Berlin — Stories On The Walls
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It is a city of contrasts where historic sites and brownfield lands, bourgeois buildings and disused warehouses, luxury shops and street art, coexist happily in a huge and colorful melting pot, full of ideas and creativity.
In Berlin, I walked along the walls, watching the stories unfold before my eyes … I also looked up and looked down to let me be surprised. The urban poetry on the walls transports in a city with its unbridled imagination, in which I invite you to follow me.
There is the historic district and the remarkable buildings that can not be missed, such as the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate, the Holocaust Memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, Potsdamer Platz, the TV tower etc.
But I have been more caught up in what’s happening on the facades, these stories, layers of lives and times that coexist, are drawn and written everywhere, in all spaces, on all medium.
There is of course the Berlin Wall which is always there and the impossible -to-miss East Side Gallery. 1989, after 28 years of existence, the Berlin Wall fell. 1.3km section of wall is still there, from Oberbaumbrücke to Ostbahnhof.
1.3km of open-air gallery, it is a real memorial of the fall of the Wall and Germany’s reunification with a hundred frescoes that mix slogans, visions of hopes, dreams, optimism, utopian visions or delusions and reflections on a part of history, our history.
The wall is still present in other parts of the city, like here, Potsdamer Platz, where pre-war vestiges remain. Pieces of walls are strangely covered with chewing gum, there is even a smell of mint floating in the air …
Not far from the East Side Gallery is the multicultural and alternative Berlin where the musical and artistic scene vibrates, where life and ideas fit on the walls, welcome to Kreuzberg!
Shops, snacks, cafes, pubs and bars follow one another behind the colorful facades, just let yourself be carried away in the streets, which become the playground of night owls.
Scheunenviertel is located in Mitte, around Hackescher Markt. There is this very nice façade of the S-Bahn station that introduces a walk promising very nice surprises.
This finely decorated façade looks like an unique decor and thus dresses this lively and bustling square with lots of restaurants, cafes, shops but also galleries, theaters, cinemas or gardens … The walls in pink and gold bricks reveal subtle geometric shapes pierced with round dormers.
Hackesche Höfe is a set of 8 communicating courtyards dating back to 1907. This architectural ensemble is a city in the city. Each courtyard is different, the first one is a small treasure with these facades adorned with Art Nouveau style ceramic tiles. Others are quieter and secretive.
Haus Schwarzenberg is located in the same street, next to Hackesche Höfe, and yet the atmosphere is no longer the same. In this very gentrified neighborhood, this place is amazing, even explosive!
Art and creativity flourish in this space where colors explode on the facades.
We entered through a dark passage covered with tags and collages, small colorful garlands put color in the sky and connect the facades. Cinema, retro café, open air bars, workshops, exhibition space, swarm in this courtyard entirely decorated with graffiti, green plants and bicycles … This is undoubtedly my favorite place!
As we looked down, we discovered small copper pavers on the ground in front of some houses in the neighborhood. These pavers are part of a project launched by Gunter Demnig, and pay tribute to the Jewish people who had lived in these houses before being deported and killed by Nazis. Scheunenviertel is also the main Jewish quarter of the city.
Berlin is the city where stories continue to be written and sketched, stories that are not forgotten and that color each facade. Richness and treasures are everywhere …
Carla Bernhardt is a photographer and travel blogger based in Guadeloupe.
“Photography is a passion, an integral part of my everyday life, no matter where it is. Opening my eyes to what surrounds me allows me to marvel all the time, when traveling it is even more true as we arrive with a fresh look and all senses awake.Discovering a new country is always fascinating to me! We have so much to learn from others … Walking around a big city, being dazzled by the beauty of a landscape are all sources of inspiration and creation, it is rewarding and it makes me always more curious” (Carla Bernhardt).
She can be reached on Instagram at @1.idee and her blog 1idee.net
