IrishBerlin.com

Last stand of Berlin’s bohemians

The fight between developers and the defenders of a counterculture landmark is coming to a head.

Khaled Kenawi leans out of the window and surveys the battered concrete, the graffiti-daubed walls, the peeling posters and the teenagers lounging on the ripped-up sofas surrounded by beer bottles. ‘Shutting down all this would be a huge loss,’ he says. ‘There is a difference between the art market and art, and we are that difference.’

For Kenawi is not talking about a depressed housing estate in some grim former East German suburb but Tacheles, the squatted artists’ centre in Berlin’s increasingly chic Mitte district, visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists each year. Tacheles may now be living its last weeks, threatened with closure or, at the very least, radical transformation if the property developer Fundus Group has its way. ‘We will fight,’ said AR Adler, one of the artists working at Tacheles. ‘This is the last place left where you are free to be an artist.’

For nearly 20 years Tacheles - the name is derived from the word for frank speaking in Yiddish - has been one of the key locations for contemporary art and the countercultural scene in Berlin. A home to squatters during the anarchic years after the fall of the Berlin Wall - ‘everything was possible back then,’ says Kenawi, 49 - it has traced the city’s own path through scruffy, lively, post-communist chic through to the tamer Berlin of today. Recently rock musicians such as Peaches have joined the artists in recording studios at the site. Donatella Versace used work by one of the Tacheles artists in a recent collection. ‘It’s like the New York scene in the Sixties,’ said Amy Freed, 19, an American tourist.

Freed may be one of the last few through the poster-plastered doors. A decade ago the Berlin city council sold the land and building to developers who hope to turn it into luxury flats, an exclusive hotel and shops, while keeping some ill-defined ‘cultural’ role. The plan allowed the artists to pay a token annual rent of 40p to stay on the site, but it will expire at the end of the year.

Thomas Schingnitz, who is overseeing the venture, promised that Tacheles will remain ‘a cultural institution’, but the artists fear they will suffer the fate of other former squats in Berlin that have ended up as sanitised shopping malls with a few token art galleries. If the plan goes ahead, it is almost certain that they will be evicted. So they have been rallying allies. ‘We have 20,000 signatures and support from around the world,’ said Linda Cerna, of the co-operative association that runs Tacheles.

But backing has not been forthcoming from the city’s left-wing council, which cut off public subsidies to the centre in 2002 on the basis that it was insufficiently ‘cutting-edge’. ‘If it is shut down, well, that’s life,’ said a spokesman for the Berlin Municipal Authority’s cultural committee. ‘Tacheles used to be a very exciting place with major cultural importance, but it isn’t any more. Berlin’s trademark is that the exciting places come and go. So what if Tacheles is in all the guidebooks? The guidebooks will have to be rewritten.’

Other famous squats in the city have also been under pressure. In the trailer park next to the ‘Köpi’ squat on Köpenicker Strasse, Kondek and his friends sat drinking. ‘It will end one day,’ said 29-year-old Kondek, who has lived in a caravan in the squat for five years when he is not travelling in Europe. ‘The establishment don’t like the way we think.’

Press reports in Germany have focused on the legal battles between the founders, squatters and artists. Few have much to do with the idealistic principles with which the squat was founded and instead largely focus on money. Many pit the co-operative association running Tacheles against the owner of the ground-floor Zapata bar, originally created to fund the artists’ work. ‘The idea was why bother spending our cash on beer in the bars outside when we could have our own bar and make money to allow us all to create, free from the constraints of the market,’ said Kenawi.

But the Zapata bar has not paid rent or water charges to the Tacheles association for years. ‘I do not want to support a capitalist dictatorship,’ the bar’s managing director Ludwig Eben said. ‘I stopped paying rent when I understood I wasn’t welcome.’ There are also a host of property disputes with cafés that have been set up on land around the site which use Tacheles’s utilities without paying.

Kenawi denied that the Tacheles association was ‘commercialised’. He said: ‘We just try to do things as efficiently as possible to save money. We have exhibitions, 30 artists paying minimal rent, a long waiting list for studios, a theatre. Show me where we have sold out.’

The battle for Tacheles’s future is coming to a climax. The artists are putting forward their own plan for development, which includes revamping the Zapata, starting a Tacheles foundation, the formation of a limited company and the creation of a sculpture garden on the roof. The developers say they have yet to see the document, although Tacheles insists it has been sent. The artists hope that the developers will run out of money, and say that they are ‘optimistic’.

There is a sense, however, that any transformation of Tacheles will reflect the changes in Berlin. Though the city remains one of the most interesting artistic and creative centres in Europe, it is becoming more mainstream every year. Formerly bohemian districts are swiftly becoming gentrified.

All, however, is not yet lost, locals say. ‘Berlin is changing fast, but creative people can still find a place,’ said Stefan Rother, a well-known photographer who has documented the evolution of the city for 20 years. ‘At least for the moment.’

Once it was the Germans who snapped up property in Kerry, but, now the Irish can do the same in the old East German capital, writes Donal Buckley

Irish property investors are being enticed to play a new role in the unification of Germany. Despite the impression that unification took place overnight, with the collapse of the Berlin Wall, many Berliners in the former communist east have yet to readjust to the property owning culture of the west of their country.

Although in terms of politics, easterners may have switched to conservatives such as Chancellor Angel Merkel and the CDU, in terms of owning their own homes, former East Germans, including many with middle class jobs, have proven much slower to accept Western beliefs about the joys of owning their own homes, not to mention those of other people’s. Currently less than 20pc of Berliners own their own home, with the majority of accommodation stock still in state hands.

Which is where Irish people come in. They are being enticed to buy some of these homes from the Berlin local authorities. No doubt there are many Kerry people who will recognise the irony in this.

Back in the 1960s and 1970s numerous West Germans and their companies were snapping up sites and land in The Kingdom for their holiday homes and hotel developments.

Not that Berlin local authorities are relying on Irish investors alone to spark a property revolution in that city. Also being enticed are Germans, as well, of course, as the equally hungry UK buy-to-let investors. The prospect of prices from around €35,000 and yields of up to 5.8pc look extremely attractive.

However, there are risks to the market, as the company which is specialising in this privatisation process warns. Michael Hahn, joint managing director of Statdtkonzept, points out that because of Berlin’s urban sprawl, within the 12 main districts the property market experiences what are called microspots.

For Dubliners a microspot is almost like the difference between buying in Sherriff St or the IFSC, except in Berlin the difference may not always be as noticeable in terms of the age or the appearance of the buildings, especially when it comes to selecting the keenly priced apartments.

Silke Lorenz, joint managing director of Statdtkonzept, says that this is all the more reason why investors need to be careful to work through a recognised agent such as themselves who also provide a complete turnkey service to both German nationals as well as to overseas buyers.

They specialise in working with the local authorities to bring refurbished apartments which will appeal to family tenants who are likely to care for their homes. Silke Lorenz, points out that Berlin’s Marzahn Hellesrsdorf area is a very good place to invest in these types of apartments because of the area’s proximity to the new Berlin Brandenburg International airport which is expected to generate employment for up to 60,000 people.

Currently apartments in the area are selling for between €980 and €1,030 per sq m or about €70,000 for a 70 sq m unit. Rents average €4.78 per sq m monthly. Buying costs, including stamp duty and legal fees, will add an extra 7pc to the price. In addition the company charges €42 per month to cover common property management as well as individual property management.

The net rent averages €4.80 per sq m. per month which works out at an annual yield of 5.4pc.

Hahn is also upfront about the rent and investment returns. “This is not a get-rich-quick type of investment,” he advises. “It may take up to 10 years for people to achieve a significant capital gain on their investment,” he adds.

To attract landlords Statdtkonzept is selling many of these apartments with sitting tenants with a proven reliable track record and some properties are offered with an optional ten-year rental income guarantee.

As tourism and other investments boost accommodation demand, Berlin rents are expected to rise. This together with the flow of overseas buy-to-let investment, is already encouraging greater interest in home ownership.

For Irish people who remember the red carpets which the IDA used to roll out for German industries here, it seems ironic that their capital is now seeking to attract investment from little old Ireland.

For more information go to: overseashomesearch.co.uk.
Need to know

LEGAL: Germany is the land of paperwork. There is no place in the world that is so complicated for financing and nowhere else is it harder to get financed.

FINANCE: Non-Germans may borrow a maximum of 60pc of the value of the property. Tenants have very secure leases.

PLACES TO AVOID: The East side of Berlin is not be the ideal district for someone seeking a long-term tenant because of its high unemployment and social deprivation. While some of these areas offer prospects of a high return there is also a higher risk involved.

Safer investment is more likely in the North and South of Berlin in districts not affected by the fall of the Wall.

Getting there: Flights to Berlin are available from Belfast, Cork, Dublin and Shannon Airports and the airlines include both Aer Lingus and Ryanair.

Conor Creighton goes in search of the Irish musicians who left Ireland looking for inspiration and found it in Europe’s most bohemian city.

It’s when you look down at your watch and see that all of a sudden it’s six in the morning and no one looks like leaving the bar anytime soon that it dawns on you how very, very different Berlin is to Dublin. And when you look around the room and see the kids dancing in the corner haven’t been to bed in three days and the reasonable looking guy beside you is actually in a pair of pink heels, that you realise Berlin is very, very different to anywhere else in the whole world.

Almost 20 years since the Wall came down and Berlin was united and absorbed into the new Germany, the rebellious attitude that led to that monumental event hasn’t died. Bars stay open as long as they like, drugs are practically legalised and there are so many nuts, eccentrics and bohemian characters roaming the streets that weaker people can develop whiplash from the double-takes.

Berlin is at the cutting edge of the international art scene. One in 20 citizens are full-time musicians or artists. One in 15 are unemployed, and less than 8pc of the whole city actually own the apartment they live in.

These are the folks that mortgage and pension advertising campaigns fail to reach. It’s not about getting rich in Berlin; it’s about just getting by. If you’re working full-time then you’ve screwed up somehow. Berlin is a city populated by dreamers and wasters and apart from the postmen and train drivers, no one seems to have a proper job. The truth is, you don’t really need one.

“I work two shifts a week in a restaurant and that covers my rent and food for the month,” says Simon Milligan. Simon’s from Belfast and makes hip-hop. He DJed all over Ireland and worked at a record shop in George’s Street Arcade. By chance, he came to Berlin to help a friend move three years ago. After two days in the city, Simon decided to stay. He paid one month’s rent and a deposit on a place and was left with €7.50 to survive.

“I’ve been in that position about six or seven times since I came here,” he says, “but a job always comes along at the last minute.”

Rent in Berlin is the lowest of any Western European capital. If you’re fussy you can pay about €400 and get an apartment all to yourself. If you’re not, you can find a room for less than €150 a month, and if that’s still too much there are squats in Berlin that are cleaner than most bedsits you’ll find in Rathmines. Food in Berlin is also incredibly cheap. Most restaurants cater for the young, poor population, some of them even have a pay-what-you-think-the-meal-was-worth policy, and if I get started on how cheap alcohol and cigarettes are, you’ll weep all over this newspaper.

Nina Hynes is another Irish musician based in Berlin. She came over a year ago, got pregnant on her first night and taking that as a sign, moved here permanently. “I came for the kebabs,” she jokes. Food is important to Nina, especially since music has taken a backseat to motherhood for her.

“I haven’t been away from her for more than five minutes since she was born,” she says. “Berlin allows you to do that. If I was in Dublin I’d have to work more and she’d be in a creche.”

She’s dabbling with new ideas. One is a collection of songs she wants to record on an old organ she found. No other instruments, just the organ. Nina can do that sort of thing. She could record an album of ringtones or house alarms and still make it sound beautiful.

Nina has no plans to return to Ireland soon. “If I had a huge house by the sea with a big studio, yeah,” she says. Unfortunately, Bono already called dibs on that lifestyle in Ireland; for ordinary musicians it’s impossible.

In Berlin, the opportunities are immense. Nina’s boyfriend had a studio in an abandoned DDR radio station in the east of the city. It’s a gigantic building on the edge of a lake, surrounded by wild forests and meadows. A little over a quarter-of-a-century ago, the building was producing pro-Communist propaganda, now it’s producing Humanzi and The Things’ albums.

The government throws out incentive after incentive. You can occupy a derelict building and turn it into a gallery or a bar and the government will not only help you with the restoration fees, but they’ll let you stay there rent-free. But no economic miracle was ever conceived from shifting a few canvases and the city’s in debt to the tune of €100bn.

Richie Egan came here a year ago. He’d already one album in Ireland and was enjoying a reasonable musical career. Richie dismisses what he does as just “pop”, but it’s very much art, captured over three-and-a-half minutes. He’s on album number three at the moment and he’s planning to record it in Berlin.

“I think the only reason to record in Ireland would be to work with other Irish artists based there,” he says, “but here is so much cheaper.”

“There’s a magic here,” says Nina Hynes. “I think I judge myself less harshly here. I’m much more free.”

Simon feels the magic, too. The first one-and-a-half years I was here I kept getting goose bumps,” he says. “The city gives you a confidence. Everything is so positive here. You can’t live this life in Dublin. It’s too expensive. You have to work too much. I see what it’s doing to my friends and I want to grab them and bring them over.”

Another plus Berlin has going for it is the number of gigs you can get as a musician. Everywhere’s a venue. There may be licensing and insurance laws in Berlin just like Ireland’s but you’d never think it. Berliners may be sticklers when it comes to jaywalking but they don’t think twice about ignoring health and safety or smoking laws. You can go to a venue where there are maybe 400 people, no toilets and one rickety staircase as entrance and exit.

Berliners don’t complain about noise. Back when the Wall was in place the inhabitants of the West Berlin borough of Kreuzberg pointed speakers towards Friedrichshain in East Berlin as a gesture of solidarity. In Berlin, playing loud music is not a nuisance; it’s a right.

Nina, Simon and Richie all speak a little

German, but one in four people in Berlin are not German; some areas of the city have become so mixed that there is more English spoken than there is German.

Richie has no plans to return to Ireland in the near future. He’s from Limerick. He jokes that he’s missed the GAA and that the German sense of humour can be a bit of a drag: “Berlin is the perfect place to be an artist,” says Richie and then changes his mind. “Maybe don’t say that, or they’ll all start coming.”

Almost 20 years after reunification, Berlin’s bohemian lifestyle is attracting overseas buyers. Just don’t expect a quick profit

Berlin is a new city; the newest I have ever seen,” Mark Twain remarked in 1891. He might well say the same today. Nearly two decades after reunification, the German capital’s landscape continues to be redrawn. The division between east and west that once defined the city is now barely noticeable - just a few desultory chunks of the Wall remain - and the city is thriving as a hotbed of modern, experimental architecture. With a unique combination of cold-war history and a reputation for hedonism, Berlin is bang on the zeitgeist: Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie and Sam Riley are among those who have been seduced into buying homes in and around the city.
(more…)

This is a huge Irish Pub. Possibly the largest in Berlin. Located in the Europa-Center - a shopping complex in the center of the city.
U/S-Bahn Zoologischer Garten
www.irish-pub-berlin.de

Der berühmteste Irish Pub Berlins. Besuchen Sie ein IRISH VILLAGE, spazieren Sie entlang einer typischen irischen Straßenszene und lassen Sie sich mit Guinness vom Faß, Irish Coffee und vielen anderen Spezialitäten verwöhnen.

Der Irish Pub im Untergeschoß des Europa-Center ist nicht nur der größte Pub mit der längsten Theke (36 m), sondern auch der berühmteste Irish Pub Berlins. Jeden Abend mit Live Musik und Öffnungszeiten bis 3.00 Uhr , Freitag und Samstag bis 4.00 Uhr, morgens.

“Cold Beer - Warm Hearts” is the motto of the Kilkenny Irish Pub, tucked away beneath Hackescher Markt S-Bahn station. It’s actually three pubs in one, with every room telling a little bit of Irish history. There’s a garden out front where you can sit and watch the trams go by.

No Irish pub would be complete without live sports TV, and with both Sky Sports and Premiere available, a wide selection of matches from the Bundesliga, the Premier League and the Champions League is always on. Thursdays from 9pm there’s a pub quiz.

Despite the name, Guinness is available, as well as Strongbow cider. Germany’s brewers are represented by Berliner Kindl and Schöfferhofer. Irish-style food (Irish stew, sandwiches, steak) is on the menu.

The Kilkenny Irish Pub is associated with the Irish Harp Pub in Charlottenburg.
Founded in 1992, the Kilkenny Irish Pub is one of the largest and liveliest of Berlins many Irish pubs. Conveniently located right in the train station Hackescher Markt, the pub offers more than enough space for an international crowd. Each of its three rooms is decorated in a different style, representing different eras of the Irish history and culture.

The Brewery-style front bar with its impressive copper brewing vessel dome underneath the vaulted ceiling, hardwood counter, tables made from old barrels, and brewing memorabilia is the perfect place for a long night of drinking and talking or cheering your favourite football team on two big plasma TVs.

The middle room, tastefully decorated in Victorian style with bevelled mirrors, stained glass and decorative tile and brass work offers cozy corners and a second bar right next to the stage, where live bands play on no fewer than 4 nights a week. You won’t get closer to real live music.

The third room, decked out in Gaelic style with murals depicting Celtic motifs, wrought-iron fixtures, and sturdy wooden chairs and tables is perfect for large parties or as the scene for the famously tough ”Quiky”, the weekly quiz in the Kilkenny, where natives and tourists pit their wits against each other. It also offers two large screens for televised sports, just to make sure that every fan gets a good view and enough space to enjoy their game.

Especially on warm Berlin summer afternoons and nights there is no better place than the large green terrace, where cool drinks are served until the wee hours.

The Kilkenny Irish Pub has three times been voted “Guinness Irish Pub of the Year“, not least for the quality of the food and beverages and the friendly service of the international staff. Do come in and we will make your visit an unforgettable one.

Der 1992 eröffnete Kilkenny Irish Pub ist einer der größten und lebhaftesten von Berlins vielen Irish Pubs. Direkt im S-Bahnhof Hackescher Markt gelegen, bietet er mehr als genug Platz für das große internationale Publikum jeden Alters. Die 3 Räume sind in verschiedenen Stilen eingerichtet, von denen jeder einen Abschnitt der irischen Geschichte und Kultur repräsentiert.

Die vordere Bar im Brauerei-Stil bietet mit ihrer beeindruckenden kupfernen Braukessel-Kuppel unter der gewölbten Decke, dem großen halbrunden Tresen und Tischen, die aus alten Fässern gemacht sind, den perfekten Platz für lange Nächte voller Drinks und Gespräche, oder auch für das emotionsgeladene Fußballspiel auf einem der zwei großen Plasmafernseher.

In dem geschmackvoll im viktorianischen Stil eingerichteteten mittleren Raum mit seinen geschliffenen Spiegeln, Buntglasscheiben, dekorativen Fliesen und glänzenden Messingbeschlägen findet man gemütliche Sitzecken zum Plaudern, eine zweite Bar und eine Bühne, auf der an nicht weniger als 4 Abenden in der Woche Live-Bands für Stimmung sorgen. Hier kann man die Musik wirklich hautnah erleben.

Der dritte Raum ist im gälischen Stil eingerichtet, mit keltischen Wandmalereien, schmiedeeisenen Beschlägen und stabilen Holztischen und -stühlen, perfekt für größere Feiern oder aber für das weithin für seine kniffligen Fragen bekannte “Quiky“, das wöchentliche Quiz im Kilkenny, bei dem Einheimische und Touristen ihr Wissen und ihre Kreativität messen. Sportfans kommen vor 2 Großleinwänden voll auf ihre Kosten, wenn nationale und internationale Sportereignisse live übertragen werden.

Besonders beliebt an warmen Berliner Sommertagen und -abenden ist die riesige grüne Terrasse, auf der bis in die frühen Morgenstunden kühle Getränke serviert werden.

Der Kilkenny Irish Pub wurde bereits dreimal als “Guinness Irish Pub of the Year“ ausgezeichnet, nicht zuletzt für die beständig hohe Qualität des Angebots aus Bar und Küche und die freundliche Bedienung durch das internationale Personal. Ein Besuch im Kilkenny Irish Pub wird so zu einem unvergesslichen Erlebnis.

Kilkenny Irish Pub

Am Zwirngraben 17-20
Berlin
Germany
Tel.: (030) 283 20 84
Fax: (030) 283 20 85
Link: http://www.kilkenny-pub.de/

Tucked away beneath the Colosseum cinema just off Prenzlauer Berg’s Schönhauser Allee, The Dubliner has an unprepossessing, modern exterior. The crowd is mainly young and suburban, and many come for the live folk music on Saturday and Sunday nights.

The Dubliner

Gleimstraße 33-35
10435 Berlin
Germany
Tel.: (030) 44 039 241
Fax: (030) 44 039 241
Link: http://www.the-dubliner-berlin.de/

The Old Emerald Isle (or just TOEI as it’s known by afficionados) is the favourite Irish Pub of many Berlin residents. Tucked away in a quiet corner of Kreuzberg near the Landwehrkanal, it’s decked out with rustical paraphernalia. But don’t let that put you off - it’s one of the few Irish pubs in Germany actually run by genuine Irish people, and many of the staff are Irish too. The atmosphere is laid back, except when sporting events (football, rugby) are being show on TV. There’s a quiz night too, and good food is always available.

The Old Emerald Isle (TOEI)

Erkelenzdamm 49
10999 Berlin
Germany
Tel.: (030) 615 6917
Fax: (030) 6165 8226
Link: http://www.old-emerald-isle.de/

The Shannon

The Shannon in Schöneberg’s Apostel-Paulus-Straße is one of Berlin’s lesser-known Irish Pubs. It’s a smaller, lcoal place. Has darts, billiards and live music (generally Irish Folk). Besides the inevitable Guinesss, Murphys beer also available.

The Shannon

Apostel-Paulus-Straße 34
10823 Berlin
Germany
Tel.: (030) 781 86 76

The Irish Wolf

Out in the northern ‘burbs of Karow, little is known about this Irish pub.

The Irish Wolf

Alt-Karow 35
13125 Berlin
Germany
Tel.: (030) 942 19 413