I have visited Berlin twice before. Once during the Cold War, when I stared at the Brandenburg Gate from both sides of the Wall. The second time in November 1989, when, by chance,
I was in the city the day the Wall fell. Now friend Chris, on his first visit, and I were spending a long weekend here,
culture vultures by day and clubbers at night.
We made the mistake of coming during ITB, the world's largest travel fair. Beds were
at a premium, and we ended up paying €110 (£85 / $170) a night in A&O
- a chain of hostels masquerading as a hotel - in
Köpenickerstrasse. Yes, we were teenagers once, but that didn't mean we welcomed their
noise echoing through the walls and corridors at 7 in the morning. And we were not
impressed to arrive at lunchtime and be told that rooms were only available after 4pm...
But we were within walking distance of Unter den Linden, the cultural heart of Berlin, and
we decided to stroll there to get a feel of the city.
The skies were leaden. The apartment blocks lining the streets
were a lighter shade of the same grey. The streets were inexplicably empty.
We passed a large power station and the entrance of an apparently deserted
underground station. In the distance we could see the occasional car and
pedestrian.
"This is Thursday, isn't it?" I asked Chris. "The early afternoon? Near the centre of a capital city with a population of over three million people?
So why does it feel like the sequel of Twenty-Eight Days Later or I am Legend?"
Later we learned that there was a bus and underground strike but that was only
part of the answer. We were in old East Berlin which, almost twenty years after
reunification has not yet shaken off its aura of desolation. As we headed further into
the heart of the city, we came to an large deserted site where a massive concrete
structure was frozen in the midst of destruction, its rusting iron girders thrusting through
empty space and its concrete walls silent and motionless.
On Unter den Linden a few brave souls, all apparently tourists, braved the cold and
wind. We found a restaurant in the basement of the the Staatsoper - State Opera. It was
large, warm, baroque and empty apart from a bürgerliche couple at a well-
plenished table, complete with towering glasses of beer, and two tall well-built,
handsome and shaven-head waiters.
We sat back on comfortable seats and worked our way through
red wine, large plates of well-presented and
strongly-flavoured quiche, herring, potatoes, salad, apple strudel
on swirls of custard and chocolate and a cappucino. The bill came to €55
(£42, $84) for the two of us. We still didn't understand Berlin, but we
knew we were beginning to like it.
Daytime Berlin
Berlin may be young in European terms - it only came into being in the
late thirteenth century - but it is above all a city of history. That rich
past can be glimpsed through many different windows...
Early civilisation is on display on Museum Island.
Many of its Graeco-Roman style buildings are currently under
renovation, but the exhibitions are still
accessible. We spent a couple of hours in the Altes Museum, drawn there by the
Nefertiti bust at the heart of the Ancient Egyptian exhibition. The bonus was
the extensive section on ancient Greece and the dozen or so vases and plates
displaying several sexual activities where only men were involved...
Behind the Altes Museum are the National Gallery and the Pergamon Museum with
a breathtaking collection of Near East and Islamic art. Check the
website for current
events at these and other museums run by the city.
* * * * * *
The ancient Greeks' fascination with handsome naked young men
is reflected in much of the city's public art. On top of buildings, lining bridges and
in fountains, adonises can be seen fighting, dying, wrestling, relaxing, cavorting
and dreaming in postures that display their anatomies to their best advantage, and
usually at an angle which allows the viewer to contemplate their every asset (and frontet).
for male nude statues in Paris, click here
* * * * * *
The pride and strength of eighteenth and nineteenth century Prussia
is epitomised in the city's Cathedral, destroyed by the Second World War but now
almost completely renovated. The view from the dome is not spectacular - Berlin's buildings are
best appreciated from street level, but the 267-step climb is good for the heart and helps
visitors appreciate the scale of the building. The website is only in German, but the
home page displays an interesting combination of old and new with a piquant dash of
secular masculinity.
* * * * * *
After the defeat of Germany in the First World War, the 1920s saw great hardship, with inflation so high that
it cost 2 billion marks to put a stamp on a letter. It also saw a nightlife as varied and
decadent as London in the early years of the 21st century. Every self-respecting
gay visitor should spend at least two hours reviewing this and other
homosexual history at the
Schwules (Queer) Museum.
Covering the last 250 years, it shows how German gay men consistently fought,
even in the worst days of Nazi repression, to maintain their lives, their dignity and
their right to meet, interact and live with other gay men.
In addition to documentation
and artefacts, there are also many works of art on display. Sascha Schneider
painted many pictures in the early 20th century, although modern gay men may find
his models too young (see picture right).
My personal preference is for Jürgen Wittdorf (see top of page).
Living in East Germany, his works reflected the
prevaling ideology of men from all nations working together; the only
difference is the Wittdorf's men were always good-looking,
frequently bare-chested and on many occasions bare-legged too.
The museum website is only
in German, but on site there is good detailed English guide to the permanent display.
Either before or after your visit, have something to drink at the Schwuz
cafe at the entrance of the Museum. It's tired and run-down, but it's been a
centre of Berlin gay life for many decades.
* * * * * *
The Third Reich (1933 - 1945) is the period in German
history that most foreigners are familiar with, but even that knowledge
is sketchy. We took a Third Reich walking tour from Insider Tours.
Advertised as three to four hours, we were blessed with guide Mike, an
enthusiastic New Zealander who moved to Berlin five years ago to
indulge his passion for German history. No detail was too small for him to
pass on to us as we traipsed our way across grass and rubble, stopping to
stare at building after building, monument after monument. As the tour
wore on and we wore down, Mike became more and more enthusiastic,
striding confidently backwards down streets as we meekly followed, his voice rising in pitch and volume as he narrated the events, almost day by day, of the final act of the German and European tragedy. More than five hours after we started, as the tour ended
at the site of Hitler's bunker, we were finally able to drag ourselves away,
most definitely enriched by the experience, but in dire need of food and drink...
* * * * * *
The Divided City. The end of the Second World War (1945) saw
Western Germany occupied by the Americans, British and French and the
East occupied by the Soviets. Berlin was an island in East Germany, occupied
by all four powers. After a brief period in 1949 when the Soviets tried to
starve West Berlin into submission, an uneasy peace reigned until 1961. In that
year, unable to stop the flow of East Berliners into the Western half of the city,
the East German government built the Wall, 155 km (100 miles) of concrete intended
to prevent refugees from fleeing. On the whole, it worked, although dozens lost their
lives, shot by East German guards as they tried to cross the line, and dozens more
fled through ingenious escape routes. The events of 1989 led to most of the wall
being destroyed, but it is preserved in part, as well as in exhibitions and museums
around the city. Your first checkpoint
for this stage of German history should be the
museum at Checkpoint Charlie.
* * * * * *
We're here, we're queer, so let's go...
The Kurfürstendamm in West Berlin was the heart of the city's Shopping
Experience, but like most modern cities it now offers only the globalised
shops you meet across the world, with the exception being that
most shops are closed on Sundays. I bought a hat and some socks in H&M and that
was it. We did come across two weekend markets near the Museum Island, where I
bought a couple of books to add to my collection of erotica and a Russian-style
fake-fur hat, complete with ear muffs and Soviet badge.
I'd also recommend Cimp jewelery shop in Bleibtreustrasse, not far from the
Kurfürstendamm. Yes, the owner, the very handsome Wirun Kaochalard, is a friend, but
his designs are genuinely innovative, attractive and reasonably priced.
His calling card is on the right. You can get directions to Cimp on the
website.
* * * * * *
Nighttime (Gay) Berlin
The local magazines list over 200 bars, clubs, restaurants, services and shops. We
sampled half a dozen of them. Our impressions?
Cogai aka Co Gai Vietnamese restaurant in Bülowstrasse 9, very near
the gay Nollendorfplatz district. Make sure you get a comfortable bench seat.
Excellent authentic dishes and very cute waiters; we particularly liked the S&M tie that one of them
was wearing.
Connection bar in the appropriately named
Fuggerstrasse. Nicely designed small bar and small dance floor
with a racially mixed and friendly crowd. You can stay there to drink
and talk, or at 0.59, enter a side door which leads to a much bigger
and darker world to explore.
Goya on Nollendorfplatz is a converted theatre that hosts occasional gay nights.
We were there for Propaganda, billed as the gay event of the month, and
we were highly impressed by the decor and balconies and video display. But the
lighting was a little too bright for our taste, the go-go boys were
disappointing and although there were many good-looking young men, everyone
seemed a little restrained, as if Mummy and Daddy were watching and they
wanted to show them that gays could be nice, respectable people too. We
left around two in the morning. Maybe that was the moment when the scene
came alive, but we doubt it.
Heile Welt bar (Motzstrasse 9 in the Nollendorfplatz gay area) is a good local bar
for those who prefer civilian gear to leather. You'll hear English as
often as German. If all the comfortable seats at the
front are taken, squeeze past the bottleneck (what on
earth was the designer thinking about?) to relax in the
smoking area at the back.
Roses bar (Oranienstrasse 187, in the racially mixed
Kreuzberg area) is a throwback to another era, although we are not sure
what era that is. Walls and ceiling coverd in pink fur. Disco globes,
fairy lights, wings on loudspeakers, comfortable chairs. Definitely for
locals who know each other, but we hung around long enough to get served
the ubiquitous Beck's beer.
Tom's bar (Motzstrasse 19, in the Nollendorfplatz gay area).
It wasn't fair to visit this bar on our last night, a Sunday, in the middle of
a transport strike, before midnight. The few customers who came in,
drawn to the darkroom which we
didn't get round to visit, seemed to be as old as we were and no more attractive.
Personally, I wouldn't go back, but it's one of the oldest bars and I know people who like it, so don't take
my word for it...
