BThe Berlin File

  • The most complete collection of links comes from Berlin Information of the Free University. Start here.

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  • Berlin's bi-weekly news/features/classifieds mags are on-line: tipand zitty.

    • More Berlin papers under Media
     
  • After more than 10 years of debate, it seems as if there will really be a memorial in central Berlin to Jews murdered by Germans in the Holocaust.  It will be built on the grounds of the former "Ministergärten," a 20,000 sq. meter area south of the Brandenburg Gate.
  • The design by American Peter Eisenman is a modified version of this one he proposed some years earlier together with Richard Serra.
  • Here are some links (in German) from the Tagesspiegel on the decision.  And a very thorough collection of texts and materials from Prof. Michael Brenner in Munich.

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  • For other sites of change and construction in Berlin, take a look at the massive construction at Potsdamer Platz.

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    More architectual links:
     

  • an article on the future of eastern Berlin's Alexanderplatz by Daniel Libeskind, designer of the new Jewish Museum in Berlin.

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  • I don't know how "great" they really are, but that's what this link calls them: Great Buildings in Berlin.
  • The Reichstag (they might change the name) will be the new/old German parliament, but many will remember it best for either a) being burned by the Nazis in 1933, or, b) being wrapped by Christo in 1995.  I prefer the latter.

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  • What's "in" in Berlin?  Jewish things!  Not necessarily being Jewish, but what Zitty magazine calls the "Hype" (article in German).

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  • Here is a link where you can learn more about the fall of the Berlin Wall on 11/9/89, or, for a perspective from the East, at this link. Further links, this time from the States, can be found at the homepage of Adolph Hofmann, of Santa Rosa Junior College. He includes lots of photos and thoughtful text designed for his students.

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  • For more on the history of Berlin, and the history of the two Germanies as well, take a tour through the DHMGerman Historical Museum.


    • And speaking of culture, Berlin's (and Europe's) youth culture is increasingly American in origin, but very local in application. One example is the grunge/hiphop invasion on the continent; it shows no signs of weakening! For more on what "die Kids" with the meter-wide pants are up to, click on the skateboard
     

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