Tempodrom (Kreuzberg)

The Tempodrom is an event venue in Berlin. It was initially launched in 1980 as a kind of alternative circus in a tent on the west side of the Potsdamer Platz in what was at the time the immediate vicinity of the Berlin Wall by a former nurse, Irene Moessinger with an inheritance. It has since moved several times and is now located in the Kreuzberg neighborhood in a building inspired by the early tent.

In 1985, the Tempodrom moved from the tent on the Potsdamer Platz to the vicinity of the Kongresshalle in the Grosser Tiergarten, then after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, moved again. With private donations, government grants, and compensation for the old location, in 2001, the New Tempodrom reopened on the grounds of the former Anhalter Bahnhof (full reportage HERE) in a new, concrete building, inspired by the original tents.

Designed by Doris Schäffler and Stephan Schütz on the site of the former train station built pickup at Askanischer Platz The roof, which is reminiscent of the Cathedral of Brasília by Oscar Niemeyer, is inspired by the shape of a circus tent, and with its aseptic, white forms a contrast to the remains of the former station represents.

More infos: WIKI

Map: http://goo.gl/maps/MlqfJ

All images are under CC Creative Commons (Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works), please refer to " darioj laganà | www.norte.it "

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Can a 160km wall desappear so easily? Where the Wall Ends (Teltow)

There are different standard mistakes regarding the Berlin Wall. For some people it was a line separating east and west (with different meanings of it), for some other it was a very huge tall wall breaking in two the city and so on. Reality was that it was not just a single wall, but a set of fortifications built by time to time, one in the other, to separate two countries. 160 km of different possible fortifications made by bricks in the beginning, then with concrete; deathstrips, briked up windows, demolished buildings, watching towers and tanks in the middle. All of ths built not in one time but in 30 years, changed year by year, in a circle around West Berlin and with some checkpoints (like the famous Charlie or Bornholmer Brücke).

And what happend to this 160km of concrete then? For most people it has already been sold to the tourists piece by piece, brick by brick, for others it has been sold to other coutries, to private investors and so on. Reality is that although all of this is true, it's very hard to think that you can sell all of it in this way. Some auctions have been made and of course the first ones were very productives, but then the attention of the world has changed and the wall is in small pieces still all around berlin. Sometimes you can find some pieces in the backyards of building, some of it is still up at the East Side Gallery (although some investors would like to demolish it to make luxury buildings - read Die Mauer Müss Bleiben or David Hasselhoff & The Berlin Wall published here in the past).

This collection of Berlin Wall pieces is south of Berlin, on the other side of a fence, just by the street. Apparently abandoned, used by street artists to make some good artwork, but essentially left as is.

All images are under CC Creative Commons (Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works), please refer to " darioj laganà | www.norte.it "

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Bornholmer Brücke

On 9 November 1989, after West German television stations reported a change in travel regulations that had just been announced by GDR politburo member Günter Schabowski, a growing crowd of East Berliners started collecting at the checkpoints on the border to West Berlin. They wanted to take advantage of their new right to travel right away.

The first GDR citizens to show up at the Bornholmer Strasse checkpoint were permitted to leave for West Berlin, although the head of the passport control units had their passports stamped invalid, expatriating the passport holders without their knowledge. As crowds of people continued to arrive, however, this strategy had to be abandoned. Two hours later, the guards “opened the floodgates” and raised the barrier. Over the next hour, around 20,000 people were able to cross the Bösebrücke bridge without being checked. On this night, the peaceful revolution underway in the GDR and the political changes taking place in the countries of Eastern Europe had succeeded in opening the Berlin Wall.

More infos: berlin.de

Map: http://goo.gl/maps/5zPId

All images are under CC Creative Commons (Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works), please refer to " darioj laganà | www.norte.it "

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Tränenpalast - Palace of Tears

Sometimes it happens that you pass by a building in Berlin and it looks "normal" or just not so particular and you keep on passing by it without knowing it at all.

This builing is in the middle of the city, in a very famous and full of people area, just at the corner of Friedrichstrasse.

From 1962 to 1989, the Tränenpalast was the central terminal for travellers between East and West Germany. The building was used only for westbound border crossings, with separate checkpoints for citizens of West Berlin, citizens of West Germany, foreigners, diplomats, transit travellers and East German citizens.

After reunification in 1991 it was a club with different cultural events (disco, cabaret and other live events). In 1993, the building was declared a national monument and in 2006 the club was forced to close, as the Berlin Senate has sold the property.

The name derives from the fact Tränenpalast that most East Germans during the period did not have the freedom to travel to West Berlin and its Western visitors here had to say goodbye with tears.

More infos: WIKI

Map: http://goo.gl/maps/J9KW2

All images are under CC Creative Commons (Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works), please refer to " darioj laganà | www.norte.it "

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