The New York times had a Restaurant Report a few days back about a restaurant call "Little Otik" which servers American food in the heart of Berlin Kreuzberg. I guess New York was to pricy for those two Detroit native so they decided to settle in Berlin. Take a look at the article here. Also here a link to the Little Otik's web site itself. It turns out they are only 20 minutes walking distance from berlin19. Can't wait to check them out soon.

 

You can find the web site of the Badeschiff here.  Here you can also find a video which shows, how they're turning it into a sauna in the winter.

Very close to the Badeschiff at the same area is „Club der Visionäre“, where one you can sit on wooden Pontons, listen to DJ's, put your legs into the water, have beer with friends - gorgeous place!

And for people who like a it a little more quiet there is also the Boat Restaurant Freischimmer where you can have your beer or bionade 2 feets above the water. There are not many place like this to stay on a warm summer afternoon.

Did I mention that all of these place are less then 10 min walking distance form out berlin19?

I find this very helpful and fun at the same time for everybody from San Francisco or people who know San Francisco very well:

Neighborhood analogies: Berlin - San Francisco
    •    Prenzlauerberg is like Noe Valley
    •    Schoeneberg is like the Castro
    •    Friedrichshein is like lower Nob Hill/The Tenderloin
    •    Mitte is downtown
    •    Kreuzberg 36 (zip code where our apt is) is like the Mission/Hayes Valley/Lower Haight
    •    The other part of Kreuzberg 61 (further southwest) is like Duboce Triangle

Since the last time I visited Berlin, a bunch of new Mexican restaurants have popped up around city (as mentioned in the NY Times). I went to one of these, Maria Peligro, at Skalitzer Strasse 81, which is just around the corner from berlin19. It's run by a woman from Dallas, Texas and her boyfriend from Mexico City. I found the food and the atmosphere to be very good---better Mexican food than I have had in San Francisco actually. They have some taco dishes but no burritos, chimichangas and enchiladas that are ubiquitous in California Mexican restaurants. I had a hard time choosing between the chicken mole and a sort of rice paella with fish. I chose the latter and it was delicious. Even the guacamole and the tomale I had for an appetizer were really good. Thanks, Robin

British set designer Tony Hornecker prepares dinner at his restaurant "The Pale Blue Door" in Berlin, September 12, 2010. A British set designer has taken his love for art, added some food, and opened a temporary pop-up restaurant -- made with scrap materials scavenged from the streets -- in one of Berlin's central community gardens. Tony Hornecker, the mastermind behind the thriving shanty town-style restaurant "The Pale Blue Door", said that he does not make any profits with his fanciful underground restaurant, but feels that he is giving Berlin a unique attraction.

For some reason I could find the exact location. Has anybody been there?

The German actor, Daniel Brühl known above all for his Spanish origins (and if he’s not, it’ll come to you as a surprise), was born Daniel César Martín Brühl González Domingo 32 years ago in Barcelona. These roots have been well and truly demonstrated in his role in films set in Barcelona such as Salvador (Puig), as well as that in the film set on the Barcelona Port, Cargo.

The connection with his birth city and native country will be even stronger with the opening of a Spanish tapas restaurant in Berlin this winter called ´Raval`, which is a clear reference to the popular Barcelona district and where he is often spotted walking around when he comes to visit this exciting city.

This future Spanish restaurant will be located on Lübbener Strasse 1, a well known and bohemian area in Kreuzberg, and it will most definitely be worth a visit not only from the many tourists that flood the district, but also from the Latin and German residents that love Spanish wine, cheese, and the varied Spanish gastronomy. Daniel Brühl intends to cover a basic need which is for him offering authentic Spanish food in the Berlin capital. Its not that there aren’t any Spanish restaurants in the city, it’s just that according to the German actor there is a general lack of quality and authenticity, therefore his aim is non other than to provide what the other Spanish restaurants lack. All the food products will be directly imported from Spain to thus offer authentic Spanish food, so if you’re passing through Berlin, pass by the Spanish restaurant ´Raval` if you would like to try authentic Spanish cooking in the heart of the Berlin capital.

According to google maps his restaurant is 10 minutes walking distance from berlin19. We for sure will check it out next summer.

Citizens to build car-free district in Kreuzberg, Berlin

To do so they bought the land which former belonged to the german railway at the S-Bahn station Yorck Strasse in Berlin-Kreuzberg. The cooperative “Initiative Möckern Neighborhood” bought a 30000 square meters area from “Vivico Real Estate” for eight million Euros as the company announced on Tuesday. Planned on the three football fields big area is the construction of 385 apartments for around 1000 people. The initiative states that its objective is "to live socially inclusive, ecologically, culturally and inter-barrier-free and car-free. There are also planning to have seminar rooms, a children and youth center and a "neighborhood canteen" to be used by all the inhabitants. Sounds kind of like Co-housing an a large scale.

Just in case you haven’t heard about the papergirl yet. Check out the website of papergirl berlin. Their location is less then a mile away from our vacation rental on Mariannenplatz right across the street from the Bethanien (Yes, Berlin’s most famous squat Germanys most famous band Ton Steine Scherben sings about in the “Rauch-Haus-Song”).

Sounds pretty Buddhist to me: “The art of giving art” – Possibilities and boundaries of Urban Art in Discussion

Neurotitan gallery

Rosenthaler Straße 39, 10178 Berlin

Start: 6pm

The event will be hosted by Mark Butler and is held in English language. Admission is free.

Foto: Anne Wizorek

How can we make art accessible to everyone, and is this even a desirable goal? Isn’t there a risk for artworks of becoming random and falling in value? Or should one always overcome conventions in order to break new ground?

The contradictions regarding art are easily perceptible and especially art in public is often confronted with not only admirers but also with harsh criticism. Therefore our event “The art of giving art” wants to discuss possibilities and boundaries of art in public as a part of the Papergirl festival.

We will start with the Papergirl project itself by letting international Papergirl initiators introduce us to their very own project which they started in their home cities. Our guests are from England (Manchester), Romania (Bucharest), South Africa (Cape Town), and the USA (Albany, NY), and will provide insight into what drove them to start Papergirl, and which problems they had to overcome. This will be the basis for a further debate on an international scale.

For this purpose we also invited guests working in different cultural fields and therefore having various connections and experiences with art and its occurrence in public spaces: Juliane Breternitz is a cultural worker, Stéphane Bauer is a curator and head of the art space Bethanien in Kreuzberg, Lukas Feireiss is a curator as well and provides his expertise in public art for the Gestalten publishing company, Katharina Becker is a professional designer who also represents the Papergirl Berlin team in the discussion, and Marc Scherer owns the ATM gallery in Berlin and is furthermore an artist himself.

Is art in public spaces still a modern way of expression considering the digital age that we’re living in? Can this kind of art be provoking any longer now that it has been adopted so heavily by advertising? Or have we already reached an oversaturation?

In collaboration with the Papergirl visitors we will discuss the current status of artistic methods in public spaces, and moreover we will sketch visions of future developments. You are cordially invited to be our guests at this great event and we are looking forward to seeing you there!

Bauhaus-Archiv, Berlin, today, 10 am - 17pm Uhr

"Sammlung Bauhaus - The original of the classical modernity" is the most comprehensive exhibition of its kind.

Ninety years ago, Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in Weimar. It existed for only 14 years, but it became the most important school of modernity. With Josef Albers, Herbert Bayer, Marcel Breuer, Lyonel Feininger, Johannes Itten, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Gerhard Marcks, Adolf Meyer, Georg Muche, László Moholy-Nagy, Hinnerk Scheper, Oskar Schlemmer, Joost Schmidt, Lothar Schreyer and Gunta Stölzl, a faculty with an international reputation worked under the direction of Walter Gropius (1919-1928), Hannes Meyer (1928-1930) and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1930-1933) at the Bauhaus.

The Bauhaus is Germany’s most successful contribution to international art and culture of modernity in the early 20th century. More than 75 years after it was closed in Berlin, the reputation of this inter-disciplinary school for architecture, design, visual and performing arts that moved to Dessau in 1925 continues to be as internationally significant as ever. The vibrancy and impact of the Bauhaus during its existence and after its dissolution in 1933 demonstrate that although the Bauhaus, as a laboratory and workshop of modernity, was destroyed by a deliberate political act, it was exactly that circumstance that enabled it to unfurl its global influence – history’s irony.

On the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the foundation of the Bauhaus and 20 years after the fall of the Berlin wall, the leading Bauhaus research institutions and museums in Germany – the Bauhaus Archive Berlin, the Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau and the Klassik Stiftung Weimar – for the first time jointly present an exhibition: Bauhaus. A Conceptual Model. With well over 900 objects it will be the largest Bauhaus exhibition ever.

The exhibition recounts the story of the Bauhaus in a comprehensive presentation of the works of its masters and students as well as the most important school issues. Inter-disciplinary, experimental teaching, the concept of practice-oriented workshops, the pursuit of answers to social questions, the propagation of timeless aesthetics as well as experimentation with new techniques and materials in architecture and design were the school’s most important concerns. The exhibition Bauhaus. A Conceptual Model centres on the comprehensive significance of the Bauhaus for the development and internationalisation of modernity and goes beyond, examining its world-wide, lasting impact on architecture and design up until the present day.

While previous exhibitions on the Bauhaus were grouped according to its workshops, Bauhaus. A Conceptual Model chooses the perspective of the history of its development, embedding the objects into their respective contexts. The curators of the three participating Bauhaus institutions also pursue the issues of the further development, reception and current significance of the Bauhaus.

The presentation of the historical Bauhaus is located in the 18 ground floor galleries of the Martin-Gropius-Bau, while in the centre hall of the building the relevance of the Bauhaus will be discussed and re-positioned.

Bauhaus. A Conceptual Model is presented in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which will celebrate its 80th birthday with the exhibition Bauhaus 1919 – 1933: Workshops for Modernity directly following the Berlin presentation.

The blog of the bike store called Rad Spannerei is talking about a boom in Bike tourism in Berlin. Apparently there are over 20 different companies who offer organized bike tours for tourist through Berlin. Christian Taenzler the spokes person of the “Berlin Tourismus Marketing GmbH: says that “in principle one can see all of Berlin’s attractions by bike” The reason he give why bike tourism is blooming in Berlin is because Berliners are more considerate towards bicyclists then people in other cities like Barcelona or Landon. Being in Berlin right now I can confirm that it is much more pleasant to bike here then even in the most quiet parts of Brooklyn. Also since last summer places where you can rent bikes seems to have tripled at least in here in Kreuzberg were our holiday rental is.

Kreuzberg is on of Berlin's great outdoor movie theater it is loated right behind Kuenstlerhaus Bethanien, up the block from so many great cafes on Oranienstrasse, and just across the water from Bar25. Be warned: this is one of the more popular Freiluftkinos so get in line early. From berlin19 you can walk to this Freiluftkino at the Adalbertstrasse 73 in 10 minutes or less. You can find their program here http://www.freiluftkino-kreuzberg.de as well as subscribe to their online calendar.

After several years of construction the Omar-Ibn-Al-Khattar Mosque right at the Görlitzer Bahnhof will open on Friday May 21st here in Berlin-Kreuzberg. The new Mosque allows about 1000 people to pray. The Mosque is part of the new Maschari Center which also houses offices and seminar spaces. The Mosque looks very modern and one could fight about its beauty. For the longest time it looked like the Mosque would never be finished but now it is and it can be considered part of Kreuzbergs colorful fabric of society. I use to pass by this unfinished building on my bike on my way from our holiday rental "berlin19" when ever I need to go to our local food coop called LPG.

One of Berlins Must-Do's is definitely the Jewish Museum. In fact it is so popular that the original Architect is introduced plans for an extension yesterday (5/4/2010). A new building across the street of the original building so the plan will be the home of an academy, an archive and an library. The museum is in one of Berlin's most popular districts called Kreuzberg and can easily reached from our vacation rental which happens to be in the same district. For more information take a look at the web site of the Jewish Museum.

This Tuesday the Kreuzberger open air swimming pool in the Prinzenstraße opened its doors. As of now it will be open from 7am till 7pm. The Kreuzberger open air swimming pool is well visit amongst young people during their summer break and was the film location for several successful movies like a documentary called «Prinzessinenbad». The Prinzenbad can be reached from our vacation rental in the Eisenbahnstrasse within 10 minutes by bike or via U-Bahn from Görlitzter Bahnhof.

Kreuzberg is know for its colorful and very popular neighborhood fest. Every year there are thousands of visitors coming from other neighborhoods or out of town to be part of this party. The party is happening around the Kottbusser Tor (which is also the name of the closest Underground Station), Oranienstraße and the Heinrichplatz. There will be lots of stages with a variety of  musical and cultural events. Food wise Kreuzberg is know for its very international food. As usually there will be a very fun program for kids with break dance soccer, climbing walls etc. No wander May is berlin19's busiest month. You can check out its availability here (http://www.berlin19.com/page3/index.html).

SO36 is Kreuzberg's most famous Club. 100.000 Euro were needed to soundproof it. In September the "Toten Hosen" Germany's most famous punk band gave Benefits concert. More donations are needed but it looks like SO36 will survive. SO36 is less then 15 minutes walking distance away from our not as famous vacation rental berlin19 :). See for yourself on Google Maps.

You now can subscribe to our blog using this URL in Apples email program or with a newsreader like Netnewswire: http://www.berlin19.com/page4/files/berlin19blogRSS.php. You now can also find us on Twitter. Look for rnetter or on Facebook using that very same id rnetter. That way you can find out whats new in Berlin or with berlin19 and get our newest specials renting out berlin19.

The Deutsche  Bundesbahn (The German Train Campany) is testing a two bike rental system. There is already a pretty good one in place but currently they two new Systems the so called flex-System the  so called fix-System where the bikes are parked at a fixed location. The flex-System the bikes have to be parked in a signed area in designated rental area. To use either system you need a customer card.

Practically this means that Berlin will probably soon offer more choices to rent a bike. But then berlin19 has 3 bikes our guest can rent.

Hier das Youtube Video Icke & Er - Keen Hawaii. I hope you'll like it.

Die Berliner Zeitung veröffentlichte gestern neue Zahlen zum Radfahreranteil in unterschiedlichen Bezirken. Danach liegt der Anteil der Radfahrer am gesamten Verkehr in Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain bei 21 Prozent. Der Anteil des Fahrrads bei der Verkehrsmittelwahl beträgt in Pankow 17 Prozent und in Mitte 14 Prozent. In manchen Außenbezirken spielt das Rad nach wie vor eine untergeordnete Rolle. So sind in Marzahn-Hellersdorf und in Lichtenberg nur sechs beziehungsweise sieben Prozent mt dem Fahrrad unterwegs. Der Gesamtberliner Durchschnittswert für den Fahrradverkehr liegt bei 13 Prozent.

Berliner Zeitung: Fast wie in Holland