Sunday Shopping in Berlin – The Supermarkets Open Sundays
One of my biggest frustrations when I moved to Berlin (and I’m not the only one) was finding out that under German law, shops are (generally) not allowed to open on Sundays. I still find it hard to believe that a modern, cosmopolitan city closes down so much on a Sunday but for the most […]
Bauhaus: Design in a Nutshell
The Open University’s short film Bauhaus: Design in a Nutshell sums up the Bauhaus movement in an easy to follow 2 minute video. The school, which was founded in Weimar in 1919 by Berlin-born architect Walter Gropius, revolutionised art and design in the twentieth century. As it says in the the video’s description on YouTube: […]
Turkish Market – Everyday Essentials to the Downright Bizarre at this Berlin Bazaar
Berlin is blessed with some top-notch market halls and markets and one of my all-time favourites is the Turkish Market on Maybachufer in Neukölln. Come rain or shine, a cast of characters as colourful as their stock set up their stalls and hawk their wares on the road running alongside the Landwehrkanal on Tuesdays and […]
Sunday Documentary – Hansa Studios: By The Wall 1976-90
If you asked music fans to name the studio where their favourite songs and albums were recorded you would most likely be met by a wall of blank looks, except perhaps if that music was recorded at Hansa Studios in Berlin. Hansa Studios: By The Wall 1976-90 is a documentary that tells the story of […]
Protokoll Taproom Berlin – 24 Craft Beers on Tap
Whether you’re a dedicated beer connoisseur or simply bored of the usual selection of Pilseners and wheat beers on offer at most Berlin bars and Kneipen, Protokoll Berlin, a craft beer bar in Friedrichshain’s Boxhagener Kiez, is the perfect place to broaden your beer horizons. Protokoll has an impressive 24 taps (handmade in Moscow with […]
Vagabund Brauerei – Brewery and Taproom in Berlin Wedding
On a quiet residential street in Wedding, in the small but perfectly formed taproom of Vagabund Brauerei, three Americans sell the beer they brew right there on the premises, to Berlin’s craft beer drinkers. When it opened in July 2013, Vagabund Brauerei was Germany’s first crowdfunded brewery. Disappointed by the lack of variety in the […]
Sunday Documentary: Background to Berlin
A tweet from NATO marking the 70th anniversary of the start of the Berlin Airlift led me to the recently recovered documentary Background to Berlin. The film is part of the “Atlantic Review series” developed between 1959 and 1968 by the NATO Information Service. This film tells the story of the city of Berlin from […]
Muted Horn – Craft Beer Replaces Aircraft on the Airport Street
You would be forgiven for walking past Muted Horn without giving it a second glance – except for the pink neon sign over the door, there is little indication of the craft beer idyll hidden behind an unassuming brick and glass facade next to a Penny supermarket. Jenia Semenova and Corbin Crnkovic brought their enthusiasm […]
Kanaan – Food from the Promised Land
Kanaan is a Middle Eastern vegan-vegetarian restaurant with a backstory as appealing as the food served there, that claims it has ‘the best hummus in town’. Berlin has the short-sightedness of Germany’s supermarket executives, who dismissed Oz Ben David and Jalil Debit’s original business proposal to bring hummus, tahini and other imported Israeli-Palestinian specialty foods […]
Biererei Store – Craft Beer Bottle Shop and Aladdin’s Cave
Short but sweet – CRAFT BEER – the neon sign in the arched window of the bottle shop on Kreuzberg’s Oranienstraße is a beacon to the beer lovers of Berlin and draws thirsty customers into Biererei Store. It was during an internship in Brussels, that owner Cihan Caglar, a Political Sciences graduate, first realised that […]