Daniels Counter writes about Berlin Snack, a place in London where you can grab Currywursts, Bratwurst, Knackwurst and other traditional German snacks.

Most places I’ve seen do not serve champagne with their Currywursts. You CAN have it with exquisite beer though, for small change. Keep that in mind the next time you’re in Berlin. Or in London…In Israel we also have a long tradition of eating sausages, which was brought here by immigrants from Germany in the 1930′s. Of course we later on deteriorated to eating American style Hot-Dogs, which are a pale substitute for the real thing (although the American hot-dog is definitely a descendant of the German Wurst).

And here’s a nice video from Reuters about the Currywurst museum in Berlin.

Currywurst museum

Although we did choose the best, finest looking, most intriguing and/or most interesting artworks from our point of view, what you saw here was really no more than a tiny fragment of the real thing. Check out the previous parts as well.

Berlin Graffiti Project
Berlin Graffiti Project II
Click the images to enlarge (and get into the slideshow mode)

The monumental East Side Gallery was a way to preserve this special cultural entity, but it didn’t stop people from creating new graffiti, sometimes on the expense of the works made by some of the world’s finest artists, most of which were partly defaced.

Many people come to see the official Gallery; most, don’t even suspect that on the back side of this Berlin Wall remain, there are some stunning works of art. We decided to include a few of them in this project, as well as some photos of “the hand”, and anarchist symbol which can be found all over Berlin, in many strange places.

See also: Berlin’s Graffiti part I

There must be tens of thousands of graffiti and graffiti-like works, scattered all over the city of Berlin. You can find them on walls, buildings, pavements, and ever cars. Some where made by famous artists, like the wonderful East Side Gallery artworks. Other by anonymous artists and anarchists.

This project could only show a tiny fragment of that fabulous wealth of art and self-expression, but we tried to capture the spirit. Stay tuned for the coming volumes.

Christmas Time in Berlin:

Christmas Markets.

Christmas Shows.

Winter Activities.

And more on the left side bar on the same page.

New Year’s Eve Parties.

And don’t forget to dress warmly (if you come from warmer places, like Israel…). It is already a bit below zero there at nights. Brrr… (although according to BBC weather, Tuesday should be sunny).

Here are some more interesting links:

Public Drinking at Berlin Christmas Markets.

Christmas Markets Reviews.

And something from Hermann.

Glühwein, btw, is hot spiced wine, a traditional Christmas drink in Germany. If you can’t make it to Germany during Christmas, and still want a taste, you can buy it online (in bottles, or just the spices) or make your own.

And of course, merry Christmas to you all.

The Jewish community in Berlin has a very nice website (although some of it is still “under construction”), in which they give information about the synagogues, rabbis, Kosher restaurants and delis, educational centers, social support for members, and Jewish events. One of these events is the Jewish Cultural Festival, which took place last September. You can also find a lot of relevant information in HaGalil website.

We, btw, tried one Kosher restaurant, called “Beth Cafe”. I don’t want to be mean, but I really, but really, do not recommend it. Maybe it was a bad day, but the Cholent Soup I ordered was very horrible, and wasn’t even remotely similar to anything I know as Cholent. And it was a big disappointment, since a good Cholent is really something to die for. So, to compensate, here is something about this dish, including recipe. It is especially appropriate on rainy weekends.

The synagogue was designed by Eduard Knoblauch in a neo-byzantine style. It was heavily damaged by the Nazis during Kristallnacht, and destroyed in 1943 in a bombing. In 1953 the building was demolished. Its reconstruction started only after the fall of the Wall, and completed in 1995. The synagogue had a very distinctive golden dome, very fancy, not very appropriate for a synagogue, as I understand my religion, but what the hell, they have to compete…

Inside the synagogue there is a permanent exhibition, showing the history of the building and its congregation. There is also a changing exhibition. The one we caught in 2005 was “Art from Auschwitz”. The current exhibition is something about Lvov, or, according to the website of the place, “Threshold between East and West”, and it will run until 6 January. Check out the site for the next exhibition.

The synagogue is also an active house of prayer. From September until April it is open Sunday through Thursday between 10 to 18, and Friday from 10 to 14. From May to August it is open Tuesday to Thursday from 10 to 18, Monday and Sunday from 10 to 20, and Friday from 10 to 17. Naturally, it is closed on Jewish holidays.

Admission is 3 euros (2 euros reduced), or 4.60 euros including special exhibition. And you pay an extra 1.50 euros if you want to see the dome from the inside.

There is also a restaurant there called “Kadima”. We didn’t go there, as we have pretty bad connotations for this name (it’s the name of the political party our degenerate Prime Minister heads, and a pretty degenerate party by its own merit).

The museum presents the history of the Jewish life in Berlin since 1848. It is presented on three axes: Axis of Continuity, which connects the Old Building with the main staircase that leads up to the exhibition levels; Axis of Emigration, which leads outside to the Garden of Exile; and Axis of the Holocaust, which ends at the Holocaust Tower.

The old building, The Collegienhaus, through which you enter the museum, is a baroque building built in 1735 and rebuilt in the 60s after being destroyed in the war. It used to serve as a court house under Friedrich Wilhelm I. Nowadays it contains temporary exhibition rooms, event rooms, the Museum shop and Liebermann’s restaurant.
The building by Daniel Libeskind was finished in 1999, and opened in 2001. The two-story, three-winged house is built around a square courtyard to which a glass roof designed by Libeskind was added in 2007.

Libeskind said about this project: “The official name of the project is ‘Jewish Museum’ but I have named it ‘Between the Lines’ because for me it is about two lines of thinking, organization and relationship. One is a straight line, but broken into many fragments, the other is a tortuous line, but continuing indefinitely”.

Besides the exhibitions and the axes, the museum contains voids. The floor of one of them is covered by a steel sculpture created by the Israeli artist Menashe Kadishman, which is basically a collection of faces, named “Shalechet” (Fallen Leaves). When you go down there, you can walk on them – a very intense experience. The voids, according to Libeskind, refer to “that which can never be exhibited when it comes to Jewish Berlin history: humanity reduced to ashes”.

Special Exhibitions

When we were in Berlin in 2006, there was a very good exhibition about Freud and psychoanalysis, which I just had to see, and enjoyed tremendously.

The current special exhibition, which opened yesterday and runs until 24 February 2008, is called “Dateline: Israel” (photography and video art) which, according to the website of the museum, “offers a glance at the everyday life of people in an atmosphere of political tensions and constant imperilment”. That is, in Israel. It includes more than 20 artists, Israelis and non Israelis. As it’s not likely I will be able to catch it, I just hope it is not too self-righteous, and a little more relevant than it sounds.

Hanukka Market

There is also a Hanukka Market in the new Glass courtyard, which will be there until the end of December, although the holiday itself ended last week. Be aware of all the deep fried and very fattening “Hanukka delicacies”, mainly the Sufganiot. They can be pretty evil…

The market is open from 2 to 31 December, daily from midday to 6 pm (closed on 24 December). Admission is free, except of course from what you buy…

Other Hannuka events in the market, running through December are Jazz on Thursdays and Musical Sundays.

Museum’s Details

Address: Lindenstrasse 9-14

Tel: +49 30 2599 3410 Fax: +49 30 2599 3412

Open daily from 10 to 8, Mondays from 10 to 10.
(closed: 9/13+14, 9/22, 12/24)

Special exhibition: Old Building, 1st level, admission: 4 euros, reduced rate 2 euros

Here you can find a map of the Museum.

Links

The Museum’s website.

Daniel Libeskind’s website.

The Jewish School on Grosse Hamburger Strasse was founded in 1862. It was closed by the Nazis in 1942, and used as a deportation station. In 1993 it was reopened, and since 2003 it offers studies from 5th grade on. And they have a nice website, right here.

Monument commemorating the deportation of the Berlin Jews: also on Grosse Hamburger Strasse, there is this monument, commemorating the deportation of some 55,000 Jews from Berlin. It stands before the oldest Jewish cemetery in Berlin, dating from 1672. The cemetery was completely destroyed by the Gestapo, and it holds today only one reconstructed grave, that of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. The place is being renovated nowadays, so we couldn’t get in and document…

A monument for the Synagogue on Münchener Strasse (in the Bavarian Quarter). This synagogue was built in 1909, survived Kristallnacht, but was destroyed in 1956. Kurt Weill had a job there for a few months in 1921 as the choir conductor.

Stolpersteine (Stumbling Blocks): a project by the artist Gunter Demning. The man put some 11,000 such stones in 220 cities in Europe. In Berlin there are 1,400 stones. Each stone represents a person who lived there, and was deported and murdered by the Nazis. I found only a handful of them, near Hackescher Höfe. And the project has a very nice website, although in German only.

Places of Terror not to be forgotten: A sign near the Wittenberg Platz train station, not far from Ku’damm. Put there by the League of Human Rights in 1967.

A plaque commemorating Bernhard Lichtenberg, the catholic priest who preached to treat the Jews according to the commandment “Love thy neighbor”, in 1941, and pray publicly for their wellbeing. It was enough to get him arrested. He was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment in Dachau, but died in prison before he was sent there.

And there’s also the Rykestrasse Synagogue, of which we wrote before.

Here are some examples:

The signs are scattered all over the Bavarian Quarter in Schönenberg, an area known in the 1920s as “Jewish Switzerland”, since many “well-to-do” Jews settled there. In the Bavarian Square you can find a map of the area, with green spots representing the 80 street signs.

And here’s an interesting article from the artists’ website.