You love Berlin and know the extraordinary city on the Spree like the back of your hand? You’ll be surprised by how much is still waiting to be discovered! This book will take you to places that may soon become some of your favourites and where you’ll want to return over and over again.
What would a perfect day in Berlin look like? Start off with a panorama view of the city from the ‘Skyline’ canteen on the 20th floor of the Technical University. Afterwards make your way to the teahouse with the thatched roof in the English Garden and snap a selfie, signing it ‘Warm Greetings from Sylt!’ In the cabinet of curiosities that is the antique shop on Winterfeldtstrasse you’ll encounter mysterious things like flying pufferfish and dinosaur teeth. Then head on over to Moabit, which to many of the city’s inhabitants is the new Kreuzberg, or rather, the old Kreuzberg of 30 or 40 years ago, when the makeshift counted for far more than the perfect. Finish off the evening just a stone’s throw from Zoo Station at the Hat Bar, where you’ll find musicians from the whole world jamming the night away.
Bettina Rust studied marketing and communications in Hamburg. In 1992 she began working for various radio and TV stations as a moderator. Since 2002 she has been the moderator of “Hörbar Rust” for Radio Eins, interviewing prominent figures from the world of politics, show business, and beyond, receiving the European Podcast Award for her efforts in 2008. You can listen to her latest podcast, “The Columnist”, at Audible.de.
The original German edition Lieblingsorte – Berlin
was published in 2018 by Insel Verlag, Berlin.
With big thanks to
Marcus and Lucas
eBook Insel Verlag Berlin 2019
The following text follows the first print of insel taschenbuch 4763.
© Insel Verlag Berlin 2019
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means – graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or information storage and retrieval systems – without the written permission of the publishers.
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Distributed by Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Verlag
Cover and Layout: Marion Blomeyer, München
Illustration: Ryo Takemasa, Tokyo
Maps: Peter Palm, Berlin
Set: Greiner & Reichel, Köln
ISBN 978-3-458-76426-7
www.suhrkamp.de
TABLE OF CONTENTS
MITTE
Monbijou Bridge : Such a Beautiful City
Clärchens Ballhaus : Over a 100 and Still Timeless
Vom Einfachen das Gute : Regional Delicacies
Back to the Future : Museum for Communication Berlin
Kulturforum : Lovely Chaos
KREUZBERG
Viktoriapark : The Flâneur Traipses off to the Waterfall
Original Unverpackt : The First Supermarket Without Packaging
Prinzessinnengärten : Multi-coloured, Green, and Red Garden Plots
Modulor : A Temple for Creative Types and Artists
Café Eule in Gleisdreieck Park
NEUKÖLLN
Kindl : Centre for Contemporary Art and More
Hüttenpalast : An Unusual
Alternative to the Sofa Bed
Restlos Glücklich : Tastes Great, and Good for Your Karma Too
TEMPELHOF, SCHÖNEBERG
Tempelhofer Feld : Flowers, Skaters, and a Lot of Sky
Urban Nation : Street Art Goes Museum
Victoria Bar : The City’s Best Cocktails
Meyan : Turkish Specialties Made with Love
Sissi : A Charming Austrian Restaurant
Antiquariat Winterfeldtstrasse : Wunderkammer Full of Finds
Church Garden of St Matthias : God’s Green Thumb is Called Mike
Atelier Culinário : Brazil Meets Berlin
Cemetery Café Finovo : For Farewells, Arrivals, and Quiet Moments
DAHLEM, WANNSEE, ZEHLENDORF
Grunewaldsee Lake and Chalet Suisse : Wood & Vesper
Botanical Garden : This Trip is Totally Organic
Mutter Fourage am Wannsee : Art, Coffee, and Culture
CHARLOTTENBURG, WILMERSDORF
Skyline : A Public Canteen Above the City’s Rooftops
The Hat Bar : Small Jazz Club Bursting with Mighty Jam Sessions
Lietzensee Lake : Green-Blue Refuge Within the City
Giro Coffee Bar : Probably the Best Coffee in Town
Literaturhaus : A Beautiful Villa Passionate About the Written Word
WEDDING
Pianosalon Christophori : One of the City’s Most Singular Places
Basalt Bar : Drinks Inside the Volcano
Tangoloft : Buenos Aires in the Capital
Fischerpinte at Plötzensee Lake : Boating for Perfect Summer Days
MOABIT
Ergun’s Fischbude : Tarantino’s Favourite Restaurant
Freddy Leck : An Unusual Launderette Where Neighbours Meet
Filmrauschpalast : 1990s Alternative Cinema
Kapitel 21 : Readings, Drinks, and Table-Football Tournaments
Buchwald Baumkuchen : Berlin’s Oldest Pastry Shop
TIERGARTEN
Grosser Tiergarten : Swath of Green between Schöneberg and Mitte
Teahouse in the English Garden : A Touch of the Baltic in Prussia
Nordic Embassies : Scandinational Representation
House of the World Cultures : Hymn to Architecture
Café am Neuen See : West Berlin’s Oldest Secret
Café Einstein Stammhaus : Vienna’s Love Child
Fiona Bennett : One of Europe’s Finest Hat Shops
PRENZLAUER BERG, FRIEDRICHSHAIN
Frank und Amanda : An
Extremely Unusual Hair
Salon
Anna Rakemann : Shoes Made to Measure
California Pops : Ice, Ice Baby (and Oh so Healthy)
Pool & Cigars : When Did You Last Play Billiards ?
Bösebrücke on Bornholmer Strasse : Where the Wall First Fell
RAW-Grounds : A Patchwork of Wild Locations
MARZAHN
Habermannsee : An Unexpected Idyll Not Far from Concrete Blocks
Biesdorf Palace : Cultural Centre with an Educational Mission and Tasty Cake
OBERSCHÖNEWEIDE
Funkhaus Nalepastrasse : Concerts, Fairs, and GDR History
LÜBARS
Horses, Fields, Fresh Air
ALL ACROSS TOWN
Dr Fish : Trout-Whisperer
Flea Markets : When Finders Become Keepers
Boat Tour : The Gentlest Way to Glide through Berlin
INDEX
Mitte
BETWEEN S-/U-BAHNHOF FRIEDRICHSTRASSE AND HACKESCHER MARKT
Such a Beautiful City
MONBIJOU BRIDGE
BETWEEN AM KUPFERGRABEN
AND MONBIJOUSTRASSE
10117 BERLIN
Life is constant change. Hardly have you got into a groove when all of a sudden something calls for readjustment. You have to come up with new strategies, set out on new paths, employ new systems. We recognise this on a global scale, but sometimes the local changes are what really seem to turn everything upside down. Small things : a construction site, for example, right outside your door. Somehow life already feels different. For one whole year constant hammering, digging, dust whirling through the air, wobbling cranes, half-detached tarpaulins whipping angrily through windy nights, no more parking spaces, no birdsong, and not a single open window, just two Dixi-toilets out on the pavement. The small everyday changes we all have to put up with, gnashing our teeth. But what would happen if through some stupid circumstance, some twist of fate, your job ended and in order to keep working you had to move to Bad Godesberg ? Of all places ! Or you fell head-over-heels for someone from Papua New Guinea ? This is all purely hypothetical, of course, but I’ve given a lot of thought to what it would take for me to turn my back on my city. Love might be the only reason. Bad Godesberg, for whatever it’s worth, would never happen. And so, just like how when we’re feeling down we sometimes consciously rub salt in our wounds by listening to really really sad songs that just make everything seem worse, before saying goodbye I would make my way to a place that makes my heart take flight every time, a place I can depend on, and I’d say : Berlin, you endearing city, I’m so happy I get to live here.
I’d take the Monbijou Bridge across the Spree to the Kupfergraben. Like a strong arm, the bridge touches the tip of Museum Island, which has the Pergamon Museum, the Alte Nationalgalerie, the Neues and Alte Museums, and the proud cathedral, as if it was built just to support the star-struck tourist gazing at the majestic Bode Museum with its large dome, their eyes moving left towards Alexanderplatz and then further still towards the Monbijou Theatre with its adjoining park, where in summer Berliners and tourists alike have barbeques, sit at the beach bar and look out onto the water that is constantly decorated by barges, little boats, and countless tourist steamers with names like “Mirth” or “Sanssouci”, and on certain nights you can see people tango beneath colourful string lights. And further still your eyes take in the Ebert Bridge crossing Friedrichstrasse, in the direction of the Berliner Ensemble, the Friedrichstadtpalast, the Deutsches Theater. An aesthetically pleasing and lively 360-degree panorama full of variety, history, and a certain kind of elegance which, truth be told, isn’t all that easy to find in Berlin, unless you’re willing to make a few compromises. I wouldn’t be doing myself any favours and, in the end, I’d suffer like a dog, but this is where I would say goodbye to Berlin, if I had to say goodbye to Berlin.
S-/U-BAHNHOF ORANIENBURGER STRASSE
Over a 100 and Still Timeless
CLÄRCHENS BALLHAUS
AUGUSTSTRASSE 24
10117 BERLIN
OPEN DAILY FROM 11AM UNTIL END
WEEKENDS UNTIL 4AM
WWW.BALLHAUS.DE
If Clärchens Ballhaus were a person, you’d want to sit next to her on the train. She could tell you some incredible stories. And I know I’m not the only one who feels that this is one of the few places where, at least tentatively, you can take a nostalgic trip to a Berlin that has nothing to do with today’s. A last witness of sorts, one who went through two fins de siècle, survived two world wars and more than two systems of government. And she’s still there, noble, pretty in her old get-up, surrounded by coffee shops, chic stores, and galleries. If Clärchens Ballhaus were a person, she’d be rather surprised. But she’d take it all with a sense of humour.
Back in 1913, in a building constructed in 1895, husband-and-wife team Fritz and Clara Bühler opened Bühler’s Ballhaus. There were close to 900 such places in Imperial Berlin, and this was one – and to get it out of the way right at the start : it’s the only one where people still go to dance and have fun almost every day. With its large, ground-floor dance hall and 120-square-metre hall of mirrors, the establishment quickly found its audience. Often seen drawing at the bar, painter Heinrich Zille was a regular. As was his artist colleague Otto Dix, who designed the Ballhaus’ poster, still in use today. After Fritz gave up the ghost in 1929, his fearless wife Clara, who would marry two times more, took over and continued using the same name. After the world wars, there was a notable surplus of women, so Clärchen (Clara’s nickname) organised widows’ balls and kept the people dancing. Even in the GDR. The Ballhaus was a meeting point for a diverse crowd from both East and West, which, naturally, did not go unnoticed. As it was taken for granted that an innocent turn on the dance floor might lead to a markedly less-than-innocent epilogue, the Stasi referred to the ballroom as the ‘gonorrhoea den’.
Up through 2004 the ballroom was run by the same family. Then the new owner expanded the programme and breathed new life into the first-floor hall of mirrors, which had lately been used as a storage room. This jewel is now used for events as well as for their Sunday series of classical music concerts. There is a dance tea downstairs on Sundays from 3pm to 9pm. Events are always packed. You can also find a disco Tuesday (free entry), swing nights with dance-partner placement, and various courses throughout the week (for example, Standard / Latin, West Coast Swing). And if dancing isn’t quite your thing, you still have your pick of the restaurant as well as the attractive beer garden out front. Order yourself a mug of beer, gaze out at the string lights, trees, and flowers, and at the charming grey façade. Imagine what it was like a hundred years ago and allow yourself to fall out of a time for a spell.
TRAMS 12 / M8 / PAPPELPLATZ, U8 ROSENTHALER PLATZ
Regional Delicacies
VOM EINFACHEN DAS GUTE
INVALIDENSTRASSE 155
10115 BERLIN
TEL. 030 288 64 849
TUE. – SUN. 10AM – 8PM
I first got to know former minister Renate Künast in 2009, when she was a guest on my radio show. Years later when we made plans to get together for a shoot, she suggested we meet at Invalidenstrasse 155 : ‘Make sure you’re hungry.’
And so I found myself waiting out in front of a small shop with a table and chairs on the pavement. ‘The best of the simple’ was written on the window, impressively overflowing with delicious-looking bread, wine, cheese, ham, and dried sausages hanging from a line. The painterly arranged goods reminded me of drawings in old fairy-tale books of a castle banquet.
She arrived on her bicycle. Stepping inside, it was clear that Künast is a familiar face here. ‘Hello ! How nice of you to stop by.’ ‘Yes, I’m expecting company and wanted to pick up a few things first. And I brought someone else along.’ That someone else was me, and it was absolutely amazing inside. The man behind the counter laughed. ‘Where do we want to start ?’ Künast pointed to a brightly coloured cheese. ‘Oh yes, goat cheese, mild, with honey.’ We were allowed to try. We were handed a slice of sausage, then wonderfully fragrant bread. And then some ham that was so tender it melted in my mouth. ‘Everything organic’, Künast says. As if there was any doubt. ‘Try some. They simply don’t make this kind of Leberwurst any more.’
And that was clearly the incentive and the aspiration of the owners, who opened up shop in 2013. The two of them wanted to find and share the good things : unadulterated, natural, traditionally prepared food. Of its 45-square metres of retail space, a good portion is taken up by the counter. Toward the back there is another large table with chairs, while up on high wooden shelves oil, wine bottles, and various jars are filled with delicacies.
Our bags full (paper, naturally), we left the shop. ‘They also do culinary evenings, with wine tastings and all the rest. It’s always lovely.’ The dates can be found on their website. We walked to nearby Weinbergspark and spread our delicatessen out on the lawn for our impromptu picnic. The grass was damp, but by the time we noticed, we had already sat down. Künast, the former federal minister for food, agriculture, and consumer protection, who is passionate about appropriate livestock farming, pesticide-free fertiliser, and fair trade, happily put a slice of cheese into her mouth. Ms Turbo, the warrior and true believer, sat in the afternoon sun and simply enjoyed the moment. And immediately something rather soft, almost girlish, appeared in that bright-eyed face. It suited her. Man, is this good.
U2 / U6 STADTMITTE
Back to the Future
MUSEUM FOR COMMUNICATION BERLIN
LEIPZIGER STRASSE 16
10117 BERLIN
TEL. 030 202 940
TUE. 9AM – 8PM, WED. – FRI. 9AM – 5PM, SAT. – SUN. 10AM – 6PM
WWW.MFK-BERLIN.DE
One of the best-kept secrets of the communications field is that there is always a lack of information. And that would be enough to make you bend over laughing if it weren’t often so frustrating, its effects so serious. Both professional and personal messages are often conveyed incorrectly, unclearly, or simply not at all. And what comes out in the end is not infrequently incomplete and distorted. At this point, a knowing nod to whoever first came up with the game of Chinese Whispers : you knew it all along.
In the end, most communication issues affect all aspects of society. And it’s not just the daily multitude of information that makes us inattentive, but the multitude of channels through which these messages arrive and in which they get caught up. Speaking of getting caught up : on top of everything there are all the classic miscommunications that thrive on the fertile ground of any old relationship like merry mushrooms in damp moss : ‘But just a minute ago you thought …’, ‘Why don’t you say what …’, ‘Hadn’t we agreed that …’
From time to time it might be helpful to come back down to earth. There’s a good reason why terms like authenticity and mindfulness are enjoying a comeback (you can now even get them from the local chemist’s shop as wall stickers). Coming down can help, no matter how you define it : unplugging from it all, everything, for two whole days (which no one does, of course) ; going to a silent monastery (which very few do) ; deactivating all your alerts and ringtones (reasonable, if not for firemen, police officers, midwives, mothers, fathers, etc.). Or you can choose the exposure-therapy method and head off for the impressive Museum for Communication, which with its exhibition pieces, explanations, and experiments may be educational, but can also be viewed as a playground. What was it like for people in the past ? Who used which channels and when ? Mail coach, carrier pigeon, message in a bottle, the distant ancestors of email. ‘What is that ?’ – ‘That, my dear child, is an answering machine, but yes, it looks a lot like a cassette player, ha.’ ‘What’s a cassette player ?’ Or : ‘There were little houses, dear, with thick books hanging in them and a handset with an earpiece (‘What’s an earpiece ?’), you had to toss change into a slit to make a call. Not infrequently there would be a queue of people standing out in front of this little yellow box, which looked a bit like a shower stall, and they’d roll their eyes and angrily tap their feet whenever the person inside put in more money.’
How far away that all is now. Or two cans with a wire pulled taut between them – who still remembers ? Telegrams. Signing off : a colourful image, a nasty noise, and that was that. An extensive permanent exhibition considers the past, which every day ends anew, a past that took place bit by bit for centuries but since the middle of the last one has been leaping forward at a clip. There are temporary exhibitions, performances, and special events. Generally speaking, it’s fun to occupy yourself with communication, but it’s also a bit humbling. Even if you don’t need any of this to keep your head on straight, you will still be informed and entertained.
S-/U-BAHNHOF POTSDAMER PLATZ, BUSES M48 / M85 KULTURFORUM
Lovely Chaos
FOOD STAND AT THE KULTURFORUM
POTSDAMER STRASSE / KULTURFORUM
DAILY FROM 9.30AM
Esteemed ladies and gentlemen, I have been eagerly following every episode of your before-
th
Oh, you poor, interesting Kulturforum. As long as no one invents an immense gripper able to lift up buildings and put them somewhere else, you will just have to live with this unique and lovely form of chaos. In spite of, or perhaps because of, its inconsistency, this is a very inspiring place ; in the end, the individual institutions here keep their promises. A concert in the Philharmonie ? Unique. The paintings in the Gemäldegalerie ? Impressive. The atmosphere of the area alone is special. To warm up to it all it’s best to start off at Ahmed’s Imbiss, right next to the Neue Nationalgalerie, which at the moment is a giant construction site. ‘We’ve got great sandwiches, currywurst, chips. And my coffee is the real thing. It’s really good coffee’, he says. Who have you always wanted to serve here, Ahmed ? ‘Angela Merkel. She’s driven by in her car before but never stepped out.’ Why Angela Merkel ? ‘I love her. She’s a bit…hmm, I don’t know, strong and all.’ Perhaps one day she will indeed make a stop on a nice midday in fall. The Chancellor would grab two plastic chairs and place them in the late afternoon sun, put up her legs, bite into a warm sandwich, and at long last have a cup of Ahmed’s coffee. Chaos or not !