EXB 172

Antisemitism 

Kippa scandal 

gone haywire 

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CONTENTS 

EXBERLINER 172 - JUNE 2018 

EXB 

TURNS 16 

Antisemetism 

in Berlin? 

06 

Kippa your hands off 

How the media turned a kippa attack 

into a debate about Muslims 

08 

There is no such thing as 

a “new” antisemetism 

Historian Wolfgang Benz on 

why Islam isn’t the problem 

Features 

12 

Berlin intergration test 

Take our “spot the crime” quiz 

13 

Schöneberg turf wars 

Local rappers are fed up with sprawling 

prostitution in their neighbourhood 

16 

The Fuzz on Alex 

An afternoon with the police in Berlin’s 

most crime-ridden area 

Regulars 

03 

Konrad Werner 

The eccentricities of Bavarian politics 

04 

Best of Berlin 

A femme workspace, 

guilt-free beer, garbage golf 

and Berlin by app 

41 

The Gay Berliner 

Walter Crasshole on gays 

changing marriage 

41 

Comic 

Instabunnies 

42 

Berlin bites 

The bad boy of vegan cuisine 

and try-hard Berlin grub 

44 

Save Berlin 

Dan explores buildings with 

sordid histories in the East. 

JUNE 9 

What’s On 

18 

Agnès Varda on her new film with 

street-artist JR, Faces Places 

Film 20 

Music 24 

Stage 29 

Art 32 

36 

Events calendar 

38 

The Berlin Guide 

Double Englishness 

at CineStar Original and IMAX with Laser! 

Enjoy Berlin’s widest range of undubbed English versions 

all-day at CineStar Original and select shows in English 

at IMAX with Laser. 

Info and tickets at cinestar.de 

1

THE TIN DRUM 

BY GÜNTER GRASS 

JUNE 20 TH , 7.30 PM 

IN ENGLISH ! 

WE ALSO PRESENT 

PERFORMANCES WITH 

ENGLISH SURTITLES 

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE 

by Tennessee Williams 

Jun 8 th , Jul 6 th & 7 th 

CALIGULA 

by Albert Camus 

Jun 9 th & 10 th 

THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE 

by Bertolt Brecht 

Jul 3 rd

POLITICS REPORTAGE ZEITGEIST 

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COLUMN— Political Notebook 

Antisemitism 

Kippa scandal 

gone haywire 

Bavaria feels its power return 

Konrad Werner explains German politics. 

This month: eccentrics in the south. 

Editor-in-chief 

Nadja Vancauwenberghe 

172 

Deputy editor 

Franziska Helms 

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This month’s contributors 

René Blixer, Yun-Hua Chen, Anna Gyulai Gaál, 

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Lawson, David Mouriquand, Robert Rigney, Jane Silver 

Photography: Anastasia Chistyakova, 

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Agood way of reading how raw political 

nerves in Germany have become is 

by looking at its most eccentric state: 

Bavaria. The new CSU state premier down 

there, Markus Söder, facing a hairy election 

this September, has gone balls-to-the-wall in 

his opening months on the job – first with an 

edict forcing all state buildings to display a 

cross, and second by introducing a new police 

law to expand state surveillance powers. 

Both plans were “made into facts”, as the 

Germans say – forcing social media, the 

media, and opposition politicians to debate 

them after they had already been decided. 

The ensuing outrage was vital 

to the blitz strategy the CSU 

has adopted these past months: 

make it happen, then make 

sure the liberals are complaining 

about it – so that the subsequent 

white noise takes over 

the media. 

But we need to backtrack 

a bit here, because there’s a 

context. Bavaria has been governed 

by the Christian Social 

Union (CSU) unbroken since 1957. The CSU 

is a Catholic conservative, separate-but-notseparate 

part of Angela Merkel’s Christian 

Democratic Union (CDU). The Anglo-media 

often refers to the CSU as a “sister-party” to 

the CDU, but that doesn’t really cover the innate 

identity crisis of the Bavarian party. The 

CSU’s whole political purpose since its inception 

has been to be the same as the CDU but 

different. If you’re a Bavarian conservative, 

you can’t vote for Merkel’s party, you have 

to vote for the CSU, which promises to be in 

Merkel’s government but also separate from 

it – standing apart. This Schrödinger’s Cat effect 

has become more intense with the rise of 

populism in and the throb of crisis is greater 

still now that the CSU is facing a state election, 

and has to fend off a serious challenge 

from the AfD. In last September’s federal 

election, the CSU took a beating in the state 

– dropping from nearly 50 percent to 38 

percent – and that hole in their numbers was 

suspiciously AfD-shaped. The far-right party 

did indeed get 12 percent of the vote. If that 

result is repeated this year, the CSU will have 

to look for a coalition partner, and it really 

really hates doing that. 

All of this is why the CSU has gone into 

ultra-CSU mode, which means 

it is actively nurturing its inner 

AfD to win back those lost 

sheep. That’s why the cross edict 

wasn’t about Christianity, but, as 

Söder kept emphasizing, about 

“Bavarian identity”. That’s why 

all the bishops, not just the ones 

in Bavaria, were offended to see 

a politician reducing Jesus to a 

cloudy regional folklore figure 

who basically made certain Bavarians 

feel at home. Dissolving the boundaries 

between church and state compromises 

both. And oh yeah, it deliberately marginalizes 

anyone who isn’t Christian. Meanwhile, 

Bavaria’s police law basically means that cops 

can use all their digital surveillance powers as 

soon as they see the “threatened danger” of 

a serious crime being committed. Most other 

German states are already bringing in similar 

laws, but Bavaria’s interpretation is more 

aggressive than most. And guys like Söder 

know how to make hay while the sun shines – 

and he knows that the far-right clouds 

are closing in... n 

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BEST OF BERLIN— June 2018 

BEST NON-DUDE 

ARTISTS’ DEN 

BERLIN 

It’s not easy to find a convenient and welcoming space 

to work as an artist – especially if you’re weary of pretentious 

male techies. Tucked away on the leafy Forster 

Straße in Kreuzberg, The Workshop is an inviting alternative 

to just that. Started in February by Mary L. Fischer, an 

Italian-born German who has lived in Berlin for over four 

years, the place combines workshop and exhibition, event 

and office spaces. It is mostly run by and intended for women, 

femme, and non-binary identifying artists, but well-behaved 

cis males are accepted, too. The focus here is on collaboration, 

and international female artists like Finnish documentarian 

Victoria Schultz, Berlin-based poet Göksu Kunak and Serbian 

carpet creator Jaqueline Stojanovic all exhibit and teach their 

art for free or on a donation basis. The Workshop also functions 

as a co-working space for creatives, allowing users to rent out an 

array of musical equipment from mixers, to CDJs and speakers, 

Traktor controllers and mini analog synths (all between €5 and 

€10) and an expansive basement with studio space (€5/h or €90 for 

one month of unlimited use) – all the ingredients to throw a good 

party! Soldering, sewing, knitting and woodwork equipment are 

available for more heavy-duty work, as well as a dark room (same 

rates as studio) for analogue photography nerds. —IK 

STUDIO SPACE 

Hanson Walker 

Forster Str. 51, Kreuzberg, check www.workshop-on-forster.de 

for upcoming events 

URBAN SPORTS 

BEST TRASHY MINI GOLF 

Is this plot at the northern end of Tempelhofer Feld supposed to be an 

art exhibition or some sort of urban recycling dump? Spoiler: nuture 

Mini ART Golf is a bit of both. And you get to play mini golf around its 

18 sculptures made from “reused materials”. So if you’re keen to do more 

on the Feld than perfect your tan lines, at €6 per round (€4 for children), 

the art-golf allows you to feel extra eco-conscious and also support the 

artists behind the playable exhibits. 

The holes are hilariously absurd: one requires you to punt a ball into 

a fridge full of plastic budgies, another involves pretending to fetch 

a (hopefully not reused) toilet plunger out of a bathroom cabinet 

and eventually flushing the golf ball down the loo. Rewards for the 

successful player include outbursts of music or fire, and titles range 

from the descriptive – “Die Umweltampel” – to the vaguely instructive 

– “Be cool!” One of the first projects chosen by the Berlin Senate 

to be part of Tempelhof’s development back in 2011, nuture is 

worth a second look as new sculptures are periodically added. Alas, 

by mini-golf standards we might call the setup a miss. Some of 

the stops seem impractical and could do with more instructions, 

while others are almost impossible to complete without cheating. 

We can’t recommend this for competitive folk as winning isn’t 

the point – art is. But if you’re bored of chugging Sterni’s at the 

millionth barbecue this summer, well, here you go! —EL 

Anastasia Chistyakova 

Columbiadamm 79, Tempelhof, Tue-Fri 14-20, Sat-Sun 12-21 

4 EXBERLINER 172

BEST OF BERLIN— June 2018 

BEST GUILT-FREE CRAFT 

BEER 

Can’t shake that nagging voice reminding you that the money 

you spend on beer could be better used on something more 

beneficial to humanity? Drink for Peace offers to resolve your 

inner conflict – while also addressing global ones. Berlin-born FU 

economics graduates Samir Kadunic and Martin Duchowski are the 

entrepreneurial minds behind the idea of using global conflict as a 

USP (unique selling point) to sell craft beer. In a city overflowing 

with bleeding-heart lefties whose love for peace is only matched by 

their craving for booze, it was a clever move indeed. After a successful 

crowd-funding round in 2016, their start up grew into a 

full-fledged do-gooding business to benefit three embattled regions: 

first Bosnia-Herzogovina, then Cyprus and Palestine/Israel. Drink 

for Peace’s recipes are developed in collaboration with local brewers 

from the aforementioned countries, and each time you buy any of 

the three beers, some money is donated to local pro-peace projects. 

The website claims that “50 percent of all profit” are given to charity 

– which is a little misleading as the company isn’t actually profitable 

yet. For now it’s only 10 cents per bottle, which, Kadunic acknowledges, 

has so far added up to “a low four digit figure”. But hey, 

there’s nothing wrong with a little embellishment to help kick-start 

a well-meaning business, right? So, with ingredients listed as “Water, 

Yeast, Malt, Tolerance”, how does this virtuous beer taste compared 

to the regular, sinful stuff? We aren’t fans of the over-flavoured 

Cyprus; its citrus scent somewhat overpowers the blend. The Israel- 

Palestine is much more palatable – a light, bottom-fermented Helles 

lager with distinctly honeyed notes. Best-seller Bosnia-Herzegovina, 

an India pale lager, is full of character, dividing our office with its 

contrast between the sweet, tropical-fruit smell and surprisingly 

bitter taste. And the 33cl beers don’t come cheap: a pack of six can be 

ordered online for €19.90 (incl. delivery) while individual bottles are 

available in Spätis across town for a hefty €2.50. But hey, global peace 

and a clean conscience are priceless! — EL 

Order online at www.drink-for-peace.com 

KARMA CLEANSER 

EXBERLINER 172 

5

DON’T WORK, MAKE MONEY 

SPECIAL 

Kippa your hands off 

Is antisemitism back in Germany, this time as an “imported” Muslim prejudice? In the wake of 

last month’s “Berlin kippa attack”, the international media was prompt to resurrect the taboo 

of no-go zones for Jews in the German capital. Meanwhile Jewish organisations and politicians 

pointed an uneasy finger at refugees and Arabs as the new perpetrators. As statistics and subjective 

perceptions clash, we try to make sense of the debate. By René Blixer and Anna Gyulai Gaál 

Judith Kesseler 

Skullcaps are being handed out in front of the Berlin Jewish community’s 

building on Fasanenstraße, where over 2500 people 

have gathered to take part in the “Berlin Wears the Kippa” demonstration 

on an April afternoon. Berliners who have come here today 

are not all Jewish. This is a solidarity event for victims of antisemitic 

attacks and Gideon Joffe, head of the Jewish community, that which 

organised the event, welcomes the crowd. “We received countless calls 

and e-mails from non-Jews who were asking where they could buy a 

kippa, where they could show their solidarity,” he says. On that day 

some 10,000 skullcaps were distributed in parks throughout the city. 

Mayor Michael Müller, Green politician Cem Özdemir, CDU/CSU parlimentary 

leader Volker Kauder and protestant bishop Markus Dröge 

have come and donned the kippa. All are eager to express solidarity 

amidst what’s been reported as a new wave of antisemitism. 

In the preceding weeks, antisemitism in Germany had made the 

news more than once. In March, reports of a Jewish second-grade pupil 

in Tempelhof bullied by Muslim classmates reopened a debate about 

Judenhass in Berlin public schools. On April 12, it was the Echo scandal: 

the awarding of Germany’s music prize to German rappers Kollegah 

and Farid Bang, known for their misogynist and antisemitic lyrics, sent 

a shockwave, leading to the abolition of the award altogether. But it’s 

the “Berlin kippa attack” during the previous week that explains the 

unprecedented show of solidarity on Fasanenstraße today. 

Kippa attack goes viral 

On April 18 a video of a young man attacking a kippa-wearer at the 

corner of Lychener Straße and Raumerstraße in peaceful Prenzlauer 

Berg again put Berlin in the spotlight, this time on an international 

scale. The short clip, posted on Facebook on April 18, shows the 

attacker striking another young man with a belt while shouting “Yahudi” 

(“Jew” in Arabic). The victim, 21-year-old Adam Armoush, who 

turned out to be an Israeli Arab from Haifa, had been wearing the 

kippa in what he later explained was meant to be an “experiment” to 

test antisemitism in Berlin. Unfortunately, unlike other experiments 

(in 2015 Exberliner reported on Vice magazine’s hidden camera test 

in which a Jewish actor was sent to Neukölln wearing a kippa) this 

ended in a brutal lashing. The attacker turned himself in to the police 

the following day and is said to be a 19-year-old refugee from Syria. 

What happened before Amoush pressed record on his phone, we 

will never know, but what could, under different circumstances, have 

been a thoroughly shocking but overlooked case of hate crime – no 

one was seriously injured – took on global proportions and triggered 

alarming headlines. While media around the world warned of a rise 

in anti-Jewish attacks in Germany, the Israeli press cautioned Jews 

against wearing a kippa in the streets of the German capital. The 

Times of Israel ran a story on April 25 titled “Unsafe to wear kippa 

in public”. The frantic reporting created the impression that being 

Jewish in the German capital is dangerous and wearing a kippa here 

might get you beaten up. The notion of “no-go zones”, usually used 

to describe poor, high-crime areas, was back on the agenda. The fact 

that in this case the potential “no-go zone” was a well-off, mostly 

white, family-friendly neighbourhood and that events preceding the 

attacks are missing from the video was lost in the fuss. 

“This claim that Islam is the 

problem now makes the lives 

of refugees very hard and 

helps AfD and Pegida.” 

Angela Merkel – who usually refrains from commenting on news 

stories – immediately condemned the attack vowing that her government 

fight antisemitism “with all our strength”. Politicians of all 

stripes followed suit. Never had German politics seen such unanimity. 

The slightest dissenting note immediately sparked public admonishment: 

when journalist Jakob Augstein criticised in a tweet the idea that 

someone would conduct an “experiment” with a kippa, he was immediately 

accused of victim shaming and landed a spot on Jewish NGO 

Simon Wiesenthal Center’s top 10 list of “antisemitic slurs”. 

6 

EXBERLINER 172

ANTISEMITISM 

Meanwhile, Islamophobic tweets by the far right didn’t seem to cause 

as much commotion. Eager to seize on any and every bit of evidence 

that refugees are a threat, AfD politicians were swift to react. Before the 

identity of the perpetrator was officially revealed, deputy party chairman 

Georg Pazderski wrote, “With the influx of Muslims, antisemitism 

has again become admissible.” But the sentiment was not confined to 

the AfD. Rather it was echoed by Germany’s mainstream leaders. 

A new “imported” antisemitism? 

“We have a new phenomenon, as we have many refugees among whom 

there are, for example, people of Arab origin who bring a different 

kind of antisemitism into the country...” This was Merkel on Israeli 

Channel 10 news on April 24. The chancellor’s words sparked a flurry 

of headlines such as “Merkel denounces Arab immigrants’ anti-Semitism” 

(The Independent) and “After a massive refugee influx, Germany 

is confronting an imported anti-Semitism” (The National Post). 

Germany seemed to be discovering a new 

concept: Muslim, politely named “imported” 

antisemitism, an atavistic hatred brought 

to Germany through its open borders and a 

blind asylum policy. Interior minister Horst 

Seehofer of the conservative CSU, known 

for his opposition to Merkel’s refugee policy, 

was an early fan of the concept. In May, at a 

press conference on the 2017 crime statistics, 

Seehofer was seen not only boasting a 

country that is “safer than ever”, but also 

deploring a 2.5 percent rise in antisemitic 

crimes: “For the first time so-called ‘imported 

antisemitic crime’ is rising again,” he said, 

while having to acknowledge: “at this point 

95 percent of 1504 antisemitic crimes in 2017 

had a right-wing motivation behind them.” 

In short: there are no statistics supporting a 

new Muslim threat to Jews in Germany. For 

Berlin, that number is 92 percent, while only 

5.9 percent could be traced to “foreign ideology” 

(this category includes crimes related 

to the Israel-Palestine conflict) and a mere 

1.7 percent were counted as motivated by 

religious ideology (see graph p10). 

But no one seems to trust the police’s 

numbers. Especially not Felix Klein, Germany’s 

first ever national commissioner for 

antisemitism, who was tasked with answering 

questions and concerns among the foreign 

media, even before officially taking office on 

May 1. At a press conference on April 28, the 

career diplomat, who is not Jewish himself, explained that these stats 

were “not representative”, insisting that the feeling among the Jewish 

community tells a different story: “They feel that Muslim antisemitism 

is much more dangerous than it appears to be in the statistics,” 

he said. In the Washington Post a day earlier, he’d spoken of a “great 

influx of refugees and people who came to Germany that were raised 

[...] with certain perceptions of Jews in Israel that are totally unacceptable 

to German society.” He concluded the press conference by 

unveiling plans for a new monitoring system in which data would flow 

from local Jewish groups to the police in Germany’s 16 federal states. 

Dissenting voices 

Wolfgang Benz, former history professor and still one of German’s 

leading experts on antisemitism and discrimination (see next page), 

has been following the developments with concern: “There is no 

such thing as a ‘new’ antisemitism. It’s always the same old thing 

working with the same old resentment,” he says. The 77-year-old 

who led Germany’s only academic institute devoted solely to research 

on antisemitism has been warning of Islamophobia for years. 

“What’s ‘new’ now is that we have new scapegoats and new political 

voices such as AfD and Pegida that have made hatred against Muslims 

their programme.” He points out that the recent hype about 

a new antisemitic threat in Germany is based on a small number 

of actual incidents which have been blown out of proportion by 

outsized media coverage. 

And he has a point. Looking at police statistics it is hard to find 

the data that would confirm a dramatically increased danger for 

Jews living in the city. While official records list a total of 288 

crimes with an antisemitic motivation for 2017 (29 cases more 

than 2016) there have been fewer violent ones (seven assaults in 

2017, down from 10 the previous year). Meanwhile, the number of 

Islamophobic attacks has also increased to 

a total of nine assaults in 2017. The total 

number of violent hate crimes in Berlin for 

2017 was 253 (see chart page 8). Different, 

now often cited, numbers show a jump from 

590 in 2016 to 947 in 2017, but these are 

self-reported antisemitic incidents collected 

by Berlin’s centre for Research and Information 

on Antisemitism in Berlin (RIAS). “The 

problem with such data is that they rely on 

‘self-reporting’: all you need is to call or fill 

out the online form. Those things are bound 

up with so much emotion that it makes it 

hard to filter,” explains Benz, who adds: 

“Meanwhile, Muslims who wear a headscarf 

are abused on a regular basis, as are Sinti 

and Roma. Those go largely under-reported.” 

Like last month, when a young Muslim 

woman was hit in the face by a 60-something 

German man for wearing a headscarf 

– it sparked little outrage besides a few dry 

lines in the domestic press. 

“I am honestly very sceptical about the 

statement that antisemitism is on the 

rise. Statistics always point to between 

1000-1500 cases per year. It doesn’t really 

change,” says Àrmin Langer, the Jewish 

activist behind Neukölln Jewish-Muslim organisation 

Salaam-Shalom “You cannot use 

Agata Sasiuk 

the experience of one stroll down the street 

to draw conclusions – which is what happened 

after the Prenzlauer Berg attack.” As 

for the link made between Muslim immigrants and antisemitism, 

he calls it flat-out propaganda. “I saw an article saying that there is 

an ‘antisemitism tsunami’ in Berlin. This doesn’t offer solutions, it 

just creates drama,” adds the 28-year-old Hungarian-born Berliner. 

Since 2014 he’s been working on promoting dialogue through 

regular sports and food events and talks at public schools. “I am 

not saying that there isn’t any antisemitism amongst Muslims, of 

course there is, but among Germans too. And this claim that Islam 

is the problem now makes the lives of refugees very hard and helps 

AfD and Pegida gain support. It is so counter-productive.” Langer 

has mixed feelings about the kippa protest: “This broad solidarity 

should be welcomed, but the kippa is not a neutral piece of fabric. 

It is not the symbol of German democracy. Since late antiquity this 

garment stands for the expression of one’s Jewish faith. It’s not the 

right symbol.” 

JUNE 2018 

7

ANTISEMITISM 

A mixed crowd on Fasanenstraße 

Back at the solidarity Kippa demonstration in Charlottenburg, 

the diverse demographics reflect the murky 

mood and a multitude of opinions. A banner reads 

“Protect Jews, stop Islamisation”. Not far off, Moshe, 

a religious Jew, is standing with his friends. He is here 

because he feels a growing sense of insecurity: “The 

fact that we follow the Torah makes us targets of pro- 

Palestine Muslims across the world,” he says, then gives 

the example of his 12-year-old daughter, who was called 

a Jewish aggressor at school. “It is becoming more and 

more acceptable to insult Jews,” Moshe says, “and I do 

feel concerned about raising my children and grandchildren 

in Berlin if this is the tendency.” As he becomes 

aware of positive reactions around him, he continues 

passionately: “It is all because of the refugees. The Muslims. 

They will always hate us. They will always want to 

murder us all. Where can we feel safe?” 

Just a few metres away a Syrian couple is also part of 

the demonstration. Hamid and his wife Samar are Muslims 

but both wearing kippas: “I am here because I want 

to show solidarity,” says Hamid. “I want to show that 

you can be pro-Palestine, and it doesn’t have to mean 

that we are anti-Jewish.” For him blaming the Jews for 

Israel’s politics would just be “like saying ‘all Muslims 

are terrorists’. I think we are both minorities in this 

country and should support each other!” He has a big 

smile on his face as he speaks, turning to Samar for approval. 

The young woman, with the kippa pinned to her 

hijab, nods and apologises that her German is not yet 

good enough to voice her opinion. The pair were part 

of the refugee wave, arriving in Germany in 2015, and as 

many other Syrians, they’ve learned about the Holocaust 

for the first time in their integration course. They 

both agree that this has brought a new understanding 

to their lives. n 

INTERVIEW 

“There is no such 

thing as a new 

antisemitism” 

If there is one expert on hate crime and 

discrimination in Germany, it’s historian and 

retired professor Wolfgang Benz. For over two 

decades he was at the helm of the TU Centre 

for Research on Antisemitism, the only one of 

its kind in Germany. His book What Is Antisemitism? 

is widely regarded as a must-read introduction 

to the topic. His groundbreaking work 

pointing out similarities between antisemitism 

and Islamophobia feels more relevant than ever. 

By Franziska Helms 

Following the Echo music awards scandal and the incident involving a kippawearing 

youth in Prenzlauer Berg, there’s been a lot of debate surrounding a new 

wave of antisemistism in Berlin. What’s your take on this? There is a huge uproar 

now, which has been strongly fostered and dramatised by the media. I am 

asked by friends from Munich or abroad: Is it dangerous to walk the streets 

in Berlin? Yet, so far I have not seen a new quality of antisemitism or threat. 

What is new is the enormously increased public attention. This morning I 

heard a Catholic priest on the radio and he again spoke about the Prenzlauer 

Berg assault with trembling excitement as if it had occurred thousandfold. 

VIOLENT 9 

HOMOPHOBIA / 

TRANSPHOBIA 

ISLAMOPHOBIA 

REPORTED HATE CRIME IN 

BERLIN IN 2017* 

TOTAL 

1737 

VIOLENT 

253 

OTHER 

ANTISEMITISM 

VIOLENT 7 

Papers from Israel to the UK write about how Jews have started feeling unsafe 

in Berlin... Obviously it makes for a popular read that in Germany Jews are 

endangered, that “the Germans” are the bad guys. In fact, antisemitism 

is more strongly condemned in Germany than in any other country. The 

reality is that this outrage was sparked by a very small number of actual 

incidents. Which in a way shows how seriously we take antisemitism and 

how sensitive we are to it. 

Chancellor Merkel herself spoke up on the very day the video was released. Every 

antisemitic attack will get the Chancellor behind a microphone in no time. 

She is known to remain silent for too long on all sorts of problems. In all 

other cases the default reaction is to minimise the issue. If it is about a Muslim, 

they had probably provoked the other party. And a Roma has probably 

misbehaved, too. But a Jew never would. Everyone is scared they might be 

called antisemites. 

*DATA FROM THE BERLIN POLICE. 

RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA 

Der Freitag journalist and publisher Jakob Augstein landed on Jewish NGO Simon 

Wiesenthal Center’s top 10 list of antisemitic slurs for tweeting: “How disturbed is 

our reality, that someone has the idea to use wearing a kippa as provocation – and 

is successful with that! Depressing. Germany 2018.” What do you think? That’s 

what I’m saying! There is a real taboo here and anyone who voices a different 

opinion is pilloried. But the main point is that politics and the wider society 

are so sensitive in this one area that an incident like that is blown out of 

proportion entirely. 

8 


ANTISEMITISM 

Are you saying it has to do with how rarely such incidents take place? I 

say that an attack on a Jew is much more newsworthy than, say, an attack 

on a Muslim wearing a headscarf. This happens a hundred times a 

day in Berlin, but it is seen as normal. No fuss is made about it. A verbal 

or physical assault against a Sinto or a Roma who is called a dirty gypsy 

doesn’t trigger a response. We are extremely sensitive to antisemitism 

and this alarm is kept alive by activists, politicians and the media. 

Which is good. 

So you don’t think there is a similar taboo when it comes to other cultural 

or religious minorities? I don’t really see that at the moment. There is 

no great fear of criticising Muslims and being called an Islamophobe. 

We now have a party in our parliament which clearly defines itself as 

Islamophobic. It’s written in their programme. 

The fact that the Prenzlauer Berg attacker was a Syrian refugee has 

fuelled talk of a new quality of antisemitism brought to Germany by 

Muslim migrants. CSU Interior Minister Horst Seehofer refers to a rise in 

so-called “imported crimes”. What do you think? There is no such thing 

as a “new” antisemitism. It’s always the same old thing working with 

the same old resentment. This kind of talk is aimed against refugees. 

Before the refugees arrived, we were perfectly complacent in pointing 

the finger at Poland where anti-Judaism is openly justified with 

religious arguments, mixed with Polish nationalism. Now we have the 

Muslims and presume that they are dyed-in-the-wool antisemites. 

Meanwhile our own cryptic antisemitism stops being an issue. We cry 

“Stop thief!” and think the problem lies elsewhere, not with us. Now 

Muslims are blamed for antisemitism, end of story. 

Would you agree with Felix Klein – Germany’s new Commissioner of 

Antisemitism – that some newcomers bring with them their background 

of “unacceptable perceptions of Jews and Israel”? I am obviously aware 

that there are many Muslims who, out of solidarity with Israel’s Arab 

neighbours, display anti-Israeli resentment and of course there are 

actual antisemites, too. But these people have not come to Germany 

to spread antisemitism. That wouldn’t have been necessary anyway 

because we have enough of that here already. But they came as refugees 

and their resentment of Israel is something they share with many 

Germans. The difference is that Germans don’t usually express it because 

they know that here that can ruin careers. But those people say 

it, and for us and our Interior Minister who doesn’t seem to be a big 

fan of refugees, it’s a good opportunity to fuel animosity against them. 

The yellow press has been wallowing in the confusion. Bild asked their 

reporters to hang Israeli flags in so-called problem areas of several German 

cities to see how long it would take until someone took them down. 

Their footage of two youths taking away a flag on Hermannplatz (and 

unsuccessfully attempting to burn it) was supposed to be evidence of 

Muslim antisemitism. Taking down Israeli flags in the street does not 

make you antisemitic. Those who make that claim are doing very poor 

journalism. Some media try to provoke the things they want to happen 

and write about and use that to stir up resentments. Many people are 

not aware that criticising Israel is not the same as being an antisemite. 

Stats show that 95 percent of hate crimes against Jews (92 percent in 

Berlin) are still perpetrated by the same old rightwingers, not newcomers. 

Do you think that the focus on Muslim perpetrators has somehow 

overshadowed the real problem? What we have now are new political 

formations such as AfD and Pegida who have made hatred against 

Muslims their programme. They hide their own antisemitism behind 

their Islamophobia. There is a lot of antisemitism there too and it is 

voiced clearly in the AfD groups in state parliaments and the Bundestag. 

The most prominent example is Wolfgang Gedeon [who has 

called Islam Christian culture’s enemy from outside, and Judaism the 

one from within]. He was expelled from the AfD group in the Baden- 

Württemberg parliament, but not excluded from the party. 

But what about antisemitism in German society at large? Here we get to 

a topic that is much more relevant: The Echo music award. This prize 

for creative achievement is given to two men who not only act in an 

antisemitic fashion but also in a shockingly, nauseatingly misogynist 

way and who insult other minorities as well. Because of their huge 

success, these people who poison hundreds of thousands of young 

souls with their hateful lyrics are put on a podium and given awards. 

Taking down Israeli flags 

in the street does not make 

you antisemitic. Those who 

make that claim are doing 

very poor journalism. 

VOLKSBÜHNE 

Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz 

Gisèle Vienne 

MENGE 

13.06.18 

14.06.18 

15.06.18 

Boris Charmatz 

enfant 

21.06.18 

22.06.18 

23.06.18 

Mette Ingvartsen 

7 Pleasures 

27.06.18 

to come (extended) 

9 

29.06.18 Foto/Photo: enfant, © Christophe Raynaud de Lage

ANTISEMITISM 

But antisemitic insults are illegal in Germany, aren’t they? Couldn’t they 

be prosecuted? In principle, yes, but it is really difficult with artists 

because then they can fall back on artistic freedom. In those cases it 

is hard to press charges. And at the end of the day public condemnation 

is more important than legal battles. But these are grey zones, 

subject to interpretation. Take the cartoon published in Süddeutsche 

Zeitung [Netanyahu holds a bomb with the Star of David on it in front 

of a Eurovision banner and says “Next year in Jerusalem!”] which got 

the caricaturist fired. The Jewish community is convinced that it is 

a case of antisemitism and the media sell it that way, too. I disagree 

with that. So, it’s difficult... 

For two decades you led the country’s only academic centre dedicated 

to antisemitism research. What was your main focus? I was looking 

at why majorities discriminate against minorities using the same 

methods throughout history. Why yesterday it’s the Jews, the day 

before the Sinti and Roma and tomorrow the Muslim? What are the 

mechanisms? And the result is quite simple: It’s got nothing to do 

with those groups. It’s all in the way majorities need these projections. 

What’s interested me is how random and replaceable the 

victims are. 

In Germany, where antisemitism is still seen as a unique form of discrimination, 

your theory of the common denominators, by which you put Jews 

and Muslims in one basket as victims of the same principles of discrimination, 

got you a lot of flak, right? I’ve actually been subjected to vicious 

campaigns from people who didn’t understand that I wasn’t comparing 

or equating Jews with Muslims but the methods of discrimination. 

Their battle-cry was “Benz is equating Jews and Muslims and he must 

not do that, because Jews are good and Muslims are bad.” They’d ring 

up the TU press office and ask what kind of criminal history I have. 

They asked the TU chair’s office whether the money for the teaching 

position my wife held at the university, in a completely different area, 

came from my institute’s budget. They wanted to silence me. It was 

mostly activists from the far left and pseudo-scientists with highly dubious 

credentials. But in academic circles it was never a problem, and I 

consider it a success of mine to have brought up this wider understanding 

that animosity towards different minorities has the same roots. It 

doesn’t matter if it is religiously motivated or ethnically or what not. 

It almost seems as if humanity is beginning to learn that there are no 

good or bad minorities, but that the causes for ostracism are to be 

found in majority society. Unfortunately, the commotion we are seeing 

at the moment is getting in the way of such understanding. n 

ANTISEMITISM IN BERLIN AT A GLANCE 

NUMBER OF INCIDENTS PER YEAR / PERPETRATORS 

+11.19% 

RIGHT WING 

OTHERS 

VIOLENT CRIMES 

259 

233 

288 

264 

225 

197 

227 

176 

7 12 

147 

132 128 

114 

210 

200 191 

179 

217 

190 205 

169 

3 3 6 9 6 13 10 7 

DATA FROM THE BERLIN POLICE 

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 

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10 

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PROGRAM JUNE 

FRI 1.6. 9:30 LADY BIRD Engl./Germ.sbtls 

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THE WORLD German 

MON 4.6. 9:30 THE LEISURE SEEKER Engl./Germ.sbtls 

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WED 6.6. 9:30 LOVING VINCENT Engl./Germ.sbtls 

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SUN 10.6. 9:30 CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Engl./Germ.sbtls 

MON 11.6. 9:30 MAUDIE Engl./Germ.sbtls 

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WED 13.6. 9:30 PHANTOM THREAD Engl./Germ.sbtls 

THU 14.6. 9:30 BLACK PANTHER Engl./Germ.sbtls 

FRI 15.6. 9:45 ISLE OF DOGS Engl./Germ.sbtls 

SAT 16.6. 9:45 THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI 

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THU 21.6. 9:45 DAS SCHWEIGENDE KLASSENZIMMER 

THE SILENT REVOLUTION German/Engl.sbtls 

ADDRESS 

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Berlin

Legal dos and don’ts 

It’s remarkably easy to get on the wrong side of the law in rule-loving Germany. Chances are 

you’ve already unwittingly done something the Polizei would not be so happy about. Test your 

knowledge of German law with our exclusive ‘spot the crime’ quiz. By René Blixer and Vonnie Johnstone 

QUIZ 

BERLIN 

INTEGRATION 

TEST 

1. Nature-loving Germans have strong 

Naturschutz laws to ensure that animals 

are protected. Which of these crimes 

could cost you up to €65,000? 

A: Rabbit-hunting in your local park 

B: Killing that pesky wasp 

that keeps divebombing your 

Bionade at a sidewalk cafe 

C: Squashing the spider clinging 

to your cobwebby 

Altbau ceiling 

D: Stepping on your 

neighbour’s cat as you 

stumble home at 3am 

2. Hoping to rent out your Berlin 

abode on Airbnb over the summer 

without a permit? 

A: It’s allowed, because I’m only renting 

out one small room 

B: It’s allowed: I’m renting out my 

flat for just a week 

C: It’s allowed if the renters are refugees 

D: Renting on Airbnb is verboten! 

3. Despite your preconceptions about the 

Germans, crossing when the Ampelmann 

is red is okay if: 

A: You’re wearing rollerskates 

and there’s no car in sight 

B: No children are watching 

C: You’re a long way from the traffic light 

D: You’re in Charlottenburg 

4. Which of these is forbidden 

by law on Good Friday? 

A: Dancing in public 

B: Eating pork 

C: Fishing, shopping, eating marshmallows 

D: Eating more than one full meal 

5. Strong political statements are a touchy 

issue in a country with such a dark past. 

Which of the following is not prosecutable? 

A: Hanging your spartacus flag with 

hammer-and-sickle off of your balcony 

to show your love for Rosa 

B: Joining your favourite Peace in the Middle 

East demo with the Islamist Black Standard flag 

C: Exhibiting banners proclaiming 

“I do not regret anything” 

at a Rudolph Hess tribute demo 

D: Calling the cyclist who almost 

ran you over a “Bike Nazi” 

E: Reading Mein Kampf 

on the S-Bahn 

6. FKK-loving Berliners have no 

sense of shame. Which of the 

following is forbidden? 

A: Breastfeeding your child in a public library 

B: Running naked through Tiergarten at dusk 

C: Copulating on the S-Bahn 

D: Skinny-dipping in a lake within the city 

7. It’s not easy being a parent in 

Germany. Which of the following 

are you allowed to do? 

A: Name your son Lucifer 

B: Name your son Fanta 

C: Slap your child 

on the cheek 

D: Home-school 

your child 

8. Berlin is 

tolerant of all 

religions, but 

which of the 

following is illegal? 

A: Driving in a burqa 

Illustrations 

by Dom Okah 

B: Teaching with a kippa at a public school 

C: Walking the streets in a burqa 

D: Entering the Bürgeramt with 

any of the above 

1. B and C Killing a protected bug such as 

Bembix rostrate or sand-wasp could land you 

a fine of up to €65,000. Rabbit-hunting, A, 

is legal only in the forest and with a licence, 

while D could result in a fine of up to €25,000. 

2. A Renting out a room no bigger than 49% 

of the flat’s total area is okay without a permit. 

In ALL other cases you need a €225 permit 

from the Wohnungsamt, with which you can 

rent out your entire flat while on vacation. 

Violators can be fined up to €500,000. 

3. C Whether in Charlottenburg or in front 

of children, the potential fine for jaywalking is 

€5-10. If you’re nowhere near traffic lights, 

you can cross. The law does no specify a distance, 

but at 50m you should be fine. 

4. A The Tanzverbot may be an outdated idea, 

but go out dancing between 4am and 9pm 

on Good Friday and the police can break up 

your party. It’s seldom enforced, though a 

2017 survey showed that most Germans 

support the ban. 

5. C and E Banners 

bearing quotes from 

Hitler’s confidant 

Rudolph Hess are 

legal – and were 

carried by neo-Nazis 

at a march on the 

30th anniversary 

of his death in 2017. 

Mein Kampf was legally 

republished in 2016. However, symbols of the 

KPD communist party are a no-no. The Black 

Standard is associated with jihadism and is 

banned in Germany. Insulting people violates 

the Beleidigungsgesetz while “Nazi” insults 

are especially controversial. 

6. C Despite Berlin’s rep for tolerance, 

don’t have sex on the train. Indecent sexual 

behaviour in public is verboten. In April a 

woman was giving a man a blow job on 

the S-Bahn near Ostbahnhof at 7am. When 

onlookers complained, a brawl ensued and the 

police intervened. Public nudity – on land or in 

water – is allowed as long as you’re not being 

a nuisance. Breastfeeding in public is fine. 

7. B Naming rules are strict, with the final 

decision being made by the local registry office. 

Names cannot be “degrading or absurd”. 

Biblical names with negative connotations are 

ruled out – sorry, Lucifer. However, “Fanta” 

has been approved. Home-schooling is fully 

outlawed (to prevent indoctrination by sects 

or neo-Nazis), as is corporal punishment. 

8. A and B Drivers’ faces must be visible at 

all times, so no burqa at the wheel. Under 

Berlin’s “neutrality law” teachers can’t wear 

religious items such as kippas and headscarves 

on the job – though this legislation is set to be 

overturned as it is seen as a hindrance to 

Muslim women working as teachers. 

So, how did you score? At least 5 correct 

answers? Congratulations, you’re fully 

integrated and have adopted the German 

legal mindset. Under 4? You’re a relatively 

clueless newbie or living in an expat bubble. 

Time for an Intergrationskurs?

SPOTLIGHT 

Schöneberg turf wars 

Schöneberg 30 is notorious for being a high crime 

area, a heißes Pflaster, literally: hot pavement, as Berliners 

would call it. First it was the dealers. Today it’s 

sprawling prostitution – two local rappers and other 

concerned Ausländer are fighting the pimps. By Robert 

Rigney, photos by Anastasia Chistyakova 

20-year-old rapper Nasip 

Yazıcıoğlu is fighting for 

his Kiez – Schöneberg 30 

“This all has to go. The whores, the pimps. It’s getting too much. They 

are even standing in front of my door fighting over turf.” The person 

complaining is not some old Spießer, but 20-year-old Schöneberg rapper 

Nasip Yazıcıoğlu, referring to the un-gentrified intersection of Potsdamer 

Straße and Kurfürstenstraße, a few hundred metres north of Gallery Row. The 

son of Turkish immigrants grew up here, in the infamous Pallas building on 

the corner of Pallasstraße and Potsdamer Straße. With 514 apartments and 

home to 1500 individuals from 25 nations, 

for decades the place was known as an urban 

disaster. Most of the residents were on the 

dole. Drug dealers plied their trade in dark 

corridors which dripped water from exposed 

pipes. There were junkies, and sometimes 

at night you could hear gunshots. Dead 

babies were found in dumpsters. Graffiti was 

everywhere. When Yazıcıoğlu thinks of his 

childhood, he recalls finding needles everywhere 

in the playground and how traumatising 

it was when junkies across the corridor 

from where he lived with his mother doused 

their apartment with petrol and set fire to 

it. If anyone knows the dark, ghetto side of 

the area between Kleistpark and Kurfürstenstraße, 

Yorkstraße and Pallas, it’s this 

“The police are all 

over us foreigners. 

But the whores and 

everything, no one 

has anything against 

that. We’ve tried 

everything...” 

born-Schöneberger, with his wispy beard and dark piercing eyes. When he is 

not rapping and hanging out in the hood, he is working as a security guard at 

Mediamarkt in Tempelhof. 

Times have changed: the Bezirksamt has stepped in, and Pallas is now 

Sozialpalast. There are waiting lists instead of vacancies. No more graffiti and 

leaky pipes. No more junkies and drug dealers. The crime has moved further 

north, as have Yazıcıoğlu and his mother, who are now living on Kurfürsten- 

JUNE 2018 

13

CRIME 

straße. “Children can’t stay out long here,” 

he says, “mothers start panicking. I was 

standing right here when I saw a couple of 

guys running from a man with a gun. That is 

the kind of thing you see here at night.” He 

isn’t shocked easily but as he walks past LSD 

(Love, Sex, Dreams) the sprawling sex shop 

on the bottom floor of what was designed to 

be a multi-storey bordello on the corner of 

his street, he complains: “The whores fight 

each other every day. But no one talks about 

these things.” 

“I was born here and 

I am going to die here. 

Schöneberg’s my 

kingdom. One has 

to fight for 

one’s kingdom.” 

It used to be that the Strich – the streetwalkers’ 

district – was limited to Kurfürstenstraße 

and mostly German. But with the 

accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the EU, 

there has been an influx of cheap sex workers 

from the Balkans, and now the red-light 

district has expanded as far down as Bülowstraße, 

where prostitutes – many underage 

and with HIV according to NGO reports 

– and pimps importune passers-by and residents 

around the clock. In recent years the 

situation has worsened dramatically. 

“They always ask if you would like to go 

with them,” Yazıcıoğlu says, as he passes a 

couple of prostitutes talking in Bulgarian. 

“Blow job: €20, a fuck: €30. It’s like that 

every day when I walk by here. It doesn’t 

bother one after a while.” Around the block 

on Frobenstraße, where the transvestites 

stand at night, he points out the “Steh Café 

Froben”, where the pimps hang out. “The 

politicians are letting everything go,” he says. 

“They don’t give a damn and it’s not getting 

any better, that’s for sure. Summer is when 

it’s worst. Whores everywhere. Someone has 

to do something. Because children are playing 

here. And the whores go to the park and 

you see condoms everywhere.” 

In the spring angry locals decided to 

take action and cornered the girls until the 

pimps came. There was a major brawl and 

the pimps beat a hasty retreat. Since then 

there has been an uneasy truce between 

pimps and residents. Among those present 

when the face-off happened was “King” Ali, 

a local Palestinian who grew up on Steinmetzstraße 

and now lives a couple blocks 

away off of Frobenstraße. 

King Ali – heavyset, verging on obese and 

with a penchant for gold chains and Mercedes 

cars – is a Kiezlegende, as they say here: a 

neighborhood legend. It’s not quite clear just 

how King Ali makes his money these days, 

but as a youth he rapped and break-danced 

and co-founded a local gang called the “30 

Kings”. He hung out with rappers Sido and 

Kiezlegende King Ali: 

“There are new tousles 

every week.” 

Bushido and has appeared in the rap videos 

of Alpa Gun and Big Baba, two local rappers 

who have gone on to national fame. 

“I don’t understand it,” says King Ali. “The 

police are all over us foreigners. But the 

whores and everything, no one has anything 

against that. We’ve tried everything. The police 

is working with them, man. The state is 

working with them, gets money from them, 

or... no idea what. I don’t understand the 

whole business myself.” 

King Ali and his mates have a history of 

‘taking matters into their own hands’. Over 

10 years ago they roughed up junkies, who 

in turn called the cops. “We were in the B.Z. 

and Bild,” says King Ali. “The headline was: 

‘Vigilantes with manager’.” We’d hired a 

manager. He was a guy from the pub, an old 

guy. We wanted him to talk to the newspapers 

so the police would leave us alone.” In 

fact the police did arrest them. “They said: 

‘You beat them up.’ But what can you do if 

they are selling drugs in front of my brother, 

my father, my cousin? Heroin. And people 

Carmen 

Georges Bizet 

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14 

EXBERLINER 172 

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0049 030 47 99 74 00

CRIME 

Snapshot 

IVANA from the block 

On the corner of Steinmetzstraße and Bülowstraße a Turkish lady 

in a headscarf runs a Spätkauf selling fresh börek and lahmacun. 

In a backroom locals drink tea or beer. This is where Ivana keeps 

her things. Ivana is a Bulgarian sex worker who hangs out day 

and night outside the Commerzbank just opposite. She comes 

here to freshen up, put on make-up and sometimes chill with 

a cigarette. “Got to give my Muschi a rest,” she says lighting a 

smoke. The slender brunette with Balkan good looks has been 

in Berlin two years and speaks English and German. English she 

learned in school for 12 years, German she picked up here. Her 

work is crap, but “the money is mine and doesn’t go to the Puff 

(the bordello)”. Eventually she wants to study. 

die on the streets from that,” pleads Ali, adding “What can we 

do? We have to keep our streets clean.” Today the pimps have 

replaced the dealers, but it’s the same fight. “There are new tousles 

every week,” he says almost matter-of-factly. 

Yazıcıoğlu and King Ali’s fight against crime in their Kiez found 

unlikely allies in the radical right-wingers of the AfD. Last August 

the party even organised a protest against what they called 

“forced prostitution” on Kurfürstenstraße. “I was walking by 

when by chance I saw the demo,” says Yazıcıoğlu. “I don’t know 

much about politics, but I know these guys are racists. I can’t 

support racists.” In fact the AfD were quickly outnumbered by 

counter-demonstrators holding banners with “Sex work is work” 

and “No room for right-wing agitation”. Politics are messy. So are 

things in Schöneberg 30. 

As grim and gritty as things sometimes might feel, both he and 

King Ali claim a strong attachment to their neighborhood, as all 

their friends here, mostly second- and third-generation “Ausländer”. 

“Everyone knows each other. You have to come in the summer, 

50, 60 people, families, everyone is sitting on the streets, and the 

elderly and the parents, everyone is sitting here... We are eight 

brothers. We all live here. Everyone in one building,” explains King 

Ali. And emphatically: “At some point I wanted to leave, but my 

mother wouldn’t let me. I was born here and I am going to die here. 

Schöneberg’s my kingdom. One has to fight for one’s kingdom.” n 

JUNE 2018 

June 8 – 10 

Berlin 

15

CRIME 

The fuzz on Alex 

Forget about Kotti: Alexanderplatz is Berlin’s #1 crime hotspot. The number of crimes in 

the area has doubled over the last decade – that’s over 20 crimes taking place each day in 

the shadow of Berlin’s TV tower. Our reporter spent an afternoon with the new police unit 

set up to patrol the square. By Ivan Krasnov, photos by Hanson Walker 

A 

surprisingly humbling moment during my time patrolling Alexanderplatz 

with the Berlin police comes in the late afternoon. 

It’s a warm Sunday in early May. We cross the M4 tram lines and 

walk past Saturn when Officer Blumberg, a young, clean-cut member of 

the area’s special police force, stops to admire the sun directly behind 

the Fernsehturm, whose shadow looms over the square. He asks our 

photographer to snap some shots, while his two colleagues grab their 

iPhones to document the vista for themselves. An uncannily idyllic 

moment on what’s supposed to be Berlin’s crime hotspot: three cops 

kitted out in bulletproof vests, handguns at their hips, “POLIZEI” 

emblazoned across the back of their dark blue uniforms. They work out 

of the Wache am Alexanderplatz that opened in December 2017 in response 

to the square being declared a kriminalitätsbelastete Ort in 2016 – 

translating roughly to “crime-ridden” area. This classification ensures a 

greater police presence, along with expanded rights that allow officers 

to stop anyone for ID and search them, regardless of whether they pose 

any real threat or not. 

Crimes doubled here between 2008-2017 – reaching 7479 incidents 

last year. That’s over 20 crimes per day in the area around the iconic 

TV Tower. Violent crimes are increasing too, with 668 reported assaults 

last year. Recent media and political attention on Alexanderplatz 

began with the October 2012 murder of 20-year-old Thai-German 

student Jonny K., in a city where murders are practically unheard of. 

Thus was born the police booth out of what seems to be a perfect 

storm of political pressure, discussions on immigration, and the 

police force’s desire to bolster their public image after criticisms following 

the December 2016 Christmas market attack. The hut boasts 

its own dedicated force of 30 officers. Coordination between the Berlin 

police, the Bundespolizei (Federal Police) and the Ordnungsamt 

(public order officers) is constant. The air-conditioned room has 

one member from each present at all times. People come in to report 

a theft or to hand in lost or stolen items. Alex also boasts record 

numbers of pickpockets (1854 thefts in 2017, a five-fold increase over 

10 years ago) and many stolen wallets get thrown away once emptied 

of bankcards and cash. Most visitors seem to be tourists coming in 

with questions about directions. It feels like the police booth is being 

mistaken for a tourist information centre. 

Leading the patrol today is Assistant Chief Robin Gottschlag who 

is flanked by his two shorter colleagues. The trio walk side by side, 

slowly, with calculated purpose, scanning their environment with 

hawk-like vision. As we pass through a small grassy area, where 

families and drained tourists seek refuge from the heat, one of the 

officers, sporting aviators and a general “bad cop” vibe, keeps his 

eyes on an Eastern European family relaxing on some benches to 

our right. Nothing dramatic transpires, but the tension is palpable. 

With stores closed and a bike race shutting down various tram lines, 

Gottschlag and his two colleagues decide to look for homeless people 

sleeping and potentially dehydrating in the sun. On the Fernsehturm 

steps, a poor fellow gets subsequently accosted, although lying in the 

shade. He sits up from his deep sleep, groggy and less than excited to 

see the police standing over him, before nodding in confirmation to 

“Alles gut?” Good enough for the officers, it seems. In the winter, they 

look for those braving the cold to make sure they are still breathing. 

“It sounds bleak but it’s all we can do,” explains Gottschlag rather 

matter-of-factly. 

16 


CRIME 

CRIME 

Alex’s expansive train station is a hectic yet crucial 

stop on their patrol. An opportunity for the Berlin officers 

to check in with two of their Bundespolizei colleagues 

(responsible for stations and airports), who don sharp, 

all-black gear and sport body cameras on their vests. 

But here again tourist queries seem to be the main police 

duty. Gottschlag is happy to accommodate and exhibit 

his good English. Meanwhile Officer Blumberg warns 

customers at outdoor cafés against leaving their phones 

out in the open. 

On the U8 platform, another regular stop on the patrol, we 

run into BVG inspectors writing up two women in their midtwenties. 

They’ve been caught on the train without tickets, 

and claim they have neither money to pay the €60 fine nor 

ID on them. Blumberg asks to search their bags, which they 

legally could anyway, and discovers their passports. A look of 

embarrassment immediately flashes across the girls’ faces as 

it becomes clear they have been caught red-handed trying to 

provide false information. “Not the smartest move,” comments 

an impervious Gottschlag. 

Emerging from underground, the officers make a beeline 

for three young Middle Eastern kids sitting on the steps in 

front of Primark. The youngest is no older than 12, the oldest 

probably only around 18 or 19, with the third somewhere in 

between. They pose no danger to anyone, and a few (white) 

couples sit just as inconspicuously on the same steps, but 

the officers ask them for ID, which they all whip out with no 

hesitation. The policemen shoot off a series of questions. 

Suddenly, the interaction feels routine. The oldest whispers 

some words to his younger friends, seemingly reassuring 

the 12-year-old, who has resorted to picking at his nails. Out 

of nowhere, the officers ask for the boys’ smartphones. 

Apprehensively, they hand them over. Blumberg pokes through 

some menus before radioing a number over to dispatch. After 

some uncomfortable waiting around, the phones are handed 

back, along with a cheery sign-off from the officers, and the 

boys are finally left alone. 

Gottschlag is quick to justify the interaction: one of the 

teens is known to Officer Blumberg from “previous incidents”. 

Furthermore, the phones such “groups” have often 

tend to have been stolen. The number that was relayed was 

the smartphone’s IMEI number, which the police search for 

in their database of stolen or lost phones. He notes that the 

Berlin police maintain a record of people and groups that 

have been involved in incidents, better allowing them to 

identify sources of trouble that they can then in turn stop, 

search and question. The profiling is justified as merely factual 

and never racial. Their aim is to keep tabs and regularly 

check in on “sources of trouble”, in the hopes of quelling 

conflict before it arises. (See sidebar) 

Gottschlag and his colleagues return to their desks for the 

slog of paperwork that follows each patrol. “For every 10 

minutes of on-the-ground police work, there are 20 minutes 

of desk work,” admits the assistant chief. Such is life. 

The new sense of safety is palpable on Alex and the police 

hope their efforts and increased visibility will be reflected 

in the statistics for 2018, following last year’s increase in assaults, 

thefts and robberies on Alexanderplatz. “The feeling 

is that there are fewer groups around who might get into conflict 

with the law,” says the chief of the Alexanderplatz Wache 

Daniela Polti. If true, the question remains: if these “troubleprone 

groups” are no longer hanging out at Alex, where have 

they gone? n 

Q & A 

Daniela Polti, chief of 

Alexanderplatz Wache 

Has Alex gotten safer since the 

booth was set up? We don’t have 

the stats for 2018 yet. But the feeling 

is that there are fewer groups 

of people around who might get 

into conflict with the law. 

Why is crime so high on Alex 

anyway? Considering that 

around 360,000 people pass 

through every day, the crime rate 

is not terribly high. But obviously 

quite a lot of crimes are 

committed in such a concentrated 

area. 

Especially violent crime; there 

were 668 violent assaults and 

one murder in 2017! Those 

went up because last summer 

we had a particular issue with 

groups of young men from 

Syria, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan 

clashing with each other, often 

over ethnic, racial and religious 

differences. 

The Berlin police have been 

accused of racial profiling. 

We don’t have an issue with 

races, but with certain groups 

identified from our experience as 

sources of trouble. If you fit into 

one of these groups, then you’re 

more likely to be controlled. For 

example, before the immigration 

wave in 2015, we had trouble 

with “emotional punks” who 

were often drunk and took drugs 

in public, and occasionally committed 

assault. Today they're 

not so much of a problem. We 

always start with our knowledge 

of who is a source of crime, and 

that’s when we control them 

more. If the group is no longer 

causing trouble, then we stop 

checking them. It has nothing 

to do with racial profiling but 

rather how a particular group 

tends to behave. If we did racial 

profiling, we’d be stopping lots 

of black people, right? But we 

aren’t, because they are not the 

ones causing trouble. 

But you do check more young 

Middle Eastern people? These 

men are mostly very young, 

ranging from 18 to mid-twenties. 

The potential for groups of 

young men to drink and cause 

trouble is higher anyway, no 

matter where they come from. 

How are you navigating the 

role of police chief here as a 

woman? How many women 

work with you? [Laughs 

warmly] There are five women, 

including myself, working in the 

station now. It varies since most 

officers stay here for half a year 

and then transfer elsewhere. I 

feel it’s no problem commanding 

a team of men. I have a great 

team of young, serious and very 

dedicated guys. I do not feel my 

male co-workers have a problem 

with me being a woman. 

JUNE 2018 

17

FACES 

PLACES 

Interview 

OUT THIS 

MONTH! 

“I’m a pretty feminist guy” 

Iconic French director Agnès Varda on working with street-art star JR, 

the Oscars and old age. By Mars Yupilami 

If there’s one female star reigning over global cinema, 

it’s the 90-year-old Agnès Varda. Filmmaking 

pioneer, photographer, Nouvelle Vague veteran, 

installation artist. A humble eccentric and quiet feminist. 

Last year she made a sensation at the Academy Awards 

dancing with Angelina Jolie onstage after receiving an 

Honorary Oscar, the first woman to get the accolade as 

a director. Last month she was on Cannes’ red carpet 

leading the festival’s first women’s protest, together with 

Cate Blanchett. And exactly one year before, she was on 

the same steps with street-art star JR to present their 

film Visages Villages, a mischievously endearing journey 

à deux through rural France filled with cinema vérité 

moments that linger with you long past the film ends. 

How did you and JR meet? After Les Plages I didn’t intend 

to make another film. But then my daughter suggested 

we meet. So one day he dropped by my place; the 

next day I was at his studio. It was instantaneous: 

we immediately hit it off and we said, “We’ve got to 

do something together.” 

That’s typical of your way of working, right? Le hasard est 

mon assistant (luck is my assistant). Not only my assistant, 

but also my muse! I find inspiration in the streets just 

from looking around me. For The Gleaners and I, I was 

sitting in a café looking at people picking stuff up after 

a market – and it struck me as great topic for a film; and 

I almost immediately started shooting. It was the same 

here, there was no plan, just a quasi-instant desire to 

work together. 

and, to my eyes it qualified him as a pretty feminist 

guy – because, as you might know, I happen to be 

a very feminist ‘guy’ too. 

You’re both stars in your own right. Any clashes? We laughed 

a lot! And also he helped me laugh about my old age. 

Even my declining eyesight became an opportunity for 

a funny sequence, when JR tries to visualise how it feels 

to see as badly as I do. But that playfulness is only one 

aspect. The rest of this film is an honest documentary 

about the real-life people we met in those villages. 

How did you find all these amazing real-life characters? We 

got lucky. Like when we ran into Cartier Bresson’s grave. 

We were happy because we both love his work, so we 

decided to film there. It wasn’t planned. But mostly we 

got lucky with the people we met. They were amazing. I 

love them all. Take Didier, the man from the factory who 

was retiring the next day. I found him pretty moving. I 

noticed him because he was all dressed up… 

...and when you ask him what his plans are, he answers “How 

can I know, I’ve never retired before” – that’s cinema vérité 

for you! Yes, people always talk a lot about ‘retirement’ – 

about “when”, “how much” etc. but no one realises the 

truth of working for 35 years in a chemical plant and suddenly 

having to stop. We learnt a lot, JR and I. I also loved 

the woman who spoke for the rights of goats to keep their 

horns. We remained in contact with most of them. It’s not 

like those “hi and bye” TV shoots. We established a real 

relationship with each one of these people. 

You two make an unlikely couple: you’re tiny and a veteran 

of French cinema; he’s a tall street-art hipster, 55 years your 

junior. What attracted you to JR? I’d seen his work – his 

collages but also his documentary Women Are Heroes – 

It’s interesting how JR’s monumental portraits of normal 

people, which in many ways could stand for the narcissistic, 

exhibitionist culture we live in, become a social occasion 

once plastered on the public walls: people assemble and 


WHAT’S ON — Exhibitions 

9 decades in 9 dates 

1938: Born in Ixelles, Belgium, to 

a Greek father and a French 

mother 

1940: Moves to France, Sète 

first, then Paris to 

study photography 

1955: La Pointe Courte, 

her first film 

1962: Cléo from 5 to 7, 

her big breakthrough 

1985: Vagabond wins Venice 

Film Festival 

1991: Jacquot de Nantes, a tribute 

to her late husband, director 

Jacques Demy 

2003: Exhibits her potato installation 

at Venice Biennale 

2008: The Beaches of Agnès 

2017: Receives an Honorary 

Academy Award; Faces 

Places shortlisted for 

best documentary. 

exchange. It’s very festive... Creating a social 

link between the people and us, between 

the people who are exposed and those who 

watch, the people who got involved (cutting 

the images, etc.) and passers-by... it was crucial 

to us. And yes, it got festive. Those are 

ephemeral moments. But it counts in one’s 

life. Their lives. But also our lives. 

There is a prevalence of cameras in our lives. 

Don’t we live in an exhibitionist culture? When 

I was young you needed a real camera to 

take photos. And some skills. And time. Now 

they’ve all become photographers. And everyone’s 

become a video-artist – before people 

would shoot one mini home-video once every 

century to celebrate a birth or a marriage. 

Now people just film everything all the time, 

they do because they can. It’s easy. I think 

people have fun with their own image more 

and more. Me too! 

Last November you were in LA to receive an 

Academy Honorary Award for your life’s work. 

Why now? Of course, Oscars are mostly 

about commercial success, but inside the 

Academy Award jury there are some serious 

cinephiles and each year they pay tribute to 

a different kind of cinema. This year they 

chose me. It’s a vote – they probably thought 

“Who’s done good stuff and never got an 

award yet?” They came up with me. I was 

very pleased. 

You’re the first female director to get one. 

Does this mark a new era? Let’s not overdo 

it – the era of women becoming directors, 

producers, operators... is already upon 

us. Especially in France, we have a lot of 

female filmmakers. The problem is when 

it comes to recognition and power. That’s 

where we still need progress. Women are 

still not paid as much as men and don’t 

have the same professional prospects. I 

personally experimented with what we call 

today ‘gender parity’ a long time ago. In my 

film l’Une chante l’autre pas, I already had a 

50/50 team. 

By now you’ve pretty much received every award 

a man or a woman could aspire to... Not so 

much that, but I received much love and recognition 

from audiences around the world. 

I have fans all over, from Brazil to Korea. 

When I go there people know me and give 

me a lot of affection and sympathy. I’m aware 

it’s a fringe minority, but everywhere people 

who love cinema know me. I’m the queen of 

the film fringe! 

You’re known to be a little eccentric. When we 

talked seven years ago, you’d just changed your 

hairstyle to that bright two-colour bowl that’s 

become your signature look. Before that you’d 

showed up at Venice Biennale dressed like a 

potato (to match your installation). Anything 

since? Yes. I went to pick up my Oscar in my 

pyjamas. In PJ pants and a PJ top. n 

Musik für das 

denkende Ohr 

We don’t want to spoil anything, but the film 

ends on an uneasy note and it involves fellow 

New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard. Are you 

still friends with Godard? It’s always been a bit 

of a remote friendship. Last time we met was 

when he was making Socialism and he wanted 

to use a sequence from Les Plages d’Agnes, 

which I let him borrow for his film… But we 

don’t see each other much. He’s the loner 

type. He chose this particular behaviour. 

A copout? Yes, a copout, voilà. I sent the 

DVD to him. I’m sure he watched it and was 

amused by it, he’s got a sharp brain and a 

solid sense of humour. I have no problem 

with Jean-Luc. He’s got his life. I have mine. 

Das Programm 

der neuen Saison 

ab 1. Juni auf 

boulezsaal.de 

JUNE 2018 

19

WHAT’S ON — Film 

Editor’s Choice 

Growing pains 

The road to adulthood is littered with perilous obstacles 

in three of this month’s releases. By Paul O’Callaghan 

DON’T MISS 

Iranian Film Festival 

Hackesche Höfe 

Kino offers a fivenight 

crash course 

in contemporary 

Iranian cinema, 

with highlights 

including Shahram 

Mokri’s mind-bending 

post-apocalyptic 

murder mystery 

Invasion. Through 

Jun 3 

Anna May Wong 

Arsenal Kino celebrates 

Hollywood’s 

most iconic actress 

of Chinese descent, 

with a retrospective 

featuring pre- 

Code classics like 

Josef von Sternberg’s 

Shanghai 

Express. Jun 1-29 

EXBlicks: Nico, 1988 

Join us at Lichtblick 

Kino for an exclusive 

sneak peek at this 

acclaimed new biopic 

of the captivating 

Velvet Underground 

chanteuse, 

in the presence of 

director Susanna 

Nicchiarelli. Jun 12 

Greg Berlanti’s Love, Simon 

(photo) lands on German 

shores established as one of 

the year’s most heartening Hollywood 

success stories. Based on Becky 

Albertalli’s 2015 YA novel Simon vs. 

the Homo Sapiens Agenda, this breezy 

rom-com breaks new ground as the 

first studio teen movie to feature a 

gay protagonist. At the US box office, 

it swiftly outgrossed queer-themed 

critical darlings like Moonlight and 

Call Me by Your Name thanks to a wide 

release and stellar word-of-mouth. 

The key to its mainstream appeal undeniably 

lies in the balance it strikes 

between frankness and coyness. The 

film evokes a vivid sense of both the 

thrill of first love and the emotional 

turmoil of coming out, whilst steering 

well clear of eroticism – this may be 

the most chaste depiction of same-sex 

desire in screen history. But while this 

Disney-esque approach has rankled 

some queer commentators, director 

Greg Berlanti’s intention is clearly a 

noble one: to provide LGBTQ+ kids 

with the kind of life-affirming coming-of-age 

narrative that their straight 

counterparts have been happily consuming 

for decades. Only a smattering 

of subpar gags prevents this from 

claiming a place alongside Clueless and 

Mean Girls in the upper eche-lons of 

the teen movie pantheon. 

Puppy-eyed Simon (Nick Robinson) 

may suffer his share of anguish, 

but his life is positively peachy compared 

to that of Peter Graham (Alex 

Wolff), the tormented teen at the heart 

of Ari Aster’s relentless debut feature 

Hereditary. One of its great strengths 

is its slyly unpredictable first act, so I’ll 

keep things vague here. Suffice to say, 

the death of their matriarch takes an 

unimaginable toll on each member of 

the Graham clan, with Peter’s mother 

Annie (Toni Collette) and his maladjusted 

young sister Charlie (Milly 

Shapiro) left particularly grief-stricken. 

In the long run, however, it’s Peter 

who must bear the bulk of the family 

burden. For the most part, Hereditary 

is a slow-burning but utterly gripping 

study of grief and guilt, which almost 

lives up to the ecstatic early reviews 

that materialised in response to its 

Sundance premiere earlier this year. 

It’s therefore a little disappointing 

when things begin to hew closer to 

conventional horror territory, and the 

sense of creeping dread is punctured 

by some outlandish plot twists. Still, 

it’s among the most accomplished 

shockers in recent memory, with Collette 

on career-best form as a mother 

at her literal wit’s end. 

Jason Reitman delivered an 

incisive portrait of arrested development 

with his bruising 2011 black 

comedy Young Adult. In the wake of 

subsequent duds like Men, Women 

and Children (2014), he seems intent 

on recreating the magic of this 

relative career highpoint, reteaming 

with writer Diablo Cody and 

star Charlize Theron for another 

unflinching depiction of a woman 

struggling to navigate the adult 

world. Tully sees Theron disappear 

into the role of Marlo, a harrassed, 

sleep-deprived mother-of-three, 

who receives a night nanny – the 

titular Tully (Mackenzie Davis) – as 

a baby shower gift from her wealthy 

brother Craig (Mark Duplass). As 

the pair form a strangely intimate 

bond while they jointly care for a 

newborn, the quirky, free-spirited 

Tully forces Marlo to reckon with 

her own impulsive, immature tendencies. 

As a sharply-written, darkly 

comic glimpse at the horror of raising 

young children, there’s much to 

enjoy here. But its final act, at once 

audacious and derivative, is sure to 

prove deeply polarising. n 

Starts May 31 Tully D: Jason Reitman (US 2018) with Charlize Theron, 

Mackenzie Davis | Starts June 14 Hereditary D: Ari Aster (US 

2018) with Toni Collette, Alex Wolff | Starts June 28 Love, Simon 

D: Greg Berlanti (US 2018) with Nick Robinson, Jennifer Garner 

20 



Reviews 

Starts May 31 

Hostiles 

D: Scott Cooper (US 2018) 

with Christian Bale, Rosamund Pike 

Hostiles 

Scott Cooper masterfully marshals brutal 

shootouts and elegiac moments in his first film 

since 2015’s underwhelming gangster drama 

Black Mass. Hostiles is a stern, deliberately 

paced genre piece that will delight fans of the 

old west. It’s a straightforward tale of a 

brooding army captain (Bale) who reluctantly 

escorts a dying Cheyenne chief (Wes Studi) and 

his family to their home as the territorial wars 

die down. Bale and Studi are astounding, 

delivering some of their finest work in years. 

The film is moodily shot by cinematographer 

Masanobu Takayanagi, whose exquisite craft is 

coupled with Max Richter’s plaintive score. 

The cumulative effect of the hypnotic landscapes 

and soundscapes ensures that Hostiles 

can hold its head high alongside recent 

revisionist western gems like The Homesman 

and Slow West. — David Mouriquand 

Starts June 14 

Pope Francis: 

A Man of His Word 

D: Wim Wenders (Switzerland, 

Holy See, Italy, Germany, France 2018) 

Offering a rare chance to see the world 

through the window of a popemobile, Wim 

Wenders’ new doc gets intimate with the allsmiles 

Pope Francis by following him around 

the world and through exclusive sit-down 

interviews. It’s surprisingly compelling to sit 

back and observe Francis eloquently addressing 

social injustice in his own humorous and 

charismatic manner. His empathetic nature 

shines even when he’s not speaking — during 

one particularly moving scene, he recognises 

the inadequacy of language and offers a 

moment of silence while visiting survivors of 

Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban. Sadly, an incessantly 

laudatory tone ensures that the film is 

ultimately little more than glossy propaganda 

– parallels drawn between our protagonist 

and his namesake St. Francis of Assisi feel 

particularly sycophantic. — Yun-hua Chen 


The Sense of an Ending 

D: Ritesh Batra (UK, US 2017) with 

Jim Broadbent, Charlotte Rampling 

Adapted from Julian Barnes’ Booker-winning 

novel, this elegantly restrained drama is 

anchored by stellar central performances. 

Upon receiving an unsettling letter, divorced 

retiree Tony Webster (Broadbent) sinks deep 

into unreliable memories to reflect on his 

failed first love from college and the unresolved 

fall-out with his talented best friend 

Adrian (Joe Alwyn), while trying to reconnect 

with his ex-wife (Harriet Walter) and expectant 

daughter (Michelle Dockery) in the present. 

Mystery is well maintained through the 

intercutting between flashbacks, new leads 

and subsequently revised memories; in a 

playfully postmodern manner, the “sense of an 

ending” finds itself in fragmentation, as Tony 

probes his own past and attempts to find an 

anchor for the present. A subtly melancholy 

and gently entertaining film. — YC 


The Rider 

D: Chloé Zhao (US 2017) 

with Brady Jandreau, Lilly Jandreau 

In this assured sophomore feature, Chloé 

Zhao riffs on the life experiences of her 

non-professional cast to deliver an authentic 

slice of rural Americana. It revolves around 

rodeo champ Brady (Jandreau), who is 

recovering from a serious head injury. It’s 

clear from the get-go that the damage goes 

beyond the physical, as the protruding 

staples on the side of his shaved head have 

also clearly shaken his sense of self. The 

first-time actor is mesmerising as he essentially 

relives the traumatic aftermath of his 

accident and the heartbreak of a doctormandated 

riding ban. This neo-western 

soulfully grapples with themes of wounded 

masculinity and the fragile myth of the 

American Dream without ever indulging in 

easy platitudes. A low-key triumph. — DM 

The Rider 

20.4.– 

22.7.18 

Covered in Time 

and History: 

Die Filme von 

Ana 

Mendieta 

Gropius Bau 

Niederkirchnerstr. 7, 10963 Berlin 

www.gropiusbau.de 

Mendieta, Untitled: Silueta Series, 1978, Super 8 film, colour, silent, 

© The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC., Courtesy Galerie 

Lelong & Co.

REVIEWS 

Figlia Mia 

(Daughter of Mine) 

D: Laura Bispuri 

(Italy, Germany, 

Switzerland 2018) 

Bispuri’s Sardiniaset 

melodrama is an 

emotional exploration 

of (disputed) 

motherhood that 

benefits from stellar 

central performances 

by Valeria Golino 

and Alba Rohrwacher. 

Starts May 31 

Goodbye 

Christopher Robin 

D: Simon Curtis 

(UK 2017) 

This Winnie the 

Pooh origin story 

about its PTSD-suffering 

author and 

the inspiration 

behind his famous 

creation is an inoffensive 

prestige film 

that you’ve seen a 

million times before. 

Starts Jun 7 

Swimming With Men 

D: Oliver Parker 

(UK 2018) 

“ I didn’t want to 

make a biopic” 

An award-winner at the Venice 

Film Festival, Nico 1988 

explores the ageing star’s 

struggle to be remembered for 

more than the men she inspired and 

worked with in her glorious youth, 

from Andy Warhol to Lou Reed. 

What made you want to specifically 

focus on Nico’s twilight 

years? I didn’t want to make a 

biopic. I wanted to move away 

from the traditional fame-thendecadence 

framework. It was an 

opportunity to say something on 

how complex a person’s life really 

is, which you normally don’t see 

in the movies. Nico didn’t die at 

27 – her life actually went on for a 

good 20 years after the parts everybody 

knows. So it was much more 

interesting from a creative standpoint 

to focus on those final years, 

because that’s also when she made 

her own music and repaired some 

of the mistakes she made when she 

was very young. Also, according to 

most biopics, it seems as if youth 

is the only interesting part. And it’s 

almost better if people die young, 

because then the myth is kept alive, 

which is something I’ve always 

hated and don’t believe in. A person’s 

life becomes more interesting 

as you grow up. 


Italian director Susanna Nicchiarelli on Nico, 1988, 

or the last three years in the life of Christa 

Päffgen, aka pop icon Nico. By David Mouriquand 

EXCLUSIVE 

EXBLICKS 

PREVIEW 

June 12 at 

Lichtblick Kino 

A lot of biopics also use nostalgia. 

How important was it for you 

not to fall into that trap? Very 

important, and I’m glad you mention 

nostalgia. That’s something I 

loved about Nico – you could tell in 

all her interviews that she was not a 

nostalgic person. I fell in love with 

the character because of that. She was 

very ironic and the relationship she 

had with her past was very healthy. 

I find her very inspiring, as I believe 

that being nostalgic is often an excuse 

not to live your present. 

What sources did you use 

for your screenplay? I met with 

her son, Ari, who was the main 

source for many reasons, mainly 

emotionally. I also interviewed her 

then-manager Alan Wise, and spoke 

to several musicians, and through 

these encounters came many anecdotes 

and stories which I included 

in the screenplay. 

Can you talk about the casting 

of Trine Dyrholm (The Celebration, 

The Commune), who 

plays Nico? I needed a strong woman 

to help me with this character, because 

Nico wasn’t an easy person and 

I wanted to tell the ‘real’ Nico, the 

woman behind the icon. So I needed 

an actress that could make her real 

and empathic at the same time. The 

coincidence was that Trine was also a 

singer – when she was very young she 

came in second or third at the Eurovision 

Song Contest! She has a great 

voice, and we re-recorded all of Nico’s 

songs in the studio before shooting. 

We found the character through the 

music, and I needed the live performances 

in the film to be really live. I 

didn’t want to play Nico’s songs and 

have Trine mime along. 

She isn’t a dead-ringer for Nico… 

No, she isn’t! (laughs) But whoever 

I would have chosen to play the 

role would have not been a lookalike. 

It allowed me to be freer with 

the character. That’s also another 

thing I dislike about typical Hollywood 

biopics. They usually stress 

the physical resemblance too much, 

and it usually means that you lose 

a great deal with regards to the 

interpretation. 

The film shows how Nico seemed 

to always be defined by her past, 

specifically by men like Warhol, 

Lou Reed, Brian Jones… I tried to 

talk about that without necessarily 

mentioning the men by name. Jim 

Morrison was one of the rare ones 

because Nico would mention him all 

the time, but for a different reason 

– it was Morrison’s idea for Nico to 

write her own songs. What I think is 

very annoying is the fact that people 

have always been talking about Nico 

through the men she slept with. It 

happens far too often with many 

female figures. Nico did so much 

more with her life in her later years, 

especially when she wasn’t the 

image in somebody else’s hands. n 

This painfully unfunny, 

cheap-looking 

Britcom about 

male bonding feels 

like it was cobbled 

together in the late 

90s to cash in on 

the success of The 

Full Monty Starts 

Jun 7 

22 



Previews 

19), featuring a mesmerising turn by 

Schroeter’s long-time muse, the late 

Magdalena Montezuma. — WC 

Through Aug 12 

Akademie der Künste, Mitte 

Kippa Kino 

Queer pioneers 

The Jewish Film Festival Berlin 

& Brandenburg fights false 

facts with film. 

“By-Products of Love” champions 

three giants of local underground 

cinema. 

All summer long, the Akademie der 

Künste celebrates the careers and 

friendship of Elfi Mikesch, Rosa von 

Praunheim and Werner Schroeter, three 

iconic directors of German underground 

queer film. Through an exhibition, screenings 

and events featuring big-name guests, 

“By-Products of Love” offers a comprehensive 

primer in the work of these 

postwar children of West Germany – work 

that offers radical perspectives on life, 

death, sexuality, gender and art. Hailed for 

his brash political films, flamboyant style 

and outspokenness, Rosa von Praunheim 

is the best-known of the three. On June 

3, you can catch him in conversation with 

protégés Julia von Heinz, Axel Ranisch, 

Robert Thalheim and Tom Tykwer. Elfi 

Mikesch, winner of the 2014 Berlinale 

Teddy lifetime achievement award, will 

be present for a talk hosted by author 

Claudia Lenssen on June 16. The bond 

between the trio is perhaps best exemplified 

by Mikesch’s excellent Mondo Lux: Die 

Bildwelten des Werner Schroeter (screening 

June 26), which features one-time lovers 

Schroeter and Praunheim in front of the 

camera. And don’t miss Schroeter’s 1980 

masterpiece Palermo oder Wolfsburg (June 

Celebrating the 70th anniversary of 

Israel in trying times, the Jewish 

Film Festival Berlin & Brandenburg 

returns for its 24th edition. This 10-day 

celebration of Israeli cinema and Jewish 

culture has adopted the timely slogan “No 

Fake Jews”, and vows to fight alternative 

facts through fearless storytelling and by 

surfacing lesser-known aspects of Jewish 

history. Documentary standouts include 

Eliav Lilti’s compelling animated biopic 

Kishon, about the author and satirist 

Ephraim Kishon; and Remember Baghdad, 

Fiona Murphy’s powerful chronicle of five 

Jewish families who look back on growing 

up in Iraqi “paradise”, before 1967’s Six 

Day War changed everything. A misreported 

fact has devastating consequences 

in Samuel Maoz’ Foxtrot, a highlight of the 

fiction feature line-up. This multi awardwinning, 

three-pronged story opens with 

a middle-aged couple being told terrible 

news about their soldier son. The film 

serves emotionally shredding and darkly 

humorous twists, and packs a potent 

satirical sting in its tail. Meanwhile, 

concealed desire takes centre-stage in 

Disobedience, Sebastián Lelio’s acclaimed 

tale of lesbian love in London’s Orthodox 

Jewish community. — PO’C 

Jun 26 - Jul 5 Various locations, full 

programme at jfbb.de 

24 th Jewish Film Festival 

Berlin & Brandenburg 

June 26 – July 5 2018 

jfbb.de 

ein tanzstück 

15—17 

21— 24 

juni 

27—30 

uhr 

jeweils20 30 

EBERSWALDER STRASSE 10 10437 BERLIN 

EINTRITT: 18 / 14 / 10 EURO 

TICKETS ONLINE: WWW.HALLE-TANZ-BERLIN.DE 

TELEFON: 

440 44 292 

premiere 

Kishon 

JUNE 2018

WHAT’S ON — Music 


Remember your first time? 

Have you ever seen a global superstar in concert before 

they were known? This might be your lucky month. 

By Michael Hoh 

MUSIC NEWS 

Belated debut 

After 20 years on 

the circuit, Berlin 

house duo Âme 

finally releases their 

debut album, Dream 

House (Innervisions/ 

Muting The Noise) ft. 

acts from Matthew 

Herbert to Gudrun 

Gut. Jun 1 

Breakthrough EP 

After supporting Hercules 

& Love Affair on 

tour last year, Mikey 

is on the path to 

cause a stir beyond 

the queer nightlife 

scene with an aptly 

named debut EP 

Paths Jun 8 

Brand-new album 

After almost a 

decade, the Berlin 

producer collective 

Jazzanova finally 

drops their new 

album The Pool 

via their very own 

Sonar Kollektiv label 

on Jun 29 

Stories about the first time 

a now successful musician 

came into town are usually 

steeped in myth and met with awe. 

“So and so played such a small 

venue with only 30 people in the 

audience? You’re so lucky that 

you had the chance to attend!” 

The person telling the story most 

likely doesn’t remember the gig 

at all because they were having a 

smoke outside or chatting at the 

bar, waiting for the main act to 

get on stage. Before Adele became 

an international icon, the boys of 

Karrera Klub organised her first 

Berlin gig at raggedy Rosi’s of all 

places. David Bowie played his first 

Berlin show at the now demolished 

Deutschlandhalle in April 1976. In 

our interview, former Kitty-Yo label 

boss Patrick Wagner mentions 

Nirvana’s sold-out Berlin gig at 

Loft in 1991, but almost no one remembers 

their 1989 support show 

at Ecstasy, a club that has been rebranded 

as Havanna, the salsa and 

merengue venue. If you weren’t 

fortunate enough to be around for 

any of those Berlin premieres, you 

now have the chance. This month’s 

picks presents you with myriad 

first-timers that just may become 

tomorrow’s legends. 

Let’s start with the most popular 

of the bunch: Hollywood Vampires. 

Born out of a nostalgic Schnapsidee 

to honour the eponymous bar, 

the supergroup, comprising actor 

Johnny Depp, glam rocker Alice 

Cooper and Aerosmith’s masterfully 

coiffed lead guitarist Joe 

Perry, celebrate their first Berlin 

appearance with a gig at Zitadelle 

Spandau. This could potentially 

turn into a cringe-worthy showcase 

of rock ‘n’ roll clichés, but 

what the heck, when will you ever 

see Captain Jack Sparrow rocking 

a guitar again? 

Hailing from Brooklyn, Yaeji 

(photo) appeared on the scene last 

year with two dreamy house-enthused 

EPs. Even though her songs 

“New York 93” or her infinitely 

catchy “Raingurl” gathered millions 

of clicks, she’s still on the up-andcoming 

side, giving her debut Berlin 

performance at Prince Charles. 

Javiera Mena, on the other hand, 

has been around for almost two 

decades. As one of Chile’s first 

openly lesbian singers, she’s known 

to address sexism and discrimination 

with catchy electro-pop songs 

and surreal videos tinged in retro 

computer graphics. Intimate venue 

Bi Nuu will give you a chance to 

see the South American superstar 

close up, playing songs off her new 

fourth album Espejo. LA-based 

violinist and vocalist Brittney 

Denise Parks aka Sudan Archives 

presents densely percussive R&B 

inspired by North African folk music 

as heard on her self-titled 2017 

debut EP and the Sink EP released 

this May. This month Sudan 

Archives debuts her new tracks 

on stage at Yaam. 

Technically most members of 

Loma have already played their first 

gigs in Berlin: Jonathan Maeiurg 

as the singer of indie rock formation 

Shearwater; Emily Cross and 

Dan Duszynski belong to folk outfit 

Cross Record. However, under the 

guise of Loma, a beautiful slowcore 

amalgam of the two projects, they 

released their self-titled debut album 

just this year, which they will 

premiere to a Berlin live audience 

at Musik & Frieden. So, who do you 

plan to see first this month? n 

Hollywood Vampires Jun 4, 19:00 Zitadelle Spandau, Spandau | Yaeji Jun 6, 

21:00 Prince Charles, Kreuzberg | Javiera Mena Jun 8, 21:00 Bi Nuu, Kreuzberg 

| Sudan Archives Jun 13, 20:00 Yaam, Kreuzberg | Loma Jun 18, 20:30 

Musik & Frieden, Kreuzberg 

24 



Verbatim 

Hanna Sturm 

Longterm Berlin musician Dena 

on her new love for demo recordings 

“ 

A lot has happened in the city’s indie music scene as a 

community. It feels like an upgrade compared to 10 years 

ago. Also, Berlin now is my home. I feel like I’ve settled 

down here, and it’s really cool when living in Berlin leads to collaborations 

and joint projects with other locals over the years. 

Anton [Teichmann] from Mansion and Millions, who I will 

release my new album with, for instance, the people from Torstraßen 

Festival, or people like Kevin [Halpin], who’s been 

doing Shameless/Limitless. I’ve known some of them for so 

many years. It’s like family. 

With my upcoming album, the biggest difference is that I’ve been 

more involved with the production side. The idea was to combine 

my electronic production with more organic vibes. I have found that 

my demos are solid. They contain everything I want to convey with 

my music. That made me realise that ‘I got the power’. [Laughs.] 

My new record is a very raw and personal album. The demo songs 

of my first album were just as rough, and I felt it was time for me to 

stick with that immediate vibe instead of distorting or unnecessarily 

overproducing it. A song doesn’t need super fancy top 40 charts style 

production to be good. I see it as a new path I’m embarking on, 

and I’m excited about what’s going to happen.” — MH 

Dena Jun 9, 20:00 Exberliner Turns 16 at Ballhaus Berlin, 

Torstraßen Festival, Mitte 

Tips 

Clubbing 

10 Years of Arma Having been forced out of Moscow, 

Russian techno party promoters Arma became international 

club vagabonds. To celebrate their 10th anniversary, 

they’ll take over Funkhaus for 24 hours Jun 2, 20:00 

10 Years of Killekill For 10 years, Killekill has been “killing 

boredom” on Berlin’s dance floors. Join the debaucherous 

birthday bash boasting an international line-up of DJs and 

live acts at Griessmühle. Jun 8, 23:59 

Kompakt Open Air The legendary Cologne-based electronic 

label takes over Else this month ringing in the openair 

season with Michael Mayer, Reinhard Voigt, The Orb’s 

Thomas Fehlmann and others. Jun 10, 14:00 

FESTIVAL 

INFEK 

TION! 

for contemporary music theatre 

2 8 

JUNE — 5 

JULY 

TI VEDO, TI SENTO, MI PERDO 

Salvatore Sciarrino 

MUSICAL DIRECTOR Maxime Pascal 

DIRECTOR Jürgen Flimm 

7 (Premiere) 9 11 13 15 July Grosser Saal 

Coproduction with Teatro alla Scala di Milano 

EIN PORTRÄT DES KÜNSTLERS ALS TOTER 

Davide Carnevali / Franco Bridarolli 

28 (Premiere) 30 June 1 4 6 8 July Neue Werkstatt 

Coproduction with Münchener Biennale 

KAMMERKONZERTE 

contemporary music from Berlin composers 

5 12 14 July Apollosaal and Neue Werkstatt 

Berlin in English since 2002 

JUNE 2018 

Medienpartner 

STAATSOPER-BERLIN.DE


DON’T MISS 

Ribera Winesound Fest 

The Spanish Sonorama 

Festival takes 

over Festsaal 

Kreuzberg with 

performances by 

Sidonie, Iván Ferreiro, 

Kid Simius and 

others plus wine 

tastings and tapas 

workshops. 

Jun 2, 12:00 

Interkosmos III 

For all your krauty, 

droney, post punky 

needs, head to 

Urban Spree for 

the third iteration 

of Interkosmos 

with Damo Suzuki 

Network, Cummi 

Flu, Blue Crime and 

others. Jun 9, 17:00 

Driftmachine 

The Berlin-based 

duo takes over Arkaoda 

with its eerie 

electro soundscapes, 

celebrating the release 

of Shunter. 

Jun 21, 20:00 

Fête de la musique 

Spread across 100+ 

locations, the massive 

free-for-all 

music festival has 

been hitting Berlin 

streets for over two 

decades. This year, 

it’ll cover some new 

grounds with a focus 

on Lichtenberg. 

Jun 21, 16:00 

Interview 

“ Violence is everywhere” 

Paddy Close 

Upon his return to the stage, Patrick Wagner of 

noise rock band Gewalt talks about the cruelty 

of hipster coffee and the solidarity that helped 

overcome his fears. By Michael Hoh 

In the 1990s Patrick Wagner had hit 

the jackpot. His indie label Kitty- 

Yo, home to Peaches and Chilly 

Gonzales, was a worldwide success, 

and his noise rock band Surrogat was 

on course to stardom as well. But it 

wasn’t meant to last. In 2003 he split 

with Surrogat and Kitty-Yo folded 

three years later. When his attempt 

at running another label, Louisville 

Records, failed in 2010, Wagner disappeared 

from the music scene entirely. 

He started managing a youth football 

team and brought the FuckUp Nights 

to Berlin, encouraging people to talk 

about their fears and business failures. 

Luckily for us, Wagner finally returned 

to the stage together with Helen Henfling 

and Yelka Wehmeier in the guise 

of Gewalt. We talked to Wagner 

before the “violent” noise rock trio’s 

not-so-regular gig at Kunsthalle 

Neukölln on June 17. 

You’ve been away from the 

stage for so long, what made 

you come back? I haven’t been making 

music for 13 years or so because I 

had become scared of two things: the 

stage itself, and that my lyrics weren’t 

good enough. When Helen approached 

me telling me she was also nervous 

about playing the guitar, we said, okay, 

we’re two angst-ridden people, let’s 

get a rehearsal room. So we went and 

wrote “Pandora”. The experience of 

writing this song was very powerful. 

We both had goosebumps because 

neither of us knew what would happen. 

It was clear we had to give in to 

this violent eruption. Gewalt is larger 

than the sum of its parts – also it is big 

enough for us to hide behind. 

Where is all that violence you’re 

talking about? It’s everywhere. If 

I have to go out and get a coffee for 

€3.80, that’s violence. If I want to 

drink that coffee, I have to do everything 

wrong in my life. I need to take 

a shitty job and live in a gentrified 

neighbourhood. All this for a damn 

coffee. That’s crazy. Just look at how 

many people go to therapy or take 

Prozac. We are functional beings in 

sick employment relationships. 

Many see employment as offering 

them security, though. But that’s a 

lie. Then you’re afraid to lose your 

job, to fail and to tell your colleagues 

and bosses the truth. You degrade 

yourself to an I-hope-I-don’t-doanything-wrong 

kind of person, 

MY PLAYLIST 

by Patrick Wagner 

1-Neil Young Harvest 

“My love for the artist and album 

which my sister made me listen to 

when I was 13 has survived all trends.” 

2-Richard Wagner 

Tristan und Isolde 

“The most beautiful music ever written. 

“Liebestod” is the only possible 

soundtrack to the apocalypse.” 

3-Sonic Youth 

Daydream Nation 

“We drove to Amsterdam, bought 

the album and some hash, and 

listened to it for three days in a row. 

We felt untouchable.” 

4-Gewalt “So geht die 

Geschichte” 

“I’ve always tried to hit the mark with 

straightforward words, and I didn’t 

think it possible. This is my revelation 

and liberation.” 

and you start wasting your life. 

Why would you do that for illusory 

security? Allianz is the biggest insurance 

company worldwide. Imagine 

how much fear that embodies. Their 

assets are a measurable quantity of 

our fears. 

Any Berlin concert memories 

that stand out? In 1988, I saw Nirvana 

live, together with 60 people 

in Heidelberg. Thanks to my music 

taste I’ve been on the sidelines since 

my youth. When Nevermind came 

out in 1991, I’d just moved to Berlin, 

and thanks to their supporting act 

Urge Overkill, I was on the guest list 

for their sold-out gig at Loft. 3000 

people without tickets stood on 

Nollendorfplatz only to be in their 

vicinity. Urge Overkill’s drummer 

Blacky led me through the crowd 

and directly into the backstage area. 

I was 21, and for the first and only 

time, I felt right about myself and 

my music taste. I was mainstream. 

What about your show in June? 

Our concert at Kunsthalle Neukölln 

is not a regular concert. The exhibition 

there is called Inseln, and the 

artist asked us to play our song by the 

same name. It’s not part of our set 

list anymore because we were a little 

bored with it. It’s just too bluesy and 

conventional. But now we’re going to 

play it 10 times in a row. n 



Preview 

Berlin’s finest at Torstraßen Festival 

From folk rock to piano pop, minimalist 

dance music and DJ sets, Torstraßen 

Festival covers all bases – and hosts 

Exberliner ’s 16th birthday bash. 

The cityscape around Torstraße might change faster than 

you can say “Rosenthaler Platz”, but luckily there are a few 

constants in the annual event calendar that keep the old 

Mitte spirit alive and kicking. Celebrating its eighth iteration this 

year, Torstraßen Festival is one of them. Spread across three days 

and nine venues, the music festival, once again, showcases mustsee 

international acts sharing the stage with some of the most 

exceptional local talents Berlin has to offer. 

Even though Torstraßen Festival mainly takes place on Saturday, 

the opening party at Acud Macht Neu, featuring Neukölln 

Country Club and plenty of karaoke at the adjacent Acud Galerie 

shouldn’t be missed. Don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of time to 

sleep off your hangover as the first acts on Saturday won’t take 

the stage before 2pm. But make sure to come early to make the 

most of this multi-genre music feast. 

Lean back with pianist Tom Rogerson, who recently recorded 

an album with Brian Eno; discover your inner “Goth Bitch” with 

Icelandic Countess Malaise; practice minimalist dance moves to 

Catnapp’s reduced rap concoctions; celebrate the “golden age of 

matriarchy” with Austrian Klitclique; get comfy with Saba Lou’s 

dreamy folk tunes; or let yourself be blown away by Tianzhuo 

Chen and his mesmerising theatrics. Of course, yours truly is also 

part of the Torstraßen shenanigans once more. After synth-laden 

performances by Sequoyah Tiger and Sean Nicholas Savage on 

our very own Exberliner stage at Ballhaus Berlin, King Ayisoba will 

kick off a night of debaucherous partying with headliner Dena and 

Exberliner’s DJ Walter Crasshole behind the decks. The understated 

dance antics of Berlin regular Alex Cameron, Lido Pimienta’s 

piercing vocal escapades and Italo pop goodness by Itaca will 

ring out the festival at Volksbühne on Sunday. — MH 

Torstraßen Festival 2018 Jun 8-10, various venues 

Tips 

Classical and Contemporary 

LENNY KRAVITZ 

105‘5 SPREERADIO PRIVATKONZERT 

12.06.18 · Zitadelle 

KIEFER SUTHERLAND 

12.06.18 · Columbia Theater 

DEAD CROSS (FEAT. MIKE PATTON, 

MIKE CRAIN, JUSTIN PEARSON,DAVE LOMBARDO) 

03.07.18 · SO36 

ANDERSON . PAAK 

& THE FREE NATIONALS 

10.07.18 · Columbiahalle 

D´ANGELO 


SANTANA 

+ SEBEL 


INCUBUS 


A-HA 

105‘5 SPREERADIO PRIVATKONZERT 


LES NÉGRESSES VERTES 

18.09.18 · Frannz 

HALSEY 


FORT/DA II Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop clash with 

dancer Philipp Enders, theatre collective copy & waste 

and producer Rashad Becker to bring out the emo side 

of Franz Schubert, Philip Glass, Verdi and others at 

Radialsystem V. Jun 2 & 3, 20:00 

Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto: Two The German 

producer and the Japanese pianist/composer will take 

their latest album Glass to the stage during a rare 

performance at Funkhaus. Jun 13, 18:30 

Spectrum Concerts Berlin The ensemble ends its 30th 

season with renditions of Erich Korngold and Sergei 

Tanejew at Kammermusiksaal. Jun 19, 20:00 

JUNE 2018 

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT 

+ THE HIDDEN CAMERAS 

17.07.18 · Apostel-Paulus-Kirche 

THE HOOTERS 

18.07.18 · Columbia Theater 

AMY MACDONALD 


BAD RELIGION 


STEEL PANTHER 

+ BATTLE BEAST + KISSIN‘ DYNAMITE 


WWW.TRINITYMUSIC.DE 

SUEDE 

+ GWENNO + MARK FERNYHOUGH 


KOVACS 

16.10.18 · Huxleys 

THE MARCUS KING BAND 

19.10.18 · Festsaal Kreuzberg 

MACY GRAY 

31.10.18 · Astra Kulturhaus 

JOHN GRANT 

14.11.18 · Astra Kulturhaus

GIG 

LISTINGS 

June 

YOUR GUIDE TO CONCERTS 

AND EVENTS THIS MONTH 

AND BEYOND. 

The Americans 

18.06.18 Badehaus Szimpla 

The Wood Brothers 

15.09.18 Privatclub 

S. Carey 

21.09.18 Privatclub 

Sam Vance-Law 

26.10.18 Lido 

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks 

29.10.18 Lido 

Neko Case 

01.11.18 Bi Nuu 

And You Will Know Us 

By The Trail Of Dead 

11.06.18 Bi Nuu 

Albert Hammond Jr. 

05.07.18 Musik & Frieden 

damien dempsey - candice gordon - nina hynes - tau 

richie heffernan - dee mulrooney - fontaines 

john connors - mary kelly - a.s.fanning 

eva garland - turloch o broin 

steppenkind - pearly 

& many more... 

Berlin in English since 2002 

music 

visual art 

theatre - film 

poetry - dance 

lock-in sing song 

sunday brunch wake 

spectacle & carnival 

alternative Irish music & arts festival 

craw 

22-24 june KultstätteKeller - Neukölln www.craw.space 

Tunng 

04.11.18 Lido 

Shakey Graves 

04.11.18 Heimathafen Neukölln 

Israel Nash 

19.11.18 Festsaal Kreuzberg 

Ariel Pink 

06.08.18 Festsaal Kreuzberg 

José James 

13.09.18 Heimathafen Neukölln 

Okkervil River 

26.09.18 Lido 

TICKETS UND INFOS: SCHONEBERG.DE 

TICKETS UND INFOS: SCHONEBERG.DE 

präsentiert von 

THE EARLY DAYS, BRIT POP & BEYOND 1980-2010 

01.06.2018 | LIDO | Karrera Klub DJs | British.Music.Club | King Kong Kicks 

COURTNEY BARNETT 

KING TUFF 

23.08.2018 

KANTINE AM BERGHAIN 

GOAT GIRL 

21.09.2018 | LIDO 

11.06.2018 | ASTRA KULTURHAUS 

BURT BACHARACH 

14.07.2018 | ADMIRALSPALAST 

WHITE DENIM 

13.11.2018 | KANTINE AM BERGHAIN 

OLIVER POLAK 

26.01.2019 | GROSSER SENDESAAL DES RBB 

Info & Tickets: www.karreraklub.de 

I HEART SHARKS 

15.09.2018 | LIDO 

DARWIN DEEZ 

26.09.2018 | BINUU 

INTERGALATIC LOVERS 

15.12.2018 | BADEHAUS 

28 EXBERLINER 155

WHAT’S ON — Stage 

“How shall I begin?” 

German actor Nico Holonics on playing The Tin Drum 

alone on stage, in English. By Lily Kelting 

Birgit Hupfeld 


Holonics, 34, first looks 

very serious. And then he 

smiles – a big, warm, goofy 

gap-toothed smile – and you see it: 

Oskar Matzerath. The protagonist 

of Günter Grass’ The Tin Drum is a 

kind of reverse Benjamin Button – 

born with the mind of an adult, he 

refuses to grow older, screaming 

and drumming incessantly on a tin 

drum as World War II rages around 

him. Holonics has been telling the 

story alone on the German stage for 

four years now. In June, he performs 

the monologue for the first time in 

English at the Berliner Ensemble. 

Why an English-language version? 

[Berliner Ensemble intendent]Oliver 

Reese asked me to do 

it as a monologue in 2014 when the 

Russian director who was supposed 

to do an ensemble version became 

ill during the rehearsals. We had 

like 55 shows in Frankfurt before 

coming to the BE, and then I wanted 

a new challenge. I have always been 

jealous of opera singers, who can 

go to New York, to the Met, and do 

their Traviata there, and then to 

Milan – I wanted to try that, have 

a version that works on international 

stages. And this piece is my 

baby, you know? In Munich I played 

Richard III in my twenties and Oskar 

Matzerath is the role of my thirties. 

I wanted to make it bigger and not 

just stay in Berlin, or go to Vienna. 

Have you noticed a difference 

between audiences in Frankfurt 

and in Berlin? In Frankfurt 

at a certain point I knew what my 

audience was. And here in Berlin 

it’s changing every evening. In the 

first half hour they are often very 

distant. But then the ice breaks, and 

beneath it there’s much more going 

on. And in the end it’s a standing 

ovation. You have to gain their trust 

again every night. You have to tell it 

all again. The first line of the play is 

“How shall I begin?” and it’s also a 

question for the actor himself. How 

shall I begin this show? Two hours 

alone on the stage, it’s claustrophobic. 

It goes very fast and there is no 

one to help you out. 

What is your relationship like 

with Oskar? It’s a feast for an actor, 

to play such a prismatic person. 

He is so sad and also so offensively 

abysmal. I’m thinking of the horrible 

sex scene with the Brausepulver – 

that is very hard, physically. It’s like 

a whole life condensed into two 

hours. Three or four days after the 

show I still feel it in my body. 

That’s the alone-on-stage effect, 

right? Yes, you can’t fake it. And you 

can’t fake it for two hours. Maybe in 

another show, you can say to yourself, 

“I’ll phone it in for one scene, 

I’m not really feeling it.” But here, 

no. “Show your wounds,” Joseph 

Beuys demanded, and Oliver Reese 

said it to me in rehearsals – the performance 

is completely open, except 

that I need to show the woundedness 

of this boy. 

Both Tin Drum the novel and 

the film are quite classic! Was 

that intimidating? No, not at all. 

The very first time I read the novel 

was during those rehearsals in 2014. 

We actually met Grass in his house 

near Lübeck. He was really friendly, 

really curious. He was surprised 

that no one before us had had the 

idea to do it as a monologue. At one 

point I was alone with Grass in his 

garden, for three or five minutes, 

in silence. And Grass, who was very 

small, smoking a pipe, said to me, “I 

am so proud that a young actor like 

you loves my text so much that he is 

learning it by heart.” That touched 

me and remains with me to this day. 

He wrote novels: probably no one 

had memorised his texts before. 

And now you are learning it all 

again in English. Yes! “I was one 

of those clairaudient infants whose 

mental development is complete at 

birth and thereafter only to be confirmed.” 

The language is so perfect! 

The Tin Drum Jun 20, 19:30 Berliner 

Ensemble, Mitte 

DON’T MISS 

Infektion! Festival 

New Opera has been 

intendant Jürgen 

Flimm’s big spring 

festival idea since 

he started with the 

Staatsoper. Now you 

can catch the first 

wave of the atonal 

avantgarde on Unter 

den Linden. 

28 Jun-15 Jul 

Detroit what! 

Not sure if Detroit 

and Berlin are one 

circle, as the festival 

at HAU suggests, 

but the concerts, 

installations and films 

celebrating artistic 

practice (and, mostly, 

underground techno 

scenes) in both cities 

seem pretty bumping. 

May 30-Jun 1 

Radar Ost 

DT’s annual new 

playwriting fest looks 

east and presents 

new works from 

Georgia, Lithuania, 

and Poland. Plus 

even if Yael Ronan’s 

model of authorship 

is not so new 

to Berlin, who could 

resist a biting, cynical 

documentary ensemble 

piece about 

bleeding hearts, 

Gutmenschen? 

Jun 1-3 

JUNE 2018 

29

Bernhardt Musil 

Festival Preview 

P.A.F. 

JUNE 5-10 

present in Berlin. Syrian playwright Mohammed Al- 

Attar, whose Aeschylus adaptation kicked off the new 

Volksbühne’s Sprechtheater program, will present Yousef 

Was Here, about the disappearance of a young photographer 

from a “liberated zone”. We’re overwhelmed 

just thinking about it. Good thing the festival has set up 

themed “guided tours” where artists do the planning and 

all you need is a BVG ticket and afree evening for performance-hopping. 

3 questions for 


DON’T MISS 

Moby Dick 

RambaZamba 

Theater, Berlin's one 

and only professional 

ensemble for differently 

abled actors, 

is now presenting 

work with English 

surtitles, starting with 

their latest premiere: 

Moby Dick–this time 

staged around “masculinity 

in crisis”. We 

buy it. The ensemble 

teams up with “ugly 

puppet” collective 

Das Helmi. 

June 22, 23, 29, 30 

Berlin’s 360° 

performance festival 

An homage to Britney Spears, 

homeopathic cures produced in real 

time and a historical performance in 

a former Pankow Jewish orphanage 

can only mean one thing: time for 

the wildly inclusive but dully named 

Performing Arts Festival! By Lily Kelting 

What started as the 100° festival is now more 

like the 360° festival, bringing dance and 

mime and straight theatre and things which 

look so weird we’re not even sure what to call them. The 

idea to do a free scene Lollapalooza was instigated by 

free scene mainstays around town (Ballhaus Ost, HAU, 

Sophiensaele, Theaterdiscounter), but in the second year 

of its incarnation the idea has spread like wildfire – just 

like the poetic and musical Dada-inspired collage in 

the garden of the Hannah Höch Haus in Reineckendorf 

#DIPTAM#DADA#DIGITALIS oder ich will mein Löwenmäulchen 

nicht halten! by performance artist AnniKa von 

Trier (who even knew the Dada-icon lived in Reinickendorf?). 

For fans of immersive performance installation, 

which is so big in New York and London but rarely seen 

in Berlin, there’s Like There’s No Tomorrow – a start-up 

launch that invites the audience-participants to “embrace 

climate change.” Very thankfully, the festival also reflects 

and represents the wide range of artistic voices already 

Elpida Orfaniou is a performer and a 

pharmacist. Her piece at the P.A.F is a two-hour 

choreographic herbal laboratory where the 

artist and guests make homeopathic remedies, 

dance, discuss and tell stories. 

1 

Can you tell me a little about your piece Balloonist 

Pharmacist? I found myself working part 

time in an Apotheke in Berlin Spandau. Almost at 

the same time I was faced with the severe sickness of my 

mother which made me think. How can choreography 

be a practice of including all life possible – pharmacy, 

science, tradition, alternative healing, herbs, recipes, 

personal stories, dance, friends, strangers, objects, 

magic? It’s almost mystical. At the same time the work is 

interested in the encounter with the other, whether this 

is a colleague on stage or an audience member on the 

other side of the pharmacy counter. 

2 

What 

is the relationship between performance 

and pharmacy? It lies in the magic of transformation. 

Can the hands of a “performance pharmacist” 

transform the poison of time into a medicine of timelessness? 

The poison of forced productivity into a medicine 

Dieter Hartwig 

Edinburgh calling 

The English Theatre 

Berlin is hosting the 

“best of Edinburgh 

2017”, as a kind of 

warm-up for this 

year’s European 

fringe fiesta, in case 

you want to see the 

politically devised 

piece, Palmyra, or a 

one-woman meditation 

on losing a 

mother, Mouthpiece. 

May 31-Jun 7 

Freiluft theatre on the go 

Only hardcore theatregoers are into spending a sunny, perfect Berlin summer evening inside. P.A.F’s got the 

rest of us covered, too, with performance collective p.u.r.e (performative urban research ensemble) to lead 

walks around Kotti, Rixdorf, and Potsdamer Platz. Leader Jagna Anderson explains: “We wish to perform political, 

user-friendly interactions outside the theatre; to re-connect art and reality, bring people to new places. 

The walks generate a micro-utopian community – a new city commons.” Okay, so a “performative walk” might 

not be very different than a guided tour paying close attention to how theatrical the sounds and movements of 

our daily life already are. But still – that sounds kind of fun, doesn’t it? 

Tip 

30 


of deliberate creativity? The poison of labour 

into a medicine of work? 

3 

This format seems very collaborative 

– how do you balance openness 

and structure? This has been one of 

the biggest mysteries of this work. It has to do 

Ballet 


simultaneously with rules, tools, intuition and 

the unknown. So it is more or less like science 

itself. At the end it feels like a practice of dosing, 

in which the danger of producing a poison is 

always around the corner. As we all know: Sola 

dosis facit venenum – the dose makes the poison, 

as Paracelsus said. Will you take the risk to try it? 

I want to 

remain 

in the 

shadow.* 

Theatre with English surtitles 

Bowing out and recycling Romeo 

Nacho Duato’s final production at the Staatsballett is the 

Prokofiev ballet starring audience-darling Semionova. 

Romeo & Juliet premiered on the 

Staatsoper stage last month, but it 

isn’t much of a first-time for anyone 

involved: Polina Semionova has already 

danced Duato’s Juliet. So has Ivan Zaytsev 

his Romeo, both as choreographed by the 

Spaniard at Saint Petersburg’s Mikhailovsky 

in 2012. And back then Duato had already 

recycled his own Madrid version from 1998, 

as unforgiving Berlin critics were prompt 

to comment, crying foul on the shameless 

rip off. Truth be told, they’ve always been 

a little ruthless towards Duato, who took 

over the Staatsballett four years ago. Then 

again, the proud choreographer didn’t do 

much to win them over with arrogant 

posturing, lacklustre ambition and a recycling 

policy reminiscent of the Volksbühne 

under freshly-demoted Chris Dercon. 

So expect a Romeo and Juliet that’s no 

more (and no less) than the ballet created 

20 years ago: Duato’s signature blend of 

classical and modern ballet, i.e. plenty of 

flexed toes and squared arms, and choreography 

that one could call gender-fluid 

– with the feminised body language of male 

leads, and, conversely, a more androgynous 

approach to female soloists that challenges 

classical ballerina orthodoxy. Doing the 

same novel modern stuff for 30 years can 

feel as repetitive as good old ballet. And 

that’s what you get: a capable corps de 

ballet that shines through with endearing 

ensemble pieces; solid supporting leads and 

duets executed with awe-inspiring fluidity 

and great overhead lifts. As for costumes 

and décor, they cut out alluring stage 

aesthetics, lightyears away from the tackiness 

(or shabbiness) usually on display at 

Berlin operas. But the star of the night was 

Semionova, who as usual did the job with 

effortless skill and grace to the usual display 

of rapturous audiences. Duato’s set to 

bow out later this summer and she will stay. 

But it’s your last chance to see Semonova as 

Duato’s Juliet – new management under Sasha 

Waltz/Johannes Öhman won’t be keeping 

the production in repertoire. So Madrid 

import or not, it’s now or never. — RS 

Romeo & Juliet June 12, 20, 23, 

19:30 Staatsoper unter den Linden 

»Miss Julie« 

after August Strindberg 

Direction: Katie Mitchell and 

Leo Warner 

On June 5 

»Bella Figura« 

by Yasmina Reza 

Direction: Thomas Ostermeier 

On June 8 

»LENIN« 

by Milo Rau & Ensemble 

Direction: Milo Rau 

On June 15 and 16 

*»Shadow (Eurydice Speaks)« 

by Elfriede Jelinek 

Direction: Katie Mitchell 

On June 18 and 19 

»The Little Foxes« 

by Lillian Hellman 


On June 28 

»Hamlet« 

by William Shakespeare 


On July 6 

JUNE 2018 

Tickets: 030 890023 www.schaubuehne.de

WHAT’S ON — Art 


Beware, men painting overhead 

Three exhibitions bring figurative painting back to life under 

the colourful brushes of their male authors. By Anna Larkin 

Edouard Baribeaud, Charon 

ART NEWS 

Käthe Kollwitz 

Museum relocation 

The Kollwitz Museum 

is to move to a Berlin 

state-owned building 

near the Charlottenburg 

Palace in 2019. 

The new Museum of 

Exiles is to move into 

its former home on 

Fasanenstraße. 

Freiheit Berlin 

monument unveiled 

On May 11, Berlin 

Mayor Michael Müller 

unveiled a new 25 

metre long monument 

titled Freiheit 

Berlin on Washington 

Square outside 

Hauptbahnhof. 

Müller said, “It reaffirms 

Berlin’s com 

mitment to being an 

open-minded and 

tolerant city.” 

Lichtenberg bans 

Haubrook 

Collector Axel 

Haubrook has been 

exhibiting art in old 

GDR industrial complex 

Fahrbereitschaft 

for three years, but 

in April received a 

notice from the local 

authority to cease 

all exhibitions under 

threat of a €500,000 

fine. The current 

exhibition Paperwork 

runs to July 7. 

Figurative painting is not news; 

art history is littered with 

the male Masters, then came 

the male-dominated 20th-century 

invention of abstraction. In June, either 

by coincidence or design, Berlin 

has three exhibitions showing a 21st 

century return to the representational 

male brush. 

In the Hof that was once home to 

Tagesspiegel’s printing presses, Galerie 

Judin is showing An Old Story for 

Our Modern Times (through June 9). 

Across the gallery’s three rooms there 

are nine new paintings by French- 

German artist Edouard Baribeaud. His 

palette is overflowing with brightly 

coloured patterns. Conveyed in fabrics, 

wallpapers, carpets and tiles, it brings 

a sense of fun to everything on display. 

In the portraits Medusa, Narcissus and 

Penelope he frames each female subject 

in purely decorative borders, relieving 

them of any pretension and adding 

a very honest quality of the works as 

objects. For a body of work apparently 

inspired by Baribeaud’s recent travels 

in India, he surprisingly relies on Greek 

mythology for his titles. He accordingly 

gives Medusa a head of snakes and in 

the same painting seems to reference 

later Western art: her pose in the mirror 

is strongly reminiscent of Édouard 

Manet’s 1882 Un bar aux Folies Bergère 

and even more so of the work this 

inspired in American photographer Jeff 

Wall in 1979, Picture for Women. 

In Penthesilea, Greek mythological 

warrior queen Penthesilea is very literally 

represented by stylised female 

warriors on the Venetian screen 

at the centre of the picture, but 

unmistakeably Baribeaud has heavily 

borrowed from Matisse’s 1911 The 

Pink Studio. Matisse’s painting of 

his own studio was a painting about 

painting and while the topography 

of the two works is not identical, the 

lavish contemporary interior Baribeaud 

has added appears to make the 

same celebration of joy in his chosen 

medium of painting. 

At Sprüth Magers (through September 

8) Georgian artist Andro 

Wekua has created a set of paintings 

somewhat less reverential 

towards art history and the canon 

of painting. A punk aesthetic and 

temperament permeate works such 

as E. Portrait and E. Portrait Pool: 

a mixture of painting and collage, 

both have the same screen-printed 

image of a woman at their centre, 

but while one has an oversized 

rose laid next to her, the other has 

been overworked by angry-looking 

brushstrokes in blue. 

A highlight is A. Portrait Spectator 

in which just to the centre right of a 

panel roughly blocked out in mauve 

paint is the figure of a teenage boy 

in jeans and t-shirt. His face and 

bare arms have a green-blue tint and 

curled around his left shoulder are 

three fingers of a disembodied male 

hand. Is it a comforting patriarchal 

hand of reassurance and support or 

something more ominous? 

Departing from direct representations 

of reality are eight new paintings 

by Swedish artist Jim Thorell in illicit 

electricity (through June 16) at Gillmeier 

Rech. As cited in the exhibition 

text, each canvas reflects the artist’s 

interest in “the fantasy space of video 

games and films”. A mixture of chalk, 

pastel and gesso in Red Priestess give 

the wispy outline of a woman in ornate 

costume and headdress in an indistinguishable 

interior. Nightship sees 

a spooky regal or clerical trio lined 

up behind an alien-looking child and 

surreal organ of machinery. Thorell’s 

light touch creates an ambiguity of 

unearthly chill that swerves the works 

just far enough away from fantasy 

novel illustration. n 

An Old Story for Our Modern Times by Edouard Baribeaud April 28 – June 9 

Galerie Judin, Schöneberg | illicit electricity, Jim Thorell April 27 – June 

16 Gillmeier Rech, Tiergarten | Andro Wekua April 28 – September 8 Sprüth 

Magers, Mitte 

32 



Highlight 

Hello World, 

Revising a Collection 

Taking over the entirety of the Hamburger 

Bahnhof space, this vast 

exhibition consists of over 150 works 

taken from the Nationalgalerie’s inventory. 

Hello World declares the curatorial aspiration 

to explore what the collection might be like 

had “a more cosmopolitan understanding of 

art informed its beginnings”. A worthy and 

relevant premise at a time when German 

Performing 

Arts Festival 

Berlin 

THEATER UND MUSIK 

TANZ UND PERFORMANCE 

PUPPEN UND FIGUREN 

SITE-SPECIFIC 

Marjetica Potrč, Caracas: Growing Houses (2012) 

cultural institutions and politicians are putting 

the question of colonial art and artefacts 

firmly on the agenda. In an attempt to address 

problematic colonial period objects in 

the collection, a number of them are shown 

alongside works by contemporary artists. 

Works by Indonesian photographer Octora 

respond to mid-19th-century ethnographic 

pictures taken in Jakarta, while Balinese 

painter Gede Mahendra Yasa’s canvases 

are displayed next to 1930s paintings from 

his homeland. The contrast of these newer 

works and the old pieces effectively highlights 

the the earlier sitters’ and artists’ 

anonymity, telling of their objectification 

and exploitation at the time. 

Another one of the exhibition’s 13 chapters, 

titled “The Human Rights of the Eye. 

A Pictorial Atlas for the Marx Collection”, 

unfortunately fails to address the sexist bias 

of the collection’s assembly: it shows what 

appears to be a 1980s boys club love-in. 

Presented is not only an enormous Beuys 

installation alongside Cy Twombly, Julian 

Schnabel, Robert Rauschenberg and Andy 

Warhol, but also a sycophantic circle of 

worship with a portrait of Beuys by Warhol 

and a Schnabel work titled Rebirth (the Red 

Box) Painted After the Death of Joseph Beuys. 

The text explains these works were donated 

from a private collection, but it seems the 

curators haven’t done much to break up the 

penis party. 

Some of the more contemporary works in 

the main hall do serve the curatorial theme 

better: Duane Hanson’s 1967 sculpture Policeman 

and Rioter depicting a white police 

officer kicking a black man curled up on 

the ground is sadly ever-relevant. Mladen 

Stilinovic’s 1992 An artist who cannot speak 

English is NO artist boldly challenges Anglo- 

American cultural supremacism while 

Pierre Bismuth’s 2002 The Jungle Book Project 

plays with national clichés by overdubbing 

the animal characters’ dialogue with 

different languages. 

As much as many of the works here 

are interesting in their own right, for a 

collection founded in 1861 it’s perhaps 

unavoidable that rather than achieving a 

“cosmopolitan understanding of art”, this 

exhibition serves mainly as a spotlight on 

the sexist and racist prejudices of its earlier 

acquisition policies. — AL 

Hello World, Revising a Collection 

April 28 – August 26 Hamburger Bahnhof, 

Invalidenstraße 50-51, Mitte 

Queering The Gaze 

Nathi Dlamini, Grand Beach, Cape Town, 2017 © Zanele Muholi. Courtesy of Stevenson, 

Cape Town/Johannesburg and Yancey Richardson, New York 

© Mikael Owunna 

Programm & Tickets 

www.performingarts-festival.de 

05 10 

Juni 2018 

Zanele Muholi + Mikael Owunna 

The exhibition presents select photographs of Zanele Muholi and Mikael 

Mouth (for L’Oréal), New York, 1986 © The Irving Penn Foundation 

Owunna which address the stories and identities of African and Afro-diasporic 

LGBTIQ*. The artists create a positive visualisation of African LGBTIQ*, in an 

effort to re-write a black IRVING queer history PENN that has been CENTENNIAL 

ignored. By connecting 

them with their own DER queer JAHRHUNDERTFOTOGRAF 

experiences, the works represent strong visuals of 

emancipation. 

24.03.——01.07.2018 

Tue 26. June 2018, 7 pm | Opening and Artist Talk 

Wed 27. June – Fri 27. July 

C/O 

2018 

Berlin Foundation 

| Wed-Sat 

. Amerika Haus 

4-7 pm 

Hardenbergstr. 22–24 . 10623 Berlin 

Täglich / Daily 11:00–20:00 . www.co-berlin.org 

alpha nova + galerie futura | Am Flutgraben 3, 12435 Berlin 

alpha-nova-kulturwerkstatt.de boell.de


Interview 

The reluctant curator 

South African educator and curator Gabi Ngcobo 

on how she put together Berlin’s 10th Biennale for 

Contemporary Art. By Anna Larkin 

BERLIN 

BIENNALE 

STARTS JUNE 9 

DON’T MISS 

Secrets of Trade 

Swedish artists 

Goldin+Senneby 

broach their regular 

themes of financial 

trading, artificial 

intelligence and 

the art market at 

NOME with 

sculpture and 

performance, plus 

a “magic demonstration” 

titled Acid 

Money at 19.30 

on June 9. 

Through Jun 9 

Welt Ohne Aussen: 

Immersive Spaces 

since the 1960s 

Curated by Berliner 

Festspiele Director 

Thomas Oberender 

and artist Tino 

Sehgal, this show 

at Gropius Bau 

traces the 

pioneers of immersive 

art to the 

present day. Including 

installations, 

virtual reality, 3D 

film, a smell organ, 

live performances 

and workshops. 

Through Aug 5 

Year of the Dog 

Austrian artist Oliver 

Laric presents a 

series of delicate 

cast-resin sculptures 

of anthropomorphic 

figures with 

the heads of dogs 

at Tanya Leighton. 

Through Jun 23 

Quinceañeras 

A return to formal 

portraiture by photographer 

Frank Thiel 

at Blain|Southern 

with a study of 

the coming-of-age 

rituals for 15-yearold 

girls in Cuba. 


Masimba Sasa 

Gabi Ngcobo has been involved 

in collaborative artistic and 

curatorial projects since the 

early 2000s and recently co-curated 

the 32nd Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil 

and A Labour of Love, 2015, at Weltkulturen 

Museum in Frankfurt am 

Main. You may have already experienced 

her touch on your Berlin art 

life as she participated in the Young 

Curators Workshop at the 5th Berlin 

Biennale in 2008 and presented the 

Centre for Historical Reenactments 

project Digging Our Own Graves in 

2014 at the 8th Berlin Biennale. 

The title for this year’s Biennale 

is We Don’t Need Another Hero. 

Are you trying to challenge the 

traditional role of the curator 

as the ‘hero’ of the show? Yes, 

that’s what we are striving for. Some 

people have asked me and members 

of the curatorial team “which of you 

came up with this title?” and I wonder: 

why does it matter? The title is 

the title and it implicitly demands 

that you do not ask that question. 

How does it work concretely? My 

understanding of the curator’s role is 

not a traditional one, in fact I reject 

that role, for now. I come from an 

artistic background. Self-organising is 

something I insist upon 

and I’m always involved 

in forms of collaborative 

practice: with platforms 

I co-founded, Centre for 

Historical Re-enactments 

and Nothing Gets Organised, 

as well in my role as 

an educator at art school. 

For the Berlin Biennale, 

I put together two 

artists who didn’t know 

each other and I thought 

would collaborate well 

together: Jabu Arnell and 

Sinethemba Twalo. I put 

them in touch and they 

are creating new work. I 

think we have 46 artists 

in the Biennale, but the 

total number is 50 because of this and 

another collaborative duo, Lydia 

Hamann and Kaj Osteroth. 

Are there any highlights you 

can tell us about? Yes, a work 

that will be shown here at KW 

Institute for Contemporary Art 

titled Legendary by Brazilian artist 

Cinthia Marcelle. Cinthia has made 

similar projects in Brazil, working 

with institutions to create a 

portrait of 14 people linked to that 

The 10th Berlin Biennale 

institution’s history and present. 

The portrait mimics one taken by 

Hermann Landshoff in New York 

at Peggy Guggenheim’s house in 

1942 of artists and writers who had 

fled WWII, including Mondrian 

and Duchamp. So this work takes 

14 people that represent KW, an 

institution shaped in the 1990s 

[KW was founded in 1996]. The 

final photo was shot here at KW 

in April, but a lot happened before 

that, as we brought the people 

together again and had them talk 

about how they were involved 

with the institution. Lots of stories 

came up and it was a kind of 

reunion as well. Many people have 

moved on to do all sorts of things 

and some are still directly engaged 

with KW. 

So how does the resulting 

portrait look? Of course we are 

in Berlin and this was the 1990s, 

so the KW group is all white and 

almost all German, with the exception 

of one Polish person [Artur 

Zmijewski who also served as curator 

of the 7th Berlin Biennale]. It’s 

interesting that in that short period 

of time, the demographic of Berlin 

has dramatically changed... n 

The Berlin Biennale is a bi-annual contemporary art exhibition 

founded in 1996 by Klaus Biesenbach (also founder of the 

Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art and today a curator 

of New York’s MoMA). As an experimental platform for exhibiting 

art, the biennale sets out to examine “current global discourses 

and developments in relation to Berlin as a local point of reference” 

and in 2016 attracted over 100,000 visitors. Funded to the tune of 

€3 million this year by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, 

each edition of the Biennale is curated by a new curator chosen by 

an international panel of curators, artists and gallerists. In this 10th 

edition, 50 artists will be showing new work across four main venues 

in the city: Akademie der Künste at Hanseatenweg, KW Institute for 

Contemporary Art, Volksbühne Pavilion, and ZK/U – Center for Art 

and Urbanistics. 

34 



Reviews 

James Turell, Florian Holzherr 

Through Sep 30 

James Turrell: Ganzfeld “Aural” 

Known in Berlin for his neonlight installation in 

the Dorotheenstadt Cemetery, and outside the 

art world for inspiring Drake’s 2015 Hotline Bling 

video, American light artist James Turrell presents 

a newly commissioned installation at the Jewish 

Museum. Located next to the fragrant wisteria 

in the museum’s garden, visitors enter a metal 

shed-like building and wait their turn. Slippered 

invigilators will ask you to remove your shoes and 

wear blue disposable plastic feet covers before you 

ascend the felted staircase leading into the installation: 

a square room filled with diffused pastel 

coloured light. The effect is like stepping into a 

scifi fog, disorienting, mysterious and beautiful all 

at the same time. The purples, pinks, blues and 

bright white light fill the room in gradual and flashing 

sequences, countering the sense of danger 

as the room ominously slopes away to a sheer 

drop. Apart from the geometric panels around the 

doorway, there is no indication where the light is 

coming from. The ethereal effect of the installation 

is somewhat disturbed by the sound of people 

battling with rustling feet covers and invigilators 

talking to visitors, but if you get a quiet moment to 

draw it all in, it’s quite something. — AL 

Jewish Museum, Kreuzberg 

Through Jul 29 

Louise Bourgeois: 

The Empty House 

Located in the 1960s-built Schinkel Pavilion, this 

selection of later “sack form” works by the French- 

American grand dame of 20th century art Louise 

Bourgeois includes pieces produced from 2003 until 

her death at 98 in 2010. Sitting centrally in the pavilion’s 

octagonal upper room is the installation work 

Peaux de Lapins, Chiffons Ferrailles à Vendre [rabbit 

skins and scrap cloth for sale], 2006. The circular 

cage of expanded steel contains delicate cloth 

forms suspended from its ceiling on long metal 

JUNE 2018 

hooks accompanied by pieces of fur, one atop a 

precarious totem of pastel coloured stones. Metal 

and fabric sleeping bats interrupt the mix of discretely 

industrial materials and delicate fabric. 

Downstairs four large vitrines contain more works 

made from fabric, cotton and metal, set out like 

overgrown weaving looms and the fruits of their 

labour. Deeper into the basement’s derelict shower 

rooms are several small fabric sculptures. Among 

them you will find an iteration of Bourgeois’ instantly 

recognisable spider form and a number of curiously 

un-sack-like, but nonetheless noteworthy, touching 

pink gouache depictions of pregnancy, birth and 

breast-feeding. A compact exhibition offering a rather 

gnomic snapshot of the artist’s last seven years. — AL 

Schinkel Pavillon, Mitte 


Rebecca Ackroyd: 

The Mulch 

Behind the gallery’s red-tinted windows a community 

of oversized humanoid plaster-cast figures by British 

artist Ackroyd are sprawled, reclining and lounging 

across the floor. Unclothed apart from the glasses, 

goggles, bicycle or crash helmets that cover their 

faces, some have their chicken wire frames exposed 

in sections. Hinting at the flesh and blood they are 

missing, the cavities have been resealed with red 

acrylic and dripped with red wax. All facing the same 

direction, they look like freshly landed aliens casually 

watching some sort of entertainment unfold before 

them. The strange atmosphere is added to by what 

resemble brightly coloured oversized shells and crustaceans 

strapped with orange casts of plastic bottles 

scattered among them. On the walls are a number of 

paintings that feel a little lost, but uphold the sense of 

something extra-terrestrial, and alongside them three 

sculptures of the dirty metal shutters of a shop called 

“2018 UK”. A fourth bearing the name“2018 EU” leads 

one to wonder if Ackroyd is referencing the muchquoted 

phrase “England is a nation of shopkeepers” 

and the already impacting Brexit reality. A politically 

topical trip into the fantastical. — AL 

Peres Projects, Friedrichshain 

die 

Letzten 

BY 

BY ÖDÖN MAXIM 

VON GORKY 

HORVÁTH 

DIRECTOR 

HAKAN ANDRÁS SAVAŞ DÖMÖTÖR 

MİCAN 

PREMIERE 

15/JUNE 

ADDITIONAL SHOWS 

16/28/JUNE 

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 — Calendar 

Calendar 

June 2018 

Picks, highlights and can’t-miss events for this month in Berlin. 

Right 

June 22 Nena 

Below 

June 4 Hollywood Vampires 

TURNS 16@ TORSTRASSEN 

FESTIVAL 

Live Acts 

Dena ∙ King Ayisoba 

DJ Walter Crasshole ∙ DJ Person Unknown 

Saturday, June 9, 20:00/€10* 

*free with Festival Pass | Ballhaus Berlin, Chausseestr. 102 | exberliner.com 

Top June 13 Alva Noto & 

Ryuichi Sakamoto 

Left June 9 EXB’s 16th Birthday 

at Torstrassen Festival 

FRI 

1 

Radar Ost — Theatre 

Part of annual playwriting 

fest Autorentage 

(through Jun 23), Radar Ost 

brings the Deutsches Theater 

and guest ensembles together to 

present new plays from Poland, 

Georgia and Lithuania. It kicks 

off with the Tiflis Royal District 

Theatre’s Prometheus. 25 Years of 

Independence. Through Jun 23. 

MON 

4 

Hollywood Vampires 

— Rock A well-coiffed 

rocker, a smokey-eyed 

goth and a pirate meet in a bar, 

and... well, to see if there’s a 

punchline or not, check out Joe 

Perry, Alice Cooper and Johnny 

Depp rocking out at Zitadelle 

Spandau. Starts 19:00. 

TUE 

5 

Performing Arts Festival 

— Stage A swing and hula 

party at SO36 opens this 

year’s Performing Arts Festival. 

For the five days that follow, 

expect everything from traditional 

theatre and dance, to mime 

and immersive installations. 

Through Jun 10. Various venues. 

Western —Film A rare chance 

to see Valeska Grisebach’s 

mesmerising culture-clash 

drama, one of the best German 

films of last year, on the big 

screen. With English subtitles 

at Freiluftkino Kreuzberg. 

Starts 21:30. 

Festival Jazzdor — Jazz The annual 

fest returns to Prenzlauer Berg’s 

Kesselhaus, featuring the latest 

and most exciting trends in the 

contemporary jazz scene. Highlights 

include Italian-French 

trio Roberto Negro Dadada. 

Through Jun 8. 

WED 

6 

Katy Perry — Pop 

From kissing a girl and 

liking it to landing a 25 

million dollar deal as a judge on 

American Idol, there’s no stopping 

the fireworks. This month, you can 

hear her roar at the cosy Mercedes- 

Benz-Arena. Starts 20:00. 

THU 

7 

Shakedown — Film Check 

out Leilah Weinraub’s 

alluringly gritty doc about 

an underground LA lesbian strip 

club, presented by Film Society in 

the appropriately edgy surroundings 

of Sisyphos. Starts 19:30. 

Kai und Funky & Gymmick 

— Proto-punk The verbosely named 

trio is the closest you’ll get to 

an actual Ton Steine Scherben 

gig these days. The Berlin protopunk 

band once fronted by 

the late Rio Reiser will play an 

unplugged set of their greatest 

hits. SO36. Starts 21:00. 

FRI World Press Photo 2018 

8 — Photography Willy- 

Brandt-Haus opens 

the Berlin stop on the worldwide 

tour of this year’s 42 winning photographs 

in the 61st World Press 

Photo competition. Through Jul 1. 

SAT Exberliner turns 16 

9 — Party/Music Celebrate 

our sweet 16 with us at 

beautiful Ballhaus Berlin with 

live acts King Ayisoba and Berlin 

fave Dena – as part of Torstrassen 

Festival (see page 27). Entry w/ 

festival pass or €10 at the door. 

Starts 20:00. 

SUN 

10 

Garden Pictures — Art 

A presentation of 

Liebermann’s impressionist 

oil paintings of his 

garden alongside Swiss artist 

Klee’s abstract garden scenes, 

all made contemporaneously 

between 1915 and 1935. Opens 

at Max Liebermann Villa in 

Wannsee. Through Sep 17. 

MON 

11 

Courtney Barnett — Indie 

Catch the left-handed 

garage guitar of the 

Australian singer-songwriter 

touring her fresh-off-thepresses 

album Tell Me How You 

Really Feel at Astra Kulturhaus. 

Retro rockers Loose Tooth 

support. Starts 19:00. 

TUE EXBlicks: Nico, 1988 

12 — Film Join us at 

Lichtblick Kino for an 

exclusive preview of Susanna 

Nicchiarelli’s absorbing drama 

about the doomed Warhol 

superstar, ahead of its German 

release on July 18. Starts 20:00. 

Lenny Kravitz — Pop Sure, we’re 

all excited about the new album 

Raise Vibration out this year, but 

the real reason we’re going is to 

see if he wears any underwear 

beneath his leather pants or not. 

Zitadelle Spandau. Starts 19:00. 

WED 

13 

Deerhunter — Indie/ 

Alternative Atlanta’s 

finest purveyors of 

indie rock are back in town to 

debut both a new lineup and 

material. A new single has 

been promised for this 

summer off their forthcoming 

record, produced by Cate Le 

Bon. Festsaal Kreuzberg. 

Starts 21:00. 

Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto 

— Experimental In their Funkhaus 

performance entitled “Two”, 

German experimental musician 

Alva Novo and Japanese electro 

pioneer Ryuichi Sakamoto will 

play new material and improvisations. 

A rare chance to catch 

them live! Starts 20:30. 

36 


WHAT’S ON — Calendar 

THU 

14 

Animal Collective — Indie 

The indie trailblazers look 

back. After two decades 

together, one-half – Avey Tare 

und Panda Bear – bring their 2004 

breakout album Sung Tongs on a 

paired-down worldwide tour for fans. 

Heimathafen Neukölln. Starts 21:00. 

SUN 

17 

L7 — Punk/Grunge Aside from 

maybe Sleater-Kinney, L7 

seem to be the last ones 

standing from the 1990s all-female 

rock revival of the past couple of 

years. They show no signs of getting 

off their feet either, with material 

for a new record underway. SO36. 

Starts 20:00. 

WED 

20 

The Tin Drum — Theatre 

Actor Nico Holonics is 

either ambitious or nuts: 

having played the two-hour, multicharacter 

Tin Drum as a monologue 

in German, he’s now learned it in 

English to take on tour. Berliner 

Ensemble. Starts 19:30. 

THU Lorena Nemes — Photography 

21 Berlinische Galerie is 

opening Romanian-born 

photographer Nemes’ fist solo 

show. Her blurred and abstract 

portraits explore identity and 

how it affects our emotions. Go 

and see how you feel about that! 

Through Oct 15. 

Fête de la Musique — Music Festival 

The first day of summer brings 

the annual Fête de la Musique. 

Both amateur and professional 

musicians perform in various 

streets, squares and parks around 

the capital. As usual the festivities 

are completely free. 

Starts 16:00. 

FRI 

22 

Nena — Rock The 

“balloon chick” has 

been on stage for 40 

years, making her so much 

more than just that one song. 

From her early (Englishlanguage) 

band The Stripes 

to a recent collaboration with 

Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart, she’s 

got a lot to pack in proving that. 

Zitadelle. Starts 19:00. 

T UE Jewish Film Festival 

26 — Film The 24th edition 

kicks off tonight at the 

Hans Otto Theater in Potsdam 

with Itzhak, a rousing doc about violin 

virtuoso Itzhak Perlman, and continues 

at venues across Berlin and 

beyond until July 5. Starts 19:30. 

THU 

28 

Infektion! Festival — Opera 

Catch the latest of 

avant-garde opera at the 

Staatsoper Unter den Linden. The 

festival opens with Davide Carnevali’s 

Ein Porträt des Künstlers als 

Toter with music by Franco 

Bridarolli. Also look out for 

Salvatore Sciarrino’s Ti vedo, ti 

sento, mi perdo. Through Jul 15. 

Eels — Indie Going strong for over 

two decades, Californian indie rockers 

Eels grace the Tempodrom’s Große 

Arena just in time for their latest 

album The Deconstruction. Sold out, 

so scour those FB groups now! 

Starts 20:00. 

S AT 

30 

Gerhard Richter — Art 

Over 80 paintings by the 

German master of abstraction: 

bringing together works from 

around the world, spanning his earliest 

abstract paintings from the 1960s 

to present day. Baberini in Potsdam. 

Through Oct 3. 

My Perfect Berlin Weekend 

Rome-born Valentina Galossi splits her time between her hometown 

and Berlin. Her first book, Life of Artists In Berlin, a guide to emerging and 

established talents in the Hauptstadt, was released this spring. 

FRIDAY 

9:00 A refreshing early morning swim at 

Prinzenbad (Prinzenstr. 113, Kreuzberg). 11:00 

Visit floral boutique Blume & Raum (Lausitzer 

Str. 26A, Kreuzberg). 15:00 Hit Berlinische 

Galerie, one of my favourite museums in town 

and its lovely bookshop (Alte Jakobstr. 124-128). 

19:00 Meet my friends at Klunkerkranich with 

one of the best terraces in town (Karl-Marx- 

Str. 66, Neukölln). 00:00 Dancing at Kater Blau 

(Holzmarktstr. 25, Friedrichshain)! 

SUNDAY 

11:00 A glimpse at the flea market on Arkonaplatz 

(Mitte) is always a good idea. 14:00 A long walk in 

the Tiergarten with a coffee break at Café am Neuen 

See. 16:00 Visit C/O Berlin, the best exhibition venue 

in town for photography and visual media (Hardenbergstr. 

22-24, Charlottenburg). 20:00 End with 

a delicious dinner at Café Jacques (Maybachufer 14, 

Kreuzberg) with my girl artist friends. 

SATURDAY 

10:00 A homey breakfast at the Pavillon 

am Ufer, with its Italian-style cappuccino 

(Paul-Linke-Ufer 4, Kreuzberg). 12:30 I start 

my weekly Mitte gallery tour at the Galerienhaus 

(Lindenstr. 34), and finish up at KW 

Berlin (Auguststr. 69), then on to Do You 

Read Me?! (Auguststr. 28) for the best art 

magazines and books (Augustr. 28). 19:00 

A late picnic with friends at Tempelhofer Feld, 

with champagne and proper flutes! 21:00 Ready 

for discovering a new piece at Volksbühne 

(Linienstr. 227, Mitte). 

Luca Manfrini 

JUNE 2018

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 

CAFÉS 

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 9-24, 

www.barettino.com 

KREMANSKI — Kreuzberg 

Kremanski offers tasty breakfast, 

high-quality coffee, lunch (Mon to 

Fri), homemade cakes and icecream, 

special beers, drinks, good 

music and cultural events. The 

friendly and talented staff will make 

you feel welcome, inspired and 

relaxed. The perfect hangout right 

at Kotti, all day long! Adalbertstr. 

96, U-Bhf Kottbusser Tor, Mon-Thu 

8.30-23, Fri 8.30-2, Sat 12-2, Sun 12- 

23, www.kremanski.de 

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 

NAPOLJONSKA — Mitte 

Located just off Zionskirchplatz, 

this vegetarian café offers organic 

and homemade delicacies. Enjoy a 

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 

ATAYA CAFFE — Prenzlauer Berg 

With its comfortable sofas and 

colourful decor, this 100% vegan 

Italian-African fusion cafe specialises 

in 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 or for breakfast, 

and of course for brunch on weekends! 

Kids and dogs welcome! 

Zelterstr. 6, S-Bhf Prenzlauer Allee, 

Tel. 030 3302 1041, Tue-Thu 11-19, 

Fri-Sat 11-22, Sunday 11-17. 

www.atayacaffe.de 

CARAVAGGI NATURWEIN 

BISTRO — Prenzlauer Berg 

Here is a place to enjoy organic, 

biodynamic and natural Italian 

wines of the very highest standard. 

Try some of our hot dishes, cheeses, 

prosciutto di Parma, salami, Tuscan 

crostini, fresh vegetables and more 

from small Italian producers following 

the Slow Food philosophy. 

Lettestr. 3, S-Bhf Prenzlauer Allee, 

Tel 030 2870 4411, Tue-Sun 17-24, 

www.facebook.com/ItalianNaturweinBerlin 

RESTAURANTS 

NO HABLO ESPAÑOL 

— Friedrichshain The best Californiastyle 

Mexican street food joint in 

Friedrichshain. Delicious freshly 

made burritos and quesadillas 

served by a collection of fun-loving 

international people. Once a week, 

challenge the NHE team to 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 

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 



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 

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 

SALON BORDEL! — Schöneberg & Mitte 

A real insider’s tip among stylish Berliners! This homegrown Berlin 

brand was founded in Schöneberg back in 2007 and just recently opened 

its second location in Mitte. Expect to find an international team of stylists, 

high quality standards and a great atmosphere. The salons use their 

own line of organic care products, produced free of silicones, parabens, 

mineral oils or microparticles. Book an appointment online at www. 

salon-bordel.de Hohenstaufenstraße 67, U-Bhf Nollendorfplatz, Tel 

030 2191 2480, Tue-Sat 10-20, Luisenstraße 40, S+U-Bhf Friedrichstr., 

Tel 030 2809 1918, Tue-Sat 10-20 

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 

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 

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 

SHOPS & SERVICES 

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 

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 

CABSLAM WELTRESTAURANT 

— Neukölln The very best California 

breakfast slam in Neukölln. Fresh location 

at Landwehr Kanal has fused 

with Weltrestaurant Markthalle 

Kreuzberg! A mix of American and 

German cuisine that rocks: burgers, 

burritos and more! Innstr. 47, 

Neukölln, U-Bhf Rathaus Neukölln, 

Mon-Tue 11-22, Wed closed, Thu-Fri 

11-22, Sat 10-22, Sun 10-17, Tel 030 

6869624, www.cabslam.com 

BARS & NIGHTLIFE 

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 3000sqm. Unique 

exhibits such as the famous Enigma 

machine are waiting to be explored. 

Leipziger Platz 9, S+U-Bhf Potsdamer 

Platz, Tel 030 39 8200 450, 

Mon-Sun 10-20, www.deutschesspionagemuseum.de 

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 indoor tennis 

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 

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 

HOPS & BARLEY — Friedrichshain 

Serving home-brewed pilsner and 

dark beer, this is the place to go to 

get that proper brew-pub vibe in 

MONSTERKABINETT — Mitte 

Join us on a trip to Berlin’s underground 

art scene! A unique theme 

HUMBOLDT-INSTITUT — Mitte 

Total beginner or advanced learner: 

the Humboldt-Institut has the right 

JUNE 2018 

39


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 part-time 

course in the morning, evening or 

on Saturdays. Invalidenstr. 19, 

S-Bhf Nordbahnhof, Tel 030 5551 

3221, www.humboldt-institut.org 

monumental Panorama installation 

– a perfect illusion of the history of 

the city. Friedrichstr. 205, U-Bhf 

Kochstr., Tel 0341 3555 340, Mon-Sun 

10-18, www.die-mauer.de 

ASISI PANORAMA BERLIN — Mitte 

Experience the panorama DIE 

MAUER (Berlin Wall) by the artist 

Yadegar Asisi in an 18-metre-high rotunda. 

The panorama shows everyday 

life in Kreuzberg of the 1980s on 

a 1:1 scale. Immerse yourself in this 

EUROPA EXPERIENCE — Mitte 

The multimedia exhibition at the 

Brandenburg gate invites you on a 

trip through history, politics and life 

in the European Union. A special 

highlight of the exhibition is the 

360° cinema. Free entrance and in 

24 languages. Unter den Linden 

78, S-Bhf Brandenburger Tor, Tel 030 

2280 2900, Mon-Sun 10-18, www. 

europa-experience.eu 

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 

of 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 

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German Intensive Classes and Evening Classes 

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40 EXBERLINER 171

COLUMN— The Gay Berliner 

The gayvolution 

of 

marriage 

Walter Crasshole 

ponders how homos are 

entering matrinomy 

“I have something for you, Walter,” Sebastian said. I expected 

poppers. Or a pill. Or at least maybe he was hiding 

a six-pack in the bottom of his backpack. He handed me an 

A5-sized black postcard. On it, a tastefully written invitation to 

his and Max’s wedding, to take place in just over nine months at 

an idyllic castle near the Czech border. “We didn’t print enough 

for every guest, but I wanted you to have one of the official invites,” 

he explained. It seemed kind of old-fashioned – but isn’t 

marriage anyways? – and made me aware how serious this was. 

And it fit Sebastian’s personality to do this: an infrequent lover 

over the years who had morphed into one of my closest friends, 

he often is the most adventurous, crazy of the bunch while also 

having an enviably on-track life, especially for someone younger 

than me. Gay Germans have all the luck. 

That was seven months ago, and on the road to the chapel in 

the meantime, someone hitched a ride on the carriage – a cute, 

young Italian stud named Nicola with a strict Catholic upbringing. 

And Nicola’s husband Zarbo. Sebastian had started dating 

Nicola, Max hooked up with Zarbo. When we’d hang out, Sebastian 

would start talking about his adventures in, ah-hem, polyamory 

– I prefer calling it sluttiness or (if it must be respectable) 

an open-relationship. He combined two words that I hadn’t at 

all expected: “monogamous polyamory”. “It’s simple,” Sebastian 

told me over a Kindl in Görli, “Yes, Max and I are still engaged, 

but I only sleep with Nicola and Max only sleeps with Zarbo.” 

As I joined both Sebastian and Max out on a wedding dry run to 

the castle in April, I thought how bad-ass it was that marriage for 

gays has developed differently than its straight counterpart. And, 

in Germany at least, it’s had less than a year to truly distinguish 

itself, since Merkel’s 2017 summer manoeuvre became law on 

October 1. Still, my friends’ monogamous polyamory is a pretty 

brazen way to enter into this union. 

But why get married at all, you may ask. They haven’t even rented 

the tuxes and are already boinking other people. Shouldn’t we just 

destroy the institution of marriage altogether? Well, let’s face it, the 

reality is that there are pragmatic uses for marriage – freedom of 

movement, taxes, kids (if you must) and someone with legal access 

should you fall into trouble. A lot of other things would have to 

change for marriage to disappear and in the meantime, some people 

are going to enjoy those rights. And yeah, maybe monogamy and sex 

don’t need to have anything to do with marriage at all. 

As for them personally, the aforementioned German sensibilities 

that balance out Sebastian’s wild side partly explain their choice. 

He and Max have been a pair for five years, with a shared apartment, 

social circle overlap, families and vacation plans. Simply put, 

they already fit together. And of course, they love each other. Even 

if they’re lovin’ other people at the moment. 

Sound much like having their cake and eating it too? Or does it 

still seem too much like we’re not getting the point of marriage? 

Who knows... Maybe we are here to wreck marriage after all. And 

still get the party. 

JUNE 2018

BERLIN BITES 

Review 

Attila Hildmann 

Fast and furious vegan 

Berlin’s vegan bad boy cum celebrity cookbook 

author has started selling his meatless 

burgers on Kottbusser Tor’s fast food strip. 

By Walter Crasshole 

Michel Le Voguer 

It’s hard to know where to start with a place like Attila Hildmann. 

The fact that something new has set up shop in the never quiet yet 

seemingly financially cursed southern-most end of Kotti’s Adalbertstraße 

or that it’s a restaurant opened by the vegan chef known as 

controversial to your German friends. Yes, a vegan chef is controversial, 

even among Berliners. In 2017, tip named him its most embarrassing 

Berliner for taking the challenge to eat a steak if the journalists present 

at his tasting weren’t convinced of the superiority of his meatless 

burgers. When some preferred real meat, instead of eating the steak, 

he presented a live calf that the journalists were supposed to slaughter 

themselves (none of them decided to draw blood). That same year, the 

born and bred Berliner caused a scandal for banning the entire staff 

of Tagesspiegel newspaper after receiving negative press (he has since 

retracted that). And in March, he was arrested in Charlottenburg after 

a parking citation escalated with the police. Parking rules don’t seem to 

concern him much: in May his Porsche was spotted on the sidewalk underneath 

the Kreuzberg Zentrum, about 50 metres away from his burger 

joint. Everything about Attila seems like the stuff of fiction. This adopted 

Turkish child of very German parents (his middle name is Klaus-Peter) 

once studied physics at Freie Universität. It was watching the sudden 

death of his dad by heart-attack on a ski vacation in 2000 that put him 

on a different, meat-free trajectory. He slowly took on a vegan diet and 

doing sport, losing 35 kilos in the process. He published his first vegan 

cookbook in 2009 and an award-winning follow-up, Vegan for Fun, in 

2011. But it was Hildmann’s tough-guy persona-meets-trendy diet promoter 

that catapulted him to YouTube and soon German TV stardom 

(including RTL show Let’s Dance), all the way stirring controversy, like 

with questionable comments about the refugee crisis in 2015 (something 

about “integration” and “self-mutilation of German values and culture”). 

That was about the time he launched his Attila matcha-tea! 

Michel Le Voguer 

But what’s not controversial? Organic vegan food in Kreuzberg – following 

up his Imbiss in Charlottenburg and ironically taking over the 

spot that was shortly before known as Chickenberg (and a thousand 

other businesses). The try-hard design of “Snackbar II” with “Vegan 

Food Porn” scrawled in fake graffiti outside isn’t exactly doing itself 

any favours (or drawing in the Instagram crowd) but who cares? Once 

drawn in, it’s easy to drop your concerns and call it a guilty pleasure. 

The staff are friendly young lads and ladies in black and the menu is 

the right amount of simple, with only eight burgers on offer, and of 

course sides like their perfectly crispy Bio Pommes (regular or sweet) 

and drinks. Most interesting is undoubtedly the Daisho burger (€6.90), 

a sushi-inspired concoction of fried eggplant, bean sprouts, pineapple, 

mushrooms, fresh coriander, wasabi mayo, Thai ketchup and a chickpea 

patty between two sushi rice-formed buns and some seaweed. We 

can’t deny: it was delicious. The right mix of sweet and savoury, it went 

down in mere minutes, but did leave us less than full. For a less fun but 

more filling option, we recommend the signature (vegan) cheeseburger 

(€6.50): with the dense chickpea patty standing alone with vegan cheese 

and the standard mustard/mayo/ketchup/lettuce/tomato combo, it’s the 

perfect cure for a hungover. The real winner though was as American as 

it comes: the chili cheese burger (mild or spicy; €7.50). Perfectly sloppy, 

the black beans, guacamole, mayo, cilantro, creamy melted cheese and 

chickpea patty on a standard bun actually wasn’t as sloppy as its stateside 

counterpart, but still left us totally satisfied. Here, the wait time can 

be described as negligible, perfect for guilt-free junk food on the fly that 

fills the stomach while not weighing on the soul. We’re not certain if the 

moderate number of customers is due to its aforementioned cursed location 

or that your German friends are staying away because of the man’s 

reputation. Either way, it’s hard to deny that fast and easy vegan food 

without pretense is hard to beat. Sober or sozzled, we’ll come back. n 

Adalbertstr. 7, Kreuzberg, Sun-Thu 12-22, Fri-Sat 12-23 

42 

EXBERLINER 150 172

BERLIN BITES 

Review 

Tisk Warmed-over Soupe 

Pop quiz: You’ve got some fancy friends visiting and they 

want to eat “real Berlin food”. After the obligatory stops for 

döner and currywurst, and leaving aside tourist traps like Zur 

letzten Instanz, where do you take them? By Jane Silver 

Tisk, a “Berliner Speisekneipe”, seems to be the perfect answer. A sous-chef from Tim 

Raue’s La Soupe Populaire teams up with a dilettantish ex-Allianz agent turned TV 

cooking competition winner to serve twists on the foods they ate growing up in East 

and West Berlin respectively? The German press couldn’t contain itself. 

On our visit, Kristof Mulack (from TV) and Martin Müller (ex-Raue) were celebrating their 

Berliner Meisterköche nomination for “Best Scene Restaurant”. Which scene? We couldn’t 

exactly see clubbers from nearby Schwuz or Loophole sidling up to Tisk’s undulating bar and 

dropping €50-plus on dinner and drinks, let alone the Turkish or Bulgarian Roma residents of 

surrounding Rollbergkiez. German foodies and in-the-know visitors seemed more like it. We 

heard our American table-neighbours marvelling at the mayo on their fries. 

Those Pommes came with Tisk’s signature “broiler”, a whole roast chicken for two. Over 

the restaurant’s short existence, the price of the dish has gone from €18.50 to €24 to a rather 

untenable €35, which might still be worth it if you’re sick of the flabby-skinned factory-farmed 

specimens at most of this city’s Hühnerhäuser. Tisk’s bio-birds lived decadently in France 

before being shipped over, sous-vided and crisped up in the oven – to either moist perfection 

or unpalatable dryness, depending on the night and whom you ask. 

If you’re not a chicken fan, you’ll end up with an equally hit-and-miss selection of small 

plates. As at Soupe Populaire, there’s a take on Senfeier (€11); here, the mustard-coated egg 

was overcooked and could’ve used more acidity to counter the potato mash and caramelised 

cauliflower that came with it. Deep-fried sausage aka Jägerschnitzel (€6) failed to transcend its 

East German kiddie-food roots, while the “Jurkensalat” (yes, the menu’s in Berlinerisch; €6) 

went the fussy route, topping the cucumbers 

with a yoghurt-roe-jalapeño combination 

that didn’t gel. On the other hand, the 

asparagus “salad” (€9, really just four short 

white stalks with tarragon sauce and wild 

herbs) was some of the best-cooked Spargel 

we’ve had in this city and tasted of pure 

spring, and the rich decadence of the Blutwurst 

croquettes made it easy to forget their 

€2/mouthful price tag. 

Müller and Mulack have put their heart 

into this place, and deserve credit for 

attempting to sex up some of Europe’s 

unsexiest cuisine (as well as for the cocktails, 

which use local spirits like Mampe to 

creative effect). But ultimately, with the 

memory of Soupe Populaire’s playful dishes 

and unparalleled industrial setting relatively 

fresh, it’s hard to say Tisk stacks up. Bring 

the out-of-towners here if they insist – or 

steer them to nearby TwinPigs, a Chileanand 

Swedish-owned gastropub famous for its 

pulled-pork sandwiches that just debuted a 

new “Polish-Peruvian” menu. You know, real 

Berlin food. n 

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43

REGULARS 

Save 

Berlin 

by Dan Borden 

Wrestling with 

ghosts 

Dan explores buildings with sordid 

histories in the East. 

Rummelsburg is part of Berlin, but just 

barely. After Berlin was reunified, this 

strip of land wedged between Lichtenberg 

proper and the Spree was transformed 

into an upscale residential enclave for the 

expected flood of corporate and government 

workers from other parts of Germany. No 

döner shops, drug dealers or doggy-doo here, 

just neat rows of suburban-style townhouses 

with geranium-draped balconies above, and 

late-model BMWs and Audis below. It’s Berlin 

for people who don’t like Berlin. 

The district’s picturesque heart is a long, 

cobble-stoned square. Along both sides are 

rows of renovated 19th century brick apartment 

blocks. In the centre, blonde kids play 

ball below a tall, pointy-roofed tower, weaving 

between metal markers placed around the 

plaza. They’re steles with blurry photos of 

faces and, below, names and biographies 

that include details of torture and starvation, 

often ending with mysterious train rides and 

deadly showers. This was once the notorious 

Rummelsburg prison, a buzzing hub of human 

cruelty for over 50 years. The last prisoners 

Anna Agliardi 

Ex-Stasi jail 

in Keibelstraße 

– most political dissidents – were released in 

1990, making way for the luxury loft conversion. 

You can turn your back on Berlin, but its 

dark past will come back to haunt you. 

In June 1953 – 65 years ago this month – 

Berliners who’d survived the Nazi regime rose 

up against their new oppressors, the Sovietbacked 

East German government, with two 

days of strikes. The authorities struck back, 

leaving hundreds dead and thousands imprisoned. 

West Berlin’s Straße des 17. Juni marks 

the date of the protests’ tragic climax. Less 

conspicuous and more chilling reminders are 

the network of detention and torture centres 

built across Berlin’s former East to literally 

choke out that rebellious spirit. Many of these 

buildings still sit in limbo while the city’s 

government debates a key question: is there a 

“best way” to spotlight mankind at its worst? 

Memorial to an enigma 

After the Berlin Wall fell, victims of 

the East German Ministry of State Security 

(MfS) or ‘Stasi’ stormed and occupied 

their Lichtenberg headquarters to prevent 

destruction of incriminating evidence, but 

not the Stasi’s main jail in nearby Hohenschönhausen 

– they couldn’t find it. Elderly 

locals still toe the party line: the prison, once 

surrounded by a restricted military zone and 

erased from maps, never existed. But since 

1994, it’s firmly caught in the spotlight, reborn 

as a museum that details the detention 

center’s dark 40-year history. Most records 

were destroyed, so the Hohenschönhausen 

Memorial relies on survivors’ moving accounts 

of a time when offhand comments 

could land you in solitary confinement and 

psychological abuse could prove worse than 

physical pain. 

Mothballed movie set 

If the Hohenschönhausen Memorial can 

draw 440,000 visitors a year to deepest, 

darkest Lichtenberg, it’s surprising that a 

similar and arguably more dramatic landmark 

has sat idle just metres from Alexanderplatz. 

After WWII bombs destroyed Berlin’s 

police headquarters, a former Karstadt 

warehouse on Keibelstraße was drafted 

into service as command centre of the East. 

Many celebrity GDR dissidents, including 

painter Norbert Bisky and musician Toni 

Krahl of the band City, passed through its 

doors and into its crowning jewel, a sevenstory 

tower of cells so photogenic it starred 

in the film Goodbye Lenin. In February, 

Berlin’s Education Department announced 

that, later this year, a learning centre will 

open on the first floor. It’s hopefully a step 

toward converting the whole complex into a 

memorial à la Hohenschönhausen. 

Hotel on a lake 

The 1990s condo rehab of Rummelburg’s 

detention centre has all but erased its history, 

but it’s still possible to take in the lockup 

experience firsthand. The prison’s Haus 

VIII is now a boutique hotel overlooking the 

Spree. Guests sleep in redecorated cells that 

hosted thousands of Stasi victims and, after 

East Germany’s collapse, its disgraced Chairman 

Erich Honecker and Stasi boss himself 

Erich Mielke. It’s an ironic echo of the jail’s 

cruelly euphemistic nickname in its Stasi 

heyday: Hotel am See. n 

44 

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EXB 172

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