Open Air Gas Lantern Museum

The Open Air Gas Lantern Museum was established in 1978 and shows 90 historic lanterns, both originals and replicas, from 25 German and 11 European cities. The lanterns originate from the era between 1826 and 1956. It is the largest collection in Europe of its sort. The museum is situated near S-Bahnhof Tiergarten between the Strasse des 17. Juni and the upper lock in the Landwehrkanal. Don’t forget the few at the other side of the Strasse des 17. Juni behind the Burger King. Especially in the evening or at night it’s worth a visit, as lights are switched on at dusk.
If you would like to see more gas lanterns “in the wild”, then you are in the right city.

Berlin gas street lighting

More than 200 years ago, in 1814 the first gas lanterns appeared in London. Since then, the use grew rapidly due to the industrialisation. In Berlin, gas lamps are used since 1826 and have been silent witnesses of the eventful history. Currently there are still about 44.000 of them in operation in Berlin. A unique number, which is more than half of all working gas lanterns in the world. The majority of the relatively modern lamps are found in the western part of the city, as in this isolated part of the divided city it was easier to use gas than to be dependent on electricity supplies.

While the 90 lanterns of the museum are protected by world monument funding, the 44.000 in the streets of Berlin are not. There are plans to gradually convert all of them into electric lamps, as gas lighting is supposed to be environmentally harmful and more expensive, which is highly debatable.

A good overview of the different types of Berlin gas lanterns and where it is worth seeing them, can be found on the website of Gaslicht-Kultur, which is an association to promote and protect the gas operated street lighting in Berlin. It also organises tours.

More information

Gaslaternen-Freilichtmuseum/Open Air Gas Lantern Museum
Strasse des 17. Juni/Klopstockstrasse
S5 S7 S75 N9 Tiergarten
Open anytime
Free admission
www.gaslicht-kultur.de

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History of the Trabant

During the 50s, the family car slowly turned from a luxury item into an everyday product. The Volkswagen Beetle, which was developed in the mid 40s, was produced in West Germany and therefore not available for the population of East Germany. It was 1954 when the East-German authoroties ordered the development of a family car that should not cost more than 4000 Mark. It was called Trabant, which means satellite: a buddy that’s always there to guide you.

In 1955 the first prototype P70 was developed and since 1957 the Trabant P50 was in production, followed by the P60 in 1962 and P601 in 1964. The Trabant, or “Trabi”, was produced by the VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke in Zwickau untill 1991. More than 3 million cars have been built and almost 80% of the population owned one, sometimes after having been on the waiting list for several years. The “racing cardboard” was made of thermosetting plastic, and filled with a two-stroke engine it could reach 26 horsepower.


The Trabant was competitive to other family cars during the 50s and 60s. Although it was developed further, the SED did not allow modernisations, so that the Trabant fundamentally never really changed and kept the same old-fashioned look for decades.

The car became world famous in 1989, by filling street scenes during the many uprisings, and after the fall of the wall, when the Trabis guided the East German citizens into the western world.

After the reunification of Germany, the end of the Trabant was near. East Germans preferred the wealth of West German alternatives, which had better quality and were relatively more environmental-friendly. West Germans were not interested in the minor quality of the car. The production of Trabants discontinued in 1991.

Nowadays the Trabant has turned into a sympathic cult car and a few are still left. Unfortunately the recent environmental regulations in many German cities keep the cars from the street. Luckily there are exceptions: in Berlin, you can go on a Trabi Safari during various tours through the city in an old Trabant.

Trabi Museum

In 2013 the Trabi Museum opened its doors and is dedicated to the Volkswagen of the GDR and its history. Apart from the standard versions the museum exhibits several extraordinary Trabants, like a cabriolet, a racing Trabant, a Trabi Ferrari (or Ferrabi), a tank Trabant, and -my favourite- a camping Trabi with a tent on the roof. Styled with original GDR toys and other products from the 70s and 80s a visit to the Trabi Museum results in a real Ostalgic experience.

More information

www.trabi-museum.de
Zimmerstrasse 14-15 10969 Berlin-Kreuzberg
U6 Kochstrasse/Checkpoint Charlie
Open daily 10am – 6pm
Entrance fee 5 euro, under 12 free admission
www.trabi-safari.de

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Whenever you are interested in architecture or design, you’re looking for a design gift from the museum shop, you’d like to get some inspiration for your new furniture, or you just want to have a coffee and cake on a nice and sunny terrace, you definitely should go to the Bauhaus archive. In this museum for design the history of Bauhaus and its influence is documented, and it shows a wide collection of Bauhaus design.

History of Bauhaus

Bauhaus was a school for architecture, design, visual and performing arts. It was founded in Weimar by the architect Walter Gropius in 1919 just after the first world war. It was famous for its minimalistic modern design and functionality, without putting constraints on mass production.
After moving to Dessau in 1925 the school fully flourished and built an international reputation, established by the many famous teachers such as Paul Klee, Wassily Kadinsky, László Moholy-Nagy, Marcel Breuer and the directors Hannes Meyer (1928-1930) and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1930-1933).
When in 1932 the nazis came to power, the school moved to Berlin into an old derelict factory, where it had to close in 1933, because it was too progressive, too international and too jewish. Most employees and students emigrated, some were murdered.
Despite its relatively short existence, Bauhaus has had an important influence on architecture and design. Even today the 90 year old classic modern style is not outdated at all.

The Bauhaus Archive – Museum for Design

The escape from Germany of many Bauhaus members before the 2nd World War resulted in a spread around the western world of the Bauhaus heritage. In 1964 plans were made to collect a Bauhaus archive in Darmstadt, in a building designed by Walter Gropius. The project could not be carried through and in 1976 the archive has been built in Berlin. The characteristic building opened in 1979.
The museum shows a large collection of assignments made during many courses such as colour, form, composition, functionality, materials, photography, ceramics, furniture and architecture. Also works from famous Bauhaus masters are shown, such as the Wagenfeld lamp or furniture designed by Marcel Breuer.
Next to the permanent collection, many attractive temporary exhibitions have been held since its opening. From June 25 till September 8 2014 there will be an exhibition about the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, who was one of the teachers at the Bauhaus school.
Also the museumshop, which sells posters, books about Bauhaus, and design products, and the cafetaria are worth a visit. The first time I visited the Bauhaus archive, even the food served at the cafetaria was fully designed. Unfortunately, this is not offered anymore.

The real Bauhaus addict should also visit the Bauhaus school in Dessau (www.bauhaus-dessau.de) and the Bauhaus-Museum Weimar (www.klassik-stiftung.de).

Bauhaus Archive

www.bauhaus.de
Klingelhöferstrasse 14, 10785 Berlin
Bus 100 106 187 M29 Lützowplatz
U1 U2 U3 U4 Nollendorfplatz
Open Wed – Mon 10 – 17
Entrance fee Wed – Fri 6 Euro, Sat – Mon 7 Euro
Audio guide recommended, deposit 20 Euro

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This picture looks like an ordinary daily scene in a certain city. The pavement and buildings, and details like the gas lantern suggest that it is probably Berlin. The cars reveal that it is somewhere mid 80s. It has been raining, people walk across the street. The grocery is open.
Just a normal street scenery in Berlin somewhere in the 80s. Yes it is, and no, it isn’t. This is the Dresdener Strasse in Kreuzberg, and 10 meter to the left is the Berlin wall. It is part of a huge panorama “Die Mauer” (The Wall) by the artist Yadegar Asisi, in which the artists shows that every day life behind the Berlin wall was normal, although the location and circumstances were not at all.

Panoramas by Asisi

Yadeagar Asisi (*1955 Vienna) grew up in the East German cities Halle and Leipzig. He studied architecture in Dresden and Art in West Berlin. Since 1993 he works on panoramas which resulted in the worlds largest panoramas in old gasometers in Dresden and Leipzig. Currently, panoramas can be seen in Dresden, about the baroque period, and in Leipzig, about the battle of the nations in 1813. Until 2012 the panorama about Pergamon was exposed in Berlin. Since 2012 the panorama Die Mauer is exposed, near Checkpoint Charlie.

Panorama The Wall

Asisi lived in Kreuzberg in the 80s near the wall. He came up with the idea of this panorama when he was asked what living behind the wall was like, to show how people adapt to conditions as a strategy to survive. Helped by old photos, paintings, drawings and memories he worked 4 years to construct a detailed scenery of a normal fictitious autumn day in the 80s. It resulted in a huge panorama of 60 x 15 meter, supported by light effects and audio fragments.
It’s a nice opportunity to feel the existence of the wall within your heart instead of listing solely the facts. To see the small strip that is left of the Sebastianstrasse (-which you may recognise from Marillion’s Kayleigh videoclip-), children playing, people painting gravity on the wall, tourists touching the wall, making selfies, visitors looking over the wall, the todesstreifen between both walls and pigeons sitting on the wall or just flying around. All spotted by guards in a watchtower….

Absolutely worth a visit!

Asisi Panometer Berlin

Friedrichstrasse 205 (Checkpint Charlie) 10117 Berlin
www.asisi.de
September 2012 till at least the end of 2014
Open Daily 10-18
Entrance fee 10 Euro
U6 Kochstrasse

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I really love to visit the Museum für Fotografie. Not only because -if I had the time- I could spend hours in the nice and cosey bookshop which is one of the many filials of the König Bookstore, but mainly because of the beautiful photos from Helmut Newton it exhibits.

Helmut Newton

Photographer Helmut Newton was born in 1920 as Helmut Neustädter at Innsbrucker Straße 24 in Berlin-Schöneberg. The house does not exist anymore, all is left is a plaque.
Newton started a career as a photographer in 1936. Due to political climate in Germany (he was Jewish) he left Berlin in 1938. Via Singapore, Australia (where he met his wife and photographer Alice Springs-June Newton) and London, he arrived in Paris where he worked as a fashion photographer for Vogue Magazine. Because “sex sells”, he developed his particular, controversial style marked by fashion photos with nude models, which made him world famous. Since 1981 he lived and worked with his wife in Monaco and in Los Angelos.
In 2003 he founded the Helmut Newton foundation, which aims to inherit and to promote his works and those of Alice Springs, and a permanent residence in the Museum für Fotografie in Berlin was arranged. Unfortunately he did not make it to the official opening, as in January 2004 he died after a car crash with his Cadillac on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.
Helmut Newton is buried next to Marlene Dietrich at the Städtischer Friedhof III in Friedenau.

Museum für Fotografie

The museum is held in a former officers mess, built in 1909, and is situated directly behind the Zoölogischer Garten Station.
The ground floor and first floor of this majestic building house the collection of the Helmut Newton foundation. It permanently shows the Helmut Newton private property, and temporary exhibitions are hold, which always have a certain link to Helmut Newton. With this enormous Helmut Newton overdosis you’d think the museum should actually be called the Helmut Newton museum. But fair enough, the Museum für Fotografie is a cooperation of the Helmut Newton Foundation and the Kunstbibliothek’s Collection of Photography, which is situated in the Kaisersaal on the second floor of the building and holds a research and documentarycenter as well. Unfortunately, the Kaisersaal is not open for visitors at the moment.

Helmut Newton Bar

After the museum the real Nelmut Newton fan visits the Helmut Newton Bar at the Gendarmenmarkt (Charlottenstrasse 57). Here you can see the largest Big Nudes photos in private property.

Museum für Fotografie

www.helmut-newton.com
Jebenstrasse 2 10623 Berlin
U2 U9 S3 S5 S7 S75 Zoölogischer Garten
U1 Kurfürstendamm
Open Tue–Fri 10–18; Sat-Sun 11-18; Thu 10–20;
Entrance fee 10 Euro (online 9 Euro)

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