While many memorials and pieces of public art that were erected during the reign of the German Democratic Republic were removed or altered after German reunification, more than just a handful have seemingly escaped that fate and continue stand in […] Read More

If there’s one policy from the German Democratic Republic that has left a lasting positive impression, then it would be the “Kunst im öffentlichen Raum” and the “Kunst am Bau” movement to promote Art in Public Spaces and Architecture. While […] Read More

Berlin has rapidly changed over the past decade. Historic buildings that stood for over a century have been torn down to make way for luxury apartments and hotels, while the ghosts of a long abandoned past have risen again in […] Read More

There’s hardly a corner in Berlin that’s been left untouched by the legacy of the Nazis – be it through Hitlers and Speers architectural fantasy of building a new world capital called Germania, or the natural conclusion of the city […] Read More

As the German art critic and author Karl Scheffler once put it – “Berlin is damned always to become and never to be” – and even 110 years later this statement couldn’t ring truer. No matter where you go in Berlin, if you just lightly […] Read More

“Germania” – the mythical capital of the Third Reich. Looking back at the plans that Albert Speer came up with for Adolf Hitler in 1935, one can only wonder how the Nazis thought they could ever realize their supersized construction […] Read More

Few buildings in Berlin define the “skyline” and the city as much as the Berlin Cathedral. The imposing Neo-renaisance Cathedral is a tourist magnet, only dwarfed in visitor numbers by the Cathedral in Cologne. While many simply enjoy the building […] Read More

Berlin is a city of change. It always has been, and it most likely always will be. Berlin evolved from a small village in a swamp to the capital of the Prussian empire, to the largest industrial city in Europe […] Read More

While most can and will consider German reunification a “success story”, the merger of the two German states also meant the loss of identity, purpose, and direction for many. There are plenty of articles, books and documentaries out there which […] Read More

The year 2019 marks 58 years since the construction, and 30 years since the fall of the Berlin wall. The 160km long wall ploughed its way through and around the capital – giving residents of the western sector only 14 […] Read More

Have you ever strolled through a German supermarket and spotted those weird colored eggs? Do Germans sell easter eggs all year around? I’ve been living here long enough and have asked myself that question plenty of times. I’ve never been […] Read More

A solitary frog prince sits patiently on a porcelain ball, high above the masses waiting for their U-Bahn to arrive.  What might seem like a quirky detail of an otherwise almost unremarkable U-Bahn station in Berlin, is actually one of the […] Read More

The year 2018 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx, as well as the 170th anniversary of the Communist Manifesto. Few people have had such a lasting – and controversial – effect on world history. While many […] Read More

Over 7 decades have passed since the Battle of Berlin and at first glance one wouldn’t notice. Division, reunification, the building boom of the 90’s and the gentrification and modernisation of the 00’s have sanitised the city. But only at […] Read More

The Nikolaiviertel. A charming little haven in the center of Berlin. So quiet and yet seemingly out of place – surrounded by the iconic TV Tower, the socialist high rises on the Leipziger Straße and the drabness of Alexanderplatz. Despite […] Read More

Berlin is a city of change. Some for the better, some for the worse. Few time periods have left their mark on city as much as the years immediately after the German reunification. Investors, banks and the opportunistic saw a […] Read More

The year 2017 marked the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution in Russia, with which Lenin and his comrades toppled the Russian Empire and ushered in the reign of the Soviet Union. This centenary anniversary posed an excellent chance to […] Read More

Berlin is a city that bears the scars of its history. Be it remnants of its imperial history, bullet scared facades (like the Bridge of Scars)or tragic memorials. While it seems like virtually every other building is either listed as […] Read More

Every Kiez in Berlin has one or two buildings which define the area – be it the Fernsehturm in Mitte, the Karstadt Building in Neukölln, The Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche in Charlottenburg or the Dong Xuan Center in Lichtenberg. No other building exemplifies Prenzlauer […] Read More

Its the same spectacle every year: Berlins streets are flooded with some weird cotton pollen just as the summer starts kicking in. When a light breeze brushes through the streets – the fluffy white clouds spread out and one could […] Read More

Right at the border between Prenzlauer Berg and Friedrichshain, above the heads of the masses lies one of Prenzlauer Bergs more visible mysteries. Thousands of people have passed the intersection Greifswalder Straße / Am Friedrichshain – looking up and wondering […] Read More

Potsdams a nice place – but it’s just not quite as cool as its younger brother Berlin. Whatever Potsdam does it’s always seemingly second class to Berlin. Its got the original Brandenburger Tor (Potsdam 1770, Berlin 1788, Königsberg 1860), the […] Read More

When the DDR erected the „Antifaschistischer Schutzwall“ – aka the Berlin Wall in 1961, the 160 Kilometer long fortification was overlooked by 302 Watchtowers. The East German Watchtowers weren’t only used for guarding the Berlin Wall, but served as Guard-posts for Prisons, […] Read More

1973 was an important year for East Germany. After years of political turmoil, the DDR was finally accepted as a member state (the 133rd) to the UN. With this, the DDR had achieved a massive step forward in what it […] Read More

Berlin is not a city of skyscrapers – and it seems like most of the action happens underground. With German reunification, the city had wide-reaching plans to modernize the Alexanderplatz and rid it of its socialist character. 17 Skyscrapers up […] Read More

If you’ve ever taken the Deutsche Bahn Trains in Berlin, chances are you’ve at least once heard a synth organ blast out a strange Volksmusik tune. What the hell is that jingle that they play on German Trains? Turns out […] Read More