The green 'Ampelmännchen'

Twenty five years ago since the Berlin wall came down, and I celebrate with a photo of a green  'Ampelmännchen' - little walking green man. My version is a rubber, bought in Berlin in September, but the real versions help people cross streets safely. 

The Ampelmännchen is from East Germany and was designed in 1961.

It was replaced by a western designed 'little green man' when west and east were integrated but then brought back because of nostalgia for things lost and because pedestrians find the East German version of the walking (or stopping) man easier to read than the one designed in the west. Besides which the East German version is charming!

East German Ampelmännchen were re-introduced into Berlin in 2005 and they have become a city icon.

Bundestag ingenuity

Climbing the glass dome of the Bundestag is unforgettable. We hadn't pre-registered online so we lined up with others in the 'spontaneous visits' queue. 

Everyone is given the option of head phones in their own language and as you progress up the ramp of the dome the headphones tell you when to stop, which direction to look and then tells stories about what you are seeing. It is an ingenious system because the device seems to be triggered by your position so you can go at your own pace.

From the top you can look right down into the parliamentary chamber. A moveable sun screen made of metal bars (picture 2) follows the sun so the chamber is protected from the heat and doesn't cost as much to cool.

One thing I like about Germany is that although they have rules they are perfectly willing to bend them. We had turned up 40 minutes earlier than our allocated time slot but were waved through without a problem.

Bicycles rule

Berlin car drivers are quite a different breed to those in Sydney. In Berlin there are bicycles everywhere and cars slow down to let them move into the traffic. Sydney drivers would be more likely to step on the accelerator just to teach the bicyclist a lesson. I am finding Berlin a refreshing lesson in good manners.

All museumed out

If you buy a three day museum card you feel obliged to use it, so for the last three days we have been to see more museums than you could poke a stick at and tonight we are too tired to move another inch.

This morning we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art ... huge spaces full of work by Joseph Beuys and others of his ilk which we found exhausting and boring, probably reflecting the mood of the people who made the art.  There were groups of students there but not many other people.

The Old National Gallery, however, was full of people looking at (and taking pictures of) the 19th century paintings. That says a lot about 'contemporary' art really.

My young companion whipped out her camera and snapped away.  In between we had visited the Museum of Communication and she had found telephones like those my patents had on their hall wall quite hilarious.
"And that wasn't so long ago," she marvelled, "because it was in your lifetime!"

History can be fun

I always imagine museums to be full of stuffed birds (which perhaps they were once upon a time) so I am caught by surprise when one captures my imagination. Today was one of those days.

The Museum of German History in Berlin is a fascinating place and my 15 year old companion and I spent more than four happy hours there, slowly making our way through the history of Europe and Germany in particular. I was interested to see a very early clock as I had once thought of making one for an art project before discovering that they are exceedingly complicated. 

My companion responded to anything about women and children but we had to make our way through centuries of religion and wars before women and children made much of an appearance.

Berlin: graffiti ... Anne Frank museum

Graffiti on inner courtyards (with bicycles) in the arty Berlin suburb of Hackescher Markt .... and a photo taken inside the Anne Frank Museum which is up several flights of narrow stairs off one of the courtyards.

A beer and a candle

Berlin 2009: Glass of beer and a candle

Painted in a Berlin restaurant  one evening in 2009. I remember I was tired after visiting too many art shows in one day, among them the Emil Nolde Museum. Nolde's colour palette probably influenced this painting.

I also remember the view out the large glass window of the restaurant - a grey street with hurrying figures. I would have chatted to a neighbour if I had had any, but it was early evening and there were few patrons. However, on the plus side, the beer was good and the candle was a real one, not a battery run fake. 

Cafes in Berlin

It seems to me that cafes say a lot about a city. Here are some in Berlin:

Under the railway at Hackischer Markt.


On the river almost opposite Parliament House.

Restaurant in Oranienstrasse.

Gendarmenmarkt Cafe.

In the arty Auguststrasse.

and in the unrenovated part of East Berlin. At this cafe your sausage, potatoes and sauerkraut costs Euro 4.95. Just along the street in the touristy Nicholaikirche area the same sausage costs you Euro 16.95. It pays to get lost in the East sometimes.

Art in Berlin

Berlin has a very vibrant art scene and last week I went in Berlin to see the Berliner Liste and 14th Art Forum, two big exhibitions where gallerists exhibit their artists.

First I explored the area close to my hostel and discovered Auguststrasse, which is a long stretch of galleries and related shops. I paid an entrance fee to see a group exhibition from the KW Institute of Contemporary Arts. It was housed in three stories of a rather ancient complex. If I had not negotiated a student fee of Euro 4 I would have been tempted to ask for my money back. The exhibition space though enormous was almost empty.

KW Exhibition

In the photo above, taken on the first floor, you might be able to see the exhibit on the back wall. It was titled Monochrome Till Receipt (white), Ink on paper with spray fixative. It was the sort of receipt you are handed with your groceries. The very light coloured lettering (like a faded receipt) made reading it too difficult to spend time deciphering so I didn't bother to study it in detail to see if there might be a satirical side to it. I just wondered if all Berlin art was so behind the times. (This sort of art statement seems very last century to me.)
Gallery in a courtyard on Auguststrasse

Fortunately this was not the case. Other galleries showed intriguing and thought provoking works. I don't remember the artist who created these interesting textile works (photo above) which I photographed through a window in an inner courtyard. The coloured figures are photographs and the white figures are thread and they were about life sized. Somehow they seemed very appropriate to this area which is revitalizing itself and in which you feel the hand on history on your shoulder.

There is a lot of interesting public art in the area, like these indoor outdoor paintings. Paintings in an inner courtyard of a community complex (above and below).

The Berliner Liste Fair for Contemporary Art was housed over three stories of a glass fronted building not far from the National Gallery.
Buying refreshments at Berliner Liste Exhibition

This exhibition purported to show artists who had been chosen because of their innovative methods and it was a fascinating if exhausting journey. I am not sure why looking at art is so tiring, but it is, especially if there are a lot of artists you have never seen before and who are presenting really interesting work.In all there were about 300 artists represented: painters, photographers and a smattering of sculptors.

I collected brochures instead of taking photos but one work I did photograph was by Cony Theis who paints seaside pictures using oil on transparent paper (below). Capturing tiny swimmers in the surf is difficult and I thought the method that Cony Theis used enabled her to achieve the effect of the seaside better than most.
Work by Cony Theis

By the time I had seen all the 300 artists I was exhausted so next day, instead of going to the Art Forum (which I thought would probably be more of the same) I visited the Emil Nolde Gallery near the Gendarmenmarkt and spent time luxuriating in the work of my favorite artist.

I love Nolde's colours and his figurative work, in particular his series of unpainted pictures, small scale colour masterpieces created during the years un which he was forbidden to paint by the Nazis. The letter from the authorities to Nolde, informing him that his work had been confiscated because it did not fit the direction of art that had been determined by the Fuhrer was on display with these paintings. This typewritten letter on typical beige coloured paper had obviously been folded and unfolded many times as it had come apart in the middle and was stuck together with sellotape.

In the evening I amused myself by making little paintings in the style of Nolde.
Berlin Woman.

Backpackers Pool Game

A Backpackers in Berlin

My heart did rather sink when I found the hostel in Berlin where I had booked a bed via Internet. The stairs looked the type of stairs that featured in who-dunnits. At the top of three flights of stairs (old building = no lift) was a friendly reception and a lounge that looked as if it was the last of the hippy generation. 'Relaxed atmosphere' apparently meant that it was fine to smoke in the lounge room which was a constant fug of smoke. Then into a room with an artist's touch ...

The good thing about the hostel was its position, right in the middle of the art center of Berlin. In neighbouring streets one gallery after another was interspersed between buildings that had been reclaimed by residents. Pleasant inner courtyards, ruins made into cafes ... and playgrounds.

It was just around the corner from the world heritage Museum Island, a river island with four magnificent museums.
There are pleasant walking paths along the river and one evening I sat on one of the benches to sketch the Bode Museum below. My bench neighbour was a friendly drunk who had finished his carton of white wine but kept raising it to his lips, forgetting it was empty. He peeped at my drawing between non-sips and very much admired the end product when it was finished. Ink sketch: Bode Museum

The hippydom hostel had another interesting feature. It was right behind the Friedrichstadtpalast, home of Berlin's musicals. Looking down from my third story window in the evenings I could see ushers and the occasional dancer smoking behind the building.

Above them on the second story, I watched young men donning their gold lamé trousers through one window and the costume manager hanging and sorting racks of costumes through another. As I drifted off to sleep I could hear the musical as if next door. Old buildings have little sound insulation.

On Saturday evening, as the the music floating over from the Friedrichstadtpalast was ending, the music in the club downstairs was starting. It was a techno club and the music reverberated through the building and the beds until the early hours. In the morning a room-mate told me the hostel offered free ear-plugs at reception.

Berlin: bricks and mortar

Berlin. Full of whopping great buildings. The Brandenburg Gate must be one of the most photographed buildings in the world. It is busy and noisy and it would be easy to walk past a small door built into the gate which leads to the Silent Room. The silence in the silent room is so profound that it almost hurts to sit there for the first few minutes. As time passes you notice a faint movement as a train passes below. As you sit a bit longer you feel the tension leave your body and the healing begin. Finally, you feel ready to emerge and see some more great whopping buildings ...
like those on the Gendarmenmarkt, a neoclassical square whose name dates back to the Napoleonic occupation of the city. On one side is the French Cathedral (in the photo) and on the other is the almost identical German Cathedral.
Between them is the Konzerthaus (Concert Hall), home of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra which had a red carpet running down the stairs (a permanent feature?).

In front of the Konzerthaus stands a statue of Schiller surrounded by seated damsels.

Self portrait as tourist in Berlin.

No all of Berlin is so monumental. One day I got lost in East Berlin and landed in an area that had been redeveloped. A passing Berliner said that the architects had been given the dimensions of the buildings but could then do as they pleased. This is the result, a place that woudl be nice to come home to.

What a pity the city planners and architects responsible for Sydney's Green Square didn't show such discernment.