Jim's Berlin

You are currently browsing the archive for the Jim's Berlin category.

airlift

Every Tuesday one of the Circus owners – Jim – takes guests on a very special free tour to somewhere in the city that, well, he basically finds interesting. As he has a love for off-beat spots they are often in weird and wonderful corners of Berlin, that you basically would probably not visit during a “normal” exploration of the city.

The tour for tomorrow is to the Allied Museum, located in the former headquarters of the American military in (West) Berlin, and the museum itself can be found in old Army cinema. The US presence in Berlin that began with the division of the city into zones of occupation following the Second World War came to an end in 1994, four years after the reunification of Germany.

On the tour guests will get to see the original guard cabin from the Checkpoint Charlie border crossing in the Berlin Wall, as well as a GDR guard tower and one of the world famous “Candy Bombers”. These were planes that were used during the Airlift of 1948/9, when Stalin closed all land-based supply routes to the western zones of the city in an attempt to squeeze the Allies and, ultimately, bring all of Berlin under Soviet control.

Thanks to an extraordinary effort, West Berlin was supplied by air – the sheer number of planes and flights needed was astounding – and the siege failed. As the planes came into land, usually at the old Tempelhof airport, the pilots dropped sweets on little parachutes to the children waiting below, and it was from this action that they got their nickname. It was an incredible propaganda coup at a time of heightened Cold War tensions, and helped cement support for the Allies and the West within those zones of the city.

Jimbo’s Tour is free – although you will need public transport tickets to and from the museum – and is open to all guests of The Circus. Places are limited so people need to sign up at reception. And if you are not in Berlin but you are coming to Berlin soon, keep a look out for the Tuesday tours. On the hostel website you can find a list of the upcoming tours. See you soon!

Majewhatsit Ring Wilhelm Pieck's HouseJim is not only one of the owners of the Circus, but he is also our resident expert on the hidden corners of the city. It is Jim’s firmly held belief that some of the most interesting places in Berlin are “off the beaten track”, not least in his home neighbourhood of Pankow.

Pankow Town Centre

The centre of Pankow is the area around the lovely red brick town hall, which was built about a hundred years ago at the start of the 1900s. Also of interest is the small, idyllic church that somehow seems out of place, surrounded by the main road and the normal city buildings, which includes the delightful Rathaus Shopping Centre. The roar overhead are the planes coming in to land at Tegel airport, so close that you can see the colour of the pilot’s eyes.

Bürgerpark

This 103 year old oasis has brought happiness to generations of Pankowians. It is very green, as you would expect, with nice water fountains and statues dotted here and there. In the summer the park is always packed with people, and there is nothing better than joining the summertime drinkers at the Rosenstein beer garden and knocking back a cold one.

Majewhatsit Ring Erich Honeckers HouseMajaokowski Ring

Until the 1960s, when paranoia drove them to a fortified compound north of the city, this is where the highest levels of the East German political class lived. As you can imagine, these were and are some of the nicest houses in the city.

Some famous former residents include Wilhem Pieck (No. 29), the first President of the German Democratic Republic, and Erich Honecker – who led East Germany from 1971 until 1989. He wasn’t the last leader…that honour fell to Egon Krenz, who managed a month and a half in the job before the office ceased to exist.

Schloss NiederschonhausenSchloss Niederschönhausen

This Schloss – which translates from German to “Big Posh House” – was bought by Frederick III in 1692 for 16,000 Thalers. Now, I have no idea what a Thaler is, but it does not stop me from wanting loads of them. It was used as a royal palace on and off until 1760 when it was destroyed by the Russians. Rebuilt, it was visited again by Russian soldiers in 1945 when they turned it into an Officers Club for the Red Army.

After 1949 they handed it over to the East German government, who used it first as the Presidential seat, and then as an official government guesthouse. Some of the famous guests included Fidel Castro and Mikhail Gorbachov. It is open to the public from Tuesday to Sunday, 10am-5pm, and the entry costs €6.

Soviet Memorial PankowSoviet War Memorial Schönholzer Heide

The Battle of Berlin in April and May 1945 cost the lives of approximately 80,000 Red Army soldiers, and some 13,000 were buried here, which is the third largest Soviet memorial in Berlin after the Treptower Park and the Tiergarten. On the exterior wall there are about 100 bronze tablets with the names of the dead soldiers, and in the middle a huge obelisk which is a 33m high statue of Mother Russia.

Pankow – How to Get There

You can get from The Circus to the area covered by the map in two ways. From outside the Circus Hostel (across the street from the hotel), take the Tram M1 up the hill to U- and S-Bahnhof Pankow. Or else walk down the Torstrasse to Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz and catch the U-Bahn Line 2 north, which takes you to the same place.

aroundberlinin80beersPeter Sutcliffe has been a good friend of The Circus for many years – indeed we think of Peter as part of the family – and he has recently written a book all about a specific aspect of this city that we love: the Beer. Now, as you can imagine, discovering that someone has basically written a book just for me, filled with a selection of pubs and brews throughout the many corners of the city, is just too good to be true. Planning my Saturday afternoon trips around Berlin has just got a lot easier!

The book is so well-researched that even the most well-informed Berlin-Beeristas (such as myself) must bow down in respect. Complete with maps, descriptions and facts about the pubs and the beers they served, it all comes together to show the passion that Peter has brought to the subject. What Peter doesn’t know about the Berlin pub scene is most probably not worth knowing!

Now, as you might have gathered, I feel my drinking credentials are pretty sound. 22 years under my belt and 13 of them in Berlin. If I never drink another beer in my life I can safely say I have had my fair share. Indeed, one of my proudest achievements was simply surviving the legendary all-day sessions at the Sunderland University Beer Festival (1992 & 1993 – I went back for more!) and my souvenir tankard still has pride of place at my Mum’s house. Thanks Mum for not throwing it out…

Where was I? Ah yes, beer. So, what is the best beer in the world according to Jimbo? I think you could do a lot worse than a Radeberger, from a small town near Dresden, which was also Vladimir Putin’s favourite tipple during his KGB days in East Germany in the 1980s. You can find the best place to sample Radeberger on page 66 of Peter’s book.

And if you are looking for a warning? The very worst you can inflict on your guts? Well of course, it features on no page of Peter’s wonderful book because not only does he have extremely high standards but I doubt there is a bar in Berlin that serves up a pint of Stockport’s own Robinson’s Bitter. Perhaps I should not be so snobbish about my hometown brew. Then again, living in Germany gives you certain standards… Maybe I should just follow the advice of my Granddad, handed down through the generations:

“It does not matter what it tastes like as long as there is plenty of it.”
Norman Penders, ca. 1940

Now, would Mr Sutcliffe agree with my granddad? I’m not so sure…

You can buy a copy of Peter Sutcliffe’s book “Around Berlin in 80 Beers” at The Circus Hotel, or direct from the publishers at Books About Beer. If you would like a little taster of what to expect in the book, Peter recently wrote an article for the guardian on the subject.

Teufelsberg 1At the end of the Second World War, which brought countless bombing raids to the city and the destruction that accompanied the Red Army’s final assault, it is estimated that there were 12 million cubic metres of rubble in Berlin. Some of this rubble was used to create the Teufelsberg (”Devil’s Mountain”) which is to the west of the city centre and is actually higher than any of the “natural” points in the city.

From the top of the hill you get a great view over Berlin, a fact that those clever Americans recognised early-on in their occupation of the city. They promptly built a listeing station up there, so they could tap the party line of Soviet and East German communications during the Cold War. Those unusual-but-funky golf ball shaped roofs were set up to protect the various antennas from the elements, and of course, prying eyes.

Teufelsberg 3Once communications were intercepted from the top of the Devil’s Mountain, they were sent down the hill to secret underground bunkers at Tempelhof Airport for analysis. The evesdropping continued up until the fall of the Berlin Wall (and who knows what kind of things they heard) but with the end of Communism the equipment was moved out and the building abandoned.

Officially it is trespassing to go in and take a look, and not a little dangerous, as the structure is unsecured so there is always the chance that some Cold War relic might fall on your head. Official Disclaimer-type-thingy: if you get in trouble, you are on your own.

Much safer is to take a look at this video that Digel found for the blog a while back.

The Teufelsberg and the area around is great for a stroll, especially on a cool, crisp autumn day, so go west and check it out…with no-one to listen to anymore, life is certainly peaceful there…

Google Maps

russian supermarketUp on Landsberger Allee is a little of Russia still life and kicking in the form of a Russian supermarket.  Here you buy all the products that your average Russian misses from the homeland. Outside the supermarket is an on going BBQ selling the most delicious Schaschlik you will find this side of the River Don. For those of you not acquainted with Schashlik, it is pork on a stick with a vinegar dressing. And for those of you that think that out door grilling is only for the summer think again, it is all year and there is a little tent to keep the elements away.

There is no better way to spend an afternoon or cheaper for that matter than to buy some Russian beer and sit outside the supermarket stuffing your self with meat and watching the Russian Diaspora living there lives. The only draw back is you have to be some what creative when it come to going to the toilet… there is none… well not an official one… but bears also wee in the woods…

Google Maps

Jim_LübarsLübars is the oldest village in Berlin and was first mentioned in 1247. Pre 1989 it was a place of real affection for the West Berliners who were completely surrounded by the Berlin wall as it was the only place that felt like a village. Their next opportunity would be several hundred kilometers away in West Germany.

Josefine and I can certainly confirm that that it feels like a village, complete with a little church, school, village hall, fresh air and is surrounded by fields with walking paths. There also seems to be a rather high concentration of horse riding schools here which makes a mockery out the old German saying “Das Leben ist kein Pony Hof”.

To get there (and we promise you that you are the only foreigner there) you take the U8 to Wittenau, then the S-Bahn to Wiadmannslust followed by Bus 222 to Alt-Lübers.

JFKOn the steps of Rathaus Schöneberg which was used as the City Hall for the West Berlin government is where the US President John F. Kennedy held his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech in June 1963. In this defiant stance aimed at the Soviet Union who had 22 months earlier erected a wall around West Berlin he said “Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was civis Romanus sum [I am a Roman citizen]. Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’… All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words “Ich bin ein Berliner”.

Now there is a myth and this really is a myth after conferring with some of the grand masters of German grammar that JFK that Ich bin ein Berliner actually translates to I am a jelly-filled doughnut. Yes it is true that that people everywhere else in Germany called jelly filled doughnuts Berliners but in Berlin they are called Pfannkuchen, not that makes a difference, it’s still a myth. The square in front of the Rathaus changed its name to John F. Kennedy Platz after the great man 3 days after he was assassinated in Dallas Texas, and there is a large plaque by the entrance of the building commemorating his visit (see pic).

The Rathaus bell tower contains the liberty bell which was a gift from the American people to Berlin in 1950 and was supposed to be a symbol of the fight for freedom and against communism in Europe. The communists were none to impressed with this nice piece of propaganda and organized a demonstration and denounced it as the war/hunger/death bell, take your pick. Inscribed on the bell is “That this world under God shall have a new birth of freedom”.

Weissensee CemetaryThe Weißensee cemetery is the second largest Jewish cemetery in Europe and contains approximately 115.000 graves. It miraculously survived the Second War World and the Nazis relatively unscathed, and was only actually partially damaged during an allied air raid. During the next 44 years the place was pretty much neglected as basically the entire Jewish communiity had been murdered or exiled, and also for the fact that it was encouraged in the communist East Germany that only Marx and Engels would be worshipped.

It lead to a very atmospheric place with what seems like a fully grown forest bursting through a graveyard where rich and poor are buried along side each other. It is being restored bit by bit which I think makes it lose a little something …but who am I? To get there just take the tram M12 from the top of Weinbergsweg to Antonplatz. It is then a short walk.

« Older entries