Berlin, Germany's topics - tribe.net

Suche WG oder Wohnung...Looking for a place to move into.

2009-09-27T11:51:11Z

Hi,
I have a new job and will be moving to Berlin. I need a place starting November. I am looking for something either with roomies or without. It needs to be close to Friedrichsfelde (Lichtenberg, Biesdorf, Marzahn, Friedrichshain, Prenzlauer Berg, Karlshorst...).
I am a veterinarian and have a cat and small dog, both lovely and easy going. It is important that I find people that love animals and would be excited about having them in the house. Price needs to be under E300.
If you have any ideas or are looking for a roommate, lets talk and get together for a drink.
A

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

US Faerie visiting Berlin in December

2009-09-14T04:33:59Z

Looking to connect up with radical faeries while visiting Berlin in December - would be kewl to attend a heart circle or any other faerie activities that may be going on. would also be nice to have someone show me around town a day or two while there. George - Portland Oregon USA

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

The rebuilding of the Berlin City Palace

2009-02-24T06:06:14Z

The rebuilding of the Berlin City Palace
By Florian Bergstadt
22 January 2009

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jan2009/berl-j22.shtml

Following on a decision by Germany’s national parliament, the Berlin City Palace (Berliner Stadtschloss) in the city’s centre is to be rebuilt by 2013. The reconstruction of the palace has provoked much controversy in the general public and among experts. This article examines the background to the debate.

For a better understanding of the controversy, some knowledge of the history of the site is needed. Most of the palace was constructed in the first half of the 18th century during the period of Prussian absolutism under Frederick I and Frederick William I, the “Soldier-King”. It was to serve as the city residence of the Hohenzollern dynasty for almost two centuries.

The palace was extensively damaged during bombing raids in 1945 and suffered further heavy damage in the course of street fighting between Soviet troops and German soldiers, leaving it a ruin at the end of the Second World War. In 1950 the remains of the palace were demolished and cleared away on instructions from the Stalinist German Democratic Republic (GDR) regime. Now the façade of the palace is to be reconstructed, although the organisation and decoration of the palace’s interior were always regarded as its principal assets.

In 1973 the Palace of the Republic was constructed on the site of the former City Palace to serve as the seat of the GDR parliament. The greater portion of the building, however, consisted of various rooms and halls dedicated to cultural events. Conceived of as a cultural centre, its design was closely related to that of other European buildings of the time, such as the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the palace was closed and steps were undertaken to dispose of the asbestos in the main body of the building. Two small but vocal initiatives soon formed around the figures of businessman Wilhelm von Boddien and architect Kathleen King von Alvensleben. Their proposal was to tear down the Palace of the Republic and replace it with the former City Palace. The federal parliament (Bundestag) eventually supported this policy and in 2003 delegates, by a large majority, voted for an extensive reconstruction of the Prussian palace.

According to the parliament’s guidelines, three of the palace’s baroque facades and its smaller courtyard are to be completely rebuilt. It remained uncertain for some time what would be done with the space behind this architectural scenery. Eventually, the decision was taken to integrate as unobtrusively as possible a modern structure—the Humboldt Forum, named after the great German scientist, Alexander von Humboldt—into the reconstructed palace. At the moment the plan is for the Humboldt Forum to be an ethnological museum, relocating the collection currently located in Berlin-Dahlem.

So as to realise this project, a building that was truly “historic”, the Palace of the Republic, was torn down. Prior to its demolition, the latter palace was used in 2004 as a temporary space for exhibitions, art installations and theatrical performances. International artists contributed numerous projects, taking a stand against the planned demolition and seeking to provoke a public discussion over “lost utopias” and the search for new social perspectives. However, they were unable to prevent the razing of the building in December 2008.

From the standpoint of historical preservation, the reconstruction of the Berlin City Palace is nonsense. The preservation of historical monuments, in the modern sense, means the maintenance and restoration of existing buildings along the lines of their original construction. The purpose of such projects is to preserve the structures as witnesses of their times. In the case of the City Palace, however, the plan involves the wholesale reconstruction of facades with many details unknown, which will have to be reconstructed largely out of fantasy. Nevertheless, a genuine testimony to the recent past—the Palace of the Republic—was destroyed, despite protests from concerned conservationists.

Neither can the debate be reduced, as many people would have it, merely to the question of what the palace contributes to the cityscape. Such a perspective regards the city as a collection of scenic sites and ignores the deeper historical context that shapes the image of an urban area.

The plan for the rebuilding of the City Palace could only succeed because it jibed with the needs of leading political circles to reinterpret the past for present-day purposes. It should be noted that the Berliner Stadtschloss is a building identified with a highly undemocratic tradition. Not only was it constructed at a time when many contemporaries saw Prussia as the epitome of the authoritarian state. Prussia was also a state stamped by a culture of militarism that fatally impacted on the course of the 20th century.

The “Prussian tradition” has therefore long been widely disparaged by the German (and not only the German) population. Now, so as to overcome this essentially correct perception of the past, the “liberal” and “progressive” character of 18th century Prussia is being invoked. However, this perspective tries to mix oil with water. The Enlightenment cannot be reconciled with the Prussian tradition so easily.

In fact, the Prussian state was profoundly antagonistic to the ideals of the Enlightenment. All of the latter’s proponents had to contend with the censorship of their works and persecution by the Prussian police. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781), the renowned dramatist and critic, for example, made the following observation about life in Prussia: “Freedom is reduced solely to making as many stupid remarks against religion as one likes…but let just one person appear in Berlin, who wants to raise his voice for the rights of the lower orders and against exploitation and despotism, as is happening now even in France and Denmark, and you will soon see which country in Europe is nowadays the most enslaved”.[1]

The supporters of the City Palace appear to be no more creative in myth-making than they are in the field of architecture. The attempt to reconcile the authoritarian state with the Enlightenment goes back to the latter part of the 19th century. At that time it served the needs of the bourgeoisie, which had enriched itself in the Gründerzeit [the first decades after German unification in 1871], to reconcile itself to the establishment of the German empire under Prussian hegemony. The myth of a “liberal” Prussia made it easier for them to align themselves with Prussian bayonets as a welcome protection against the socialist-minded proletariat. The militaristic state was also a useful weapon in the politics of imperialist aggressiveness that developed more and more openly in the following decades.

Here one can note a number of parallels with the situation today. Several issues have dominated German politics over the past ten years: the question of how to impose continual cuts in social expenditure upon the population without stirring up resistance, which went along with a massive build-up of state power providing the state with the means of suppressing possible social unrest. Along with that, there has been the return to a militaristic foreign policy, despite the opposition of the majority of the population. Hence the general need felt by leading political circles to erect an object of national prestige—while suppressing other features of historical experience.

The reconstructed City Palace does not only remove the memory of the unlamented GDR from the area of Museum Island. It will also suppress memories of the destruction suffered in the Second World War—a catastrophe that represented the end-point of an authoritarian and militaristic state. Instead an attempt is being made to establish continuity between Prussian Berlin and the reunified Federal Republic, a continuity which has never existed.

The results of the competition for the city palace’s architectural design demonstrate clearly the levels of unimaginativeness and deficiency of vision that invariably arise from such attempts to distort the historical process.

First, the majority of architects voted with their feet and did not take part in the competition at all. Instead of the expected hundreds of entrants, there were only eighty-five in the end. This is an extremely low rate of participation for a competition of such a scale. Hardly any internationally renowned architects participated.

The winning design was submitted by the Italian architect, Franco Stella. A cluster of contestants tied for third place: Eccheli e Campagnola from Verona, Christoph Mäckler from Frankfurt, Kleihues and Kleihues, as well as Hans Kollhoff from Berlin. Each of the designs put forward by this group exhibited serious deficiencies, and none of them was successful enough for the jury to award a second place in the competition.

Franco Stella’s design did manage to integrate the palace into its surroundings better than those of the other contestants. However, he also was incapable of resolving the basic dilemma of the whole project. His model is marred by a striking discord between reconstructed baroque facades and the sparely constructed new facades to be built on the palace’s original grid lines. These latter facades loom so monotonously on the side of the palace adjoining the River Spree that urgent revisions are called for.

Stella cannot be blamed for producing a design betraying his own lack of conviction. The cause of the problem is the utter lack of any positive social vision at the heart of the project.

1. Lessing to Nicolai (1769), from Lessing’s collected writings, published by Karl Lachmann, 3rd edition by Franz Mucker, Bd. 17, Leipzig 1904, p 298.

posted in Berlin, Germany - 3 replies

Moving Companies

2009-01-24T03:55:55Z

My wife and I are planning on moving to Berlin in a few months.

We have a lot of books and some furniture we would like to take.

Anyone know about shipping? containers, companies? What is the process?

posted in Berlin, Germany - 5 replies

Currywurst

2008-11-21T23:39:09Z

Where is your favorite currywurst stand in Berlin?

Mine - the organic one near the Kadewe. Garlic mayonnaise!!!

posted in Berlin, Germany - 2 replies

muller art show

2008-11-12T05:38:30Z

This is an artshow featuring paintings by artist Muller Jean Francois. Many styles will be displayed including landscapes,
native, abstract, expressionist. All art dealers, collectioners and
and art lovers in general are invited.
Refreshment and snack will be served.

Muller Art Show
at http://www.artistpaintingonline.com

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

1st meeting ARTISTIC CARAVAN in berlin aug 1

2008-07-26T12:24:25Z

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1.

OFFICIAL MEETING for the ARTISTIC CARAVAN
-> SQU..ART-Hall-Performance, Transyapit and more ... <-
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear artists, acrobats, dancers, organisators !

I would like to invite you to the first meeting

-> friday, august 1st 2008
-> 7 pm
-> Jessner Str.

41 ("Supamolly"), 10247 Berlin - Friedrichshain (see appendix/map down)
in the highest kitchen in frontsided house (PRESS BELL -> "Vorderhaus 4.

Stock links")

http://www. berlin. de/stadtplan/map. asp?ADR_STREET=jessner%20str%20.%20&ADR_HOUSE=41&ADR_ZIP=10247&ADR_INFO=SUPAMOLLY%20Jessner%20Str.%2041%2C%20BerlinTel.:Tel.

:

for brainstorming & talk about following spots :

1. Performance (in) the SQU..ART-HALL in Berlin-Friedrichshain (see appendix)

2.

JOIN the INTERNATIONAL FREE ARTS FESTIVAL "TRANSYAPIT"
(Istanbul/Türkei) End of september - october 19th 2008 (as an artist-/acrobat-/?) - TROUP :

3.

How to make the ARTISTIC CARAVAN real

Just a few words about the Squart :

The hall is on the "RAW-Gelände (/-area)" in Berlin-Friedrichshain.

Few months ago a troupe of self-organized and arts- and culture-interested people/artists builded it up/renovated it and made it useful for e.g. the "SQUŽArt-Market" -> a regular Arts-Fleamarket (ever3rd saturday of month) and for other events (still not finished by now).

It is about 300 qm (donŽt know the english size), with electricity + offers lots of space for different stations of performing.

There are stage elements, a bar, curtains + more ...

if you like to take a look on the hall by yourself -> let me know -> if thereŽs further interest i can arrange another visiting of it.

Please let me know :

* which theme youŽre most interested in
* if/which beautiful and artistic/arts ideas you have in mind in general or
depending on the similar spots/events posibilities
* if you will find time to JOIN the meeting -> would be :) :) :) !!

To hear from you soon ! :)

Judith (Bieger) Zabel
Tel.

: 0049 - (0)30 - 62 90 49 89
www. myspace. com/acrodance
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

SQUÁRT-MARKET july 19th + create performance

2008-07-10T13:14:09Z

Dear Creative HEADS,

few days ago the idea came up to plan + to create a performance with a group of
people that are interested in arts, acrobatics, acting, dance, music ...
in "community" work -> even to make this place more open to arts and to
make it more public ...

The "SquŽArt"-hall is about 300 qm (donŽt know the english size) with electric
installation/possibilities -> a good + hard pre-work by the people there !

For having a look at/inside the location, inspiration and
-> for discussion/brainstorming then or later there or on another date
i would like to invite you for noncommittal to visit the next SquŽArt-ArtsFleamarket on july 19th (4 - 11 am)-> see also the flyer in the appendix !

->->->->->-> Saturday 19th SHOWROOM at SQUŽART ! <-<-<-<-<-<-

The no-style-fuckerz will play their greatest hits and there will be the possibility to present self-created arts, fashion and design with a stand or simply to marvel at it.

All designers/artists are welcome to participate! (so please spread this info...)

If this invitation is to short dated, the next date will be at the 16th of august (3. saturday of the month).
It starts at 4 pm and will go on up to 11 pm.

Please give notice under squart@10247.net or 0176/22281799 and get further information.

->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->-><-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-

So - maybe you had or have longlasting/new dreams/ideas too -> but there
was no location/room for it ...?
HereŽs the chance

See you there or later !

Bieger
www.myspace.com/acrodance
www.tribe.net/artisticcaravan
www.tribe.ent/acrobatics+dance
*****************************************************************
plakat1907klein.jpg ´

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

I'm taking my music and magic to berlin july and aug. 2008

2008-06-20T07:58:06Z

I'm landing on july 2nd and will be scoping the scene, jamming on the streets, offering my music to the peaceful, freaky people, to the diverse culture i can find, to any effort for peace, reconciliation, fun, wholeness, juicy positive communication and connection, youth and elders, turks, easterners, westerners, queers, organic gardeners, farmers, bakers, dj's, you! I've been traveling with my music for years now and am excited to stay awhile in berlin. i speak german, was an exchange student there in the late 80's. If you have any ideas for me, where to share my music or ways to make my time there flow, please write me on tribe or at ancientstar66@yahoo.com. I'll probably start out in a hostel, maybe the FLOATING hostel, yes, on the Spree River, and go from there. So much delight ahead. . . Blessings! -Diane

posted in Berlin, Germany - 1 reply

Looking for a bike

2008-05-26T21:30:43Z

Where's the best place to buy a cheap bike in Berlin?

posted in Berlin, Germany - 3 replies

Organic products

2008-05-24T09:12:44Z

I'm moving next week to Berlin for about two months. Any suggestions on the best place to find organic products? I'm especially interested in food and personal care items.

Thanks!

posted in Berlin, Germany - 2 replies

Ship paintings

2008-05-22T08:42:55Z

Is there a good place to go in Berlin to see paintings of ships, from the 17th-20th century?

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

Eli Wants to Meet You in Berlin

2008-05-06T14:09:07Z

Hi! I'm a singer/songwriter, guitarist, pianist, drummer, stiltwalker, meditator, carpenter. I'm coming to berlin for the first two weeks of may. I'd love to plug into interesting artist/musician scenes while I'm there, help out with any projects, participate in any way I can. I'm also looking for rides from London and couches to surf (I'm incredibly tidy and handy round the house). Drop me a tribe, even if you have a faint idea or an interesting dream that applies.

posted in Berlin, Germany - 5 replies

DANCE ON SCREENS every 2. thursday

2008-04-20T14:44:32Z

...at the 103 studio in berlin-kreuzberg from 8pm

* bar & live video screening
* free entry

www.103studio.de

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

ACROBATICS + DANCE WORKSHOP & Others in Berlin May 12th - 17th 2008

2008-04-19T09:34:32Z

There will be several workshops at the BLO-Ateliers during those days like

CONTACT IMPRO*TAI CHI*ORIENTAL SHIVA FUSION*PHYSICAL THEATRE*
CAPOEIRA ANGOLA + DANCE etc ...

I will give a ACROBATICS + DANCE-workshop there on Mya 15th 2008 from 10-18 in the afternoons
(2 big breaks)

www.blo-ateliers.de

Hope to see you all there ...

Bieger

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

Visa for living in Germany

2008-04-18T08:33:17Z

What kind of visa does an American citizen need to live in Germany? Eine gruene Karte?
Do I need to get it in the States before going there or can I apply once I am there? I wrote the consulate in San Francisco but never heard back from them.

posted in Berlin, Germany - 7 replies

Fusion Festival Berlin, Germany June 26.-29. 2008 / Nation of Ghondwana

2008-04-12T17:28:54Z

Anyone going there from Berlin taking me with ...?
THANK YOU !
Bieger

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

ACRODANCE- inviting a tribe for dancers, acros, contacters, circus people ...

2008-04-02T21:31:22Z

* Just take one look ! *

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

Language Schools in Berlin

2008-03-26T15:46:48Z

Can anyone recommend a language school in Berlin to learn German?

posted in Berlin, Germany - 4 replies

Recommendation: Indian/Pakistani restaurants in Friedrichshain

2008-03-17T23:25:32Z

Hello,

I am very new to Berlin and am moving to Friedrichshain and looking for recommendations for Indian/Pakistani restaurants that are the real thing...

posted in Berlin, Germany - 4 replies

i just started a new berlin tribe!!!

2007-11-16T16:55:04Z

Hello...
I started a tribe for artists/creative creatures in Berlin//check it out & join if interested!!!*
Simone//

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

artist new to berlin looking to meet people!!

2007-11-13T22:08:19Z

Hello!!
I just moved to Berlin a couple months ago.
I.m an artist and am looking to meet more people of similar interests to meet up with for things like art openings//creative events or happenings//maybe to go to parties or clubs wth//listen to music ect....or simply a cup of coffee in a cozy cafe would be nice too...
Or of course any suggestions for interesting places to check out..especially things of a more experimental creative bizaar nature...would be great too..
Thanks a lot...Simone....*

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

going to Berlin

2007-11-12T22:37:36Z

ok, I'm leaving in 10 days and wonder what I shouldn't miss. and where I should check out..
any tips appreciated.

posted in Berlin, Germany - 1 reply

a month in Berlin

2007-11-07T21:40:18Z

Hello

I’m looking for a place to live (sublease/rent) in Berlin for the month of December. I’m from Portland Oregon and have been living in northern Bayern for the past two months helping with my family’s vineyards and Heckinwirtschaft. Now I’m headed east to spend some time with my father who lives in Mecklenberg-Vorpommen, and have always dreamed of spending some time in Berlin.

Does anybody know of a place to rent for Dec. or have recommendations of where to look?

A little bit about myself: I’m a yogi, writer, dancer, music lover, massage therapist, burner, and soul searcher that loves to laugh, get to know people, have good conversations, and learn about all the wonders of life from the movements of molecules to the motives of the masses. I’m easy to live with (so I’ve been told) and clean and tidy. Oh yea, 25, female.

Would also love to know about the yoga scene in Berlin if anybody is on that tip, and the underground dance music scene too.

Vielen Dank!

posted in Berlin, Germany - 2 replies

legal plants

2007-10-19T02:54:24Z

Hello,

I am wondering what psychoactive plants are legal in berlin?
If anyone out there knows or knows of a good website to check out, that would be super.

thanks

posted in Berlin, Germany - 3 replies

smart shop

2007-10-08T17:31:20Z

Hi I am wondering if there is any smart shops in Berlin.

Thanks very much,
Luke

posted in Berlin, Germany - 3 replies

Electronic Music Producer needs German penpal

2007-10-03T22:50:46Z

Hi all, Im planning on spending some time in Berlin in summer of 2008, and am learning German on my own. My skills are very rudimentary at this point, but I am looking for a penpal to practice my german with. I learn quickly when things are in context.

I release electronic music under the name Bluetech, Evan Marc, and Evan Bartholomew, and run a label called Native State Records. Im also interested in literature, film, art, many styles of music (experimental, modern classical, jazz, idm, minimal techno, metal, etc.).

Looking forward to hearing from someone!

posted in Berlin, Germany - 2 replies

Berlin DJ/Turntable culture

2007-08-29T22:59:12Z

I just came to Berlin from San Francisco for 4 months, I want to check out the turntable and DJ scene...I'm looking for places to go before I waste too much time!!

Please help, much appreciated!

posted in Berlin, Germany - 1 reply

Berlin's artistic districts or boroughs

2007-07-16T14:50:09Z

Hi,

I'm thinking to move my studio to Berlin my favorite city, and I'm doing a small poll to find a good place to settle down there, so what do you think are Berlin's artistic districts? please in both sides ;o)

Synnöve

posted in Berlin, Germany - 16 replies

looking for Berlin friends, musicians/djs, good parties & possibly couch!

2007-05-07T19:17:41Z

looking for Berlin friends, musicians/djs, good parties & possibly couch!

hello,
I am doing an around the globe trip for 1.5 years or so. I have
spent 6 months in India this winter , and now 1.5 months in Krakow
Poland. I am now coming to Berlin for a few weeks April 29th-May 13th & am very
excited to check out what it has to offer. also May 26-June 5th.
I only have one friend
with a very small apartment that I will try & couchsurf. It sounds like
his place is not the best for me (kinda dirty, too small, sleeping on
fold out couch in kitchen...) so...
I would like to find another couch to surf. even a few days would help!

especially if you are wanting to go & see Berlin with me (some of the tourist
stuff) and especially some music shows & underground parties.
dub/reggae/dancehall , glitch-idm, hip-hop, breakbeats, jazz, funk
are my musical languages for the most part.
i produce, play, & dj & put on events back in Canada & on the road.

It would be truly a miracle if i meet someone on here that also
wants to make some music together.
and someone who has cd players for me to dj practice & make
a few new dj mix cds!

i havn't been able to find any dj gigs in Berlin yet.
maybe at Yaam but still waiting to hear from them.

feel free to help me find a dj gig too!

couchsurfing is uber-cool!

after Berlin i am going on a super fun roadtrip in the Outrageous Tour Bus!!!
www.OutrageousTours.com
that my friend owns , he runs www.TheStrangerHostel.com
so it looks like this summer is going to be fun, fun, fun!

ciao for now,

Adrian Blackhurst
www.BeatsWithoutBorders.com
www.myspace.com/blackhurst

posted in Berlin, Germany - 1 reply

Berlin nightlife, concerts, happenings whatever???

2007-04-03T07:00:44Z

Do anyone have a link to a great website containing dates for concerts, happenings and everything in Berlin?

Thanks
Mr Haug

posted in Berlin, Germany - 2 replies

berlin movies.

2007-02-27T06:45:10Z

i'm so happy i found this tribe! last night i finally watched 'good bye lennin' and loved it a lot. i love how germans tell stories, i love the berliner dialekt, the sites, the sounds, and invariably the smells came back. hell, i love berlin, truly and madly. i spent a mere month and a half studying german at Humboldt Uni, but it was an experience that changed my pre-formed notions of germany (from past times mainly spent in the west and soon after the wall). if there's an example of what a new germany should strive for, it's always existed and renews itself in berlin.
so, being new to this tribe, i had to say that. any other good movies that discuss the past and future as well as the aforementioned? auf deutsch is alles gute.

posted in Berlin, Germany - 11 replies

Weather in Berlin

2007-02-05T12:52:58Z

I was just in Berlin from 9th to 25th of January.

The weather was warm. We were hoping for some snow (which showed up on the day we left)
And then there was the Hurricane.

Who says there isn't Global Warming?

or does Northern Europe normally get hurricanes?

posted in Berlin, Germany - 1 reply

american for sale.

2006-08-25T05:47:37Z

i'm putting myself on the market. i'm your's for the price of a flat, a job, and a plane ride to and fro. little to no upkeep required, liberal perspectives, ability to do house and yardwork, will consume your extra beer for a nominal extra fee. kinda picky about the size of my flat, so pics and references appreciated.

posted in Berlin, Germany - 1 reply

Two parties, where I'll sing, scream, paint and rip my clothes!

2006-07-30T00:27:30Z

Hey, I just wanna advertise that my band/performance act is coming to Berlin next weekend!

We'll do something at Barbie Deinhoff's on June 30th and a whole crazy concert on July 1st at the Monophobia Party at Insel-Berlin on July 1st...

This is us:
www.myspace.com/thenuclearfamily

And here's Monophobia:
www.monophobia-party.de

posted in Berlin, Germany - 1 reply

safe place to squat or camp

2006-07-29T20:17:19Z

Hello I'm a Canadian looking for a safe place to squat or camp. Me and my Circus friend Lynda are open minded people looking to live a healthy alternative lifestyle. I have been squatting for many years however mostly in parks and in the nature. Lynda is experienced with squatting in Europe.
Any suggestions or addresses would be so nice!

Thank you

you can do it.

I can also teach modern dance and photojournalism.Im 22 yers old and lynda is 23.

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

World cup in Berlin, any suggestions?

2006-06-25T13:01:43Z

Hello Berliners.

It seems that I will be in Berlin for the world cup with a friend who is a football fanatic to fly all the way from the US just to watch the world cup. Of course, niether of us have tickets.

Any suggestions on nice/cool places to watch football in Berlin and partake in the football atmosphere? But also not be trampled under the crowds, just in case Germany makes it to the grande finale and wins.

posted in Berlin, Germany - 1 reply

What's On YuR East Blok RAdar for the summer ?? ( part 1 )

2006-06-06T20:00:39Z

dear eastblok friends,

What's On YuR East Blok RAdar for the summer ??

Some friends and I are on tour (music and arts+media activism)
through eastern europe in July and August . At the moment it's a loose schedule, but here's some
cool stuff below , and if you wanna share any info of festivals , events, etc. you know of
( preferably "arts in action" related ) that would be great !!

salut !
podp

in no particular order:

Not far from Berlin, Fusion festival
June 26-July 2
http://www.fusion-festival.com/cms/

in Pula, Croatia, Underwater Overground v.4
July 24-31
http://www.underwater-overground.com/

in Slovakia Aug.4-20, Ecotopia fest
http://www.ecotopia2006.org/

EYFA ( european youth for action )
Arts + Activism Caravan :

Athens, Greece: June 5-8
Bitola, Macedonia: June 13-17
Tirana, Albania: June 22-26
Plav, Montenegro: June 1-July 5
Belgrade, Serbia: July 11-15
Novi Sad, Serbia: July 18-22
Banja Luka, Bosnia Herzegovina: July 26-30
Kapolcs, Hungary: August 4-6
Zajezova, Slovakia (Ecotopia!): August 11 - 20

http://eyfa.org/

...

2 great groups on SF label Koolarrow.com
are on tour in the Balkans...
La Plebe is currently in Macedonia
http://www.laplebe.com/05/index2.html

and
Kultur Shock
will be returning to Pula after 10 years !
sometime in July and doing a 5 year anniversary fest in Berlin
with Lucha Amada collective/promoters
www.luchaamada.de
check their site for upcoming dates:
www.kulturshock.com

feel free to add to the list ...

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

hallo,

2006-06-01T03:11:01Z

so i'll be in Berlin for the worl cup and would love to hang out with some tribe german members.i don't speak german, but most of you guys are smart and speak more than one language then us american, actually i can speak spanish and some french. take care people.

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

Berlin im Mai

2006-05-03T01:08:49Z

Guten Tag--

Erste, entschuldingen fur meine schlechtlich Grammatik.

Ich habe vier Jahre Deutsch im Hoch Schule, und zwei Jahre im Univeristat, aber ich habe viel vergessen-- sehr viel.

Endlich, von 17 Mai zum 20 Mai, ich komme aus Berlin.

Wenn mann hat etwas zu tun auf Berlin empfehlen, schreiben Sie bitte hier.

Vielen Dank und Bis spater,
--ian23

posted in Berlin, Germany - 5 replies

Business hours

2006-04-25T07:55:02Z

Hiya, does anyone know what the business hours will be for shops this weekend? I've been told that it's some sort of holiday and that I'll need to take care of my shopping early. Which days will shops be open and what will be their hours? I've tried the usual places on the internet, but I can't find anything specific for this weekend, just information about hours during the world cup... Thank you.

posted in Berlin, Germany - 7 replies

finally in berlin

2006-04-19T20:11:57Z

heyo,

i have finally made it to berlin.
my head is spinning and i'm going through the process of coping with sudden end of my former life in cincinnati.
it was comfortable, i had a lot of friends, a girlfriend and was well established in my local music/arts community.

so, i was wondering if there might be anyone around here that might be able to spare some advice or time to perhaps help me find some grounding.

for some reason i feel like my confidence, resilience and IQ have taken a nosedive. i'm not taking to my German language lessons very well. and i'm not remembering very simple things like the name of the restaurant i ate at an hour earlier.

any words of advice?
anyone available to help me with my German?

thanks...dave

posted in Berlin, Germany - 14 replies

German cooking clasess?

2006-04-18T11:37:04Z

I would love to come to Berlin for a month or so, study German part of the time, and take classes in German cooking. I understand taking cooking classes has become very popular in Germany, so surely some of them have teachers who could repeat some instructions in English, but I've been unable to find any who offer classes in English. I e-mailed some schools to see if any of their teachers were also fluent in English but never got any response. I'm not looking for professional-chef instruction, just fun, basic German cooking lessons that would help me cook German food when I got back home to NYC.

Any ideas?

posted in Berlin, Germany - 3 replies

work in berlin

2006-04-18T11:34:24Z

hey -

i'll be arriving in berlin towards the end of november, and was wondering if anyone out there knows where i can find a job. i plan to enroll in language studies and issue a student visa/work permit, so hopefully i can even work legit. i'd appreciate any pointers. thanks.

posted in Berlin, Germany - 4 replies

New Girl in Town!

2006-04-18T11:30:32Z

Hey I am new here- or will be in two weeks. I am an American moving in with my Deutsche partner. I am moving from Stockholm, Sweden. They have a kick ass tribe up there. So, I am hoping to find some cool new people through this tribe as well.

posted in Berlin, Germany - 2 replies

Living in Berlin

2006-04-18T11:29:37Z

Hey,
I'm interesting in moving to Berlin for 3 months next summer. I want to know if it is easy or hard to sublet apartments and what areas are reasonable, safe, awesome, gay friendly, etc. I visited berlin two summers ago for a week and loved it. Any advice anyone can give is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

posted in Berlin, Germany - 4 replies

tandempartner

2006-04-03T20:39:52Z

Hallo, ich suche nach einem/er Tandempartner/in um deutsch zu lernen...
na ja ich spreche auf italienisch. Falls jemand interessiert ist, meld mich doch mal!

posted in Berlin, Germany - 1 reply

infantino traveler....

2006-03-31T19:23:03Z

hello, my wife and I are trying to get to Berlin this summer from San Francisco. we have a 5 month old daughter that would be coming with us.

does anyone know if we have to buy a plane ticket for the infant?

does anyone know where to find tickets for less than $1000?

where to look for sublets?

thanks.

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

Bank Account in Germany

2006-03-13T06:00:36Z

Hello,

Does anyone know how to open a bank account in Germany while living in the states? I recently bought a small apartment in Berlin and need an account to pay the Wohngeld, some place for the renter to deposit the rent etc. I have emailed some banks but nothing. Try to open an account probably sets off the Patriot Act. Any info would be helpful.

Thanks

Andrew

posted in Berlin, Germany - 3 replies

company?

2005-12-14T16:06:01Z

hey -
so... i've arrived in berlin, and was just wandering if any people out there would like to hang out. i, for one, would be very happy to..

tchus

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

restaurant suggestions

2005-12-02T20:10:50Z

Hi:
I'll be in Berlin over Christmas week and am looking for a nice restaurant...I'm open to all suggestions...looking for something a notch above the average...romantic, even. Thanks in advance!

posted in Berlin, Germany - 2 replies

tutor for learning german in Melbourne Australia

2005-10-22T14:21:54Z

hi group

I'm Looking for someone in Melbourne Australia to teach me german as i am hoping to head over to europe for 12 months and will be spending quite a bit of time in germany

If someone can help drop a line

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

see Sedousaa!

2005-09-03T06:10:17Z

Hey, i just discovered my old friend and classmate Leon Schurtz is in a great Berlin Soul/Jazz... band. I hope you can get to check them out soon! Look out for them in Berlin's Concert/Entertainment mags! Their website is:
http://www.sedoussa.de

posted in Berlin, Germany - 1 reply

Creative Contacts

2005-08-26T17:59:04Z

Hi I am looking for people in Berlin who can help me with contacts for my creative cluster project. I am looking for freelancers and companies in the creative industry who would like to participate in this project. For more information please check my website at www.ph14.nl.

I will post more info soon.

Regards,

Jacob

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

what's happening in Berlin this week?

2005-08-13T11:51:02Z

Walter (yeah, the guy who used to be a feature on the tribe homepage) and I are in Berlin for a few days. The guidebooks have plenty of suggestions for the days, but what's fun at night?

--Liz

http://withoutreservations.net

posted in Berlin, Germany - 2 replies

in berlin in june...tell me tell me tell me

2005-08-06T14:00:56Z

Hello peeps.

will be in berlin as of the 29th of May till the 13th of june. I am travelling with my stilts and want to play in the streets, parks, clubs whats the spot to be in? ......anyone in berlin wanna get tall with me.

posted in Berlin, Germany - 3 replies

Alex From Einstürzende Neubauten to Release "Sanctuary" Cd Next Month!!

2005-05-25T11:33:01Z

http://www.koolarrow.com

Koolarrow Records proudly announces it's next release, "Sanctuary", EN founding member Alexander Hacke's solo CD, joined by members of The Jesus Lizard, The Germs, Swans among others, for a worldwide release date of May 17, 2005.

"Sanctuary" is the lovechild of his creative affair with some of the most disturbingly fertile minds in the music scene. Inherent in the album's conceptual framework is his postulate that location has an enormous impact on perception; to illustrate this point, Hacke has traveled the globe for the past two years. Armed with knapsack's worth of recording gear,he captured pieces of audio from a variety of musicians in different situations. These sonic "keepsakes" were then filtered, distorted, processed, and re-assembled back home in Berlin in order to build his "sanctuary", and ultimately the 11 tracks that make this CD.

But there is a visual element to this theme as well: accompanying the cd there is also a 16 panel booklet, each panel a photo of the souvenirs he collected in the making of each track. Lastly, the enhanced cd also contains video footage shot during the making of the album, along with interviews with the contributing musicians.

PARTICIPATING MUSICIANS:

//N.Y.C.
J.G. Thirlwell (Foetus)
Larry 7 (The Analog Society)
Vinnie Signiorelli (Unsane)
Larry Mullins (Toby Damnit)
Michael Evans (KBZ 200)
Algis Kizys (Swans)

//L.A.
Sugarpie Jones (Celebrity Skin)
Don Bolles (Germs)
David Yow (The Jesus Lizard)

//Chicago
Trailer Hitch

//Berlin
Bob Rutman (Steel Cello Ensemble)
Chrislo Haas (Liaisons Dangereuses)
Buddy Sacher (Ars Vitalis)
Caspar Brötzmann (Massaker)
Zeitblom
Gordon W. (Fuzzy Love)
Andrew Chudy (Einstürzende Neubauten)
The Boy From Brazil

//Gothenburg
Nils Wohlrabe (The Leather Nun)

//Milan
Gianna Nannini

posted in Berlin, Germany - 2 replies

One Night Only!

2005-05-20T19:44:11Z

Hi, I will be in Berlin for one night only! this september, Ive been there once before and slammed together everything touristy, but I'd like a more " in the know" visit this time, any suggestions on some things I just cant miss!

posted in Berlin, Germany - 5 replies

Welt Buerger Vereinigt!

2005-05-16T12:57:20Z

That means: World Citizens Unite!

Hi! Like the idea of being a world citizen? Then this tribe's for you! World Citizens @ worldcitizens.tribe.net

"The Earth is but one country and mankind its citizens"

posted in Berlin, Germany - 2 replies

Coming...or going

2005-04-13T11:46:12Z

Hi folks!

While I could ask in one of the travel tribes, I thought I'd ask here as there seem to be many who cherish Berlin and know it well.

:)

So, I am going to Berlin & Prague for about 10 days...

I've been once in '96 = a special place that I didn't discover long enough...went to Prague that time too and had a nice little affair with a nice woman.

Well, heck, that would be nice this time too!!!

Anyway, I have 4.5 full days in Berlin,

What would be your top 5 favorite, wonderful things to see and or do while there...doesn't matter what. Hell, I may try and do everything and then some!!

Thanks!

~MT~

posted in Berlin, Germany - 1 reply

how do i move from the united states?

2005-04-09T06:43:10Z

is it hard to obtain a visa/become a citizen? is it true that college is free, and if so, how about for foreigners?
i can do the research, but maybe someone in here can sum it up for me

posted in Berlin, Germany - 12 replies

Losing your mind in Berlin

2005-04-07T13:50:35Z

An article by Walter Wacasz appearing in Detroit's MetroTimes:

Berlin. October 2004. — Here, where time and place exist in blurry, indistinct partnership, and where day and night pass largely unnoticed through the perpetually bleak environs, Richie Hawtin is glowing in the ambient light. A muted blanket of artificial sunshine brings color to his face and reveals tone in his arms, which he uses to emphasize and punctuate his words, now coming at you fast and from multiple directions.

It’s Tuesday, around 11 p.m. The calendar says it’s early October, but it could be anytime at all. There is never a doubt, however, that you are in Berlin.

Hawtin is in a restaurant talking about food. Not an ordinary restaurant; and not ordinary food. The word can scarcely be applied within the vast thoughtscapes of this neo-liberal utopia currently under construction. Hawtin, Magda and a small crew of Minus/Plus 8 work/play people from Windsor and Detroit have been here since last summer, when they moved their bodies and machines to this large, strange and vital electronic music community.

No, Hawtin is describing one of the privileges afforded him as one of the most well-traveled DJ/producers in the history of dance culture — the chance to experience exotic Chinese meal rituals like the beheading of live snakes, whose blood is immediately drained into glasses and drunk, and whose innards are scraped out and eaten, all done with an invigorating passion.

“It was actually quite good,” Hawtin drily tells a group seated at Cookie’s, a restaurant/dance club in Mitte, the historical and literal “middle” of the city that has been the recent beneficiary of massive federal government capitalization efforts. For more than 40 years, Mitte was part of gray, dismal, austere East Berlin; now it’s still gray (the color of Berlin, unless it is desaturated brown), but bursts with ongoing design projects by international architect-stars, high-end fashion boutiques, some of the best art galleries in Europe, ubiquitous coffee bars and oddities like Cookie’s.

Mitte is one of the proud faces put on German unification. But outsider-artists and assorted freaks looped into the electronic borderlands help keep it in check. One guide to the city sharply refers to this subcultural elite — which first settled in Kreuzberg and has migrated east and north into Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg — as “anti-system deviants.” Viewed through the prism of a dialectical society that’s reinventing logic from experience rather than predetermined systems of belief, this description twinkles with innocence and romance.

The group at Hawtin’s table includes Magda Hojnacka, an emerging DJ star born in Poland but raised in Hamtramck; Berlin-based producer/DJ Tobi Neumann; Alejandra Iglesias, who records under the name Miss Dinky for Cologne’s Traum label; and various visitors from the United States and Canada.

Tim Price, who manages Hawtin’s and Magda’s affairs in Berlin, had described Cookie’s as “like the Packard Plant with fine dining and an attached club.” The image works perfectly, as do many of the Detroit-cum-Berlin allusions favored by expats, who superimpose both a historical and mythological Detroitness on their fresh Berlin experience. History and myth prove to be valuable signposts in getting a grip on the real/unreal axis upon which the Berlin/Detroit relationship spins.

Hawtin recommends the tunfisch a l’nero or the wildschweinpfeffer, orders bottles of an appropriate cabernet, and rapidly begins to choose thoughts from another palette, this one sonic. He talks to Neumann about making music that, if it’s done right, is devoid of directed thinking, entirely driven by impulses that can’t be explained, then set free into the unknown. And then what? Richie Hawtin disappears?

“It’s kind of like that,” Hawtin says. “There’s no me there anymore. It’s not important for me to control anything. There’s nothing conscious about it. There’s no ego in it.” He closes his eyes and allows free play to make the picture clearer. “In Detroit you just play; you turn your mind off and play.” Interesting words, especially when they come from a man whose last series of Detroit-based parties was known as Control.

At the dinner table, and over coffee at a leafy sidewalk cafe not far from where Hawtin and Magda live in Mitte, and in a hard-charging, crispy-clear but satisfyingly low-register DJ set at the Watergate Club, Hawtin communicates the same message — Welcome to the revolution of your mind.

In Berlin, he’s found legions and sub-legions of willing students, comrades and visionaries with whom to trade information that’s usually fiercely guarded in the United States as “intellectual property.” Hawtin is only 34 and in the prime of a career that already has spanned half his lifetime, but he’s close to the point in history when a claim can be made that he helped create the magical, marginal, seductive, telekinetic sub-world that pulses through this brooding European capital.

The techno community here is steeped in European art historical movements, fringe societies and philosophical ideals that helped produce some of the most beautiful and dangerous artist-mystics of the last 200 years. Rimbaud’s famous “I is another” observation can be a starting point. Then follow it through pseudo-Freudian/surrealist André Breton’s automatic poems of love and desperation, and the delirious aesthetics of American irrationalists like William Burroughs, who often spoke of no memory of having written his savage masterpiece, Naked Lunch. But its foundation might rest in Hegel’s Phenomenology (1807), in which the crypto-philosopher and Berlin-based lecturer reasoned — though it might be argued that “reason” had little to do with it — that “it is the nature of humanity to press onward to agreement with others; human nature only really exists in an achieved community of minds.”

Underground Berlin’s community of controlled madness — where radical thinkers and doers enjoy the freedom to be uncomfortable and social at the same time, in a town where work itself is being redefined in a local economy that rarely offers more than potential income-earning via government subsidies (for German citizens) and projects at home and (more likely) abroad for everyone else — is an opportunity for an artist that must be seized.

Hawtin came here on the same chase, but is packaged a bit differently. As the pioneering and iconic acid-minimalist Plastikman, and as a DJ star who’s been headlining festivals and super-clubs since the early 1990s, he’s cultivated a rock-star persona in a culture that best operates as an anonymous techno-organism with an infinite number of workable but replaceable parts. Like most everyone else in Berlin, the chance to be part of a vanguard community has drawn Hawtin in. But he appears to be here for other reasons.

“There’s less room to be different in the U.S. The scene there is driven by money and image; it’s difficult to take the culture further out to where it needs to go,” Hawtin says between checking his cell phone for calls, about a dozen during a brief interview at a sidewalk café. “I got caught up in some crazy shit, trying to sustain what I thought was the right lifestyle. When Plus 8 started making a lot of money in the mid-1990s, we [Hawtin and then-partner John Acquaviva] thought about getting a jet. Insane. I needed to find a balance, keep integrity and be with people who are open and free to experiment.”

Since his move here last year, Hawtin’s music has been freshly re-examined and redeveloped, using the powerful currents within the cultural production/consumption engine that is 21st century Berlin. As Plastikman, he appears to be continuing the ambitious inner space explorations begun in Windsor, where he produced his sad masterpiece, Consumed (1998), and last year’s highly-anticipated Closer, a grindingly personal record that puzzled, divided and, ultimately, disappointed critics and fans.

Plastikman is alive and still searching. He played live at Montreal’s Mutek festival last May. But it is DJ Hawtin who remains the consummate traveling man, with a schedule of gigs that adds up to about 150 each year. This summer Hawtin played Istanbul, Athens, Belgrade, Skopje and dozens of other European and North American locations before finishing the season in Ibiza, the Spanish island that hosts the world’s most famous summer-long dance party. His fall schedule includes Tokyo, London, Amsterdam and Venice. Hawtin’s next mix-CD project promises to triple the content of 2001’s DE9: Closer to the Edit, on which Hawtin reinterpreted and recast 70 tracks into a 53-minute mix. Courtesy of tapes provided by storied UK producer Daniel Miller, he’ll be working with his friend Ricardo Villalobos on several remixes of Depeche Mode, a band that both call “bigger than the Beatles” for tech-generation kids. Hawtin is as busy — and appears fit, relaxed and happy — as he’s ever been.

His desire to go deeper into his music now appears motivated by the preternatural nature of Berlin itself. Mapping the psychogeography of the mind, even your own, is more than mere abstraction in a place where cultural life explodes with constant inspiration: On the high end, there are seven symphonies or philharmonics, seven independent fine art scenes, opera and dance companies, mainstream and experimental theater groups, and a frequency of lectures to rival New York, London and Paris. The buzz among intellectual Berliners in early October was an appearance by Antonio Negri, a revolutionary theorist (co-author of Communists Like Us, Empire and Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire) accused in 1979 of being a terrorist and member of Italy’s Red Brigades. Negri spent years in an Italian prison until he was acquitted of his thought crimes in 2003.

The dance scene itself is so prodigious, with communities regularly breaking off and sub-dividing according to their own interests, that it spawns new life everywhere. Techno still rules Berlin, with the signature 4/4 boom-boom-boom-boom sound still favored once the party really gets going — which could be anytime after midnight (but usually much later) and not ending until half the following day is gone. But electro, house, dub, drum ’n’ bass, trance and various other related scenes are all played out, with new records dropping weekly. In late September and early October, a huge trade show called PopKomm swelled the arts and culture masses even more. Some parties, like Hawtin’s, had a corporate spin (his was sponsored by TDK), while an underground party featuring Basteroid and Konkord, artists who record for the scorching Areal and Sender labels, was all about word-of-mouth buzz.

All types of outsiders abound in Berlin. There’s a sizable punk-rock scene, with roots that go back to the 1970s; noise, metal, space and mainstream rock; avant-gay and transgendered art; theater and music scenes (to promote an event called “God Save the Queers,” one memorable poster ripped off Jamie Reid’s Situationist-inspired image of Queen Elizabeth II with a safety pin in her nose); and anarchists, 10th generation Marxists, Maoists, unaligned political crazies and various anonymous graffiti artists urging death to capitalism, Bush and the U.S.A. One looks hard, and in vain, to find anyone with a real job. To consider the notion seems absurd, from the perspective of an imperishable society that improbably rose out of northern German and Slavic swamplands in the 1100s. (One of the reasons Berlin is so green, integrated by vast parklands and lakes within its city limits and stretching out to the suburbs and Brandenburg countryside beyond.)

A brief history of Berlin reads like a history of the spirit, where the thoughts of poets and philosophers who brought the German mind to the doorstep of God shared a stage with expressions of unspeakable human villainy. Some of the consequences of this enormous plane of history remain spectral, wrenchingly sad, and trapped in a world between the living and the dead. Invasions, bloody wars on every front, numerous uprisings, rebellions and food riots stirred by grinding poverty all mark its past.

All the while, intellectual and artistic fires were burning holes in the mind of the world, with philosophical interpretations of thought and action that sought to alter the consciousness of culture. Kant, Hegel, Heidegger, Jung, Nietzsche, Marx, Engels, Schopenhauer, Weber, Wittgenstein and Oswald Spengler — whose work of ambitious pessimism, The Decline of the West (1917), foretells the rise of Nazism, World War II and the death of a civilization that has exhausted all its possibilities — all challenged and beguiled while perched atop the German academies, many of them rooted in Berlin.

Walking around this city at all hours (the clock in Berlin is only a utility that marks the time between contacts, events and projects; otherwise useless), you can see small mountains of 60-year-old war trash, containing bricks, metal and invisible artifacts of the soul, piled in various locations. Evidence of abandoned factories, schools and administrative buildings are never far from view. You see the outline of the Berlin Wall (1961-1989), erected as an “anti-Fascist protection barrier” by the Soviet East Germans, but which functioned primarily to keep its citizenry from being lured across to the opposite side of the imagination and into the decadent West.

In the 1970s and 1980s, state-sponsored freedom flourished in this isolated anti-city, courtesy of economic and military authority supplied by the United States, England and West Germany, but freedom was not enough. New experimental societies emerged, redefining property rights and establishing urban farms (the communal squatter movement in Kreuzberg brought constantly refreshed waves of international bodies to West Berlin, fundamentally changing the idea of inhabiting space), finding expression in guerrilla art movements and street-fighting mayhem, fueled by drugs and the passions and nightmares of history.

Enter Detroit Techno, an irrational but ordered system of beats, harmonics and pop futurism that integrated perfectly into this swelling culture of the immediate, where repetitive musical information was given room to evolve into a new sensuous language. Relationships between Berlin’s first electro-fied generation — historically represented by the label and club Tresor — and the Detroit scene remain intact. You run into the Tresor crowd, now pushing 50, at the Markthalle restaurant and bar in Kreuzberg. Here you’re mistaken for royalty as soon as you reveal you’re from Detroit, when you merely wear your cap with its emblematic “D,” or when you say you’re old enough to have witnessed, with admitted incomprehension, the creative infancy of Jeff Mills, Underground Resistance, Derrick May, Blake Baxter and dozens of other Detroit techno-mentalists for whom reverence has wavered little since the early 1980s.

Re-enter Richie Hawtin, who first hit town in the early 1990s, around the time that he dropped the LP Dimension Intrusion, recorded under one of his alter egos, F.U.S.E. He says it was life, crawling en masse from all corners of the Berlin underground, that first got his attention.

“People (in Berlin) were determined to make something out of nothing. There were thousands of nomads, kids who didn’t fit in, who found themselves in this crazy after-hours lifestyle,” Hawtin says, sipping his second coffee at a sidewalk café in Mitte, not far from where he shares an apartment with Magda. The space also doubles as the Berlin office for Minus/Plus 8, which is still run out of a building in Windsor’s Walkerville neighborhood. “We were doing the same thing in Detroit, putting on parties at the Packard Plant and the Bankel Building, getting people together who were living on the fringe.”

Hawtin built his own mythology in the ’90s by creating and nurturing a Detroit/Windsor-based international scene. Plus 8 churned out a twisted parade of dance 12s featuring Plastikman, F.U.S.E., Cybersonik (a three-headed monster with Hawtin, Acquaviva and Daniel Bell, who preceded Hawtin to Berlin several years ago), Kenny Larkin, Kooky Scientist, Speedy J and others. Those records, from 1990 to 1997, are contained on three volumes known as the Plus 8 Classics series. They have proved influential to many younger producers and DJs, who continue to mine the vertiginous, mind-expanding acid style favored by Hawtin and his cohorts. Even the song titles reveal cultural influence: Elements of Time, Technarchy, Motion, Vortex, Evolution, Substance Abuse and Rise can be read as a poetical blueprint for an underground society formed in the imagination but made actual in sufferscapes like Detroit and Berlin.

Hawtin then uses three words that apply to the two cities that have allowed him room to grow as an artist: Will to survive.

“Both Detroit and Berlin have people with an incredibly strong will to survive,” he says. “Out of decay and pain comes this strength; you see it in both cities. You put (the music) out there, and it’s like there’s nothing they can’t understand.”

Hawtin left Detroit/Windsor in 2002 to live in Williamsburg, the Brooklyn neighborhood that in the late 1990s brought some juice to overcapitalized New York City. But Hawtin found the New York scene was not conducive to making his kind of music, which was forged within Detroit’s community of minds, a loose confederation of dreamers and misfits, producers, DJs and promoters, all serious party people whose starting point for cultural origination was nothing.

In Berlin, the eternally primitive Hawtin is exactly where he belongs — with people surfing the sine waves of arty, minimal but danceable electronics. On a memorable night during PopKomm week, Hawtin played with the digital super-jam band Narod Niki. They performed in the Volksbuhne, a historic venue that began its avant-garde programming in 1890. Bertolt Brecht’s philosophical-theatrical works based on ideas, not action, found a stage at the Volksbuhne, as did Chico MacMurtrie’s “Amorphic Robot Works,” a late 20th-century piece that featured sculptural machines performing a mix of a dance, music and theater, and described by one critic as “a cross between West-African drumming and industrial klang.” Daniel Johnston played there recently to 1,000 devoted fans, who were said to be so respectful and quiet that the sensitive American outsider-artist icon bolted from the stage thinking he was unloved.

Narod Niki’s lineup was a who’s who of minimal techno, experimental house and digital dub players: Ricardo Villalobos, Lucien Nicolet (aka Lucien-N-Luciano), Robert Henke (aka Monolake), Cabanne, Zip (aka Thomas Franzmann) Chain Reaction guys Peter Kuschnereit and Rene Löwe (together known as Scion; separately as Substance and Vainqueur), and Hawtin, all improvising on laptops, mixed in real time. Promised as a spectacle for chin-scratchers and knob-twirling geeks, the night developed instead into a practical history of the dance party, with enough varied sounds to keep waves of people moving from midnight to 5 a.m., and hundreds more listening on a large wooden riser at the back of the theater. Hawtin was flanked left, about 15 feet above ground level, by one of eight musicians creating miniature sonic mysteries that fused into one sonic mind with a 300-minute-long pulse.

Once trapped in a protective bubble of creative isolation, Hawtin appears liberated by the acceptance and the comradeship he’s found in Berlin. He works closely with other artists: sharing files, remixing tracks, playing out, hanging out, planning projects.

He navigates through the electronic labyrinths the same way as most, armed with the latest micro-machines and digital media — including Final Scratch, a software/hardware hyper-mixing program that allows him to soak his sets in a multitude of sonic information. But he’s also brought with him his labor-intensive training at the hands of Detroit producers and DJs who long ago began teaching Hawtin how to bust the party Detroit-style — by ripping it from the unconscious. He’s been doing it since he was barely 17, creating a multilayered and mythological man with names like Richie Rich, F.U.S.E. and Plastikman along the way. What Berlin has allowed him foremost is the luxury to be no one at all.

Still at the cafe in Mitte, Hawtin rises to greet Villalobos, one of his main comrades in sound. Villalobos has been shopping with his girlfriend and offers Hawtin a gift, a T-shirt with the word Mescaline emblazoned across the chest. “I bought one for myself too,” says Villalobos, a tall, buoyant Chilean-German who produces an elegant blending of minimal techno and Latin house that some argue might be the best dance music being made today.

The T-shirts raise questions about drugs, which are part of the round-the-clock conversation in Berlin, where smoking is expected and beer is consumed everywhere at all hours, in the club or on the street. The euphoric politics of Ecstasy, mushrooms and weed — which people roll with tobacco and smoke in restaurants, clubs or while strolling along the canal in Kreuzberg — prevail over harder substances like cocaine and heroin.

Everything is in Berlin. Villalobos, who seems a quintessentially “no worries” kind of guy, nevertheless has his concerns about “people disappearing into coke. They have been on the scene a long time, then they are just gone, not doing anything, only drugs.” Others talk of “nasty cokeheads” who know their records, but are “unfriendly to everyone.” This is a harsh indictment in a city where phone numbers and e-mail addresses are commonly exchanged after people share conversation and beer at a pub, and where offers to stay in a stranger’s spare room for the night, or several nights, are extended almost as easily.

You find these various vibes — induced by chemistry, history or a combination of the two — best by taking part in the anthropology of the Berlin street. Walk after walk through a 4-mile circle within the east-central part of this sad, sprawling metropolis reveals a warming factor that is so coveted in the United States. While various little scenes and sub-scenes in Detroit and elsewhere are all ferociously protected, prickly and political in the nasty American marketplace, Berlin suggests something much, much bigger — the way out of history, a dream lived out as a great human adventure, complete with a mutable soundtrack that’s already been written into infinity. It’s unlikely that such an ambitious escape from nowhere to nowhere could be done without breaking the blood-brain barrier of an entire culture.

Villalobos, like nearly everyone in Berlin, has no trouble talking about altered consciousness and the role it plays in shaping the universal dance society. “There are drugs that people take that make a difference in how they produce the music. Definitely, that’s true. And there are some of the biggest freaks in the history of techno who won’t even go near a joint,” Villalobos says, talking about Mark Ernestus and the musicians, engineers and other technicians associated with Basic Channel, Chain Reaction, Rhythm & Sound, Burial Mix and others. They make and distribute their records at a complex fronted by Hard Wax, the most quietly ambitious techno enterprise in the world.

The Hard Wax operation is one of the most significant pieces of the Berlin puzzle. All thoughts about dance culture must be brought here for fresh evaluation. Ernestus is considered a master, an unwilling genius who helped reinvent techno in the early- and mid-’90s, when nearly everyone in Berlin grew bored of the same cranked-up beats night after night.

He knew Detroit so well, he helped reinvent it too. Basic Channel brought early tapes to Detroit’s NSC studio, which cut their records. Ernestus wanted Berlin artists to have the benefit of a more “natural,” synthetic Detroit sound.

Carl Craig was paying attention, and he started working on Basic Channel projects, remixing Maurizio’s (Ernestus with fellow mystery-man Moritz Von Oswald) mesmerizing, narco-house track “Domina” in 1993. It was appropriately tagged the Carl Craig Mind Mix. Nine years later, Ernestus played an unmixed set of dub 7-inch vinyl at a party Craig threw in Detroit.

It’s rare to see him play. He refuses to be quoted or have his picture taken, though a photographer was allowed access to Berlin’s now-legendary Masters and Dubplates studio, where machines are given preferred status as objects of human desire. In this room the engineering was done on some of the heaviest, time-stretched, soulful, low-lower-lowest-register bass records ever.

They sounded like nothing else 10 years ago — it was minimalism so dense that every unchanging beat revealed new information as it galloped across the dance floor of your mind — and nothing else sounds like them now. They were the first spirits to arrive upon the death of techno, and they will likely haunt the scene until it dies again.

Magda’s story begins here, in this milieu of reduction and regeneration, when dance culture began to pitch down, taking the best and the brightest gloriously down with it. She started to DJ about the time that Ernestus and Basic Channel were resequencing the architecture of the techno mind, stripping it of unnecessary information, lowering the blood pressure of the culture while keeping the heartbeat steady.

In the mid-’90s, Magda was studying fine arts and graphic design at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in upstate New York. She said she “started fooling around on crappy turntables” around 1994 — the same year she graduated from Grosse Pointe University-Liggett School — after she attended Hawtin’s famed Spastik Party at Detroit’s Packard Plant.

“It blew my mind. I remember it being so great to go just five minutes down the road from my house to Grand Boulevard and ... have this experience that changed my life,” says Magda, whose home then was in Hamtramck. She was born in Zywiec, a town in Poland southwest of Krakow, near the Czech and Slovak borders, and came to the United States. when she was 9. The family — father Marek Hojnacki (whom Magda describes as “a techie”) and her academy-trained mother Anna Hojnacka, a painter — first moved to Texas, then came to Hamtramck in 1986.

She is telling her story seated on an L-shaped couch in the swank-minimalist apartment she shares with Hawtin. The two-level apartment has one spacious room that includes a living/lounging area, a modern kitchen, a long countertop with swiveling, backless chairs that Hawtin found in New York, and several rooms attached to the main one. There is an office, where Price is busy working on his computer, and two terraces that offer stunning views of the sun setting over Berlin. Hawtin is on the phone talking to someone about a gig in South America. The entire crowd will soon be going to Cookie’s, with dinner reservations made for 10 p.m.

Magda didn’t finish studies at Hobart and William Smith, choosing instead a different kind of school, where lessons might start at midnight and go straight through the morning until noon, or later. Her teachers? Underground Resistance, Dan Bell, Claude Young and Twonz, for starters. She learned the trade by first being there, in the presence of hard-charging techno outsiders, followed by intense practice on Detroit and international stages.

“I was still in college when I played my first Detroit party. It was 1996, some random space on the East Side,” she says, talking excitedly. Even more information is contained in her large, dark eyes, which grow brighter as she talks about her DJ training. “It was a total train wreck. Awful. I was told to go on and play. I just went out and did it. And I kept doing it, because I had a lot of support behind me.”

Magda started performing with the Detroit collective, Women on Wax, that same year. WOW collected some of the best female DJ/production talent anywhere in the world — Kelli Hand, Minx, Jennifer Xerri and Magda, among them. She also began doing Hotbox parties with Theo Parrish, Kenny Dixon Jr. and Rick Wilhite, and another series of events called System, in 1997 and 1998. Magda says her eclectic style — as a minimalist who defies categorization, playing a tight, disciplined blend of techno, house and electro — comes from her exposure to the depth of talent on the Detroit scene.

“I went through an acid techno phase, an electro phase, a super-house phase,” Magda says. “I played the black, gay party scene; I hung out with [electro-experimentalist and space-disco oracle] Brendan M. Gillen, Mike Servito and other people. I learned so much in Detroit — especially to love what I do because it’s all about working with friends.”

Magda recalls meeting Hawtin about this same time, when the then Canada-based artist had a hand in running a subterranean lounge in Windsor called 13 Below. She was asked to be a resident at the club. (13 Below featured local talent, but also booked Berlin-based performers like Scion and Pole. The building that housed the short-lived club was demolished to make way for Daimler-Chrysler’s Canadian headquarters.) With Hawtin, she played the New Millennium party at Motor on New Year’s Eve 1999, released her own mix CD, Fact & Friction, and then moved to Windsor to do technical work in the Minus recording studio. Magda trained with Hawtin on mixing and editing programs, and learned how to perform using Final Scratch.

And she played: A spot at The End in London, in 2001, was her first exposure to the European club scene. The first time she played in Berlin, she performed with an impressive cast including Alter Ego, Villalobos and Zip at a Playhouse label party in 2002.

“Berlin opened my eyes even more. Parties were going all night and ending at 6 in the evening, totally different than the U.S.,” she says. Also different was the expectation of the European mind, which craved more melody and hooks than she was used to playing in Detroit, where she had reduced her sound down to layers of raw, stripped-to-the-bone beats. “In the U.S., I found the weirder stuff went over. Here, I’m always getting new information, always changing.”

In Berlin, Magda is close to some of the producers who influenced her from afar, notably artists who record for the Perlon and BPitch Control labels. The Perlon roster features performers like Villalobos (who also has records on Playhouse), Lucien-N-Luciano, Dimbiman, PantyTec and Dandy Jack. BPitch Control is best known as the label started by Ellen Allien, a native Berliner who’s emerged as one of the city’s few techno pop stars. Allien is worth talking about because she’s a woman blowing up in a scene nearly always dominated by men.

Two nights after Hawtin and Magda played at Watergate, Allien performed at a huge event celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Ocean Club, one of Berlin’s top venues. Others on the bill included Thomas Fehlmann, The Modernist (aka A Jorg Burger), the three-piece band, Marz, and Miss Kittin, a Swiss-born DJ/vocalist who is also approaching international star status. Sharif Zawideh, who promotes shows at Detroit’s Oslo via the name Soft Curls, also was DJ at the event, which was held at Club Maria.

Allien began playing at 5 a.m. and was still building the party five hours later, when an opaque sun was sending lazy streams of light onto the River Spree, which must be crossed via a bridge from this part of Mitte back into Kreuzberg. Allien’s scene, which features a posse of girls and boys who party along with her behind the decks, contains elements of Detroit ghetto-tech and booty: some of the moves are pure Jefferson Avenue, but delivered with coy European panache. (It was during Allien’s set that a Detroit photographer learned that there is a law in Germany against taking pictures not in the public interest. DJs OK; group shots in the club, OK. Individual shots of citizens, not OK. This law exists in response to the Nazis’ intense photo-documentary initiatives in the 1930s and 1940s, when Germans and foreigners living in the country were brutalized by photography. History must be integrated into all investigations, in inner or outer space, while in Europe.)

Magda has not reached the status Allien and Miss Kittin enjoy, but she is rising. At Cookie’s, she sits at the opposite side of the long table from Hawtin. Magda spends time talking to Iglesias (aka Dinky), and another woman who says she’s visiting from the States. While Hawtin talks about finding a way out of the self that limits him, Magda merely talks, eats, laughs and drinks.

The night’s still young, barely 1 a.m., but Hawtin and Magda are already excusing themselves from the party. Their work and travel schedule is intense. Wine with tuna or wild boar entrees are quite enough, this time. Not every Tuesday night becomes a 36-hour Berlin day. Soon after, someone rolls a cigarette at the table. It is tobacco mixed with Skunk, or Super-Skunk — the powerfully-psychoactive cannabis hybrid that one devoted Web site charmingly calls very strong smoke that produces a cognitive imbalance.

The two DJs in the corner of the restaurant are now starting to bang a bit harder. They’re dancing with each other as they play, pumping fists into the air. It’s time for dessert, but everyone still at the table chooses to pass. The story will end instead in a darker, slightly smaller room down the hall from Cookie’s main dining room.

Here, a crush of people presses around a long bar, which rises slightly above the main floor. There are lounging areas in front of the bar, next to a table where Miss Dinky is now playing records. The dance floor is impenetrable. There about 200 people moving to Latin and pan-African tribal beats.

Dinky is another Chilean who intuitively knows how to insert sex into the fireproof northern European heart. One heaving city-state of mind under a groove. You get burned by a cigarette and a bottle breaks at your feet. No worries, this happens all the time in a city where the night never ends, where every new face could be the beginning of a new story, where you could lose yourself amid wondering, Why did it take so long?

Clutching a platter, the “Love is OK” EP that Tobi Neumann gave you, you try to find the door that leads the way back into history. But the exit’s hard to find. Berlin, you begin to realize, will not let you go easily.

http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=6949

Related links
· More about News
· News by grimace

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Most read story in News:
James "Drexciya" Stinson R.I.P.

posted in Berlin, Germany - 10 replies

the weather and living conditions

2005-02-22T07:16:58Z

i am taking an elementary german class this semester. i hope to live in berlin someday, for at least a year! i have enver been but am strongly drawnt o it. so everoyne, whats the weather like year-round? is winter very cold?

also, whats the cost of living? cheaper than america? (i live in san francisco by the way...barely get by here, but i do it somehow)

i am totally queer and a genderfucker, i hear berlin is open to that, but what do berliners really think?

thanks!

posted in Berlin, Germany - 4 replies

If you're in the Bay Area...

2005-01-03T22:09:51Z

Don't forget to check out the Berlin and Beyond Film Festival at the Castro in SF:

http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/saf/pro/bb2005/pages/info.htm

Anybody seen any of these films yet?

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

Calling out the freaks!

2004-11-27T12:19:19Z

The Dresden Dolls are touring again and we're looking for interactive performers in the audience for the shows. What you do is pretty much up to you, so use your imagination! Juggling, roller skates, human statues, mechanical ballerinas, bellydancers, trained monkeys, saw soloists, etc... It will be great exposure as their shows have been selling out all over the place.

The tour is as follows:

11.29.04 Kalkscheune - Berlin, GER

11.30.04 Pop & Glow @ English Theatre - Frankfurt, GER

12.01.04 La Laiterie - Strassbourg, FR

12.02.04 Tours - Tours, France

12.03.04 Paard Van Troje - Den Haag, NL

12.04.04 Petrol - Antwerp, BEL

12.07.04 Cargo - London, UK

12.08.04 Live Cafe - Manchester, UK

12.09.04 Medicine Bar - Birmingham, UK

...NEW ZEALAND / AUSTRALIA TOUR...
MORE DETAILS COMING SOON!!!

12.13.04 Kings Arms - Auckland, NZ

12.15.04 The Zoo - Brisbane, AUS

12.16.04 Annadale Hotel - Sydney, AUS

12.17.04 Ding Dong Lounge - Melbourne, AUS

12.31.04 TBA SOON!!! - USA

If you haven't heard of the dolls, check them out!
www.dresdendolls.com

If you're interested, drop me a line, or come join us at

www.gothic.net/dresden_brigade

Long live punk cabaret!

- whit
whittlesjh24@yahoo.com

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

German Language Schools in Berlin.

2004-11-22T08:46:27Z

Hey all,

I am aiming to arrive in Berlin mid-late October/early November of this year.

Can any recommend a good, reasonably priced (euro 2k or less) German language program in Berlin?

I would consider a 4-8 week program and possibly one that offers job search assistance upon completion.

Thanks,
Dave

posted in Berlin, Germany - 5 replies

Going to Berlin in November--Please bombard me with suggestions!

2004-11-15T21:33:49Z

Hello, everyone! Going to Berlin over Thanksgiving for almost a full ten days! I have a hotel lined up already, and a general idea of what I want to hit, but please let me know about any specific hotspots that I may not be able to find so easily!

I was in Berlin once before...in 1988, as a travelling student, right before the Wall came down. I remember squatters, hipster clubs in Kreuzberg, great cafe's, amazing Christmas markets (which I look forward to hitting again), and of course, the WALL.

Now, I'm going back to party, see, and shop, now that I'm all grown up and actually have a budget! :D

So, just tell me more....tell me more...tell me more...

On my list so far, in no particular order:

White Trash (to go see some of the members of Einstuerzende Neubauten DJ)
The Jewish Museum
That "underwater" club posted here
Getting shoes at Trippen
Museum Island
one decent meal somewhere
smoke a shisha in the Turkish Market
Juliette's Literature Cafe' if it's still there
Pick up a hip messenger bag from a local designer
Hit various nifty little clubs, cafe's, bars
The UnsichtBar Lounge
At least one "big club night"/go out dancing thing
KitKatKlub (maybe!--I miss the old Click and Drag parties in NYC!!)
If I have any money left, more shopping
Taking lots and lots of pictures!

which also reminds me; recommendations of GOOD cybercafes--ones with memory card readers would be very good--would be greatly appreciated as well-I hope to be able to just get CDs burned of my card as I fill it up.

Thank you so much! Tell me everything...

--Jen

posted in Berlin, Germany - 6 replies

Berlin: 01 November 2004

2004-10-29T14:00:15Z

Will the shops in Berlin be open on 01.11.2004? Are there any flea markets (flohmarkt/flohmärkte) in Berlin open on Sunday 31.10.2004 or Saturday 30.10.2004?

I have some other questions maybe some nice person can help me with.

1. I'm looking for a Dutch second hand bike (zweite hand hollandräder). Anyone know where I can buy one? Or maybe an inexpensive new one? It's probably going to get stolen anyway.

2. Does anyone know some Chinese speciality shops? I'm looking for some herbs and supplements, specifically Ma Huang. I'm all out!

3. I want to buy some new shoes, not quite dress shoes, but elegant. I'm in desperate need. I was thinking of going to KaDeWe or looking around in Potsdamer Platz Arkaden, but I thought I'd ask here first.

4. I would like to go to a good Thai restaurant, can someone recommend me a tasty place but not very expensive?

5. Kreuzberg is the Turkish/Arabic area, correct? Any recommended places to buy spices and cooking ingredients to make such food? Maybe a place that sells Biryani mix for Pakistani food?

6. Can someone recommend a good sushi place? I've been to a few but they weren't really great.

I appreciate any and all help that I can get. If you can't answer all my questions, but you can answer one or two, that would be great. Thank you.

posted in Berlin, Germany - 4 replies

new Newton museum!

2004-09-20T17:24:54Z

Another reason to go to Berlin (fabulous city) - Did you see this article in the NYTimes?

•Photographer and His Art Are Home at Last
by ALAN RIDING / BERLIN — Shortly before his death last winter at 83, Helmut Newton found a way of closing the circle of his life. He created the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin, his birthplace and the city where he learned to be a photographer. He also picked a suitably symbolic home for the foundation, a former Prussian army officers' club that stands beside the railroad station where, as an 18-year-old Jew, he boarded a train to flee Hitler's Germany in December 1938.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/10/arts/design/10NEWT.html

posted in Berlin, Germany - 3 replies

sven vath tribe!!!

2004-09-05T22:31:31Z

hardly any americans know of him so i thought i would post this here.

heard of him?

like him?

have an opinion?

let me know.

brent

posted in Berlin, Germany - 2 replies

Awesome Berlin

2004-07-11T18:54:09Z

I was in Berlin for a week last summer in June. It was one of the most amazing cities I've ever been to in my life. It was like arriving and finding home. I found there to be an unbelievable freak scene and music scene. There were so many queers, and artists, and punks and art EVERYWHERE. I currently attend an art school in NY just 30 minuted outside of the city. Berlin was like a huge version of my art school. Its also a very hard city, a very gritty city. Being a new yorker I can identify with that very well. Although ny has a lot of stuff...Berlin felt even more like my city. I don't know..everytime i turned a corner extraordinary shit was going down....

posted in Berlin, Germany - 12 replies

Natural Berlin

2004-06-17T02:19:34Z

To all,
I just posted a few new pics to show that Berlin is not all glass and steel. It has its full share of greenery and natural settings. For those not familiar, 'Girl Watchers' corner is at
Potsdammer Chse and Clay Alle. Not absolutly sure of why it is(was) so called, but there is an Italian Ice shop(with outside tables) on the N/E corner. We lived about 1 mile(1.6k)west of here.
We hope to return in Sept for a long delayed visit.
Fred T

posted in Berlin, Germany - 1 reply

Chocolat art bar?

2004-05-31T06:46:27Z

I was in Berlin for a few months three years ago (spring 2001) and visited this awesome cooperative bar called (I think) Chocolat in East Berlin, within walking distance from Rosa Luxembourg Platz. Drinks were far cheaper than places like Silber Fisch in Oranienburg and there was a band playing. The story I was told was that a group of squatters/artists started the bar under an agreement with the Berlin government such that squatters who turned their space into something useful could stay.

Does anyone else know about this place and if it still exists?

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

How to find fotos

2004-04-03T14:09:44Z

Hi, Fred here. I love Berlin, and am constantly trying to find new and interesting pictures of her. At the moment, I have a liitle over 3,500 images of Berlin[650+ Mbyte]. All of the fotos I've uploaded to this site so far, are off the internet. One 'tool' I use quite often is 'Google' image search. The real trick is knowing what to look for. For the most part, fotos are identified by how they are titled, NOT by their raw content. For the longest time, I looked for variations of 'BERLIN' itself.....'Over BERLIN' or 'BERLIN street' etc. I got a lot of pictures that way. Now I've started using the names of each BERLIN district. I also use the names of rivers, locations, features; that sort of thing. Yes I sometimes get duplicates, but I also get some real jewels.....that is they are jewels to me. When you realize that you once stood exactly where a picture was taken....and your memories of that place
are all good ones.....THAT foto is a jewel, a gem to be saved.
I tell you this because I want to see YOUR berlin pictures. I
truelly WANT TO return to Berlin for an extended stay, but in the meantime I will continue to 'visit' via internet fotos.

Chuse! Fred

posted in Berlin, Germany - 7 replies

Spandau pics

2004-02-21T15:51:07Z

To ALL members of the Berlin tribe~
I just uploaded 5 new pics(6 if you count the untitled dup). All 'my'pics are from the internet, I have not been to Berlin in over 16 years. I urge others in this tribe to also post 'their' pics of this great city.
BTW, Who can DELETE a picture or CHANGE a caption? AND finally, why must I add captions to pictures that already have them(on my computer)?
NOTE: To Kolya--If no one else cares to participate, contribute, or even make rude comments.....why did they join this tribe? Oh! If you have the power, Make 'corrections' to my picture uploads as you see fit.
Fred T (in Tucson Az USA)

posted in Berlin, Germany - 1 reply

Wilkommen!

2004-02-16T09:29:59Z

Wilkommen Berlinner und Berlin Liebhaber!

posted in Berlin, Germany - 5 replies

New pictures posted 08 Feb

2004-02-09T04:22:34Z

Hi~
I just posted 18 new pictures~~enjoy.

Fred T

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

Posting Pictures

2004-02-09T03:08:24Z

Help!
Has there been a policy change as to the posting of pictures?
When I 1st joined, I was able to post pictures to both the main gallery and to my own folder. I can still add pictures to the main gallery, but can't see how to add to my folder. I can delete the ones I have(which I do not want to do) or make any 'the main picture'(or whatever it is called)but I can no longer add photos. Or am I blind and just not seeing the
"add" button?

FredDeTucson

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

New pictures posted

2004-02-08T14:19:14Z

Greetings~
In my 1st post, I said I had lots of pictures related to Berlin, but didn't know how to post them. Now I know how.
I have posted 5 so far. I will continue to do so, but only
if others in this tribe show interest. Look my friends, we
are talking about one of the greatest cities in the world. In Berlin's case it required a merger and major constructive 'surgery', but she's looking mighty good to me.

"Always remember
the 9th of Nov."
FredDeTucson

posted in Berlin, Germany - 2 replies

Establishing friendships

2004-01-20T01:18:33Z

To all who love Berlin~
I wish to make friends and increase my circle of contacts, but I feel caught up in a catch 22. If you are not my "friend", I cannot contact you directly, nor you me. So how can we become friends? For anyone who wants to contact me and talk about the Berlin that was and the Berlin that is, my email is:
t58fred@hotmail.com

I was stationed in Berlin(at Templehof)from Jan '84 to Jan '88. Wow! what a great experience. The wall was still up and never far away. 'East'Berlin was a different world all together. Friends or no....email me.
I await your e-mails
Fred(in Tucson Az)

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

Berlin - I have pictures....lots of pictures-take 2

2004-01-18T00:48:33Z

Greetings all~
I lived in Berlin with my wife and 2 sons 20 years ago('84-'88)while in the US AirForce. It was love at 1st sight. I have tried to keep in touch with people I met there,but it has been hard. To compensate,I look for and post as many pictures of Berlin as I can find. Pick an area/district or an event and I probibly have several pictures of it. Overall I currently have
over 3,100 Berlin related pictures. If someone could tell how to post any of them to this site,I will happily do so. Oh!And if there's an extra bed....My wife and I have passports, will travel.
FredDeTucson

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

Berlin - I have pictures....lots of pictures

2004-01-18T00:46:22Z

Greetings all~
I lived in Berlin with my wife and 2 sons 20 years ago('84-'88)while in the US AirForce. It was love at 1st sight. I have tried to keep in touch with people I met there,butit has been hard. To compensate,I look for and post as many pictures of Berlin as I can find. Pick an area/district or an event and I probibly have several pictures of it. Overall I currently have
over 3,100 Berlin related pictures. If someone could tell how to post any of them to this site,I will happily do so. Oh!And if there's an extra bed....My wife and I have passports, will travel.
FredDeTucson

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies

JFKS Alumni

2003-12-13T05:43:43Z

If you are a member or Alumni of Berlin's John F. Kennedy School then join the JFKS Tribe at JFK.Tribe.net. (There's two, the one that works is the one with people in it!)

posted in Berlin, Germany - 0 replies