STREET ART NAMED DESIRE: A mural on a building in Friedrichstrasse, in ’s . The district is at the heart of the city’s revival, with hidden art spaces, great food and a former airfield that’s now a park

70 71 BERLIN Imaginative, Imaginative, old of reuse artistic means buildings constantly is Berlin reinvented. being Stewart Victoria German the revisits experience to capital new the of shock the Experiences

PhotographPhotograph by Eddy Galeotti by ### ERCHED on a brick wall, crumpled maps in hands and in need of refreshment, two of us are sitting among a sea of Pidentical-looking tourists. The past few days have been fun, frenzied and an important part of any Berlin initiation weekend – but having strolled down the Linden Boulevard, taken pictures of the Reichstag and visited Potsdammer Platz, the Memorial and the Brandenberg Gate, we’ve never once left the sightseeing trail. We haven’t yet worked out what it is that makes this city tick. In the afternoon, we get lost down an alleyway that leads to a secret cinema and are handed leaflets to an all-night party in an old warehouse. We fall into a cafe, once used as something else, where people lounge on ramshackle furniture and chat with their neighbours. This feels like a more real Berlin than the one we’ve been trailing BESBESTT and, as we hop on the plane home, we promise to return for a proper explore. STREETSTREET And so in May, during the 25th 3 FOOD anniversary year of the fall of the Berlin A HEADLESS Wall, a friend and I find ourselves in SPOTSSPOTS Kreuzberg, in the south of the city, hungry for adventure. But we don’t want to get MONSTER BIBITETE CLUB too stuck in our guidebooks – this time we ItinerantItinerant street feast, curcurrenrentlytly want to learn about one of Europe’s coolest on Saturdays outside a sshippinghippin capitals through its street art, which is LOOMS OVER container building.building. TryTry Heisser prevalent and often highly political, and by Hobel’s spätzlespätzle (fl(floury noodles walking through its once-forgotten spaces tossedtossed in BaBavarian cheese, chives and fried onions) and wash all to find out how the various changes that A DOORWAY that down with an elderflower, are going on are transforming the cityscape. mint and Prosecco cooler. Our adventure begins near Warschauer Platoon Kunsthalle, Schönhauser Strasse U-bahn station, where we meet our Allee 9, guide, Andrea Peevers from Berlinagenten been transformed into a home for artistic tours, and walk to Urban . During projects. On the walls, a headless, ten- BURGERMEISTER the 1840s, this gigantic maze-like space handed monster looms over a doorway, Favourite with hipsters and was a train repair depot, but it has since a brilliant blue lizard sniffs the roof, a normal punters alike, this cowboy sprawls backwards as though hit converted toilet is home to some by a bullet and a spotted white baby’s head first-rate burgers, so expect to queue. Order a Meisterburger is silhouetted against a black background. (seeded bun, medium rare beef These days, anyone can weave through this patty, caramelised onions, lettuce, labyrinth, discovering beer gardens, an art tomatoes) and chase with beer gallery, a Sunday flea market, street food or homemade applesaftscharte. vans and clubs that host all-night raves. Oberbaumstrasse 8, 10997 Berlin From here we cross , overlooking a riverside area known as MARKTHALLE NEUN Media Spree, controversial due to the Huge hall that houses a Thursday building of HQs for street food night and a Saturday The double-decked media outlets such fine food/fresh produce market. Top picks include Bonvodou Oberbaum Bridge, as MTV (in a former which spans the chocolate stall (go early), smoked River Spree, links warehouse) and the fish from Glut + Späne and and O2 World in an empty microbrewery HeidenPeters. Kreuzberg, once shipping warehouse divided by the Berlin Eisenbahnstrasse 42, 10997 Berlin Wall. It is seen as by the station, both a symbol of unity. of which are 72 Photograph by (main) Alamy and (inset) Manuel Reinartz e NEW SPACES URBAN SPREE A former train repair ray of events and depot, now home to BERLIN an ar projects from expansive street art projects from expansive street art market,to vintage sales, a flea clubs and a gallery. Berlin Strasse 99, 10245 Revaler TEMPELHOFER FREIHEIT Sprawling former Nazi airport boasting plenty of grass to run around on, fly kites, eat ice creams or sunbathe, and for cycling tarmac ex-airstrips and rollerblading. Gigs and exhibitions are laid on inside the Admission free. old airport. Open daily until sunset, Damm, Tempelhofer entrances at Columbiadamm and Oderstrasse Wall of Berlin part Formerly and death strip, now a public park with a Sunday flea market and live karaoke sessions in an amphitheatre. Gleimstrasse 55, Berlin 10437 3 Finally, we race each other up the Finally, That afternoon, we join thousands of On Sunday, we meet Walid from Fat Tire, from Fat Tire, we meet Walid On Sunday, we realise we have still As we walk away, Experiences , stop to look at TommyHaus the wall. We a squat since the 1970s, which now hosts youth organisations and gigs. Freiheit, an former runways of Tempelhofer airport built by the Nazis, watching children flying kites and trying to imagine what it was like before its transformation. German version of mac’n’cheese) and tacos. Pedalling who leads us on a Berlin bike tour. along the River Spree, we learn that the techno superclub was home of the Tresor once an abandoned power station and pass a garden-cum-gallery filled with parts of sweaty Berliners in Mauerpark, Prenzlauer, largest flea market now home to the city’s ‘death but in earlier times part of the wall’s our stalls that catch strip’. Here, it isn’t attention but BearPit Karaoke, an X-Factor- style singing contest with a huge crowd. only scratched the surface of what modern a third trip Needless to say, Berlin can offer. has been planned – and next time we might ditch the tours and guidebooks altogether. TommyHaus TommyHaus is named a!er Weisbecker, Tommy a 23-year-old anarchist killed by German police West on 2 March 1972. was part Weisbecker of a le!wing group. We move on – this time to satisfy We Our final stop with a pink human made up of and eating hundreds of tiny terrified pink humans, suggestive of the power of Nazi rule. where hunger pangs – to Burgermeister, delicious, heaving bacon and cheese-topped beefburgers are served from a converted toilet under a flyover in the middle of a busy junction. Close by is Markthalle Neun, War which was blacked out during World air raids and stood empty survived Two, for many years. Three years ago, when it was purchased from the council by a supermarket chain, locals collaborated to revive the market instead following a mass it hosts a sit-in. Today, Thursday street food night and a regular weekend market. Andrea is in Prenzlauer Berg, further north, where we find an epic structure made out of 34 shipping containers in what was previously empty space. Platoon Kunsthalle describes itself as a “living social sculpture – not an office, not a gallery… a playground for the city”. Depending on the day, you’ll find exhibitions, artist residencies, there is a workshops or club nights. Today, bar and outside it Bite Club, a street feast that plants itself in different parts of Berlin and features around ten stalls and vans that a arepas, pizza, spätzle (like sell Venezuelan , built in 1805 to store coal and Berlin Tegel International from £63 from International Tegel Berlin The Michelberger hotel in Michelberger The informal is relaxed, Friedrichshain from £50 per night. Rooms and arty. michelbergerhotel.com (one way). ba.com/berlin (one way). STAYING THERE STAYING flies from Heathrow Airways British to GETTING AND On the west side of the bridge is Pink 74 situated near the wall. Gentrification is ABOVE: The eye has it in this street mural contained in Kreuzberg, while (BELOW) it’s enthusiasm at Kunsthalle in Prenzlauer Berg. evident elsewhere; a one-time marmalade factory is now a residential building, while the future of the impressive, brown-bricked Army Bakery salt, is under negotiation. Mural, by the artist Blu, which depicts