You are currently browsing the monthly archive for Dezember 2009.
As you can see, we are ending 2009 under a lovely white blanket of snow…luckily Jim and Milan were on hand to dig Fabisch out of the snow drift. We would like to wish all our friends around the world and Happy New Year, and all the best for 2010. We are looking forward to another year of adventures and fun both in Berlin and beyond, to seeing new friends and meeting up with old ones, and the excitement of all the things that might come our way…
Any Australians reading this will probably already know the broadcaster, writer and film-maker Phillip Adams who presents the wonderful Late Night Live on ABC Radio National in Australia. Thanks to the wonders of podcasts I stumbled across the show recently, and have been really enjoying the interviews, analysis and debate on all kinds of different issues, from the financial crisis in Dubai, climate change, and art in Iran.
Earlier this month they presented a series of classic broadcasts from when they took the Late Night Live show on the road to Berlin in 1995. The three programmes provide a fascinating glimpse of some of the debates and issues taking place in Berlin at that time, as the city and country continued to come to terms with the changes in society following the fall of the Berlin Wall and German re-unification. If you are interested, they are well worth checking out…
Berlin 1995 – An interview with Stefan Heym (who died in 2001), a writer who lived in both the United States and East Germany and became speaker of the parliament in reunified Germany.
Berlin 1995 – An interview with Heiner Müller (who died in 1995), a poet and dramatist who was in 1995 the Director of the Berliner Ensemble theatre.
Berlin 1995 – Berlin Architecture – a debate about what should be done to the city in terms of planning and building following reunification. Especially interesting now with the knowledge of what they actually decided.
If there is one thing that brightens the dark month of February in Berlin it is the annual Berlinale film festival, which in 2010 is celebrating its 60th anniversary. What makes the Berlinale special is the access that ordinary people like you or I get to the film screenings, as the festival is certainly not a closed shop for professionals and others “in the business”.
Whether or not the honour of sharing the same air as Madonna as she presented her train-wreck of a directorial debut Filth and Wisdom was enough to make up for having to sit through the movie itself is certainly debateable, but in the end the joy of the Berlinale is not so much the stars and the big name movies that will in any case make it to multiplexes everywhere, but flicking through the programme and taking a chance on something from Estonia, Chad or Korea that you might not have discovered otherwise.
One film that I saw a couple of years ago at the charming Colosseum on Schönhauser Allee was a Serbian noir thriller called Klopka (The Trap) which we went to see without any knowledge or expectation and yet was one of the best and most intelligent films I have seen in years.
The 2010 Berlinale will be held from the 11th until the 21st February, and there is already lots of information on the website about what we have to look forward to. Star-spotters are promised Martin Scorsese and Leonardo Di Caprio (according to Deutsche Welle), legendary film-maker Werner Herzog is to be President of the Jury, and in a nice touch, for 2010 the Berlinale will be making a visit to 10 neighbourhood cinemas around Berlin including the Hackesche Höfe Kino just down the road from the Circus.
The Berlinale programme itself will be released at the beginning of February, and many of us – but especially Jared – can hardly wait.
(the first instalment in a blog series by Circus designer Sandra Ernst, who selects some of her favourite things from the world of art and design)
One of 101 Heroes from Nina Staehli (and now mine), this little guy was born and grew up in Switzerland and was smuggled over the border to Germany in the bottom of a rucksack. With two of his friends he has made a new home for himself in Berlin-Wedding, where we now have the beginnings of a heroic football team.
About the Artist: Nina Stähli divides her time between Zug (Switzerland) and Berlin and has been involved in too many projects, awards, collaborations, exhibitions and publications than we have space for here. Her work has been exhibited around the world, including France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Japan and Austria.
During her career she has won awards to studio and project stays in Berlin, Genoa and Tokyo and her most recent solo exhibition was called “Touching Heroes and Catalysis” at the Gallery Art/Seefeld in Zurich. Nina created “The Sparrows” which live in the winter garden of the Restaurant Fabisch at the Circus Hotel. You can see example of her work and more information on her website.
New Year’s Eve in Berlin is always a spectacular events, from the hundreds of thousands of people who brave the cold to celebrate down at the Brandenburg Gate, to the best DJs in the world spinning in the city’s legendary clubs. At midnight collective madness strikes as a volume of fireworks worth more (probably) than the entire budget of Berlin are launched into the sky to celebrate the arrival of the New Year.
If you are joining us at The Circus during the journey from 2009 to 2010, we have a number of cool things planned at both the hostel and the hotel. In the hostel we have a warm-up party in Goldman’s Bar with some special drinks offers as well as prize giveaways for events elsewhere in the city. Over in the hotel at Fabisch, we have a special New Year’s Eve buffet planned, with entertainment provided by DJ Lavender from the United States. If you are coming to join us for the party, check out the links below for full details of what is going on:
New Year’s Eve at The Circus Hotel
New Year’s Eve at The Circus Hostel
The Silvester Party at the Brandenburg Gate
Information on New Year’s parties elsewhere in the city
Eagle-eyed Circus watchers will have seen on the hostel website that the Circus Hostel at Weinbergsweg will be closed from the 17th January until the 30th March. After eight years we are taking the time to make some changes to the building both inside and out, from structural issues such as a combined heating and power unit, to new features such as lounge space in the reception and lock-boxes in the bedrooms. Many of these things have come from suggestions and criticisms from our guests since we opened, but that were not possible to implement with an ongoing, operating and open hostel. Now that we are closing, we can act on the advice from those who have given it and make the hostel even better than it was before.
You can read more details and see some planning pictures for the next few months on the renovation page of the hostel website.
A year ago at this time we were coming down from the high the first few months of the hotel being open and the fun and games from the opening party. It seems amazing that more than twelve months have passed since then, but there you go. As the good old cliche goes…time flies when you are having fun.
Everyone at the Circus would like to wish all of our friends out there in the wide world a very Merry Christmas, and thanks to everyone who has visited us in Berlin, worked with us, and otherwise been involved with what we have been up to. It has been an extremely exciting and interesting year, and we’ve had a lot of fun along the way.
For those of you who are joining us in Berlin over the holiday period, we are extremely happy to be sharing the time with you. There’s lots of different things going on both at the hostel and the hotel as well as elsewhere in the city. You can find more details through the links below, or otherwise just come and ask one of the friendly faces at reception and we’ll do our best to sort you out.
Christmas at the Circus Hostel
Christmas at the Circus Hotel
PS. There are still a few more days of the many and varied Christmas markets in the city. You can find out more information on the WinterMagic page of the Berlin tourism website.
Spiegel International
Neue Mehrwertsteuer auf Übernachtungen
23. Dezember 2009 in Berlin, Circus Hostel, Circus Hotel, Circus News, Commentary by Andreas | 3 comments
New VAT Rates for Overnight Accommodation – English version of this article
Am 18. Dezember hat der deutsche Bundesrat dem „Wachstumsbeschleunigungsgesetz“ der Regierung zugestimmt. Der Hotelmarkt ist davon direkt betroffen dergestalt, dass ab dem 01.01.2010 nur noch 7% statt der bisher geltenden 19 % auf Übernachtungsleistungen erhoben werden. Diese Reduktion ist in ihrer Höhe signifikant und bleibt natürlich auch auf den Circus nicht ohne Auswirkung. Eine Frage, die ab jetzt wahrscheinlich häufig gestellt wird: geht Ihr mit Euren Preisen runter? Die Antwort ist: nein, das tun wir nicht – allerdings möchten wir an dieser Stelle erklären, warum nicht. Read the rest of this entry »