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Special Tour for Circus Guests: The Jewish Museum

3. September 2012 in Berlin, Circus Apartments, Circus Hostel, Circus Hotel, Circus News, History, Museum by Paul

Jewish Museum

(above: © Jüdisches Museum Berlin, Foto: Jens Ziehe)

As part of our weekly programme of special tours, organised by Jim and Andrew, we are pleased to announce that tomorrow we have a new tour for guests of the hostel, hotel and apartments, to the Jewish Museum. There we will meet a guide from the museum who will take us around the exhibition “The Jewish Response to National Socialism”.

Here is what the museum has to say about the exhibition:

“Soon after their assumption of power in 1933, the National Socialists initiated anti-Jewish measures that seriously endangered the social and economic existence of German Jews. They increasingly stigmatized and excluded Jews with the intention of having them expelled. By 1941 their aim was the physical extermination of the Jews. The tour elucidates the limited ways in which Jews could actively respond to persecution and the desperate struggle to continue their everyday lives. Personal documents give evidence to the attempts of Jews to survive, to engage in resistance and to maintain their dignity. The way Jews wrestled with the question of when or where to emigrate provide typical examples of the existential challenges faced by this segregated and persecuted minority.”

There will also be an introduction to the building and the museum. The tour is free for guests of the Circus (although you will need a public transport ticket) but places are limited. You will find sign-up sheets at the reception. For those of you who are not with us this week, Jimbo’s free tours take place every Tuesday to a variety of destinations, such as the German-Russian Museum in Karlshorst, the Stasi Prison in Hohenschönhausen, or the former concentration camp at Sachsenhausen. You can find out more information about the upcoming tours here.

775 years of Berlin

15. August 2012 in Berlin, Events, History by Paul

775 berlin

(above: The Grey Convent, 1934 / Source: Landesarchiv Berlin / 775 Jahre Berlin)

On October 28th in 2012 Germany’s capital is going to celebrate its 775th birthday. Referring to an official ceremonial act at Nikolaikirche, the oldest parish church in Berlin, the historical city center will be illuminated with fire and light and will be staged with medieval sounds during the evening to celebrate a grand party. In the forefront of the celebration, starting at the end of August already, various exhibitions, urban space productions, guided tours and activities are going to take place. In doing so Berlin wants to remember its medieval roots and present itself as a cosmopolitan city – for this purpose two big and central open-air-projects are being developed in Berlin’s city center.

On the 25th August, the “City in the Middle Ages exhibition begins. In recent years there have been many spectacular excavations in Berlin‘s historic centre, e.g. during the construction of the U-Bahn (underground railway line) in front of the Rotes Rathaus (town hall) and of the underground garage on Alexanderplatz. For a short time these sites will be visible before they largely disappear again under new streets, squares and buildings. New archaeological findings and fascinating finds will form the basis for marking selected sites representing medieval Berlin. They will be highlighted, linked with each other and opened up to a wider public with exhibitions and special tours.

Also on the 25th August, the “City of Diversity” exhibition will open, exploring the many waves of immigration and emigration to the city. From a town of around 2,000 settlers in 1237, the city has grown through a lively history of migration and cultural exchange to become today’s global city of 3.5 million inhabitants. The ‘coming and going’ continues unabated. In the past 20 years alone, 1.5 million people have either arrived or left. A huge walkable city map on Schlossplatz will illustrate the city’s 800-year history of immigration.

Thesre are just a couple of examples of what is taking place over the next couple of months in the run up to the anniversary, so visit the 775Berlin pages for more information.

UFA Film Nights – Silent Movies in the Open Air

13. August 2012 in Berlin, Events, Film, History by Paul

UFA Silent Film

Coming up this week is a truly special event taking place in the heart of Berlin. Following on from the success of the UFA Film Nights in Potsdam last year, the organizers are bringing their evenings of classic silent movies with live music performances to Schinkelplatz in the very centre of town, and just a short walk or ride on the public transport from the Circus.

UFA was the historic film studios of the 1920s that produced some of the classics of the silent movie era from visionary directors such as Fritz Lang, Joe May, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau and Ernst Lubitsch. This year the programme features work from May and Lang, as well as Walther Ruttmann’s classic “Berlin – Die Sinfonie der Grossstadt” which we have featured on the blog before.

Here is the full programme:

Thursday, 16. August, 20:30 – Berlin – Die Sinfonie der Großstadt (1927, Walther Ruttmann)
with live accompaniment from Neuen Kammerorchester Potsdam

Friday, 17. August 2012, 20:30 – Asphalt (1929, Joe May)
with live accompaniment from the Berliner Ensemble Trioglyzerin

Saturday, 18. August 2012, 20:30 – Spione (1928, Fritz Lang)
with live accompaniment from Neil Brand

Advance tickets are €10 and can be bought from all normal ticket offices in the city (for example in Alexanderplatz station, or at the Dussmann book and music store on Friedrichstrasse).

Special Tour to the Olympic Village #2

6. August 2012 in Hidden Places, History, Jim's Berlin by Paul

Olympic Tour Two

The 1936 Olympics are famed because of a certain Jesse Owens making a mockery of Hitler’s ludicrous master race ideals when he won 4 gold medals. The Olympic village housed 3748 male athletes (the 328 women were else where closer to the stadium) in 140 apartment building and was designed to cater for the all the athletes needs, including swimming pools cinemas and 38 dining halls. After the games the village accommodated an Infantry regiment of the German Wehrmacht, who were subsequently replaced in 1945 for the next 47 years by the Soviet Army. The whole area now stands in ruins…

Tomorrow, Tuesday 7th August 2012, as part of our weekly Jimbo’s Crazy Tours, we will be running a second special tour for Circus guests to the Olympic Village out in the Brandenburg countryside. You will need to purchase a public transport system, but Jim will be on hand to get you there and back in one piece. Places are limited, so please come and sign up at the reception.

Special Tour to the Olympic Village #1

30. Juli 2012 in Hidden Places, History, Jim's Berlin by Paul

Olympic Tour One

The 1936 Olympics are famed because of a certain Jesse Owens making a mockery of Hitler’s luscious master race ideals when he won 4 gold medals. The Olympic village housed 3748 male athletes (the 328 women were else where closer to the stadium) in 140 apartment building and was designed to cater for the all the athletes needs, including swimming pools cinemas and 38 dining halls. After the games the village accommodated an Infantry regiment of the German Wehrmacht, who were subsequently replaced in 1945 for the next 47 years by the Soviet Army. The whole area now stands in ruins…

Tomorrow, Tuesday 31st July 2012, as part of our weekly Jimbo’s Crazy Tours, we will be running a special tour for Circus guests to the Olympic Village out in the Brandenburg countryside. You will need to purchase a public transport system, but Jim will be on hand to get you there and back in one piece. There will be a second tour to the Olympic Village next Tuesday (August 7th). Places are limited for both tours, so please come and sign up at the reception.

Seiichi Furuya: Photos from the GDR

18. Juli 2012 in Berlin, History, Museum, Photography by Paul

furuya_1

(above: Seiichi Furuya, Berlin-Ost 1986)

Thanks to Sandra, our wonderful chief of design, we found this collection of photographs from East Berlin that are currently being shown at the Photography Museum in Braunschweig. The Japanese photographer Seiichi Furuya lived in Berlin with his wife and family between 1984 and 1987, and his photographs provide a fascinating document of the last years of the German Democratic Republic before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the eventual reunification of Germany.

Sadly, Furuya’s wife commited suicide extremely young, and so the exhibition is not only a glimpse of life “behind the iron curtain”, but also a personal journey back through memory to the short period of time the couple had together. You can find out more information about the exhibition (unfortunately in German only) on the museum website, whilst Der Spiegel has a gallery of over twenty of Furuya’s photographs to explore.

furuya_2

(above: Seiichi Furuya, Tschechoslowakei (Wien – Dresden), 19. Mai 1984)

furuya_3

(above: Seiichi Furuya, Graz 1987)

Eyewitness History Talk: Growing Up in Germany 1925-50

12. Juli 2012 in Circus Hotel, Circus Talks, Events, History by Paul

circus-talks-button-300x300Once again we are really pleased to be welcoming another eyewitness speaker to the Circus, as part of our ongoing series of history talks in cooperation with the ZZB – The Centre for Witness to Contemporary History. The talk is taking place at The Circus Hotel on Tuesday 17th July, and as always it is completely free, takes place in English, and everyone is welcome.

Our speaker this month is Frau Gericke who was born in Berlin in 1925, and grew up through the Weimar period, the Nazi’s rise to power, and the Second World War. In 1945 her family’s home was confiscated to be used as Winston Churchill’s residence during the Potsdam conference, and was only returned to the family after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1990.

Details:

Eyewitness History Talk: Growing Up in Germany 1925-50
Speaker: Frau Gericke
Date: Tuesday 17th July 2012
Time: 6.45pm
Venue: Fabisch at the Circus Hotel, Rosenthaler Platz 1, Berlin-Mitte

For more about the ZZB and the Circus Talks, check out this article on Slow Travel Berlin.

Out from Berlin: The 1936 Olympic Village

25. Mai 2012 in Berlin, History, Jim's Berlin, Museum by Paul

OV_dining hall inside

Sometimes Jim likes to go exploring, and for this blog he has headed west to the site of the athletes’ village during the 1936 Olympic Games…

The 1936 Olympics are famed because of a certain Jesse Owens making a mockery of Hitler’s luscious master race ideals when he won 4 gold medals. The Olympic village housed 3748 male athletes (the 328 women were else where closer to the stadium) in 140 apartment building and was designed to cater for the all the athletes needs, including swimming pools cinemas and 38 dining halls. After the games the village accommodated an Infantry regiment of the German Wehrmacht, who were subsequently replaced in 1945 for the next 47 years by the Soviet Army. The whole area now stands in ruins…

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