Summer so far

For those of a certain inclination, summer only starts when the football season ends.  Back in May, before the summer truly became worthy of its name, I tagged along with the guys from ‘Union in Englisch’ as they met for an end of season meal at an old-fashioned Bierstube in Adlershof, prior to Union’s final game at home to TSV 1860 München.

It was a great day, and clearly those involved respected the gravity of the occasion:

 

Afterwards I wrote about the day - check out my article at: http://www.union-berlin.com/2014/05/17/last-supper-at-the-leichenkeller/

Of course, more football was to follow in the shape of the World Cup.  Over the course of the competition we watched many matches at many different venues - usually bars and beer gardens - but the highlight was being able to see the Belgium v Algeria game from a sofa at the WM Wohnzimmer at the Stadion an der Alten Försterei (thanks to Mark Wilson for securing the tickets, and Christian Arbeit, for use of the sofa):

 

An attractive shot of me, not falling asleep, but squinting in sunlight at Ostkreuz en route to the 'Wohnzimmer':

 

After four weeks and 64 games, Germany won and Berlin went bonkers.  A couple of days after the final, we went down to watch the victors parade the trophy through the streets from a spot directly opposite the prison in Moabit:

 

Taking a break from the football, on a very temperamental Saturday in June, a music festival,‘Fête de la Musique’, came to town.  This encompassed music of every conceivable genre (and a few inconceivable ones too).  There were performances throughout the city and, despite the weather doing its best to dampen things, a fantastic atmosphere prevailed in the Mauerpark:

 

Apart from the odd apocalyptic thunderstorm, there has been some baking hot weather so far, so it’s been a joy this summer to discover the lakes.  Luckily, we live just 2 kilometres (a very gentle bike ride) from the lovely Weissensee:

On a hot and hazy summer evening, I also love to spend a couple of hours chilling in one of the neighbourhood’s parks, whether the always alluring Mauerpark, the Ernst Thälmann Park just a few minutes’ walk from the flat, or, my particular favourite, Volkspark Weinberg, near Rosenthaler Platz:

A visit here usually involves a trip to the nearby 'Weinerei' on Veteranenstrasse for coffee (or wine) and cake.  If it’s a Friday, I also like to wander around, and maybe stop for a bite to eat at the market on Arkonaplatz:

 

It’s not all been swimming in lakes or lazing around in parks though; I’ve done a lot of writing during the summer and been to a few literary events (which I’ve mentioned in previous posts).  I also passed my TEFL exam with a score of 93% and a Grade A, which means I'm now better equipped to start looking for teaching jobs.

This weekend I’m off to The Reader Berlin’s literary festival at Fort Gorgast near the Polish border and next week we have visitors from the USA, so I’ll be playing tour guide and hoping that the good weather holds out. 
 

Readers' Remedies

My previous post was all about a little writing adventure, so this one takes a look at some of what Berlin has to offer for the reader.   It’s a great city to be in for lovers of the written word, with literary events of one kind or another being held practically every week.

On Wednesday 2^nd July, I made the short trip over to the Vagabund Brauerei in Wedding for the launch of the third Readux Books series http://www.readux.net/.  Readux is a small Berlin-based publisher specialising in mainly translated literature in pocket-sized books with beautiful cover designs.  There are four books in each series, at least one of which focuses on Berlin. 

The first part of the evening featured readings from Brittani Sonnenberg and Amanda Svensson, whilst the second was devoted specifically to Berlin-focussed literature.  A discussion with Isabel Cole about the works of Arthur Eloesser, whose ‘Cities and City People’ is one of the titles in the series, was followed by Katy Derbyshire and David Wagner reading from Wagner’s ‘Berlin Triptych’.  Having been at the Series 2 launch in March, I had looked forward to this one and I wasn’t disappointed – the readings and discussions were entertaining and Vagabund’s fine craft beers provided a fitting accompaniment.

I have particularly enjoyed the Literary Lounges hosted by Sharmaine Lovegrove of Dialogue Books http://www.dialoguebooks.org/ in Soho House’s Red Room – a suitably atmospheric basement space, part Victorian gentleman’s study, part Hogwarts’ library with plenty of red velvet, gothic light fittings, and baggy leather sofas.

Now that Sharmaine is returning to London, the lounges will become less frequent (they have been held roughly once a month up to now), although she has vowed to return to host more. 

The latest guest (and presumably last for a while) was Rory MacLean, who, on a sultry evening in June, came to discuss his book ‘Berlin: Imagine a City’, and to recount episodes from his forty year association with the city.  The book’s publication coincided with my arrival in Berlin so I was delighted to be able to buy it after the reading and have it signed by the author. 

I do hope the literary lounges continue and shall look out for Dialogue’s newsletter for details of any upcoming events.

In the meantime, there is plenty to keep bookworms happy in the city.  There are frequent literature and poetry festivals, and bookshops, bars and cafes regularly hold readings, author events or open mic evenings for writers to come along and share their work.

The Brecht Haus in Chausseestrasse http://www.lfbrecht.de/content/ is the last home and workplace of Bertolt Brecht and his wife Helene Weigel (their graves are both in the adjacent Dorotheenstädtischen Friedhof).  I have fond memories of studying ‘Mother Courage and her Children’ at university, so I had to check this out.  The ‘Literaturforum’ has a programme of seminars and events, all in German.

Not far from here, on Schiffbauerdamm, the Berliner Ensemble theatre http://www.berliner-ensemble.de/ naturally features plenty of Brecht in its programme besides recitals, readings and book premieres.

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Bookshops in Berlin are wonderful havens, whether quirky enclaves with chaotically-stocked shelves, shabby furniture and eccentric owners or sleek streamlined spaces with on-site cafes.  German book price regulations mean that supermarkets and big chains aren’t able to undercut, so independent bookstores thrive.

Some of my favourites are:

Another Country, http://www.anothercountry.de/index.htm Riemannstrasse – an absolute delight.  Operates a bit like a lending library – take your book back and receive a refund, minus €1.50.  Regular events include Friday evening dinners cooked by the shop’s owner, Sophie Raphaeline. 

Autorenbuchhandlung, http://www.autorenbuchhandlung.com/ Else-Ury-Bogen – under the S-Bahn tracks at Savignyplatz.  English-language section and pleasant café.

Curious Fox, http://curiousfoxbooks.com/ Flughafenstrasse – A cosy, neatly arranged shop with a reasonable selection of new and used titles and a section devoted to Berlin-based writers.  Regular readings and quiz nights.

Dussmann, http://www.kulturkaufhaus.de/de/das-kulturkaufhaus/buecher/english-bookshop/  Friedrichstrasse – comprehensive collection of titles in the ‘English Bookshop’ in the city’s ‘KulturKaufhaus’.

Hundt-Hammer-Stein, http://www.hundthammerstein.de/ Alte Schonhauser Strasse – in a basement on this Mitte shopping street.  Small but decent English language section.

Literaturhaus, Fasanenstrasse – a gorgeous villa in a tranquil garden on this well-heeled shopping street just off the Kurfurstendamm.  There’s a lovely café upstairs and on sunny days it’s a treat to sit in the garden but difficult to find a space.  There is a bookshop on the ground floor with a small English-language section.  The café holds regular readings and events but my German isn’t up to appreciating them yet.

Marga Schoeller, Knesebeckstrasse – long-standing Charlottenburg bookshop with good-sized English-language section.

Marga Schoeller

Ocelot Books, http://www.ocelot.de/ Brunnenstrasse – bright, modern space with a small café.
Shakespeare & Sons, Raumer Strasse and also now at Warschauer Strasse.  Large stock of new and used English language texts. Bagels from ‘Fine Bagels’ are available at both branches.

St George’s, http://www.saintgeorgesbookshop.com/ Worther Strasse – English language literature of all kinds.  I’ve spent many a Friday afternoon browsing the shelves in here, rarely leaving empty-handed.  Books can be returned for a 50% refund; a good incentive for further purchasing.

Practically every bookstore includes a section dedicated to German writers and/or Berlin-centred literature.  Non-fiction covering Nazism, both World Wars, the Cold War etc. naturally abounds.  But Berlin has also inspired and influenced generations of fiction writers, and continues to do so. 

Alfred Döblin’s ‘Berlin Alexanderplatz’ was a masterpiece in the 1920s, banned by the Nazis and later deservedly resurrected. 

It may be clichéd, but it’s still almost impossible to mention ‘Berlin’ literature without referring to Isherwood (who is also the subject of a chapter in Maclean’s book).  ‘Goodbye to Berlin’ was another text I'd read at university, and on my very first visit to the city, I made the inevitable pilgrimage to his former address in Nollendorfstrasse where I recalled some earnest undergraduate discussions of the book.  Nowadays it is a thoroughly ordinary and respectable street – nothing like the louche, down-at-heel environs of Isherwood’s world.

Cold War Berlin was a natural focus for espionage novels; providing the twin temptations of the mystery and intrigue of the divided city, and the opportunities for political propagandising. 

Since the Wall’s demise and subsequent German ‘reunification’, writers have sought to understand and explain the ‘new’ city as characters attempt to negotiate their place within it in works ranging from the highbrow to the hilarious.  Inevitably history looms large in many of these narratives, as though acknowledging the past is a necessary part of the process when writing about Berlin.

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A selection of my favourite Berlin books, not exhaustive and in no particular order:

‘Berlin Blues’ (2001) Sven Regener (also known by the title ‘Herr Lehmann’): set in Kreuzberg in 1989, the narrative concludes with the fall of the Wall.

‘Alone in Berlin’ (1947) Hans Fallada:  Based on a true story, captures the claustrophobic atmosphere of paranoia and persecution in pre-war Berlin.

‘The Blind Side of the Heart’ (2009) Julia Franck:  German Book Prize winner, haunting narrative with a complex central character.  Some evocative depictions of Weimar-era Berlin (Franck was the guest at the first literary lounge I attended, discussing her latest translated novel ‘Back to Back’ which unforgivably I’ve yet to read).

‘The History of History’ (2011) Ida Hattemer-Higgins:  A heartbreaking novel, very loosely autobiographical. A woman stumbles out of a forest on the outskirts of the city, having no memory of the previous six months. The account of her subsequent mental disintegration, interwoven with episodes from the city’s past, culminates in a devastating denouement.

‘The Book of Clouds’ (2009) Chloe Aridjis: Account of a young South American woman’s solitary, alienated existence in the city.

‘Berlin’ (2005) Pierre Frei:  Crime novel about a deranged sex killer, which unusually provides warmly-written back stories of his victims.

‘Cold Angel’ (2002) Horst Bosetzky:  Fictionalised account of a true murder story from 1949.

‘This Must Be the Place’ (2008) Anna Winger:  An American woman in Berlin because of her husband’s job, coming to terms with a miscarriage, and finding her way in a new city, befriends a washed-up actor.

‘Rosa’ (2006) Jonathan Rabb:  First of a trilogy (I’ve only read the first two so far) featuring detective Nicolai Hoffner.  The ‘Rosa’ of the title is Rosa Luxemburg whose body was pulled from the Landwehrkanal months after her murder by fascist thugs in 1919. 

‘The Wall Jumper: A Berlin Story’ (1983) Peter Schneider: Excellent short novel about various characters who, for a variety of reasons, traversed the border, often by some very novel means.

‘The Innocent' (1990) Ian McEwan: A post office engineer sent to Berlin in the early days of the Cold War to install equipment for spying on the Russians becomes involved with an older, married woman.

'The Bullet Trick’ (2006) Louise Welsh: Noir-ish thriller partially set in Berlin (also by Welsh, a novella, ‘The Girl on the Stairs’, which is set entirely in the city).

Berlin Books

 

This has been very much a ‘dipping the toe’ approach and there is a lot I’ve left out, but it’s something I might well return to at a later date…

Writer's Bloc

June flew by in a frenzy of writing.  Publishers Jonathan Cape were having an ‘open submissions’ month, inviting new writers to submit fifty pages of prose fiction, so I decided to rise to the challenge. 

When I came to Berlin, I brought with me a bag and a memory stick full of drafts and odd scraps of writing that I’d been working on for years intermittently and without any real sense of direction.  I had begun a number of projects that required further development (plus others for which the bin was the most suitable destination), but work commitments gave me little time or energy for literary activity.  However, in recent months I’ve revisited much of this work, editing it ruthlessly, giving it ‘shape’, and developing characters and storylines.  Not having a demanding full-time job obviously helps but I also find that Berlin itself is a natural and a nurturing environment for would-be writers; in any café at any time of the day people can be seen scratching away in notebooks or tapping on keyboards.  Of course we’re not all going to be the next Isherwood, and in all likelihood, the vast majority of what’s produced will never see the light of day, but for most of the time, simply engaging in the creative process is what drives us.

With the Cape deadline of 30^th June as a further incentive, I selected a piece from my motley collection of scribblings and then I worked flat out, spending up to sixteen hours a day editing and revising.  Sometimes I would force myself to stop and have a wander around the neighbourhood, maybe calling in for a coffee somewhere, just to put a little distance between myself and the piece, so that I might return to it with a sharper eye (there was also the added distraction of the odd World Cup match).  Finally, at eleven p.m. on the last Saturday of the month, I submitted fifty pages (about 22,000 words) of a work in progress. 

Whether I get a response remains to be seen but at least the exercise gave me the discipline and focus I needed.  In terms of creativity, it also proved massively stimulating, as I’ve been writing furiously ever since.  I’ve long been in the habit of taking notebooks and pens wherever I go but now I find I’m constantly putting them to use; one evening last week, I started jotting down ideas in a café, and before I realised it, ninety minutes had disappeared.

So, on Saturday 5^th July, my imagination still firing, I made my way to Kreuzberg where I met up with Victoria Gosling of ‘The Reader Berlin’ and fellow ‘scribblers’ for a creative writing workshop entitled ‘Get Inspired’.  From our meeting place at Südstern, we walked to the nearby cemetery.  It was a sultry afternoon but Victoria found a shady spot for us by a 19^th Century tomb – one of those ornate affairs with neo-classical masonry work and alabaster angel.  We sat on the grass and listened to a reading from Margaret Atwood’s ‘Negotiating with the Dead’ before completing a round of exercises designed to get our creative minds into gear.

We then dispersed, armed with a selection of tasks, to seek inspiration among the statuary.  I hadn’t wandered too far when my attention was caught by a small, plain headstone.  Tantalisingly lacking in information, its simple inscription read ‘Heinrich Nagel, 1893-1966’.  I knew I had found my man.

Sitting on a shady bench, my only companion a red squirrel, I wrote non-stop for the next hour and a half, pondering the question of who Heinrich Nagel could have been, and how he might have lived and died. 

Five o’clock came and we reconvened by the angel to make our way to the delightful ‘Another Country’ bookshop http://www.anothercountry.de/ Here we went down into the basement, to develop the work we’d begun at the cemetery.  Some of us stayed down there among the candles and fairy lights, some took their work outside to make the most of the late afternoon heat, and others browsed the bookshelves or worked on the shop floor.  There were fridges of beer, soft drinks and water to keep us refreshed and we were free to use any books or dictionaries that we might need.

Around 7.30, the shop’s owner Sophie served dinner which we ate around a communal table, as wine and conversation flowed.

Afterwards, it was time to share our work.  Those of us who wished read out the fruits of our afternoon’s industry, which proved incredibly diverse in terms of style, content and narrative viewpoint: a would-be grave robber intent on retrieving a priceless manuscript from a dead writer’s coffin; a young woman seeking inspiration for baby names, before being drawn towards an open crypt; my character’s speculations about Heinrich Nagel, and an older woman’s recollection of a teenage encounter among the gravestones were some of the offerings.  Writing is usually a very solitary activity so it was a joy to meet with other practitioners and to discover something of their imaginative processes.  It had clearly been an inspiring afternoon; each response was unique, attesting to the infinite potential for storytelling within any given scenario. 

When we finally emerged into the steamy Kreuzberg streets just after nine, I was still buzzing with ideas. 

The event had cost 35 Euros which included the workshop, drinks, and dinner with about three glasses of wine each.  It also proved a supportive environment, genuinely inspiring, and lots of fun!

For information about further ‘Reader’ events, check out their website: http://thereaderberlin.com/

 

 

The object of my Saturday afternoon fantasies

 

 

My little woodland companion

 

 

Another Country