JJ, a native of Cork City, Ireland, arrived in Berlin armed
with a curiosity about curry-wurst and an MBS in politics and history. A
self confessed Berlin addict, John infuses his tours with his intense
passion for German history and culture, while employing his inimitable
brand of humour to weave the story of Berlin in the great Irish
tradition. How and when did
you first come to this city JJ?
I
first visited Berlin in the late autumn of 2006, a callow and
impressionable youth searching for the city of his dreams. Being an
aficionado of
David Bowie’s work (he recorded some of his finestwork in the city) I expected to love the city, but I wasn’t ready
for the overwhelming experience. I wish I could tell you more about
the visit but I literally wandered around in a dream like state,
stumbling from one historic location to another, allowing the years
of history to wash over me. It sounds so ridiculous now, but visiting
Berlin was like a pilgrimage for me, just to follow in the footsteps
of
Max Liebermann,
Mies van der Rohe, and
Fritz Lang was a thrill.
I have vague memories of seeing the
Pergamon Altar and buying an
Ampelmann mug, but beyond that it’s more a feeling than a specific
set of memories. My experiences must have been positive because I
jumped at the chance to move here in May of 2011. I was presented
with an impossibly long list of cities by a university professor who
insisted that I needed some experience “in the field”. I
dutifully narrowed the list down to Berlin and Stockholm, but in
reality there was only one real contender. This is where my Berlin
odyssey truly began and when my turbulent love affair with the city
started. Like any relationship we go through peaks and troughs
together but the romance continues to blossom.
With your
masters in politics, can you discuss a bit about Berlin's uniqueness
in terms of a capitol city.
Beyond the
academic analysis we have to appreciate another less tangible factor.
Berlin has something special, an almost mystical quality that sets it
apart from the rest. The city is like a mirror that reflects the
dreams of the people who live here, although it has reflected its
fair share of nightmares too. When I first arrived in Berlin I met an
incredible man at a language exchange who was supposed to be helping
me to improve my German but ending up regaling me with stories from
his experiences in Berlin over the course of 40 years. He told that
the only constant in Berlin’s is change – the city constantly
renews itself; expecting Berlin to stand still is akin to standing on
the shore line as the tide advances and screaming at it to turn back.
Change is Berlin’s most enduring and alluring quality, and adds
much to its unique character.
You're a street
art fan. Did this grow out of living in Berlin? Do you
have a favourite local street artist, or location to find new pieces?
Simply put,
Berlin and street art are a match made in heaven. Before arriving in
Berlin I would have been quite dubious about the artistic merits of
street art, but I quickly learned to love the micro-galleries that
populate Berlin’s doorways and alleys. Street art’s raison
d'être is its temporary nature and Berlin’s street artists
have embraced the mediums fleeting lifespan. Whether it’s a
wall-sized mural, a poster, or a piece of graffiti, street art fits
perfectly with Berlin’s chameleon spirit. When the wall fell, vast
swathes of the relatively underdeveloped east were opened to eager
artists searching for wall space. When you add the laissez faire
attitude to graffiti in the former western neighbourhoods of
Kreuzberg and Neukoelln, you have a city that is too tempting for the
world’s most prominent artists to ignore.
Street art (in
the loosest sense) is not a recent phenomenon in the city; in fact
Berlin’s first street artist was probably
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner who
painted pictures of the city’s streets rather than putting paint on
the city’s streets. Kirchner was one of the key figures of the Die
Brueke movement and his “Großstadtbilder” series documented the
city’s bustling neighbourhoods during an audacious age – for
example his viciously angular painting of Nollendorf Platz in 1912
for example captures the chaos perfectly.
 |
| Nolllendorf Platz, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1912 |
Today Berlin’s street
art crews, such as 1
UP (One United Power) and the precocious UberFresh Crew (often stylised as ÜF) have dragged the street art
phenomenon into previously uncharted territory. They carry out their
unique vision for Berlin’s streets with a political undercurrent
and a dose of renegade ferocity. Whether it’s entertaining or
humorous, thought provoking or disposable, street art has become
interwoven into the DNA of the city.
Naturally
Warschauer Strasse, Schlesisches Tor, Gorlitzer Bahnhof and the
nearby streets are essential destinations for anybody looking for an
introduction to the variety of art on Berlin’s streets. Space is
at a premium and each and every door way artists clambering playfully
for a place for expression.
Mitte is also a well established
area for street artists, particularly
Haus Schwarzenberg near
Hackescher Markt. Here you can find some of Berlin’s most
respected artists displaying their work within a few square meters of
each other. In the city we have some incredible pieces by
internationally renowned artists, but my personal favourites are the
ones I associate most with Berlin. Take for example the tiny cork
figures striking theatrical
yoga poses that adorn the city’slampposts and street signs, or the eccentric sixes that crop up in
increasingly bizarre locations. There are two Berlin based artists
that work under the name
Various & Gould who have created a
series titled “Sankt Nimmerlein” which is a big favourite of
mine. The poster series sought to create ten modern saints for modern
day problems that are based on the “Fourteen Holy Helpers” of the
2
nd and 3
rd century. The posters, which are
dotted around the city, mix the surreal with biting social
commentary; truly art to get excited about. Of course I have to
mention one of Berlin’s most prolific artists
El Bocho; even those
with a passing interest in street art are familiar with his “Little
Lucy” posters, where the aforementioned Lucy is seen to torture her
long suffering kitty in ever more outlandish and stomach churning
ways.
Do you make any
form of art yourself?
There’s a good
reason why you’ve never heard of my art. It could be that like all
the best street artists I guard my privacy obsessively, or it could
just be that I realised at an early age that my abstract
expressionist knock-offs were pedestrian at best. I’ll let you
decide!
As we enter the
depths of the Berlin winter, do you have any tactics for surviving
these long grey months?
When I
experienced my first Berlin winter a few years ago, I just hibernated
in a warm room and waited for the winter to pass. “How long can
the cold weather last?” - I asked myself with an almost childlike
innocence. Cue to four months later, with the snow continuing to fall
and the temperatures plummeting, I was close to breaking point. The
next winter I was inspired by the older generation of Berliners to
ignore the bleak weather and carry on as though this was merely a
mild inconvenience. Many times I have watched in admiration as they
huddle together in the doorway of a train station, before clutching
their shopping bags tight and gritting their teeth, they stride with
steely determination against the cruel Siberian winds. These people
are made of tougher stuff. For the last couple of years I have chosen
winter as a season for exploring the city. Too often I get locked in
my own “kiez” mentality, so it’s a pleasure to discover some
hidden gems. These quests to pastures new often begin with looking at
the city map and picking a train station at random. This city is full
of surprises; I recently discovered a fantastic Viennese café in
Dahlem!
We shall follow your cue and take to the streets, thanks JJ!
