The Rennaissance of Jewish life in Berlin after the fall of the Wall. Page 8

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2014 Happy

Birthday, Photographer Paul Glaser recalls the moment he took this picture on November 12, 1989 at Leipziger Strasse close to Potsdamer Platz: ”It was nothing short of a festival atmosphere! People from East and West turned the horrible Wall into a stage for their happiness. And the GDR police had to allow people to Freedom! approach the wall unhindered.“ Let’s drink a toast, let’s have a party, let’s light 25 torches of freedom! 25 years ago on November 9, the Wall that imprisoned Berlin died, and freedom was reborn. This is a birthday party in print. You’re invited!

Berlin bliss on November 10, 1989: A young girl cradles a white dove of peace in front of Brandenburg Gate. egina S chmecken/ Z/ L aif small picture: R egina / P eter G laser; large picture: D PA 2 2014 2014 3

Welcome to The Berlin Times   ver 32 pages, we reminisce How much Stasi ideology still remains about the glorious night of in Berlin? Have we really done enough the fall of the Wall. We take to clear up and process the sinister legacy a look back and also shine a of their activities? And what lessons can lightO on nowadays Berlin. a functioning democracy learn from life the night Firstly, we immerse ourselves once again under a dictatorship? Germany’s Fed- in that jubilant night and recall: How a eral Commissioner for the Stasi Records, badly prepared media conference made Roland Jahn, himself a prisoner of the history; how the most important players Stasi, speaks about GDR nostalgia, old 3 Lady-in-Waiting: On the evening that the Wall in East and West experienced events that boy networks, yes-men and why the Stasi came down, Angela Merkel had been relaxing in a night; what was happening at the Central shouldn’t be compared with the NSA. sauna. Afterwards she drank a celebratory beer at Committee of the ruling SED at the time; Please read pages 10 and 11. the “Zur alten Gaslaterne” pub. how the Mayor of (West) Berlin found out As Berlin is a city in constant flux, that that the Wall was crumbling; where the cel- realities and illusions always go hand in ebrations took place; who was trembling hand. Bernd Eichinger, Germany’s only with excitement and who was sitting in the true movie tycoon, made films that had 1 Freedom Run: East Berliners sauna (prepare to be surprised). a greater impact on the image we have surge over the border at Bornholmer Strasse Read the great story of the night that of Berlin politics and history than many into the West Berlin district of Wedding. changed the world on pages 2 to 5. history books or television news bulle- How did the fall of the Wall affect tins. From “Christiane F.” to “Downfall” Berlin? Initially, the people changed. Mil- through to “The Baader Meinhof Com- lions of hopes and dreams were realized. plex,” he presented the city as a backdrop changed Berlin became a place of love without where dramatic destinies are played out. borders. Divided families and separated Sometimes balloons are more powerful 1 friends embraced again. So much happi- than weapons and walls. Nena’s global hit ness longed for but not expected. Right “99 Red Balloons” packed all the 1980s from the outset, the unified city was yearning for freedom into a very simple more than just the sum of East and West song. Writing for us in this special edition Berlin. Unity night was the night that saw (page 16 and 17), she describes how (pleas- 4 Demob-happy: This East German border guard the creation of a completely new Berlin. ant) it was to live as a pop star in a city that at Invalidenstrasse realizes after midnight that the Today, the city that has experienced it all no longer felt inclined to idolize heroes. the time is up for his country. is the prototype of the modern metropolis: And Wolfgang Joop (pages 30 and 31), 2 Man of the Moment: Gunter Schabowski was International, non-ideological, egalitarian Germany’s most famous fashion designer, the SED’s Central Committee spokesman. His news conference on the evening of November 9 made 3 and libertarian. A 24-hours-everything-is- answers the crucial question: What is the Schabowski, now 85, famous. possible kind of city. special style of Berlin all about? It’s clear, Creative young businesses established proud, curious and modest. It is in this themselves in the ruins of East Germany’s manner that we have tried to write and command economy and turned Berlin into design the following pages. Europe’s Silicon Valley (pages 22 and 23). Willkommen in Berlin! world six of Our fine contributors

1989 2014 1989 2014 4 7 5 Unbridled joy: These East Berliners returning from West Berlin’s main shopping boulevard poke 5 fun at SED chief Egon Krenz on the morning of November 10. Writing on their car: “Egon! We are Who was reporting back from our trip to Ku’damm”.

Former dissident Roland Jahn on the GDR‘s Singer Nena tells the story of how “99 Red Stasi then and now Balloons” became a worldwide smash 6 1989 2014 1989 2014 celebrating? Who was

Author Katja Eichinger on her late husband BZ‘s Editor-in-Chief Peter Huth tells Berlin’s Bernd Eichinger and his Berlin movies story in headlines 2 6 Gay abandon: In East Berlin’s Cinema trembling? International on Karl Marx Allee, the first East 1989 2014 1989 2014 German gay film, "Coming Out," premières on November 9 with two sold-out showings at 7 pm and 10 pm.

7 “Berlin, now you can rejoice!” When Walter Momper, 44 at the time, stood on a table at the Who was Invalidenstrasse border post on November 9, 8 1989 and addressed East Berliners through a This map from 1989 shows East Berlin from the megaphone, he’d only been Mayor of the city Fashion designer Wolfgang Joop Novelist Thomas Brussig describes GDR regime's perspective. It depicts West Berlin, for eight months. He led a Social Democrat/ explains the phenomenon “Berlin Style” how good triumphed over the past on the other side of the Wall, as a patch of green Green Party coalition, his trademark was his

E (2) (3), P rivat d (4); D PA L aif; U llsteinbil authors: pictures of in the sauna? without houses and streets. Forbidden territory. red scarf which he was wearing on that historic evening when he attended 8 d (4) lebie (2); U llsteinbil T homas Nobody could anticipate how quickly t had rained that morning in the city forward to the next round of the German the Golden which had been divided for 28 years, Cup – Stuttgart versus Bayern Munich – on Steering Wheel award ceremony at the Axel Springer The Berlin Times is an international registered trademark Publisher & liable for editorial content: Detlef W. Prinz events would unfold. A chronology but the sun had been out since midday. public broadcaster ARD. publishing house. He was sitting with Friede Springer of Times Media GmbH. The West German Chancellor Helmut Berlin society was getting ready for two big and the CEOs of the nation’s biggest car manufacturing Printed in Germany by Dogan Media International GmbH, of the historic hours that turned Berlin All rights reserved. Mörfelden-Walldorf IKohl (CDU) was on a state visit to Warsaw. parties – the awarding of the Golden Steering concerns when a bodyguard told him what Schabowski into the world’s happiest city. The Bundestag was in session in Bonn, Wheel for the best cars of the year had just said. Momper left immediately and became This first edition has been produced in cooperation with © Times Media GmbH, Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24, world famous. His coalition broke down just one year Berlin Partner for Business and Technology. 10963 Berlin, Germany. www.times-media.de where members of parliament were discuss-

later and Momper was voted out of office. S choel z el/ F ree L ens P ool; A n d reas By Ralph Grosse-Bley ing pension reform. Soccer fans were looking continued on page 4 4 2014 2014 5  At 6.57 pm, the Wall was history A former reporter for the East German ADN news agency recollects how the border was finally opened By Frank Losensky

here are times you won’t ever Schabowski gave his answer – at 6.57pm More than three hours after those words Our street is Isländische Strasse, around the forget, your whole life through. – and inadvertently opened the border. had changed the city, the nation and the corner from the [border crossing at] Born- 6.57 pm is one such time. 25 years I snapped my notebook shut and jumped world, I walked over Bornholm Bridge holmer Bridge. We get there as the border ago today I looked at the clock to my feet. The entire room was in flux. from Prenzlauer Berg to Wedding for the guard commander, empty-eyed, orders the Tand made a note of this time, as well as the Television crews pushed their way towards first time. barrier to be lifted. I think: “He has spent words “immediately” and “without delay.” Schabowski, we agency reporters ran and It was here that at 10.30pm, Major Man- his whole life trying to stop this. Tonight of This was all I wrote on that particular day. jostled at the door of the room. This was fred Sensor capitulated to the masses at the all nights, no one is telling him what to do. It had been a leaden start to the eve- about seconds and meters, about who could barrier and with the words “we’re flooding For the first time in his working life he has ning at the East Berlin media center on file the first breaking news report. Don’t now!” opened the border after 28 years of to make the decision himself.” He decides: Mohrenstrasse. A dank wind blew through forget that mobile phones were an unafford- division. Raise the barrier! the somber streets around the Gendarmen- able luxury at the time – there wasn’t even Elsewhere in the jubilant city, people were • I am to see him again the next morning.

llstein, C aro K aiser U llstein, markt. Inside the muggy and windowless a network in the eastern part of the city. celebrating their own personal Wall hero: The East Germans are all coming back and Hello Trabi! Many East Berliners, receiving a warm welcome at border crossings, took their Berlin’s biggest party. Was it really unity after all this time? Had the division been done away movie theater on the first floor, it was cozy So it was down to the ground floor, where Riccardo Ermann. Passersby had recognized he is in tears. Later I hear that he has opened cars (mainly a Trabant, sometimes the four-door Wartburg or occasionally a Lada) on a first with? Or was it just some crazy dream? One had to celebrate every day to actually realize it and warm. There was a low clink of cups in there were three public telephones. I just the gray-haired Signore at Friedrichstrasse a currywurst stand – an honest trade in both jaunt to West Berlin on November 10. was true. Here are the first unified New Year’s Eve festivities 1989/1990 the coffee bar and now and again a smoker managed to grab one and in tremendous station and carried him on their shoulders East and West. scurried through the heavy wooden doors. excitement, dictated the headline to my desk throughout the night • I came straight back that night. Every- Günter Schabowski, the SED’s Central editor at ADN: So I had helped bring about the fall of the one else was pushing West while I went The night that changed the world started with a badly Committee spokesman, was lulling the “Schabowski: Travel permits for every- Wall. But no one was celebrating at ADN, East. It was a gut feeling. In those hours, world’s media to sleep with endless mono- one!”. my last employer in the East, because what Russian tanks were running hot all around logues on the GDR’s new travel regulations. It was seven o’clock on the dot! is not allowed simply cannot be. I was to Berlin. It could have ended quite differently prepared press conference His reading glasses were perched on the Reuters put the report out on its news ticker see that time and time again on this intense for me. end of his nose, his eyes darted along the at 7.00 pm, the first short dpa report fol- night of the 9 – 10 November. continued from page 3 rows of seats. lowed at 7.04 pm, then AP and AFP. But • 9pm. I got home. Everyone’s asleep. ■ Some colleagues had already left, others what about ADN, where was my breaking My wife, the kids. I’m exhausted and shut t had rained that morning in the city That press conference went down in his- East Germans head for crossing-points. Around 11:00 pm, the barrier is lifted – and dozed in the glare of the spotlights. Just as the news? It could have been the first report on my eyes. The doorbell begins to ring and In 1989 Frank Losensky which had been divided for 28 years, tory. At 6:57 pm, Schabowski stumbled over Helmut Kohl hears the news of the Wall’s everybody can go West. Lieutenant-colonel conference was drawing to a close, Riccardo an event of global historical significance. ring. A neighbor: “You’re a journalists! worked for the East German but the sun had been out since midday. a question as to when the new freedom to opening at a state banquet in Warsaw from Jäger reports: “We are swamped!” He fears Ehrman from the Italian agency ANSA took ADN, East Germany’s official news They are standing at the Wall, they say it’s news agency ADN. The West German Chancellor Helmut travel would begin – the most beautiful stum- his confidant Eduard Ackermann. “Are you for the lives of his border guards. the microphone and posed the question of all agency, feigned death and went offline – going to open!” Today he is Managing Editor IKohl (CDU) was on a state visit to Warsaw. ble in German postwar history: “It begins, to questions: “When does this come into effect?” for BZ and Bild in Berlin. sure?” he asks. The Chancellor cuts short The mayor of Berlin orders his driver to for the entire jubilant night of November 9. • We get dressed. The kids stay home. The Bundestag was in session in Bonn, the best of my knowledge… ummm, straight his visit but cannot fly to Berlin until the take him to the border crossing at Invali- where members of parliament were discuss- away, immediately.” next day. denstrasse. Momper climbs up on a table ing pension reform. Soccer fans were looking At 7:02 pm the Reuters news agency 8:15 pm. ARD is running the soccer match in and takes a megaphone: “Berlin, now you forward to the next round of the German reports: “Departure via all East German Stuttgart. The spectators in the stadium watch can rejoice!” – a direction which goes round Cup – Stuttgart versus Bayern Munich – on border crossings permitted immediately.” live footage of the Berlin Wall on a huge the world. public broadcaster ARD. At 7:08 pm a security official informs the video screen. 11:30 pm. East Berliners crash the film Berlin society was getting ready for two mayor of West Berlin of the situation. Mayor 8:30 pm. Angela Merkel has gone to the director’s birthday party at a pub in Neu- big parties – the awarding of the Golden kölln and dance on the stage in front of the Modern O ce & Object Steering Wheel for the best cars of the year Allied Commanders. Cologne, 21. – 25. 10. 2014 at the Axel Springer publishing house – and Visit us: Hall 6.1, Stand B 88 / C 89 star director Ulrich Schamoni’s ("It") 50th The Wall is coming down. y midnight, even the last crossing- birthday celebrations; among the guests were point – Invalidenstrasse – is open. the Western Allied commanders. From tomorrow. Tens of thousands of East Germans A normal Thursday. are streaming into the western part s But there were rumors in Berlin. Rumors Or perhaps today? ofB the city; long lines of Trabant cars are ocu r f tte that the routine press conference of the rattling down the Kurfürstendamm boule- Be Communist Party Central Committee would Practically now? vard. Perfect strangers are walking arm-in- include the announcement of an important arm through Brandenburg Gate. The first Bet Right this moment? ter p decision. A decision on new travel provi- “Wallpeckers” are chipping away at the ost ure sions which the East German regime hoped hated concrete to get Berlin Wall souvenirs. would stop the mass exodus of its citizens Walter Momper (SPD) was at the Golden sauna at the Ernst-Thälmann-Park public At 12:20 am, leaders of East Germany’s to the West. Steering Wheel ceremony. He made his baths as she does every Thursday. She has National People’s Army order the border reg- But were they just rumors? apologies to Friede Springer, saying he had seen Schabowski on television and has iments in Berlin to make ready for combat. to go, the Communist Party was opening the already phoned her mother to say: “Mom, But then there are no more commands. We t 5:30 pm Communist Party Wall. Everybody smirked – whatever would if the Wall falls, we’ll go and eat oysters at will do nothing, the commanders decide. General Secretary Egon Krenz Momper come up with next? the Kempinski Hotel in West Berlin.” There The peaceful revolution has won. At pressed two A4 pieces of paper A police escort whisked Momper to the will be time enough for that later. 4:30 am the last border police withdraw Bette r performance into the hands of the SED’s broadcaster Sender Freies Berlin. On the After the sauna, the physicist allows herself from Brandenburg Gate. ACentral Committee spokesman Günter evening news, he says of the new travel pro- The woman who was in the sauna when a small beer at the pub. Then she too goes Schabowski – the proposed resolution for visions: “The Wall will divide us no longer. to the Bornholmer Strasse border crossing. the Wall came down said later – as German the new rules to be announced the next It will start practically tomorrow.” And at 7:00 am the next morning, the woman chancellor – of the night that changed the day. They were to come into force over the From tomorrow. Or perhaps today? Practi- who will be Chancellor 16 years later is at world: “What unimaginable happiness.” weekend, giving the regime time to prepare cally now? Right this moment? her desk at the Academy of the Sciences and the border guards. Hundreds of East Berliners are already Humanities. ■ Are you still sitting still? Then it’s time to switch to ON®. Because it’s the world’s fi rst o ce chair Krenz had worked out the resolution that waiting at the Bornholmer Strasse border 9:05 pm. The Bundestag is still in ses- with Trimension® technology – encouraging natural posture and enabling three-dimensional day with Interior Ministry officials and crossing. Many of them are in their Trabi sion. Members of parliament are singing the Ralph Grosse-Bley (54) experienced members of the secret police. The politburo cars. They want out. To freedom. Now. national anthem: “Einigkeit und Recht und the fall of the Wall as a political move ment. It’s good for body, soul and mind. What’s more, it’s recommended by leading health experts rubber-stamped it and Krenz explained it to The official responsible for the crossing, Freiheit” (Unity and Justice and Freedom). editor at the central editorial office and has received many prestigious design awards. Three-dimensional movement. While seated. the Central Committee – but at that moment, Stasi lieutenant-colonel Harald Jäger, had The head of the Chancellery, Rudolf Seiters of the Rhein Zeitung newspaper Günter Schabowski was not in the room. watched Schabowski’s press conference (CDU), has broken the news. “Applause (Koblenz). From 1991, he worked That was pure chance – a lucky break for on television. His comment: “That’s utter surges up from all four parliamentary blocs,” for BILD in the former East world history. bullshit!” notes the transcript. Germany. He later served as Just scan the QR code to test the ON or contact us: Schabowski did not read the resolution. West German broadcaster ZDF briefly 10:00 pm. Egon Krenz tries to phone Editor-in-Chief of the Swiss tabloid www.wilkhahn.com/test-ON He was in a hurry to get to his press confer- reports the opening of the border at 7:17 pm Mikhail Gorbachev. But at the Kremlin, newspaper BLICK. Grosse-Bley ence to be broadcast live at 6:00 pm from on its evening news. ARD begins its news nobody is putting him through. has been working as a freelance Mohrenstrasse. The room was packed. The program at 8:00 pm with the Schabowski Thousands of people are pressing in on journalist and consultant in Zurich rumors ... press conference. After that, more and more the Bornholmer Strasse border crossing. and Berlin since 2013. 6 2014 2014 7

  Berlin – 1989 and now

The former Landtag Potsdamer Platz Square Corner of Chausseestraße of Prussia and Boysenstraße

The corner of Charlottenstraße and Zimmerstraße d /Jürgen R itter (8) z entralbil alliance/Z B / d pa- picture

was always convinced that the division tive democracy as a form of government is than that of income. Huge numbers of East pan-German, democratic patriotism. In the ent Germany. That has already meant changes the other major area of domestic integration of Europe and of Germany would not virtually unchallenged. Germany’s skilled workers temporarily or German empire of 1871, southern Germany in the political landscape: the appearance of a – that of incorporating immigrants, many of last. And I consistently maintained that Also unchallenged is Germany’s arguably permanently lost their jobs, as did a whole maintained a strong awareness of its own force to the left of the Social Democrats that them from very different cultures – and to the entire German nation ultimately had No one most important national symbol, the black, layer of ousted political leaders – although identity, particularly in the countryside, yet is not merely an eastern regional party; the play a constructive role of solidarity in the Ithe right to national self-determination. But overall, the managing elites were mostly able that did not lead to a breakup of the nation- waning influence of Bavaria’s CSU within processes of European integration and global red and gold flag. The German tricolor is no one was expecting the fall of the Berlin historically linked with the nineteenth-century to maintain their social status. state when the monarchy was abolished in the CDU-CSU bloc; and the decline of the cooperation. Wall and the end of the division of Germany push for a pan-German student fraternity; The differences will erode over time (in the revolution of 1918. pro-business Free Democrats. Even within in 1989-90. We were astonished by the total was expecting demands for national unity, freedom and decades rather than years) – but the eastern As more and more eastern Germans take the tighter borders of 1945/1990, Germany n capitulation of the Soviet Union in Europe, sovereignty at the 1832 Hambacher Fest; Germans’ feeling of a separate identity will leading roles in politics, business, media and is more than just Greater West Germany. right down to the USSR’s dissolution. the revolutions of 1848; and the (largely remain in place. That should not be a matter culture, the clearer it will become that the join- Germany’s more open and mobile young Peter Brandt is Professor emeritus Of course, it had been becoming ever more underrated) Weimar Republic (1918-1933), for regret – it is the expression of a specific ing of the two German states – even the simple people are visibly and increasingly overcom- of Modern and Contemporary obvious that “real existing Socialism” was Germany’s first democracy. German citizens set of issues and does not necessarily stand accession of East Germany into the Federal ing the mental East-West dividing line; this History at the University of Hagen. failing economically. In addition, détente and the fall of the today consider the country’s current political in the way of the parallel development of a Republic – has brought forth a new and differ- puts the country in a better position to tackle He is the son of Willy Brandt. the Helsinki Accords – particularly on human borders to be more or less identical to the geo- rights – meant that the Warsaw Pact countries graphical limit of the German people. Even could not continue to isolate themselves. This the eastern border with Poland is no longer placed a limit on repression. But at that point Berlin Wall controversial. This was not the case during the the military position of the Soviet Union was Weimar Republic and the first twenty years still unshaken. And few thought it possible In 1989, former German Chancellor Willy Brandt of the Federal Republic in West Germany. that Mikhail Gorbachev, recognizing the Looking back on the material and social disastrous state of his country, would do predicted that East and West Germany achievements of a quarter-century of reunifi- Almost 170 years what he did – almost casually, he accepted would “grow together because they belong together.” cation, the balance sheet is mixed. Clearly, the the future united Germany’s membership of economies of eastern and western Germany NATO. It appears he wanted to avoid a con- Have they? | By Peter Brandt are still far from being on the same level. flict with the US at all costs – and the US could Despite great efforts, the increase in manu- only accept a united Germany within NATO. – and had contact with Socialist Party mem- toration instead of compensation in property facturing has not even come close to making at your side in Berlin. It was considered unlikely for a united bers, conformists and above all with dis- disputes. Although there may have been good up for the massive deindustrialization in the Germany to be created by the accession of sidents. But of course, I was overjoyed that reasons for these strategic decisions, they first years after reunification – regardless of Berlin has always been fascinating: with its boundless energy, infi nite creativity eastern German states. The more realistic the Wall fell in my home town Berlin and that also made the process of “growing together” whether it could have been avoided. From choice appeared to be a pan-German con- the division of my country – a result of World contradictory and laborious. Helmut Kohl the point of view of West German industrial and great innovative strength. Shaped by the people who live here; the people stituent national assembly. But the majority War II and the East-West conflict – had been did not see unification as a common project capital, East German producers were largely who we have supplied with energy for nearly 170 years. There is nothing greater of East Germans did not want to wait that overcome. The fact that the East German involving the entire German nation – a new superfluous and destined to be shut down in for us than to do so in future. Because we all are: The Berlin Energy. long. They gave the Christian Democrat-led democratic grassroots movement was soon foundation of the Republic via a new, jointly an economy that had no use for them. Alliance for Germany a surprise victory in to be usurped by West Germany – possibly drafted and agreed constitution. On the con- Consumer spending in the East has only the East German national elections of March due to its own inner weaknesses – made no trary, Kohl’s policies preserved and ingrained approached Western levels on the back of 18, 1990. There is no doubt this was due difference to the fact that the clear will of the differences in thinking which had arisen enormous transfer payments by the state. to the East Germans’ desire for immediate the majority of Eastern Germans had to be during 45 years of separate existence. The same is true of rising life expectancy in incorporation – among other reasons, to respected. Despite this, virtually none of eastern Ger- eastern Germany. On the positive side, the stop the ongoing collapse of the political and Yet doubts soon arose over the plans to many’s political class now wants to reconsti- region has seen the installation of the latest social order in East Germany and to stem the replace East Germany’s command economy tute the East German state – not even those transport and communications facilities, as enormous flow of people to West Germany. and the creation of economic unity – for who oppose capitalism on principle; and well as the impressive restoration of histori- www.gasag.de I was not prepared for this historic earth- example, the decision to form a currency among the eastern German public in general, cal towns and villages – even as populations quake, even though I had maintained close union by exchanging Ostmarks for Deutsch- only a small but tenacious minority would dwindle in many parts of the East. The ties with East Germany well before 1989 marks at a rate of 1:1; and the principle of res- support such an unlikely goal. Representa- East-West difference in assets is even greater

GAS-14.154_AZ Atlantic Times 250x120mm_ISO26v4.indd 1 26.09.14 15:34 8 2014 2014 9

  The normality for Jews in Germany is that of a minority – one of the smallest in the country. With its advantages and disadvan- tages, its reality is similar to that of other minorities – with the difference being that out of the dark past, such a bright light is shone on the Jews that they are seen to be The Jewish Miracle more significant and numerous than they actually are. This distorted perception even extends to Jews themselves. When I came to Berlin in 2002 out of a desire to spend my time as f we are going to talk about Jewish life Membership in some congregations had a student in a place with an intact, vital, in Germany after the fall of the Wall, we grown threefold. The established Polish- colorful Jewish life, I too was caught up have to get two things straight. Firstly – German-Jewish minority had the task of in the wishful belief in a flourishing Jewish without the immigration of the “Russian The post-Wall integrating a Russian-Jewish majority into community and a city in which being Jewish IJews” from parts of the former Soviet Union its ranks. That was the case in Berlin and attracted as little attention as having red hair. mages; D PA G etty I mages; there would be hardly any Jews in Germany elsewhere. Immigration in the 90s saw the Jewish schoolchildren attending class at On September 14, 2014, Berliners assemble in front of Brandenburg Gate Yet I soon found myself back in the situation I today. Secondly – we are still a long way Jewish congregations in the reunited capital the Or Avner traditional Jewish school on to demonstrate their solidarity with Jews in Germany under the slogan: had fled at home – regardless of whether I was away from actually having the oft-evoked rennaissace become the fastest-growing in the world. At Spandauer Damm in Berlin-Charlottenburg. ”Stand up! Never again anti-Semitism!“. at university, among friends, or in everyday flourishing Jewish life in this country, and the time the Wall fell, the West Berlin con- life, I was always the only Jew. even further from having a normal relation- gregation numbered 6,400. East Berlin had But does all this lead to a normalization of war. Apart from some painting on the walls, Nazi period, and a tangible bias arising from Back then, I could never have imagined ship. The latter cannot exist and probably just under 200 Jews. Today nearly 12,000 relations? Are Jews in Berlin, Munich, and not much of it is left. Sometimes when I am the fear of saying something wrong in front what would happen in my city of Heilbronn. never will. Berliners are members of the city’s Jewish other German cities an integrated part of daily there on a Saturday I watch the pious members of Jews – all that is something we are still Twenty-five years after the fall of the Wall, But let’s start at the beginning. We’ll take of Jewish life community. Within two decades the number life? Is this really a rebirth of Jewish culture? of the Adass Jisroel congregation strolling confronted with today. it is now home to enough Jewish residents a trip back to my childhood and youth in of active members across Germany has grown The answer is no. Jewish life is not part down Kollwitzstrasse with their wives and There can be no doubt that the fall of the – Russian immigrants – to make a tentative Heilbronn on the Neckar, a city off the from less than 30,000 to more than 100,000. of everyday life in Germany. I know of no many children. Some of the men wear the tra- Wall was not only good for Germany, it community life possible. A small synagogue beaten track in the region of Swabia. My In some years, more post-Soviet Jews moved branch of any big supermarket chain in all of ditional black hats, beards and gartels visible was also a tremendous boon for the Jewish has been set up, services are held, and funer- grandparents – Polish Jews – had survived the in Berlin to Germany than to Israel. Berlin which has a shelf of kosher products, at their waistbands. A few years ago this would community here. But in spite of the growth als once more take place at the old Jewish Holocaust and had made their future there, 90 percent of today’s members are recent even though that is the norm in London and have been unthinkable. But here, among the of congregations, there are still only just cemetery. of all places. That was nothing unusual at the immigrants and their offspring. Many of Amsterdam. Friends regularly ask me where baby-carriages of the local eco-bohemians, they 200,000 Jews among Germany’s 81 million time. German survivors were drawn to Israel, Germany currently has Europe’s third largest them came from Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, they can go for a kosher meal in Berlin. They look like tourists passing through. inhabitants – and that is a generous estimate. ■ the United Kingdom, and to the United States, Jewish community – but is everything Lithuania, Kazakhstan or Moldavia – but mean they are looking more for the type of And yet Jewish institutions, community As a result, the vast majority of the popula- while Polish Jews were drawn to Germany. even today, they are all lumped together as basic restaurant in which you can eat food centers and synagogues are still guarded tion has never encountered a Jew and is Leeor Engländer is a staff writer The main thing was to get away from one’s “normal” now? | By Leeor Engländer “Russians.” While the more conservative cooked the way a Yiddish mother would make by police. Most Germans still know almost unlikely to ever do so in their lifetimes. That of the German daily “Die Welt.” persecutors back home, and in Germany you Polish Jews in particular had set down roots it, with the typical Jewish dishes, the chicken nothing of Jewish life or Jewish customs. Ger- was true before reunification and remains so In his fortnightly column could get compensation. My parents stayed residents. Among West Germany’s less than any intact Jewish life. It was life in an exiled in Germany since the 1950s, now it was the soup, gefilte fish and cholent. There are none. mans are still walking on eggshells around the today. So anyone who talks about Jewish life “Schmonzes” he reviews here, and I was born in 1982. 63 million inhabitants there were fewer than community, an exotic minority, probably the liberal congregations which were growing My favorite café, the Meierei, was home to word “Jew.” And there are always affected and normality, with regards to Jews returning the insight and philosophies The nearest intact Jewish congregation 30,000. The members of our community smallest minority in the country. rapidly – the very kind of liberal Jewry for the Davidson kosher cheese shop before the or exasperated looks when talk turns to the to Germany, is only telling half the truth. of his Jewish “Mamme.” with a synagogue, a kindergarten, a school were mostly survivors, Polish Jews who There was no future in sight. That was to which Germany was famous before World and a kosher restaurant was in Stuttgart, 45 had fled. The proportion of German-born change at the end of the 80s. German Jews War II, and which never recovered after it kilometers away from where we lived. We Jews who had survived the Holocaust and had come to terms with the situation just as because there were simply not enough of its are not pious Jews. We made the journey to remained in Germany was vanishingly small. the fall of the Berlin Wall opened the way for members left. The more liberal congregations attend services on important religious holi- The situation then was comparable in Ham- Jews from the former Soviet Union to enter made it easier for the mostly atheist-raised days. For our weekly religious instruction, burg, Munich, Cologne and Berlin. the Promised Land. In this case, it was not immigrants to find a way back into the fold. the Stuttgart community sent a teacher to Germany’s small number of Jews and their Israel but Germany. Jewish congregations Let’s keep it short. Germany has benefited. Heilbronn. There was a grand total of three public representatives were present in West began to grow – at a previously unimaginable You can see that in Berlin. Now, more than of us, plunked in together from different German media and political parties; their rate. The “renaissance of German Jewry” has ever since 1945, the capital is home to a classes and different schools. I was the only voice had weight and was heard. Their sig- been much talked about; and such as it was, wider and more varied Jewish life. New com- Jew at my high school. There was no ques- nificance however was never related to their grew out of politically-desired immigration, munities have been founded, old synagogues tion of Jewish community life in Heilbronn. tiny numbers or even their social relevance; it initiated by Helmut Kohl, spurred by his suc- renovated, new ones built. Today nearly all In the entire state of Baden-Württemberg at was solely due to the historical responsibility cessor, and welcomed by the representatives the major strands of Judaism are represented that time there were only around 700 Jewish of German politics. There was no question of of the Jewish community. in Berlin – from the liberal congregation in Oranienburger Strasse, which has a female rabbi – to the new, strictly orthodox Kahal Adass Jisroel, with more than 250 members, in Prenzlauer Berg. All of them are growing and flourishing. After France and England, Germany now has Europe’s third largest Jewish community. After reunification, Berlin has emerged as one of the world’s most exciting cities – not just for artists, intellectuals and entrepre- neurs, a steady stream of which are arriving in the capital today. Young Israelis are also coming – and ensuring that Hebrew is a feature of life on the streets of districts like Mitte and Kreuzberg. According to the Israeli embassy, 15,000 Israelis are currently living in Berlin. Some estimates put that figure much higher. A new treaty makes it possible for Israeli students to live and work in Germany for a year without having to leap bureaucratic hurdles. As a result, it is now no longer the assimilated migrant “Russian” Jews behind the development of Jewish life in the city – it is primarily Israelis, along with American and British Jews.

The New Synagogue at Oranienburger Strasse in Berlin-Mitte. One of the main religious and cultural centers for the Jewish community. Built in 1866 it was almost destroyed in World War II. The GDR government started rebuilding it

G etty I mages in November 1988. 10 2014 2014 11 How much STasi  is still Around?

Understanding D PA the forces Above. One of the biggest tasks facing the authorties: Torn or shredded Stasi documents in around 15,000 boxes and sacks waiting to be pieced back together and decrypted. Left: Roland Jahn, Germany’s most senior official in charge of processing the archives of East Germany’s state security apparatus.

in your secret police file – complete with the sibility. But it is important to cast light on place in it. There are former Stasi officers and surveillance systems gathering all sorts of of dictatorship furniture as it was arranged in each room, the kinds of duress he or she may have been collaborators who have shown honest regret. information. Can you clarify this? with photos of the stairwell and your let- under, what types of pressure led to a deci- I reach out to them. I am prepared to work I don’t think you can put the NSA and the His job is to shed light on a dark past and drive away the shadows. terbox, and even reports of the route your sion to conform. It is important to me that together with them to face the past. Unfortu- Stasi on equal grounds. To do that is an insult eight-year-old daughter took to school – that we examine much more closely the issue nately, there are very few of those who were to the victims of the Stasi. It must be repeated Roland Jahn is the German government’s chief official responsible does come as a shock and gives you an idea of conformity in a dictatorship – without in positions of responsibility at the time that loudly and clearly – the fundamental differ- of what must have gone on. making accusations, without passing judg- make the effort today and face their actions ence is built into the system under which each for the archives left by the East German secret police, the Stasi. ment on anyone straight away. It is foremost critically. Not many seek to empathize with operate. The Stasi, as a secret police force, We spoke to him about the fates of Stasi victims, repentant and In all the files, with all the fateful and ter- a question of enlightenment, of understand- the feelings of their victims. Everyone though existed to suppress human rights in order to rible stories you have been able to read, what ing the facts, about revenge. This is how I see has to find the path alone. I feel sorry for those secure power for one party. Intelligence ser- unrepentant oppressors, and the individual’s duty toward freedom. M ichaelis R oba P ress/ C hristoph have you learned about human nature? How the way to understand how the dictatorship who don’t manage it because all their lives vices in a democracy exist to protect human do you prevent yourself from despising the worked. they will have to carry the burden of what rights. If, in doing so, they go too far, if they r. Jahn, in 1989 you had been the process of unification that the old elite What did we do right and what did we to exist for forty years? And why did so many human race as a whole? they did back then. infringe upon the basic rules of democracy, exiled from the GDR for six has no more political power than the people do wrong in appraising and redressing the people conform to its demands? These files document what human beings Should the East German Communist Party then it is up to the democracy to come up with years. Where were you the are willing to give it. One particular way in injustices of the GDR? are capable of – repression, contempt for or today’s Left Party have been banned? So your impression is that the majority of solutions to ensure that rules aren’t broken. night the Berlin Wall fell, and which this was achieved was by reviewing Many things were put on track, particular Do you personally feel that you are the victor their fellow man. Yet in these files I have also I’m not a fan of banning things. I stand Stasi perpetrators hide behind a wall of self- But I am convinced that democracy is M files from the Stasi archives to check the what were your feelings? among them, the securing of the Stasi files. It in this history? learned about the human will to freedom; I for political reappraisal. Bans do not change justification? strong enough and has the necessary instru- Roland Jahn: I was in West Berlin at history of government employees. People was the first time world-wide that the files of The word “victor” sounds a bit arrogant. have seen that people don’t let themselves be the way people think. At the heart of the I haven’t talked to enough of them to make ments in place to keep a democratic check on the Sender Freies Berlin broadcaster and I who did clandestine work for the secret a secret police force were secured and made I do feel a certain sense of satisfaction that defeated, that they also managed to resist. matter is that we as a society commit to a any generalizations. But the small number of its secret services and to ensure that they are was co-producing and reporting a TV pro- police were not allowed to continue in gov- available to the society at large. It is an amaz- history turned out the way it did, and that From that point of view, the files have dual common principle: The principle of human former Stasi members who come forward used as intended. In that regard, the current gram for national German public television. ernment service, and that raised confidence ing achievement. Of course there are always the people were able to overcome a dictator- significance. They show us how human rights. Once we agree on that, we can argue and talk is a good indication of how the discussion is certainly also a litmus test for It was very satisfying to be able to provide in the public service. In total the files of 1.7 things you can do better. For instance, it is ship. It is a message to future generations: beings are capable of committing injustice, formidably about the rest. vast majority deals with their share of the any functioning democracy, to see whether commentary on the first pictures of the Wall million people were checked and many of important to examine everyday life under Society can be changed if people overcome but also that human beings are capable of past: Through silence and on occasion self- the US resolves conflicts in the matter of opening. I saw the Wall as something that those people were removed from government the dictatorship more closely and not to their fear and do their bit to change things. fighting this injustice and of defeating it in Have you subsequently met any of the Stasi justification. the NSA. had split up my family because I had been service. Many stayed but the secret was out focus the reappraisal of the East German That is very reassuring. the end. officers who gave you such a hard time? But I would also argue that society is forcibly thrown across it six years earlier. It I have met several Stasi people who had not very open to listening to someone who In light of the mass atrocities being car- was a relief when it came down. That night When did you read your own Stasi file? Were Can a whole population be divided up into interfered directly with my life. That wasn’t wants to go down a path of critical self- ried out for instance by the Islamic State in I went against the tide – which was flowing GDR secret service files you surprised, shocked even? heroes, villains, traitors and conformists? Or too easy. The important thing to me is that examination. We need a climate of openness Iraq and Syria, the GDR is beginning to be East to West – and went from West to East. I read my file very early on, even before are all of those things in each of us? they take a critical look at what they did in the and respect for that. cloaked in a cozy nostalgia. What can we The enormous crowds flowing West ensured underline the fragility the archives were opened to the public, Examination of the files shows us that service of a dictatorship. Once they do that, do about that? that I could cross the border without being because I had been a journalist covering we can’t easily pigeon-hole people in broad I find it also very important that they have a At the moment in Germany, the Stasi is Tell the unvarnished truth. Educating checked. Then I went home to Jena, the of human nature – the dissolution of the East German secret strokes – they challenge us to look closer. chance to arrive in this society and find their being compared to the NSA with its digital people about what made East German society place I had been forcibly removed from six police. We conducted a first inspection of What pressures were applied forcing people what it was. Educating about what a com- years earlier. and of freedom itself. the archives with the citizens’ committee in to conform and give in and why did they par- munist dictatorship really means. Education Roland Jahn was born on July 14, 1990 and looked at files. Because I had been ticipate? Not every unofficial collaborator to about dictatorship heightens our sensitivity And 25 years later – how much Stasi, how and talked about. In that regard, there has dictatorship on the Stasi alone. In looking the subject of Stasi activity I agreed that we the Stasi is alike. One did it out of conviction, 1953 in Jena (Thuringia). The journal- of today, our understanding of when free- much GDR, do we still have in Berlin, in been a valuable reappraisal. There are no at the complete picture of the GDR there is should look at my records first. It was dis- another for financial reasons, yet another was ist has been head of the Stasi records dom is in jeopardy here and now. Freedom Germany? exact analyses of the extent to which people also the question of individual responsibility. tressing. Of course I knew about the fact that forced into it and saw no way out except to authority in Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse and self-determination are not to be taken Not too much is left of the GDR, build- who worked for the Stasi – particularly those Many have through their personal behavior the Stasi followed my life. But reading it in cooperate with the Stasi. For instance, he may in the Berlin district of Mitte since for granted, that is the lesson from looking ings and citiscapes, but nothing is left of who were fully employed by the secret police and the various ways he or she conformed black and white really hit home. The intru- have pledged to inform as a way to get out 2011. As an opponent of the ruling into the past. We are able to better recognize the Communist Party’s dictatorship. But of – remain in contact with one another and to the system also supported the stability of sion into your family life – that is something of jail. So it is our job to use the files to do SED and civil rights campaigner, dangers to freedom when we understand how course many people who lived under it are have support systems. In any case, as long it. This type of reappraisal is only just begin- that crawls under your skin. You see that in justice to the people, not to categorize them he was active within the opposition dictatorships work. still around. And therein lies an important as their activities remain legal, that would ning. Until now, analyzing the system was their thinking they spared no one – not your into stereotypes. movement and in 1983 he co-founded

task – to treat the people who spent much be a legitimate outcome. That is the nature often limited to stereotypes or followed the parents, not your children – they would use a dissident peace group in Jena. Ro- Ullsteinbild Now the big questionhat is freedom? of their lives in the GDR with respect and to of the rule of law in a democracy – it means broad characterization of “victim, perpetra- anything available to try to break us. The What is the difference between a conformist land Jahn’s East German citizenship A young Roland Jahn reading the Freedom is something you have to actively work together with them in a unified Ger- that those who were once representatives of a tor, conformist.” We now face the challenge Stasi targeted me even after I was thrown and a free man? was revoked that same year and he communist daily paper “Neues take, it’s not a gift given to you by someone. many to shape our united society today. The dictatorial system can make use of the rule of of examining the system as a whole, while out of the GDR into the West. When you see A conformist is free to choose to conform. went to live in the West. Deutschland”. But your freedom ends at the point where the Federal Republic of Germany ensured during law today even if they repressed it previously. asking: How was it possible for this system a sketch of the apartment where you lived That is also a question of individual respon- freedom of the other begins. n 12 2014 2014 13

 other tables. The back of the head of the man exciting, breaking down boundaries of tradi-  her habit. The film features a wall-to-wall characterized by stark images, storylines behind Bernd seemed familiar. It was no other tional narrative structure, freely mixing real David Bowie soundtrack and a performance about the lives of ordinary people and a slow, than the German Secretary of the Interior. life action with animation, and most of all by Bowie which Quentin Tarantino has yet strong narrative drive. Director Christian This was simply too bizarre to comprehend. irresistibly romantic. Audiences around the called the best concert scene in movie history. Petzold is considered the Berlin School’s most The man in charge of fighting terrorism in world fell in love with it. “Christiane F.” became a Europe wide hit prominent member. His films include “The Germany was sitting only an arm’s length Tykwer’s production company X-Filme and was the first time that a German post- State I Am In,” “Yella” and more recently away from Moritz Bleibtreu, the man per- also produced “Goodbye, Lenin!”, still one war film had reached a wider, international “Barbara,” which was celebrated on the the mishmash of sonifying Germany’s former number 1 enemy of the most poignant films about the absur- audience. “Christiane F.” encapsulated the international film festival circuit. of the state and the founder of what would dities of the Wall. “Goodbye, Lenin!” made zeitgeist of 1980s Berlin like no other film: Back at Borchardt, the night ended around pave the ground for modern day terrorism. a very important contribution to German dark, dangerous and highly addictive. midnight, which was early for Borchardt History, past and present, was melting into reunification in that it got both sides – East “Christiane F.” showed audiences the standards. Uli had to be back on the film set in movies, songs one in a Berlin restaurant. and West – laughing about the intense, often Hades of Berlin, the hell of Cold War depres- in the morning and Moritz’ hunger strike traumatic and sometimes farcical changes sion. In contrast, Wim Wenders’ “Wings of diet was not conducive to excessive party- oritz had been part of movie they had both been through. Desire” from 1987 gave viewers a piece of ing. However, some days later Bernd and history when he played the This wasn’t Bernd and Uli’s first Berlin heaven called West Berlin. With “Wings of I were once again sitting at our table in the and headlines male lead in Tom Tykwer’s movie together. In 1980 they had made Desire,” Wenders – who like Bernd and Uli early hours of the morning. Suddenly Tom berlin “Run Lola Run.” It’s the “Christiane F.” – a film about the true story had gone to film school in Munich – declared Cruise walks in and sits down with his crew. movieM that captures perfectly the spirit of of a teenage girl who becomes addicted to his love for the divided city, which was float- The strange thing about him is that even in 90s, post-wall Berlin: Hugely dynamic and heroin and turns to prostitution to finance ing like a lonely satellite above Cold War real life he appears so radiant and perfect, Europe. it’s like he’s got a key light illuminating him Left: Christiane F. (“Christiane F.” – “Christiane F.” and “Wings of Desire” – We Children From Bahnhof Zoo”, 1981), at all times. Cruise spots Bernd, comes over the true story of drug addicts and they are polar opposites and yet two sides of and asks to sit with us. He’s telling Bernd prostitutes in downtown Berlin, directed the same coin: Stories about people trying how much he admired “Downfall” and he’s by Bernd Eichinger. to come to terms with a harsh reality and clearly enjoying his time in Berlin. And after When the Baader Meinhof a city that makes no sense. Since the fall of a while he looks Bernd in the eye, like only Below: On the set of the movie the Wall, German filmmakers have been Tom Cruise can, and asks: “Wanna make a “The Baader Meinhof Complex”: Actor Jan Josef Liefers and Producer Bernd Eichinger. inspired by Berlin and its history of extremes. movie together?” Apart from “Run Lola Run” and “Goodbye, Gang met the “Valkyrie” cast Lenin!,” there’s the Oscar-winning “The ■ Lives of Others” or “Herr Lehmann,” “Sun Alley,” “Summer in Berlin,” “A Woman in Katja Eichinger is the widow of Berlin” and “Atomized” to mention just a Bernd Eichinger, whom she married at Borchardt few. More recently, “A Coffee in Berlin,” a in 2006. The producer and director, charming portrait of Berlin slacker life, made who died in 2011, was regarded it into US cinemas. as one of the most productive and Bernd Eichinger made films that had a great impact on the image influential filmmakers in Germany. Since the Wall came down, Berlin has even In 2012 K. Eichinger published we have of Berlin politics and history | By Katja Eichinger developed its own cinema movement called “BE” a biography of her

d , U llsteinbil D PA the Berlin School. An art house movement late husband. n the summer of 2007, during the filming of “The Baader Meinhof Complex,” my husband Bernd and I were at our usual table at Borchardt restaurant. We were Ijoined by the film’s director and Bernd’s best friend Uli Edel, and the male lead Moritz Bleibtreu aka Andreas Baader, founder of the terrorist group Red Army Faction. It was a night like any other: intense discussions and lots of Chateauneuf Du Pape. We didn’t know that we were about to experience an extraordinary collision of movie magic, his- tory and modern politics. A collision as it can “Run Lola Run” (“Lola rennt”, 1998) with main protagonist Franka Potente. Playing only happen in Berlin. second lead: Berlin! “The Baader Meinhof Complex,” the story of the Red Army Faction and the birth of modern terrorism, was Bernd’s second film about Germany’s violent history. His first had been “Downfall”, set in 1945, about the last days of Adolf Hitler in his bunker and the collapse of the Third Reich. (3) D PA “The Baader Meinhof Complex” was “The Baader Meinhof Complex” (2008) with Moritz Bleibtreu and Johanna Wokalek mostly shot in Berlin. On the first day we as terrorist couple Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin. had created traffic gridlock in West Berlin by shooting a mass demonstration on one of the city’s main roads. The Berliners didn’t mind. Many came to watch as the crew recreated ”And then she lifts the machine history down to the last minute detail. “Valkyrie” (2004) with Tom Cruise and gun out of the pram and goes Boom, Carice van Houten as would-be Hitler AMTRON®. Borchardt restaurant had become our quasi- assassin Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg living room. We were away from home, stay- Boom, Boom and shoots into the car“ and his wife Nina Einen Schritt ing at the Adlon Hotel and most nights we voraus um Ihr would eat and sit around Borchardt, which is the heroes of the German resistance and the the left-wing terrorist. After all, the Baader “And then she lifts the machine gun out of located halfway between Brandenburg Gate driving force behind a plot to assassinate Meinhof Group had been the children of the pram and goes boom, boom, boom and Elektrofahrzeug „Komfort neu entdecken mit der and Checkpoint Charlie. The restaurant had Adolf Hitler. the Auschwitz generation. Historian Jillian shoots into the car,” Uli exclaimed, giving aufzuladen. been one of the first new eateries to open in That night Cruise wasn’t at Borchardt, but Becker called them “Hitler’s Children.” They us an animated demonstration by holding MENNEKES Charge APP.“ East Berlin after the fall of the Wall and had many other “Valkyrie” cast members were. had wanted to be so very different from their an imaginary AK47 and shooting at the wine quickly become the place to be for both the All of them sporting Wehrmacht haircuts. parents’ generation and yet they’d lost them- bottle in front of him. newly emerging creative and political scenes I could see them as I looked over Mori- selves in the cause. That night the two faces Heads turned at the table behind us. I alike. tz’s shoulder. Moritz was wearing his own of two very different and yet related tragedies noticed a man in a black suit, who’d been Our “Baader Meinhof” gang weren’t the clothes but other than that he was in full of the 20th century were right in front of me. hovering near the stairs, coming closer to only ones who’d hang out at Borchardt. The terrorist mode: his hair was long and died Drinking wine, enjoying life and taking time the table, keeping a close eye on Uli. Only place had also become a favorite haunt of yellow-blonde, he’d grown 70s sideburns and out from history. then did I see his earpiece and the wire going www.MENNEKES.de www.MeineLadestation.de the “Valkyrie” cast, most prominently Tom he wasn’t eating because in the next couple Uli was leading the conversation. He was down his neck. A bodyguard. I looked over Cruise. Like “Baader Meinhof,” “Valkyrie” of weeks he would have to shoot scenes of explaining to Bernd how he was going to to the entrance and saw another man in black was also a film about German history and Andreas Baader on hunger strike. It was so stage the kidnapping of the industrialist Hans exactly like him. With all this movie talk I was currently being shot in Berlin. Cruise poignant and yet so surreal to have these two Martin Schleyer, one of the key moments in hadn’t realized that a political heavyweight was playing Claus von Stauffenberg, one of looks so close to each other: the Nazi and the history of left-wing terrorism in Germany. must have entered the room. I checked out the

AMTRON_Titel_250bx180h_mm_260914.indd 1 26.09.2014 09:46:31 14 2014 2014 15

 evertheless all these great people  don’t really characterize the the mishmash of berlin sound of Berlin. In any case not the sound that you hear when youN walk through the streets. Besides all the guitar strumming folkies, the dominant flavor is that of the innumerable Turkish and Arab musicians, rappers and DJs that can be heard in the many shisha cafés, bars, clubs and rear courtyards, in trains and on street corners. From Bowie to Berghain, What Bowie and Berghain characterize is the idea of a sound, the ideal sound of a sophisticated, glamorous, libertarian Berlin. And of course, everyone likes to hear that. the sounds of Berlin Even if the truly extant Berlin street sound is just as unglamorous as Schöneberg’s main By Sebastian Zabel, Editor-in-Chief of “Rolling Stone,” German edition drag. ■

chöneberg’s main street is not an sound, in an equally seminal Berlin movie a sum it up exactly? Is it not, in all honesty, a promises – alongside cheap rents and the attractive street. It’s not even strik- good dozen years later. What does remain great cacophony? pleasant, shoulder-shrugging basic mental- Right: Adoptive Berliners Iggy Pop and ingly ugly. It just has four traffic lanes is what Bowie described as liberating: A city ity of its residents – that continue to attract David Bowie with Bowie’s assistant Coco and facades straight out of a movie that, in its degenerate nonchalance, permits es it is. Because barely have you artists from all over the world to Berlin. Schwab in 1977 at an East Berlin café. Sset in the post-war era. Yet David Bowie a great deal. It sounded like the anticipated left Berghain with its technoid The Californian Julia Holter, a captivating spent the best months of his life here. “In punk rock movement in the early 1970s elves and thundering bass lines, electronic songwriter; Gonzales, a gifted Below: Berghain – Berlin’s world famous Berlin,” he later reported, “I started enjoy- when the anarchist band Ton Steine Scher- its cavernous halls and craggy Canadian entertainer and piano virtuoso; nightspot, where (almost) anything goes! ing life again for the first time in years. It’s ben issued a call to revolution. It sounded Ycorners, before you most certainly hear an the Detroit techno DJ Richie Hawtin, the so easy to lose yourself in this city, but also like the revolution itself in the early 1980s acoustic trio performing on some tiny stage Scotsman Fran Healy, lead singer with the easy to find yourself. It’s cheap there. And for when Blixa Bargeld and his Einstürzenden somewhere. Because folk is the perpetual band Travis, who’s been living in Prenzlauer some reason the Berliners aren’t interested in Neubauten performed an infernal noise. backdrop of this city, a place where yet more Berg for many years and who recorded a you – at least not in a British rock singer.” And in the early 1990s, it sounded like a guys with beards and guitars slung over their benefit CD for his son’s – of course! – bilin- 38 years have passed since the great huge, generally-oblivious boooom when DJs shoulders are blown in on a daily basis. Like gual school. With a – of course! – bilingual rock star David Bowie lived in this drab cranked up the volume in the techno clubs the Mighty Oaks, for example. Three men band drummed up especially for the purpose, street and recorded the legendary album of the reunified city. Berlin seldom sounded who could not have been more perfectly con- including Steve Malkmus from the American “Heroes” in Kreuzberg’s Hansa studios. harmonious. ceived for the new Berlin: One American, one indie rock band Pavement on bass and Her- And the legend lives on to this day. Berlin, bert Grönemeyer on piano. Berlin, enthuses this is the sound of the walled city, kisses Healy, is the most liberal city in the world, a and gunshots and heroes for one night. “the ideal sound of a sophisticated, place where things are possible that wouldn’t B erlin d B owie , Davi D PA The sound of the city is the timbre of the be elsewhere. thin, formerly drug-addicted singer from glamorous, libertarian Berlin” The Berliner likes hearing this. And he London. Even more so since one of the proudly points out that world famous bands most beautiful exhibition spaces in this city such as U2, Depeche Mode and R.E.M. have devoted a large-scale retrospective to the It’s no different today either, when wise Brit and one Italian guy sporting long hair all recorded albums here. Michael Stipe, the man and his work. guys roll their eyes theatrically at any men- and beards, guitars and mandolins, friendly former frontman of the latter US rock band, tion of Berghain. You know: the most and good-hearted, meet in the German capi- even stayed. He resides in Mitte, strolls ut of course, the sound of “Heroes” famous club in the world. Massive, with a tal and put a few songs out into the ether through exhibitions, takes Cameron Diaz has disappeared, just like the Bahn- bouncer covered in tattoos, oversized images via the exceedingly successful Berlin startup out and is a regular in smoke-filled bars. Neil hof Zoo junkies. What remains of penises and open for 38 hours at a stretch. Soundcloud, eventually ending up in the Tennant and Chris Lowe, otherwise known Trusted is the image of the young Nadja But now that it’s in every travel guide, it is of German top 10 and being featured on an arts as the Pet Shop Boys, live seven kilometers Crossrail contractors rely on BrunckhorstB as Christiane F., running course passé again; even though it’s still the and culture program on public television. away as the crow flies on the Ku’damm [a Herrenknecht technology: through the rachitic Berlin night to one place where the city’s most interesting music The rather unspectacular sound of a strum- West Berlin boulevard]. This allows the city 6 EPB Shields + 2 Mixshields. of the greatest ever Berlin songs; just like has been played for over 10 years now. But ming majority; wholesome and far removed to feel just a little bit like London or New Franka Potente as Lola, albeit to a different is this also Berlin’s sound? Is it possible to from all hedonistic promises. But it is the York, and typically, without even trying. Rapid A key role in Crossrail, London’s new high capacity east-west link and Europe’s largest construction project. Impressive progress of up to 72 m a day. On completion 42 km of bored tunnels. Top Choice

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14-054-143_ID085_eAz_Crossrail_BerlinKompakt_250x180_RZ-2rh.indd 1 KW 40 29.09.14 16:22 16 2014 2014 17 99 Red Balloons Berlin Times Berlin Times Have you some time for me, then I’ll sing a song for you about 99 balloons on their way to the horizon. If you’re perhaps thinking about me right now then I’ll sing a song for you about 99 balloons and that such a thing comes from such a thing.

Jim Rakete/photoselection, dpa 99 balloons Out of Nothing: on their way to the horizon The glittering heart of Berlin People think they’re UFO’s from space so a general sent up Nena (left) in No Man’s German reunification, a fighter squadron after them Land in 1987. Her former Potsdamer Platz has been manager, Jim Rakete, who the site of major develop- Sound the alarm if it’s so later became a famous ment projects. It’s now a but there on the horizon were photographer snapped busy district in the middle only 99 balloons. her in Potsdamer Platz, the of Berlin housing the head- empty zone between West quarters of Sony, plus big 99 fighter jets and East Berlin, laid waste shopping malls, luxury ho- Each one’s a great warrior during WWII and left tels, restaurants and clubs. Thought they were Captain Kirk desolate during the Cold Lit up in the foreground War era when the Wall is the Philharmonie (see then came a lot of fireworks bisected its location. Since page 27). the neighbors didn’t understand anything and felt like they were being provoked so they shot at the horizon at 99 balloons.

99 war ministers matches and gasoline canisters They thought they were clever people My already smelled a nice bounty Called for war and wanted power. Man, who would’ve thought that things would someday go so far because of 99 balloons.

99 years of war left no room for victors. name There are no more war ministers nor any jet fighters. Today I’m making my rounds see the world lying in ruins. I found a balloon, is think of you and let it fly (away). nena

Gabriele Susanne Kerner (born March 24, “Through all the years, Berlin was 1960), better known by her stage name Nena, rose to international fame in 1983 99 dreams I have had always there for me, my anchor“ with the New German Wave song “99 Red Luftballons.” In 1984, she re-recorded the had the scent of the big wide world in the borders, always following the pull of my holiday, I covered for her for three weeks. I “Gib mir die Hand, ich bau dir ein Schloss that image. That was the moment when titled: “Wunder Gescheh’n.” (Miracle Hap- song in English as “99 Red Balloons.” Nena my nostrils and an irresistible yearning heart, a few hours later, I ended up in the looked after his studio, a converted factory aus Sand, Irgendwie, Irgendwo, Irgendwann” my friend and guitarist Carlo Karges wrote pened.) I went straight to Berlin to see this is mother to five children, grandmother for an adventurous, self-determined life. walled city. loft in Kreuzberg. I fielded phone calls, sorted (Give me your hand, I’ll build you a castle out the first lines of the song “99 Luftballons” miracle with my own eyes. to three – pictured with her youngest It was 1978 and I was 18. I’d left my West Berlin received me with open arms. out the post and met pretty much all the West of sand, somehow, somewhere, sometime). (later English version: “99 Red Balloons”). “Wunder gescheh’n. Ich hab’s geseh’n.” grandson,Victor. Ifirst band The Stripes - I’d already released It’s true that people were rather arrogant, but Berlin bands coming in and out of the studio It’s strange how you felt so bound up with He completed the lyrics the same day and (Miracle happened, I’ve seen it.) an album with them and gained plenty of at the same time really open and curious. The every day. It was a brilliant acclimatization for everything, although you were actually cut from that moment we were propelled into a And now? experience performing live – and I took the energy that flowed through the streets, clubs me. I was right in the middle of things, albeit off from the outside world. different dimension. Suddenly we were rock Now the sky’s still there, it still goes on for- decision to leave my West German suburban and minds went something like this: Hey great still in camouflage with the telephone receiver stars and flew all over the world with our ever. And on Potsdamer Platz, the sandcastles The home behind. that you’re joining us…Cool, let’s see what in my hand and wearing a sweater I’d knitted ot long after Mick Jagger “99 Red Balloons.” have been replaced with concrete blocks. I original And so, one day, I really did climb into my you’ve got! myself. And there was music everywhere. I released thousands of balloons live in Hamburg but I love visiting Berlin, cover of the old beige-colored Simca with my guitar, my bathed in neon light, drifted through the at the end of a Stones concert in Through all the years Berlin was always which will always be close to my heart. And “99 Red Stones, Blondie and Ramones LPs and a few Through Spliff, the former Nina Hagen never-ending sky, and in the shadow of the Berlin. They were all picked up there for me, my anchor, my rock in turbu- whenever I’m there, it receives me with open Balloons,” favorite bits of clothing on the back seat, band, I met the photographer Jim Rakete. Wall and the Hansa Studios built castles in byN the wind and carried in the direction of lence and my home. And then when the Wall arms and says: Hey it’s great that you’re back! US-

and hit the road. Along the motorway, over Because his assistant happened to be on the sand on Potsdamer Platz. East Berlin, over the Wall. I’ll never forget fell, I was in Zurich and I recorded the song Cool, bring it on! n Privat; DPA version. 18 2014 2014 19 the mishmash of berlin How to find headlines in a city Puhdys forever that has seen it all East Germany’s best-known rock band will go As Editor-in-Chief of BZ, Berlin’s biggest and oldest newspaper, on its final tour next year – reminding loyal fans Peter Huth understands what makes news in his city. Here he

of the lost country they grew up in D PA explores the pulse of the city that gives him his headlines East German Band the Puhdys in existence for 52 years – longer than the GDR

By Thomas Winkler was as a country d U llsteinbil By Peter Huth Three BZ readers probably from East Berlin with the newspaper’s edition from November 10, 1989. dmittedly, the Rolling Stones not decide which bands went into the record- mean more to former East Germans than any Peter.” Meyer claimed he had not known are even older – as a band, they ing studio – the censor had the final say. Not western band does to West Germans,” says about it, saying it was because he joined the have been around for 52 years. every musician who would have liked to Birr. “People like to remember us.” Committee for Entertainment Art in 1973 But the Puhdys are right behind make a record was allowed to. East Germans only forgot the Puhdys for and had regular contact with the highest inding headlines in Berlin is like sell- which I had a close shave with a beast of wild What about the opposition? Ha! We have And the readers? They write in and say, “It’s Athem. The East German band is only seven Yet the Puhdys recorded 17 albums as ing beds in a city that never sleeps. boar. I live in Wannsee, just 20 kilometers a short time – straight after the fall of the functionaries. No evidence has come to light a grand coalition and every time I ask the terrible, but somehow he was a pretty cool years younger – and is now celebrating well as songs for the soundtrack of “The Wall, all 17 million of them immediately since which suggests that Meyer knowingly It’s a tough job, but someone has to from the Kudamm. In the wild west. This is Chairman of the Christian Democrats (CDU) guy, our Wowi.” And, “Yes, they’re brazen 45 years of performing. “Looking back, it Legend of Paul and Paula,” (1973), an East lost interest in their own bands. “We never spied for the Stasi – as musicians in other do it. And that someone is me. truly a tiny, giant city. in Berlin, Frank Henkel, if he is pushing for those refugees, but what are you going to do?” beggars belief,” says the Puhdys’ front man German cinema classic. Two songs, “Wenn FSince 2008 I have been Editor-in-Chief at Wild boar! National Socialists! Money! got the feeling people thought we were bad,” East German bands are known to have done. new elections, he says it wouldn’t be a good Anyone who equates that with not caring, Dieter Birr. Birr, 70, was nicknamed “the ein Mensch lebt” (When a man lives) and says Birr, “But they spent their new, hard That episode fits well with a band which BZ, Berlin’s biggest and oldest newspaper. Hotbed of sin! idea and that it would be better to wait, to or with a lack of interest, has not understood Machine.” “Amazing that people still want “Geh zu ihr” (Go to her) were major hits currency on new bands.” After a few years, many East Germans identify with – par- The history of the paper is a novel of my And they say it’s hard to come up with play it safe. Berliners, they have not studied the history to hear our music,” he says. and made Dieter Birr’s deep whiskey voice many of their fans came back to them, and ticularly because, in the new order follow- country, written in printing ink and pain. It headlines here? Henkel is also Interior Minister and top of our city. Now the best-known band from the faded famous even outside of East Germany. From have been filling the big concert venues in ing reunification, they too were confronted is the story of the rise and fall of Ullstein, a They’re right. It is. sheriff for the city-state of Berlin. He used Because Berlin has made headlines that communist state in eastern Germany is back 1976 the Puhdys were permitted to perform eastern Germany ever since. The Puhdys also with prejudices. Back then, allegations of prominent Jewish publishing family that lost Berlin has a very thick skin. The airport to be a tough guy, but now he’s gone soft. have changed the world. For better and for on tour. In the run-up to a big birthday bash in West Germany, where they gained a small play regularly at western venues – but “the collaboration with the Stasi set off a clamor everything to German barbarians. – yes, you’ve heard of that one! The great For almost a year African refugees occupied worse. at a large arena in Berlin at the end of Octo- but loyal following. audiences are not so big there,” Birr admits. of public condemnation. The fuss surround- But this is not about BZ, this is about a city German failure. Perhaps it made you smirk a site in central Berlin with a vigor that made Hitler’s rise, fall, death – that was in Berlin ber, the Puhdys are touring with other elderly In their homeland, the Puhdys sold 14 mil- Yet they are still big enough to mark the ing Peter Meyer’s Stasi file contributed to a whose fate the paper has followed, described a little. I wouldn’t blame you! It’s pretty Occupy Wall Street look like a scout camp. The collapse of civilization – planned in rock legends from the era of “real existing lion records – an amazing number consider- Puhdys as a “German band” overall and more nuanced treatment of each case on its and shared since 1877. embarrassing stuff for engineering nerds like The demonstrators ultimately moved into Berlin socialism” – City (founded in 1972) and ing the small size of the market. They were indeed to call them part of the history of own merits. What do you know about Berlin? What do we Germans. an old school and threatened to throw Molo- Division of the world – the Wall ran Karat (1975). East Germany may not have so successful that they didn’t make a farewell the two Germanys. The Puhdies were the The Puhdys’ success today is primarily you hear of the city that is currently celebrat- So how did it happen? Easy, the Berlin tov cocktails at police from the roof. By that through Berlin attained its greatly-desired world status very tour until 1989. “We had done it all,” says band which went onto the empty stage when due to a phenomenon known in Germany ing the 25th anniversary of its unification? administration thought it could pull a fast, point most of the refugees had moved on, The victory of freedom – won in Berlin often outside of the Olympic Games. But Birr. Shortly after they finished the tour, the the West German band BAP cancelled their as “ostalgia” – a combination of “nostalgia” Almost certainly that Berlin is Europe’s cheap one. Stupid thought? Absolutely, but leaving a collection of thieves and dealers New Europe – the capital is called Berlin. 25 years after the end of the East German Berlin Wall fell and East Germany too had concert in 1984 following outrageous restric- and the German word for “east” – fond place to be. It is a creative oasis, a magnet for for Klaus Wowereit it was worth a try. behind. And now since the fall of the Wall 25 regime, it has left a legacy long-playing rock to say goodbye. Germany was reunified in tions imposed by East German censors. The remembrance of the lost nation in which anyone starting out (artists, musicians, pro- Apropos: our mayor ousted himself. Not The district of Kreuzberg was broke for years ago, a kind of normality has taken bands. 1990, and the Puhdys re-formed in 1992. Puhdys came to terms with the system but East Germans grew up. Birr sees this feeling grammers) and people who come to invest. overnight, but slowly, over three months three days because the police operation was root in our relaxed city. Sure our politicians This endurance is partly down to historical Today, the band has been in existence longer they never sold their souls to it – that was above all as a longing for one’s lost youth. Berlin is also the city which granted dream during which Wowi strutted from party to so expensive. Every ballpoint pen had to be and their politics are provincial. They make factors. East German bands and especially than East Germany ever was. “The ironies the view of Birr and the other band members, “People like to look back to the days when factory projects their share of German money. party. Royal lame duck. authorised, toilet paper in public toilets was mistakes and then they even laugh about the Puhdys were successful in their homeland of history,” laughs Birr. and they still stand by it. they were young and sexy – it’s the same Welcome Stauffenberg and Street Racer, Bryan And who will succeed him? The decision banned. But then the city Senate transferred them, which is not very German. But it is because the regime’s culture officials reduced East Germany’s artificial shortage of rock The Puhdys also had a role to play in the everywhere, in West Germany or in England. Singer and Tom Cruise. Hello Brangelina! won’t fall to the city’s 3.5 million inhabit- a couple of hundred thousand euros and perfect for a German capital that endured access to the international competition to a music ensured that there wasn’t much to reappraisal of East Germany’s police state. In And we can help with that.” The Puhdys are And it’s home to Berghain, the notorious ants, but to the 17,000 members of the Berlin normal life resumed. two dictatorships. minimum. Western bands were very rarely choose from. That meant that Puhdys fans 1993 keyboard player Peter Meyer was con- planning their final farewell tour next year. club in which everyone can ... with anyone, Social Democrats (SPD). Crazy democracy. We write headlines and headlines about Berlin has finally become normal. Pretty allowed to play in East Germany and their who grew up in the East were particularly fronted by a television crew with the file kept In 2015, says Dieter “Machine” Birr, it really nonstop Friday to Monday! And for the SPD, a good opportunity for an headlines. Hot topics, important issues. normal. Relatively speaking, totally normal. records were virtually unavailable. The pow- devoted to their music idols. It’s a connec- on him by the East German secret police, is goodbye. “You should always end on a My Berlin is a very different Berlin. I’m advertising campaign (“You want to elect Our columnist Gunnar Schupelius wags a Bad for headlines. Good for our country. erful state record company Amiga alone did tion which has held to the present day. “We the Stasi. They had listed him as “informer high note.” n just back from an early morning jog during the mayor? Become a member!”) moral finger. ■

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K 20 2014 2014 21 Berlin, my love 

The Fischerinsel, Berlin’s birthplace some 800 years ago Before Berghain, Paris Bar was the city’s prominent hang-out Mauerpark on a Sunday, as Berlin as it gets , F 1 O nline (4), D PA G etty I mages

Murals on facades instead of renovation or new buildings West Berlin: Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and sculpture High-rises thrust into Berlin’s sky and its future

the old, false life; and that we started to love the seat of government, it just meant that fine sunny day. Oom-pah-pah music sounded Berlin was the seat of kings, an imperial freedom by taking it for ourselves – that was another attribute was added without Berlin from inside, where they were supposedly capital, the center of the Third Reich, the the real beauty of those weeks. changing in any basic way. Berlin is part of celebrating the Oktoberfest. When I looked “showcase of the West,” “capital of the first

agentur RM agentur And if the fall of the Wall taught me one the Prussian tradition; when Frederick the inside, I saw ridiculously few people sitting socialist state on German territory” – and thing it is this – even a tightly nailed-down Great invited Hugenots to come and live at the tables. Festivals like that cannot simply each time, it was a serious architectural order, created to last forever, can collapse here, he announced that every man should be implanted into Berlin. Only Halloween business. Unfortunately it is also typical of in on itself. Good can win at any time. Even be happy after his own fashion. To this seems to have made it. Berlin that it always tries to neutralize the if that victory takes a long time – it can day, all new arrivals to the city have taken But Berlin is very open to those with bricks-and-mortar abominations of previous happen suddenly. Dreams are worth it. I love this to heart. They came, bring their own little money. That is the secret of its attrac- epochs with new abominations. Berlin for two characteristics which came thing, and became a part of Berlin without tion for young artists and creatives. Rents But which is the more important date?

F 1online B il d K lee/ableimages/ Jutta out in the division of the city and following completely changing it. There are so many have remained moderate over decades, and November 9 or September 11? I think the fall of the Wall. Firstly, Berlin does not differences packed into a small space – compared with Paris, London, Milan and that September 11 changed our view of like militancy. And second, Berlin is a city people in this city have to get along with one Munich they are unbeatably cheap. That is the world; while the events of November in which you can live a halfway decent life another. It’s interesting that hardy any of the how the city deals with low-income levels 9, 1989, brought real change to the lives without much money. new celebrations has become established in of society. of millions. Berlin. The East German rite of passage, the Is the division of the city still tangible and alling Berlin a “metropolis” is Jugendweihe, which was obligatory in East visible? Of course! But is that so bad? Berlin n not completely wrong. It is Ger- Germany, has become a thing celebrated is a relatively young city; its big growth many’s biggest city and is home only by a small minority. And even during period only really began 150 years ago. A Bestselling novelist Thomas Brussig, Members of the Prussian royal family are entombed in the Berlin Cathedral’s crypt; across the street, their former palace is being rebuilt. to many different ethnic groups, Carnival, something government officials progression of rulers put their stamp on born in 1964 in East Berlin, Csubcultures and scenes. Yet there is no pre- brought from Bonn, those Rhinelanders Berlin (and are still doing so) – and that is known for his satirical view dominant scene in the city – no one is on top. remain pretty much amongst themselves. I has made the city unique. Rome may be on life and people in the GDR Good can win at any time Even when Berlin became the capital and recently passed a Löwenbräu beer tent on a the most beautiful city in the world. But (“At the Shorter End of Sonnenallee”). Even if that victory takes a long time – it can happen suddenly | By Thomas Brussig

ecently I was asked which is the of manuscripts ended up – most of them on intentionally misunderstand and cheekily are countless television images. If there was more important date – November worn paper. Everything which had been ask the border guards: “How will you tell anything good about the Wall falling, it was 9, 1989 or September 11, 2001. gathering dust in desk drawers across East the difference between those who are leaving that it gave us pictures like that. On November 9, 1989, I was a Germany was now being sent to publishers, for good and those who just want a quick Never has there been an event which was Ryoung man who wanted to become a writer. who were sinking under a flood of manu- look at the West?” so surprising and so eruptive – and released I had finished my first novel months before, scripts. I added mine to the stack, although On my way home late that night I could such feelings of excessive exhilaration – as but given the censorship in the East I saw I had no hope that my work would stand out sense a strange atmosphere. The television the fall of the Berlin Wall. There may have little chance of ever getting it published. amongst those mountains of paper. was on in many apartments and through been victory celebrations after wars, with Then on the afternoon of November 9 – a tickertape parades and dancing in the streets, few hours before what was to go down in but you know when the end of a war is history as the fall of the Berlin Wall – I took Is the division of the city coming. The beauty of the fall of the Wall my manuscript to a publisher. was that it came as such a surprise. That it The previous few weeks had been the most still tangible and visible? wasn’t decided at a negotiating table but was NEUE SHOW eventful time I’d ever experienced in East Ger- brought about by the street. And because „All you can sing!“ many – one party chairman had been ousted, Of course! But is that so bad? there were no words to express it, we finally newspapers were starting to print something just agreed to shout: “Amazing!” NEUES MENÜ like the truth, the television was reporting That evening I was at a friend’s place and open windows I could hear the excited It’s only in hindsight that that Novem- von Berlins beliebtem TV- und Sternekoch things that happened in real life, members we watched Schabowski’s press confer- voices of reporters. I realized that they ber 9 took on its towering, extraordinary Kolja Kleeberg of the politburo were resigning one after ence on TV, hearing him announce what could only be talking about the border being significance. At the time, in the hurly-burly another, there were weekly Monday demon- we understood to be “freedom to travel.” opened, and when I got home I switched of it all, it was just another incredible strations in Leipzig and in Berlin permission What he said was that anyone wanting to the radio on – becoming an earwitness day in a series of incredible events, like was even given for a “protest demonstration,” leave East Germany would no longer have to reports of a parade of (East German) the downfall of the General Secretary and attended by nearly one million people. to do so via Czechoslovakia but could use Trabi cars down the Ku’damm. Although it the resignation of the old guard. The fact I was sure that censorship would not last East German border crossings (into West was 2 o’clock in the morning, I got on my that everywhere people were showing their

much longer. Handing in my manuscript, I Germany). What we didn’t imagine was motorbike and headed off again. And then resentment at being patronized and con- IXSO found myself in a room where huge numbers that the people of East Germany would I ended up in the big party of which there strained and did not want to continue with 22 2014 2014 23  Locations that inspire creativity Berlin’s old factories are now humming with new commercial activity. Berlin, Home Of There are four reasons for the rapid wave of expansion he first reason for the new dyna- mism is the “Gründerzeit”, a period of rapid industrial growth that made Berlin the biggest indus- Ttrial metropolis in Europe in the 19th cen- tury. Factory buildings sprang up all over the place in the middle of the old urban The Future center, dozens of which survived World War Two and the subsequent division of the city. After the fall of the Wall, the old industries moved on, eastwards, to China. And now the creative businesses of the New Economy are moving into those old sites that until very recently stood empty. Following costly Capital restoration they are now humming with high-tech activity. The second reason for the commercial buzz is the second “Gründerzeit” which is just of digital underway. Nowhere in the modern world are the rents for trendy office and workspaces in traditional factory buildings as low as in Berlin: on average 150 euros per square natives meter versus 600 euros in Silicon Valley. In addition, private rents and living costs in the A new generation German capital remain at unrivalled levels. The third reason is the cultural appeal of is turning Berlin’s the city and its high quality of life. Savvy beleaguered economy individuals who want to achieve something here come under their own steam; no one around needs to recruit them or promise them the earth. Berlin’s universities and colleges pro- teach, research, work and study at four Above: Opening night of the Factory in

By Rainer Bieling PR vide for a continual supply of new talent, universities (including the Joint Venture Mitte, a campus for startups and mature Cafeteria of Euref Campus in Schöneberg, the new home of Cisco. with masses of highly qualified and highly Charité University Medical Center Berlin), tech companies, supported by Google for motivated German and foreign graduates seven polytechnic colleges, three art colleges, Entrepreneurs. Executive chairman Eric erlin – 25 years after the fall of the Ideas alone are no guarantee of success, With the sum of one million euros, Google the company behind the success of Google, entering the labor market every year. They 18 private universities as well as more than Schmidt attended the event. Wall – one of the coolest addresses courage is also a prerequisite. And money. is financing the funding program of a new Instagram and WhatsApp. are here because this is an urban landscape 60 research institutions. Of these people, Right: Location of the first meeting in the world. Not only for tour- Ideally both. The courage comes from expe- technology center for business startups. Cisco Systems found its way to Berlin in like no other in Europe – a thriving cul- 160,000 are students, 15 percent of them of Digital Nomads in Germany, ists, but also for digital natives, rienced and successful managers and inves- “Factory Berlin” is now able to announce September 2014. The network technology tural scene with bustling nightlife alongside coming from abroad. betahouse in Kreuzberg theB young creative folk turning Berlin into tors who plough money into the new digital on its website that it is “Supported by manufacturer is set to open a think-tank unspoiled natural surroundings featuring offers coworking space. the Home Of The Future. They’ve now economy because risk is an integral part of Google for Entrepreneurs.” Several of the on the Euref campus at the Schöneberg lakes and rivers. The four big national research organiza- reached an age when they are no longer a venture’s success. One person who is well startups that have taken up residence there gasometer – to establish a link between the The fourth reason is Berlin’s science and tions the Fraunhofer Society, Helmholtz simply content to consume, but also want aware of this is Eric Schmidt, Executive are already global players: Soundcloud, for company and the creative startup scene in research landscape, which is something of Association, Leibniz Association and Max to produce. And they want to do this in the Chairman of Google. He came to Berlin in example, a music platform with 250 million Berlin. The spirit of the young, the money a cornucopia of talent and ideas. Some Planck Society are also represented by insti-

city that’s changing faster than any other June 2014 to bolster the impact of just such users, or 6Wunderkinder with their to-do of the old and a city that attracts both; this 200,000 people from all over the world tutes in Berlin. n PR , P hotothek in the world. an investment. app Wunderlist, financed by Sequoia Capital, is the secret of the marvel that is Berlin. n

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 eMobility moves  A startup Fitness for the brain Berlin on every America facilitated Berliners’ access to knowledge A city mobilizes itself – although you can’t hear it or smell it corner t’s just 750 meters by foot from the stored in the basement can be processed in reunification initially prevented the realiza- editorial offices of Times Media GmbH just a few minutes. tion of this vision. lectromobility is a concept that was the complex interplay between mobility and in Berlin-Kreuzberg to the American The American Memorial Library, designed given a warm reception in Berlin societal change. The project BeMobility tests A mentality shift in Memorial Library. This proximity made by architects Willy Kreuer and Fritz Bor- Now the Berlin Senate plans to dust off

d e d lershof. www.a GMBH – - MANAGEMENT WISTA from the outset. In Germany, it easy, on September 20, 2014, to interrupt © innovative mobility solutions through an I nemann, is still viewed to this day as an Germany: The state is the project and finally get to work on it. The Science and Technology Park Adlershof, a location featuring prime movers in industries nowhere is the desire to experiment intelligent networking of electronic vehicles work on the Times edition you’re currently iconic library building. Its construction was An extension would be wonderful, the site of the future withE new forms of mobility greater than in the and public transport. Startups such as Urban-e out of the picture, it’s reading to pay a 60th birthday visit to a rather financed by an US donation to the city of directly alongside the library was earmarked city where motorists and cyclists were only manufacture electric cargo bikes on the site, up to the individual special place. Yes, the AGB, as the American Berlin. The decision to use these funds to for this from the outset. Then the AGB might able to regain boundless freedom of move- or, as in the case of Ubitricity, develop a new Memorial Library is succinctly known in build a public library was made by Berlin be ready in time for it to celebrate its 75th ment after the fall of the Wall. It makes perfect charging infrastructure for electric cars. This ho would have thought Berlin, is indeed 60 years old and looks as politicians under the leadership of the Mayor birthday on the library’s original site. Healthy industries sense that the undivided capital asserted itself makes it possible to access power from sockets it? In 2014 Berlin, thou- good as it did on its day of inauguration, at the time, Ernst Reuter. as one of four “Electromobility showcases.” that can be installed in any street lamp. sands of young people September 17, 1954. Right from the very first day, the AGB ■ In Berlin, old and new industries are merging With this program, the government is funding Besides the European Energy Forum site are going solo, founding This is of course because the Berlin Senate was a magnet for people looking to keep research into, and development of, engines (Euref), the Science and Technology Park Wcompanies and hoping that good ideas prescribed a program of rejuvenation for Dr. Rainer Bieling is editorial director their gray matter fit and healthy. In the into the economy of tomorrow that you can’t hear or smell because they are Adlershof will in future serve as a base for will eventually yield good money. The the imposing building, renovating it in time 1980s, increasing numbers of visitors and of DER HAUPTSTADTBRIEF emission-free. companies operating in the electro mobility flourishing startups on every corner for the anniversary. After all, the AGB is books gave the authorities cause to con- (Letter from the Capital), essimists have already painted a as Pfizer and Sanofi-Aventis have located their Berlin wouldn’t be Berlin if it hadn’t imme- sector. Production, laboratory and office of the city are evidence of a stagger- no ordinary library. It is a gift from the sider building an extension. But the fall a Berlin based political bleak picture: Berlin the industrial German branches in the capital. The Charité diately founded an institution to administer space is available in the newly-built “Center ing mentality shift in Germany: The Americans to the people of Berlin and recalls of the Wall and the high cost of Berlin’s and economic affairs magazine. metropolis, that’s in the past, it’ll is the largest university clinic in Europe, and the “Electromobility showcase” and give it a for Photovoltaics and Renewable Energies.” state is out of the picture, it’s up to a time when West Berlin was an island never come back. But industry never for more than 300 years it has played a key catchy abbreviated name: eMO. The Agency A charging station next to the building pro- the individual to make something of and could only survive because the United disappeared,P at least not completely. To role in ensuring that Berlin never lost its posi- for Electromobility eMO is an agency of the vides electricity for electric cars, e-scooter and themselves. States guarded half of the city against Soviet this day, one in every four motorbikes in tion as Health Capital. As for the life sciences, city-state of Berlin. The eMO has been the pedelecs - bikes where the rider’s pedaling is These young entrepreneurs, most of attack. So America facilitated Berliners’ Germany is made in BMW’s Berlin plant there are today some 170 courses of study at central hub for all matters concerning elec- assisted by an electric motor. As soon as a whom are indeed young men, are not access to knowledge by financing a new in the district of Spandau. And Siemens not 19 Berlin universities, four Max Planck Insti- tromobility in the capital region since 2010. startup there has invents a bicycle battery that drawn to jobs in the public sector like building that was Germany’s first public only has its own neighborhood next door, tutes, two Fraunhofer institutes, two Leibniz A substantial number of pilot projects have charges itself when the rider uses the pedals, their forefathers were, nor do they want library, accessible to anyone who wanted Siemensstadt, it’s also still manufacturing institutes and two Helmholtz centers. taken up residence on the Euref campus then it will be fair to say that the concept to live off the public purse doing some- to borrow a book. turbines there for gas power stations, with- This density of university and non-univer- in Schöneberg. The Innovation Center for of perpetuum mobile has been invented in thing vaguely creative, whiling away The American concept of the public library out which the world’s lights wouldn’t go on. sity research institutions has encouraged 30 Mobility and Societal Change (InnoZ) assesses Adlershof. n hours in a coffee shop with their tablet was something new and special due to its Before long, parts for the gas turbines will pharma companies, more than 230 biotech and trust fund. No, the company found- open attitude to visitors, who were given be produced using 3D printers. companies and 280 plus medical technology ers at work here are those who – with direct access to book collections, most of The example of Siemens, a traditional com- companies to remain in Berlin or relocate great diligence, application and tenac- which are displayed on open shelves. Stocks pany operating in a future market, shows to there. The medical technology sector is one of ity - are developing business ideas set not accessible to visitors are kept in the what extent old and new industries are merg- the guarantors for preservation and renewal to establish themselves in the market. basement beneath public areas. There were ing into the economy of the future in Berlin. of industrial manufacturing. Then there are At the same time, financial investors’ guided tours of the building to mark the Siemens is one of the largest health care manu- manufacturers of optical technologies and confidence in the youngsters is growing; anniversary, with the chance to visit areas facturers in the capital. Medical technology microsystem technology, two more key 21st international donors pumped venture normally off limits to visitors. Staff give from the Werner plant in Siemensstadt helps century technologies. Products, components capital to the tune of 136 million euros proud assurances that any orders for books people live longer and provides sustainable and system solutions of photonics and micro- into Berlin startups last year. This new growth for the company. Little wonder then system technology are often the basis for vigor is especially evident on the broad that another health care giant, Bayer from innovations in communication technology, playing field that is the digital economy: Leverkusen, was happy to take over another medical technology, security technology and 500 new companies are created annu- traditional Berlin company, the pharmaceu- air and space travel. ally in the German startup capital, ticals manufacturer Schering. To this day, An upward trend: in 2013 alone, the busi- with everyone hoping their particular The logo of the Agency 60 years of the American Memorial Library: the Bayer Pharma AG plant in Wedding is ness development agency Berlin Partners sup- for Electromobility eMO, innovative digital technology will earn The birthday cake being cut by MOSCH VINCENT the city’s largest pharmaceuticals producer. ported around 260 companies to move to the the central hub for eMobility them a place in the sun. n Thomas Miller, Cornelia Yzer, Volker Heller

Berlin-Chemie AG and global concerns such city or to grow their business in Berlin. ■ in the German capital emo (from left to right) CLB , FOTO

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 Sir Simon Rattle, born 1955 in Liverpool, became Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Berlin Philharmonic in 2002. He is also famous for his innovative concert programs aimed at young people

Restaurant Bar CLASSIC DIPLOMACY offmann) picture alliance ( H offmann) picture - G etty I mages, I to H iroyuki ( R attle) The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra may be the city’s most powerful ambassador By Martin Hoffmann, General Manager of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

ur Philharmonie is the concert If I want to go to the State Opera, Depending on the location, we will be hall where the Berliner Philhar- a concert or see an directed a very spe- performing the work of a German, Polish, monic Orchestra plays – and opera, I don’t have cial, spontaneously Hungarian or Bohemian composer (Lachen- much more. An icon of urban to travel through organized concert mann, Szymanowski, Kurtág and Martinů) architectureO designed and built by Hans the city for hours as here: free admission plus Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. This is Scharoun 50 years ago. One of Berlin’s true I would in London for Berlin residents a very special form of concert tour for us gems and the home of our orchestra. or New York. When from both parts because we are not just cultural ambassa- The building has always been a cultural added together, the of the city. It was dors from Berlin and Germany, but political center, even when it was dedicated in 1963 Berliner Philharmo- the experience of a ones as well. and located directly next to the Wall. In nie and the Konzer- lifetime for every- However, we are not fortunate enough Martin Hoffmann. no man’s land, almost in the death zone! thaus host around one who was able to enjoy diplomatic immunity… something Now, 25 years after the Wall came down, 800 concerts every year! You will not find to attend. The fall of the Wall had a major we unfortunately experienced in a very the Philharmonie is in the middle of Berlin, this degree of compactness, availability, impact on the orchestra. This was one of tedious way when we traveled to the US. It in an area that has also become the capital’s accessibility and quality anywhere else in the craziest, most moving concerts in living was because of the ivory and tortoise shell topographical center. the world. Through the new concert forms memory. Barenboim, all of our musicians used in our string instruments and bows! What makes Berlin’s classical sound out- we have developed with Sir Simon Rattle, – and those from the East – still talk about Due to a resolution of the Washington standing is mostly the fact that we also have our music director, we have created a won- how wonderful it was. Now, in the fall of Convention, anything that was once part the Konzerthaus Berlin only a few hundred derful trend. Around 2,000 people always 2014, we are playing a “Fall of the Wall” of an endangered animal cant be imported meters away at Gendarmenmarkt Square. come to our late-night concerts with jazz or tour in the cities that played a major role into the country. So customs confiscated The Komische Oper Berlin is only a few contemporary music at 10 p.m. And most in the reunification process. On November our instruments. Of course we hope that Schlüterstraße 33 / Ecke Mommsenstraße ⋅ 10629 Berlin ⋅ Tel. +49 (0)30 / 54 71 05 90 ⋅ www.adnan-berlin.de hundred meters further along on Behrens- of them are between 18 and 35 years old! 11, we are performing in Halle, on the 12th with enough German-American friendship, strasse and the Berlin State Opera on Unter On September 12, 1989, Daniel Baren- in Warsaw, on the 14th in Budapest and on we can find a diplomatic solution to this den Linden is just another short walk away. boim, who is now the music director of the 15th in Prague. problem. ■ 28 2014 2014 29  Art defies  beyond a puzzling disease Proceeds from a gala auction are used to help people with ALS

or the past four years, prominent much money in researching and finding a guests from politics and business cure for ALS. This is why the “Hilfe für have gathered together on one eve- ALS-kranke Menschen” initiative earmarks ning in September at a gala event in the proceeds from its annual auction to currywurst Berlin.F They’ve come to an art auction – a supporting the work of the ALS outpatient very special auction whose proceeds go to clinic at Charité. the “Hilfe für ALS-kranke Menschen” (Aid The 2014 auction took place on September

for People with ALS) initiative. This initia- 22 in the Schlosshotel im Grunewald. Eighty PR For the last 25 years Hans-Peter Wodarz has unified Berlin at his table. tive with its patron, former chancellor Ger- guests attended the gala event. Patron Ger- A unique public-private partnership over the past 20 years, Berlin Partner collaborates hard Schröder, hard Schröder with the Berlin State Senate and over 200 companies dedicated to promoting their His permanent special: an extravaganza | By Philipp v. Studnitz aims to gener- e m p h a s i z e d city. Celebrating on September 6, 2014 (from left to right) Berlin Partner Managing ate a steady once again: Director Dr. Stefan Franzke, Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit, Paris Deputy Mayor s a rule, a famous chef never their art. This maelstrom of activity with the motto: “Culinary East Meets flow of funds “The fact that Jean-Louis Missika, Berlin Senator Cornelia Yzer, Councilmember Tom LaBonge says anything good about adds up to a unique, shimmering eve- Culinary West.” DFF and ZDF pro- every year that so many artists (Los Angeles), Berlin Partner Managing Director Melanie Bähr and Partner for Berlin Chairman of the Board Dr. Holger Hatje. another chef. But Alfons ning – an unforgettable experience. duced their first joint entertainment go directly to donated the Schuhbeck, a highly com- This year – in which the fall of the show, which was broadcast from Charité – Uni- works of art Amitted cook, recently said this to Wall celebrates its 25th anniversary versitätsmed- Friedrichstadt-Palast (Erich Honecker’s that you are me of no-less-committed Hans-Peter – you will find Wodarz’s glittering bourgeois-frivolous version of Carn- izin Berlin able to pur- “We are all friends Wodarz – the most dynamic star chef tent at Berlin’s East Side Gallery. The egie Hall). “Good Evening, Germany!” without any chase at this of the 1970s and the pioneer and première is on November 6. – and then East and West German star deductions for auction makes show master of Restaurant Theater German reunification plays a major chefs cooked for a “Culinary Eve- administrative z e R ath M at K ruppa, C hristian it possible to With charm and professionalism, Christiane Gräfin and family!” im Spiegelzelt: “Hans-Peter is Ger- role in Wodarz’s professional biogra- ning” in the Hotel InterContinental expenses. zu Rantzau (left) ran the auction and inspired the guests use the eve- many’s greatest gastronomic vision- phy. Full of proud sentimentality, he (the favorite hotel of all US presidents This globally to outbid each other. The result was another significant ning’s proceeds ary.” Wodarz had his two legend- glows as he tells about a 30-minute who visit the West). It was an event recognized uni- sum: 370,300 euros to benefit people with ALS. to provide sup- From sister city Los Angeles to the celebration ary restaurants, “Die Ente im Lehel” New Year’s Eve broadcast from the at which “star chefs from the Federal versity clinic Right: The patron of the “Hilfe für ALS-kranke port for people (Munich) and “Die Ente vom Lehel“ Babelsberg studios in former East Republic and West Berlin present their has set up an Menschen” initiative, former chancellor Gerhard with ALS in in Berlin: Councilor Tom LaBonge (Wiesbaden), to thank for his top Berlin that he whipped up for ZDF culinary common ground together with ALS outpatient Schröder, encouraged the guests at the gala to the first place.” participate in the auction. has fallen in love with the capital city reputation and this kind of praise. in 1989. He was able to achieve the their colleagues from the GDR’s top clinic, making The group of He also has an innate urge to convey impossible: that night, Marlene Diet- restaurants.” What wonderful, state- it a leader in caring for people with ALS. artists who donated their paintings and his love story came about The relationship between the two major pleasure and gustatory enjoyment in rich called the studio from Paris, where funded politics of language! Among In summer 2014, the wider public was sculptures to the auction includes Markus thanks to immigrants from cities has been so close and warm since then the most innovative way possible – she was living in exile. In her dis- the chefs involved were great names made aware of ALS, a disease of the nerve Lüpertz, Anthony Cragg and Jaume Plensa. Berlin who continued their that 47 years later, Tom LaBonge, council and delivers masterful results! tinctive, impressive voice, she wished such as Heinz Winkler, Gerd Käfer, cells, for the first time. A wave of sympathy With charm and professionalism, Christiane career in Hollywood after member of the City of Los Angeles’ 4th For the past seven years, Wodarz, a went around the world as celebrities in the T1933 – but it doesn’t play out on the district and chairman of Sister Cities, can her homeland a happy New Year and Siegfried Rockendorf – of course Gräfin zu Rantzau ran the auction. The head native of Wiesbaden, has accompanied and good luck for the future. “I am Wodarz cooked as well. Duck liver in US and Europe publicized the Ice Bucket of the Hamburg and Berlin offices of Chris- silver screen. The expats encouraged the say: “Germany holds a special place in our Palazzo, his first-class traveling circus still moved when I think about how aspic with kohlrabi rounds on apple Challenge, encouraging people to donate tie’s, the venerable London auction house, mayor of Los Angeles, their new city, to hearts as Berlin and Los Angeles are sister in which guests eat gourmet meals Marlene even shared a memory from sauce. His standards have always been money to research this puzzling disease. skillfully coaxed guests to outbid each other. initiate a city partnership with the west- cities. Los Angeles has been fortunate to while they are laughing and being 1929, when she was filming ‘The Blue light-years away from the common Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a As a result a significant sum – 370,300 euros ern part of their old hometown. On June have had a sister city relationship with amazed, on its circuit. He also brings Angel’ in Babelsberg with Sternberg, tricks with currywurst that still plague degenerative disease of the motor neurons. – was collected to benefit “Hilfe für ALS- 27, 1967, during the 17th Berlin Inter- Berlin since 1967 that allows us to work his proven mix of acts to Berlin. While with the dumbfounded audience,” said Germany’s capital. He is a visionary Right now, there is no cure for ALS. Because kranke Menschen” for the fourth year in a national Film Festival, Berlin’s mayor on great exchange programs and with great the audience is enjoying an elaborate Wodarz. who knows it takes maximum per- Hans-Peter Wodarz (top left), born 1948 in Wiesbaden, is one it affects only a comparatively small group of row. The entire amount will be made avail- Heinrich Albertz and the mayor of Los leaders. From city to city, from country to four-course meal, acrobats, comedi- Six months later, Wodarz was the formance to make the “joie-de-vivre of the finest German chefs. Since 2007 he has presented patients (in Germany, around 8,000 people), able to Charité to enable its ALS outpatient Angeles, Sam Yorty, made it official. country, we are all friends and family!” n ala zz o P ro d uktionen G mb H ans, musicians and jugglers present creative mind behind a Berlin event experience” even more intense. ■ P ”Palazzo“ – a mix of dining and cabaret in four German cities. the major drug manufacturers do not invest clinic to continue caring for patients. ■

Get Old We’re getting older. Siemens: a start-up in Berlin When Werner Siemens and his part- 650 million from small and medium equipment in the Tiergarten tunnel, or ner, mechanic Johann Georg Halske, businesses in the region. electronic signal towers for the main train And that’s good news. founded their company in 1847 with ten Berlin exports switchgear for energy station: Siemens helps make sure that employees in a small rear-courtyard distribution, engines to drive ships, and Berliners and their visitors can get any- workshop in Berlin, it’s unlikely that any- protective equipment for power grids where they’re going, safely and quickly. It’s the little moments that mean so much to us. We want to one could have guessed the fi rm would to customers all over the world. One The company invests heavily every be able to cherish those moments for many tomorrows to come. become a global corporation that today especially proud achievement: here at year to reinforce its Berlin locations. Pfizer is working around the world to this end. For more than has a workforce of some 350,000 em- its founding location in Berlin, Siemens Out of a total of EUR 320 million spent ployees in 190 countries. makes the world’s most energy-effi cient in fi scal 2013, EUR 130 million was for 160 years, we have been researching and developing innovative Siemens in Berlin, with about gas turbines for environmentally friendly production facilities and buildings, and drugs to help people improve their health and quality of life at 12,000 employees, is now the larg- power generation. EUR 30 million was for basic and con- all ages. Every day, we make every effort to put our vision into est industrial company in the Ger- Siemens technology is used all over tinuing training. The largest share, EUR man capital. An entire district of town town. The traffi c information base at 160 million, was spent on research and action: Working together for a healthier world. – Siemensstadt – is named for the the former Tempelhof Airport constantly development. And it has paid off. Be- fi rm. Berlin is home to fi ve Siemens gathers information about current traf- cause every year, some 300 inventions AG production and development sites fi c conditions. Smart energy-effi ciency are reported at Siemens in Berlin. And and two factories. Nowhere else in the solutions, working with the latest auto- Siemens in Berlin also plays a lead- world does Siemens have such a con- mation and security systems, provide ing role as a training site. Some 1,300 centration of production sites. In fi scal forward-looking equipment for many of young people learn a profession here The pride of the company: 2013, they produced goods and ser- the city’s public and private buildings. every year. Half of them are trained for www.pfizer.de In Berlin, where it was founded, Siemens manufactures the world’s vices worth a total of EUR 2.6 billion. Traffi c lights are controlled to keep traffi c other companies, who thus benefi t from most effi cient gas turbines. During the same period, the company fl owing as well as possible through the the thorough, up-to-date training that made purchases worth some EUR metropolis. Whether with traffi c control Siemens offers.

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 with a real compulsion to change all the  long, dropped-waist dresses and these Mary aesthetic rules. Jane pumps with one clasp. They were scenes And Berlin with its exotic, closed-in, insu- like you’d find in the paintings of Christian lar situation, with no social or police control, Schad and George Grosz. was at the forefront of it all! And still, every What has remained is a typical Berlin qual- district, every neighborhood was completely ity – here there is an ability to style oneself as different. Back then in the 80s, when I went in no other city, to make sparkles out of shit. to visit the old fashion legend Uli Richter, But at the moment that’s only true of indi- or Bettina Lauer, a former supermodel in viduals, not the whole city. The sea change Kladow, I used to think; this is like going feeling of the fall of the Wall was, up until a LET’S TALK to Switzerland! few years ago, that the whole world revolves Typical of Berlin’s unique style in those around Berlin. But it doesn’t do that now. days was the Dschungel (Jungle), a club in That’s why it’s no longer enough to come Nürnberger Strasse. It too was a drawcard from Berlin. The real expression of our times for artists from all over the world because is sort of missing here right now. they found something here which didn’t exist Where is the edge? The one-off? The anywhere else. People lived in a strange, incomparable? voluntary, consistent kind of freedom. And Sadly it is sometimes palpable how so often you felt that freedom all the more many promises haven’t been fulfilled. ABOUT acutely because of the permanent and (back My Prussian-Hamburg mix of aesthetics then) immediate threat of the Cold War. The and business sense – is rather missing in city had a big fashion scene in those days, Berlin, and that’s too bad. it was called “offline.” It was the powerful, The latest collection of my Wunderkind moving promise of a new German language label – created in Potsdam and presented of form, which had absolutely nothing to do in Paris – has the motto of “New Romanti- with the old one. cism.” Part of that is my form of criticism of Part of the style of Berlin for me is also today’s synthetic, Matrix image of human STYLE, what I saw in East Germany when I went beings. One pattern I drew is composed of on family visits to Potsdam as a small boy. an eye, a nose, a mouth, a mustache and a For instance, the Russian soldiers in their rose – along with the sentence: “I’ll never be washed-out, greeny-gray uniforms. These your perfect puzzle.” That is my message, silent, young men with the belt over their and hopefully people will get it. baggy uniforms were not just sexy, they really had something mystical. ■ And in Potsdam I always saw a lot of the (2) D PA nobility, who had nothing left and really did These shots illustrate fashion as designed by someone with a „Prussian-Hamburg mix Wolfgang Joop was born 1944 Mr. Joop walk around in clothes from before the war. of aesthetics and business sense”. in Potsdam. Every season he takes Then there was Frau Müller with the red Page 30: Wolfgang Joop with his late Dalmatian “Gretchen”. part in Paris Fashion Week pageboy cut like Louise Brooks. She wore The dog had one blue eye and one brown eye – like David Bowie (see page 14). with his label “Wunderkind”. wolfgang stahr/laif wolfgang

n the 1980s Berlin style came into its Around that time, the movie “Christiane own with Nina Hagen. She sprung up F.” came out. The world noticed that it told not just as a pop artist. She didn’t jump the story of a very particular kind of Berlin over the Berlin Wall from the GDR – its lostness fitted perfectly into the “no Ivia West German suburbia as a wallflower, future” punk era, which then segued into she appeared as the queen of the fauns. She the postmodern, where the unfinished, the I’m not your brought something totally new to Berlin’s raw, the things that don’t fit and exaggera- post-glam punk. We were all completely fas- tion are all celebrated. The movie turned cinated with this figure, who talked about the “modern” on its head. Before it, we had Baltic beaches with backstreet stroppiness, stylistic rules about clothes and fashion, perfect puzzle with her incredible voice and her incredible for architecture, homes and lifestyle. There outfits – West Germany had never seen any- was a visible glitterati in London, Germany thing like her. And that image of here went and in New York, but at the same time, A message fashioned by Wolfgang Joop out to New York and everywhere. the underground came out of the big cities,

Autumn auctions in Berlin " 26 – 29 November 2014 Berlin. "

25 years ago

Everyone is driven by something. the Wall fell: Max Beckmann Let‘s celebrate! STÜRMISCHE NORDSEE (WANGEROOGE).1937 Oil on canvas. 59 x 77 cm. (23 1/4 x 30 3/8 in.) Signed, inscribed and dated. Göpel 466. – We clear the way. Auction Selected Works 27 November 2014 in Berlin

Villa Grisebach · Fasanenstraße 25 · 10719 Berlin Phone +49-30-885 915-0 · Fax +49-30-882 41 45 Berlin has many faces. It‘s a city of outside-the-box thinkers, trendsetters and masters of the art of living. www.villa-grisebach.de Berlin is inspiration, hard work and passion. Berlin is a vibrant business center that has seen 25 years of united entrepreneurial spirit from east and west. We support all of them with our business model that has always been about breaking down walls, because it‘s about the people. www.berliner-volksbank.de © Bild-Kunst Bonn 2014 © Bild-Kunst 32 2014 What I learned  from Nancy Reagan Star hairdresser Udo Walz has been styling the hair of Berlin celebrities and famous visitors to the city for 50 years. The man’s a cut above the rest! As told to Philipp v. Studnitz

hen I moved to Berlin in 1964, Burt’s wife Gahl liked buying pictures in the I ignored the Wall. At the time East, old Berlin scenes. Incidentally I thank I worked in a salon near the her for bringing me a great client during that KaDeWe department store on time: Nancy Reagan. I did her hair during NürnbergerW Strasse. But to look at the Wall, her husband President Ronald Reagan’s that didn’t interest me. Several months later visit to Berlin, when he stood at the Wall in my sister Christl came to visit. She really June 1987 and uttered the famous line: “Mr wanted to see this awful barrier. So we Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” drove to Brandenburg Gate During my encounter with and climbed up onto one of Nancy Reagan, I learned those high viewing platforms something from her. How that they had put up in West to convey to a fellow human Berlin. But I was disappointed being in small-talk situations by what I could see of the the sense that they are being East of the city. There wasn’t taken totally seriously. By con- a single person on the streets! centrating on him, listening d er thielker/fotofin karsten ullstein, On one occasion, I did set to him, meeting his eyes and Udo Walz in his flagship salon in Berlin Charlottenburg. He was born on July 28, 1944 in out with the intention of talking less yourself! Waiblingen (Baden-Württemberg). He’s been working as a hairdresser in Berlin since 1963 – and runs numerous salons in a number of locations, including Berlin of course, but also on visiting East Berlin. At the When Germany was divided Mallorca and the cruise liner MS Deutschland. border control post an East I even had clients from the First Lady Nancy Reagan German police officer asked in Berlin on June 12,1987. East coming to me for a hair- couple on the Ku’damm and immediately When Gwyneth Paltrow saw the section of me about my views on Social- cut. Walter Felsenstein, for took them to dinner at Fuffi. All they wanted the Wall that was the East Side Gallery, she ism. I answered him honestly, saying: “I example, legendary founder of the Komische to do was drink Coca-Cola and smoke! And said it looked as though people could have don’t know anything about it.” He promptly Oper and his entire family. Or the unforge- because they didn’t want to return to the just climbed over it! pressed a book into my hand, saying I should table comic actress Helga Hahnemann. eastern part of the city that night, I said they Today, in 2014, Berlin is uniquely fasci- read it. I was then shown in to a small room On the night the Wall fell I was in Charlot- could stay in my guest apartment. nating because it’s on the way to becoming where I had to spend an hour doing just that. tenburg having dinner with my banker and After the fall of the Wall, I did make a day a metropolis. Of course it’s still not compa- It put me off going to the GDR. I didn’t ever the telephone rang: “There are dozens of trip every Sunday to the East, to take a look rable with New York or Paris because after go while it existed. Trabis on the Ku’damm!” said the excited for myself. decades of division, the individual parts of Richard Burt, US ambassador to Germany voice on the end of the line. The banker Later my American clients – film stars like the city still need to coalesce. One thing that from 1985 to 1989, always wanted to take thought it was a joke and hung up. And when Julianne Moore, Harrison Ford, Gwyneth already gives it a very cosmopolitan feel is me with him because of course, as a dip- I made my way home – to Fasanenstrasse – I Paltrow and Jodie Foster – always wanted the tolerance of the locals. People here are lomat, he wasn’t checked. I still didn’t go. realized what had happened. I met a young to know where the Wall used to stand. now used to seeing people from all over. n

SCHLOSSHOTEL IM GRUNEWALD AlmaBerlinTelefon +49 30 89 58 40 Telwww.schlosshotelberlin.com +49 030 89 58 40 www.almahotels.com