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Category: Travel

Travel posts

  • Stolpersteine or stumbling stones

    In the Stolpersteine in the footpaths outside many buildings in Berlin are such simple but poignant stories. This collection of four is outside a building in Danzigerstrase, Prenzlauer. The information relates to a Jewish family that lived in the adjacent house. Arthur Wolfberg, born 1897 (by inference the father), Herta Wolfberg born 1899 (by inference the mother, Helga Wolfberg born 1924 (daughter?) and Gunter Wolfberg born 1925 (son?). All deported 3 February 1943, all murdered in Auschwitz. http://bit.ly/1miyZ8Z

    http://flic.kr/p/nb1ndJ

  • Ernst Thalmann

    Ernst Thalmann was the leader of the German Communist Party who was shot in 1944 on orders from Adolf Hitler #1Mai
    Wiki

    http://bit.ly/1iHruA5

  • Cultural ignorance

    My search for significant street art in Berlin took me to Cuvrystrasse in Kreuzberg. I was looking for a two part mural by the Italian artist Blu. One depicting an unmasking my two figures making East and West signs with their hands, the other a business man adjusting his tie with a gold chain between two rolex watches

    Having seen a number of photos of the artwork I was surprised to see what I expected was an open area, to be surrounded by a set of fences, and the site full of shacks built from assortments of building materials, plastic tarps and the like.

    Initially I was just going to take a couple of photos from outside and leave, however I started talking to one of the occupants who I understood came from Bulgaria. “Talk” may be an exaggeration as we had no language in common. I explained what I was doing and he offered to take me through the camp to the walls – I explained I would not take any photos of the camp or occupants.

    Within the camp there were braziers cooking lunch and quite a few kids who ran to the walls with me. I took my photos, thanked the man who showed me the way with a tip, and left

    Since then I’ve been reading a lot about Kreuzberg and Cuvrystrasse, trying to become more knowledgeable about its place in Berlin culture. Some of it is about freedom and the community response to gentrification. Some is about protest and violence, some about celebration.

    http://flic.kr/p/nsmBJA

  • Alois Senefelder, founder of lithography

    The next closest U-bahn stop to where we are staying is Senefelderplatz. Named after the inventor of lithography, nearby is a marble statue of him. I thought naming it with the sort of mirror reversed lettering lithography uses, and having one of the putti looking at it with a mirror a nice touch. #sculpture
    Alois Senefelder

    http://bit.ly/R3HpCY

  • Round Heads by Nomad


    Round heads by Nomad

    The artist ‘Nomad’ uses a pictogram style in his painting “Rounded Heads”. This is pretty much across Oppelner Strasse from the Yellow man mural in Kreuzberg ( http://bit.ly/PRbowX… )

    http://flic.kr/p/nrMnFm

  • The Lads by London Police


    The Lads by London Police

    The London Police have a very distinctive style ( http://bit.ly/R0fAeM ). “The Lads” appears on a wall which looks like it is the background to a kids playground at the corner of Cuvrystrasse and Wangelstrasse in Kreuzberg.

    http://flic.kr/p/nrsyBe

  • Austronaut / Cosmonaut by Victor Ash


    Astronaut / Cosmonaut by Victor Ash

    One of the murals I was determined to see while in Berlin was this of the astronaut painted by Portugese born, Danish based artist – Victor Ash ( www.victorash.net/ ). I took several shots of the work which is about four-five stories tall. This was my favourite however as it shows the size of the work in relation to the building it is on, and the park in front of it.

    http://flic.kr/p/nrMo1j

  • Yellow Man

    Yellow man, Street art in Kreuzberg
    “Yellow Man” is a painting by the twins Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo, known as Os Gemeos. The mural is in Oppelner Strasse, Kreuzberg

    http://bit.ly/1o2IHsV

  • Rundblickbeobachtungsturm


    Rundblickbeobachtungsturm

    Down a side street off the busy commercial hub of Potsdamer Platz is this relic of the Berlin Wall and the Cold War,an East German watchtower. The “panorama observation tower” originally stood between the Brandenburg Gate and Leipziger Platz and served as a base for border guards. Construction of these crenelated type BT 6 watchtowers began in 1966 and there were at one time 200 of them.

    http://flic.kr/p/na1mVL

  • Neue Wache


    Neue Wache

    Originally a guardhouse in the 1800s, Neue Wache ( or New Guardhouse ) has been a war memorial since the 1930s.

    It is really just a single room, containing a single sculpture, an enlarged version of Käthe Kollwitz’s Mother with her Dead Son. The sculpture is directly under the oculus ( a round, eye-like opening in the roof ), and so is exposed to the rain, snow and cold of the Berlin climate, symbolising the suffering of civilians during World War II.?

    http://flic.kr/p/ntfSgM