He did it again! There is this pile of garbage and you walk by one day. And you walk by the other day and there it is: the mysterious “6″ or “6de” or “1kg.de” or “4rtist.com”, painted right on the waste - on an old mattress, a pile of bulk rubbish, building material along road works or even a tire of the big Volksbühne truck trailer parked in Linienstrasse. Have a look at the artist’s website www.6de.de and find a lot more lovely and funny street art paintings. Whenever you walk around in Mitte / Prenzlauer Berg, keep your eyes open and you definitely will find a piece of work!

Southwest of Berlin’s city boarders, close to the town Groß Glienicke exists a place called „Waldsiedlung“. Despite the peaceful name and the romantic landscape, the 700.000 sqm area was once a military barrack in the Weimar Republic. During the Third Reich the barrack was expanded, and after 1945 was occupied by the soviet army. Even until 1989 it was used as a frontier-defence of the GDR. After the reunification the area was sold to a private property company and most of the buildings were demolished. Fortunately the so called Panzerhalle remained, and has been used for 10 years as an atelier and an exhibition place. The hall is huge, cold and drafty, but has a very special atmosphere especially in combination with the environmental forest, which is just beautiful; a stimulating contrast was created.
I visited the Panzerhalle for the first time in 2003 to see the exhibition „Blue Hall – market place Europe“. Artists from different european countries were invited to realise their idea of Europe, each one using a box of bananas. It was an amazing exhibition with funny as also sometimes provocative ideas. The Panzerhalle offered the ideal surroundings.

exhibit from „Blue Hall – Marktplatz Europa“

Last year the Panzerhalle was destroyed, but the people and the spirit, which created the Atelierhaus Panzerhalle still exist. The artists moved to another building belonging to the barrack Waldsiedlung, called now „Neues Atelierhaus Panzerhalle“. The artistic production continues and projects such as a sculpture garden are in preparation. It is a great advantage for Berlin and Brandenburg to have this place for cultural purposes, as so many different historical changes have taken place.

Lothar Seruset, Die Turnstunde

Berlin is actually one of the cheapest capitals in Europe. Without being rich or having a stable income you still have the possibility to find a nice flat in the center of the town and participate in the cultural life. There are a lot of places and events, where no entrance fee is demanded. Many buildings and monuments can be entered for free, for example the Friedrichwerdersche Kirche , the Reichstag , on mondays the museum Deutsche Guggenheim or the Holocaust-Monument close to the Avenue „Unter den Linden“ and the Brandenburg Gate .
In the evenings you can walk around and find spontaneous concerts on the sidewalks or in the Berlins huge public parks. Especially on friday evenings many gallery openings in Berlin Mitte take place, these are accessible to everyone . Residents and tourists are guided on special days through government departments, memorials, historical monuments, universities and other buildings, which are normally not opened to the public: Tag des offenen Denkmals, Einladung zum Staatsbesuch, Festival of Lights, Tag der offenen Tür…
Mainly during the summertime innumerable festivals and parties on the street are organised.

This unpretentious and easygoing lifestyle is also one of the reasons that many artists are attracted to Berlin, see Reuters-article „Artists flock to cheap Berlin from around the world“.

Queen Luise from Prussia and Princess Friederike in the Friedrichwerdersche Kirche, source: flickr

Datas and facts concerning „cheap Berlin“ as well as an interview with a scottish writer, living many years in Berlin, are coming soon.

in a recent article at de:bug magazine basso was described as the paper reincarnation of a  sultry sauna club. not bad, basso is a magazine, an art space, a gallery and above all it is an attitude towards life that seems to affect mostly bearded gay men above 30. tonight for example there will be a “screening of steven arnold’s LUMINOUS PROCURESS from 1972, when the boundaries between genders were passed with the pioneering lightness of the freshly awakened.” if you are bearded or not, you will like the attitude of that place. http://www.basso-berlin.de

first bullet holes, now a bunker from WW2: it seems, i am becoming the history guy here… But this place IS special: its a private exhibition space for the contemporary art collection of the advertising creative and collector christian boros. the collection shows on more than 3000 square meter and 120 rooms (my architect friends went nuts) works from eliasson, reyle, meese, sierra and others. by appointment only.

Olafur Eliasson
Berlin Colour Sphere, 2006. Foto Noshe
Courtesy of Sammlung Boros, Berlin

Walking around in the center of Berlin without a goal or a special target makes you discover the most beautiful and interesting places. These places will never be found in any typical guide and will show you the real Berlin.
Impressive Buildings and sculptures from the 19th and early 20th centuries can be found around the area of the Charité (a famous and well-established hospital-complex between the main train station and the Friedrichstrasse): http://denkmaeler.charite.de/site/. On sundays the parks of the Charité are deserted and tranquil, so you can experience and enjoy a meditative silence, here you can recover from the sometimes exhausting activities in the capital.

Website representing the most important monuments of the Charité

A calm place is also the cemetery „Dorotheenstädtisch-Friedrichswerdersche Friedhof“ in Mitte, which is accessible from the Chausseestrasse 126: see article in http://de.wikipedia.org/.
The cemetery was built in 1763 and has become over time a place of great importance concerning Berlin’s tradition and history of art. Famous people have found here their last resting-place: between the artists Karl Friedrich Schinkel and Johann Gottfried Schadow are the writers and dramatists Bertolt Brecht and Anna Seghers, the philosopher Herber Marcuse, the members of the resistance Klaus Bonhoeffer and Hans von Dohnanyi, the politician Johannes Rau and lots more. Some of the tombstones are really extraordinary.

Grave of Karl Friedrich Schinkel, source: wikipedia

Not so silent but also quite interesting is the place in front of the ruin of the Palace of the Republic. Here the reconstructed palace will be built, this was damaged during second world war and finally destroyed in 1950. At the moment excavations are taking place on the former Palace Square (Schlossplatz): detailed article under http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/
The findings – foundations, walls and everyday items – are a significant source of the original construction of the palace and give an impression of the medieval settlement on this place during the 12th until the 14th centuries. There are plans to integrate parts of the excavation in the soon to be reconstructed buildings.

Preview of the excavation

of course other cities have their contemporary art exhibition halls. but only in berlin it is placed at the former stadtschloss place in the heart of our city: from june on The Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin will be a temporary must-see-site at a location where until some month ago the Palast der Republik reflected the evening sun in its blushed windows. the Palast had to leave but at least now you can visit the beautifully designed building with exterior works by gerwald rockenschaub. visti severl times, the exterior art work will change twice a year.  www.kunsthalle-berlin.com/

Until October 5th the Pergamon Museum Berlin shows the most exciting exhibition about Babylon - myth, city, legend and truth. Vivid associations, which no other city can quite evoke as strongly in our minds. In the first section (truth) you discover the roots of our Western culture by looking at the archaeological remains of Babylon. In the second  section of the exhibition (myth) you see Babylon as a “metaphor for the dark sides of civilisation - repression and the lack of freedom, terror and violence, hubris and madness”. European artists from all centruries (including a wonderful Fischli and Weiss piece) have dealt with icons like the tower of babel, the confusion of tongues and the apocalypse. and – let’s face it: the exhibition design is damn cool