In the decade or so
since the fall of the Wall, Berlin has emerged
as one of Europe’s most culturally vibrant cities, infused
with a unique blend of Western and Eastern European cultures. There
are world-class theatre and opera
performances and a comprehensive array of museums
and galleries to choose from. There are all the
expressions of the counter culture for which Berlin is very famous.
Although remnants remain in Kreuzberg, the most
avant-garde artists have moved to Mitte and increasingly
to Prenzlauer Berg.
The tourist
information office publishes an online event calendar as well
as the Berlin Events leaflet. Tickets to cultural
events are available for purchase through Berlin Tourismus
Marketing (telephone number: (030) 250 025, for reservations
or (0190) 016 316, for the information hotline or (01805) 754 040
(from outside Germany, charged at 12 cents per minute), online (website
www.berlin.de/tickets)
or directly through most venues.
Music
The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra is renowned
worldwide. Its performance space, the Philharmonie, Herbert-von-Karajan-Strasse
1 (telephone number: (030) 254 880 or 2548 8132, for information
or 2548 8126 or 2548 8194, ticket office, fax number: (030) 261
4887, for information or 2548 8323, for bookings, e-mail: kartenbuero@berlin-philharmonic.com,
website: www.berlin-philharmonic.com),
matches their reputation. Within the venue, the Kammermusiksaal
der Philharmonie hosts chamber players, soloists and small
orchestras.
Berlin’s most elegant venue for classical music is the Konzerthaus
Berlin, Gendarmenmarkt 2 (telephone number: (030) 2030 92101,
fax number: (030) 2030 92209. The Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester
is based here.
The premier venue for opera, ballet and concerts was built in 1741–43,
as the Court Opera House. Today, the Staatsoper
Unter den Linden, Unter den Linden 7 (telephone number:
(030) 2035 4555 or 2035 4438, for information; fax number (030)
2035 4483, website: www.staatsoper-berlin.de),
is under the artistic and musical direction of Daniel Barenboim.
The
Deutsche Oper Berlin, situated in the west of the city, at Bismarckstrasse
35 (telephone number: (030) 343 8401 or 341 0249, fax number: (030)
3438 4232, stages classical and modern opera, as well as ballet,
concerts and operettas.
Performances at the Komische
Oper Berlin, Behrenstrasse 55–57 (telephone number: (030)
202 600, fax number: (030) 2026 0405, e-mail: info@komische-oper-berlin.de,
which opened in 1947, include music, dance and concerts.
Theatre
The Deutsches
Theater und Kammerspiele, Schumannstrasse 13A (telephone number:
(030) 2844 1225 or 250 025, for tickets, fax number: (030) 282 4117),
mounts contemporary productions as well as 19th- and 20th-century
plays.
The
neo-Baroque Berliner Ensemble, Bertolt-Brecht-Platz 1 (telephone
number: (030) 2840 8155, fax number: (030) 2840 8115), was built
before the turn of the century, as the Neues Theater.
It was taken over by Bertolt Brecht and Helene
Weigel and its resident company continues to show performances
from Brecht’s works, as well as classical and modern pieces.
For non-conformist and unconventional theatre and dance, the Volksbühne
am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Linienstrasse 227 (telephone number:
(030) 247 6772, fax number: (030) 2406 5642, is one of the top addresses.
Dance
The
Hebbel-Theater, Stresemannstrasse 29 (telephone number: (030)
2590 0427, fax number: (030) 2590 0449), is one of the centres for
contemporary dance and opera in Europe. It also hosts the TanzWinter
and Tanz im August dance festivals.
Classical ballet is staged at the Deutsche
Oper Berlin, Bismarckstrasse 35 (telephone number: (030) 343
8401, fax number: (030) 343 8455, which has an excellent resident
ballet company, Ballet der Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Film
In the early 20th century, Berlin was the cradle of German cinema,
with seminal films such as Metropolis (1927) and
other works of German expressionism. The 1930 film, Der
Blaue Engel (The Blue Angel), starring Marlene
Dietrich, was based on Heinrich Mann’s novel, Professor
Unrath (1905). The movie catapulted Dietrich her to stardom, as
the sexy cabaret singer, Lola Lola. Berlin earned
itself a reputation for decadence in the 1920s and 1930s, which
were recaptured to good effect in the 1972 film, Cabaret.
More recent works have included Wim Wenders’ 1987
film, Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire),
in which two angels watch over the divided city from the Siegessäule.
Berlin has well over a hundred cinemas and new releases are often
screened in the English original (OV or OF) or the original language
with German subtitles (OmU). The best place for blockbuster fans
to catch the latest big releases, often in the original version,
are the 19-screen CinemaxX Berlin Potsdamer Platz,
Potsdamer Platz (telephone number: (030) 4431 6316 or (0180) 5246
36299, website: www.cinemaxx.de),
and the nearby 8-screen CineStar
im Sony Center, Potsdamer Strasse 4 (telephone number: (030)
2606 6260).
Of the mainstream cinemas in the city’s western half, Kant-Kino,
Kantstrasse 54 (telephone number: (030) 312 5047 or 319 9866), sometimes
has Hollywood fare in English with German subtitles. Of the numerous
repertory, international and arthouse screens, Arsenal,
Potsdamer Strasse 2 (telephone number: (030) 2695 5100, website:
www.fdk-berlin.de),
is a central spot with a lot of English screenings.
The Berlin Film
Festival is one of the most important on the circuit and the
Berlin Bear prize is almost as highly valued as the legendary Palme
d’Or. The film festival takes place in February and celebrated
its 50th anniversary in 2000.
Weekly film listings are printed on posters and displayed throughout
the city. The magazines, Tip
and Zitty, also
have listings. During summer, there are popular outdoor film screenings
in the Volkspark Hasenheide and at the Waldbühne,
near the Olympic Stadium.
Cultural
events
Berlin offers a number of
multidisciplinary venues, which offer a range of cultural events
throughout the year.
Haus
der Kulturen der Welt, John-Foster-Dulles Allee 10, in the Tiergarten
(telephone number: (030) 3978 7175, fax number: (030) 394 8679),
hosts concerts, films, theatre, readings and events such as the
International Festival of Media Art in February,
with a remit to spotlight non-European cultures.
Tacheles,
Oranienburger Strasse 54–56 (telephone number: (030) 282 6185,
fax number: (030) 282 3130, e-mail: office@tacheles.de
), is an avant-garde, somewhat anarchic, cultural centre in the
bombed out shell of a former department store.
One of Berlin’s more poignant venues is the Tränenpalast
(Palace of Tears), Reichstagufer 17 (telephone number: (030) 206
1000), where West Berliners visiting East Berlin had to pass through
but today, it hosts theatre, films and concerts.
The Summer undoubtedly sees most of the cultural action in Berlin,
with the largest event of its kind, the massive July Love
Parade taking over the Strasse des 17 Juni. A multitude
of techno ravers gathers to enjoy the vibe, sunshine and the booming
mobile sound systems. Other al-fresco events that characterise the
Berlin summertime are the Karneval der Kulturen,
a carnival of culture culminating in a colourful parade, and the
Christopher Street Day, when gay and lesbian revellers
march through the streets to proclaim their pride and both take
place in June.
Literary Notes
Der Stechlin (1898), Theodor Fontane’s
late 19th-century novel, has the Stechlinsee in the dark Menzer
Forest to the southeast of Berlin as its setting. Berlin
Alexanderplatz (1929) is Alfred Döblin’s epic
tale of the city. Also from the inter-war period is Christopher
Isherwood’s The Berlin Stories, comprising
the novels Mr Norris Changes Trains (1935) and
Goodbye to Berlin (1939). They depict Berlin in
the pre-Hitler years of the decadent Weimar Republic. Bertolt Brecht
moved to Berlin in 1924 and stayed there until 1933, when he fled
after the burning of the Reichstag. He directed and wrote many of
his early plays here, most successfully Die Dreigroschenoper
(The Threepenny Opera), which opened in 1928.
Berlin’s post-war appearances in English writing have tended
to be of the spy novel genre and fitting, as the city was the front
line of the Cold War. Robert Harris’ Fatherland (1993)
is a disturbing speculative fiction of Berlin based on the premise
that the Nazis had not lost the war. Peter Schneider’s The
Wall Jumper (1984) is a mixed genre meditation on the Berlin
Wall. |
