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Berlin, The Balcony that "would not be affected"

Documentation 19 September

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This afternoon, I spent (wasted?) about an hour cleaning my balcony – again (see https://www.hellemoller.eu/2020/09/14/i-cant-believe-this-is-actually-happening/) (that was probably stupid, but I could no longer stand looking at the mess). It currently looks like in the photo above. I have not washed anything, and my gut instinct tells me it would be asking for trouble to put the furniture back once again. But at least I can sit on my balcony now.

This time, there was too much rubble to carry to their doorstep in one go, so I just threw their “gifts” onto the scaffolding. A lot of it was stuck, so it took quite a bit of hacking and scraping. Washing the floor and the marble shelves (which were brand new from February last year) would probably reveal some damage done, and that would ruin my mood which for some strange reason is relatively good right now. Perhaps because I have just been out of town, and am going away again next week, and for another two weeks after that will be relocating to house- and catsit elsewhere in Berlin.

I do appreciate the fact that I am able to get away most of the time, and that I live in a (for me) new country with a good train service and an endless supply of places to visit (although when during the winter I decided to sell my parking space, that was not what I planning on spending the money on :-)).

However, truth be told, given the lovely weather this month, not to mention Covid19 and my age, I would have preferred to be able to spend most of the time on my balcony and sometimes have one or two visitors over for brunch/lunch/coffee/drinks.

Cresco Capital Group

Schön & Sever

Daytrips from Berlin

Cottbus 17-18 September 2020

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Wikipedia.

Kunstmuseum Dieselkraftwerk

Website. Wikipedia.

Staatstheater

Website. Wikipedia.

Tierpark Cottbus

Website. Wikipedia.

Berlin

Berlin, a good biking city? Nothing could be further from the truth

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Let’s start close to home, the courtyard of the building I live in.

Cars and other motorised vehicles are allowed to park helter-skelter wherever they like, but bikes are ONLY allowed in a room which is much too small, alternatively in our own rooms in the basement which involves schlepping the bike through the main door, carrying it down two short flights of stairs, unlocking the room to the basement, then up a couple of steps, round yet another corner and unlocking our private room, which is barely big enough for a bike.

In our building, which is obviously stuck somewhere in the mid-20th century (anti bikes, anti environment ….), everything has to be as easy and simple as possible for motorised vehicles, and as difficult and bothersome as possible for bikes.

In my view, the courtyard should be used for something much better, nicer, more modern and more environment-friendly than asphalt and cars, and no cars should be allowed in the courtyard at all.

When I bought the flat here, I also bought a parking space, and was promised that I would be able to use it for a bike rack (to make sure the bike would never fall over and get anywhere near the precious cars) and keep my bike there. However, the other inhabitants in the building did not want that, and kept cutting the increasingly heavy chain and placing my bike out of sight right at the end of the courtyard.

Ever since I moved in, I have tried to float the subject of creating bike parking spaces in the as yet completely un-utilised areas in the courtyard (not using those spaces is a complete waste if you ask me), but that has met with no interest whatsoever.

I have now given up, sold the parking space, and given away my bike.

By the way, did I mention that our Hausverwaltung is Schön & Sever?

Into the street: In Lindenstraße, there is a very narrow bike path BETWEEN parked cars and a very busy street (we all know how drivers can’t be bothered to look behind them before opening their car door). An arrangement seen in many streets all over Berlin. Who in their right mind builds streets like that?

Other bike paths (where they exist), apart from being equally narrow, are full of potholes, lampposts and trees, cars park on them with impunity, and some of them even have a double function as bus lanes (!!!!).

Berlin

The diversity of my Hood

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In lovely September weather, I thought I would go for a quick walk in the area before the Sunday hordes of morons, acting like Corona never was, hit the streets.

One of the many new buildings around what used to be the original location of the retail flower market in Berlin, and also once of the Berlin Observatory where Neptune was discovered, between the Jewish Museum and the southern end of Friedrichstraße, is Frizz23, a “cultural co-ownership project”, with, among other places of interest Café Nullpunkt, serving delicious vegetarian and vegan food and aiming for zero waste, and Bolsos, a shop selling hand-made bags made of recyclable material.

Also in the area is the location of one of the early concentration camps – the ”Gutschow-Keller”.

The warehouse with a basement in the second courtyard of the building Friedrichstraße 234 was owned by the greengrocers Hermann and Paul Gutschow who also owned the imposing building in Wilheminian style across the street in Friedrichstraße 17.

Already in 1932, the Gutschows placed their warehouse and basement at the disposal of the ”SA-Sturmbann III/8″.

From March to May 1933, the place was one of the first concentration camps in Berlin. Prisoners called it ”Blutburg” (castle of blood). Hundreds of trade unionists, communists, social democrates and Jews were seized in their homes, at their places of work and in the street and abducted to this place and interrogated, humiliated and tortured.

As these torture chambers of the SA were placed in a large tenement block, the screams could be heard from the street and the neighbourhood knew about the imprisonment, maltreatment and torture.

I have, as yet, been unable to find out what happened to the prisoners subsequently. One might suspect that they were transferred to larger concentration camps and killed.

The relatively new urban garden, next to the equally relatively new TAZ Building, is coming along nicely. There is also a Sprachcafé and a DIY bike repair shop:

Hand-made shoes:

Back towards Lindenstraße, in the building to the right of the Blumenthal Academy is another new café, a branch of the bio bakery and café Beumer & Lutum. And finally, a photo of “Neighbours from Hell” as seen from the street.

Berlin, The Balcony that "would not be affected"

I always give back what I have borrowed

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  • Current state, just for comparison
  • This morning’s harvest, returned

Cresco Real Estate

Berlin, The Balcony that "would not be affected"

Like a gift that keeps on giving

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Came home to find some more “presents”. Even more disgusting ugliness to tolerate. And just in case I was twiddling my thumbs and desperate for something to do – I can always keep cleaning my balcony.

Have they communicated with me about this in any way, shape or form? No, of course not. Their arrogance just keeps reaching new heights. They are renovating one of the ugliest buildings in the world and it is “UNTER DENKMALSCHUTZ”. Ooooohh. That means they can do whatever they like.

By the way, I’m told the building I live in is also unter Denkmalschutz. I don’t for the life of me understand why, but there it is.

Cresco Capital Group

Schön & Sever

Berlin

The free space in the middle of Mehringplatz under Renovation

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Mehringplatz is being restored to its former glory. I regret not having taken any photographs before they started renovating it, but that is probably because it was a wasteland.

The whole area was practically flattened during WW2, so the “peace column” and the statues must have been in protective storage since they seem to have survived unscathed.

I wonder how it will change the currently very diverse, rather densely populated residential area around it once the work is finished.

Here are photographs taken on 29 August 2020:

Approaching Mehringplatz along the southernmost part of Friedrichstraße from Franz-Klühs-Straße:

The walk, anti-clockwise first:

Some public advice on how to keep moving:

Right now an unlikely location for a contemporary-art gallery (KM ), but some time next year, the surroundings might be more stylish:

And then, between Lindenstraße and Mehringplatz, five minutes from home, a garden I did not know was there:

Between Mehringplatz and Hallesches Ufer, a memorial to Marie Juchacz:

The home stretch: Back along the southernmost part of Friedrichstraße and across to Lindenstraße:

And finally, some new buildings finished around 2018 – in the middle the expansion of the Jewish Museum (the original building is behind me) – where the old retail flower market used to be.

Berlin, The Balcony that "would not be affected"

Chapter Number 27 in the Never-ending Saga of the Balcony that would not be Affected

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Fortunately, I am escaping the nightmare again next week (it is not just the mess but most of all the noise which now starts at 05.45 AM and continues throughout the day so no chance of a mid-day nap), so I am not sure I can be bothered to clean that up, since most likely there will be more when I get back.

The bigger question is, how much longer will I have to look at all this ugliness:

Cresco Real Estate

Schön & Sever

GBP Architekten

Daytrips from Berlin

Daytrip to Frankfurt Oder and Słubice 14 AUgust 2020

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One of the many fountains in Frankfurt – Comic Brunnen

Another fountain – the Sieben-Raben-Brunnen

    Berlin, The Balcony that "would not be affected"

    Aww – a little bit too tall to get through there?

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    By all means, do not let such minor details deter you. You are driving a motorised vehicle. In Berlin, that automatically categorises you as a V.I.P. first-class citizen.

    That gives you the right to do whatever you like.

    Including leaving the rubble on the ground, spreading all over the driveway, leaving a horrendous mess. But don’t worry about that. We are honoured to have to look at that because it means that a very important person was here.

    Haubitz Gerüstbau