BERLIN GUIDE 2 3 BERLIN MICHAEL REID BERLIN Published as a bespoke guide First published 2015 4th edition, August 2020 © Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin, 2020 CONTENTS 4 5 06 Introduction, Laura Thompson 106 SHOPPING 148 BERLIN WINTER 18 Michael Reid Berlin and its Neighbourhood, Rachael Vance 108 Food & Flea Markets 150 Saunas 110 Fashion 153 Indoor Pools 22 SEE, DO AND STAY 114 Berlin Brands & Boutiques 153 Cinemas BERLIN 24 Before Touchdown 118 Bookshops 154 Christmas Markets 26 Private Collections 120 Record Shops 154 Drinks 34 Art Fairs & Events 158 A Day in Winter 38 Art Fairs & Events: Outside Berlin MICHAEL REID BERLIN 40 Museums & Galleries 122 NIGHT LIFE 164 48 HOURS IN 50 Memorials 124 Entertainment 166 Potsdam 56 Getting Around 126 Hear 172 Spreewald 58 Walk 130 Clubs 176 Leipzig 62 Stay 68 FOOD AND DRINK 134 BERLIN SUMMER 182 ONLINE 70 Eat 136 Lakes 184 Best Berlin Websites & Blogs 78 Plant-based Delights 140 Outdoor Pools 185 Best Apps 82 Kaffee & Frühstück 143 Freiluftkino (Open-air Cinemas) 186 Best Instagram 90 Süßes 143 Drinks 188 Here for a Longer Stay? 94 Bars 144 A Day in Summer 190 Help! 102 Beer Gardens 6 7 INTRODUCTION BERLIN Laura Thompson Gallery Director, Michael Reid Berlin MICHAEL REID BERLIN Detail image: Rammey Ramsey 8 9 Michael Reid Berlin has called Germany’s capital Berlin is an embracing city, which has made it popularity and commercialisation. Berlin is a home for close to a decade. Based here since 2017, I the perfect base for such an ambition. Its rich catalyst for global trends. BERLIN have led and promoted exhibitions by Australian and counterculture attracts artists from across the New Zealand artists in Paris and London, and across globe. It heaves with galleries and artist-run spaces By July 1990, over 100 buildings in Berlin were Germany. Those exhibitions have drawn enthusiastic because it embraces creativity, the alternative and occupied by squatters. If you visited the city praise. However, presenting Australasian artists to growth. Once a divided city, Berlin has at least two before September 2012, you may remember the international market comes with challenges that of everything: two zoos (Tierpark and Zoologischer Kunsthaus Tacheles, a five-storey artist go beyond the logistics and risks involved. Touching Garten); three opera houses (Deutsche Oper, colony on Oranienburger Straße. Formerly a MICHAEL REID BERLIN down in a new environment that has its own crowd Staatsoper Unter den Linden and Komische Oper); shopping complex, then a showroom for the favourites and rich art history requires time and, two airports (Schoenefeld and Tegel); and seven German electronic company AEG, the venue more so, commitment. It’s a dedication that is rare orchestras. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the city housed the Schutzstaffel (the SS) and was hit among Australian arts professionals. The founding had an open ticket to reunite and re-create itself by bombing raids during the Second World War. belief of Michael Reid Berlin is to grow greater on its own terms. Abandoned venues – bunkers, Three months after the wall fell, a creative international recognition for artists from Australia hangars, power plants and underground stations group, Künstlerinitiative Tacheles, squatted and New Zealand. As we approach our tenth year, – were taken over by young creatives. Essentially, on the site, transforming it into a hub for the we can proudly say that we have achieved just that. 1989–1991 was a lawless period, with police from the arts. The building was covered in murals and We have presented well over 50 solo and group former East and West unsure of what rules to apply. graffiti, hosted performances and exhibitions, exhibitions by artists European audiences rarely get It saw the birth of Berlin’s now famous techno music and boasted an open-air sculpture garden. to see. scene, through clubs including Tresor and WMF. Kunsthaus Tacheles, which was the home of 60 Today, it is estimated that 50,000 people dance here artist studios for 22 years before they were every weekend. evicted in 2012, demonstrates the permanence of Berlin’s creative scene. A visit to the private Love Parade, which started in the summer of 1989, art collection Sammlung Boros will take you further speaks to Berlin’s free culture. Founded in through the site of a former air-raid bunker. the belief that music has no borders or nationality, At the Silent Green Kulturquartier, you can Love Parade aimed to spread love and peace. enjoy performances and exhibitions in a former Shouting ‘Friede, Freude, Eierkuchen’ (Peace, Joy, crematorium. Michael Reid Berlin itself was a Pancakes) and dancing to techno, the initial crowd haberdashery before the building was seized on of 300 soon grew to 1.5 million through worldwide June 18, 1945, by the City of Berlin. Detail image: Julieanne Ngwarraye Morton, My Country and Bush Medicine Plants, 2019 10 11 History is kept visible. Walking the streets of Berlin, reflect on its identity. Thousands of people came you will discover Stolperstein under your feet, brass to view the project, which stood in place for only BERLIN plates among the cobblestones that individually two weeks. commemorate victims of the Nazi regime. The Berlin Wall is distinctively marked out, and the All cities have histories and sites of significance, streets and architecture in former West Berlin but what remains uniquely Berlin is its vary greatly from those in the former East. In the adaptability and openness. Berlin stands apart summer of 1995, artistic duo Christo and Jeanne- from the art capitals of New York, London, MICHAEL REID BERLIN Claude wrapped the Reichstag, now the home of Paris and Hong Kong in the presence of artists. Germany’s parliament. The project, which took 23 A visa specifically for artists that is relatively years to be approved, required 100,000 square simple to obtain attracts thousands of creatives metres of thick polypropylene fabric with a lustrous to the city each year. Berlin is certainly not aluminium surface and over 200 workers, including immune to gentrification (construction sites and professional climbers, to install. The Reichstag, or development are a constant), but the arts and ‘Deutscher Bundestag’, mirrors Berlin’s history, artists are valued and embraced here. Berlin is having witnessed great changes and unease since its a production base and a site of experimentation; construction in 1884. Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s it is a place that is open to exchange and to project highlighted the Reichstag as an important experiencing the new. symbol of democracy. The act of wrapping the monumental building in a shimmering fabric prior to Laura Thompson parliament’s move back to Berlin from the temporary Gallery Director, Michael Reid Berlin capital of Bonn gave Germany an opportunity to Left: Belinda Fox: Drawing a Line, 2018. Photo: Bernd Borchardt. 12 13 BERLIN MICHAEL REID BERLIN Michael Reid Berlin Tel: +49 30944 04719 Ackerstraße 163, 10115 Berlin [email protected] Wed –Sat 11am–5pm michaelreid.com.au Above: Maningrida Arts & Culture. Photo: Jodie Barker Right: Dr Christian Thompson AO. Photo: Jodie Barker 14 15 BERLIN MICHAEL REID BERLIN Detail image: Imitjala Curley Black Apron ßE The Record Store Berlin INVALIDENSTRA Buck & Breck Leck Mich BRUNNENSTRA Redwood 16 Distrikt Coffee Katz Orange Ackerstraße 17 IN OUR Zehdenickerstra 1 Bergstraße NEIGHBOURHOOD Ocelot 0 m i ße n u Alpenstück t ßE e Restaurant w Michael Reid a l k Coffee & Breakfast Sweets Schröderstraße Leck Mich Black Apron Gartenstraße BERLIN Distrikt Coffee Rosenthaler Platz The Barn Lines: U8 TORSTRAßE Shop Strandbad Mitte The Record Store Berlin Linienstra Hackescher Markt ROSENTHALER STRAßE Kopps ße Dining Ocelot Tor Bar Joachimstraße TORSTRAßE MICHAEL REID BERLIN Mozzerella Bar & Bottega Katz Orange Art Linienstraße Alpenstück Restaurant Frea Michael Reid Berlin Kopps KW Berlin Pauly Saal Sammlung Hoffman The Barn Mozzarella Bar Mulackstraße Frea Strandbad Mitte & Bottega Sophiensæle Meine Bar Kw Berlin Bars ße Transit Meine Bar Große Hamburger Gipsstra U Rosenthaler Platz: U8 Auguststra Buck & Breck Pauly Saal U Weinmeisterstraße: U8 ße Pauly Saal S Oranienburger Straße: S1, S2, S25 Redwood Sammlung Hoffman Sophienstraße Tor Bar Sophiensæle Weinmeisterstraße Lines: U8 Straße Oranienburger Straße Lines: S1, S2, S25 Michael Reid Berlin Tel: +49 30944 04719 ORANIENBURGER STRA Ackerstraße 163, 10115 Berlin [email protected] Wed–Sat 11am–5pm michaelreid.com.au ßE Hackescher Markt 18 MICHAEL REID 19 AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD In 2012, Michael Reid noticed that Berlin attracts the Ackerstraße lies in the central district of shares premises with Kunst-Werke Institute for poor, the talented and the brave. Counting himself Mitte, home to significant landmarks such as Contemporary Art. Known for its cutting-edge BERLIN among their number, he decided that the city would the city Town Hall, Brandenburg Gate, Berlin contemporary art exhibitions, KW Institute has be the perfect location for sharing and cultivating a Cathedral and Fernsehturm (Television Tower). collaborated with MoMA PS1, the Venice Biennale and current, contemporary view of Australian art, ‘beyond For 28 years, from 1961 to 1989, Ackerstraße Documenta. a post-colonial lens’. was divided by the wall. Today, at its corner with Bernauer Straße, a preserved portion of Impressive private contemporary art collections Michael Reid Galleries staged Murr-ma: Uncovering ‘no man’s land’ forms the outdoor Berlin Wall – Sammlung Hoffmann and Sammlung Boros MICHAEL REID BERLIN Aboriginal & Australian Contemporary Art, a major Memorial (Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer), a (in a converted bunker) – can be viewed by Australian group exhibition, in the Hamburger Bahnhof, tourist hot spot offering a pervasive reminder appointment. Located less than a kilometre away a prominent exhibition space behind the Museum of of the once-divided city. Also within short is Museums Island, home to museums of antiquity, Contemporary Art (Museum für Gegenwart).