Earlier this year I spend a month in Berlin.
Not only is it OK to wander the streets with a beer, but the railway stations normally have a bottle shop just to get you through the walk from the station to home.
IMGP8202-el-bocho
I’ve deliberately used a wide shot here so you can see the art work in relation to the surrounds. Top right you can see two of the major characters used by El Bocho, one of the melancholy looking girls known as “Citizens” and further right, “Little Lucy”
The beanie of the girls head says “Liebe in Beton” ( Love in concrete?), and most of these fugures have similar sayings.
Little Lucy on the other hand is based on a Czech TV show called “Little Lucy – Fear of the Street”. Her hobby is killing her cat and here you see her pulling it apart.
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Berliner Mauer
Getting towards the end of my time in Berlin I thought it only appropriate to put this up, Berliner Mauer or the Berlin Wall.
It made me feel a bit old as historically speaking I was alive at the time the wall was constructed, lived through the years of its use, and remember when it came down.
Since being in Berlin I have read and heard more of the history of the wall, and the societies it created in both the west and the east (ost). During our month in Berlin we lived in what was the East (Prenzlauer) and this section of the wall is about a dozen blocks away.
Having heard plenty of the history of the time from those that lived on both sides of the wall, it makes a fascinating if painful read. http://bit.ly/1mr1oak
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Käthe Kollwitz museum
It would be difficult to live in Prenzlauer for a month and not come across the name Käthe Kollwitz. There is a street and a platz, and a large statue of her in the berg ( flic.kr/p/ned3GC ).
Elsewhere an enlarged reproduction of her sculpture ‘Mother with her Dead Son’ is the centre piece (and only piece) in the Neue Wache ( flic.kr/p/ntfSgM ).
As an artist she is a firm favourite of my daughters so today we trekked across town to the Käthe Kollwitz museum. This is part art gallery with some great pieces including the original ‘Mother with her Dead Son’.
It is also part history museum, her son Peter died in the first world war and grandson Peter died in the second world war. Käthe’s anti-war stance and pro-socialist leanings eventually saw her banned from exhibiting in Germany so this space is one that is well worth a visit from artists and historians alike.
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Central atrium Berggruen Museum
Terrific day at Berggruen Museum and the associated gallery at Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg. Berggruen has the annex under renovation at the moment so the Paul Klee part of the exhibition is housed across the road at Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg. .
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This view is looking up into the Museum dome with a sculpture by Alberto Giacometti (http://bit.ly/1oAgz0l ).
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The museum has three floors of Picasso’s arranged in chronological order and a fabulous audio tour. ( http://bit.ly/1oAgz0o… ) ?
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I’ve enjoyed getting into the courtyards of apartment blocks in Berlin. This one at Schluterstrasse 71, takes you through to the Verborgenes Museum (http://bit.ly/1gb7rzX )
Quite a large four storey mural on Straße der Pariser Kommune, Friedrichshain, just across from S Ostbahnhof. I get the impression that there was another face on the right hand wall but this was too faded to make out properly.
http://bit.ly/1sgSzQk
Monterey Bar, Danzigerstrasse, Prenzlauer.
The first Australian I met in Berlin was a Melbourne guy who owns this bar. I went in because of the craft beer signs outside. Basically has beer, whisky and rock and roll late).
Like a lot of bars I’ve been to in Berlin this one doesn’t open until 6pm or 7pm. In this case Adie and his partner also run Alternative Berlin tours so they have a day job. (alternativeberlin.com/ )
One of those odd moments when a quick snap gave me much more than I was expecting. I was walking across the road from the Berggruner Museum to Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg when I stopped to take a snap of Charlottenburg Palace. The result was an almost painting-like image that I didn’t realise was there until I looked at it later. I was also shooting across the multi-lane Spandauer Damm so can’t believe there were no vehicles in the shot.
United enemies
United Enemies, by the German artist Thomas Schütte in the gardens of the Berggruen Museum. (http://bit.ly/1iyj6aw…). These two sculptures have been shown in Central Park, New York and in the Kensington Gardens, London. They appear to show political enemies tied together, but rather than heroic seeming, they appear in pain or in confusion.
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