RaeAllen.net

  • Kunsthaus Tacheles

    Kunsthaus Tacheles

    This is Kunsthaus Tacheles, or Art House Tacheles. These days it is a deteriorating shell, but like much of this sort of of complex its history makes fascinating reading, from days as an early style of department store, to being the central office for the Nazi SS in WWII. Currently owned by a bank ( HSH Nordbank ) it will be fascinating to see what eventually happens to it. The mural asking “How long is now” seems a perfect question for the complex. http://bit.ly/1stmE0R

    http://flic.kr/p/nxMdpj

    from Tumblr http://bit.ly/1lpkWux
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  • Reading Brecht in Berlin

    The tattered cord
    can again become knotted.
    It holds
    but it is torn.

    Perhaps we’ll face
    each other again
    but there,
    where you left me,
    you’ll not meet me
    again.

    I’ve been in Berlin long enough to start reading Brecht for pleasure, although not in the original German.

    http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-tattered-cord-der-abgerissen-strick-translation-with-original-german/

  • Berlin Hauptbahnhof

    Berlin Hauptbahnhof

    If you have a thing about trains and transport generally then you might find your inner geek with Berlin Hauptbahnhof. Its like a five level glass cathedral to train travel. I say five levels as ‘five floors” wouldn’t really give the right perspective of how big it is. This is the top level where the S-bahn and long distance trains arrive and leave from. The lowest level is 15m underground and has services such as the U-bahn. In between are a variety of transport options plus the sort of boutique, food and general shops and restaurants you would find in any large modern shopping centre.

    http://flic.kr/p/nvi4Tb

    from Tumblr http://bit.ly/RIfJEf
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  • Anne Frank street art

    Anne Frank street art

    Anne Frank portrait by the English artist Jimmy C. on the wall outside the exhibition ( or Anne Frank Zentrum – http://bit.ly/1ljx7ZP ).

    The exhibition is worth taking your time over, the matter of fact presentation of the horrors mesh with the personalised accounts from Anne Frank, her family and friends.

    By the way, don’t be put off by the laneway at Rosenthaler Strasse 39. There is lots of graffiti but also a couple of other small museums including that for Otto Weidt (http://bit.ly/RDzUTu )

    http://flic.kr/p/nzaTDD

    from Tumblr http://bit.ly/1lpkYmm
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  • Fraternal Kiss

    Fraternal Kiss

    The East Side Gallery is a collection of artworks painted on the remnants of the Berlin Wall as it runs along the River Spree. The one I am in front off front off is by the Russian painter Dmitri Vrubel, called “My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love”. All up 105 art works were originally painted.

    It is well worth reading about the Gallery and the conflicts surrounding it – http://bit.ly/1g2e9rt

    http://flic.kr/p/nytjMD

    from Tumblr http://bit.ly/1lpxUIX
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  • Jewish cemetery, Prenzlauer

    Part of the Jewish cemetery ( Jüdischer Friedhof ) in Schonhauser Allee, Prenzlauer. It’s history is an interesting read, although the only gravesite I specifically went looking for was that of Max Liebermann, the expressionist painter who died in 1935. His wife committed suicide in 1943 rather than be deported and is also buried in the family plot.

    Apparently the broken gravestones are not a result of deliberate vandalism during the Nazi era, but were damage d in WWII – http://bit.ly/1sgZb2Z…

    http://flic.kr/p/neBPFf

  • Drinking in the street

    Coming from a country with strict licensing laws, particularly about where you can and can not drink, I first found the idea of people wandering down the street with a beer rather odd. After a few weeks however I have got more used to it and have had the odd beer while wandering through a street market myself. One day I was sitting in the sun and two women came down the street, one with and ice cream cone and one with a beer. They posted a letter in the mailbox in front of me, turned around and wandered off chatting, one still munching on her ice cream cone, the other swigging on her bottle of beer.

    http://flic.kr/p/neAGmL

  • Heidelbergplatz U bahn

    One of the interesting things about the U-bahn and S-bahn system in Berlin is the differences between stations. Many have coloured tiles specific to that station, while yesterday I came across fabulous vaulted ceilings and fluted columns in Heidelbergplatz U-bahn.

    http://flic.kr/p/ntQPYq

  • Jimmy C.


    It’s 36

    Juxtaposed between tags and graffiti you often find skillful and technically expressive artworks like this one spotted in Kreuzberg. This by London based artist Jimmy C. More details here.

    http://flic.kr/p/ndA8T6

  • U2 to Ruhleben


    End of the line

    Because it was so cold, Tracey and I decided to stay on the U2 to the end of the line at U Ruhleben. For much of the trip the train was packed, except may were obviously going to Olympia Stadion as once we left that station we were the only people in these two carriages 🙂

    By the way – for the history buffs, Ruhleben was the site of a famous WWI internment camp ( http://bit.ly/1lQFUDF )

    http://flic.kr/p/nuHZY9