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Foto: wolkenhauer - tulip-photo.de
Berlin's Potsdamer Straße
Berlin's Potsdamer Straße is rich in tradition and experience. Leading through meadows and fields from Berlin to Potsdam it was first mentioned 800 years ago. Between 1790 and 1792 Friedrich Wilhelm II had it coated with broken stones and lined with trees thus turned it into Prussia's first avenue. The industrial revolution made Berlin expand beyond its city walls and turned Potsdamer Straße into a busy thoroughfare with Wilhelminian buildings, workers' quarters, Bohemian lifestyle and red-light district.
Women's and Homosexual Liberation
Paired with the women's and homosexual liberation of the 1920s, the squatters period in the early 1980s and the social projects since the late 1990s, Potsdamer Straße has gained a both notorious and interesting flair unlike any other street in Berlin. Thus the neighborhoods of Mitte (Potsdamer Platz / Tiergarten-Süd) and Tempelhof-Schöneberg (Schöneberg – Nord) offer an immense variety of topics, people and locations to be explored. Rich in contrast, Potsdamer Straße does not offer itself to love at first sight but quickly grows on everybody taking time and interest to explore.
Art
In the early 20th century, the area south of Tiergarten Park used to be the center of Berlin Art Trade. About 200 art, antique and asiatica shops lined the streets and flaneurs would marvel at Manet's paintings, Lembruck's sculptures and Chines vases in richly decorated shop windows . Although National Socialist Art politics banned both artists and art sellers not conforming to NS politics, auctions produced long queues before shops until the early 1940s. Today only a few of the original locations exist but as Potdamer Straße has again become a hotspot of Berlin's gallery scene, it is worth visiting both vanished locations, find the few still existing buildings and explore how the newcomers are bringing new styles to the area..
Text: Regine Wosnitza, potseblog.de
SUMMER 2011
berlinsights was consulted by the German Red Cross (DRK), in partnership with Red Crescent, for a staff tour through down-town Berlin.
The international visitors from around the globe - Africa, South America, Bangladesh, Europe and Germany! - started their walk right at the Brandenburg gate and enjoyed their evening around the pretty square at Gendarmenmarkt.
berlinsights manager Susanne went for the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on a training trip to Khujand, Tajikistan.
Summer 2011in Berlin (copyright: berlinsights)
Juni 2011: "Thomas Kilpper, Berlin" im Danish Pavillon, Biennale Venedig!
SPRING 2011 at berlinsights let our former premises Unter den Linden recall Berlin’s past with Dagobert Hoebbel from former GDR: "History and Stories of Lot No.40 for Curious Berliners" tells us about his ancestor Seiffert, baker by trade in the 6th generation. During the early beginnings of Luisenstadt, he started the first appartment-cum-working block at former house no. Unter den Linden 57-58 in 1771, until 1907. berlinsights now is witness of history over time: while Hoebbel seeks a publisher for his "Lot No. 40" booklet, the documentary film team around Anja Unger and Agnès Trintzius is busily developing „Sous Les Tilleuils“...this is not a "poisson d’avril"!
SPRING season with berlinsights, back from the South Pacific Island Countries – Fiji, Solomon and Vanuatu! With less than two mio. people who live on these Volcanic islands, we had lime juice and cafés in warm climate with real nice people!
Haven’t met a single Berliner, yet all look forward to FIFA’s World Cup Germany 2011 - Pacific ladies run with Kiwi star Riley.
Winter 2010/2011
WINTER for berlinsights meant that when one
door closes another opens! So the same day that Susanne learned
that her inhouse consultancy in a German development agency was about
to terminate, the Berlin-based company denkmodell asked berlinsights
to do a tour on Islam in Berlin. Thanks to our insider knowledge and
tourguide network, Susanne was able in parallel to accept a new assignment
in the Pacific Island Countries – Fiji, Solomon and Vanuatu! Now, a
comprehensive evaluation is being prepared on behalf of UNFPA, drawing
on the indepth experience with ILO that also has a branch office in
Berlin.
In 2011, volcanic islands pictures will come to Berlin, in the meantime wishing all berlinsights visitors and friends white season greetings.
Autum 2010Autumn in downtown Beirut, a wonderful location not only (but also) for Berliners, from capital to capital, cities once divided and yet apart?
Lebanon is one of the hip-places in the Mediterranean, yes! Just take a walk along the AUB compound of the American University of Beirut, or through one of Antoine’s bookstores. Here You find „underexposed books“ like „Screening Berlin“. Beirut truly is...“a city in the heart of the city”. You might enjoy a drink later at the rooftop of the CENTRALE Restaurant.
SUMMER 2010
August
2010
Dinner at Restaurant "Unter den Linden" - "sous les tilleuls" but not in Berlin! Greetings from Frankfurt a.M., where adventurous caterers invite for cosy dinner evenings and late summer nights downtown Bornheim - a fancy place also for Berliners like berlinsights manager Susanne!
Summer 2010. Arrival at the island of Juist with Joerg Bohn (left), managing director of the Youth Education Foundation "JuBi Buist"
Summer between Berlin-Netzeband and the island of Juist: what a difference it takes to remember Berlin times: Susanne misses the former trainee group from www.die-gdi.de that celebrates those days when the Wall fell in 1989/90! At the same time, berlinsights manager Susanne interacts with the www.jubi-juist.de team to get the theme of DIVERSITY across AIRBUS apprentees who mix from among France, Great-Britain and Germany! Migration is one of the core diversity dimensions among the AIRBUS participants, with roots as close by as the Mediterranean from Algeria, or far end of the Northern Sea capital Nuuk, apparently one of the smallest capitals of the world.
SPRING 2010
Spring season away from Berlin means for berlinsights manager
Susanne to travel to Kiev and to the Crimea Autonomous
Republic in Simferopol in the Ukraine – had it not been
for a false bomb alarm! So here I am, working in Kiev again
on behalf of the German Technical Cooperation (gtz). The Support
Concept for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) is about
to take shape: job creation and green tourism in the Krim region
may be parts of the parcel for the year 2010 because Ukrainians,
severely hit by the late-2000 recession, simply know that their
country has all it needs to sustain, no matter where their
diaspora goes!
Footnote: Berliners, we hope You enjoy the International Parliamentary
Interns (IPS) around in town, also bringing Ukrainian fellows
to Berlin!
Spring 2010. Fotos from Austria (Graz, Steiermark): Bärbel Maessen
Berlinsights in continuous
Education . . .
For
germanspeakers a Look behind GWS curtains.
WINTER 2009/2010
berlinsights, on behalf of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), was entrusted to conduct a winter-wonderland-Berlin tour for a group from abroad. Eager to learn about our Berlin Christmas tradition and our famous Prussian Empire snow stories, the guests from Iran, Israel and the Palestinian Territories started off at the Harnack House in the Southern Dahlem district of Berlin’s Free University area, symbol of academic research and intercultural exchange.
LICHTERWELT
2009 rund um den Winterfeldplatz –
hier weiterlesen: und
wie es dazu kam . . . sei lichter, sei welt, sei berlin.
Thanks to Michael Rost from www.berlin-erkundungen.de, the joint excursion passed by the major berlin highlights and ended at a typical Christmas market near Red Town Hall (Rotes Rathaus), Alexanderplatz.
Going abroad in winter means for berlinsights manager Susanne to travel to
Kiev, Donezk and Chernivtsi in the Ukraine.
On behalf of the German Technical Cooperation (gtz), Susanne is working with a regional development programme that looks into job creation and decent incomes for people in remote areas.
To this end, she helps to turn gender challenges into equal opportunities for all - thanks to Olga today and Olga in the past! The picture shows regional GTZ employee Olga together with her Ucrainian 'godmother' Olga Kobylanska (1863 - 1942), writer and Bukowina feminist.
AUTUMN 2009
berlinsights is expanding...and leaving Kreuzberg! This is
why we used our neighbour „MITTELEUROPA“ to say ‚goodbye’ to
berlinsights friends, colleagues and partners for some time!
Seeking opportunities and letting new ideas time to shape, berlinsights can best be reached by email and mobile fon (see contact).
SUMMER 2009
On behalf of the German Academic Exchange Service DAAD, berlinsights
accompanied His Excellency Dr. Salih, Kurdistan Regional Government
Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Republic
of Iraq, along Berlin's famous Museum Island.
Berlinsights arranged for a downtown Kreuzberg tour with Jodock
and partners: an extended group of visitors, meeting for their alumni get-together of the German
Protestant Highschool in Cairo, Egypt, were guided along a walking tour.
Thus, they discovered the lively Turkish culture of Kreuzberg much more than
Berlin’s Arab neighbourhood on the other side of the canal (see www.48-stunden-neukoelln.de/).
The tour, starting right from Ostbahnhof, was filled with Berlin’s history of Slesian migration and industrialisation in the mid-nineteenth, followed by Turkish migrants in the twentieth century! Osman Kalin’s tree house and the Berlin squatters’ movement of the Rauch house around former Bethanien hospital resulted in as many pictures taken as Theodor Fontane’s pharmacy or the stories told of youth gangs between the 1920s and today’s mix of social, cultural and political fusion – thank You, Jodock and Frank Gorgas, for this exciting „Berlin revisited“ Kreuzberg kiez tour.
Early Summer 2009
berlinsights celebrates four years in action on May 12, 2009,
a wonderful occasion to tour around Berlin with visitors
from Lebanon: "thank you for all the efforts you made
for us while visiting Berlin; it is a great city.. so green..
so design.. so interesting, no other city summarizes like
Berlin the 20th century and the cold war". berlinsights
surprised our lions-guests from the German island Sylt when
guiding them around former StASI buildings in Berlin-Lichtenberg
(have a look on
kilpper's
foto-blog) our most enthusiastic guest was 10 year-old
Karl who took tens of pictures, as he had never seen ART emerging
from Linoleum floors before.
Together with berlinsights on behalf of banking coach berlinhyp.de,
students of Berlin School
of Economics discovered real estate models
against real costs and figures – thanks for sharing!
Spring 2009
"One-size-rarely-fits-all" tours in spring cater for Berlin
visitors from Belgium, Egypt, France, Lebanon, the US and
Switzerland. At the same time, berlinsights manager Susanne
kept busy with local economic development on behalf of
the German Development Cooperation and the International
Labour Organisation (ILO), visiting Ghana in West Africa.
ITB International Tourism Trade Fare Berlin made berlinsights
explore partnerships with Asian-French tour operator Cosmopolis Guillaume
de Vaudray, famous for his geopolitical tours and closely cooperating
with http://celdrantours.blogspot.com/ Carlos
is a must-see!
Historical traits discovered by berlinsights UNTER DEN
LINDEN at its former premises No.40 have gently seduced
director Anja Unger to engage into making the film a Franco-German
story – now under preparation
crescendofilms.fr
Winter 2009
Going abroad in the cold European season means holidays for
some... for others like
berlinsights manager Susanne,
traveling meant to train Iraqi women and men in Amman,
Jordan, on "Gender ad Entrepreneurship Together".
(ilo.org)
Acting as Co-Chair for the Society for Continuous Education&Supervision,
Susanne from
berlinsights focused her support behind the scenes with the website
overhaul.
The topic for our GWS Forum 2009 is about
'ATTITUDE
POWER LEADERSHIP' ("HALTUNG MACHT FÜHRUNG")
(gws-netzwerk.de)
