulnerable I felt. When
The wristband announced
my intentions to the rest
of the revellers: green for
open to flirting, blue for
seeing what happens or
red for, well, DTF.
I said I was going analogue, I went the whole
way: my phone was turned off and only for
use in emergencies. I couldn’t stifle the awkwardness
I felt by scrolling through whatever
I could find. My innocently green glowing
wristband indicated I was open to flirting, but
my anxiety levels suggested I wasn’t.
Eventually, someone took pity on me,
a bald gentleman in his forties who was
there with a group of people he had met on
Spontact. Grateful for his insistence that I
couldn’t sit alone, I joined the ragtag bunch
of mainly nerdy-looking guys. One of the
only two girls there, a Spandau resident who
looked a lot older than her 22 years, began
questioning me aggressively, and it quickly
became apparent that I was muscling in on
her turf. I hit the dance floor instead.
After a few drinks, tossing my hair, smiling
and doing the things you’re supposed to do
when ‘flirting’ IRL, I went to check if anyone
had left a message for me. They hadn’t. I
partook in a ridiculous 90-second speed dating
round, where I made perfunctory small
talk with a 19-year-old geography student, a
42-year-old roofer, a 28-year-old Edeka shelf
stacker, and a random collection of other
German men. I left with one phone number,
reluctantly taken after a 45-year-old lawyer
cornered me to tell me about his dreams of
being a musician, or a politician.
The only people I saw leaving together
were two guys, one of whom looked like he
was about to vomit. When I picked up my
coat from the cloakroom, the woman who
had been sitting next to me during the speed
dating round grabbed my arm and asked me
with desperation in her eyes if I had “found
someone”. No, I had not.
READY TO MINGLE
Not yet despondent, I thought I’d make one
more attempt. After searching the Berlin.de
site under “Singles Parties”, I came across an
event at Clärchens Ballhaus called Schwoof;
yes, I know, times had gotten tough. Set back
off the street, the charmingly decrepit building
has a natural air of romance as you walk
through the tree-lined courtyard. Upon entry,
however, I was confused by the children,
parents and even grandparents on the dance
floor. There was a 50th birthday and an 80th
and everyone was giving their all to the likes
of “Thriller” and “Bohemian Rhapsody”. I
asked the bar staff if this was Schwoof and
they said yes. I asked them if it was a singles
party and they looked baffled. Turns out Berlin.de
got it wrong. But I didn’t leave; in fact,
I stayed for an hour because the place was
just so fun. Everyone was having such a good
time and the atmosphere would have easily
cleared any heartache, if I’d had any after my
fruitless adventures.
And that’s what stood out for me. What
makes face-to-face dating better than
OKCupid and its equivalents? It’s an actual
experience! It’s not a brief chat that’s over
before it begins and is forgotten minutes
later when the next one starts. With more
and more Gen-Y millenials going cold turkey
from social media, there must be some sort of
resurgence in face-to-face flirting?
I rang up the organiser of the one singles’
party I hadn’t made it to, Fisch sucht Fahrrad.
In April 2016, Wolfram von Dobschütz took
over the monthly event from Tip magazine,
who’d been running it since 1994, and moved
it to Frannz Club in the Kulturbrauerei. Von
Dobschütz says his crowd numbers in the
hundreds, with guests varying from early
twenties to mid-fifties (the average age is
about 35). He believes his guests are sick of
online dating. “The movement seems to be
going back to more traditional ways of meeting
people. Offline, you don’t have to pay for
a membership, or scroll through gazillions
of photoshopped ‘my six-pack at the beach’
pictures, or read stupid life mottos.”
Whilst I didn’t find a suitor, I’d at least had
fun. Stepping out from behind your screen
and going to places and things you thought
would be too cringe-inducing to bear: now
that’s really putting yourself out there. If
more of us realised that, I think Von Dobschütz’s
prognosis might just come true.
A few days after my analogue odyssey, I
was chatted up on the U-Bahn by an actually
decent man. See? There’s life beyond the
keyboard. Release the back-app-lash! ■
DECEMBER 2017
17

ANALOGUE BERLIN
TECHNOLOGY
Going against the current
With futuristic materials and lofty goals, these entrepreneurs
are building sci-fi devices to counteract the digital
world’s invasion in our lives By Jim Kavanaugh
ANALOGUE COCOON
The bed looks like one straight out of an
African safari. But instead of keeping mosquitoes
out, the mesh canopy surrounding
Mathieu Bujnowskyj’s furniture protects
against another potentially dangerous invader:
electromagnetic waves.
The French architect unveiled his “Full
Spectrum Furniture” in October at Haus
der Kulturen der Welt’s Forecast Festival
for new advances in architecture, art and
design. The translucent canopy enfolding
his bed box is no mere mesh, but breathable
Aaronia AG fabric, made of nylon
fibres micro-coated with nickel, copper
and silver. When assembled correctly, it
can block out 98-99.9 percent of electromagnetic
frequencies (EMF) – including
Bluetooth, wi-fi and 4G. The fabric was
originally designed for military and banking
secrecy purposes, but Bujnowskyj has
taken its mystical properties and ingeniously
created the ultimate middle finger
to the digital world.
Mathieu Bujnowskyj’s wi-fi-repellent canopied bed.
In his reference booklet for the Forecast
Festival, Bujnowskyj called the furniture a
“quiet shelter in our over-connected lives”. “I
chose furniture because of the scale – building
something big would mean that it would
stay conceptual, but furniture can touch the
lives of many,” he clarified over Skype from
his family home in Lyon. He’s just returned
from an eight-month fellowship in Japan, and
is about to move to Basel.
Along with the bed, Bujnowskyj (under
Swiss architect Philippe Rahm’s tutelage)
produced two other pieces, both influenced
by traditional Japanese design. One is a byobu
or “wind-wall” co-designed by Austrian artist
Peter Jellitch. The decorative screen has two
sides, one which absorbs sound reflection to
enhance the acoustic quality of a room; the
other made of the Aaronia AG fabric. Wall
scanners, thermal cameras and the Predator
couldn’t see you through the thing.
The other is a coffee table meant to encourage
diners to stash their smartphones
out of sight before eating. “You don’t always
Effie Efthymiadi
need a hi-tech solution to a hi-tech problem,”
Bujnowskyj says, contradicting the
complex work of his other two designs. “In
Japan, there is a clear distinction between
the outside and inside world. When you
enter a house, you take off your shoes and
put them in a cubby.” Thus the table’s name,
“Ketaibako” – ketai meaning “mobile”, and
bako from the Japanese word for “shoe
cupboard”. Soft silicon pouches placed
underneath the table invite users to put their
smartphones in and enjoy an old-school,
analogue chat with loved ones.
In the next few months, Bujnowskyj
hopes to begin the crowdfunding process to
actually produce his designs. “The bed box
would be very complex to mass produce, so
the other two would probably be produced
first,” he says. But Bujnowskyj is less concerned
with turning a profit, and more with
starting a conversation about our relationship
with our devices. All in all, he is just
happy that his “Full Spectrum Furniture”
was realised, period. “To go from theoretical
to practical is amazing in itself – and the
next iteration will be even better.”
SIGNAL-PROOF SMARTPHONE CLOAK
Closer to realising their post-digital goals
are the Brazilians behind the Berlin-based
TOCA. Their lightweight smartphone sleeve
either keeps your device’s radiation from
reaching your body or blocks the signal
entirely, depending on which of the two
pockets you put it in.
Two of the three co-founders are Luter
Filho and Denis Altschul, graphic designers
previously known for their quixotic attempt
to “fix” the U-Bahn’s Brandenburg Gate image
via stickers that correct the perspective
on the offending column. In mid-2015, Filho
was working on a campaign to stop texting
while driving at his former ad agency. His
friend Andre Hostalácio showed him a bag
he’d found on his travels through Asia that
was made with a special fabric that could
block smartphone signals. The campaign
never materialised, but later, in autumn 2016,
Hostalácio approached Filho and Altschul’s
design agency in search of a logo for his own
prototype. Both immediately wanted in.
“The design was like a wallet thing that
didn’t really work, but the idea was there,”
Filho recalls. Four months later, they flew to
Bali – Hostalácio had lived there previously,
and knew he could produce the design they
needed more cheaply and quickly there than
in Europe. By the fall of 2017, they had a solid
prototype tailored by recent Universität der
Künste (UdK) graduate Gabriela Guasti Rocha
and a Kickstarter plan to match.
TOCA “protects the body from radiation
and distraction,” Altschul says enthusiastically,
showing the sleeve off. “It can be
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ANALOGUE BERLIN
rolled up to fit into your hand, attached to
your belt, hung around your neck... It took
so long to find a material that could do all
that.” They settled on parachute fabric. “It
does all that and it’s water and fire resistant,”
says Hostalácio. But the real secret
in their proverbial sauce is the fabric they
use for the lining, a silver and polyester
combination that stops wi-fi, Bluetooth
and smartphone signals from entering
or leaving. “We get that from Statex
in Bremen. They’ve been around for
40-50 years and supplied companies
like Lufthansa and Dell Computers.”
That fabric lines the so-called
“Faraday” pocket, which the TOCA
team says can be used to block calls,
texts and notifications during driving,
or protect users from being spied
on. “Airplane mode won’t do it. Neither
will turning it off. To completely stop the
signals, you’d have to take the battery out
and throw it across the room!” says Altschul.
But what makes this sleeve special is the
second pocket, which allows information to
be received and transmitted while still acting
as a “shield” to protect the body.
At the beginning of November, they
hit their crowdfunding goal of €19,000
with just hours to spare. After relocating
production to Poland, they’re hoping for
their first 300-400 sleeves (€44 each) to be
delivered before this Christmas. They’ve
recently applied for a €24,000 creative
prototype grant from UdK. But more than
the business side of things, for Filho and
the boys, the main message is clear: “We
The TOCA smartphone sleeve in action.
want people to find a balance between
health and technology. It’s more about
education and digital health than becoming
a billionaire.”
Andre Hostalacio
The copper fibres in Gabriela Guasti Rocha’s
clothing are overlain with embroidered designs.
“There is a crazy world
of electromagnetic waves
that is around all the time,
which holds more and
more influence over us.”
RESPONSIVE SECOND SKIN
Meanwhile, TOCA designer Gabriela
Guasti Rocha has plans of her own. Rather
than block signals, her new experimental
clothing makes us hyper-aware of them.
“My design is meant to act as a second
skin that wakes up your senses,” says
Rocha of her project Intueri. Deep? No
doubt. But this is arguably the
coolest clothing innovation since
Hypercolor. Rocha’s gauntlet-like
sleeves, tube tops and skirts emit
sound and vibrations when it picks
up electromagnetic waves and other
signals from the environment.
“I used denim as the base because
it’s familiar to people. This is
something that people need to be
aware of now, not in 20 years.”
A black and white graphic print,
inspired by Ecuadorian textiles, is
stitched into the denim, followed by
a third “imperfect” ripped denim,
then a layer of conductive copper
fibres that move and emit sound as
they pick up signals from digital devices.
“Everything in your life is not
stable,” says Rocha. “There is a crazy
world of electromagnetic waves that
is around all the time, which holds
more and more influence over us.”
So where does she come up with
this stuff? Ayahuasca? DMT? “No, I
don’t do drugs! For four months in
2014, I visited Peru, Columbia, Ecuador,
and Bolivia doing research in textile
museums.” She became interested in indigenous
artifacts that were used to “speak
with the spiritual, communicate with parallel
worlds”, inspiring her to design clothing
that can “see the unseen.” Waking people up
to the unknown has been a constant theme
in all Rocha’s designs. “Apple and Google
are almost like religions now. They create
phones that are magical things, with amazing
technology. Yet we need to take a more
careful look at them now.”
Naturally these philosophical issues
are important, but one that is way more
essential to the project’s success cannot
be glossed over: can you turn it off? “Yes.
It would drive you crazy to be on all the
time!” Considering that the copper layer
also picks up radio waves, it’s probably a
good idea to have an off switch.
Gabriela is open to propositions about
scalability, but has no current plans to raise
funds for her project. Like Bujnowskyj with
his furniture and her TOCA colleagues, her
main goal is to make people more aware of
the constant electromagnetic forces surrounding
us. “If people think about it, then
that will make them act.” n
DECEMBER 2017 19

ANALOGUE BERLIN
“
DESIGN
Erik Spiekermann’s
analogue revenge
At his studio p98a, the legendary German designer
has returned to his first love: letterpress printing.
By Aske Hald Knudstrup. Photos by Pavel Mezihorák
It’s not rocket science, it’s just geometry.”
Erik Spiekermann brushes aside our apology
for disturbing his work. The energetic
70-year-old looks like he’s solving a metal puzzle
as he meticulously finalises the forme (frame)
of a poster he’s printing for a customer. The
pervasive smell of ink fills the workshop at p98a,
a two-storey open space located in a leafy Hinterhof
off busy Potsdamer Straße. Spiekermann’s
black leather boots tirelessly move between his
computer and one of seven letterpress machines,
each of which weighs a tonne and dates back
40-60 years. As he speaks with us, a few of the
eight colleagues with whom he shares his studio
help lead a workshop for 12 visitors, mostly men
in their thirties and forties, who’ve come to learn
about letterpress printing.
If you’re at all interested in graphic design,
you know Spiekermann’s name – and if you
don’t, you’ve at least seen his fonts. Residing
in Berlin since the 1960s with a short stint in
London, he’s created typefaces for companies
like Volkswagen, Nokia and Deutsche Bahn. Take
a look around the next time you’re on the U-
Bahn – all the signage for the BVG was designed
by Spiekermann in the early 1990s, when Berlin
required a unified public transport system.
In 2014, Spiekermann officially retired as head
of his design firm Edenspiekermann and reignited
his lifelong interest in letterpress. With
p98a, he’s trying to go back to where he came
from, revisiting the art form he first encountered
during his studies at the Free University
50 years ago. “It’s simple: I like making things.
For 30 years, I’ve been working
on screens, and while my
work is evident in the real
world, it came directly from
a screen onto something.
This is different.”
The limitation of the format
is part of the allure, he says. “For a certain
font, you may only have one X and two As, for
example. It’s a restriction which pushes us on
the creative front.” But that’s not to say that
Spiekermann eschews screens entirely. “We
love analogue, but for colours and images, letterpress
is quite rubbish,” he says. “We call our
work ‘post-digital print’, because we combine
the best of both worlds.”
In the ‘post-digital’ version of letterpress,
designs are printed from a computer onto photosensitive
polymer plates; when exposed to light,
the plates harden, and everything that’s not part
of the design can be washed away. Spiekermann
and his colleagues use this method as well as
old-fashioned wood and metal typesetting to
create posters, books and other commercial and
non-commercial prints, a recent example being a
one-of-a-kind German/English version of Sylvia
Plath’s 1960 book The Colossus and Other Poems.
Lots of curse words escape the Hanover native’s
mouth as he speaks, hinting at the passion
behind the precision. While Spiekermann calls
letterpress his “hobby”, he admits that some
idealism burns behind his glasses – otherwise,
he says, “Why would I spend a shitload of money
on something that isn’t commercial?” He’s currently
applying for public funding to
help finance p98a’s various projects,
including his purchase of one of the
very few existing 51x61cm Polaroid
cameras and, starting next year, vinyl
cutting machines for the studio.
Spiekermann knows they are riding
on a wave. “It’s like the revenge of
the analogue. People are spending
all their time in front of a screen and
some are starting to realise that, hey,
maybe there’s something else. Even 3D
printing is analogue to some extent.
Sometime I will try to 3D print missing
pieces for the big printing press
we have next door. The connection
between analogue and digital – that’s
the coolest connection for me.” n
“We call our work
‘post-digital print’, because
we combine the
best of both worlds.”
Erik Spiekermann
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BEHIND THE SCENES
Charité’s blood labyrinth
Berlin’s largest hospital doesn’t need the internet to
deliver medical care quickly and effectively. Kilometres
of steel pipes are doing the job. By Emmanuelle François
When walking through the sterile
halls of Charité Hospital in Mitte,
you don’t hear or see them, but
they are everywhere, running through the
ceiling and the walls. About 2300 capsules
are sent every day from unit to unit through
26 kilometres of steel pipes.
Since the main hospital bed building was
constructed in 1982, the capsules have been
used to transport blood and urine samples,
medication, chip cards, plain pieces of paper…
“Anything lighter than a kilogram,” guarantees
technician Gerd Gohlke. “As long as it’s small
enough to fit in the capsules, which are about
20cm long.” He and his colleague Frank Matthias
take care of the whole network, keeping
track of each capsule’s whereabouts from
their computer in the control centre.
So how does it work? The capsules are propelled
through the network pneumatically, via
a system of compressed air and partial vacuums.
“It’s like a giant vacuum cleaner,” laughs
Matthias. If a nurse or a doctor want a blood
sample to be analysed, they don’t have to wait
for a courier to take it to the lab, as they would
have before the tube system was in place. They
put the sample into the capsule, code it on the
transponder and dial the lab’s number.
When a capsule is sent from one of the
building’s 140 stations, it’s first vacuumed
Capsules are first
vacuumed into the
control centre in
the basement, then
blown back upstairs
at a speed of about
10m per second.
into the control centre in the basement,
then blown back upstairs at a speed of
about 10m per second. Only three minutes
are needed for a sample to travel to the
lab from the intensive care unit. “As it’s a
closed system, nothing can get lost,” claims
Matthias. “Even if you dial the wrong number,
we have a record of every move.”
This almost-perfect system is pretty old.
The first pneumatic dispatch was set up
in 1853 in London, between
the stock exchange and
the telegraphic office.
“The traders
noticed that they
Pavel Mezihorák
could find out more quickly about what was
happening in the business world,” explains
Dietmar Arnold of the local historical
association Berliner Unterwelten. “The
couriers were too slow, and there were no
telephones back then.”
Germany’s first line came in 1865. As in
London, it was set up between the main
telegraphic office on Französische Straße
and the old Berlin stock exchange near
Hackescher Markt. By the early 1940s, Berlin
had 400km of pipes, the largest network behind
Paris, and about eight million capsules
– from letters to telegrams, postcards to
cheques – dispatched every year. It was three
times more expensive than the standard
post, but also much faster. “You could send
a love letter from Gesundbrunnen to Tempelhof
in 26 minutes, with one change in the
main telegraphic office,” explains Arnold.
Because of damage caused by World
War II and the development of telephone
networks, West Berlin stopped using its
pneumatic system in 1963. Thirteen years
later, the same thing happened in East
Berlin. But the idea lived on. Before Charité
adopted their pipe system, it was already
in use at the Benjamin Franklin hospital in
Steglitz, built between 1959 and 1968.
Charité is not the only place in Berlin
where the pipes are still being used – you’ll
find similar ones in supermarkets, casinos
and even the federal chancellery, the
Bundeskanzleramt, where civil servants
use them about 1800 times a week
for urgent documents. Compared
to emails and phone
calls, the pneumatic system
guarantees total privacy, ideal
for any government that
doesn’t want to be spied on.
Has anything changed
with digitalisation at
Charité? “There are fewer
capsules than before,” admits
Gohlke. For example, the pipes
are no longer used to transport
dietary preferences. Previously,
patients had to make a cross on a piece
of paper indicating what they could and
couldn’t eat, and that paper was sent with
a capsule to the hospital canteen – now, of
course, that’s all done digitally. According
to Gohlke, though, the pneumatic system
will still be used in the foreseeable future,
the other alternative being actual physical
couriers. “We’ll always need to send
original documents, like prescriptions, and
I don’t see how we could transport blood
more easily. I really don’t think that this
system can disappear.” Probably not – until
teleportation is invented. n
EXBERLINER 166
21

FEATURE
FEMINISM
#BerlinToo?
The sexism debate has reached
Germany, but where are the
German Weinsteins? Four years
after #Aufschrei and one year
after the country’s sexual crime
legislation was updated, are
German women any better off
than their US or French sisters?
By Franziska Helms
It is late October, and Alex’s baby is sleeping
as she sits at the kitchen table in her
Lichtenberg apartment. Her friend Johanna
is over for lunch, and as they are spooning
pumpkin soup, the 26-year-olds talk sexism.
It’s been three weeks since The New York
Times first reported on the allegations against
Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, and
about two weeks since actress Alyssa Milano
encouraged women to post their experiences
with sexual harassment online and mark them
with #MeToo. Both the debate and the hashtag
have reached Germany: Heidi Klum, who once
worked with Weinstein, told the press that “we
would be naïve to think that this behaviour
only happens in Hollywood”. Top SPD politicians
Andrea Nahles and Katarina Barley have
complained about structural discrimination,
and even about colleagues who use the opportunity
of photo shoots to let their hands linger
on waists. But so far, Germany has seen no
public outings of sexist offenders. When Alex
and Johanna think about what they have heard
and read in the press, it’s only American actors
and British politicians, or the Frenchmen exposed
after women in France were encouraged
to #balancetonporc (“report your pig”).
“It’s a bit strange, you’d expect there to be
some German Weinsteins...” Johanna ponders.
She knows from experience that sexism
is as widespread in Germany as anywhere
else, even at the media start-up she works
at. “The other day, as I entered the kitchen
to get some tea, I overheard my boss and
two male colleagues having this unbelievable
discussion about whether women might
be ‘scientifically’ less intelligent than men.
My boss was going on about there being no
top women chess players. The one younger
guy said that was bullshit, but the boss kept
arguing, saying ‘It’s entirely possible!’” Alex
recalls being groped by a stranger while walking
down the street in central Friedrichshain:
“He literally squeezed my boob. It was so
casual, the way he did it! In broad daylight!”
Yet neither she nor Johanna have used the
hashtag #MeToo. “I definitely think it’s good
that others who might have suffered really
bad insults or assaults take the opportunity to
speak up,” says Alex. Johanna, who barely uses
Twitter, thinks she would feel uncomfortable
sharing “less serious” incidents, even if they
were enough to make her feel bad at the time.
#METOO HITS BERLIN
The two friends were unaware that, as they
were speaking, a group of students was organising
a demonstration under the banner
#MeTooBerlin. And it seems they weren’t alone
in missing out. On October 28, 1200 people
showed up for the march from Hermannplatz
to Leipziger Platz, a relatively small number by
Berlin demo standards. But Theresa Hartmann,
one of the five main organisers, is still happy
with the result. “We only gave ourselves a week
to make it happen, because we were worried
the momentum might pass. We got a lot of
press, so that was a success.” Demonstrators
were mostly young women in their twenties
and thirties, but also trans people and men,
who had brought their own banners to show
support. “We wanted to show solidarity for
victims and draw attention to the issue,” says
the 23-year-old Hartmann. “Take domestic
violence, it’s still a huge problem in our
country.” She points to a 2004 German study
that concluded 25 percent of women experience
domestic violence at some point in their
lives. In Berlin alone, the number of reported
cases has been constantly rising since 2005 to
reach 14490 in 2016. At #MeTooBerlin, about 15
people told their personal stories. Theresa especially
remembers one woman who had been
abused by her ex-boyfriend and spoke about
how difficult it was for her to talk about the
experience: “I thought she was so brave!”
Theresa didn’t use the hashtag herself,
considering her experiences “minor” next
to other women’s stories. She still identifies
with the campaign, which she feels is as
relevant in Germany as in the US. “Women
in Germany still earn 20 percent less than
men, and even the ones who make more have
to put up with so much shit. As a woman you
are always reminded of your female body,
but also what people perceive to be a ‘female
character’. Even Angela Merkel is called
‘Mama Merkel’ and commentators talk about
how she doesn’t show emotion...”
As a student of cultural science at Humboldt
University, she finds evidence of
inequality in everyday academic life: the
majority of fellow students in her department
are women, but the professors are still mostly
male. In fact, statistics show that less than
a quarter of professorships in Germany are
taken by women, with Berlin slightly ahead
at a “progressive” 31.4 percent. During her
classes, Theresa says: “It often happens that I
say something that doesn’t get acknowledged,
but five minutes later a bloke repeats the exact
same thing and suddenly it’s the most brilliant
thought ever. It makes you question yourself
in the moment, but I don’t think it’s just me.”
#AUFSCHREI, THEN WHAT?
At this point one might wonder: Is this the
first time Germans are discussing sexual
violence against women, professional discrimination
and everyday sexism? Actually,
in January 2013, Germany had its very own
#MeToo moment.
In an article in weekly magazine Der Stern,
journalist Laura Himmelreich described how
leading FDP candidate Rainer Brüderle had
preyed on her during an interview, going as
far as commenting on the size of her breasts
and leading an embarrassed press agent to
get the politician out of the bar. That same
night, Berlin media consultant, feminist
activist and Free University graduate Anne
Wizorek made a Twitter post about an exprofessor
who had asked her whether she was
dating a man with whom she was working on
a paper – a question she, but not the fellow
student, found irritatingly inappropriate.
Taking inspiration from the 2012 British
“Everyday Sexism Project” and the hashtag
#ShoutingBack, Wizorek used #Aufschrei
(“outcry”) to express her anger. The hashtag
went viral within a matter of days, as tens of
thousands of women tweeted their stories.
“Because the tweet and the publication of
Himmelreich’s article happened on the same
day, people thought they were connected, but
that was pure coincidence,” says Wizorek.
Actually, the idea had come from a post on
her blog kleinerdrei.org titled “Normal ist
das nicht!” (“This is not normal!”), in which
guest author Maike Hank wrote about being
sexually harassed on the streets of Berlin. One
reader reacted on Twitter by sharing her own
22
EXBERLINER 166

FEATURE
Germany’s new sex laws
No means no: Non-consensual
sex is punishable with up to
five years of prison, even if no
physical violence is used.
Sexual harassment is a crime:
Unwanted groping is now
punishable by fine or up to
two years in prison; catcalling
remains legal.
Deportation: Asylum seekers
may be deported if they violate
the “No means no” principle.
Sexual crimes by the numbers
Rape: An average of 600
women per year have reported
to the Berlin Police for rape
and sexual assault over the
past decade. In 2016, rape and
sexual assault in Germany went
up 12.8 percent.
Domestic violence: 14,490
cases were reported in Berlin in
2015 (2000 more than in 2005).
About 75 percent involved physical
injury, and over 75 percent
of the victims were women.
Sexual harassment: 43 percent
of surveyed German women
said they’d been sexually
harassed at least once in their
lives (Yougov for Deutsche
Presseagentur, October 2017),
Discrimination in...
Higher education: While
about half of Berlin’s university
students are women, only
31.4 percent of professors are
female, above the German
average of 22.8 percent.
The workplace: There is still a
20 percent pay gap between
men and women. There are
only 6.7 percent women on the
executive boards of marketlisted
companies; 26 percent
of bosses in the private sector
are female; and the number
of female bosses in the public
sector went down from 38 percent
to 34 percent between
2012 and 2015.
Politics: 33.1 percent of
representatives in Berlin’s city
parliament, and 31 percent of
parliamentarians in the Bundestag,
are women.
experience; others began to follow suit. “I thought
we could turn this into something like #Shouting-
Back and spontaneously used the hashtag,” says
Wizorek. The rest is history.
These days an article like Himmelreich’s could
easily cost a politician’s career, but then, as now,
German women were not out for blood. In her own
post, Wizorek did not disclose the name of her sexist
professor. “Back then it really wasn’t about outing
anyone,” she says, “It was more an emotional process
of acknowledging what was happening to us on a
daily basis.” As the hashtag’s originator, the then-32-
year-old gave dozens of interviews in the press and
on talk shows. Comparing her experience with the
recent TV discussions, Wizorek sees an improvement
in awareness: “When I was on Günther Jauch’s show
in 2013, the title was ‘Does Germany have a problem
with sexism?’. Now I notice that Anne Will’s ARD
show asked ‘The sexism debate – are things going to
change now?’ It makes me slightly more optimistic.”
Yet Wizorek thinks that Germany still has a long
way to go: “Of course Weinstein is not a US-only
phenomenon. The fact that we do not have such big
public cases here only proves that we still live in a
culture of silence, where most men turn a blind eye
and many women still prefer keeping quiet.”
A SEXUAL SCANDAL, RACISM AND A NEW LAW
After #Aufschrei had died down, it took nearly
three years until, once again, sexual violence
made German headlines. On New Year’s Eve 2015,
hundreds of women were harassed, assaulted and
robbed in the city of Cologne. It took days for the
police to admit the scope of the incidents and
for the press to report on them. As the offenders
turned out to be mostly of North African and Arab
origin, right-wing commentators and AfD politicians
blamed Merkel’s immigration policy and demanded
stricter deportation laws and tight borders
on behalf of German women.
First, however, the German government had to
update its sexual crime legislation, which was so far
behind the times that some of the Cologne crimes
were not legally punishable. A new law was quickly
drawn up by the justice ministry and after rushed
touch-ups, it was passed by the Bundestag on July 7,
2016, to take effect on November 10. It introduced
sexual harassment as a criminal offence and established
a “no means no” principle when it comes to
sexual crimes. Rita Vavra, a legal scholar at Humboldt
University, stresses the importance of the new
law: “In combination with the anti-discrimination
portion of labour law, women are now much better
protected. The 2016 changes closed a big gap.”
However, like many feminists, Vavra regrets that
the debate that led to the positive changes was so
tainted by racism. Also, as part of the new legislation
package, an addition was made to Germany’s
residency law, stating that asylum seekers convicted
of sexual crime under the new regulations
would be deported. Wizorek and others publicly
criticised the new law under the hashtag #Ausnahmslos
(“without exception”), protesting that
the punishment for a crime should not differ depending
on nationality. Germany had finally acted
in favour of women, but the circumstances and
motivation left a bitter taste among liberal feminists
at a time when movements such as Pegida
and AfD were instrumentalising women’s rights in
their crusade against Islam.
Heike Pantelmann, gender and diversity coordinator
at the Free University, has been following the
German #MeToo debate closely and believes that
sexism and racism go hand in hand: “In comments
on online articles and social media, the people who
after the Cologne events worried that Islam would
do away with women’s rights are now the same ones
denying the existence of sexism in Germany.” For
these mostly white, male Germans, the only actual
sexism in their country is that imported by Muslims.
Pantelmann stresses that women of colour, as well
as gay, handicapped and trans women, are especially
likely to become targets of sexual violence, and that
men who don’t conform to traditional stereotypes
are also affected. “After all, sexual violence is not as
much about sex as it is about power structures in the
global capitalist system.”
BREAKING GERMANY’S SEXIST STRUCTURES
Meanwhile, German politicians – including Merkel
herself – have been slow and hesitant in addressing
structural gender inequalities. Since 2016, there is
a 30 percent female quota for companies’ supervisory
boards, but it only applies to the country’s top
100 largest market-listed corporations. Meanwhile,
women still make up a miserly 6.7 percent of executive
boards at the top 160 companies, and only
26 percent of bosses in the private sector and 34
percent in the public sector are women. A new income
transparency law is meant to address the pay
gap: As of January 6, 2018, women have the right to
know how much their male colleagues get paid (for
now, an outrageous 20 percent more), and to sue
their employer if they’re earning less for the same
job. An increased budget for daycare and measures
promoting equal parenting are supposed to support
working mothers. Inspired by #MeToo, SPD family
minister Katarina Barley has been pleading in the
press for stricter laws against sexual harassment,
suggesting that placing a hand on someone’s knee
without consent should be made illegal.
Wizorek welcomes those steps in principle,
but finds that many of them still place the ball
in women’s courts: “So once women know how
much men make, it’s still up to them to take further
measures. Why not prescribe equal pay once
and for all?” Thinking about quotas, Hartmann
says: “I could sit on that executive board and
still have someone stare at my boobs or catcall
me in the street. Ultimately it’s mentalities that
we need to change.” Pantelmann, who has been
petitioning for more gender-sensitive education,
agrees. As does Vavra, who concludes: “It’s
not possible to change society by law. The state
can’t control everything. That’s why we need this
broader debate to foster a new, less sexist culture.”
Perhaps one day it will even be possible to
name and prosecute Germany’s Weinsteins. ■
DECEMBER 2017 23

FEATURE
REFUGEE HOUSING
Exit Wilmersdorf
For the past two years, the old town hall building in City
West functioned as an emergency refugee shelter for over
2000 people. Now, the building is closing down. Fear,
mistrust and anger run high among the residents, while
officials swear they’re doing their best and helpers preach
patience. An explosive situation? By Anna Gyulai Gaal
Wilmersdorf’s former town hall has
no kitchens, not enough toilets
and only temporary showers, in
which mould easily grows. But for Shana,
her husband and her three children, this is
home. Or at least, it was.
“We’ve lived here for the past two years, and
now they told us we will have to move, Allah
knows where to,” says the 29-year-old woman
from Hama, Syria. “It’s been hard enough for
us already, and now we’ve heard we will be
placed in one of those container villages – a
ghetto, really. When is it going to get easier?”
Sitting in the makeshift women’s common
room, surrounded by friends and her two
daughters, Shana admits this isn’t what she
had hoped for when she and her family fled
Hama in 2015. “I have a cousin in who came
to Munich to study nine years ago; he has a
job and a good life there. So when our lives in
Hama turned unliveable, we decided to come.
We had many, many hopes. We hoped for a
proper home.” Yet, after two years spent in an
abandoned city hall with rudimentary living
conditions, the many families who live here
share Shana’s fears about the future. They’re
By December 15, the refugee occupants of this former
town hall will have all been relocated to new homes.
not even clear what prompted the district’s decision
to evacuate the building by December 15.
Many mention the protests in May of
this year, when bedbugs were found in the
building and a group of about 50 residents
camped outside the entrance until the
authorities eventually found them a new
place to live. Leon Friedel, integration
commissioner of the district office of
Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, brushes off
the allegation. “It had nothing to do with
the complaints. The LAF (Landesamt für
Flüchtlingsangelegenheiten, formerly LaGeSo)
rented the building from the district for two
years. Those two years are up in December.
And people were only meant to live there
for three-month periods, not for such a long
time. The building is not suited for living – it’s
an office building, after all. I wouldn’t wish
living like this on anybody,” admits Friedel.
But in a year when 54,000 refugees arrived in
Berlin, there were not many options.
“We rented the building from Berlin Immobilien
for two years – that was the deal,”
confirms Sascha Langenbach, LAF’s alwayschipper
spokesman. “We had to find quick
Pavel Mezihorák
solutions to give us time to build better
accommodation. We’re building 15,000 new
homes before the end of 2019.” Langenbach
admits, however, that the past few months
have been hard on everyone. “We had over
1600 people still living in the building, and we
had to move all of them between October and
December. Five hundred people will move to
container villages in Zehlendorf; others will
go to Spandau, to other buildings or modular
homes. There will be cooking facilities everywhere,
which is making people happy.”
But resident of the former town hall building
are sceptical. Some say they are ready
to protest if their circumstances don’t get
better. “We will go out on the streets,” says
Rashan, a young father. “We don’t want to
be in ghettos; we don’t want our children
to grow up like this. We come from war, we
wanted a better life!” It seems many people
agree with him. They don’t put much trust in
the district’s repeated promises.
Meanwhile, volunteers at the shelter
have been trying to smooth things over.
Many have been helping since the beginning,
and have stayed friends with the newcomers.
Hanna, a retired schoolteacher and
one of the shelter’s most enthusiastic helpers,
is advocating for patience: “Germany
never made any promises to these people.
We said, ‘Okay, come here because you are
in trouble, we will try to help you.’ I think
we are doing the best we can. I know these
living situations aren’t ideal, but many of
them understand that it’s better than not
having a home at all! Than being in danger,
than having your kids starved and tortured
and killed...” Hanna is worried. “If protests
start, it’s not going to help the situation,
and especially the image of refugees. The
right wing is already strong; we cannot help
them get stronger.”
The district’s Department of Integration
says they’re trying to ensure that the children
can stay in the same schools and kindergartens
they’ve been attending. As Leon
Friedel says: “They’ve already grown roots,
made friends – and this is where integration
starts. They don’t need more changes! There
are so many initiatives in our district, so
many people willing to help... we don’t want
those connections to get lost.” The final
relocation data hasn’t been released yet, but
it seems unlikely that children resettled in a
refugee village in, say, Lichtenberg will travel
to a Wilmersdorf school every day.
Meanwhile Shana will have to hope for the
best. Maybe her new home, wherever it is,
will have proper kitchens, real showers and
working toilets. And the former town hall
will be renovated and can fulfil its original
purpose: being an administration building. n
24
EXBERLINER 166

ADVERTORIAL
Working in Germany
How to get your foreign professional
qualifications recognised. By Johanna Elsässer
Would you like to live and work in
Germany? And are you looking for
a job in an area where you already
hold a qualification from your home country?
Then you need to check whether your
professional or vocational qualifications are
recognised in Germany and whether you
need an official Certificate of Recognition.
Official recognition is required for certain
occupations (e.g. doctors, nurses and teachers),
and in any event it can improve your
chances on the German job market.
How the recognition procedure works
(six steps to the job you want!):
Use the “Recognition Finder”
Use the Recognition Finder to
check whether official recognition
of your qualifications would help
you to find a job in Germany:
www.recognition-in-germany.de.
The Recognition Finder will point you
towards the appropriate authority for your
particular occupation and (desired) place of
work or residence.
Get the right advice
At www.recognition-in-germany.de,
you’ll find everything you need to
know about the recognition process
– in nine languages. Still have questions?
No problem: each German state has a contact
person in the “Integration through qualification”
(IQ) programme. You’ll find them on
the portal under “Counselling”.
If you live in Berlin, you can contact:
Zentrale Erstanlaufstelle Anerkennung
(ZEA) at Otto Benecke Stiftung e.V. (Charlottenburg),
Türkischer Bund in Berlin-Brandenburg
e.V. (Kreuzberg) or Club Dialog e.V. (Mitte)
www.berlin.netzwerk-iq.de
Counselling languages: German, English,
Arabic, French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese,
Spanish, Turkish, Russian, Ukrainian.
You can also call the “Working and living
in Germany” hotline operated by the
Federal Office for Migration and Refugees.
Their English-speaking staff will be happy
to answer your questions on professional
recognition. The hotline is open Monday to
Friday from 9am to 3pm at 030 1815 1111.
Submit an application
In order to apply for recognition,
you must already hold a professional
or vocational qualification.
You do not have to be a resident in Germany
in order to submit your application. Before
you apply, it’s advisable to contact the authority
listed in the Recognition Finder.
Many staff at government offices in Germany
only speak German. If you don’t speak German,
it’s a good idea to get help from someone
who can guide you through the procedure.
The cost will be between €200 and €600.
The recognition authority will provide information
on the exact costs involved.
The recognition authority
checks your qualification
It normally takes up to three
months to check whether your
qualification is equivalent to the corresponding
German qualification. Your professional
experience is also taken into account.
The procedure begins once you have filled
out your application and submitted all necessary
documentation (e.g. references from
employers, certificates/diplomas, CV).
You receive your certificate
of recognition
It certifies that your qualification
is equivalent to the corresponding
German one. Now you can apply
for a job in Germany!
The differences between your qualification
and the corresponding German qualification are
listed in detail. It is possible that your qualification
will either not be recognised or will only be
granted partial recognition. Your recognition authority
will be happy to advise you on what you
can do to gain full recognition (such as undergoing
further training) and the costs involved.
Time to get that job!
There’s more information on living
and working in Germany on
www.make-it-in-germany.com
“A lot of patience, a dash of humour
and the support of my family and
friends are surely advantageous for
the recognition process.”
Yanina Ketzelman (41), from Argentina,
works as a dentist in Berlin
“Thanks to recognition, I can
finally put my skills to good use.”
Tayfun Tombul (30), from Turkey,
works as a chassis and vehicle
assembly technician in Berlin
Just like Yanina Ketzelman and Tayfun Tombul, many other trained professionals with
foreign qualifications can profit from the possibilities of getting their diplomas and
certificates recognised. The professional qualifications they obtained abroad can be
compared to the requirements for that profession in Germany and evaluated.
Would you like to know more about how Yanina and Tayfun gained recognition? You
can read their stories and others on the “Recognition in Germany”, a website in nine
languages on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education and Reseach (BMBF).
www.recognition-in-germany.de
The official portal for recognition of foreign
professional qualifications in Germany.
DECEMBER 2017
25

WHAT’S ON — Best of 2017
The year in review
Our culture editors take a look back
at the highlights (and lowlights) of 2017.
Chris Dercon
Music
Top 5 Berlin
albums By Michael Hoh
Christiane Rösinger, Lieder ohne
Leiden (Feb 24, Staatsakt) With her
frail voice whispering over reserved
arrangements, the Britta co-founder
tackles writer’s block, high rents,
boredom and ageing. The essential
guidebook for all creative types who
aim to grow old in the city.
A feminist step forward
This year, Berlin’s Music Board made the landmark decision that they’d
only fund projects that are at least 50 percent female. The result? More
women than ever before on festival lineups, even at the notoriously bro-y
By The Lake and Berlin Atonal.
Party-pooper politics
This autumn, boycotts and threats related to the Israel-Palestine conflict
led to high-profile cancellations at the Pop-Kultur festival and the Volksbühne
(see last month’s issue for more on that). Can’t they just reach a viable
two-state solution so we can go see Young Fathers and Kate Tempest?
Mary Ocher, The West Against the
People (Mar 10, Klangbad) With the
help of Hans Joachim Irmler from
Faust, the Russian-born, Tel-Avivraised
and Berlin-based avant-pop
songstress hit the zeitgeist with
her latest album, reflecting on our
political climate in song form.
SXTN, Leben am Limit (Jun 2, Jinx)
You might not share Juju and Nura’s
idea of “life on the edge”, but you have
to acknowledge that the two foulmouthed
Berlin rappers hit a nerve,
skyrocketing to the multi-million-click
phenomenon they are at this point.
Boiband, The Year I Broke My Voice
(Aug 25, Staatsakt) What started as a
theatre piece has turned into a credible
pop/hip hop album from Black
Cracker, Tucké Royale and Hans
Unstern. The catchiest contribution
to identity politics from outside the
gender binary you’ll hear all year.
Romano, Copyshop (Sep 8, Vertigo
Berlin) Catapulting the everyday
wheelings and dealings of a copy shop
employee into hip hop heaven? The
conceptual rapper from Köpenick is
the one to pull it off. Where will his
meticulous braids take him next?
Film
Top 5 releases
By Paul O’Callaghan
Jackie (Jan 26) Chilean maestro Pablo
Larraín tears up the Hollywood
biopic rule book with this ravishing,
woozy depiction of Jacqueline Kennedy’s
darkest hours, which boasts a
career-best turn from Natalie Portman
and a haunting soundtrack by
Mica Levi (Under the Skin).
Elle (Feb 16) Dutch provocateur
Paul Verhoeven delivered a swaggering
late-career masterpiece with
this slyly satirical tale of rape and
retribution, which delights in subverting
expectation at every turn.
I Am Not Your Negro (Mar 30) Few
directors have blended righteous anger
with intellectual rigour so brilliantly as
Raoul Peck, whose cine-literate documentary
about America’s race struggle
makes the words of the late James
Baldwin vibrate with eerie relevance.
Get Out (May 4) Jordan Peele’s mischievous
directorial debut proved
to be the high watermark for horror
this year, with an unnerving twist
on The Stepford Wives that functions
as a potent satirical take-down of
liberal racism.
God’s Own Country (Oct 26) Francis
Lee’s remarkable debut was inevitably
dubbed the “British Brokeback
Mountain”, but this sweeping Yorkshire
Dales-set romance is earthier,
sexier and less sentimental than Ang
Lee’s Oscar winner.
Mary Ocher
A year of great horror
In a case of art imitating life, 2017 was a banquet for fans of all things horrifying. Get Out and
Andy Muschietti’s surprisingly strong adaptation of It led the charge, but hits like Split, festival
faves like Hounds of Love and straight-to-video gems like Raw kept the scares coming.
Bad for the Germans
This year proved a real downer for German cinema, with no Toni Erdmann successor to champion.
And even the Berlinale was something of a bust – standouts like Call Me By Your Name
were sloppy seconds from Sundance, and the competition line-up was lukewarm at best.
Get Out
26
EXBERLINER 166

Rau versus the Reichstag
WHAT’S ON — Best of 2017
For his General Assembly (Nov 3-4), theatre director Milo Rau filled the Schaubühne with people
willing to observe 18 hours of “plenary sessions” – and then convinced a couple hundred
people to “storm the Reichstag” (actually, just short of the front entrance). It was a little like
a Christoph Schlingensief happening, substituting unapologetic idealism for wacky humor.
The Volksbühne’s shit transition
Chris Dercon may or may not end up being a horrible choice to helm the Volksbühne, but his
opponents – from whoever deposited feces in front of his office to September’s occupiers/vandals
– didn’t exactly enhance Berlin’s reputation for open-mindedness or tolerance.
Alles
Schwindel
BY MISCHA SPOLIANSKY &
MARCELLUS SCHIFFER
DIRECTOR
CHRISTIAN WEISE
CHOREOGRAPHY
ALAN BARNES
THEATRICAL REVUE AT GORKI
Stage
Top 5
productions
By Daniel Mufson/Lily Kelting
Borderline Procession (Theatertreffen)
In a former factory in
Schöneweide, Kay Voges of Theater
Dortmund staged a perfectly
soundtracked procession of surrealist
tableaux. This hallucinogenic,
imagistic, repetitive, filthy,
angelic collage looked a lot like
2017: certainly never boring.
Satyagraha (Komische Oper) Sidi
Larbi Cherkaoui’s staging of Philip
Glass’s opera about Gandhi’s nonviolent
work in South Africa grew
more powerful as the evening
progressed while showing off the
formidable vocal skills of perfectly
cast tenor Stefan Cifolelli.
Hamnet (FIND Festival, Schaubühne)
This winsome production from
the Dead Centre Brits gets props
for the 11-year-old lead actor, for
its high-tech and low-tech theatre
magic, and for making the question
“to be or not to be?” vital.
Roma Armee (Gorki Theater) Yael
Ronen put together a diverse
ensemble of Roma, Arab, and
Jewish performers, using their
own stories to undermine anti-
Roma prejudice in a way that was
dynamic and entertaining.
Blank Placard Dance (Tanz im
August) During Anne Collod’s
energising replay of Anna Halprin’s
1967 protest/dance work, 30 performers
all in white moved slowly
and silently through the streets of
Berlin holding blank placards.
Jeanne Mammen
Art
Top 5
exhibitions
By Sarrita Hunn
Alchemy. The Great Art (Apr 6-Jul
23, Kulturforum)This thematic exhibition
spanned 3000 years of art
and cultural history from ancient
Egypt to Jeff Koons to remind us
that art, science and religion are
intimately interrelated.
Watched! Surveillance, Art & Photography
(Feb 18-Apr 23, C/O Berlin)
An impressive range of contemporary
artists – including Hito
Steyerl, Trevor Paglen, Jill Magid
and Ai Weiwei – presented an
eye-opening view on our position
in this surveillanced society.
Studios and the city
Harun Farocki Retrospective
(Sep 14-Jan 28, NBK/Arsenal)
The first comprehensive retrospective
of the late German
auteur’s film and video art
works, which began during
Berlin Art Week this fall and
can still be seen at NBK through
January, has only canonised his
role in dissecting the politics of
imagery for years to come.
Preis der Nationalgalerie 2017
(Sep 29-Jan 14, Hamburger Bahnhof)
As finalists Sol Calero, Iman
Issa, Jumana Manna and eventual
winner Agnieszka Polska emphasised
in a powerful public statement,
this joint exhibition of four
young Berlin artists was about
much more than their gender and
nationalities.
Jeanne Mammen (Oct 6-Jan
15, Berlinische Galerie) Unlike
Farocki, Jeanne Mammen’s
retrospective has been long,
long overdue – and this Charlottenburg-based
observer’s view
on Berlin’s vibrant cultural life
(particularly from the Weimar
era) stood up to the wait.
Berlin finally received ownership of the Haus der Statistik
building off Alexanderplatz, meaning the long-in-the-making
plan to turn the empty building into much-needed affordable
art studio space is one step closer to realisation.
Bonvicini bombs
After years of Modernist depictions of BDSM gear, Berlinbased
Monica Bonvicini’s feeble attempt to (literally) flog
the institution with a big ol’ belt fell limp in a juggernaut of
contrasting scales and competing references in her muchanticipated
solo exhibition at Berlinische Galerie.
DECEMBER 2017
PREMIERE
17/DECEMBER
ADDITIONAL SHOWS
18/22/26/30/31/DEC
1/JAN
ALL PLAYS WITH
ENGLISH SURTITLES
MAXIM GORKI THEATER
Am Festungsgraben 2, 10117 Berlin
Box Office: 0049 30/ 20 221 115
Tickets online: www.gorki.de

WHAT’S ON — Film
Editor’s Choice
Acting up for acceptance
Marginalised groups stick it to their oppressors in
three of this month’s releases. By Paul O’Callaghan
REVIEWS
Flatliners
D: Niels Arden Oplev
(USA 2017)
H
Stay away from this
disappointing, scarefree
and edgeless
remake of the 1990s
cult film of the same
name, an update
which is well and
truly brain-dead.
Starts Nov 30
Prowl (Vânâtoare)
D: Alexandra Balteanu
(Germany 2017)
HHH
This naturalistic
portrait of
impoverished
Romanian sex
workers is bleak
but empathetic,
and consistently
engrossing. Starts
Dec 7
A Date for Mad Mary
D: Darren Thornton
(Ireland 2016)
HH
A foul-mouthed
female ex-con has an
unexpected sexual
awakening while
hunting for a wedding
date in this formulaic
but charmingly brash
indie rom-com.
Starts Dec 14
It may sometimes feel like we’re
in the midst of liberalism’s
dying days, but 2017 warrants
a little celebration as a banner
year for LGBTQ cinema. From
Moonlight’s Oscar victory, to breakout
arthouse hits like God’s Own
Country, we’ve rarely seen so many
quality queer films connecting with
a receptive audience beyond the
festival circuit. It seems fitting, then,
that the year should come to a close
with perhaps the definitive dramatisation
of the AIDS crisis. 120 BPM
sees writer-director Robin Campillo
(see interview, page 30) draw on his
own experiences in early-1990s Paris
as a member of ACT UP, the radical
protest group formed to combat
the apathy and homophobia that
hindered the fight against the epidemic.
As you might expect from the
co-writer of Laurent Cantet’s Palme
d’Or-winning schoolroom drama The
Class, it’s a dense, dialogue-driven,
largely naturalistic affair, fixated on
minutiae to a degree that some may
find patience-testing. But whereas
Hollywood efforts like Philadelphia
and Dallas Buyers Club are compromised
by their attempts to render
HIV-related issues palatable to a
straight audience, 120 BPM positively
revels in its queerness. In place of
the saintly, celibate AIDS patients
we’re used to seeing on screen,
Campillo presents a group of foulmouthed,
libidinous activists who
refuse to be subdued by illness. The
result is a film that, whilst harrowing,
is also funnier and sexier than its
prestige trappings might suggest.
ACT UP is framed as a key antecedent
of the cultural movement
explored in Queercore: How to Punk
a Revolution (photo), the latest doc by
Berlin-based filmmaker Yony Leyser.
Employing an appropriately lo-fi aesthetic,
Leyser stitches together talking
head interviews, archive footage and
hand-drawn animation to tell the story
of punk’s queer offshoot, which was
spearheaded largely by Toronto-based
underground artists Bruce LaBruce
and G.B. Jones. LaBruce is particularly
compelling here on how he essentially
willed a scene into existence fuelled
by his own aversion to mainstream
gay culture. Leyser’s attempt to cater
to the uninitiated through voiceover
narration occasionally backfires, as in
his patronising explanation of zines as
an “analogue predecessor to blogs”.
But the presence of provocateurs like
John Waters and Penny Arcade ensures
an inspiring and irreverent ride.
Much like LGBTQ folk, African-
American women have a raw deal
when it comes to on-screen representation.
After decades of being depicted
as hot-headed, hyper-sexualised
or bottom-of-the-rung victims,
they’re now being relegated to the
roles of squeaky-clean careerists or
superhuman housewives. The great
strength of Malcolm D. Lee’s Girls
Trip is the way in which it flirts with
these tropes whilst allowing its fully-formed
black female protagonists
to cut loose. A riff on the ‘women
behaving badly’ subgenre popularised
by Bridesmaids, this raucous
comedy follows four estranged best
friends over the course of a wild
weekend at the Essence Festival
in New Orleans, as they overcome
petty grievances whilst defiantly
sticking it to cheating husbands,
lascivious love rivals and cringeworthy
white allies. It may be little
more than a broad-strokes empowerment
fantasy, but its surprise US
box office success suggests that it’s
a fantasy Hollywood should indulge
more regularly. n
Starts Nov 30 120 BPM HHHH D: Robin Campillo (France 2017) with Nahuel
Pérez Biscayart, Arnaud Valois | Starts Nov 30 Girls Trip HHH D:
Malcolm D. Lee (USA 2017) with Regina Hall, Jada Pinkett Smith | Starts Dec 7
Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution HHH D: Yony Leyser (Germany
2017) documentary
28
EXBERLINER 166

WHAT’S ON — Film
Reviews
Starts Dec 7
The Mountain Between Us
D: Hany Aby-Assad (USA 2017)
with Idris Elba, Kate Winslet
AVOID
A Ghost Story
Starts Nov 30
Coco
D: Lee Unkrich, Adrian Molina (US 2017)
with Anthony Gonzalez, Gael García Bernal
HHH
Pixar’s Dia de los Muertos-inspired tale of a young
man who dreams of becoming a mariachi musician
and ends up uncovering a family secret in the Land
of the Dead is an exquisitely animated adventure.
Beyond its aesthetic palette, however, it’s very
reminiscent of Jorge R. Gutierrez’s overlooked 2014
gem The Book of Life. It’s not quite a shameless
rip-off, but there’s enough shared DNA to call out
Pixar for riding on Gutierrez’s coattails. Still, Coco
has charm of its own to spare, and while it may
not be as resonant or memorable as Ratatouille,
you’d need a heart of stone to remain unfazed by
its ruminations on remembrance. The beautifully
weathered expressions of one character in particular
are sure to stimulate many a tear duct. — DM
Starts Dec 7
A Ghost Story
D: David Lowery (US 2017)
with Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara
HHHH
David Lowery’s straightforwardly titled latest
follows “C” (Casey Affleck) as he is condemned
to haunt his grieving wife “M” (Rooney Mara),
as well as the future occupants of their house,
after his untimely death in a car crash. This
singular supernatural fable is heartbreaking and
frequently thought-provoking – no small feat for
a film which largely consists of Affleck clad in a
budget Halloween costume (a white sheet with
two eyeholes), helplessly watching the world
as it continues to spin without him. Lowery
risks further ridicule with a five-minute scene
in which Mara literally fills her spiritual void by
mainlining an entire pie in a single sitting. But
beyond its absurd flourishes, the film achieves
profundity through its heartfelt meditation on
the nature of grief. While the languorous pace
won’t be for everyone, A Ghost Story is unlike
anything you’ve seen this year. — DM
DECEMBER 2017
For his sophomore English-language feature,
Palestinian double Oscar nominee Abu-Assad
(Paradise Now) teams up with two of Britain’s
finest A-listers to tackle a sweeping bestseller.
On paper it might sound at worst like inoffensive
end-of-year awards bait, but this uneasy blend
of disaster movie and odd-couple romance is a
rancid Christmas turkey. Stranded on a snowy
mountainside after their private plane crashes,
free-spirited photojournalist Alex (Winslet) and
dishy neurosurgeon Ben (Elba) must contend with
broken bones, punishing weather conditions and
roaming cougars before they can begin to find
love in a hopeless place. The lack of chemistry
between the pair is truly breathtaking to behold
– I’m struggling to recall a less convincing or
appealing recent screen couple. Mind-numbingly
pedestrian action sequences and a head-spinningly
clunky script seal the film’s fate as borderline
unwatchable. — PO’C
Starts Dec 28
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
D: Yorgos Lanthimos (US, UK, Ireland 2017)
with Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman
HHHH
Lanthimos’ latest reunites the Greek auteur with
co-writer Efthymis Filippou and actor Colin Farrell,
here playing a heart surgeon who is seemingly
being emotionally blackmailed by a teenager
(an unsettling turn from Barry Keoghan). The less
said the better, as the unravelling of this macabre
and operatic retelling of the Greek myth of
Iphigenia deserves to remain unspoilt. Safe to
say that if you aren’t keen on Lanthimos’ habitual
quirks – the clinical direction, the monotone
delivery of dialogue – chances are The Killing
of a Sacred Deer won’t be for you. Indeed, this
austere tragicomedy-cum-cautionary tale has
already proven critically divisive, with detractors
repelled by its punishing, ostentatious iciness. If
you can get on its wavelength, however, you may
well feel mesmerised as well as pulverised. — DM
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
1 January
2018, 8 pm,
Philharmonie
Berlin
The Creation
Joseph Haydn
Freiburger Barockorchester
René Jacobs Conductor
Tickets /Service
RIAS Kammerchor Berlin
T + 49.(0)30.20 29 87 25
F + 49.(0).30.20 29 87 29
tickets@rias-kammerchor.de

WHAT’S ON — Film
“It was like my second
sexual revolution”
French director Robin Campillo returns to his
AIDS activism days in 120BPM. By David Mouriquand
DON’T MISS
Killer of Sheep
Wolf Kino celebrates
the 40th anniversary
of Charles Burnett’s
blistering portrait
of African-Americans
in LA, nigh-on
impossible to see
for decades due to
music rights issues,
with a rare limited
run. Dec 2-10, free
screening Dec 1
Ernst Lubitsch
Arsenal Kino pays
tribute to the
German American
maestro responsible
for some of the
Hollywood Golden
Age’s most elegant
and erudite comedies,
including the
overlooked Christmas
classic The Shop
Around the Corner.
Dec 15-Jan 20
The Misandrists
Continuing our
EXBlicks Christmas
porn tradition at
Lichtblick, Bruce
LaBruce’s feminist
revenge flick gives
a different meaning
to “Nutcracker”. Stick
around for a Q&A
with star Susanne
Sachße (see page 44).
Dec 26, 20:30
Campillo’s third feature (see review,
page 28) won the Grand
Prix at Cannes this year and is
France’s submission for the foreignlanguage
Oscar. Set in the early
1990s, it’s an impassioned, Paris-set
portrait of AIDS activist group ACT
UP, as well as a love story between
two of the group’s members.
You were a member of ACT UP,
which was frequently savaged
by French media in the 1990s.
Did you want to set the record
straight with this film? I didn’t
approach the film with an aim to
restore any truths. I thought of it
more as a collective self-portrait.
When I joined ACT UP, there had
been 10 years of the epidemic, and
we were considered the “nice gays”
who would eventually die. Everyone
was saying how sad it was, but that
was the way things were. We decided
to become the nasty fags and dykes,
and it felt extremely liberating to say
whatever we wanted. For me, it was
a deliverance, like a second sexual
revolution as well as a political one,
and I wanted to capture that energy.
120BPM is extremely dark, yet
there’s a sort of joyful energy
in it... I spent a lot of time thinking
about why there was joy and
jubilation in ACT UP. It was because
we were reclaiming power over the
epidemic, and over those who intellectually
pontificated by equating
sex with death. It’s a sexually transmitted
disease, sure, but we were
fighting against this notion of sex
and death becoming intertwined.
Do you see potential for the film
to be used as an educational
tool? The French government wanted
to use it, but we refused. I didn’t
want to cast myself as a sermoniser.
The film is a fiction, and while it
tackles real-life subjects, I can’t deny
I’m a bit disconnected from the fight
against AIDS now. I haven’t been
a militant for 10 years, and I don’t
think it’s my role to give lessons.
The debate scenes give the
film a documentary feel, but
never seem stilted. How did you
achieve this? I have to confess
I was worried that they would be
Robin Campillo
dull! We started by letting the actors
improvise a little and we did three
days of rehearsals just for the debate
scenes, which proved invaluable.
When it came to the actual shoot,
my DP Jeanne Lapoirie and I shot
the scenes in one take with three
cameras. The first 20-minute take
was always a catastrophe, but the
actors always moved forward and
stepped it up for the second take,
mirroring the narrative to a degree.
By the end I had about 140 hours of
rushes, but it was worth it, especially
for the happy accidents that occurred
during the early takes.
Why 120 BPM as the title? Originally
I just wanted it to be called
BPM. But I didn’t like the elitist
nature of it, that it would only speak
to those who like house music. In
France, few people say “BPM” –
they’ll say “beats per minute”, but
not the abbreviation. So, 120 – which
is the tempo of house music, but also
the acceleration of cardiac rhythm
when you’re in love, or scared.
It also hearkens back to the
scene in the club where time
seems to stop. Exactly! The title
imposed itself in a way, as it evokes
for me time passing and age. As silly
as it may sound, I have the strong
sensation of a temporal paradox
with regards to ageing – when I
think of what I did in ACT UP in
the space of one year, I realise that
when you’re younger, you don’t
exist in the same temporality. It’s
almost science fiction. When I think
about my youth, the title makes a
lot of sense – the rhythm was a lot
stronger then. n
30
EXBERLINER 166

WHAT’S ON — Film
Previews
I Am Santa Claus
Grand Central
French fancies
Gorge on a buffet of Gallic goodness
at French Film Week.
Berlin’s 17th city-wide celebration of
French and Francophone cinema may
lack the big-buzz titles like Elle that
made last year’s edition so alluring, but
this year’s programme offers everything
from cross-dressing burqa comedy (Some
Like it Veiled) to an evening of virtual reality.
The headline premiere programme
is heavy on mainstream fluff, but Stéphane
Brizé’s A Woman’s Life (Une Vie)
is anything but. This formally daring adaptation
of Guy de Maupassant’s novel
astutely employs the Academy ratio to
deliver a claustrophobic account of a
19th-century woman struggling to resist
social pressure. Meanwhile Patients,
the debut feature by slam poet Grand
Corps Malade, is an eye-opening drama
about disability inspired by the director’s
own story of paralysis and physical reeducation.
You’d expect the new film by
Claire Denis to be a must-see, but Let the
Sunshine In is a patience-testing rom-com
with stilted dialogue that borders on intellectual
masturbation, despite an excellent
central performance by Juliette Binoche.
For hipper fare you’re unlikely to catch
elsewhere, check out Arsenal Kino’s New
French Cinema strand, which celebrates a
new generation of female talent with films
like Rebecca Zlotowski’s evocative erotic
melodrama Grand Central and Léonor Serraille’s
Cannes Camera d’Or winner Jeune
Femme. — DM/P’OC
Nov 29-Dec 6 Full programme at
franzoesische-filmwoche.de
Jeune Femme
Ho Ho Holy shit!
The Christmas Film Festival puts
a Berlin spin on holiday cheer.
Returning to Moviemento Kino for its
second instalment, the Christmas Film
Festival eschews the usual schmaltz for
edgier festive fare. The shindig starts
with Christmas Cruelty!, a scuzzy lo-fi
slasher movie in the tradition of Silent
Night, Deadly Night. Norwegian directors
Per-Ingvar Tomren and Magne Steinsvoll
get the blood flowing like Glühwein in
this brutal tale of a Santa suit-wearing
serial killer. Drawing things to a close on
Christmas Eve, Mercy Christmas is a gruesome
satire of family festive traditions,
sure to strike a chord with an audience
presumably sacking off time with loved
ones to hang out at the cinema. In
between, you can savour oddities of a
gentler nature. Love and Peace is a surreal
Japanese fantasy about an aspiring rock
star and his wish-granting turtle, which
stays just the right side of kooky. And
Tommy Avallone’s I Am Santa Claus is
an engaging doc about “professional”
Santas, including a gay bear and a former
wrestling star. — AD/P’OC
Dec 22-24 Moviemento, Kreuzberg
Jews, Christians
and Muslims
Scientific Discourses in the Middle Ages 500-1500
Martin-Gropius-Bau
December 9, 2017 – March 4, 2018
Wed – Mon 10am – 7pm, closed Tue, open on public holidays, closed on 24. and 31.12.
Admission free up to 16 years
www.gropiusbau.de
Two astronomers with instrument (Detail), Tabulae Alphonsinae, Prague (Workshop of Wenceslas),,1392–94, Cod. 2352, fol. 1
© Österreichische Nationalbibliothek #JudenChristenMuslime

WHAT’S ON — Music
Editor’s Choice
’18 and life
Put on your battle armour and hit the town:
it’s New Year’s Eve in Berlin. By Michael Hoh
Marcel Berkmann CC BY 2.0
MUSIC NEWS
Cosy compilation
Feeling homey this
month? On his
2CD compilation
Coming Home (out
Dec 1), busy Berlin
producer Pantha du
Prince shares artists
that make him
feel zu Hause, from
Autechre to Wu-Tang
Clan to Ellen Fullman.
Spatial boombox
This month marks
the opening of
Monom, the
Funkhaus’ stateof-the-art
venue
for spatial aka “4D”
sound. Test your
eardrums with two
weeks of immersive
works from
the likes of Thomas
Ankersmit, and
get ready for a lot
more tram trips to
Schöneweide during
CTM next month.
Dec 1-14
Oh dear, once again, you
delayed your plans to buy
an EasyJet ticket out of
this firecracker-infested hellhole
for too long, and now look at what
happened: you’re stuck. Here. But
you’ve got options other than staring
at the ceiling until morning strikes
or running down Hermannstraße
with a bottle of Rotkäppchen in one
hand and a pack of Aldi’s finest pyro
delights in the other.
If you want to make your absent
friends jealous with glamorous selfies
taken amongst marble columns and
plenty of GDR history, venture east
to the Funkhaus, where top-shelf
techno promoters HYTE will be taking
over with a lineup including Adam
Beyer, Chris Liebing, Loco Dice, Nina
Kraviz and plenty more (18:00). But
this extravagance will cost you: €69-
99, depending on whether you want
access to a “premium” area with its
own bar and toilets.
If you’re willing to trade glam
for grime, you’ll find a cheaper
techno fix at the RAW Gelände.
Lexy & K-Paul, Format:B and more
will be taking over Astra Kulturhaus’
annual Happy New Yeah
party (23:59), while Suicide Circus
invites you to 36 hours of nonstop
techno (23:59). Heavyweights might
prefer Der weiße Hase, where €65
gets you entrance and unlimited
drinks all night. If you’d rather
avoid Warschauer Straße like the
plague, head over to Friedrichshain’s
Nordkiez and check out Minimal Bar
on Rigaer Straße, where chilled-out
electronic beats will accompany
your sprints around the ping pong
table (19:00).
Across the Spree, on Lohmühleninsel,
Birgit and Burg Schnabel take
the German tradition of Vorglühen
quite seriously, commencing their
joint New Year’s Eve celebrations
on December 29 and culminating
in eight floors of debauchery with
20 DJs playing tracks from literally
every genre in the book. Further
east, close to Ostkreuz, Kosmonaut
tries to top that with four full
days of their trademark tech-house
sets (Dec 30-Jan 2) in what they’re
cheekily calling their “Final Mission”
(come on, guys, you’re only closing
for a month for renovations).
Back in Kreuzberg proper, Ritter
Butzke invites you to its annual
Hippie New Year with a lineup led by
Hamburg house aficionado Stimming
(23:00), while Gretchen offers a varied
genre mix from drum ‘n’ bass to
hip hop, soul and Latin beats played
by DJ Storm, Icicle, Marc Hype, Phonomat
and more (23:00). Laid-back
house tunes of the soul variety are
your thing? Then head to Loftus Hall
on Maybachufer, and make sure to
sign up before Dec 16 to take advantage
of the €12 “friends” list.
If you want to make
your absent friends
jealous, venture to
the Funkhaus.
For analogue lovers, Bassy Club in
Prenzlauer Berg might be your best
option, blasting rockabilly and other
1960s gems from behind the DJ
booth after a live performance by
Gribitch Brothers & Sisters (21:00).
If leather jackets and poodle skirts
aren’t your idea of dressing up,
look no further than Solar next to
Anhalter Bahnhof (19:00). After
their gala dinner and sky party,
you might have a €200-sized hole
in your pocket, but it’s worth it
for the chance to view the Silvester
carnage from a safe distance while
eating fancy food off actual plates.
If you prefer a more grounded, but
nonetheless fancy soirée, Clärchen’s
Ballhaus has, of course, been a
trusted choice for years.
In case you’re not still at it on January
1, join International Pony alumnus
Erobique for his Neujahrsgala at
Festsaal Kreuzberg (16:00). His soul,
funk and disco-inspired Tanzmusik
will certainly be an antidote to your
New Year’s Day blues. n
32 EXBERLINER 166

GIG
LISTINGS
December
YOUR GUIDE TO THIS
MONTH’S BERLIN
CONCERTS.
05
FEB
07
FEB
10
JAN
27
JAN
15
FEB
+ JAYE JAYLE
16
FEB
28
FEB
06
MÄR
23
MÄR
2017_DEZ_LSK_Anzeige_ExBerliner.indd 1 14.11.17 12:55
Jerry Williams
06.12.17 Baumhaus Bar
Marc E. Bassy
10.12.17 Badehaus Szimpla
John Smith
11.12.17 Privatclub
Das Paradies
12.12.17 Privatclub
Tété
16.12.17 Badehaus Szimpla
The Barr Brothers
22.01.18 Privatclub
Yungblud
23.01.18 Musik & Frieden
Russ
13.02.18 Columbiahalle
Chinese Man
17.02.18 Huxleys Neue Welt
Betsy
05.12.17 Bi Nuu
Girls In Hawai
14.02.18 Bi Nuu
Calexico
10.03.18 Tempodrom
SO MANY
GREAT
GIGS BUT
SO LITTLE
CASH?
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to the hottest gigs in town!
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Wallis Bird
21.03.17 Passionskirche
Editors
01.04.18 Tempodrom
TICKETS UND INFOS: SCHONEBERG.DE
TICKETS UND INFOS: SCHONEBERG.DE

WHAT’S ON — Music
DON’T MISS
The Third Eye Foundation,
Cummi Flu/Raz
Ohara
This exquisite
double bill treats
you to dark drum ‘n’
bass-ish antics and
intricate downbeat
electronics at Kantine
am Berghain.
Dec 3, 20:00
Kelela
Come early to
save yourself a
good spot when
Kelela presents
her grime-y,
future R’n’B-filled
debut album Take
Me Apart live at
Berghain. Dec 7,
21:00
Pavel Mezihorák
Interview
“I’m the queen
of pop, honey”
The electro-punk duo behind Eat Lipstick
prepare to glamourously ring out the new
year on Dec 29. By Michael Hoh
After emerging from Berlin’s
glittery gutters as a supposedly
one-off performance act
at Lido on Halloween 2008, the evil
brainchild of DJ Anita Drink and
satanic guitarist/karaoke host The
Shredder has since evolved into a
four-piece. We met the two founders
in the backroom of Exit, the Wiener
Straße fashion boutique owned by
Miss Drink’s alter ego Juan Chamié.
The Shredder (left), Anita Drink (right)
How did Anita Drink and The
Shredder emerge? The Shredder:
After some satanic spells, The
Shredder came from the person
under this. It formed in Berlin,
because apparently that’s where the
demon is. He came straight from
hell into this vessel. Anita Drink: I’m
a gospel singer at heart, honey. So, I
don’t know about all the demon shit,
but that’s why we work together so
well. We got the dark, and we got the
light. In Shredder, in his demonic inspirations,
I found a platform for my
pop perspiration. It started out as an
act, but then it became a lifestyle.
You both moved here from the
US West Coast, but your drag
seems very Berlin. AD: I felt
Berlin’s rich history of drag very
spiritually and instinctually. You
cannot do anything without looking
into the past and studying it a
bit. I have to give credit to this city,
because that’s what brought it out of
me. TS: The city does make it a lot
freer. The actual history of allowing
us to do this. I mean LA has a good
cross scene, but it’s very glamorous.
Berlin is a place where you can be a
little more sleazy.
What do you say when other
drag queens claim to have the
authority on what drag should
be? AD: I don’t think it matters a
damn, drag-y, mascara lint. There
are always going to be cliques of
people saying, “Oh, she’s raggedy
drag; there go the metal drags; here
come the femme drags!” I think
that’s healthy, because I don’t want
to be like everybody else, and I
don’t want everyone else to like me
necessarily. I don’t need to fit into
some scene. What makes it vital and
rich is when these different scenes
compete. We don’t want to pigeonhole
ourselves, but if it means we
can be a symbol of the most positive
and most dangerously sexy aspects
of the word “drag”, then Eat Lipstick
is that, and we are the future.
Your new song “Dog Nose Summer”
suggests a new album is on
the horizon? AD: It’s a brand-new
fucking Lipstick. The first record is a
collection of all the work that we’ve
done, all the homage to Berlin and
the people that made Eat Lipstick
happen. And the second album is all
the things that have happened since
then. [The Shredder] and I have
started working together on acoustic
sets. Naturally, it made us more melodic
and more introspective. That’s
changed and developed our sound
and enriched the tonality of it.
What about your song “Murder
by Madonna”? Any beef with the
Queen of Pop? AD: No. God. I’m
the Queen of Pop, honey. She can’t
do what I do, and I can’t do what
she does. In fact, she’s right now
probably thinking about me, because
I’m thinking about her. We have a
connection for life. TS: She might
even know who we are because she
has our t-shirt. AD: Yeah, she bought
one of our t-shirts. The guy that does
our merchandise made some stuff
for a shop on Torstraße called École.
In the window was the Eat Lipstick
shirt for “Murder by Madonna”,
and [her people] stopped and went
into the shop. The owner called a
friend of mine, they called my office,
and I was like, “My who, my what?
Madonna, what? I can’t take this call
right now.” So, I hung up and didn’t
believe them. But in the end, she herself
went down there and bought it.
So somewhere there’s a photo of her
with that damn shirt on. n
Eat Lipstick Fri, Dec 29, 20:00 Wild
at Heart, Kreuzberg
34 EXBERLINER 166

pussy riot
theatre
performs: rioT DAys
14.01.18 · so36
ry x
performing wiTh
DeuTsches filmorchesTer bAbelsberg
+ hAnnAh epperson
12.02.18 · Tempodrom
first aid kit
08.03.18 · columbiahalle
ara malikian
07.04.18 · Admiralspalast
son little
+ the roscoe
08.12.17 · bi nuu
lany
20.12.17 · festsaal Kreuzberg
the night flight
orchestra
20.12.17 · frannz
defunkt
05. + 06.01.18 · Quasimodo
colter wall
17.01.18 · frannz
tyler childers
23.01.18 · privatclub
iron & wine
+ half waif
25.01.18 · huxleys
the strypes
+ max meser
27.01.18 · badehaus
flogging molly
01.02.18 · columbiahalle
celebrating
david bowie
19.01.18 · huxleys
franz
ferdinand
07.03.18 · Tempodrom
marc almond
wiTh live orchesTrA
neuer Termin: 30.03.18 · Admiralspalast
joan baez
29.07.18 · Zitadelle
here lies man
23.02.18 · musik & frieden
at the drive in
& death from above
26.02.18 · columbiahalle
jessie ware
07.03.18 · huxleys
d‘angelo
15.03.18 · columbiahalle
vance joy
17.03.18 · huxleys
the temperance
movement
24.03.18 · lido
black label society
28.03.18 · huxleys
fall out boy
06.04.18 · max-schmeling-halle
awolnation
18.04.18 · Kesselhaus
LOFT.DE
FACEBOOK.COM/LOFTCONCERTS
ALT-J
18.1. MAX-SCHMELING-HALLE
DERMOT KENNEDY
29.1. COLUMBIA THEATER
KAKKMADDAFAKKA
2.2. COLUMBIAHALLE
FAT FREDDY´S DROP
24.8. ZITADELLE
SUE THE NIGHT
29.1. PRIVATCLUB
SWEET ALIBI
30.1. PRIVATCLUB
CULTS
30.1. MUSIK & FRIEDEN
KAGOULE
2.2. CASSIOPEIA
MANU DELAGO HANDMADE
13.2. QUASIMODO
SOL HEILO
14.2. FRANNZ
TICKETS: KOKA36(.DE)
Ganz Fest mit Liebe.
THE HUNNA & COASTS
15.2. LIDO
AURA
17.2. BI NUU
JAMIE LAWSON
22.3. KESSELHAUS
AMY SHARK
24.3. GRETCHEN
CIGARETTES AFTER SEX
16.5. COLUMBIAHALLE
DOTAN
22.5. HEIMATHAFEN NEUKÖLLN
Howard Panter for Rocky Horror Company Limited and Ralf Kokemüller for BB Promotion GmbH present
BAD, BIZARRE AND BLOODY BRILLIANT!
jon gomm
08.02.18 · columbia Theater
stereophonics
08.02.18 · Astra Kulturhaus
belle and sebastian
17.02.18 · Admiralspalast
lauv
24.04.18 · columbia Theater
NOVEMBER 2017
www.trinitymusic.de
scott bradlee‘s
postmodern jukebox
27.04.18 · huxleys
a perfect circle
17.06.18 · Zitadelle
23.01. - 10.02.18
ADMIRALSPALAST BERLIN
TICKETS: 030 - 479 974 28
www.rocky-horror-show.de
01805 - 2001*
www.eintrittskarten.de
*0,14 €/Min. aus dem Festnetz, Mobilfunk max. 0,42 €/Min.

WHAT’S ON — Music
Playlist
From Bandung to Berghain
Palmer Keen gets us ready for the third Raung Raya
showcase with his desert-island Indonesian albums.
part of West Java. The band mixes
Sundanese-inspired pentatonic
melodies with keroncong-esque
instrumentation and Indonesianlanguage
lyrics about Indonesia’s
dark history for a sound that far
surpasses other fusion attempts.” n
It was at a music festival in the
city of Bandung that Berlinbased
producer, curator and
label head Rabih Beaini first met
Palmer Keen aka Aural Archipelago,
an Indonesia-based musician from
the US who had made it his task to
record and archive local music. For
Beaini’s third Indonesian showcase
at Berghain, Keen joins Ata Ratu,
queen of the jungga (a four-stringed,
lute-like instrument), along with
experimental rockers Zoo. We asked
him for his top three picks from his
adopted homeland.
Music of Indonesia, Vol. 20: Indonesian
Guitars (Smithsonian Folkways,
1999) “The legendary last volume of
American ethnomusicologist Phillip
Yampolsky’s epic Music of Indonesia
series highlights regional guitar
stylings from Sumatra to Sumba
and beyond. More than any other
volume in the series, this one has
been a huge inspiration to me – I’ve
managed to record each style myself
throughout the years, even meeting
some of the same amazing musicians
20 years on.”
Golden Rain: Balinese Gamelan
Music (Nonesuch, 1969) “This classic
gamelan album was one of the
first widely released recordings of
Indonesian music outside of this
country. ‘Musical tourist’ David Lewiston,
who recorded this in the 1960s
for Nonesuch, just passed away this
year, but his legacy lives on: he managed
to convince a record label that
there really is an audience out there
for truly non-Western sounds.”
Tigapagi: Roekmana’s Repertoire
(Demajors, 2013) “This album from
Bandung-based Tigapagi won
album of the year in Rolling Stone
Indonesia a few years back, but is
practically unknown outside of this
Raung Raya #3: Ata Ratu, Zoo,
Aural Archipelago Tue, Dec 5, 20:00
Berghain, Friedrichshain
Tips
DON’T MISS
Lydia Lunch
Give your immune
system a break and
let yourself be infected
as the no-wave
goddess revisits her
back catalogue with
her band Retrovirus
at Quasimodo. Dec
12, 22:00
Alison Moyet
Back in the 1980s,
French and Saunders
invited Alison Moyet
on their show only to
make faces behind
her while playing. You
can do the same at
the ex-Yazoo singer’s
concert this month,
but it might get you
kicked out of Huxleys.
Dec 11, 20:00
W.E.E. Music Festival: Cecilie Sadolin
Martin Kohlstedt
Classical and
Contemporary
Arabic Music Days
Pierre Boulez Saal hosts this threeday
festival to commemorate the
1932 Cairo Congress, the first-ever
showcase of music from the Arab
world. Oud player Naseer Shamma
and clarinetist Kinan Azmeh will
present music from Syria, Iran and
Iraq. Dec 14-16
Experimental Live Filmscoring Night
Experimental and electronic musicians
including Ümit Han, Mijk van
Dijk and others remix film scores in
real time at Liquid Sky Berlin. Dec
16, 20:00
Martin Kohlstedt
Neo-classical composers are now
booming more than ever, and Kohlstedt
is on the top of the list, playing
three sold-out shows at Silent
Green Kulturquartier this month.
Dec 15-17, 20:30
Clubbing
Deep Medi Xmas Skank
Get in the Christmas spirit with
UK dubstep by Mala and Kahn
behind the decks on 2017’s last
Deep Medi label night at Club
Gretchen. Dec 2, 23:00
W.E.E. Music Festival
Initiated by Cecilie Sadolin of
Urban Base Community and
American pianist Joel Holmes,
this night at Badehaus aims to
celebrate experimental electronic
music from all corners of the
planet. Dec 1, 20:00
Tekknozid
Get back into 1990s mode with
an old-school rave at Festsaal
Kreuzberg. Party hard enough,
and you might even miss the turn
of the year. Dec 30, 21:00
36
EXBERLINER 165

WHAT’S ON — Stage
Sarien Visser
“
Making difference normal
As Berlin theatres strive for diversity, disability remains one
of the last barriers – but maybe not for long. By Daniel Mufson
We apologise,” said Lisa
Scheibner at the start
of “Meeting Place”, a
day-long conference on the arts and
disability at Podewil in October. The
chosen venue, she conceded, was
“unfortunately not entirely accessible”,
but had taken measures to
compensate for it. It was a good
metaphor for Berlin’s culture sector
itself: increasingly aware of its lack
of accessibility, but taking steps
towards improvement.
Scheibner is part of the Berlin
Project Bureau for the Development
of Diversity, born in 2016 and funded
by the Berlin Senate. Its aim is to
improve the diversity of artists and
audiences at cultural institutions.
While progress on ethnic inclusiveness
has earned theatres like the
Maxim Gorki Theater and Ballhaus
Naunynstraße widespread attention
and praise, it has proven harder, as
Australian performer Sarah Houbolt
put it at “Meeting Place,” for disabled
people to “break that label of
‘community participant’ in order to
become a professional artist”.
There are a few exceptions. At
the Sophiensaele’s Tanztage festival
in January, two offerings feature
disabled performers. Choreographer
Jérôme Bel has become known
for diverse casting that includes
disabled people in works such as his
2001 crowd-pleaser The Show Must
Go On, revived this month at the
Volksbühne. The Komische Oper
has improved audience access by
offering a backstage tour for people
with visual impairments.
Berlin also has two theatres devoted
to showcasing theatre makers
with disabilities: Theater Thikwa
and RambaZamba Theater, both of
which were founded in 1990 and
offer “integrated” productions with
disabled and non-disabled performers.
Thikwa (Hebrew for ‘hope’),
which shares its Kreuzberg venue
with the English Theatre, emphasises
dance and new works, like this
month’s Sieben, a choreographed
“amoral song play” about the
performers’ own experience with
the seven deadly sins. RambaZamba
was founded by Gisela Höhne, an
actor and director, with her partner
at the time, director Klaus Erforth,
after the two had a son with Down
syndrome. Their repertoire of canonical
dramas and literary adaptations
received a shake-up this past
summer, when the pair’s other son,
Jacob, took over as artistic director.
Boosting the number of premieres
per season from two to six, he’s
made the aesthetic, as he puts it,
“louder and more radical”. The season
opener, Schiller’s The Robbers
(photo, see review online), delivered
just that with nudity, bodily
fluids and (simulated) sex. We’ll
see if this month’s premiere, a piece
about role models by Kathrin Herm
called Idole muss mann feiern wie
sie fallen, proves as divisive among
critics and audience members.
Höhne wants his audience to be
as diverse as his casts, and to that
end he’s continuing RambaZamba’s
relationship with the Berliner
Ensemble, where they perform one
guest performance each season. He
remembers the postplay discussion
for one of the performances
at the Ensemble, which listed the
production without any mention
of disabilities: “Thank you,” Höhne
remembers audience members as
saying, “for not writing that this is
a theatre for the disabled, because
otherwise we wouldn’t have seen
these great people.” n
Sieben... aber einmal auch der helle Schein. Ein unmoralisches Songplay
Dec 6-9, 13-16, 20:00 Theater Thikwa, in German | Idole muss man feiern
wie sie fallen Dec 1, 2, 4, 5, 15, 16, 19:30 RambaZamba Theater, in German |
The Show Must Go On Dec 20, 22, 30, 19:30, 31, 18:00 Volksbühne, in English
| Tour for the Blind and Seeing-Impaired Dec 9, 13:00 Komische Oper
Editor’s Choice
DON’T MISS
Kreatur
Sasha Waltz’s recent
choreographic work,
exploring the movement
between dominance
and submission,
freedom and
control, and togetherness
and isolation,
premiered this past
June to rave reviews
and now returns to
Radialsystem V. Dec
20-22, 27-29, 20:00
Come as you are #Berlin
Israeli choreographer
Nir de Volff and his
Total Brutal company
created this piece
with three refugee
dancers from Syria
who explore their
adjustment to Berlin’s
contemporary dance
scene – and to
everything else, too.
With German and
English dialogue, at
Dock 11. Dec 5-7,
19:00
Slime Dynamics
Siegmar Zacharias is
bringing 200 litres
of slime onto the
Sophiensaele stage
for three dancers to
slide around in –
supposedly a
metaphor for our
unstable, fluid world –
in a piece that
explores form and
formlessness as well
as Eros and disgust.
Dec 7-10, 20:00
DECEMBER 2017 37

WHAT’S ON — Stage
DON’T MISS
Anatevka
A German version of
Fiddler on the Roof
directed by Barrie
Kosky at the Komische
Oper? Hard to
believe this won’t
be a crowd-pleaser.
Premieres Dec 3 at
18:00, preceded at
15:00 by a podium
discussion and followed
by a “birthday
party” with DJ Ipek.
Dec 3, 5, 6, 9, 16,
21, 22, 27, 29, 31
Les Misérables
Like the plague victim
in Monty Python’s
Holy Grail, Frank Castorf’s
not dead yet
–and this month, he
premieres his stage
version of Victor
Hugo’s novel at the
Berliner Ensemble,
his first production
there since 1996. No
English surtitles yet,
though. Dec 1, 3, 15,
16, 28, 29
Nah Dran 67
At Ufer Studios’
recurring showcase,
three young Berlin
choreographers
present their work
in an intimate, “up
close” setting. It’s a
bit of a crap shoot,
but the up-andcomers
often offer
surprises that reward
the adventurous
theatregoer. Dec 2,
3, 20:30
“Daniel Mufson
Interview
We stopped rehearsing, and
that’s when it exploded”
Susanne Kennedy gets ready to open a new
era at the Volksbühne with the unintentionally
timely Women in Trouble. By Daniel Mufson
After 13 years in the
Netherlands, Kennedy
returned to her native
Germany to direct at the Munich
Kammerspiele in 2011, and her
distinctive directorial style has been
drawing accolades ever since.
Now, she’s following up her
adaptation of Eugenides’ Middlesex
and the award-winning Fegefeuer von
Ingolstadt with Women in Trouble,
the first proper theatre piece to be
staged at the Volksbühne under controversial
new artistic director Chris
Dercon. She met us backstage to talk
about her new work, feminism and
the Volksbühne’s future.
What was the inspiration for
Women in Trouble? It started off
with this situation in the film Opening
Night by John Cassavetes. Gena
Rowlands is in this scene with someone
else, and suddenly she opens a
door, goes through it, and she’s on a
stage, and the stage setting is a living
room. That shifting of reality, I liked
very much. So Women in Trouble’s
main character, Angelina Dreem,
constantly switches between realities:
She’ll get cancer, and then she
dies and she’s reborn in a different
variation. In the end, you have different
variations of Angelina Dreem
existing simultaneously in different
rooms on a revolving stage. We have
five different actresses playing her.
And it’s a collage of found texts?
Yes, a sort of journey through the
internet. During the past few years,
I just collected texts that I found on
blogs, TED talks, whatever I came
across that triggered something in
me. With plays, I usually have to
work a lot to make it... fit. With this
text, I put together something that
fits me completely.
Does it make sense to think of
you as a feminist theatre artist?
Of course feminism is something
that I find very important. If you
watch Women in Trouble, it’s all
about that. It’s about questioning
this system we have somehow
implemented, and women’s role
in it. But I am interested in much
more than just feminism. You could
also call what Angelina Dreem is
undertaking a spiritual journey,
which I find much more interesting.
At the same time, this whole
Harvey Weinstein/#MeToo discussion
happened in this short break
we’re having. We stopped rehearsing
for six weeks, and that’s when it
completely exploded, and suddenly
some scenes we have seem as if I’d
written them in response to that. It
wasn’t the case.
How do you see Women in
Trouble as developing from your
previous works? For the first time,
it’s actually a character on stage
that could be more or less me. The
way she looks – she just wears jeans
and sneakers. She could be a regular
hipster, in a sense.
How come the play’s in English?
All the material I gathered
was English. Here, they were quite
irritated about it, and I thought,
“Okay, if I had to change it into
German, I’d have to write a different
play.” It’s about the Hollywood
system; it’s about getting sick and
being a patient and, at the same
time, a consumer; about English as
the language of globalisation. I don’t
know, it just happened.
Who was upset about it, exactly?
It’s just this whole discussion at the
moment about the Volksbühne. People
are worried that it’s more fuel on
the fire because this theatre was so
German, and now this international
group is coming in.
Is it lonely being a theatre director
at the new Volksbühne? I feel
it’s part of an exciting interaction
because I already have more contact
with [non-theatre] artists here than
I’ve had at other theatres. I’m very
much looking forward to seeing
different takes on theatre. I have the
feeling that we have to find out again
what the theatre means, and it’s really
interesting to ask that question
now, in this very symbolic Volksbühne.
And it’s a strange kind of
vacuum at the moment, which I find
very exciting. It just feels so open at
the moment, even though the ‘war’
is still going on. I wouldn’t want to
be anywhere else. n
Women in Trouble Dec 2, 3, 10,
23, 27 (artist talk, Dec 10, 16:00)
Volksbühne
38 EXBERLINER 166

Reviews
Three at the DT
WHAT’S ON — Stage
This month, head to the Deutsches Theater’s smaller stages
– the 230-seat Kammerspiele and the 80-seat Box – for a
trio of relevant works. By Daniel Mufson
EXPERIMENT
New Bauhaus
Chicago
Photography
Film
Arno Declair
today’s demagoguery on both sides of the
pond, mixing Trumpian riffs with references
to European calls for guaranteed basic
income. Felix Goeser fuels the production’s
strong start with his front-facing, charismatic
performance as a campaigning Windrip,
but the energy subsides in scenes hewing
closer to the novel’s plot in which Windrip’s
Secretary of State seizes power only to be
overthrown himself in a military putsch.
Dec 1, 20:30; 10, 19:30; 29, 20:00 HHH
Kammerspiele (English surtitles)
15.11.2017
– 5.3.2018
Arno Declair
Between the Lines. Briefe aus Bissau
A frequent charge against German Regietheater
is that its actors often scream at each other
for no apparent reason. Between the Lines is
the antidote for that ailment. In this quietly
melancholy epistolary drama, filmmaker Katja
Kunt investigates the life of her aunt, who,
in the 1980s, left East Germany to marry and
live with a man from the small West African
nation of Guinea-Bissau. A collaboration
between directorial duo Auftrag:Lorey and
Kunt herself, the production’s secret weapon
is musician Djelifily Sako playing the kora,
a West African instrument that resembles
the love child of a diminutive harp and a
clinically obese banjo. One could probably
read a software manual over kora music and
still achieve a lyrical mood, but the emotion
is heightened by the longing, alienation and
wonder so eloquently expressed in the letters
of Kunt and her aunt. Dec 2, 27, 19:30; 3,
19:00 HHHH Box (no surtitles)
It Can’t Happen Here
Sinclair Lewis’ 1935 satirical novel imagined
demagogue Buzz Windrip rising to defeat
President Roosevelt on a campaign of economic
candy slogans, patriotic bluster, and
“traditional values”. Director Christopher
Rüping has adapted the novel to evoke
Feminista, Baby!
It would be hard to find a better moment to
stage an adaptation of the radical feminist
SCUM Manifesto by Valerie Solanas, whose
anti-male diatribe became famous after
she shot Andy Warhol in 1968. Directors
Tom Kühnel and Jürgen Kuttner made the
questionable decision, however, to cast three
men as the central performers, reciting
excerpts of the manifesto in Marilyn Monroe
drag costumes. What saves the evening
is that the men at least recite the lines in
earnest. There’s little attempt to ridicule Solanas,
which would have been easy given the
violent fanaticism of her rhetoric. But if the
three parts had been cast as women or even
consisted of a mixed-gender trio, say, including
a transgender performer, the evening
could have highlighted the precariousness of
gender stereotypes while voicing a more fullthroated,
cathartic rage at the indignities
that Solanas – and now, the #MeToo accusers
– have suffered at the hands of a gender
“obsessed,” as Solanas says, “with screwing”.
Dec 7, 12; 19:30; Dec 31, 19:00 HHH
Kammerspiele (English surtitles) n
Arno Declair
momentum
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DECEMBER 2017

WHAT’S ON — Art
Editor’s Choice
Art on the move
“Migration” is the culture scene buzzword of the day, and ever more exhibitions
on the topic are migrating into Berlin galleries. By Sarrita Hunn
HOLIDAY PICKS
Pictures of Comfort
and Design
The Pergamon Altar
might be closed, but
you can still get cosy
in the museum‘s Islamic
Art wing with this
exhibition of carpetcentric
Indo-Islamic
miniature paintings
from the Mughal era.
Through Jan 26
Jews, Christians
and Muslims
The Martin-Gropius-
Bau‘s new exhibition
on “Scientific Discourse
in the Middle
Ages” explores the
significant transfer
of knowledge across
religions and regions
from the years 500-
1500 that has laid the
groundwork for much
of what we understand
about the world
today. Dec 9-Mar 4
Welcome to Jerusalem
Just in time for
Chanukah, a special
exhibition at the
Jewish Museum
considers the
complex history
of Israel‘s spiritual
centre, a city in which
everyday life, religion
and politics are
inextricably linked.
Dec 11-Apr 30, 2019
We don’t have many nomadic
communities left
these days, but human
migration still forms, and informs,
our lives. It’s especially true here in
Berlin, where an ever-more-international
art scene is dominated by conversations
about expats, immigrants,
refugees and post-colonialism.
Following an appearance representing
his native Kosovo at this year’s
Venice Biennale, New York-based
Sislej Xhafa joins the discussion with
his exhibition at Blain Southern,
shadow of curls (photo). While Lost
and Found in Venice was a phone that
never rang for all the missing relatives
from the Kosovo war, Xhafa’s
Berlin exhibition is less specific
and more poetic. Here familiar and
ready-made objects (trees, lighters,
sheets of plastic) are positioned and
combined to create new meaning. In
“still life on left lane”, a chandelier is
placed in a plaid plastic bag, familiar
to migrants from nearly every continent,
provoking hope in a better
place that has not yet been reached.
Meanwhile, Reframing Worlds, the
new multi-part exhibition at Galerie
im Körnerpark and NGBK, takes
a look at “Mobility and Gender in
a Postcolonial, Feminist Perspective”
via works by 16 Berlin artists
from a multitude of backgrounds.
The exhibition highlights a range of
historical female figures, from Agatha
Christie to Sayyida Salme, the
princess of Zanzibar, but the general
focus is on telling life stories. Maria
Thereza Alves’ “Wake: The Flight
of Birds and People”, for example,
chronicles the seeds of non-native
plants found in Dubai as a reflection
of the many natural and unnatural
forces that have affected this desert
oasis. And in Katrin Winkler’s twochannel
video installation “Towards
Memory”, four Namibian women tell
their story of being sent to the GDR
during their home country’s struggle
for independence in 1979, and subsequently
deported after the fall of the
Wall. Following the NGBK exhibition
opening on December 1, join
academics Aïcha Diallo and María do
Mar Castro Varela for a discussion
on “Colonial Encounters, Postcolonial
Reflections” (Dec 9, 7pm).
For something a little less heady,
go for a falafel at Orient Express.
At Galerie Wedding, Berlin-based
Finnish-Israeli artist Dafna Maimon
shares the story of her father, who
opened Finland’s first falafel and
kebab restaurant in a Helsinki shopping
mall in 1985. By restaging and
recombining elements from the
original Orient Express (including
a video ad her father produced for
the restaurant in 1986) with her own
migratory experiences, Maimon
uses performance, video and installation
to sort through memories
and familial relationships relevant
to us all. Find out more through an
exhibition tour with Maimon and
curator Solvej Helweg Ovesen on
December 14 at 5pm.
Later that evening (6-10pm),
catch the premiere of the new
video project from artist, performer
and Black in Berlin salon creator
Jessica Lauren Elizabeth Taylor.
Made in collaboration with Astrid
Gleichman, My Mother’s Land/
Müttererde features conversations
with six women of the African
diaspora discussing what has and
has not been passed on through
their matriarchal lineages. It’s part
of District Berlin’s queer fairytale
exhibition When the Sea Looks Back.
A Serpent’s Tale, on view through
December 16. n
Sislej Xhafa: shadow of curls Through Dec 23 Blain Southern, Tiergarten
| Reframing Worlds Through Jan 21 Galerie im Körnerpark; Dec 2-Jan 21,
NGBK, Kreuzberg | Dafna Maimon: Orient Express Through Jan 13 Galerie
Wedding | The Many Headed Hydra #02: When the Sea Looks Back. A
Serpent’s Tale Through Dec 16 District Berlin, Tempelhof
–
40 EXBERLINER 166

WHAT’S ON — Art
Highlight
Fahrelnissa’s
first chicken
Freshly arrived in Berlin from
the Tate Modern, the first major
retrospective of works by Fahrelnissa
Zeid (1901-1991) highlights her
role as a pioneering Turkish modernist
who challenged a Eurocentric maledominated
art world. While abstract
expressionism was exploding in America
and abroad, Zeid held her own with a
formal language radically distinct from
her Western contemporaries by including
references to Byzantine mosaic art,
Islamic architecture and philosophy. She
trained in Istanbul and Paris, and briefly
lived in Berlin when her husband, Iraqi
prince Zeid Al-Hussein, was appointed
Ambassador of Iraq to Germany in 1935.
They later moved to London, leading a
comfortable upper-class life until July
1958, when Al-Hussein’s entire family
was killed during an Iraqi military coup.
At the age of 57, Fahrelnissa had to cook
her own meals for the first time – which
in turn became the inspiration for a
series of works made of painted chicken
bones cast in resin. While the rest of the
exhibition is a captivating kaleidoscope of
colour, these so-called “Paléokrystalos”
are a unique result of one great (female)
artist’s struggle. — SH
Fahrelnissa Zeid HHHHI Through Mar
25 Deutsche Bank Kunsthalle, Mitte
Courtesy of Istanbul Museum of Modern Art / Raad Zeid Al-Hussein
Benjamin
and
Brecht
Thinking
in
Extremes
26.10.2017
28.1.2018
www.adk.de/benjamin-brecht
Funded by
Gesellschaft der Freunde der
Hamburger Stiftung zur Förderung
von Wissenschaft und Kultur
Photos: Walter Benjamin, c. 1935, photo: Gisèle Freund © IMEC, Fonds MCC; Bertolt Brecht, 1940. photo: polyfoto

WHAT’S ON — Art
DON’T MISS
Fugitive Souls
Now at Kunstverein
am Rosa-Luxemburg-
Platz, Russian artist
Mitya Trotsky’s first
solo exhibition in
Germany presents the
melancholic world of
a billion-dollar cruise
industry systema
tically documented
from shores in Miami.
Through serially
selected and cropped
photographic
and video recordings
of ship decks and
their unsuspecting
inhabitants, Trotsky
provides us with
an existential view on
the fantasy of escape.
Through Jan 6
Parapolitics
Decades after the
fact, it was confirmed
that the CIA had a
hand in promoting
American Modern art
– including the works
of Jackson Pollock,
Robert Motherwell,
Willem de Kooning
and Mark Rothko
– as a “weapon”
in the Cold War.
Learn more about
it at HKW‘s latest
exhibition, subtitled
Cultural Freedom and
the Cold War, and
accompanying conference,
Freedom in the
Bush of Ghosts.
Through Jan 8, conference
Dec 15-16
Interview
“ I made them cry,
which is really weird.”
Mark Blower
British artist Ed Atkins on combining video,
opera costumes and tears in Old Food, his
largest exhibition to date. By Sarrita Hunn
Extended through January 7
due to popular demand, Atkins’
labyrinth of video walls
and opera costumes in the Martin-
Gropius-Bau is inhabited by a baby, a
boy and a man in seemingly existential
despair. We asked Atkins what
the crying was all about.
How does this exhibition deviate
from your past work? Where previously
I have been working on one
or two discrete works, in this exhibition
there are not really boundaries
between the works. The whole thing
is snagged in a kind of constant purgatory
where everything turns over
– where it is the same, but different.
I wanted that to play out physically
in the way that people negotiated
the space. I wanted the whole thing
to be something to explore, but I did
not want it to be conclusive.
So, there is a temporal play
between the videos on display.
Yeah, totally. It’s all on one network,
so they are all the same length
and they all loop at the same time.
There are points when characters
leave their screen and barrel into
another one, but there’s not really
a narrative to it. Or, if there is, it’s
really the most simple thing, like:
“something happens”, and that’s
it. Or, something has happened
and I missed it. Or, why are they all
crying? I mean, the reality is that
I made them cry, which is really
weird. In terms of a real emotional
response to something, these are
just figures. They are not real.
Do you think there’s something
poetic about crying? Yeah,
surely – insofar as the whole thing
is ‘capital R’ Romantic, and the
poet is a kind of romantic figure.
Sentiment and excessive emotion
is part of it, but I also like the idea
that everyone is constantly crying.
There’s really never a beginning or
an end. There’s a pervasive melancholy
to the whole thing, all the
time, always. I wanted to push and
pull between levels of artifice and
ask: What is fake? Including history
and including feeling.
What do you mean by artifice?
Like everything I do, but especially
in this show, artifice operates at a
Courtesy of Finnish National Gallery and Petri Virtanen
very structural level. You’re constantly
shown the ‘behind’ of something,
like the archive of costumes
which is usually in a basement in
Moabit somewhere. Exhibiting them
in the way that they are usually
stored is a kind of perverse privilege.
It’s not how you are supposed
to see opera. In the same way, the
idea of being able to walk behind
video screens and see the mass of
wires and cables is extended into the
scenes that are being played out in
between “scenes”. What is the actual
event? Nowadays, the common way
of speaking of the apocalypse is as
though it is already happening. It is a
slow creep kind of ending, like global
climate change. It’s always too late.
I wanted to make a work like that,
where it was too late to redeem it.
Is that existential? I guess so.
Everything feels like it is nearly
operating like an allegory – it’s just
that we don’t know what the moral
of the story is.
What about the piano piece
by Jürg Frey that scores your
exhibition? The piano piece became
a sigil for my existence for about
a year. [Frey] has an extraordinary
method which is basically composing
for the performer. When you play it,
you are so aware of every press of every
key – and it’s really hard to play
because of the onus on such minimal
aspects. There’s something massively
meditative in it. Also, it’s another
loop – it’s another thing that could
go on forever, but doesn’t. n
Ed Atkins: Old Food Through Jan 7
Martin-Gropius-Bau, Kreuzberg
42
EXBERLINER 166

WHAT’S ON — Art
Reviews
Through Jan 7
Isa Genzken: Issie Energie
König Galerie, Kreuzberg
HIIII
Genzken’s current exhibition at König Galerie is
an overlapping installation haphazardly thrown
together in St. Agnes’ soaring nave. Store
display mannequins (Genzken refers to them as
“actors”) in various states of (in)action break
up the room between concrete antennaed
micro-monoliths flanked by taped collages created
in a more recognisable Genzken manner.
While the strength of Genzken’s work has always
been the delicate melding of Modernist formal
sensibility with consumerist kitsch, the balance
here falls heavily to the side of scattered crap
strewn about for no apparent reason. Besides
the inclusion of random photographs that are
so self-referential it makes your head spin, the
greatest failure of this show is its complete
disregard for the unusual exhibition space itself.
In other words, these works could be shown
to the same effect, if not better, in any other
gallery – including the simplified consumer tape
on aluminum works that still hold a tension lost
everywhere else. — SH
Through Jan 13
Tomma Abts
Galerie Buchholz, Charlottenburg
HHHHH
Tomma Abts is above all a painter’s painter. Her
works are the abstraction of abstraction and
carry such subtle intentionality that it literally
boggles the mind. In her current solo exhibition
at Galerie Buchholz, 10 works continue her
focus on a small range of painterly concerns
– at once subverted through closer and closer
inspection. “Jelto” is a slightly skewed rectangular
canvas actually caste in bronze as a
singular unique piece. Four same-sized canvases
(“Meen”, “Telko”, “Weie” and “Unno”) play with
illusionist space using only acrylic and oil, while
“Jelte” alludes to the same play but is dissected
and then partially cast in aluminum. In the largest
and most mesmerising piece “I.”, stripe patterns
fold back and forth while the actual canvas
is cut off at the corner. However, describing this
work really gives it no justice – you’ve simply got
to see it to understand. — SH
Through Apr 30
Cyrill Lachauer: What Do
You Want Here
Berlinische Galerie, Kreuzberg
HHHHI
Fluidly working between art and ethnography,
Lachauer’s current solo exhibition at
Berlinische Galerie features the film Dodging
Raindrops: A Separate Reality, created while
retracing research trips described by the
controversial ethnologist Carlos Castaneda.
Among various vignettes of the American
Southwest and Mexican border, the film focuses
on two marginalised, but also somehow
magically profound, men living in extreme
destitution – no doubt a reference to Castaneda’s
own (possibly fictional) teacher Don
Juan Matus, a Yaqui “Man of Knowledge”. This
gritty romanticism carries over to the second,
more enigmatic project “The Adventures of a
White Middle Class Man (From Black Hawk to
Mother Leafy Anderson)”, which documents a
trip up and down the Mississippi River following
the path of the Sauk Indian Black Hawk and
his reincarnation as the priestess Mother Leafy
Anderson in New Orleans. In photographs and
a newsprint “journal”, real-life history falls to
the background to reveal a depressed place,
nostalgic for some forgotten past. — SH
by Carl Zuckmayer
The Captain of Köpenick (Der
Hauptmann von Köpenick) is a
quintessentially Berlin play, which
premiered at the Deutsches
Theater in 1931. Eighty-six years
later, Armin Petras – himself a
born-and-bred Berliner – takes up
Carl Zuckmayer’s famous parable
and extends it: from the historical
figure of Wilhelm Voigt, via Heinz
Rühmann and Harald Juhnke, to
the present day. A story of a man
on the outside.
Premiere: December 21, 2017,
Deutsches Theater
upcoming dates with English
surtitles: December 26
and 31, 2017
For tickets and more information
visit deutschestheater.de/en

WHAT’S ON
Calendar
December 2017
Picks, highlights and can’t-miss events for this month in Berlin.
Left: Jews, Christians and Muslims, Dec 9. Above: SXTN, Dec 23.
Right: The Nutcracker, Dec 25.
FRI
1
Keine Bewegung Festival
— Music Don’t take the
name too seriously. The
fest highlighting Germany’s
rising stars and indie newcomers
will have you shaking with
Schnipo Schranke, Lea
Porcelain and more. Festsaal
Kreuzberg. Starts 20:00.
Reframing Worlds — Exhibition
Opening Galerie im Körnerpark
is already hosting part of this
exploration of “Mobility and
Gender in a Postcolonial,
Feminist Perspective” by Berlin
artists; now, NGBK gets in
on the action. Through Jan 21.
Starts 19:00. (See page 40)
TUE
5
Raung Raya 3 — Music In
the third edition of
Morphine Records’
concert series at Berghain, folk
musician Ata Ratu, DJ Aural
Archipelago and experimental
rockers Zoo show us there’s
way more to the sound of
Indonesia than gamelan. Starts
21:00. (See page 36)
WED
6
French Film Week — Film
From Nov 29 through
tonight, the 17th
edition of the Francophile
festival is full of gems that will
never see general release here
in Germany (see page 31). Get
a last Francophone fix with
Milla, the story of a pregnant
17-year-old left alone after the
death of the child’s father, at
Kino Arsenal. Starts 21:00.
THU The Staatsoper turns 275!
7 — Classical And it’s
reopening for real this
time! Tonight sees a birthday
concert celebrating the
recently revamped institution,
and its programme kicks off
proper on Dec 8 with the
premiere of Engelbert
Humperdinck’s Hänsel und
Gretel. Starts 19:30.
FRI
8
Original Sin — Performance
Berlin stage and screen
starlet Susanne Sachße
(see next page) joins forces with
Xiu Xiu and artist Phil Collins for
a tribute to her rebellious,
taboo-breaking grandmother who
lived in the GDR. Through Dec
11. Silent Green. Starts 20:00.
SAT
9
Jews, Christians and
Muslims — Exhibition A
Jew, a Christian and a
Muslim walk into the Martin-
Gropius-Bau... and exchange
ideas? Explore the scientific
discourse between the three
world religions in the Middle
Ages through Mar 4.
Mary Ocher and Your Government
— Music Ocher’s avant-pop
unfolds further on new record
Faust Studio Sessions & Other
Recordings. The show’s also the
grand opening of new venue
Ringtheater at Zukunft Ostkreuz.
Starts 20.00.
SUN
10
Alt-Rixdorfer Weihnachtsmarkt
— Holidays If
you don’t have a dog to
shop for (see page 5), your
best Christmas market bet is
Neukölln’s cosy Richardplatz,
which transforms into a
petroleum-lit, truly traditional
wonderland for the 45th time.
It’s only on for three days, so
don’t miss your last chance.
From Dec 8.
MON
11
Welcome to Jerusalem
— Exhibition Dive straight
into the heart of the Holy
Land at the Jewish Museum’s
latest exhibition on daily life,
religion and politics in the Israeli
capital. Through April 30.
TUE
12
Lydia Lunch — Music The
queen of no-wave
tours with newest
outfit Retrovirus to tear down
the walls – this time of
Charlottenburg’s established
jazz joint Quasimodo. Batalj
opens. Starts 22:00.
THU
14
Arabic Music Days
— Classical Go beyond
Beethoven, Bach and
Brahms with a three-day
symposium on Middle Eastern
classical tradition, courtesy of
Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh
and Iraqi oud player Naseer
Shamma. Through Dec 16.
Pierre Boulez Saal. Starts 19:30.
Shtetl Neukölln — Holidays It’s day
three of Chanukah, so get into
the spirit with Berlin’s second
annual Yiddish culture festival.
The “Kick Oyf Session” is
tonight, Daniel Kahn and The
Painted Bird take the stage on
Friday, and there are plenty of
workshops, concerts and bagels
in between. Through Dec
17. Werkstatt der Kulturen.
Starts 17:00.
FRI
15
Freedom in the Bush of
Ghosts — Conference Part
of HKW’s two-month
Parapolitics program, this
two-day conference invites
artists and historians to
examine how ideology from the
Cold War still affects our
present-day lives. Starts 17:00.
SAT Gurr – Music The
16 Berliner garage gurrls
are back in town!
Before the city starts emptying
44
EXBERLINER 166

WHAT’S ON
out, there’s only one way to burn
off all that excess energy. London
post-punkers Shame open.
Festsaal Kreuberg. Starts 20:00.
FRI
22
Christmas Film Festival – Film
Moviemento’s outrageous
three-day film fest
joyfully kicks off tonight with
Norwegian slasher flick Christmas
Cruelty. Through Dec 24. Starts
18:15. (See page 31)
SAT
23
SXTN – Music After a
sold-out show in October,
the Berlin rappers and
self-described Fotzen (“cunts”)
are crawling back out of their
“Bongzimmer” by popular
demand, playing an additional
concert for you and deine Mutter.
Columbiahalle. Starts 19:30.
SUN
24
Roncalli Weihnachtscircus
— Circus Get your fix of
Christmas kitsch with
clowns, acrobats, magicians and
more. This is reputedly Roncalli’s
last-ever production to use
horses, so wait till next year to
My Perfect Berlin Weekend
Susanne Sachße is an actress, artist, producer and frequent star of Bruce
LaBruce’s films (including The Misandrists, screening at EXBlicks Dec 26).
Her production Original Sin is on at Silent Green Dec 8-11.
FRIDAY
12:00 Dong Xuan Center (Herzbergstr. 128-139,
Lichtenberg) to get a haircut in Halle 1, then
shopping for LED lights, glitter and fantastic
cheap jewellery. 18:00 A delicious Portugese fish
dinner at A Cabana (Hufelandstr. 15, Prenzlauer
Berg). 20:00 Check out the Sounding Images
series at ACUD Macht Neu (Veteranenstr. 21,
Mitte). 23:00 A couple martinis, up with two
olives, at Buck and Breck (Brunnenstr. 177, Mitte,
see page 14).
SATURDAY
12:00 Wake up with a strong coffee from Bonanza
(Adalbertstr. 70, Kreuzberg). 13:00 Walk through
the Soviet monument in Treptower Park and stop
for a lunch at Zenner, on the banks of Spree (Alt-
Treptow 14-17, Treptow). 15:00 Buy a hot theory or
queer book at b_books (Lübbener Str. 14, Kreuzberg).
19:30 An experimental noise concert or a
pervy film at Spektrum (Bürknerstr. 12, Neukölln).
23:00 Relaxed smooching, sexing and drinking at
Silver Future (Weserstr. 206, Neukölln).
SUNDAY
12:00 Go straight to the Gemäldegalerie and
think about light in paintings (Matthäikirchplatz,
Tiergarten). 14:00 Italian snacks and unique
bring your animal rights
activist friends. From Dec 16.
Tempodrom. Starts 14:00.
MON
25
The Nutcracker — Ballet
Truly want to integrate?
You can’t go
wrong with a family pilgrimage
to The Nutcracker on Christmas.
Kill this otherwise dead
day at one of two performances
of Nacho Duato’s Staatsballett
production. Deutsche
Oper. 15:00 and 19:30.
TUE
26
Pornblicks: The Misandrists
— Film The most
festive of EXBlicks
traditions is back for the third
time! This year, it’s Bruce
LaBruce’s lesbian revolutionary
epic The Misandrists
followed by a Q&A with star
Susanne Sachße (see below).
Starts 20:30.
DECEMBER 2017
FRI Extrabreit — Music
29 They’re in the more
commercial zone of
Neue Deutsche Welle; nonetheless
the boys from Hagen still
managed to burn the school down
and let it rain red roses with
Hildegard Knef. Lido. Starts 21:00.
Eat Lipstick — Music Berlin’s own
clash of Divine and Vivienne
Westwood are here to push you
into the New Year or push you
over the edge. Take your pick at
Wild at Heart. Starts 22:00. (See
page 34)
SAT
30
Museum Island Tour in
English — Sightseeing Got
visitors over the holidays
and looking to fill those sleepy
days? Discover the highlights of
the island, starting at the Altes
Museum and continuing through
the Neues Museum and the
Pergamon. Starts 11:00.
SUN
31
New Year’s Eve at Brandenburg
Gate — Party Before
you hit the clubs (see page
32) or the sack, join the punters on
Pariser Platz for the big countdown
and some safe, responsible
fireworks. Starts 19:00.
wine at Cantine St. Ambroeus (Hufelandstr. 17,
Prenzlauer Berg). 16:00 Back to Neukölln for the
ever-unpredictable hilarity of Artur Albrecht’s
theatre at Hotel Rixdorf (Böhmische Str. 46,
Neukölln). 20:00 A film at Arsenal – you never
go wrong there (Potsdamer Str. 2, Tiergarten).
22:00 Finish up at the Morphin Bar (Hasenheide
13, Neukölln).
From Phil Collins Hotel de Rome (2012). Photo: Ivana Kličković.
Courtesy Shady Lane Productions
December Programme in English
1.–3.12. / HAU2 PERFORMANCEMUSICDIALOGUE
SAVVY
Contemporary
That Around Which the Universe
Revolves – On Rhythmanalysis
of Memory, Times, Bodies in
Space / With Akinbode Akinbiyi, Jacques Coursil,
Gintersdorfer/Klaßen, Noa Ha, Saidiya Hartman, Kei
Miller, Dorothée Munyaneza, Omar Nagati, Abdou-
Maliq Simone, Awilda Sterling, Greg Tate & Marque
Gilmore, Trinh Thi Minh-Hà a.o.
4.12. / HAU2 DIALOGUE
Simon Reynolds
Glam. Glitter Rock und Art Pop
von den Siebzigern bis ins 21.
Jahrhundert / Book Launch
4.12. / HAU2 DIALOGUEMUSIC
Plattenspieler
With Thomas Meinecke and
Simon Reynolds
5.+6.12. / HAU1 / Repertoire THEATRE
Gob Squad
Gob Squad’s Kitchen (You’ve
Never Had It So Good)
English and German
9.–13.12. / HAU1 DANCEMUSIC
Anne Teresa De
Keersmaeker,
Jean-Guihen
Queyras / Rosas
Mitten wir im Leben sind /
Bach 6 Cellosuiten
15.12. / HAU2 DIALOGUE
Fearless Speech
#12
Landscapes of Communism
With Owen Hatherley / Moderation: Christian
Werthschulte / English
15.–18.12. / HAU3 / Premiere DANCE
Isabelle Schad
Double Portrait & Turning Solo
17.+18.12. / HAU2 / Repertoire THEATRE
She She Pop
Schubladen / German with English surtitles
www.hebbel-am-ufer.de

ADVERTORIAL — The Berlin Guide
Advertorial
The Berlin Guide
The new directory to help you find your
way around Berlin. To advertise, contact
ads@exberliner.com
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
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
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
Barettino means “small bar” and in
our case is a unique combination of
everything which makes you happy
between dawn and dusk. A huge breakfast
choice & fine coffee, lunch & dinner
made fresh and with love, plenty
of delicacies, toasted paninis and
homemade cakes, Italian aperitivo and
holy spirits. Join the Barettino family!
Reuterstr. 59, Tel 030 2556 3034,
Mon-Sun 9-22, www.barettino.com
TO PLACE YOUR
AD HERE CONTACT
ADS@EXBERLINER.COM
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
ATAYA CAFFE — Prenzlauer Berg
With its comfortable sofas and colourful,
gemütlich decor, this vegan/
vegetarian Italian-African fusion cafe
specialises in 100 percent homemade
cuisine, ranging from fresh
pastas to avocado salads and exotic
paninis, rounded off with cakes,
smoothies and bio fair-trade Italian
coffee. Come for business lunch on
weekdays, Saturday buffet breakfast
or Afro-Italian vegan brunch every
Sunday! Bring the kids and dogs.
Zelterstr. 6, S-Bhf Prenzlauer Allee,
Tel. 030 3302 1041, Tue-Fri 10-19,
Sat-Sun 10-19, Mon closed, www.
atayacaffe.de
RESTAURANTS
NO HABLO ESPAÑOL
— Friedrichshain The best California-style
Mexican street food joint in Friedrichshain.
Delicious freshly made burritos
and quesadillas served by a collection
of fun-loving international people.
Once a week, challenge the NHE team
in a game of rock-paper-scissors and
win a half-price meal! Kopernikusstr.
22, S+U-Bhf Warschauer Str., Mon-Sun
from 12, www.nohabloespanol.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
English menus and serve organic
meat. Kantstr. 148, S-Bhf Savignyplatz,
Tel 030 3138 038, Mon-Sun all
day, www.schwarzescafeberlin.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-Fri from 12, Sat-Sun
from 11, www.3schwestern.com
NAPOLJONSKA — Mitte
Located just off Zionskirchplatz,
this vegetarian café offers organic
and homemade delicacies. Enjoy a
KREMANSKI — Kreuzberg
Kremanski offers tasty breakfast,
high-quality coffee, lunch (Mon to Fri),
homemade cakes and ice-cream, special
beers, drinks, good music and cultural
events. The friendly and talented staff
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
PUNE — Prenzlauer Berg The place
to go to especially on Sundays for a
great Indian buffet after a stroll on
the nearby Mauerpark flea market.
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
46
EXBERLINER 166

ADVERTORIAL — The Berlin Guide
LA BUVETTE — Prenzlauer Berg
For a good glass of wine, a romantic
or business dinner, a wine tasting or
a birthday party... come to La Buvette
Weinbar. A cosy French bistrot
where all wines come directly from
France and the food is like mama’s
cooking. Try the famous ‘steakfrites’
with a glass of Bordeaux, or
come on Sundays for ‘moules-frites’!
Gleim Str. 41, S+U-Bhf. Schönhauser
Allee, Tel 030 8806 2870 Mon-Sun
from 18, www.labuvette.berlin
DATSCHA — Kreuzberg
The newly opened second location of
the Russian-style Friedrichshain cafe
brings its legendary Sunday buffet
brunch to Kreuzberg’s Graefekiez featuring
a vast selection of vegetarian
dishes, fish specialities like a whole
marinated baked salmon, eggs filled
with caviar and homemade Russian
desserts. Graefestr. 83, Kreuzberg,
U-Bhf Schönleinstr., Tel 030 556 11
216, daily 9am-1am, www.datscha.de
Str. 6, S+U-Bhf Bundesplatz, Tel 030
2358 4998, Wed-Fri 18-23, Sat 12-1, Sun
10-22, www.kafana-berlin.de
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 stone-oven
bread! Reichen berger Str. 122, U-Bhf
Görlitzer Bahnhof, Tel 030 5482 1866,
Sun-Mon 9-17, Thu-Sat 9-22, closed
Tue-Wed www.bastard-berlin.de
BARS & NIGHTLIFE
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
SHOPS & SERVICES
9, S+U-Bhf Potsdamer Platz, Tel 030 39
8200 450, Mon-Sun 10-20,
www.deutsches-spionagemuseum.de
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 comes to life! Expect the
unexpected! Rosenthaler Str. 39,
S-Bhf Hackescher Markt, Wed-Thu
18.30-21.30, Fri-Sat 16.30-21.30, www.
monsterkabinett.de
L a w y e r s
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
BGKW LAWYERS — Mitte
This firm specialises in labour, family,
private building and insolvency
law. The legitimacy of dismissal is
the main subject of labour disputes.
In divorce proceedings, legal representation
is mandatory. We give
legal advice in cases of construction
defects and to all parties concerned
in insolvency proceedings. Prior contract
consulting is often appropriate:
Arbeits-, Ehe-, Lebenspartnerschafts-,
Bauträgervertrag. Markgrafenstr. 57,
U-Bhf Kochstr., Tel. 030 2062 4890,
www.bgkw-law.de
DOLORES — Mitte & Schöneberg
Founded 10 years ago as a street food pioneer in the German capital,
Dolores serves excellent California-style burritos, tacos 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
THE GERMAN SPY MUSEUM
— Mitte Immerse yourself in the fascinating
cloak-and-dagger world of Berlin’s
high-tech museum: crack secret codes,
complete the laser obstacle course and
gasp at what the NSA and Facebook
knows about you. The German Spy
Museum charts the history of espionage
in its interactive exhibition with a floor
space of 3,000m 2 . Unique exhibits such
as the famous Enigma machine are
waiting to be explored. Leipziger Platz
TIB-SPORTZENTRUM — Neükolln
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 7:30-23:30, Sat 8:30-20:30,
Sun 8:30-23:30, www.tib1848ev.de
DECEMBER 2017 47

The Mogwai musician
on his band’s lasting
popularity and Brexit
angst. — p.28
ADVERTORIAL — The Berlin Guide
HUMBOLDT-INSTITUT — Mitte
Total beginner or advanced learner: the
Humboldt-Institut has the right German
course for everyone. Small classes
with intensive tuition ensure swift
and effective learning. Intensive courses
are also available with accommodation
on campus. Or simply choose a parttime
course in the morning, evening or
on Saturdays. Invalidenstr. 19, S-Bhf
Nordbahnhof, Tel 030 5551 3221, www.
humboldt-institut.org
RABBI DR. WALTER ROTHSCHILD
— Schöneberg Do you need a rabbi?
Sometimes one might. For private
counselling, for family and religious
rituals, for teaching, for advice -
rabbinic advice, not psychotherapy.
From someone with insights and a
great deal of professional and life
experience. Rabbi Walter Rothschild
is available in Berlin and elsewhere.
contact@rabbiwalterrothschild.de,
www.rabbiwalterrothschild.de
TO PLACE YOUR AD HERE CONTACT
ADS@EXBERLINER.COM
LPG BIOMARKT — 9x in Berlin
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. Kreuzberg, Mehringdamm 20 & Reichenberger
Str. 37 Prenzlauer Berg, Kollwitzstr. 17 Mitte, Alt-Moabit 98
Friedenau, Hauptstraße 78 Steglitz Albrechtstr. 33 www.lpg-biomarkt.de
PERFECT
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CULTURE, REPORTAGE, POLITICS...
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It’s the gift that keeps on giving! Get Exberliner Magazine
delivered every month for only €33 and save €10 per year.
Order at exberliner.com/subscribe
Berlin in English since 2002
164
€3.90 October 2017
www.exberliner.com
PARIS BAR GENTRIFICATION
WHORE WARS
Tales of celebrity hobnobbing, table
dancing and accidental sex ed at the
Kantstraße bohemian hangout.
Yes, rents are soaring in Charlottenburg
too – and these residents
are fighting back against it.
The district mayor’s hypocritical
battle to shut down the Stuttgarter
Platz red-light district.
p.14 p.24
p.22
– CHARLOTTENBURG NOW! –
Barry Burns
City West is making a comeback. We take a look
back to the neighbourhood’s glory days and
foodies and young Jews.
forward to its future as a beacon for hipsters,
p.6–27
48
EXBERLINER 166
U1 Cover 164.indd 3 24.09.17 21:24

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DECEMBER 2017 49

REGULARS
Review
Cordobar
Mitte’s wine gastropub
Since Cordobar opened in 2013, we’d
been hearing rumblings about it from
those in the know. Not that it was
ever one of Berlin’s buzziest restaurants –
instead, we gathered that this was where
the staff from said buzzy restaurants went
to grab a glass of wine and something to
eat after their shifts. Anyone with a few
connections and a corkscrew can open a
wine bar, but it takes a special kind of place
to become an after-hours foodie hangout.
With the departure of the original, muchcelebrated
chef Lukas Mraz shaking things
up this year, we figured now was as good a
time as any to give Cordobar a go.
When we came on a Thursday night, the
dimly lit, narrow space on Große Hamburger
Straße was filled with a busy crowd of Mitte
techies, tourists and creative bourgeoisie
who had reserved ahead. We were still able
to squeeze in at the bar next to a Brooklynite
start-up founder and a vacationing Dutch
couple. Our spot gave us a prime view of a
library’s worth of open bottles and a sketch
of a bespectacled man who could have either
been Cordobar manager Willi Schlögl or
Roasted Brussels sprouts with cod roe, verbena and dill;
fried pork skin sold separately.
Food
By François Poilâne
Kurt Wagner, lead singer of the Nashville
indie band Lambchop. Surprisingly, it was
the latter: Christof Ellinghaus, the founder of
Lambchop’s label City Slang, is part-owner
of the place, as is former German it-director
Jan-Ole Gerster (Oh Boy!).
The other two owners are Austrian, and
they’re the ones responsible for the wine.
(They also gave the bar its name, a reference
to the Argentinian city where Austria’s
football team defeated Germany 39 years
ago.) Don’t get intimidated by the 111-page
book of available bottles, which start at €29
and range well into the hundreds of euros.
The list of wines by the glass is much more
manageable, and Schlögl, who hails from
the Styria region, is always happy to help
narrow it down further. Handpicked mostly
from small producers in Austria, Germany
and Hungary, the selection is predictably
strong on whites – we tried a smooth
Gruner Veltliner from the village of Kammern
(€6.50/10cl), and a Hungarian furmint
(the “trend grape of 2017”, or so says The
Guardian) that was so refreshing it was
almost minty (€7.90/10cl).
Michel Le Voguer
What about the food? Under the Viennese
Mraz, Cordobar earned a Michelin Bib
Gourmand for inventive, Asian-inflected
dishes like Peking duck liver parfait and his
signature blood sausage-wasabi ‘pizza’. In
the kitchen since April, his Dutch replacement
Waal Sterneberg doesn’t seem to have
rocked the boat much. The Asian influence
is still there; in fact, it’s stronger than ever
in small plates like charred green onions
with sesame sauce (€5), a satisfying riff on
the Japanese preparation goma-ae. We’d
never heard of deep-fried kimchi before, but
it turned out to be a forehead-smackingly
obvious bar snack (€5) – we wouldn’t be
surprised if any chef who tries the crunchy,
spicy breaded radishes here goes on to replicate
them on their own menu.
Sterneberg’s background occasionally
comes to the fore, as in the donut-like
sukerbole you can order for dessert (€7) and
in the bowl of little shell-on Dutch prawns
slathered in (too much) peanut sate sauce
(€5). But mostly, this food isn’t tied to any
particular place. The Brussels sprout dish
(€15) floats a crispy roasted layer of the
trendy brassica over a creamy, fishy emulsion
containing verbena and cod roe – weird,
but it works. Meanwhile, the sweet-spicy
glazed fried chicken in a moat of yoghurt and
hummus (€15) toes the line between refined
gastropub cuisine and straight-up junk food,
making us wish we could trade our €9.50
glass of Blaufränkisch for a nice beer. Unfortunately,
there’s only one on the menu, a €4
pilsner from Salzburg brewery Trumer.
We’d heard rumours about condescending
service, but on our visit it was all perfectly
congenial, if understaffed. The omnipresent
Schlögl could be counted on to pop up with
a recommendation, or to explain the particulars
of the varietal we were drinking without
making us feel like an idiot. But Cordobar
definitely has a certain cooler-than-thou vibe,
and we can see why it’s turned off some visitors
while regulars go starry-eyed. Personally,
we’d reserve this place for special occasions,
like a classy drink and some shareable bites
after a production at nearby Sophiensaele. Or
a Tinder date with a venture capitalist who’s
footing the bill – how else are we supposed to
make a dent in that wine list? — Jane Silver
Cordobar Food HHHH Vibe HHH
Große Hamburger Str. 32, Tue-Sat 19-2, Sun 19-24
50
50 EXBERLINER 150 166

REGULARS
Chocolate
Sweet Neukölln
This Christmas, give the gift of
candy produced in the middle of
everyone’s favourite hipster Bezirk.
OHDE: LITTLE LÜBECK
This might come as a surprise, but with
three manufacturers and 20,000 tonnes of
almond paste produced per year, Neukölln
is a veritable hotspot for marzipan – Berlin’s
little Lübeck! Joining major suppliers
Lemke and Moll, Iran-born entrepreneur
Hamid Djadda recently opened his own factory
on Schinkestraße, where he produces
precious bites under the brand Ohde. Since
November, they can be purchased at his own
boutique on Uhlandstraße just off Ku’damm.
It may seem far from home, but the location
makes sense: it’s easier to get Charlottenburgers
to pay €1 for a milk-chocolate-coated
Rixdorferwürfel no bigger than a game die, or
€20.80 for a pre-selected mix of 16 different
square-shaped pralines (you can also mixand-match,
€1-1.40 depending on the piece).
Of course, this is no average marzipan.
Djadda’s paste boasts a whopping 63 percent
almond mass, a mileage above the 50 percent
found most other places. Other ingredients,
like nuts, are imported from Djadda’s native
Iran, organic when possible, resulting in
beautiful bites coated in white, milk or dark
chocolate. Freshly opened, the boutique still
hasn’t got everything totally up to speed yet,
but the ultra-tasteful packaging – Hermès
orange and millennial pink boxes stamped
with a war-horse-riding Prussian officer –
hints at a timeless sense of refinement and
tradition matched by the delicate pralines
on sale. There’s a range of marzipan-less options,
from fruit geleés to chocolate ganache,
but the Rixdorf pralines come with the
advantage of do-goodery: Ohde donates 30
percent of Rixdorferwürfel sales to a foundation
supporting the Kepler-Schule, a former
“problem school” in Neukölln that’s aiming
to bring its students up to A level. If you’re
going to go full German by gorging on marzipan
for Christmas, you might as well do it
with a clean conscience. — AHK Uhlandstr.
179/180, Charlottenburg, Mon-Sat 11-18
CANDY FARM: RAISING THE BAR
Photographer Uli Jung and graphic designer
Reto Brunner made their first candy bars
three years ago on a spontaneous drunken
challenge, but quickly realised
they might be on to something.
“You have two types of candy
bars, cheap with lots of preservatives,
or fancy but expensive,”
says Jung. With Candy Farm,
she and Brunner are attempting
the middle road: using the
highest quality ingredients
money could buy, while keeping
costs down by doing everything
by hand. In April 2015, they
started producing small batches
in the seldom-used kitchen of
Kreuzberg’s Fluxbau; this year,
they moved to a Sonnenallee
storefront previously occupied
by a Syrian ice cream parlour.
Dustin Quinta
OHDE Marzipan
Here, they manufacture small bars in 14
different flavour combinations (six of which
are vegan), all enrobed in dark, fair-trade
organic Peruvian chocolate supplied by
Lübeck company Lubeca and packaged in
cute retro-looking wrappers. The only thing
not currently done on site is cooking the
caramel, but that’s about to change. “We’re
currently still cooking at the old location,
but in two weeks, we’re getting a special
caramel steel pot delivered from the US.”
Then it will truly be on. Standouts include
Ciao Figaro (€2.80/30g), with figs, ricotta
cheese and a balsamic vinegar reduction;
Chili Passion (€2.90/30g), with passion fruit
and just the right amount of scharf; and the
vegan Cashew Royal (€2.90/35g), made with
cashew milk the duo produce themselves.
After Berlin’s Technical University asked
them to produce mini-versions of their bars
to be given as gifts to incoming students
during orientation, they now do the same
in the shop for €1.50 a pop. While they may
look small, these dense, chewy, nutty treats
are absolutely packed with flavour. A stocking
stuffer that will leave you truly stuffed...
and begging for more. — JK Sonnenallee 70,
Neukölln, Wed 16-20, Thu 12-21, Fri-Sat 12-20

REGULARS
Save Berlin
By Dan Borden
Battles in the sky
It’s not just airports that can’t get off the ground in Berlin.
Dan Borden reports on four of the city’s stymied skyscrapers.
Rainer Zenz, CC BY 2.0
As world capitals go, Berlin has a
surprisingly anemic skyline. Call it
the Himmel über Berlin curse: it seems
every time a new tall building tries to scrape
our city’s sky, the heavens strike back. A
dozen long-awaited high-rises sit idly on the
drawing board, held back by a diverse conspiracy
of forces. Here are a few:
Blocked by the BVG: In 1999, Berlin’s Senat
announced plans to turn dowdy Alexanderplatz
into a Manhattan-style forest of
office buildings. Two decades later, not one
has been built. Houston-based developers
Hines stepped up to bat in 2013, proposing
a 150m-high apartment block next to their
Saturn store in the Platz’s northeast corner.
Mirroring the nearby Park Inn hotel, Berlin’s
tallest building, the sandstone Capital Tower
by star architect Frank Gehry promised to
be a New Berlin landmark. Construction was
slated for 2015, then 2016… but the building
site remains empty. Why? Because of what’s
below: the U5 subway line. Fearing the Capital
Tower would literally crush their train
tracks, the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG)
slammed on the brakes and won’t let go.
Upper West
Bulldozed by a highway: The Estrel Hotel,
famous for its “Stars in Concert” celebrity
impersonator shows, wants to put its
little corner of Neukölln on the map with
the tallest hotel in Germany. The design
unveiled in 2015 expands the complex with
800 rooms and a convention centre. The
slant-roofed 50-storey tower is meant as a
welcoming beacon into the Hauptstadt from
our new airport. So what’s the holdup? The
Estrel sits next to the still-in-progress A100
highway, a decades-long attempt to build a
ring road around Berlin. The government
agencies overseeing the project won’t allow a
construction site so close to their own. With
the A100’s completion years away, the Estrel
Tower will have a long wait before its moment
in the spotlight.
German Palomeque
Update
The Estrel Hotel
Petulant amputation: It’s not just big money
developers – even the city’s own housing
companies can’t get their towers built. In
October, Mitte’s Wohnungsbaugesellschaft
abandoned plans to build an apartment
high-rise on Fischerinsel, a quiet enclave
near Alexanderplatz. This key piece of the
city’s affordable housing campaign called
for 208 flats in a tower rising 19 storeys.
Neighbours revolted, not because its height
was so exceptional but because it matched
the surrounding 20-storey East German
Plattenbau towers, blocking residents’ expansive
views. One thousand signatures on
a petition were enough to turn the high-rise
into a low-rise, robbing Berlin of 28 new
rent-controlled flats.
Raising hell: If you’re searching for the cause
of Berlin’s skyscraper curse – our High-Rise
Original Sin – look no further than Living
Levels. Even a worldwide storm of protest
led by David Hasselhoff himself couldn’t stop
this garish white condominium tower from
violating the sacred soil of the former Death
Strip next to the East Side Gallery. Since its
completion in 2015, the city hasn’t seen a single
tall building get off the ground. Now, the
residents of the 11-storey luxury condo are
themselves up in arms. A hotel is set to begin
construction next door, and the tenants
are protesting its owner’s plans to raise the
height from seven to nine floors. The hotel,
they claim, will block the sun, leaving their
accursed tower in perpetual shadow.
With land prices skyrocketing, Berlin has
to grow upwards. Our last tower to successfully
reach the heavens was Upper West, that
curvy-skinned hotel rising 119m near Zoo
Station. Now its architect, Christoph Langhof,
wants to build a 209m-high apartment
tower next to the train station, replete with
solar panels and wind turbines. Can Langhof’s
super green dream tower finally break
the curse, pierce the clouds and give Berlin
the world-class skyline it deserves? n
Wet Christmas
The folks behind the Save Berlin-approved
Flussbad project are raising funds via colourful
custom “hamam towels” (€20-30) – a perfect gift
for those who want to dry off while helping turn
the Spree River into a naturally filtered swimming
hole. Order at flussbad-berlin.de.
52
EXBERLINER 166

COLUMN— The Gay Berliner
The beauty of
a lonely gay
Christmas
Walter Crasshole on why those who
stay in Berlin over the holidays have
the gayest time of all.
The floor was covered in drawings of Technicolor alien torsos
and bottles of half-drunk beer, and George Michael was
blasting out of my wide-open window at 3am. First “Wake Me
Up Before You Go-Go”, then “Freedom” and “Faith” and lastly, of
course, “Last Christmas”. Crystal was crying, Billy was babbling and
I, well, I was blurting out lyrics and trying to count the number of
fingers on my hand. It was Christmas in Berlin, George had just died
and our lonely little orphan clan had taken mushrooms to chase
away the holiday blues. We were joyfully mourning, or mourning
joyfully. It was pretty gay.
This mix of heady debauchery and depressing moments kind
of sums up Christmastime in Berlin for me. Particularly for the
gays. And I love it. Not just those pockets of togetherness, but the
solitude Berlin allows you to enjoy over the holidays. The streets
are empty, the lights flash in the grim rain (let’s face it, it never
actually snows over Christmas) just for you and the sex is always
desperate and satisfying. You either end up sleeping with friends
you never thought you’d sleep with, or you pick up one of the
(extremely few) poor souls who mistakenly decided to take a trip
to Berlin over the holidays.
Even the notorious Invisi-tisch at Möbel Olfe – that large, lowseated
corner table that looks inviting but whose position all but insures
no one sitting there will catch a flirt – can bring you a presents
over the holiday break. One bleak year there, hiding behind my third
großes Berliner, a fresh, early-twentysomething French Canadian
named Jean-Pierre plopped himself down beside and warned me he
was really horny. After a five-minute chat and deciding he wasn’t on
drugs, I took him home. He left the next morning and I never saw
him again. Isn’t that how Santa works? I’d had my Christmas treat.
Another year, I unpacked my presents over the course of one
week. Nine guys in eight days, each individually and without once
setting foot in a darkroom or sex club. Who gets this kind of
service outside of Berlin? Most buggers who live here until they
run out of cash or comforts from ‘Merica and elsewhere never give
Christmas here a chance.
This said, it takes a certain amount of strength, and self-determination
to stick it out here over the holidays when you’re queer.
You often have no family here and you probably haven’t started
your own. This year, the queer Christmas togetherness may not
be brought on by a gay icon’s untimely shuffle off this glittery coil.
And a stray Jean-Pierre coming down your chimney (and allowing
you into his chimney) or a holiday parade of men can’t exactly be
expected. But you can’t really know this city unless you’re here for
its darkest, loneliest time.
So for those of you leaving the city for Christmas, bon fucking
voyage. I’ll be spending my holidays here with a bottle, the
leftover boys and maybe a few wanks – making my own mirth and
merriment all the way up until Silvester. And for that? I’ll get the
fuck out of Berlin too. ■
DECEMBER 2017
LEARNING
GERMAN?
goethe.de/berlin
Sprache. Kultur. Deutschland.

COMIC —Ulli Lust
54
EXBERLINER 166

COLUMN — Ask Hans-Torsten
The bike code
Hans-Torsten Richter gives you
advice on surviving and thriving in
Berlin. Send your questions to
hanstorsten@exberliner.com
Q
Dear Hans-Torsten: Recently I’ve seen
police checkpoints set up to monitor
bikes. A friend of mine said I should get my
flea market bike registered with the police to
avoid problems. What does that entail, and is
there any point in doing it? – Sally
A
Dear Sally: Those checkpoints are
mostly about whether or not you have
appropriate lights on your bicycle. Registration
is not required – Berlin’s Fahrradkennzeichnung
programme is a voluntary deal
meant to help you reclaim your bike if someone
steals it. Basically, the police attach a
supposedly indestructible sticker to your bike
frame encoded with a number that is forever
linked to your name and address. They hold
regular free-of-charge Fahhradkennzeichnung
sessions, usually outside shopping centres or
in Mauerpark, although there are fewer sessions
in winter. Enter “Fahrradkennzeichnung
der Polizei Berlin” into your favourite search
engine and you’ll find out more.
So, does it help? Personally, I’ve always
been pretty cynical about the idea that the
police could magically retrieve my bike from
the criminal underworld just because it had
a numbered sticker on it. If your bike shows
up in a lost and found, you’ll get it, but if
a professional thief does his or her work
right, I think your chances are slim. The vast
majority of bike theft cases go unsolved. The
police say the stickers can deter a thief in the
first place – yeah, right. These stickers can be
scratched away if you really try hard enough.
I’ve always been pretty
cynical about the idea that
the police could magically
retrieve my bike from the
criminal underworld just
because it had a numbered
sticker on it.
The best strategy, of course, is not to get
your bike stolen in the first place. For years,
I successfully followed a two-pronged theft
prevention policy: ride a really shitty-looking
bike to deter greedy thieves; and use a very
expensive lock (combine this with a bike
theft insurance policy if your bike is expensive!).
But last Sunday morning, my bike
was gone. My main mistake: I’d left it on the
street. Lock your bike up in your Hinterhof or
in the Fahrradkeller if there is one. If possible,
carry it up to your flat. You don’t have to be
a poser cycle-snob to do this. These precautions
are tedious, but pay off on the long run.
Would registering my bike have helped
me get it back? I doubt it. But then again, I
suppose it wouldn’t have hurt.
Q
Dear Hans-Torsten: I want to sign
up for green electricity. What providers
do you recommend? – Ben
A
Dear Ben: More than one-third of Germany’s
electricity is produced by coal
(and most of that is dirty, high-carbon brown
coal or lignite with a horrendous climate
impact). At the COP23 climate talks in Bonn
in November, Germany was an embarrassment.
Under Merkel, this country is far away
from reaching its emissions targets for 2020.
Despite those wind turbines dotting the landscape,
Germany is hooked on coal.
Here’s where you come in: sign up for
some Ökostrom, energy that comes from
solar or wind power, to at least reduce your
own carbon footprint! There’s really no
excuse not to. For a one-person household
using 1500kWh per year, most types of
Ökostrom (Lichtblick, Greenpeace Energy, or
Vattenfall’s own Natur Strom product) will
cost around €43 per month, only €2 more
than “normal” i.e. dirty electricity. However,
if you want to go 100 percent renewable
and 100 percent local, I recommend Berlin-
Strom produced by the Berliner Stadtwerke,
a city-owned utility which draws its power
from rooftop solar panels in town and wind
turbines in Brandenburg. And it’s cheaper!
1500kWh will cost you a piddling €39/month.
HUMANA_DEZ_EXberliner
Freitag, 17. November 2017 16:08:06
You are not alone!
Call 030 787 5188
or 01803-AA HELP
Meetings in English
www.alcoholics-anonymous-berlin.de
FBW Update.indd 1 06/10/16 13:
DECEMBER 2017
NOVEMBER 2017

ADVERTORIAL
ADVERTORIAL — The Holiday Market Guide
Alternative
Holiday
Markets
Fancy arts and crafts
Directly translated to “Armoury Fair“, the
Zeughausmesse showcases the cream of the
crop when it comes to arts and crafts. Carefully
selected by a jury, over 90 artists and designers
give the perfect opportunity to buy high-quality
objects for daily use. Everything from jewellery,
clothing, ceramic, porcelain, bags, shoes,
hats, living room accessories, glass and wooden
objects will be on offer. Located in the beautiful
Zeughaus by the German Historical Museum,
the grandiosity of the building will only enhance
the uniqueness of the objects for sale. Buying
Christmas presents in the Schlüterhof will be
pure enjoyment. Dec 7-10, Thu 15-18, Fri 10-18,
Sat 10-21, Sun 10-18, Schlüterhof im Zeughaus,
Unter den Linden 2, Mitte, S-Bhf Hackescher
Markt, entrance €8 (including DHM admission),
www.zeughausmesse.de
Festively vegan
The Green Market: Winter Edition 2017 is the perfect opportunity for both
new and veteran renouncers of animal-based products to prepare a festive feast.
With the Spree and Funkhaus delivering the canvas, the abundance of gift ideas,
workshops, street food and music will bring the paint. A perfect combination to
enjoy a day out and learn something: there’ll be live cooking shows with inspirational
recipes from top vegan chefs. After a day here, you’ll know that a vegan
diet is not a boring diet. Dec 16-17, Sat-Sun 12-22, Funkhaus Berlin, Nalepastr. 18,
Schöneweide, entrance €4, www.greenmarketberlin.com
A very Nordic Christmas
Lucia Weihnachtsmarkt, inspired by the
Swedish celebration of St. Lucia, bringer of light,
sits snug in the middle of the Kulturbrauerei.
Over 80 different stalls will create warmth in
the cobbled yard, serving all the goods, food
and drinks you love and enjoy. Joining the
traditional Wurst und Glühwein will also be
finer things such as white and Icelandic mulled
wine or Swedish Glögg. Plenty of Scandinavian
Christmas music will add sleighbells to the
German classics, and you can even join for carol
singing every Thursday at 7pm. Nov 27-Dec
23, Mon-Fri 15-22, Sat-Sun 13-22, Kulturbrauerei,
Schönhauser Allee 36, Prenzlauer Berg, U-Bhf
Eberswalder Str. www.lucia-weihnachtsmarkt.de
Rolf G. Wackenberg
DIY design
While most Christmas markets are filled to the brim with
generic, mass-produced decorations and temptations, the
Holy Shit Shopping Christmas market has made it their speciality
to stray from “the usual”. With over 320 international
designers, you are directly supporting the hardworking local
scene. For one weekend, Arena Berlin will be transformed
into an alternative hub, combining Christmas cosiness with
artisan small-scale design, art and food. Collect your unique
Christmas jumper and enjoy the beats from the DJ while you
heat yourself on Glühwein or enjoy the delicious offerings
from the seasonal street food stalls. Dec 9-10, Sat-Sun 12-21,
Arena Berlin, Eichenstr. 4, Kreuzberg, U-Bhf Schlesisches Tor,
entrance €5, www.holyshitshopping.de
56
EXBERLINER DECEMBER 2017 165

EX
VISIT OUR
BRAND NEW
WEBSITE!
BER
LIN
ER.
COM
Artwork by Ellie Dempsey @elliedemps
EXBERLINER 165

OCKHAM’S RAZOR
Tipping Point
15. – 18. Dezember 2017 | 19:30 Uhr
Haus der Berliner Festspiele
berlinerfestspiele.de | # circusbln
Foto: © Mark Dawson