THE ESSENTIAL
Halloween has no tradition in Germany but since a few years also some Germans like to celebrate this event in various ways. Therefore some venues offer special events on October 31st and / or the weekend before. Here is a selection of events (some links to websites in German language).
Children friendly events:
For adults only:
Have a nice Halloween and a good time in Berlin.
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Berlin is changing all the time. Who came to Berlin a few years ago to visit an event in the earlier called "O2 World" will recognise nearly nothing today. The event hall was renamed to "Mercedes-Benz Arena" a few years ago and now the new Mercedes Platz was opened replacing the former unbuilt area around the arena. Two large building complexes host two new hotels, new event place Verti Music Hall, Bowling World and a lot of food places and bars. A new impressive center of entertainment arose in the eastern part of Berlin to welcome its visitors and guests. Some futher impressions from the opening day: Feel free to share your Mercedes Platz experiences and impressions.
Berlin has a lot of trees and in October they start to change colors. Together with a warm morning or evening sunshine some wonderful impressions can be seen. Here is a pricture from October 13 2018. In other years these colors can be seen two weeks later.
BerlKönig is an on-demand-ridesharing service. Customers can order a car by app which brings them from A to B like a taxi but other customers can be taken up or dropped off at places near the route. Only the own route without detours is charged.
It is a good alternative to regular taxis and a legal version to non-allowed private car-ride brokerage services offered by Uber or Lyft in other countries. The provider is a cooperation from Berlin's public transport provider BVG and Mercedes-Benz joint venture ViaVan. The service started in September 2018 in a large central eastern area of Berlin. In the initial phase up to 50 BerlKönig vehicles drive on Fridays and Saturdays between 5 pm and 5 am of the next morning. BVG and ViaVan plan a rapid transition to 24/7 operation and an expansion of the offer to up to 300 vehicles. My first test ride on the first evening of operation was very positive. I ordered the service, waited 10 minutes and was driven perfectly from Mitte to Friedrichshain for starting offer price of 4 EUR. In my case the totally new car was empty and was not stopping to take up further passengers. BerlKoenig service provides also accessible cars. The app is available in English. Website (German): https://www.berlkoenig.de Source: BVG press release Today Berlin police published a pickpocketing heatmap which illustrates the concentration of delicts in July 2018 at some city locations. It is very clear that tourist spots are the most affected areas.
So: always have an eye and a hand on your belongings, dear guests. New Schulz Hotel will open on September 13 2018. At its soft launch on August 30 with over 200 local pupils and guests I was given the chance for a first insight. What I liked:
There was nothing I really disliked; just some smaller topics of improvement. The official opening is still some days ahead. For whom Schulz Hotel is a real good choice:
Welcome2Berlin, dear Schulz Hotel. Thanks for a pre-insight and good luck. Website: https://www.schulzhotels.com Status Aug. 29: The division of Berlin already restarted before the project was building the wall. This time the division is not East and West, it is pro and con the idea of DAU film project to rebuild the wall in the center of Berlin at a different place as an add-on to this wide-ranging project. It is still unclear whether Berlin adminstration will give a go for that. But the main target to achieve awareness for the project is already achieved.
An arcticle from DW.com goes into details. Personal opinion: This funny-bunny filmmaker seems to have no idea what the real wall was. It was not only a wall, it was a landscape stripe of death from a regime which gave the order to shoot the own people reaching for personal freedom. The exhibition "ninetiesBerlin" shows a very illustrative room listing the names of the shot people and showing dozens of machine guns. See review here. In German "DAU" is an abbreviation for "Dümmster anzunehmender User" (most silly user). Update Sept 28: The district administration decided against the project - even in a smaller version. Reason: The evaluation time for all security matters was too short because the project was planned close to several security relevant institutions. Good news for all Harry Potter fans in Berlin and Brandenburg and for all young and old fans visiting Berlin between Oct 13 and March 10 2019. The exhibition will be in Potsdam, more details on the official website.
The new Berlin Palace is currently built at the same place on which socialist Palace of Republic and before the historic Berlin Palace were standing. The new palace is in construction since 2013. On Aug 25 & 26 2018 the construction site was opened for public. Here are some pictures of my visit on the second day: Personal impressions from that day:
I ask myself if it was a good decision to partly rebuild an old approach. That way the building had not an authentic on character to me. May be the concept how to do an interpretation of a palace in 21st century would have been the better approach. Even modern hotels impress more than this palace. Deep inside I hope that the building which is just "standing" there gets finally the necessary equipment to be outstanding - to be a real palace. Finally I recommend to visit new Berlin Palace - not only for the classic fascade elements - but also to get an own impression and opinion of this building. |
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"Ich bin ein Berliner." and a passionate photographer, traveler and philosopher. I like helping people to have a good orientation and time in Berlin Archive
June 2019
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Thanks to Julia Weihe for great top photo.
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