remembering the wall

Tags

art, Berlin, berlin wall, Berlin Wall Memorial, berliner mauer, bernauer strasse, community, Hamburger Bahnhof, mauer berlin, photography, travel, west berlin, windows and doors

Yesterday I must have walked down Berlin’s most visually unappealing street: The Invaliden Strasse. One road-work sat beside the next and most of the facades where covered up or just not that much to look at … and it was loud. To be fair I think it may only be a temporary phenomenon but not very inspiring none the less.

But maybe I should start at the beginning and explain how I ended up walking down the Invaliden Strasse anyway. I had decided to visit the “Gedenkstaette Berliner Mauer” (Berlin Wall Memorial) that stretches along the Bernauer Strasse. If you have ever seen film footage from the 60s of people jumping out of windows to escape from East into West Berlin it was taken there.

After WWII the Bernauer Strasse split the French, English and American Quarters from the Russian one and on the 13 August 1961 the SED (the ruling communist party) bricked up all the house windows and doors facing into the west and started constructing the Wall.

Streching over 1.4km, the memorial is a combination of leftover relics of the time (1961-89) and modern reminders of what happened.

Bernauer Strasse

a map of the wall

metal reminders of where it stood

the west side of the wall

they dug up parts of a grave-yard to install the wall, this cross stands for all the bodies that remained in the earth underneath the strip

when they were certing the memorial they found some old cement foundations … this one had footprints from the builders in it

In 1985 the SED blew up the at the old Versoehnungs Kirche (Reconciliation Church). A new one, a chapel,  was built in it’s place. This is a fragment from the original cross that the people hid

some stucco reminds of the old neo-gothic church

they grow rye around the church and once a year they harvest it and bake bread from it … this year it will be on the 25th of July but i don’t know what happens to the bread

at the new Versoehnungs Chapel Reconciliation Church)

up on the visitors platform you can see the Fernsehturm in the distance

konkers

a piece an old wall … not THE wall

some new architecture where old houses stood, the memorial where the wall once was

After walking around the impressive and interesting memorial I couldn’t help but fall into a contemplative mood. And as I strolled away from the Bernauer Strasse towards the Hamburger Bahnhof (Bahnhof means Trainstation), Berlin’s main contemporary art museum, I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by the noisy, dusty and unpleasant atmosphere of the Invaliden Strasse. But in between the road-works I found the impressive Museum of Natural History and the Humboldt University and finally reached the Hamburger Bahnhof.

a decorative door

the ever-present tram-lines

the Museum of Natural History

The Humboldt University

a university fence

some old, unloved windows on the other side of the road

a big smurf greeting me outside the Hamburger Bahnhof

inside the old trainstation

reminders of its past

look up

pieces of modern art

the installation “no exit” … that does lead to an exit

cruising around Kreuzberg

Tags

Berlin, community, gardening, Germany, kreuzberg, photography, photos, travel

Today the weather in Berlin is  a little grey, big clouds covering up the sky so I have decided to stay in and relax. However yesterday I wandered around Kreuzberg, enjoying the slight drop in temperature and the hodgepodge of sights and life this are has to offer.

Unlike most area in Berlin Kreuzberg didn’t grow from a village but was founded in 1920 by the Greater Berlin Act that reorganized Berlin into 20 boroughs. Most of Kreuzburg was entirely destroyed during WWII. After the War rents were regulated which kept the cost of living cheap and made it not very attractive for investment.

The Wall didn’t just divide Berlin in two but nearly isolated Kreuzberg from the rest of West Berlin. But the low rent attracted lots of immigrants, students and artist creating a vibrant multicultural environment in the 60s. In the 70s it was one of the poorest quarters in Berlin. And out of this grew a lot of radical thinking which resulted in Riots in the mid 80s.

When the Wall fell Kreuzberg suddenly found itself in the middle of Berlin again. It’s initially cheap rents attracted an even wider variety of residents and is now the home to the youngest population of any European borough.

Kreuzberg is filled with Graffiti, alternative cafes and shops and a variety of architecture. It is exciting and interesting, a little dirty and a photographers dream.

a pretty vespa

the famous Leviathan mural

a stripy welcome when you cross the Oberbaum bridge

some local art

think someone forgot their coffee

graffiti inspired by Berlin illustrator Heinrich Zille (1858-1929)

a stack of chairs

big yella

balcony flags

a pretty bike

remembering something

church fence

vintage window

playground in the Goerlitzer Park

bees making Kreuzberg honey

loving music

steps

bottle cap art

a balcony in Kreuzberg

inside a t-shirt shop

a lamppost collecting posters

the Bethanien, originally a hospital (poet Theodor Fontane worked as a pharmacist here) now an art-center

cart and bottle

inside the Bethanien

a cheerful hall

a cute bird

a side door

window art on a squatters van

a jaguar on a jeep

this hasn’t been moved in a while … squaters district

al fresco cooking

squatters living-room

peeking through

some interesting architecture

where old meets new

fountain

bed of roses

an old town house

planting herbs in the Prinzessinnengaerten (Princess Gardens) , a tiny community oases on the Moritzplatz

clever planting pot

recycle a cycle

bike sculpture

bee hilton

waiting for the stars to come out

angry bird

muddy community

Tags

community, community garden, Dubllin, gardening, mud island, photography, photos

After last nights downpour and heavy winds I was thrilled to see the sun peeking out from behind the clouds. Not that I had any big plans for the day but my local community garden “Mud Island” had been planning their open day for weeks.

So with a freshly backed cake and a happy heart I wandered down the road and into a world of green.  It was great to see kids playing ad adults chatting out in the sun, not bothered by the wind and enjoying the community spirt.

And since it is nearly time to wander back down for a BBQ and some songs I leave you all with a few photos of my afternoon spent in the muddy community.

Mud Island Community Garden

Flower Pot

Guess how many

New use

Kids artwork

the finished product

Tyre potatoes

chives in bloom

a honeybee at work

another project

zucchini

lavender

lettuce

someone was here

an unfinished mural

still unfinished

last section waiting for paint

a brilliant flower

what’s behind the green door?

growing wild

 

mmmmm

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5000, blog, community, followers, miscellaneous, musings, random, readers, thanks, thoughts

I feel like singing and dancing and whopping and hugging someone. My little blog just hit 5,000 (MMMMM)  views and I am thrilled to bits.  I know it may seem silly to all you seasoned bloggers out there but to me it’s a big deal. My blog is two months old today and I have to say 65 posts, 115 followers and many lovely comments later I have fallen a little bit in love with my new blogger-friends.

From me here in Dublin a big thank you to all of you who have read and followed my blog. And even though I am staying in on a Friday night I think this momentous (for me anyway) occasion calls for wine, music and fun …

So as I turn up the CD-player and sing ‘celebration’  with Kool and the Gang, out of tune but with lots of heart I wish all my lovely readers a fabulously wonderful weekend.

street clean up

Tags

children, community, Dublin, families, friends, home, neighbours, random, society, thoughts

I live in a tiny little cul-de-sac really close to Dublin city center. With just 26 small cottages standing in neat rows on either side of a tight road the street I live on has a very old-fashioned feel to it. The wooden doors are painted in different colours, red and black dominating, and big bold door-knockers await to signal visitors. These houses were built around 1904 and have housed many families, couples, older people and singles like myself. But the really special thing about this place is the community spirit that seems to live on the road too.

Neighbours do still stop and chat or borrow milk, eggs and even bin tags (a Dublin bin collecting scheme)  from each other and children play ball, ride their bikes and generally just seem to run up and down the street. Every now and then a group of us will meet up in someones home, drink tea, wine and eat sandwiches or cake while chatting about this, that and not really anything too important.

Yesterday we brought out our brooms, rubber gloves and black bags to tackle the rubbish on our street. We do this once a year in an attempt to battle the city and its debris, pull out the weeds that grow in gutters, pavement crevices and pick up all the liter that dances around on windy days. Unlucky for us it started to rain but we made the best of it and had fun together, the kids joined in with their little plastic shovels, brightly coloured wellies and loving the action on the road.

It was a great atmosphere and it got me thinking about how important it is to have good community spirit. When children grow up in a place where they can feel safe indoors and out, it makes a big difference in how they learn to interact with people of all ages. And if neighbours look out for one another and help out when needed, it cements trust at the lowest level of our society. If the small communities work, the bigger ones will too, as it then is no longer about THEM but about US.

As we stood piling up the black bags we decided to get white paint and brighten up the wall at the end of the road and do some planting for the summer. It was as if everyone wanted to display how much they enjoyed living in this special little street, tenets and homeowners alike. And I personally can’t wait for the sun to come out and our street to look as beautiful as it feels living here.

Community resilience