Friedrichshain: Fresh and Photo-Ready

After reunification, low rents and the many empty apartments attracted the attention of West Berlin squatters to Friedrichshain.

Today, more and more people with alot of money are migrating to this part of the city, buying up real estate for business and artistic endeavors. Friedrichshain has a centuries-old working class, residential
roughness
that excites my senses, and makes it hard for me to accept the economic potential of its inevitable urban develop-
ment and class disparity. The description of Friedrich-
shain in Lonely Planet had me thinking it was the center of the punk element of Berlin. But it did not feel street punk to me. Although the grafitti on this Squat gives it that anarchic feel. It's already full of classy boutiques, clubs, restaurants, bars, galleries, and design and media companies, yet they are all are presented in a very quaint way, suggesting moderation yet promising a future of gentrification. It's fashionable but understated, attractive yet repulsive. I would have lived there, but already it's too late.

I had the most tasty fresh "bio" pasta though. There was a photo shoot at this Martella cafe. The photographer let me take a shot of his 'in situ", photo-ready plate of fresh pasta.

And finally, why I follow suit of dividing the city into districts as all the guidebooks do is beginning to feel uncomfortable. So perhaps I should look for another way to describe the areas of Berlin beside the official district designations.I think it will be more accurate to identify neighborhoods rather than districts, but I must return to Berlin before I can do that.

The Art Mile - Auguststraße

And here is my Berlin companion at the Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art viewing one of the seven channel video installations by Jen DeNike. This installation is called Seasons in the Sun (2005). The Kunst-Werke is a nonprofit gallery founded in a converted margarine factory and located in my most frequented area of the Mitte on Auguststraße. It seems, however, this area of the Mitte is also called the Scheunenviertel or 'Barn District.' Many of the districts have been renamed in Berlin since reunification.

Along the Spree

Here is the Fernsehturm or Television Tower, beyond the Spree River. Rivers tell you much about a city, especially along their banks. For example you can gauge how dirty a city is by seeing what drains into its rivers during a heavy rain, or you can discover forgotten industrial sites or curiously styled architecture that is not described in any guide book that you may have on hand. You see, I find these buildings visually appealing, with blocky pillars that rise up from the river, step by step, toward the sky; and background buildings providing streamlined waves of postmodern contrast. Do these building blend or progress from old to new? Is this'Bauhaus'? I have not yet found any reference to these buildings.


And what about this last building? So modern. As far as the location of these buildings, I think I crossed over the Spree River into Friedrichshain on the Warschauer Str. bridge. If not, then it was Lichtenberger Str. bridge. I should find myself an architectural historian, I think. Any Berliners out there who can help?
... I continue to piece together the puzzle.

Berlin: The Puzzle City

How it is that I have no photos of Berlin's new Hauptbahnfoh (main train Station) I can not explain!!
Maybe because it is so new, so modern, so complete?
To have a photo of this new monstrosity would not quite fit the puzzle that is Berlin. A "puzzle" is perhaps the best metaphor I can find to describe the ever-evolving Berlin.
I refer to the rebuilding of Berlin, the continual process of becoming whole, piece by puzzling piece.

Or perhaps I have no photos because I was promptly greeted at the train station by my friend Norman who swiftly wisked me away to his office in the Mitte district, on Chausseestrasse. It is one thing to arrive, and another thing to land. I arrived at the new train station but I landed at Norman's office. To "arrive," is to be in the act of arriving, entering into a place, any place. (And I must say, arriving in Berlin by train is like entering through a digestive tract, a very narrow entrance that winds through the central guts of the city, past the Bahnhof Zoo and high walls of steel, glass, and impressive graffiti-lathered concrete.)
To "land" is to touch ground, to see and feel the concrete under your feet and be present in the moment. It was at Norman's office where I took in this view, and had a moment by myself to realize I had really landed in Berlin. Okay, big deal! A zen moment perhaps, which had little to do with the view and probably more to do with the good office coffee.
But here is the view anyway, looking into the courtyard from my friend's office, which is part of an old piano manufacturing facility. After lunch together, Norman went back to work and I spent hours walking around the Mitte, exploring the galleries, independent designer boutiques, impressive wine cellars, and other kinds of nonsense accessory shops that give a little insight into the local sense of humor. My favorite place to explore and to return to again and again was the "cutting edge" Augustrasse, where on my first day in Berlin, I found a philosophy/poetry exhibit in honor of Hannah Arendt. What a good sign that I had landed in the right place at the right time!