Ja!

Breakfast of champions: Haferflocken. Also known as oatmeal. This baby cost me 25 cents.

Meat in a Jar

Gross. That is all.

Models, models, models!

I went on a tour yesterday which took me to two places: the Stadtmuseum (a museum of the history of Berlin) and the Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung, or the Senate Department for Urban Development. There I saw a series of models depicting the city at various stages of growth: in the 1500s, in 1688, and then in the present day. I wish I would have had photos of these models when I was teaching studio - they're really quite amazing and some of them, huge! The first two models were in the Stadtmuseum and the rest are part of a permanent exhibition across the street at the Department for Urban Development.

Here is Berlin as it was in the 1500s. It was actually originally composed of two free cities: Berlin on the right and Cölln on the left, but they became a unified city around 1237. The river Spree runs between the settlements. The canal of water on the right running along the edge of Berlin was later filled in and became part of the S-bahn train system.

Here is Berlin as it was in 1688.  You can see from the people standing around this model that it's quite large, perhaps 18 feet across.

Check out the amazing detail of this model!

Here are the models of the contemporary city. I think the photos do not do justice to how enormous they truly are. This one is probably 60 feet across and 20 feet high, and it depicts a lot of the city, but it ends a ways from where I live in Tempelhof.

Here are some people for scale.

Here's a detail of the model showing the Brandenburger Tor and part of the Tiergarten. Notice Eisenman's Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe just to the south of the Brandenburg Gate. The Reichstag is just to its north.

Here's a part of the model showing some of the former East, including the Fernsehturm - the tallest building in Berlin. I didn't realize this before the tour, but almost all of the historic core of the city lay in the former East.

Here's an even more detailed version of Berlin focusing on the cultural center of the city. Notice the long low red bar just below the Fernsehtum. That building was the Palast der Republik, the capitol building of the Deutsche Demokratishe Republik, or the government of East Germany. Interestingly, this Palast was build on the same ground where the Prussian Stadtschloss once stood. The Palast was demolished in 2008 and the site is still empty. There is a group that wants to rebuild the Baroque Stadtschloss, but it is still a controversial proposal.

My Neighborhood

This is Tempelhofer Damm a couple of blocks from the Ubahnhof (U-bahn Station) Kaiserin Augusta Straße. There's a small collection of Asian restaurants there, including Indian and Singaporian places.I had dinner at one a few nights ago, and this was the view from where I sat.

Freiluftkino-Kreuzberg!

Last week, I got to experience one of Berlin's best-loved summer past-times, the Freiluftkino or the open-air cinema. There are a number of these cinemas around Berlin, but the one I went to was in Kreuzberg. It's located on the grounds of of the Künstlerhauses Bethanien. Completed in 1847, this building was originally designed by three of Schinkel's students as a home for Deconesses and a hospital to be run by them. After being saved from demolition, it became a center of art, housing studios, multimedia labs, and offices for cultural organizations.

The Freiluftkino offers a bit of drink and snacks for sale - a bit of popcorn (sweet, I hear) and an extensive variety of beer. There is apparently no open-container law in Berlin, so if you don't finish your beer, you can take it to go!

Sommerhaus on Linienstraße

Here is the building where my language classes are being held. Though they are through the Goethe Institute, there are too many courses to all be held at their main campus, so they've rented this building for the summer. Normally, it's the Volkshochschule, or the People's High School, but we're calling it the Sommerhaus. It's on Linienstraße, and it's a couple of blocks away from Ubanhof Oranienburger Tor on the U6 line, which is what I can take from my apartment. Very convenient! Unfortunately, like just about every building in Berlin, there's not an air conditioner to be found for miles, so it's a bit warm to say the least. The area where the school is located is a kind of art-gallery center, with dozens of galleries in the surrounding blocks.

Seen around town...

Die Neue Wache

Die Neue Wache was built between 1816 and 1818 by Friedrich Wilhelm III as a guard house for the royalty who occupied the Berliner Stadtschloss - the castle next door. It was also conceived as a memorial for those soldiers who had died during the Napoleonic Wars. Since then, it's been rededicated a number of times to commemorate other events: In 1931 it became a memorial to soldiers who died in WWI; in 1960 it became a Mahnmal (a memorial of a negative event to warn future generations) for the victims of fascism and militarism; finally in 1993 it became what it is today, a general memorial for the victims of war and tyranny.For me, Schinkel's design is interesting because of what's decorated and what's not. You can see in the photo of the portico below that the pediment is adorned with a bas-relief of warring Greek gods. On the architrave, where here there are only hooks, there would normally be smaller reliefs of angels. By and large, as a neoclassical design, the building is rather bare when compared to other versions of classicism. What's interesting here, though, is how decorated the columns are. As befits a militaristic, Schinkel chose to use Doric columns, the most simple and the most robust of the orders.
Notice the column capitals. They have a number of very small ribs below the echinus, or topmost molding. They also have a series of three or four cuts on the shaft (where, in a Roman Doric column the astragal would be placed) where normally only one cut would exist.Lastly, the column base is interesting because it actually has something like a base - normally, the flutes of Doric columns simply hit the plinth.
Since 1993, in the interior sits a sculpture by Käthe Kollwitz (enlarged from her original) below the oculus, which was added in 1931.

Lunch at Dressler

A little ways down Unter den Linden, I realized I was famished and stopped for lunch at a beautiful old place called Dressler.



















Here I am!


And here are some beautiful pastries they had sitting on the bar...no, I did not try them, please wipe the drool from your chin. I had a salad with chicken...still delicious, but not nearly as photogenic.

Aeroflot

Gotta love this logo for the Russian airline, Aeroflot. It combines the best of both worlds: the communist hammer and sickle along with the captitalist wings of the future! This sign hangs at the Aeroflot offices on Unter den Linden, just a couple of blocks away from the Brandenburg Gate.

This has nothing to do with Berlin...

I just read the funniest line from an advice columnist, EVER. A man wrote to Prudie:
Q: I'm engaged and getting married in September. We agreed on a relatively simple wedding, with a few special touches so it's different and "ours." However, now my bride-to-be is looking at all the little things that can be done and wants to do ALL of them. How can I dial this back and help her realize that it'll be unique because it'll be US?

And Prudie wrote back:
A: If your finacee dedicates herself to the notion that the two of you need to do things no other young couple has ever done, it could make for an interesting honeymoon night.

Das Brandenburger Tor

I learned a new word today during my first day of class. Das Brandenburger Tor ist ein Wahrziechen von Berlin - it's the emblem of the city. On many of the U-Bahn trains, a pattern made out of an elevation drawing of the gate is printed on the windows. I gotta get a photo of that still...

Der Reichstag

I spent some time Saturday doing some sight-seeing and walking around the city. First stop - the Reichstag, home of the German Bundestag, or parliament. I just wrote a paper about this building, so it was really great to see it in person. The line was huge to get inside, though, so I will visit it again another day.

Here's the famous portico, whose inscription reads: Dem Deutschen Volke, or To the German People. This is ironic because this building was funded and built by Prussian Kaisers who didn't think much of democracy. The inscription was proposed by the architect in 1899, but it wasn't actually installed until 1915 or 16, when the country was embroiled in WWI and the government thought it would be a morale booster. A bit of trivia for you: the iron used to cast the letters came from two cannons captured from the French during the Napoleonic Wars a hundred years prior.

Friedrich-Franz-Straße

Here's my block. The cars are so tiny, and most people park with two tires on the curb.

Meine Wohnung - my apartment!

I'm staying in an area called Tempelhof - the area was home to the old airport, but it's now been converted to a park. The area reminds me a little of Park Slope (the residential parts, at least). The buildings are all around 4 stories, lots of balconies, lots of trees, lots of people of all ages. Loud church bells, strollers, dogs. The apartment is waaaay up on the fourth (top) floor, and it's quite warm up there, so I've been eating breakfast and dinner on the balcony.

Schippol

Here is a seating area in the Schippol airport. It perfectly illustrates the strange Dutch love of both kitsch and the modern aesthetic. Notice the faux historical suitcases sitting above the very chic booths.

Hello from Berlin!

Hello Everyone! (Everyone meaning the couple of people I suckered into looking at my blog...)
I'm now here in Berlin...got in Saturday morning, got settled, and promptly passed out. Traveling is rough!

When I got in, my phone wouldn't work - even when I was willing to shell out the $2/minute just to call my roommate. Luckily, after I got off the U-Bahn (the subway), I was standing on the corner in the sun, looking around wildly confused, sweating sheets, and a very nice woman came up to me and asked, "Elizabeth??" Yay! It was my new Mitbewohnerin, Erdmute! We walked two short blocks to her apartment building, and then lugged two very heavy suitcases up four flights of stairs. You gotta work for that balcony in the trees! The apartment is beautiful and I couldn't have asked for a better hostess. Photos to come...

After I took a nap, Erdmute walked me to the local market and I bought a couple of things... including some meat that I hoped was chicken, but ended up being turkey. Putenfleisch. It's not as easy as Schweinfleisch, which sounds like, you know, "swine flesh." When we returned, we had to do a bit of Jenga in the fridge, which is of the tiny under-counter European variety rather than the gazillion cubic feet that we're used to. We had a very lovely dinner on the balcony, and then I slept for a good 14 hours.