Potsdamer Platz

Today started off as kind of a dud. Wanted to do the Flak Turm tour of Berliner Unterwelten, but as I arrived at their office in Gesundbrunnen bhf, the place was packed and the english-language tour of 13h sold out. Other days were always very calm, I guess this tour is very popular or some large groups of people took that tour by chance. Next week it will be, and I'll be there a couple of hours in advance to buy my ticket.

As I was intending to visit the Mythos Germanium exhibition (which is also of B. Unt., and you get reduction with a ticket of a tour) close to Potsdamer Platz, I got on the sbahn to that station... only to realize there that, as I didn't actually did the tour, I didn't have a ticket so there would be no reduction. 2 Euro difference, which isn't that much but why spend it if I can save it as well? Being close to the Sony Centre, I saw the entrance to the Film and Television museum or Deutsche Kinemathek, which I did want to visit. Could as well visit that one now!



6 euro ticket, very interesting museum. I somehow managed to enter the exhibition at the wrong end so I did the whole thing backwards, but that didn't matter :) Large parts on Marlene Dietrich and famous movies like Metropolis and Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (which I have yet to see), all in a very modern and pleasing way with lots of authentic stuff like movie cameras, contracts and letters, costumes, awards...
The pictures show an overview of famous German movies (I've only seen the one right down -Christiane F. - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo) and a statue of the robot out of Metropolis (don't know if it is in any way authentic, though).

The museum also contains a portion on German television with a "Spiegelsaal", which is a large room with a lot of projection screens on one wall and mirrors on all the other. All different kinds of television footage is projected in a semi-chronological, semi-orchestrated way, offering an interesting view of decades of german television.

Oh, btw: german school kids on the loose are as annoying as the belgian ones.

After the museum I found myself in the centre of the Sony centre again, and recalling my experience with a reasonably priced and excellent cocktail, the relaxed sitting and nice scenery a couple of weeks before, I decided to have a drink. 3.90 euro for an Irish coffee, which is pretty nice indeed. Especially if you consider this is the Sony Center, which is a very touristy place. Decided to get a club sandwich as well, which turned out to be a decent sandwich with egg, bacon, salad and a pile of fries (although way to salty, which was a shame). But anyway, had a decent meal there for 12.5 euro, not that bad.


Luckily I had my Lonely Planet guide with me, so I checked out what I could be doing when I was there. Turns out there is a small, free arts gallery close by. The gallery exhibits a part of the extensive Daimler collection (yup, those guys of Mercedes) on a floor of the Huth Haus, which is one of the sole buildings on Potsdamer Platz which is pre-WW2 (and survived the wall as well). The building is dwarfed now buy the modern high-rises which took up the real estate after the fall of the wall, but it is a nice buidling, well renovated.
I had to search for the entrance, which is a nondescript door and a small indication on the wall. You have to ring at the door and actually state your intentions ("I, erm, want to see the art collection, sir"), after which the door buzzes and you can enter.
Good thing about the L.P. guide: they actually wrote that you have to ring the door, otherwise I'd just have thought it was closed or something. Now this is a travel guide which really is of use.

Anyway, the gallery was pretty nice. The art was contemporary indeed, lots of the pieces were only a couple of years old. Great that the collectors allow the public (although only the public which really wants to see it, because you wouldn't just find it accidentially) to see it for free.
The pictures show the Huth Haus from the backside, and the inside of the gallery.

The picture on the left is one on Potsdamer platz, oriented to the North. You see a reproduction of the first traffic lights in Europe - which were placed there in 1924 - and the sony centre at the left. In the back at the right, before the white building (don't know what that is) you see the entrance to the subway station.


After that I wanted to visit the Topographie des Terrors exhibition close by, which deals with the history of the headquarters of the SS and all that was despisable and ugly about the third reich. Exhibition closed at 6pm though an I made it only a couple of information boards far, I'll have to check it out later again. Close by were some government buildings, and a fairly large part of the wall. On google maps (which proved yet again indispensable in retracing my steps, damn I love google) the wall is visible as the thin line on the south side of the Niederkirchstrasse. The area depicted as Topographie des Terrors is still a construction area now, and the museum is actually a walking path in open air.

On walking to the nearest s-bahn station which was Anhalter Bahnhof, I noticed the distinct shape of the Tempodrom, a concert hall. Didn't recognise most of the posters at the entrance, although there was one advertising a Massive Attack concert. Shame they only come here at the end of October.
I passed the remains (just part of the front wall, actually) of the old Anhalter Bahnhof (I thought it was a church), which, according to wikipedia, must have been a very nice and large building.

See those two kids on the roof of the Tempodrom? They were using it as a slide. It also gives you an impression of the size of the building - it's not that big. The architecture is nice, but coming from the glass-and-steel style of the sony center, this looked kind of shabby. This was a less rich neighbourhood with a large North-African community, which was especially visible in the s-bahn stations I passed on the way to Sudkreuz, too.

In the course of the afternoon I found a Berghain folder in my coat pocket, the guy of the cloakroom must have put it there. Check out the artwork.
Background for the picture is a painting in the sleeping room of my flat (which I will sadly have to leave in 9 days).
Berlin is so full of art everywhere, it's crazy.