Escapism Berlin 1

The Badeschiff is an old barge or cargo container that has been converted into a public swimming pool in Berlin, Germany. Beached on the shoreline in the East harbor section of the River Spree, the Badeschiff allows citizens to swim in a safe environment in their river, at least in a figurative sense. Opened in the summer of 2004 as an art project organized by the City Art Project Society of Berlin. It was created by local artist, Susanne Lorenz, to enliven city life along the long-neglected Spree. The pool was converted from the hull of a vessel measuring eight by thirty-two metres.

Culture Berlin 1

Neue Nationalgalerie at the Kulturforum is a museum for classical modern art in Berlin, with main focus on early the 20th century. It is part of the German National Gallery. The museum building and its sculpture garden were designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and opened in 1968.

Culture Berlin 1

The current Reichstag dome is an iconic glass dome constructed on top of the rebuilt Reichstag building in Berlin. Designed by architect Norman Foster and built to symbolize the reunification of Germany. All that also designed by Foster to be environmentally friendly. Energy efficient features involving the use of the daylight shining through the mirrored cone were applied, effectively decreasing the carbon emissions of the building. The futuristic design symbolizes Berlin’s attempt to move away from a past of Nazism and Communism and instead towards a future with a heavier emphasis on a united, democratic Germany.

Culture Berlin 1

The building is very distinctive from other museums, since it does not respond to any functional requirements, but is rather constructed to create spaces that tell the story of the Jewish people in Germany. The museum itself is a work of art, blurring the lines between architecture and sculpture.
The view from above is that of a large zig-zag line, which earned it the nickname “blitz”. The main building is covered with zinc plating, and the windows are just lines that cross the surface in a random fashion. These lines were created from connecting different sites in a Berlin map that are important to Jewish history. This building has no access of any kind from the street. The entrance is located in an adjacent building, a museum of German history, through a staircase and tunnel embedded in a concrete tower that goes through all the floors of the German museum. This symbolizes that German and Jewish history are inseparable, violent and secret. The staircase leads to an underground site, composed of three hallways, called axes: The Axis of Death, leads to a concrete tower that has been left empty, called The Holocaust Tower; The Axis of Exile, which leads to an exterior square courtyard composed of concrete columns and that has been tilted in one of its corners, called The Garden of Exile; and The Axis of Continuity, that goes through the other two hallways, representing the permanence of Jews in Germany in spite of the Holocaust and the Exile.

Culture Berlin 1

Built by the architect Hans Scharoun in the years 1960-1963. It is a singular building, asymmetrical and tent like, with the main concert hall in the shape of a pentagon. The seating offers excellent positions from which to view the stage through the irregularly increasing height of the benches. The stage is at the center of the hall, providing an extraordinary atmosphere for both the artists and the viewers. The acoustics are excellent; from every seat the sound is nearly equally great. It is said that you can pick out individual voices or instruments even from a seat at the far end.

Culture Berlin 2

Designed by architect Erich Mendelsohn. It was built for astronomer Erwin Finlay-Freundlich to support experiments and observations to validate Albert Einstein’s relativity theory. This was one of Mendelsohn’s first major projects, completed when a young Richard Neutra was on his staff, and his best-known building. The exterior was originally conceived in concrete, but due to construction difficulties, much of the building was actually realized in brick, covered with stucco.

Escapism Berlin 2

Thank God for the beautiful architecture!
Axel Schultes and Charlotte Frank started building the new crematory in 1996. The new architecture is ceremonial and simple. When entering the crematory, the first thing one experiences is one of the architectural highlights, the Kondolenzhalle: there are more then 20 columns that loom into the sky and on which light floats downwards.