Die Bärliner takes a look back on pieces throughout the years reflecting on the various engaging activities and sights in Pankow and wider Berlin. With summer quickly approaching and fewer COVID-19 restrictions in place, more options are becoming available for those planning to stick around Berlin for the summer months. In this archive selection, you’ll find suggestions and reflections about different movie theaters, restaurants, parks, cafés, museums and routes to explore!
October 2019- How to go to the Movies in Berlin by Vala Schriefer
Vala shares her method of how one should go to the movies in Berlin: walk around, talk to Carl Jung, talk to strangers, look at the stars, and watch a good movie or two. She talks about her experiences in five different cinemas, starting with Mitte’s Babylon Kino..
“My seeking begins with a program of Berlin cinema. This sets off a cartography of sorts, navigation by lighthouse. A film belongs to the dark and can only be fully absorbed in the isolation of and submerged submission to sitting in a black room in front of a large bright screen. And so I search out these dark rooms. It involves a little fieldwork, scrutinizing some pamphlets, saturating my search history with movie theater websites provoking Google’s excited, auto-generated guesses to single letters:
F-ilm in berlin
L-ist of best movie theaters
N-ear me film
A-rt house cinema Berlin
and all through the alphabet it goes. And so my search bar spits out these recipes for a Saturday evening and I go out searching for the state of extremes and of equilibrium, and follow the stories I find because beyond the medium (which I love) I can’t resist a good story.
But it is word-of-mouth that sets me off to stop at number one on my list, Mitte’s Babylon.”
April 2019- M1 Jewels Series by Wilma Ewerhart
Wilma’s series features five episodes with lists of exciting places close to M1 stops. She includes recommendations for eats and sights starting from the Nordend, Kuckhoffstraße and Hermann-Hesse-Straße/Waldstraße stations all the way to Am Kupfergraben.
“Living in Pankow has its upsides and its downsides. On the one hand, the neighbourhood is peaceful; on the other, it often feels far-removed from “the rest of Berlin”. Personally, I firmly believe in the untapped energy of the M1 line: Along the tram tracks are some real gems, one could even say jewels, that are often ignored in favor of venues elsewhere in the city that require long, complicated transport routes.”
April 2018- Pankow: Symphony of the Great Suburb by Liza Ostrovska
Elisaveta invites us to “taste peasants’ bread, follow a river into the past — take a walk through the sites and history of Pankow, Berlin’s great suburb.”
“Now I know: after almost a year spent in Pankow-Niederschönhausen, one acquires a very special set of skills. Just as you learn to avoid Eichenstrasse on windy autumn days (spoiler: an acorn rain comes banging on cartops), you master tuning your ears to the timbre of the neighbourhood’s voice, which to newcomers may seem barely audible — or, perhaps, even nonexistent. Roaming through the streets, listening to the echo of one’s own footsteps, a new Pankower longs to break the “quietness”, to hear “real Berlin”: Maybachufer market’s eineuroeineuroeineuro, rooftop jazz, bus stations where six languages are spoken all at once. Come, new Pankower, listen closely; catch the symphony of the great suburb…
Pankow.”
June 2014- Virtual Tour of Berlin by Amelia Walsh
Amelia’s virtual tour serves as not only a checklist of some of the most famous and fun tourist attractions and activities one can find in Berlin, but also includes many helpful insider tips.
“Living in Berlin for the past four months has given me the unusual perspective of someone who is not from the city, but has had far more time than any tourist to explore and discover its interworking. During my studies, I have had many guests come and stay with me, everyone cherishing their excuse to visit one of Europe’s coolest cities. As a result, I have put together this useful guide for a quick visit to Berlin.”
June 2013- A Spy for a Day: Trip to the Stasi Museum in Berlin by Valerie Pochko
Valerie visits the Stasi Museum in Berlin with a critical eye and writes a review and description of the place, as well as about some of the history involving the Stasi Police. “Even though this semester my selected courses didn’t generally include field trips, I used the chance to join the “Berlin: Experiment in Modernity” class, designed by professor Florian Becker for the visiting Bard students, and discover more about the history of Berlin. The trip to the Former Ministry of State Security (“Stasi” Headquarters) seemed the most exciting for me. Having been born in the Soviet Union, I grew up with stories about socialism, pioneers, and spies, told by my parents, and so this excursion was intended to support my emotional blurry memories with some factual details. Besides, I just couldn’t miss the chance to see the real spy equipment, which was not just a cinematographic invention but was actually used in GDR about 50 years ago.”
Where is your favorite to see a movie in berlin?