My favourite city
More information about the programme for today here.
Information about the background here.
Some photos from some of the events, and some snapped along the way:
He of “Berliner Luft” lived here (check out this version with Placido Domingo).
I wanted to catch two exhibitions closing this week: “Under Construction” at Hamburger Bahnhof, and the current exhibits in Haus Kunst Mitte. While I was in the area, I took a look at “Europacity”, a whole new part of Berlin which has sprung up over the last five or so years, with an unbelievably large number of apartment blocks and some shops and nice cafés and other eateries. The area is clearly still under development.
My route on MapMyWalk here. (I did not have my phone with me on the walk inside Hamburger Bahnhof. Since the cases of vandalism of museum pieces, most museums no longer allow even the smallest of handbags inside.
This work by Anselm Kiefer at Hamburger Bahnhof is not part of the exhibition I went to see, but I have always loved it and it bears seeing again and again:
This one is from the exhibition “Under Construction”:
Walking through “Europacity”:
The walk also took me through the cemetery in Invalidenstraße with a gruesome history in more ways than one, and past the watch tower in Kieler Straße 2, now a memorial. The Berlin Wall went straight through the length of the cemetery.
The “Haus Kunst Mitte” has appeared under my radar so it was definitely time to check it out. It seems like an interesting place worth keeping an eye on.
And finally, yet another ghost bike in Berlin. The most tragic of sights in recent history:
Exactly five weeks since surgery, I woke up this morning knowing immediately that something was different. MY SCARS WERE NOT HURTING! What a difference that makes! They are each about 25 cm long, and it still feels better to wear compression than to not wear it, so I guess it is no wonder that it is taking time for them to settle, but I also think it is time now for me to not be reminded of them 24/7.
On top of this positive development, the weather was at its Berlin September best, so it was time to finally make an excursion to the the outskirts of Berlin – something I have not felt like since early June when a sneaking suspicion about the final diagnosis started to creep in, followed by weeks of uncertainty about the surgery and the outcome.
For the second time, I brought my new camera with me in the hope of also rekindling my interest in photography.
Recommended pitstop: Café Gerch.
On my balcony, contemplating shapes and shadows and black and white vs. colour; a walk in Alt-Lübars; and some old photos that turned up while I was tidying up my harddrive.
On 26 May, I had actually planned to walk about 15 km from Alt-Lübars, along Tegeler Fließ, round Hermsdorfer See and back on Tegeler Fließ, to Alt-Tegel, but felt tired and got distracted by the prospect of lunch in a restaurant by a lake. Here is the route I ended up walking, but will go back and do more of Tegeler Fließ in the near future.
And some old photos – the first one from the good old days when the ABC art fair was still alive, although never really kicking:
Lovely walk organised and led by Margot Dietzsch.
Regional train from Berlin Central Station to Potsdam (I always forget that that only takes about 30 minutes) and then bus 580 to Lehnin bus station.
My walking route on Mapmywalk here.
(I left the group prematurely in order to be certain to make it home for my zoom course). Also, on the way home, Frank (the dogwalker) informed me that Max had a case of diarrhea and that I should take him out as soon as I got home.
I actually saw a cuckoo for the first time in my life. I was only able to identify it because it was flying overhead while cuckooing. Smaller than I thought.
I did not take my camera this time, so these are just some snaps taken with my phone:
Approximate route planned here.
Ludwigslust – about 75 minutes from Berlin on the ICE – turned out to be a very pleasant, if a little sleepy, town with a nice Thursday market and – probably most importantly to the locals, Ludwigslust Castle at the edge of its huge park. The park has a lot of the elements which you would expect from this type of park but fortunately some of the grounds are forest left almost to its own devices.
Giving Max the luxury of two extra outings with Frank (and myself the luxury of not having to take care of his major daily exercise), I have put together some outings for myself and anyone who would like to join me: one gallery walk in Berlin in the late afternoon of Friday 29 April, and one in the afternoon of Sunday, 1 May. In between, I will be going to Leipzig for the “Frühlingsrundgang” in Spinnerei Leipzig on Saturday 30 April.
Some impressions from Spinnerei Leipzig 30 April (starting with a couple of tulips in the nice café garden):
And some from the walk on 1 May (including one photo from one of the traditional 1 May demos, and one of a wild hare of which there are now so many in Berlin – I just was never aware of them until I started walking with a dog with a well-developed hunting instinct):
This time, it was not Gunter Demnig himself who laid down the stones, but there are photos of him laying down stones in at least one other post on this site. Just search Stolpersteine or stumbling stones. On this day, the stones were laid down by a representative who did not want to be photographed which I of course have to respect, given the strict data protection laws in Germany. I hope I have remembered to omit everybody else who also one way or another let me know they did not want to be photographed while at the same time trying to show a bit more of the environment this time, and not just a series of stumbling stones.
Link to my route on Mapmywalk here.
Edith Birnbaum is commemorated with the laying of a stumbling stone at Wilhelmstraße 15. Edith Birnbaum was born in Charlottenburg in 1900. She earned her living as a secretary and shorthand typist. She lived at Wilhelmstraße 15 from around 1934. With the gradual disenfranchisement and persecution of Jews from 1933, coercive measures against Edith Birnbaum began because she was Jewish.
Edith Birnbaum is thought to have tried to commit suicide on her 42nd birthday and died on January 24, 1942 in the Jewish Hospital in Berlin from an overdose of sleeping pills.
The stumbling stone for Edith Birnbaum was initiated by a descendant.
I did not find the next stumbling stone at Großbeerenstraße 5, nor any signs of one being laid down. All there is on that location right now, as far as I could see, is a giant building site. However, I am still including the story as outlined in the original plan:
The initial stumbling stone for Carl Jachmann at Großbeerenstraße 5 was damaged and on this day replaced. Carl Jachmann’s biography is published at https://www.stolpersteine-berlin.de/de/biografie/1913. Excerpts: Carl Jachmann was born on September 15, 1875 in Berlin. He was married, with no children. He worked as a salesman, most recently for the company Gorbatschow Liköre F. Kramer & Co, which was founded in 1928, based at Ansbacher Straße 8a in Charlottenburg and whose owners were of Jewish origin. The company was dissolved in 1938 as part of the National Socialist “Aryanization policy”. Carl Jachmann probably lost his job at this point.
Although Carl Jachmann’s older brother, a niece and a nephew had emigrated from Germany in 1939, he himself stayed in Berlin. On December 1, 1939, already widowed, Carl Jachmann moved to Großbeerenstraße 5 in Kreuzberg, renting a small furnished room with the Davidsohn family, who – like him – were Jews.
On August 31, 1942, the 67-year-old Carl Jachmann was deported to Theresienstadt on the 53rd “Alterstransport” (presumably from Anhalter Bahnhof). His landlords, Julius and Gertrud Davidsohn, née Wolff, had been deported to Riga on August 15, 1942. Barely a month after his arrival in Theresienstadt, Carl Jachmann was deported to the Treblinka extermination camp. Here his trace is lost. He is thought to have been murdered in the gas chamber immediately upon arrival.
On to the next one, right behind the Jewish Museum:
Max, Alma, Gustav and Dolly Hanff re commemorated by four stumbling stones in Alte Jakobstrasse, opposite the junction with Franz-Künstler-Strasse. The Hanff family had moved to Berlin around 1902. Gustav and Max Hanff completed commercial training. Alma Abbe (b. 1893) and her sister Dolly (b. 1894) had moved from Kempen (then the Prussian province of Poznan) around 1911. Max Hanff and Alma Abbe married in 1921. Dolly Abbe and Gustav Hanff married in 1923. Around 1932 the Hanffs moved to Hollmannstrasse 26, a street which ran between Lindenstrasse and Alexandrinenstrasse. House No. 26 stood where the Jewish Museum Berlin is located today.
With the gradual disenfranchisement and persecution of Jews since 1933, coercive measures against the Jewish Hanff family also began. Max Hanff died in March 1940. Gustav Hanff had to do forced labor at Blaupunkt in Köpenicker Strasse, Dolly at AEG in Oberschöneweide, and Alma at a garden center in Rudow. On February 26, 1943, they were deported to Auschwitz with the so-called “30. Osttransport” and murdered. The four stumbling blocks are laid on the initiative of a descendant.
Theodor Weiss is commemorated with the laying of a stumbling stone at Oranienstraße 129. He was born in Berlin in 1874 to Jewish parents. He grew up with foster parents and was brought up as a Protestant. In 1924 he entered into a relationship with Klara Schröter, and they had three children. In the mid-1930s they lived at Oranienstrasse 129 in Kreuzberg (the house no longer exists).
With the enactment of the “Nuremberg Laws” in 1935, relationships between Jews and non-Jews were forbidden. Since Klara Schröter was a so-called “Aryan”, Theodor Weiss was arrested in October 1936 and in February 1937 sentenced to 15 months in prison for so-called “racial defilement”. At the end of his imprisonment, he was transferred to the Dachau concentration camp and was not released until the end of September 1938. In August 1941, Theodor Weiss was arrested again and transferred to Buchenwald in November 1941. In January 1942 he was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Theodor Weiss was released from prison on January 6, 1943 and deported to Auschwitz, where he was murdered on January 30, 1943. The sponsor for the stumbling stone for Theodor Weiss is a descendant.
A stumbling stone commemorates Walter Owitz at Erkelenzdamm 11-13. He was born in Berlin in 1922. The family lived at Alexandrinenstraße 37. Around 1936 the family moved to the house at Elisabethufer 28-29 (today Erkelenzdamm 11-13). With the gradual disenfranchisement and persecution of Jews since 1933, coercive measures against the Jewish Owitz family also began. The father’s company, because it was a Jewish-owned company, was liquidated in 1939. The converted mother left the Jewish community in 1939, probably to protect her family. Walter was still legally considered a Jew because he was brought up in the Jewish faith. On July 31, 1942 he was deported to Theresienstadt with the so-called “34. Transport of the Elderly”. On January 23, 1943, he was deported from there to Auschwitz and murdered. His parents lived to see the end of the war in Berlin. The stumbling stone for Walter Owitz was initiated by a committed neighbour.
Max, Charlotte, Hans and Rudolf Jacobson and Dolly Mölke are commemorated with five stumbling stones at Skalitzer Straße 141a. The house at Skalitzer Strasse 141a was the last place of residence of the Jewish Jacobson family. Max Jacobson was born in Danzig in 1879. He moved to Berlin, studied architecture and worked as an architect. In 1908 he married Charlotte Wotyzky, born 1888 in Berlin. The couple had three children: Rudolf (born 1908), Hans (born 1910) and Dolly (born 1911). Rudolf completed an apprenticeship as an electrician and projectionist, Hans as a graphic designer and book printer. Dolly Jacobson, who was a dancer, married the “non-Jew” Werner Mölke in 1934. The couple soon separated , but did not divorce. This protected Dolly Mölke from deportation.
Max Jacobson was arrested by the Gestapo on June 13, 1938 and taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. On September 3, 1940 he was deported to the Dachau concentration camp, where he was murdered on January 4, 1941.
Charlotte Jacobson was deported to Auschwitz on January 12, 1943 and murdered. After that, her son Rudolf went into hiding, obtained false papers and lived and worked as an “Aryan” in Berlin. On August 17, 1944, he was arrested, and was deported to Auschwitz on September 6, 1944. From there he was deported to a satellite camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp on November 19, 1944. He lived to witness the liberation of the camp.
Hans Jacobson was deported to Auschwitz on December 7, 1943, where he was murdered on February 2, 1944. Rudolf Jacobson and Dolly Mölke emigrated to the USA after the war.
Their stumbling stones are laid at the initiative of a descendant.
A propos of nothing, just took these while I was waiting or walking:
At Kottbusser Damm 5, stumbling blocks commemorate the sisters Selma Fichtmüller and Elli Blau. They had lived in the house at Kottbusser Damm 5 since 1914. Both women worked: Selma earned her living as an accountant, Elli was an authorized officer. Coercive measures began with the gradual disenfranchisement and persecution of Jews from 1933 onwards. In order to escape imminent deportation, the sisters decided to commit suicide: they were found dead in their apartment on September 5, 1942. Selma Fichtmüller and Elli Blau were buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Berlin-Weissensee. This commemoration was initiated by a descendant.
On a whim, I decided that it had been too long – probably about 2,5 years – since I had last visited the galleries in Spinnerei Leipzig, so I hopped on the ICE and walked from Leipzig central station in order to see an area of Leipzig I had only crossed on a local train from the central station to Plagwitz which is where Spinnerei Leipzig is.
I passed the Gedenkstätte Museum in der “Runden Ecke”, through Clara Zetkin Park, and past the Jahrtausendfeld. On the way back, I passed, but did not try out, Café Kater, by some named the best café in Leipzig.
Link to my route on mapmywalk here.
