The Brandenburg Gate—from the side and angle no one takes pictures of…
The title appeals to me; it’s another ramble through another city, but there’s something more amusing about Bummeln, strolling, than the more strait-laced and disciplined Spazieren, walking.
Because these pictures, as is usual for my rambles, weren’t made on any conscious itinerary, though some of them were part of places I meant to go. Instead, they are simply collected bits of memory, small chuckles, pleasant thoughts and the like.
The city certainly has plenty of Impressive and Formal Official sights, including the Brandenburg gate, and in the two pictures above the glass-domed Reichstag building and the inescapable Fernsehturm—the TV Tower—all seen above from a balloon ride over the city, but it has quite a few unexpected buildings and hidden delights. Frankly, they are more fun.
In this building on Thomasiusstrasse, Fritz Gottlob adopted Art Nouveau decor, but couldn’t let go of his history as the man who—literally—wrote the book on Brick Gothic churches. Below, a building with no particular distinction but plenty of flavors of mustard, and a building whose residents seem to be falling out of a wall that’s turned to sky.
This trip, I arrived in Berlin on an overnight train that arrived at 5:30 am, leaving me with a good long day to wander, since my apartment wouldn’t be ready until 3 pm. After a bite to eat at the station I set out toward the Bröhan Museum. Admittedly I was not at my sharpest, which may be why I actually thought I was looking at a Zoo escapee.
After the museum, I wandered for a while around the area in Charlottenburg now labeled ‘City West’—English really creeps in everywhere—that was the main glitzy shopping district of West Berlin, with its huge department stores and malls. And its rather unusual fountain. It’s the World or Globe Fountain, built in the 1980s of red granite. The staircase wanders into the basement of the Europa Center shopping mall. Take a close look in about a third of the way from the left in the picture, and then check the next picture to see what’s lurking there.
Budget squabbles seem to be a recurring feature of Berlin government; one of them involves the fountain, whose maintenance costs have been refused by the local district and are paid by donations from sponsors, including the developers of the large malls. I’ve no idea who paid for this other large artwork nearby; it is actually four separate pieces.
But it’s been a while since breakfast, and while it’s no Vienna, Berlin has plenty of sausages. All the major stations have branches of Yorma’s, supplier of the left-hand wurst; it’s a German equivalent of Gregg’s. I was sad to find none in Cologne, but if you’re in Hamburg, Berlin, Munich… you won’t starve there, or spend a lot.
Of course, there’s more to life than sausages… and this sign tells us “Life is short! Quick, another beer!”
Peculiar food tastes are also catered for: the sign below advertises Fanta and Twinkies from the U.S. as well as Asian Coca Cola (and the original). Oddly, I’m a fan of German and French Fanta which contains about 12% juice; I’m surprised to see that there’s a market there for the U.S. version that contains none! The potatoes, by the way, were from a cart outside the main rail station, and they are worth a trip on their own.
But life in Berlin is not all beer and skittles; after checking into my apartment, whose ‘garage’ is shown here, I took a bus to the Sudbahnhof, for the nearest open-on-Sunday supermarket. Waiting for the bus on the way back, I noticed that most people waiting for the bus were well away from the bus shelter, which was occupied by an assortment of conscious, semi-conscious and even unconscious people surrounded by detritis of beer, food and drug consumption. It was much the same at that spot a couple of days later.
But back to walking… after spending some time on Art Nouveau subway stations and a George Grosz museum, I found myself in Nollendorfplatz, home of a famous theatre, center for most of the past hundred years of a gay community in Berlin. A stunning wall covers a building housing a nightclub; classic but quite explicit sculptures from the Theater am Nollendorfplatz, and a reminder of not so long ago, when coronavirus testing was everywhere.
There was fun to be had with signs and posters. This first one relies on people being familiar with an English expression I’ll not repeat here, but on this sign it refers to the German words for Wash, Dry and Fold—in less than one hour. I’ll not comment on the one after; either you see it, or you don’t.
Not really a sign… but a special place for delivery drivers to stick those little sticky notes that tell you that you don’t have your package… yet.
You don’t really need a sign to know what U-bahn station this is…
One of Berlin’s many water pumps; despite how old many of them are, they are still a part of the city’s water supply and are especially useful in emergencies when water pumped by machinery may not be available. Unlike many cities, Berlin doesn’t rely on a system of distant reservoirs.
A moment for a thought. I’ve spent a lot of time lately looking at Art Nouveau buildings and art work, and it’s only just begun to sink in how often the female faces represented have expressions that seem to say “Is this over yet? How much longer am I supposed to be posing?” Here’s one example from Almstadtstrasse in Mitte and another from the Moabit district’s Aminius Market. I’ll not guess what the lions are thinking…
While we’re in Moabit (and I was wandering there when that thought hit me) here’s a very unusual modernist building, the 1912 Siemens turbine factory, still in use, with an immense un-columned space inside. And a little further down the road, almost next door to the old Moabit Prison, an enigmatic bit of artwork on a wall.
Time for a vehicle break…
The Trabi on the pillar below is an add for Trabi World, just down the block; it’s only spiritually connected to the currywurst stand behind it. Both it, the souvenir stand under it and the huge lot full of more Trabants than you’d think still exist, share a space with the the sightseeing balloon, all on land that until 1989 was occupied by the wall and the dead zone around it.
Along the Spree river, between Museum Island and the Bundestag buildings, there are plenty of opportunities to sit and rest, or have a coffee and something; this one uses a walkway along the Bode Museum. Below that, one of the courtyards of the landmark Hackesche Hofe has its own collection of cafes.
Every city, every waterfront, no matter how limited, seems to have its urban fishermen. I spotted this man two or three times along this walkway, never looking too serious about whether anything was biting.
And so we are at the end of the Bummel—it must be time for reflection, and no better way than a look at The Cube, an office building next to the Hauptbahnhof. Its faces are angled and inclined so there is almost no end to the variety of ways in which you can see it. That might just be a metaphor for Berlin.
I enjoyed your walkabout!