Lahore, not Berlin these days, tells the story of its Walled City around the Fort of Moghul times. Today, this small downtown place hosts some 200 000 inhabitants of
a total of 12 million living in Lahore.
…
Tourists are of course rare in this heat of 35 – 44 C in July 2022.
The donkey is no longer there since Holy Ramadan has its sacrifices …
Walking with my friend Ayshe whom I had met via NGOs in the field of migration and refuge at Freiwilligen-Agency Berlin Kreuzberg, the story of Berlin’s 1st ‘Ampel’, installed in 1924, refers to the traffic light system of former times. This is as new to her as the entire build-up around cinematic events along Berlinale: https://www.berlinstadtservice.de/xinh/Verkehrsampel_Potsdamer_Platz.html.
We both agreed that the ‘Walk of Stars’ in the middle path crossing Potsdamerstr. looks lousily abandoned – unlike the exhibition these days around “Die Deutschen des 21. Jahrhunderts” :-) = worth walking along and enjoying Potsdamer Platz this way!
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… die arme Alma … hätte ich sie doch retten können heute morgen!
Die junge Frau aus dem westafrikanischen Guinea, unterwegs zum Deutschkurs nach Berlin – Mitte, kam nicht weiter auf dem langen Weg von Friedrichshagen am Müggelsee – wo sie nie sein wollte – warum?
Ein älterer weisser Mann stellt sich ihr in den Weg, spuckt ihr ins Gesicht und das einzige Wort, das Alma verstehen kann, ist “… AUSLÄNDER” … der ‘Monsieur’, wie sie ihn höflich bezeichnet, war offensichtlich völlig außer sich.
Wovor? Warum? Alma ist ein schöne, groß gewachsene und mutige Afrikanerin, die fliehen mußte, aus ihrer Heimat, in der sie als Frau nicht geschützt war. Mehr dazu später, heute erstmal dies:
Alma, vor Angst und Verzweiflung, kehrt nach Hause zurück, mit dem Deutsch ist es jetzt grad erstmal vorbei … in welchem Land, welcher Stadt leben wir denn?
Ich wende mich an die sozialen Versorgungsstellen, in der Hoffnung, etwas für Alma
Beschützendes zu finden … da wo sie jetzt lebt, bewege man sich besser nicht mit
anderer als weißer Hautfarbe = Berliner Rassismus pur, o.a. ‘pur&dur’.
s.a. https://www.dw.com/de/wie-sieht-das-leben-f%C3%BCr-schwarze-menschen-in-deutschland-wirklich-aus/a-53545185
#berlinsights is under shock.
The Gleisdreieck blog refers to the Berlin newspaper ‘Tagesspiegel’on April 01, 2022, where coalition parties put into question towers for business and administration of 90 meters hight, planned at a time of up to 100 000 empty flats in Berlin, back in 2005. Civil society and local communities appear in disfavour of an area that would be sealed for car parks several storeys under the soil, damaging the park’s ecological function of cooling and airing the city. This is why the coalition contract now foresees the following:
” … the urban concept is being analysed for current clima-political tasks with a view to allow for building and housing, in due course. …” – so how to go about this challenge?
– According to the Left party, one should abandon the entire project altogether.
– The Green party opts for an enlargened park, with its Southern front towards the former postal Station to remain.
A short explanation on the 2005 city concept highlights the compensation regime that has led to this status of not deciding: it says that if the opportunity to use property stakes for construction is not used, Vivivco (or its subsequent property owner) would be able to claim indemnity along §§ 42 ff. BauGB.
The Green party further indicates possible compensation of the owner of the property, falling back to the country of Berlin as the signatory party to Vivico. The Berlin Senate does not want to address such claims, since this would be a project by the municipality in charge of any planning failures. The local municipality, however, says the development plan could eventually be fixed for the Southern part of the deal by the end of 2022, as long as there are no other grounds for decision. Having said this, such decision would need to be met at Berlin country level.
The company in charge of planning and implementing all tower ideas since 2014 (the CORPO project development GmbH) claims itself sure of victory, with no further changes forseen, according to the newspaper (Tagesspiegel).
Source: https://www.facebook.com/matthias.bauer.351/posts/5173327322689643?notif_id=1649103491406275¬if_t=close_friend_activity&ref=notif
https://staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/en/ The entire buildiung is being refurbished, sooner or later, at present all is in a status of being praperd for renovation, in German it sounds serious: “Grundinstandsetzung” will only start in 2023, let alone when works will end, deifinitely not before 2025!
https://www.bbr.bund.de/BBR/DE/Bauprojekte/Berlin/Kultur/Staatsbibliothek/Potsdamerstr/GIS/Grundinstandsetzung.html
Cecile Rossant’s one-woman performance tells the story of a male butcher in French, German and English, in a beautifully lightened art theatre movement of intense care achieved by contemporary theatre director Daniela Marcozzi – well done and worth attending tonight, March 25, 2022, 20:00 Ohlauerstr. 41, in D-10999 Berlin
By the way, ‘DESI’ stands for the former premises for ‘Desinfection’ built around 1840 as one of three such sites in Berlin for cleaning not only medical equipment but also butchery utensils and more, see https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desinfektionsanstalt https://www.facebook.com/urbannationberlin/photos/a.586423108131349/4853637158076568/
The exhibition is worth seeing more than once, just go to Bülowstr. 90 in D – 10783 Berlin
Fresh A.I.R #6
Scholarship Exhibition “REFLECTING MIGRATION” – 11th March to 31st of July 2022
Now in interim use by Berlin’s Housing Society GEWOBAG, the exhibition space invites to engage in “cultural differences and multiple strategies for life in urban space”, according to Janine Arndt, art director of ‘Reflecting Migration‘. The Foundation “Berlin Leben” presents the works of the 6th Fresh A.I.R. class, see https://www.stiftung-berliner-leben.de/eroeffnung-fresh-a-i-r-6-scholarship-exhibition-reflecting-migration-am-samstag-den-12-03-2022/
The artists are Denise Lobont, Nikki Spanou, Andreas Langfeld, Ludivine Thomas-Andersson, Marta Bogdańska, Ecaterina Stefanescu, Zeynep Okyay und Aslı Dinç, Linda Söderholm, Regina Vitányi, Tomáš Kajánek and Maria Pichel, spending 6 months (10/2021 – 03/2022) to reflect their views on migration artistically. With a monthly stipend by GEWOBAG real estate, they create their own perspectives about cultural differences from their home countries of France or Romania, Germany or Turkey, exploring their ways to enlarge life strategies in Berlin’s urban space. Be it dark pictures of racial profiling, small “passports” designed and spread around local spaces, or the meticulous shopping area built like a puppet house that reflects ‘home’, a lot of thoughts went into their works.
GEWOBAG Foundation https://www.stiftung-berliner-leben.de/ was set up in May 2013 under the umbrella of art and culture, youth, senior citizens and more – following the motto “Connect. Create. Care.” Along these lines, the ‘Kiez meets Museum’ equally aims at creating art with young people.
https://taz.de/!t5478515/
Wenn wir die aktuelle taz-Kolumne lesen, unsere Gastfreundschaft zu ukrainischen Geflüchteten im Haus – hier am Beginenhof vorwiegend Frauen & Kinder – , oder der evangelischen Gemeinde und unter Freund*innen sehen, dann ahnen wir, damals war es doch irgendwie anders. Als so viele syrische Menschen in Deutschland Hilfe suchten, war es weit weniger persönlich, man/frau kam sich nicht so nahe wie uns jetzt die Menschen aus der Ukraine kommen dürfen. Sprache egal! Schon irgendwie befremdlich, finde ich als arabophile Islamwissenschaftlerin, die ihre arabischen Freund*innen nicht mehr missen möchte. Es bleibt spannend, wie wir uns als Berliner*innen weiter verhalten, über den Gang zur Friedens-Demo hinaus.