t Group exhibition, The Second Self, by artists regularly shown at the Peres Projects gallery
t Group exhibition, The Second Self, by artists regularly shown at the Peres Projects gallery
This well-known art gallery is the latest of a series of venues – a typically box-shaped room with concrete columns, large, street-facing windows and pristine white-painted walls. Known for championing artists early in their careers as well as the occasional established name, it shows consistently innovative works from international contemporary figures ranging from North American artists like James Franco and Brent Wadden to locals such as the German painter David Ostrowski.
The extensive park complex of Friedrichshain, with its picturesque nooks and crannies, was one of Berlin’s first public parks. It was laid out in the 1840s on the basis of a design by landscape architect Peter Joseph Lenné, with the idea of creating an alternative Tiergarten for the eastern districts of the city. The greatest attraction here is the Fountain of Fairy Tales (or Märchenbrunnen) by Ludwig Hoffmann, built in 1902–13. It is a spectacular feature in a Neo-Baroque style, its fountain pools decorated with small statues of turtles and other animals. The fountain is surrounded by well-known characters from the fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm. There’s a sports and games area as well as plenty of room for leisurely strolls. For the adventurous, there is a challenging outdoor climbing wall.
t Bust of Frederick the Great in Volkspark Friedrichshain
The Computer Games Museum is Europe’s first museum for video and computer games. It displays over 300 items from a life-size Lara Croft to a Wall of Hardware with vintage games and toys. Here also is pretty much every arcade machine and games console ever made, including the immense but pioneering Nimrod from 1951, and the Brown Box from 1959, developed by Ralph H Baer – the inventor of video games for home use. There’s also a small penny arcade (no payment required) with vintage slot machine games like Donkey Kong, Asteroids and Space Invaders, and more contemporary game systems like the 3D PlayStation monitor from Sony.
One of the most eye-catching buildings on the Karl-Marx-Allee, this large, blocky and historic cinema was a landmark in the GDR and remains so today – not least for its cameo role in the classic movie Goodbye Lenin and, since 1995, its UNESCO-heritage status. Used for hosting premieres until the fall of the Wall, it still operates as a cinema, with state-of-the-art facilities and a good rotation of commercial and arthouse movies. It’s worth taking a moment to inspect the sandstone reliefs on the outside as well as the distinctly retro-looking foyer.
Experience Friedrichshain
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EAT Schneeweiss One of Friedrichshain’s few upmarket restaurants, “Snow White” combines a minimalist aesthetic with an Alpine menu that straddles Italian, Austrian and south German dishes: think Wiener schnitzel and Bavarian pasta. R6 ⌂ Simplonstrasse 16 # 6pm–1am Mon–Fri, 10am–1am Sat & Sun ∑ schneeweiss-berlin.de ¡¡¡ |
t Boxhagener Platz’s weekend market
The most famous square in Friedrichshain, Boxhagener Platz (“Boxi” to its friends) serves as both a historical centre point for the area and a social hub. Named after the former nearby manor farm and hamlet of Boxhagen, these days it’s surrounded by shops, bars, galleries and restaurants that draw a mix of students, families, tourists and the odd group of harmless punks. At weekends Boxi is especially popular due to its excellent markets. The Saturday food market has been held here since 1903 and offers an array of fruit and vegetables, but also food stalls selling everything from falafel to grilled fish. And at the Sunday flea market you can find a variety of items such as jewellery and vinyl and second-hand clothes. The streets leading off from the square – Grünberger Strasse, Krossener Strasse, Gärtnerstrasse and Gabriel-Max-Strasse – are also worth exploring for their cafés, boutiques, restaurants and bars, while nearby Simon-Dach-Strasse and RAW Gelände are well known for their upbeat weekend nightlife.
t Goods for sale at Boxhagener Platz's weekend market
Experience Friedrichshain
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STAY Ostel Set in a nondescript apartment block, this playful hostel recreates the atmosphere of East Germany with its 1970s vintage decor and photos of Erich Honecker. P6 ⌂ Wriezener Karree 5 ∑ ostel.eu ¡¡¡ Michelberger Hotel This alternative hotel is one of Friedrichshain’s funkiest, with quirky rooms, a great lounge and restaurant, plus live music in the courtyard. Q7 ⌂ Warschauer Strasse 39/40 ∑ michelbergerhotel.com ¡¡¡ Eastern Comfort This floating hostel on a solar-powered boat on the Spree is a perennial backpacker favourite. Q7 ⌂ Mühlenstrasse 73 ∑ eastern-comfort.com ¡¡¡ |
This pretty bridge crossing the Spree river was built in 1896 to a design by Otto Stahn. It is made from reinforced concrete, but the arches are faced with red brick. The central arch is marked by a pair of crenellated Neo-Gothic towers. The most decorative element of the bridge, a Neo-Gothic arcade, supports a line of the U-Bahn.
Prior to reunification, the bridge linked districts from opposing sides of the Wall, and only pedestrians with the correct papers were able to cross. It is now open to traffic.
t The graffiti-covered East Side Gallery, bringing back memories of the Wall era
Since 1990, the 1,300-m (1-mile) stretch of the Berlin Wall along Mühlenstrasse between Ostbahnhof and Oberbaumbrücke has been known as the East Side Gallery. A huge collection of graffiti is on display here, the work of 118 different artists. It also includes the Wall Museum, housed in a former warehouse near the Oberbaumbrücke. The museum features some 100 screens offering an audiovisual history of the Wall, with documentary footage and moving personal testimonies.
t Street food stalls and a tattoo parlour at Urban Spree in the RAW Gelände complex
Formerly a 19th-century repair yard owned by the national railway (its official name was “Reichsbahn-Ausbesserungs-Werk”, hence RAW), this sprawling complex of graffiti-spattered warehouses and buildings today represents one of the most prominent alternative cultural spaces in the city. It’s fun to stroll around any time of day, especially if you’re a street-art fan, though it really comes alive in the evenings at weekends. The 70,000-sq-m (17.5-acre) site incorporates a slew of clubs and bars (Suicide Circus, Astra, Cassiopeia, Crack Bellmar), a couple of shack-like eateries, an indoor skate hall and a climbing wall that was once a World War II bunker. Haubentaucher is a trendy event and concert venue with an outdoor pool and beer garden for the warmer months.
One of the most exciting enterprises here is Urban Spree, a masterpiece in post-apocalyptic urban styling. The 1,700-sq-m (18,000-sq-ft) space is devoted to the promotion of “urban cultures”, most notably street and graphic art, via a rotating procession of exhibitions, artist residencies, workshops and concerts. Its monthly changing art shows mostly involve high-profile local and international street artists (Low Bros, 1UP Crew, Jim Avignon) who usually paint the entire compound, including all 15 m (50 ft) of its 8-m- (25-ft-) high flagship “Artist Wall“.
The gallery shop offers a well-curated range of books, as well as locally designed screen-printed T-shirts. On weekend evenings, the large beer garden draws the crowds with live music, from electronica to punk rock; a convenient starting point if you’re planning a night out in one of the nearby clubs.
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# noon–midnight Tue–Sun (to 3am Fri & Sat) ∑ urbanspree.com
Often voted the best techno club in the world, this former power station features a cavernous main room, the smaller Panorama Bar upstairs and an experimental music area on the ground floor. Its minimal, industrial design aesthetic is as uncompromising as the notorious door policy – but if you can get in, expect some of the best DJs playing all through the weekend. Tip: weekday concerts tend to be ticket-only and much easier to get into. (Upcoming events and tickets: berghain.de)