Berlin is home to many things: pastries, graffiti, electronic music just to name a few, but its staple (and number one snack food) are their sausages. Not just any sausage though - the currywürst. You can’t walk five meters without hitting a sausage stand that sells currywürst. The currywürst (pronounced verst) is mixture of ketchup, curry powder and sausage which was discovered accidentally by Herta Heuwer.
Konnopke’s, which is the oldest stand in the city (about 75 years old), is legendary for making the best currywürst in town. It’s situated right under the U2 U-Bahn station (and three blocks from where I live!)
The secret is in their sauce. Apparently the ketchup is home made and has been kept a secret by the Ziervogel family for generations.
Here’s a fun video on Konnopke’s and the currywürst.
In 1904, the International Socialist Conference meeting in Amsterdam called on all Social Democratic Party organizations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on May First for the legal establishment of the 8-hour day, for the class demands of the proletariat, and for universal peace.
All across Europe, millions of people from various groups (socialist, anarchist and communist) take to the street to protest, vandalize and party.
In Berlin, the festivities take place in Kreuzberg. Parties on the streets, outdoor concerts and fairs consume the neighbourhood. In the past, demonstrations have turned quite violent so shops shut down early to keep the vandalism at a minimum.
I think since the 2004 May 1st demonstrations, things have toned down quite a bit in the city. It’s a long video but things start to heat up about five minutes in.
The Dresden Film Festival happened this past week. I was invited by the festival to present Birthday Girl, which was showing in the Panorama Quebec series curated by Etienne Desrosiers.
I Got into Dresden Friday afternoon. Picked up my festival pass and immediately sat down for some kaffee und kuchen (coffee and cake). I brought my laptop so that I could blog from the festival but found out very quickly that the WLAN wasn’t compatible with my Mac. So now I’m back in Berlin but here’s what I would have been blogging about from the fest.
The film screened Friday evening at 9pm and Sunday at 5:30pm.
The response was wonderful. I was a little nervous showing the film to a foreign speaking audience but it went over very well (most Dresdeners speak excellent English). It was also a great exercise in learning that the best jokes were the ones that didn’t require language to comprehend. Even though the audience laughed at the verbal jokes, the silent ones got the best reaction.
There’s a scene in Birthday Girl where two sisters are sitting on the living room floor at the birthday party eating sandwiches. One sister gets up to get some soda and while she is gone the other sister opens her sister’s sandwich, places the cheese from the sandwich onto the floor and then back in the bread.
This scene happened to be everyone’s favorite scene during the script writing phase. When the film was finished people would tell me it was their favorite scene in the film. I think people like it because it’s full of genuine conflict. It was nice to see that even in Germany, the scene got the most laughs. My lesson: conflict is universal. Doesn’t matter what language it’s in, as long as it’s there, people will identify with it. And if it’s a gag with conflict, people will laugh as well.
This is the headquarters for the DZ Bank of Berlin. It was designed by Canadian architect Frank Gehry. The building is situated on Pariser Platz, home to the Brandenburg Gate.
Gehry is known for his eccentric and unconventional structures but for this building he was heavily constrained due to Berlin’s strict building codes, especially those when it comes to building on Pariser Platz. Constraints such as height (buildings cannot be higher than the gate) proportions (relationship of windows to solid wall) and materials (obligatory stone cladding). This didn’t leave much room for experimentation so Gehry, true to form, used the inside of the bank to express himself.
There’s an amazing Turkish market every Tuesday and Friday in Kreuzberg. It’s your typical market, full of cheap fruits and veggies, second hand bike dealers and fabric vendors.
Kreuzberg is one of the most popular boroughs in Berlin. It has the highest density of youth (in all of Europe) and is home to the largest immigrant community in Berlin (mainly Turkish).
Kreuzberg, which literally translates to ‘cross-hill’, belonged to West Berlin. Tons of artists, punks, squatters moved to this part of town in the 60’s and it became know for its diverse subcultures. It eventually grew into the cultural, alternative center of the city.
There’s roughly 4 million people in the city and each borough is completely different from the next. No matter how close they are to one another, once you step foot into a different area, you feel like you’re in another world.
I noticed these colourful steel pipelines running through the city. Turns out Berlin is built on swampland. The name Berlin, translates to swamp in German (or is believed to be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl which means “swamp”.
These pipes are carrying water and sewage from the grounds where new buildings are being constructed. There is so much development going on in the city, that these pipes almost blend in with the general atmosphere.
This is a photo of the people’s palace, also known as The Palace of the Republic (or what’s left of it). It was opened to the public in 1976 and is being taken apart (after much debate) because the government wanted to show the world that they are moving on and ridding its city of its communist past (that, along with some asbestos rumours). Citizens of Berlin protested its demolition, wanting to preserve the building for historical purposes, but lost out.
The city has decided to rebuild the original Royal Palace or the Berlin City Palace (which was finally destroyed in the 1950’s to build the people’s palace) and turn it into a museum.
I thought Montrealers were bad at making decisions but this city takes the cake.
They’re taking apart the building very slowly, piece by piece. If the city were to eliminate the building in one go, the loss of weight on the land would cause the Berlin Cathedral (featured below), which is located on the other side of the street, to sink.
This is what happens when you build a city on swampland.
Berlin Cathedral
