Global Stone: Five Continents Meet in the Tiergarten

"The quickest way to find yourself is to sail once around the world." These words from the biography of Bernd Moitessier, philosopher and passionate sailor, were the inspiration for Wolfgang Kraker von Schwarzenfeld, the artist whose Global Stone project is about to be completed in Berlin's Tiergarten.

In his 20s, von Schwarzenfeld began a sailing voyage around the world. His trimaran capsized in the Atlantic, off the Florida coast. He survived sixteen days in chest-deep ice-cold water, eating raw fish (not a gourmet experience, he discovered), drinking salt water in desperation, and close to dying from hypothermia. In a near-death experience, he looked at the sky and endless horizon stretching around him to infinity and thought to himself: "There is no end point to life. All of mankind is one entity, like the millions of cells in a human body."

This thought became the germ of an idea that von Schwarzenfeld has spent the greater part of his life realizing -- a project he calls "Global Stone."

Sailing around the world in "Pegasus," his three-masted sailboat, von Schwarzenfeld searched on each of five continents for a pair of magnificent stones, similar in substance, form, and weight (approximately 30 tons). Once he had made his choice, he left one of the "sister stones" in the country of origin, bringing the other (at considerable cost and with mind-boggling logistic planning) to Berlin's Tiergarten. The last of the five stones to be brought to Berlin will arrive tomorrow -- from Bhutan.

The stones in the Tiergarten have been so arranged that their polished surfaces reflect the sunlight in five invisible straight lines. The "sister stones" on the five continents have also been carefully arranged by the artist so that once a year, on June 21st, the sunlight glances off their surface, travels in a frequency of 16 minutes around the world, and meets the pentagram of light between the stones in Berlin exactly at high noon.

The stones -- each a natural wonder, polished, sculptured and inscribed by the artist with one of five linked themes: Awakening, Hope, Forgiveness, Love, and Peace --  are a kind of hieroglyph of the connection between Berlin and the world, as well as the interconnectedness of all nations on these five continents.

I can't think of a better note on which to end my last blog before Christmas 2009.

You can find the Global Stone Project near the Löwengruppe (The Lions) in the Tiergarten.  Keeping the Brandenburger Tor behind you, follow the Ahornsteig for 300 m. Or, from  Potsdamer Platz, enter the Park from behind the Sony Center, and walk about 250 m.

Love Songs from the GDR

Suse Jank was only five years old when the Berlin Wall fell, and her memories of life in the GDR seem as though they belong to a distant past. But she does have vivid memories of the songs her father sang to her. He would pick up his guitar and sing to Suse and her sister the sentimental or romantic songs of bands such as Silly, Rent, Lift or singers such as Veronika Fischer or Petra Zieger.

Now, Jank and her band recreate those pop songs of the GDR in a version bound to appeal to contemporary audiences. Her newest CD, due out on November 30, is called "Ostpoesie" or East Poetry. But her CD is not an "Ostalgie" trip, Jank insists. We perform this music not because of any loyalty to the ideology of the former East, she says, but simply because these songs have charm, originality and a certain timeless quality. Jank believes they deserve a fresh interpretation.

Photo: SUPERillu/Handelmann

So, too, does her pianist and arranger, Clemens Süßenbach, who accompanies her on "Ostpoesie." Süßenbach is a jazz pianist who has lived all his life in Zehlendorf, in the West, but he fell in love with GDR rock and pop after Jank introduced him to some of its classic hits.

These are fascinating songs, says Süßenbach, especially as many were written to express individuality and desire in a time of political repression.  When I first heard Silly's song "SOS", I thought: Cool! A pop song about ships. Only later did I figure out that a critique of the political system ran right through the song.

Photo: SUPERillu/Handelmann

For Jank, these are primarily songs from her childhood, and she takes great care in choosing her repertoire, paying special attention to the texts. They often have a wonderful visual poetry about them, she says. Listen to her sing Manfred Krug's "Wenn du schläfst mein Kind," or "When you sleep, my child," and you will know what she means.

Jank's crystal clear voice and heartfelt rendition of these forgotten songs from the GDR often move her audiences, sometimes to tears. It hardly matters whether she and her band play in the "newcomer" states of the Federal Republic or in the old West.

Photo: SUPERillu/Handelmann

You can catch Suse Jank and her international band (the other three members are from Sweden, Italy and Armenia) at their record-release celebratory performance at the B-Flat jazz club on Monday, November 30 -- the day "Ostpoesie" hits the music stores.

Suse Jank and her band will perform in B-Flat, Rosenthalerstr. 13, 10119 Berlin, on Monday, November 30, at 21:00. Tickets are 10 EUR, 8 EUR reduced price. Nearest stop is S-Bahn Hackescher Markt. More information is at www.b-flat-berlin.de


If you miss them at B-Flat, you can hear Jank and her band on December 12 at 17:00 at the Amerika Gedenkbibliothek, Blücherplatz 1, 10961 Berlin (Kreuzberg).

Check It Out: Berlin gets a new Library

Check it out! At Berlin's new library, Humboldt University's Jakob-und-Wilhelm-Grimm-Zentrum, you can do so  -- literally.

At last Berlin has a library that matches the standards of public and university libraries in most world cities. The average university library in Germany has tended to be faintly depressing: bicycle-cluttered entrances, dreary coin-operated lockers (mostly malfunctioning), disheveled lounge areas and grubby vending machines, cranky photocopiers, even crankier librarians, and uncomfortable, elbow-rubbing work spaces.

The Grimm Zentrum is an entirely new ball game.

Photo: Stefan Müller

Open for business at the start of the Winter Semester, the library throws open its doors to the public today for an Open Day. The new building replaces the old main library and twelve branch libraries of the Humboldt University, covering the humanities, economics, social and cultural sciences. Spiffy new technology allows you to check out and return books, and access all the information you need electronically.

If  the first few weeks are anything to go by, today should be a knockout success. The maximum capacity of 5000 visitors daily has already been reached. According to Olaf Eigenbrodt in administrative services, this is more than the number of visitors all the former branch libraries of Humboldt University combined received in a week!

Photo: Stefan Müller

Much of the Grimm Zentrum's success has to do with its architecture and interior design, conceived by the Swiss architect Max Dudler. It most unique feature is the main reading rooms, which Dudler has constructed as suspended galleries from each of the five floors above the central area. The combination of warm, dark cherry wood and cool, elegant glass creates an aesthetically pleasing atmosphere in which to work. From the reading rooms you look out over at the stacks on either side as through a wooden lattice work.

Every architectural and design detail has been carefully considered. The long rectangular shapes of the windows are repeated in the open wood panels on either side of the reading rooms as well as in the table tops (green linoleum, reminiscent of panes of frosted glass), and even in the rectangular shape of the lamps with their transparent shades. Very classy!

If, for a moment, your mind wanders from the book in front of you, you might catch sight of the S-Bahn swooshing silently by.


The Grimm Zentrum ls located in the S-Bahn viaduct right next to the S and U Friedrichstrasse station. Its holdings include 1. 5 million books in stacks, and a further 1 million books in storage. There are 1250 work spaces, many equipped with computers and Internet access. Currently open every weekday from 8 AM to 12 midnight, on weekends from 10 AM to 6 PM.

Berlin Remembers

Berliners remember the confusion, disbelief, overwhelming joy and emotional reunions they experienced twenty years ago to the day, on November 9, 1989.

Today, however, is a day not only for the Berliners but for the rest of the world. Over two thousand journalists and television crews, over thirty heads of state, and hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world are here. This evening they will converge on the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate), a focal point for the commemorations of the fall of the Berlin Wall, although it was never actually part of the Wall.

The Brandenburger Tor as Symbol
Every day Karl-Heinz zur Weihen of the Berlin Senate receives requests from advertisers and film makers to use the gate as a background. One installation artist wanted to drape a giant banana over the columns, another wanted to construct a rainbow above.

Why is the Brandenburger Tor such a powerful symbol?

Commissioned by Frederick William II in the late eighteenth century to replace the old baroque city gates, it was designed by the architect Carl Gotthard Langhans. Inspired by the Propylaea of Athens, Langhans brought the strict lines of neoclassical design to Berlin's city architecture. The double row of six Doric columns marked the outer end of the grand axis of Unter den Linden.

The "Horse Thief"
The gate's most distinctive feature is the copper quadriga  above the central columns, the work of the young sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow.  The quadriga portrays the Roman goddess of victory, riding in her chariot drawn by four horses galloping into the eastern part of the city.

Napoleon bagged the quadriga -- chariot, goddess, horses and all -- when the French army defeated Prussia in 1806, and spirited it away to Paris. It was a matter of pride for the Prussian army when they returned the quadriga to Berlin in a triumphant procession after they had routed Napoleon's forces in 1814. The gate became a "Gate of Victory," and the square in which it stood became (and still is today) the Pariser Platz (Paris Square).

The Victory Gate
The gate remained a symbol of Prussian power and military might as long as the empire lasted. After that, it became the backdrop for military parades and ceremonial receptions. On the night of January 30, 1933, when Hitler was appointed Chancellor, rows of torch-bearing brownshirts paraded through the grand columns.

By 1945 the gate was badly damaged, shot at first by the Germans after Soviet soldiers planted their red flag atop it, then by the Red Army. Reconstruction workers counted 50,000 bullet scars. After 1945, the gate stood within Soviet territory, but nobody stopped Berliners from walking through the gate, past the sign that said: You are now leaving the Soviet sector.

"Open this Gate!"
On August 13, 1961, the sound of power drills filled the square. Cement blocks were laid out in a semi-circle in front of the gate, marking the outer limits of Berlin's Mitte district and the inner boundary of the Soviet-occupied territory. This became one segment of the Berlin Wall. Soon the Brandenburger Tor stood in no-man's land, cut off from the West, accessible in the East only to guests and dignitaries invited by the State.

When John F. Kennedy visited in 1963, the heads of state in East Berlin had red banners hung between the columns to block the view into the east.

"As long as the Brandenburger Tor remains closed," said Richard von Weizsäcker, former President of the Federal Republic and the first head of state of a unified Germany "the German question remains open."

In 1987, Ronald Reagan's words echoed across the world: "Mister Gorbachev, open this gate!"

November 9, 1989
Then, on November 9, 1989, a documentary film camera and a microphone recorded how a woman from Linienstrasse in the former East Berlin, Bärbel Reinke, rushed up to one of the guards in front of the Brandenburger Tor and cried out in anger and frustration: "All I want is to go through these gates and back again. My sons serve in the army of the GDR -- is this all so hard to understand?" Her heart still beats faster, says Bärbel Reinke, when she rides her bicycle through the gate.

This evening, at 6:30 PM, when Daniel Barenboim's orchestra tunes up, I know where I'll be.

Berlin, Rejoice!

November 9, 1989. After 28 years  of dividing the city, the Berlin Wall fell, and the call, "Berlin, Rejoice!" rang out through the chaos of overwhelming emotions that gripped the city.

"Berlin, Rejoice!" is the theme of the benefit concert in the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral) on Monday, November 9, that celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. For the first time in history, the Rundfunk-Sinfonie Orchestra, Berlin (Berlin's Radio Symphony Orchestra) and its choir, the Rundfunkchor Berlin, will perform together with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester (or DSO), and the RIAS Kammerchor (RIAS Chamber Choir).

The significance of this memorial concert is enormous. The RSO, Germany's oldest radio symphony orchestra, was under the supervision of the GDR radio from 1949 till the Fall of the Berlin Wall, while the DSO was established by the US forces during the occupation. At that time it was known as the RIAS Orchestra, the acronym standing for Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor, or Broadcasting in the American Sector, the radio station to which the orchestra was linked. During the Berlin blockade, RIAS played a central role in carrying the message of the Allied forces' determination to resist Soviet intimidation.

On Monday, November 9, the four great orchestra/choirs will perform together in a unique commemoration of reunification.

The program includes sacred music by Schubert and Mendelssohn -- a tribute to the religious tolerance in which freedom is rooted; Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Schönberg's "Friede auf Erden" -- an expression of the magnitude of the event;  and Richard Wagner's Overture from "Die Meistersinger vom Nürnberg" -- a reference to the long shadows cast by history.

The performance will be transmitted live on Deutschlandfunk, BBC, Radiotelevisione Italiana, as well as radio stations in Denmark, Lithuania, Canada and Romania.


"20 Jahre Mauerfall - Das Konzert" takes place at the Berliner Dom on Monday, November 11 at 8:30 PM. Tickets are between 15 EUR and 70 EUR and are available at the ticket counter of the Berliner Dom every day between 11 AM and 6 PM (though tickets are going fast). Public transportation to the Berliner Dom includes: U and S-Bahn to Alexanderplatz; S-Bahn to Hackescher Markt, Bus 100 and 200 to Lustgarten.  More information is available at www.musikinkirchen.de

Berlin's Neues Museum Opens after Seven Decades

Long lines snaked across Berlin's Lustgarten this morning. The line started gathering momentum as early as 7 am on this cold, grey, blustery day -- three hours before Berlin's Neues Museum opened to the public.

This is a great day for Berlin -- the renovations by British architect David Chipperfield, which took ten years of discussion, debate, planning and construction, is brought to light; the last of the five-museum ensemble in Berlin's Museum Island is now in place; and the Neues Museum is open for regular viewing for the first time in seventy years.

Phoenix from the Ashes
Built by Friedrich August Stüler between 1855 and 1859, the museum was hastily emptied of its exhibits at the start of the Second World War. By 1945 there was nothing left of the beautiful neoclassical building except rubble. After the war, the GDR repaired the worst of the damage, but the building remained a scarred, war-torn ruin for about another half century.

photo: ddp

When Chipperfield first took on the project in the 1990s, he saw a ruin forgotten by history. His idea -- radical, audacious, fiercely contested and just as fiercely defended -- was to rebuild the museum without letting go of the original materials. Into the new structure, with modern features such as slim pillars and glass roofs, he incorporated parts of the original structure -- fragments of frescoes, wall, mosaics and raw brick, still bearing the marks of ravage by bullets, fire-bombs, and exposure to the forces of nature for over half a century.


Statement in Marble
The museum's most dramatic feature is probably the central staircase in cement and marble, sweeping up toward the high ceiling, stripped of decorative elements. Chipperfield's design recalls at once the original ornamental staircase and the image of its burned out remnants.

photo: ddp

Nefertiti

The Neues Museum  houses artifacts from the Egyptian Museum, its Papyrus Collection, and the Museum of Pre-and-Early History. The star of the show will undoubtedly be the 3,400-year old bust of Nefertiti in the north cupola, her gaze shooting across the entire length of the building, through hall after hall, era after era, finally meeting that of the Sun God Helios in the south cupola, in a breathtaking axis of perspective.

photo: Getty Images

Musuem in a Museum

The Neues Museum is more than "just" a museum. Like the Reichstag dome and the Gedächtniskirche, it shows how the city grapples with the problem of restoring and renewing without forgetting. But probably no other building in Berlin comes close to the Neues Museum in the way its reconstruction has embraced both the original architectural vision and the damage of war in its concept of renewal.

The Neues Museum is located on the Museum Island, Bodestraße 3, 10178 Berlin. Public transportation options include: S-Bahn to Hackescher Markt, tram M4, M5, M6 to Hackescher Markt, Bus 100, 200 to Lustgarten.

The museum is free to the public this Saturday and Sunday ( expect very long lines). From Monday on, the museum is open every day: from 10:00 to 18:00 on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday; from 10:.00 to 20:.00 on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Tickets cost 10 EUR (5 EUR reduced). Tickets are valid for entry within a specific half-hour window of time to minimize long waits. You can order tickets for your preferred window of time online at www.neues-museum.de
There is no restriction on the amount of time you can spend inside.


More information is at www.neues-museum.de

Berlin's Konzerthaus Turns 25

Why does a 1980s concert hall look like a nineteenth-century theater?
Berlin's Konzerthaus at Gendarmenmarkt, which turns 25 this year, was originally built as a royal theater by nineteenth-century star architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel. From 1821 to 1945, it hosted the city's top stage productions.

Devastating fires in the last days of the Second World War completely destroyed the beautiful theater. For four decades it lay in ruins, a blot on the landscape of East Berlin's historic district.

A second chance came in 1985, when Erich Honecker ordered the renewal and reconstruction of the Gendarmenmarkt for Berlin's 750th anniversary celebrations. The GDR's cultural elite decided that East Berlin theater did not need yet another venue for stage productions, so Schinkel's royal theater was to reappear as a concert hall, built in a contemporary architectural style.

The architects chosen for the project, however, begged to differ. They proposed designing the new building in a style as true to Schinkel's original concept as possible and restoring the site to its former glory.

The Konzerthaus was home to the Berlin Symphony Orchestra (BSO), but it was also intended to host artists of international repute who would add to the cultural prestige of the GDR. One of them was Leonard Bernstein, who conducted here six times between 1984 and 1989.

On Christmas Day, 1989, Bernstein returned to the concert hall to conduct Beethoven's Ninth Symphony -- a performance that many will remember for its historical piquancy.

And so, here it is - Berlin's Konzerthaus, resplendent in its nineteenth-century gilt and ornamental style, celebrating a young twenty-five years.

The celebrations this weekend, which opened with a performance by the Konzerthaus Orchestra (formerly the BSO) of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, include a program of concerts, guided tours, colloquiums and films.

The special program celebrating the 25th anniversary runs till October 4. The Konzerthaus is at the Gendarmenmarkt (U2 Stadtmitte). A complete program with ticket information for the various events is at www.konzerthaus.de

The Empty Museum

Far away from this weekend's Art Forum Berlin at the Messehalle, is an empty museum open to the public -- the best tip I received for the week. 

Photo: ⓒ Adrian Welsh

Berlin's Well-Kept Secrets
Berlin has seen the "empty museum" phenomenon  before.  In 1999, visitors who took part in an architectural tour of the Jewish Museum before a single exhibit had been moved inside, sensed the powerful atmosphere created by Daniel Libeskind's design. In March this year,  the empty Neues Museum on Museum Island (due to open this October) invited in the public one weekend and created a sensation.

This time it is the Bauhaus Archive/Museum of Design. All its exhibits are currently at the Martin-Gropius-Bau in the largest Bauhaus exhibition ever to be presented: "Bauhaus: A Conceptual Model,"   which runs till October 4. In the meantime, the Bauhaus Archive, stripped of its collection, is open to the public.

Photo: ⓒ Adrian Welsh

A Space Transformed
In its empty state, the building has undergone a dramatic transformation.

Originally designed in the 1960s by Walter Gropius for a steeply sloping site in Darmstadt, the museum was finally built ten years later on flat terrain in Berlin's Tiergarten. When architects had to adjust the ground plans, they turned the building's axis 180°. This meant that the large exhibition hall, with its floor to ceiling windows, now faced south instead of north, constantly open to sunlight. The curators worried about protecting the exhibits from over-exposure.

The solution was dark shades that covered all the glass and viewing galleries around the building, as well as the skylights on the saw-toothed roofs. This worked for conservation purposes but, of course, changed the character of the building as envisaged by its creator.

Now the shades are off. Light floods in through the South Hall windows, the galleries and the skylights. Suddenly, the whole building is transparent. Interiors harmonize with the surrounding landscape as the vista of the Landwehr Canal, curving alongside, opens up. Ah! you think, here -- finally! -- is the real beauty of Gropius's plan.

Don't Miss
Here are five things not to miss when you visit:
1. A guided tour or audio-guide -- both have interesting anecdotes about past and future plans for the building
2. The replica of Gropius's 60s chrome breakfast bar, left over from a previous exhibition and standing in the South Hall
3. The cafe, which offers a Create your Own Sandwich special. The concept is graphic designer Susann Unger's, and is pure Bauhaus. You "build" your sandwich on a plain wooden board -- your choice of bread with a selection of spreads arranged in small glass jars, all specialties from local manufacturers: three peppercorn or tomato-basil butter, pure raspberry, apricot-lavender or ricotta-mint. Perfect!
4. An old patio table by the Landwehr Canal where you can enjoy your creative sandwich under the trees in peace and quiet
5. The museum shop, which has wonderful design items (some of them quite affordable) for the home and office. (I have my eye on a certain teapot.)


The empty Bauhaus-Archiv/Museum für Gestaltung is open to the public in its "schön anzusehen" ("a beautiful sight") program, which runs till October 4. The museum is located at Klingelhöferstraße 14 (S and U-Bahn Zoologischer Garten). Take Bus 100 from the station till Budapesterstraße, then walk north to the Lützowerufer, cross the bridge over the Landwehrkanal, and you will see the distinctive industrial-style roof of the museum on your right -- about a 5-10 minute walk.


The museum is open daily, except Tuesdays, from 10 am to 5 pm. Tickets are 3 EUR (reduced fee, 1.50 EUR) and include an audio guide. The program also includes architectural tours and film shows.
More information is at www.bauhaus.de


This year is the 90th anniversary of the foundation of the Bauhaus.

September Picnic at the Jewish Museum

While Berliners are used to blustery, grey Septembers, this year the weather has been grand -- a long, hot summer, and now balmy Fall weather. Days are perceptibly shorter, so people are out savoring the golden September. And the city has so much on offer: sidewalk cafes, beer gardens and beach bars by the River Spree.

My tip: head to the Jewish Museum. No, not for for the exhibition this time, but for the beautiful garden behind the museum.

Walking through the garden, planned in the 1980s by architect Hans Kollhoff, you move through a sequence of landscapes. If you look carefully, you will see the sharp zig-zags of the Libeskind building appear in the garden landscaping in a gentler variation.

From the glass courtyard, you walk out into an archway of cascading wisteria boughs, under which tables have been set for dining. If you're here simply to while away the hours, though, you can move on to a flat, cool green space under the shade of plane trees.

Or, on a gentle slope overlooking the light-flooded glass courtyard designed by Daniel Libeskind, you can spread out a blanket and picnic lunch (both provided by the Restaurant Liebermanns) under cherry trees.  If you can tear yourself away from this spot, move further up where the garden becomes a series of terraced slopes, leading to a fountain. The slopes are dotted with the red lawn chairs of those who have sought solitude, a view and a book for company.

You can bring a brown bag lunch, but if you feel like splurging on a picnic for two, leave it to Julia Tannhof, chef of the Restaurant Liebermanns. She will pack you a delicious picnic basket with hummus, falafel, grilled mushrooms, aubergine caviar, couscous, tabouleh, tahini and Kalamata olives. The basket includes her special mint lemonade, a picnic blanket, plates and silverware.

From June to August, the Jewish Museum's summer cultural program (Kultursommer) takes place in the garden, and its Jazz im Garten Sunday matinee series is a local favorite. But I find the best time to be here is September, when the music lovers and picnicking families have left, and the garden is quiet -- a wonderful spot in which to read, have a late lunch or simply hold on to the last of the late summer sunshine.


The Jewish Museum is on Lindenstr. 9-14 in 10969 Berlin, Kreuzberg and is open from 10 am to 8 pm Tuesday-Sunday, and 10 am to 10 pm on Monday. Public transportation: U1 to Hallesches Tor or U6 to Kochstr. or Bus M29, M41 or 248. 


The Restaurant Liebermanns' picnic basket for two costs 23.50 Euros, and must be ordered at least 24 hours in advance (Tel. +49 (0)30 25 939 76). You can add a bottle of wine at an extra charge. You do not need a museum ticket in order to enter the garden. After going through security, make your way toward the restaurant, which leads out into the garden.
For more information go to www.jmberlin.de

Discover Berlin's Historic Buildings

One of my all-time favorite events that takes place every year across the country kicks off this weekend: Open Day of Historic Buildings ("Tag des Offenen Denkmals"). Since Berlin has at least 320 historic sites, it has extended the Open Day to two days over the weekend (Saturday, September 12 and Sunday, September 13).

This is your chance to take in some spectacular buildings and sites, some of which are not open to the public through the rest of the year. Several offer free tours by architects and historians who fill us in on the stories behind these buildings and spaces, and their novel transformations.

The Theme for this year's event is "Genuss" or Pleasure. Of the 320 Berlin sites open to the public this weekend, over a hundred fall into the category of Pleasure/Leisure. Here are my Top Five Favorites.

Wading in Culture
One: Stadtbad Steglitz, the beautiful Art Nouveau public pool with its high light-filled dome and mosaic ornamentations. The mosaic centerpiece in the sauna area uses clusters of tiny golden mosaic tiles while cast iron moldings in the shape of sea horses and sea shells clamber around the tops of columns.

A Historic Preservation site since 1982, the Stadtbad Steglitz closed in 2002 because it needed extensive renovation. To the rescue came investor Gabriele Berger, who bought the site for a symbolic sum of one Euro and agreed to find the several million Euros it will take to renovate and restore it to its original use. In the meantime she has converted it into an atmosphere-filled venue for theater or music performances, dances or parties.


Forget the XXL Tub of Popcorn
Two: The Astor Film Lounge at Kurfürstendamm 225, a cinema theater with a touch of class. Its history goes back to the late 40s when it opened as the Kino im Kindl, or KiKi. Restructurings made in the 1950s have survived till today, giving the theater a wonderful retro feel. From the 60s till very recently, it was the Film Palast. But just about a year ago, film buff and entrepreneur Hans Joachim Flebbe decided that if he applied a new concept to the 1950s theater,  he could create the ideal experience for finicky cineasts.

At the Astor you can ask that your car be valet parked, have a welcome cocktail at the bar, sink into adjustable leather reclining seats, order champagne and finger food at your own private table and enjoy state-of-the-art sound, lighting and projection technology. Bliss!




The GDR's Premiere Cinema
Three: Kino International at Karl Marx Allee 33, the 1960s cinema theater that screened legendary film premieres in the GDR and even today is a favorite for premiere showings and Berlinale screenings.

 Located opposite Cafe Moskau, which used to be the watering hole for GDR party members, the theater has been a Historic Preservation site since 1995. It is well worth a visit any time for its monumental post-Stalinist structure, grand foyer with crystal chandeliers, twin staircases, upholstered seating and sequined curtains. But a visit this weekend gives you a grand opportunity to discover more about its past.


Lakeside Splendor
Four: Schloss Wannsee, comprising six late-nineteenth century buildings on the shores of Lake Wannsee, including a picturesque half-timbered villa. Originally a recreation spot for sailboat-owners. the villa was used as a restaurant and the other buildings as boathouse, summer kitchen, restaurant and dance hall. This year extensive renovations are restoring all six buildings back to their turn-of-the-century glory. Since Schloss Wannsee is under private ownership, this is a rare chance for the public to view its charming interiors.


Historic Villa-and-Garden Ensembles
Five: an ensemble of three villa and garden landscapes planned by Mies van der Rohe in Zehlendorf in the early 1900s. Now used by the Parzival Schule, the three villas --  Haus Werner, Haus Perl and the Garten Haus -- are usually closed to the public, but this weekend Berliners are treated to a well-researched tour through the buildings and grounds, each of the three representing a distinct architectural style: neo-Classical, Bauhaus and Landhaus (or European country house).




Stadtbad Steglitz is at Bergstr. 90 (U-Bahnhof Schloßstraßse or U/S-Bahnhof Rathaus Steglitz). Open this Saturday and Sunday, 10 am to 6 pm. More information at www.stadtbad-steglitz.de
The Astor Film Lounge is at Kurfürstendamm 225 (U-Bahnhof Kurfürstendamm).  Open this Saturday and Sunday, 10 am to 12 midnight. More information at www.astor-filmlounge.de
Kino International is at Karl-Marx-Allee 33 (U-Bahnhof Schillingstraße). Open this Saturday for three tours at 11:30 am, 1 pm and 2:30 pm.  There will be an additional tour next Saturday, September 19 at 12 pm. More inf ormation at www.yorck.de
Schloss Wannsee is at Kronprinzessinweg 21 (S-Bahnhof Nikolassee). Open this Sunday from 10 am to 3 pm. 
The Mies van der Rohe Villas are at Quermatenweg 6 (U-Bahnhof Krumme Lanke). Open this Sunday from 10 am to 2 pm. The villas are presently owned by the Parzival Schule. Their information is at www.waldorf.net/therapeutikum

Art through the Keyhole

Viewing art through a keyhole: the "Bilderträume" exhibition of Surrealist art at the Neue Nationalgalerie plays with this motif, and posters across the city depict a keyhole against a black backdrop through which your eye glimpses a tantalizing sliver of a Max Ernst, Magritte or Delvaux painting.

Leonor Fini, "Two Women"(1939). ⓒ VG Bild-Kunst Bonn 2009

In the exhibition's publicity materials, the painting chosen to represent its theme, especially its preoccupation with dreams and fantasies, is this one by Leonor Fini, where the viewer's eye is drawn directly to the act of looking through the keyhole. 


The image resonates with viewers because the "Bilderträume" exhibition reveals the private collection of Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch to a museum public in Berlin for the very first time. The Pietzsches, both long-time residents of Berlin, lovingly collected these works over a period of 30 years, focusing on Surrealist artists. They acquired the works not only of the great Surrealists such as Dali and Magritte, but also lesser known artists such as Fini or Kurt Seligmann.


Besides paintings, the collection includes sculptures, photographs, documents and books. Till now, these  were only to be seen in the spectacular Dahlem home of Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch, which the couple planned and built around their beloved collection. Only once before had there been a public viewing: in Dresden, the city where Heiner Pietzsch was born. 


This is an outstanding collection. We see, for instance that Dripping-Painting, a technique we have come to associate with Jackson Pollock, was really the inspiration of Max Ernst, an artist whom the Pietzsches had met in Hannover in the 1970s, and whose works are represented here in greater number than any other single artist. We see, too, a self-portrait by Frida Kahlo, an artist whose works are not included in any major German collection. 


By drawing a line from the European Surrealists to the Abstract Expressionists in New York in the 1950s, the Pietzsch collection shows us how artists in the two traditions drew on each other's ideas. And by including the work of artists such as Leonor Fini, Dorothea Tanning and Meret Oppenheim, it brings to light the work of women artists in the genre, less frequently exhibited. 


In the end, by juxtaposing works from the Pietzsche collection with those in the museum's permanent collection, the exhibition highlights just how perfectly the one could complement and complete the other. 


Here, then, is yet another variation on the meaning of "Bilderträume" (literally, Dreams of Images): Now that the Neue Nationalgalerie might acquire more exhibition space in the Kulturforum once the Gemäldegalerie moves to the Museum Island, could it be dreaming of bringing the brilliant Pietzsche collection into its fold?

Rene Magritte, "The Magician's Apprentice" (1926). ⓒ VG Bild-Kunst Bonn 2009

"Bilderträume" runs till 22 November 2009 at the Neue Nationalgalerie,  Potsdamerstr. 50, 10785 Berlin.  Tickets are 10 EUR (5 Eur reduced price), and audio guides in German and English are available for 5 EUR (3.50 EUR reduced price).  Public transportation: U and S-Bahn: Potsdamer Platz, Bus M48 to Kulturforum or Bus 200 to Potsdamer Platz. More information is at: www.bildertraeume.org

Best of the Wurst

Berlin's newest museum, which opened on Saturday, August 15, is dedicated to the city's most iconic fast food: the currywurst.

Photo: dpa

Martin Löwe, curator of the German Currywurst Museum and initiator of the project, began developing the idea four years ago. In the meantime, five million Euros of private investment have gone into making this fast food icon into a cultural institution. The 1100 square-meter museum is located just next to another tourist magnet, Checkpoint Charlie.

For 60 years this favorite Berliner snack -- fried pork sausage chopped into bite-sized chunks, doused with ketchup , sprinkled with curry powder and dumped onto a paper plate -- has been consumed at the rate of 70 million a year in Berlin alone (800 million in Germany). 

The Secret behind Currywurst

Hamburg may contest Berlin's claim to being the first city to produce this sausage delicacy, but for Berliners the case is clear-cut. The inventor of currywurst was Herta Heuwer, a shop assistant who lived in Berlin's post-war British sector.

In a city still ravaged by the war, Heuwer bought a food stand for 35 Marks and converted it into a kiosk. On a rainy day in September 1949, when nary a customer showed up, she experimented with ingredients brought into the city by British soldiers: tomato puree, Worcestershire sauce and curry powder. The next day she sold the world's first currywurst. Heuwer (and Berlin) never looked back.

By the 50s and 60s the Berlin currywurst was so popular that Heuwer employed an entire staff and patented the recipe for the sauce (under the name "Chillup").  You can still see a  metal plaque at the corner of Kant and Kaiser-Friedrich-Strasse in Charlottenburg, marking the spot where Heuwer first put up her kiosk. The original recipe with its 12 different spices, though, remains a secret.

A Tribute to Currywurst

An entire section  is dedicated to Herta Heuwer and the origins of the currywurst. But there's more.

At the entrance, visitors can stand behind the counter of a make-believe currywurst stand and have their picture taken. Later, they can marvel at giant ketchup drops from the ceiling, plop down on a leather Wurst- sofa to watch TV-clips on the theme of currywurst, listen to pop songs featuring currywurst lyrics emanating from handsets in the shape of ketchup bottles, or study a map showing locations of Berlin's currywurst stands marked with little forks.

Photo: dpa

Currywurst Disneyland

You can also pick up trivia about currywurst sales around the world, learn about currywurst variations, follow the history of fast food, watch Grace Lee's documentary film "Best of the Wurst," prepare a virtual currywurst, or peek inside the refrigerators of various social "types" (the single twenty-something male, the two-children family, the gourmet foodie, etc.) to discover the role of Berlin's most famous fast food in each.

Photo: dpa

If the entrance price of 11 Euros hasn't been steep enough, (note that for one Euro more you can get a combination-ticket for all the fantastic exhibitions at the Museum Island) you can also buy currywurst junk at the exit: a T-Shirt that reads "Don't Worry --- be Curry" or a soft toy sausage (29.90 EUR).

"The museum is a tribute to a cultural phenomenon," said museum director Birgit Breloh. "Our aim is to highlight all the various dimensions of the currywurst." A lofty goal. But all this seems to me like a kind of Currywurst Disneyland. Me, I'd rather go down to Curry 36 in Kreuzberg and get the real thing.

Photo: dpa

The Currywurst Museum is at Schützenstr. 70, 10117 Berlin Mitte (U6 to Kochstr.) and is open daily from 10 am to 10 pm. Tickets are 11 Eur (reduced fee: 7 EUR). More information is at www.currywurstmuseum.de

State of Control: Art Installation at the Stasi Headquarters

Normannenstrasse 19 in Berlin-Lichtenberg. The address is enough to send a chill down the spine: till 1989 it belonged to the headquarters of the MfS, the Ministry for State Security, or Stasi. 

Here, in a complex of grim-looking Plattenbau concrete buildings, a well-oiled administrative machine employed a staff of eighty thousand to keep the population of the DDR under constant surveillance. In January 1990, when the German government authorized the destruction of Stasi files, civil rights groups stormed the complex.  Graffiti on the walls ("Never again the SED Mafia" says one) still bears witness to the event. Since then, the building has been closed to the public, its starkly neon-lit hallways and meeting rooms echoing with silence.

For the first time since 1989, the building is once again open to the public. Stripped of all furniture but still haunted by its past, these large silent rooms were the perfect space for Thomas Kilpper's art installation "State of Control." 

"I was immediately inspired by the space," says Kilpper, an artist and sculptor from Stuttgart. "I found exactly what I was looking for." Kilpper converted the 800-square-meter floor of what was once the ministry's dining hall into a giant printing block. Etched into the linoleum floor are 92 images of divided Germany, for which Kilpper used a kind of woodcutting technique. First, he projected photographs onto the yellow/green linoleum, then cut into the outlines of the negative images. Finally, he ran  a black-ink roller over the surface, leaving the non-print surface in the original linoleum color.

The effect is striking. The images have been cut into the floor just as they have been sharply etched in the nation's memory. The three underlying themes are clear:  state security, resistance and terrorism. Only the lines of differentiation between them are deliberately left blurred. 

Silvio Berlusconi and John Heartfield. Photo: Jens Ziehe. Courtesy Neuer Berliner Kunstverein

I was lucky enough to visit with a historian friend who helped fill several gaps in my knowledge. For the most part, viewers are left to "read" images on their own. The floor map that accompanies the exhibition is difficult to follow, and the images don't have a chronological or thematic sequence.  Kilpper does not guide you with any kind of commentary. It is as if the artist says: See in your mind's eye that press photo from the 70s. Remember that image from a documentary film made twenty years ago. Or the popular movie released two years ago. Or the news headlines from four weeks ago. Remember and connect.

Willi Brandt and Günter Guillaume. Photo: Jens Ziehe. Courtesy Neuer Berliner Kunstverein

A Surreal Portrait Gallery

Before we knew it, we were treading over the first of Kilpper's linoleum-cuts: Erich Mielke, Minister of State Security and head of the Stasi till 1989, clinking champagne glasses with Walter Ulbricht and Erich Honecker. Toward the middle of the room is the high-ranking Stasi spy Günter Guillaume whispering into the ear of Chancellor Willy Brandt as though giving him the Judas kiss. Then there is French philosopher Michel Foucault giving a lecture at the Technische Universität Berlin in 1976; directly below him, an idyllic picnic scene in the DDR. Across from the picnickers are the protesters against the Pershing missiles; next to them, Erich Mielke again, this time dancing with his wife in the ballroom in the very building in which we stand. 

Kilpper lets the images, drawn from national and press archives as well as from his own private collection,  cluster in an intuitive rather than ordered way: "The whole constellation emerged like a labyrinthine blackberry bush," he said.

Just about four weeks ago, the case of Benno Ohnesorg, the student shot down in the 1968 demonstrations, was making national headlines when it was discovered that Karl-Heinz Kurras, the West Berlin police officer who shot him, was a Stasi agent. Clearly, Kilpper's themes reach from history into the present. In the end, though, this is more than a collection of images having to do with just the Stasi. "Instead," says Kilpper, " I wanted to show the fine line everywhere between resistance and terrorism."

While at Normannenstraße 19, don't overlook the opportunity of visiting the Stasi Museum, also in the same complex. The exhibition features a lot of explanatory text (all in German), but the still-palpable atmosphere of the powerful machinery of repression needs no translation. Mielke's office, the canteen and the conference room have all been preserved in their original state, and there are rooms full of operative technology for spying -- including a hidden camera in a birdhouse.

"State of Control" runs till 26 July 2009 at the former Ministerium für Staatssicherheit der DDR (MfS) at Normannenstraße 19, Berlin-Lichtenberg. Admission is free and staff on duty are happy to answer questions. Public Transportation: U5 to Magdalenenstr. 

The Stasi Museum is at Ruschestraße 103, Haus 1, 10365 Berlin. Admission is 4 EUR, reduced fee 3,50 EUR. Open Monday to Friday from 11:00 am to 6 pm, on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from 2 pm to 6 pm.

Visions of our Time: Tenth Anniversary of the Deutsche Börse Photography Collection

Nikita Kruktunov and Rufina Muharanova, Omsk, May 2005. Picture: Simon Roberts/Courtesy Art Collection Deutsche Börse

"Visions of our Time" at C/O Berlin celebrates ten years of the Art Collection Deutsche Börse and features the work of the 4 nominees for the 2009 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. 

The prizewinning and shortlisted photographs take pride of place in the exhibition, but the more interesting section, at least in terms of technique and composition, may be the other half of the show: a group of 100 of the more than 700 works in the Deutsche Börse's collection of contemporary photography.

Filmic Haikus

Paul Graham is winner of the £30,000 award for his series named a shimmer of possibility after a collection of Chekov's short stories. Graham made an extended road trip across the US between 2004-06, taking pictures of everyday life. What interested him was not the one defining moment but sequences that capture simple human activities -- somebody lighting a cigarette, cutting grass or waiting for a bus. 

Graham's photographs are sequential shots of these single activities, and Graham likes to call them "haikus" rather than narratives.  Not much is happening in Graham's shots. They are often ad hoc pictures, sometimes badly lit, as in the sequence of the (homeless?) person selling a bunch of flowers, and mostly about no more than "being there." 

Archivist, Detective, Activist

Kuwaiti artist Emily Jacir is one of the three other nominees for the prize, and her featured work is "Material for a Film," a multimedia installation documenting the assassination of the Palestinian intellectual Wael Zuwaiter by Israeli agents in Rome in 1972. 

Jacir arranges photographs, texts and objects to piece together the story, and some stop you in your tracks -- such as the copy of the 1001 Arabian Nights Zuwaiter was carrying in his pocket when he was shot. Lodged in the cover is a bullet, the only one which did not pierce Zuwaiter's chest. 

Still, you can't help wondering what Jacir's work is doing in a photo exhibition. She is much more of an archivist than a photographer.

White Tiger

The White Tiger is the most well known of Taryn Simon's picture-and-text series entitled "American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar." Simon, another nominee for the prize, concentrates on images of contemporary America that tap into the hidden or darker sides of the culture, a kind of nationwide Discomfort Zone. 

The white tiger (Kenny) at the Arkansas zoo is a product of selective inbreeding, and he is physically and mentally malformed. Like Kenny, all of Simon's subjects are fascinating: the contraband room of the customs section of JFK Airport; a Braille edition of Playboy; a female patient undergoing hymenoplasty, a surgical procedure which masks the loss of virginity; and a bird's eye view of drums of nuclear waste under water. In the end, though, Simon's subjects may be more memorable than her use of the medium.

Adam and Eve in Central Park

Tod Papageorge is my favorite of the four shortlisted artists. His black-and-white series shot over twenty five years in Central Park is called "Passing Through Eden" and is based on the first six chapters of Genesis. 

Through Papageorge's lens, Central Park is transformed into a prelapsarian world. It's a familiar world (still recognizably New York of the 60s and 70s) but also strangely magical. As you walk by the pictures in the first half of the series it is not difficult to decode a sequence of Biblical references. The narrative then continues to unfold in the second half, and Papageorge's photographs seem able to encompass all of human life within the boundaries of the Park: its innocence, beauty, ugliness and mystery, but also its humor. 

Picture: Tod Papageorge/Courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York

I returned a couple of times to one particular photo -- in perfect symmetrical proportions -- of three men on a  park bench. The first is straddled by his girlfriend in an amorous embrace, the second is lost in his newspaper, the third is trying to decipher something on a slip of paper -- a shopping list? an incomprehensible bill?

On the upper floor are the 100 photographs from the rest of the collection, among which are some unforgettable images. I'll mention just three. First, the striking portraits of Seydou Keita, the photographer from Bamako, Mali, who never went to college, never saw the works of photographers outside his country, and never had a teacher. His clients, the simple people of his hometown in the 1950s, lined up outside his studio because Keita's portraits made them beautiful, and he gave each a touch of West African tradition.

Then, the portrait series called "Heads" by Philip-Lorca di Corcia, who marked a spot on the ground at Times Square, New York, mounted a camera and telephoto lens a long distance away, then released the shutter every time someone he found interesting walked over the spot. From the swirling life around the Square, the camera seizes his subjects while the background melts away, and the viewer sees a cross-section of New Yorkers as individuals in a moment of unawareness.

And finally, the selection of photos from British photographer Simon Robert's series called "Motherland,"  the result of his yearlong exploration of Russia, documenting the lives of local people through a vast sweep of the country. The proud gaze of the two young competition dancers from Siberia, the girl in a peacock blue dress, is one of the images that stayed with me.

"Visions of our Time" is at C/O Berlin, Oranienburger Straße 35/36, 10117 Berlin (S Oranienburger Straße) and runs till 19. July, 2009. Open everyday from 11 am to 8 pm. Tickets cost 7 Euro (reduced: 5 Euro). See www.co-berlin.com for more details.

Extravagantly Newton

The Helmut Newton Foundation presents a Larger-than-Life Collection at the Museum for Photography

XXXL

Helmut Newton SUMO, published in 1999 by Benedikt Taschen and presented by the Helmut Newton Foundation, is not exactly a coffee-table photography book. Rather it is a photography book with its own coffee-table.

Newton and Taschen with one of the first copies of  SUMMO in the courtyard of the publishing house, 1999.  Photo by ⓒ Alice Springs

The gigantic 464-page book weighs 66 pounds and needs a custom-made metal holder, designed for SUMO at a cost of $15,000 by Phillip Starcke. Taschen originally introduced the book as a limited edition of 10,000, signed by Newton, but this September a more handy edition will appear on bookshelves for those who could not afford the stand.

To mark the tenth anniversary of SUMO, all its 394 photographs are on display for the first time at Berlin's Museum of Photography. The pictures in the book appear as framed pages: the fashion photography for Vogue, the nudes, portraits and advertisements.  All the classic Newtons are here: the striking Big Nudes; the domestic nudes; the celebrity portraits: Elizabeth Taylor half-submerged in a swimming pool, a resplendent greeen parrot perched on one finger;  Versace unclothed;  Charlotte Rampling sinuously draped on a baroque dining table.

Charlotte Rampling. Photo by ⓒ Helmut Newton Estate

Newton's photographs read like a thriller. They are set in basements, empty streets, anonymous lobbies or palatial European interiors. His beautiful women wear treacherous stiletto heels, cruel steel leg braces, handcuffs, or transparent trench coats, and there is mysterious, psycho-sexual sinister drama behind each shot.

Villa d'Este

Photo by ⓒ  Helmut Newton Estate

Arranged in three halls in the imposing interior of the Museum of Photography (once the casino for the Landwehr officers), the extravagant sweep of the exhibition reminds us how many iconic photographic images Newton produced in his lifetime.

Parallel to the main exhibition is the smaller "Three Boys from Pasadena," featuring Mark Arbeit, George Holtz and Just Loomis. All three were students at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California in the 1970s and later became Newton's assistants.

Don't miss the excellent documentary film in the video room on the making of Helmut Newton SUMO .

Helmut Newton SUMO runs till 31 January 2010 at the Museum for Photography, Jebensstraße 2, 10623 Berlin. Take public transportation to U Zoologischer Garten, then take the Jebensstraße exit from the station. The museum is open every day, except Monday, from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm. and tickets cost 8 EUR (reduced cost: 4 EUR).

"To the Green Forest": the Jagdschloss Grunewald

Copyright Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg.

Berlin's oldest palace, the Renaissance-era royal hunting lodge known as the Jagdschloss Grunewald, opened  on May 28 after almost three years of renovation.

The Jagdschloss has opened with an art exhibition called "Von Angesicht zu Angesicht," featuring 300 years of Berlin portrait painting (17th-19th c). This returns the building to its 1932 role, when art historian Georg Poensgen first transformed the royal quarters into exhibition space for Berlin portrait art and paintings by Old German and Dutch Masters.

The paintings are mostly unremarkable, and not till the Lucas Cranach paintings that belong here return in 2011 (beginning October, they are showing at Schloss Charlottenburg in an exhibition called "Cranach and the Art of the Renaissance under the Hohenzollerns) will there be an art lover's reason to visit.

For now, a better reason to visit the Jagdschloss -- and it is well worth a visit --  is for its setting and interiors, both a part of Berlin's architectural and archaeological history.

Getting There

The path through the Grunewald forest to the Jagdschloss must be one of the loveliest approaches to a museum. The ground is soft underfoot, tree branches rustle overhead and the only people you will meet are walkers, joggers and dog owners. 

If you want to savor a bit of history as well, you will breathe deep and revel in treading ground that was once the hunting environs of the Hohenzollern royalty. In 1542, when Prince Joachim II  had the palace built,  he called it simply "Zum Gruenen Walde" or (in a clumsy translation) "to the green forest."

In summer the deep green foliage keeps the palace from sight till you actually get there. It has a modest exterior, this white and brick-red building on the side of the placid Grunewald lake. But for Berliners,  it has a special significance. Over 460 years old, it is the only remaining Renaissance-era palace in the city since the the Berliner Schloss was destroyed in 1950. 

There's History in these Rooms

In 1973, construction work in the Große Hofstube (Great Hall) revealed painted wooden ceilings behind the Baroque moldings, and 15th c. arches which had been walled in by Baroque-era architects. Thanks to archaeological reconstruction, the beautiful Renaissance wooden ceilings and arches are now back in view. 

In other interior rooms, the baroque moldings from the time of King Friedrich I (1705-06) have been retained. And in the exhibition rooms you sense the spirit of the 1930s: the clean functionality of white walls and oxblood red hardwood floors. The fresh blue of the lake visible through large windows on each floor pervades the atmosphere of these interiors.

Sunset over Berlin: The Lake Terrace

What a pity that the viewer is denied access to the neo-baroque lake terrace, which once led directly from the castle, and which has also been handsomely restored. The reason? Dogs, says the guard on duty. We had to cordon it off to keep the dogs from using it as a diving board.

The lake terrace in summer is an ideal spot to enjoy the natural beauty of the Grunewald. "Here you can experience the most beautiful sunset over Berlin," rhapsodizes Hartmut Dorgerloh, General Director of the Palace Foundation, and I believe him. The terrace is open for a glass of wine after special events, but how about making it available for ticket holders to the museum? 

Jagdschloss Grunewald is at Hüttenweg 100, 14193 Berlin.

The Jagdschloss is open every day (except Monday) from May to October,  from 10 am to 6 pm, and from November to April on Saturday, Sundays and holidays from 10 am to 4 pm. 

The exhibition "Von Angesicht zu Angesicht runs from 28.05.09 to 31.10.10.

Reaching there:

By car: To Hüttenweg up to the parking lot for Forsthaus Paulsborn, then walk about 400 m. 

By public transportation: U-Bahn Dahlem Dorf or S-Bahn Zehlendorf, then with Bus X83 to the corner of Clayallee/Königin Luise Strasse, then a 10 minute walk through the Grunewald.

A green trail for those who prefer to hike: From U-Bahn Podbielski Allee, take Im Dol to Messel Park, cut through Messel Park till Pücklerstr. Take a left and keep straight till you enter the Grunewald. Follow signs to Jagdschloss (about 30 min).

For more information: www.spsg.de