Omnipresent History

Some weeks ago, I wrote about the Stolpersteine commemorative project. However, this is not the only project that makes history very visible in Berlin daily life – if you’re willing to look for  it. While I remember that historical and historiographical debates were very present in 1980s Berlin, now the city is dotted with markers…

New Useful Words

German is evolving, of course. That means there are new expressions, some of which are used often and are very efficient for expressing particular meanings. I’ve written about Smith’s cat, youth-speak expressions and the evolution of forms of address. Here are some specifics expressions that were new to me and that I hear somewhat regularly:…

Kids’ Names

When the girls have been reporting on kids’ names in their respective classes, this has been somewhat surprising. Less of a surprise that there are several “foreign-sounding” names, esp. at E’s school where the share of “children with a migrant background”is around 40%. But in general, the set of names has completely shifted from my…

There is so much… high culture music

Berlin offers so much in terms of high culture. Sometimes I feel like one billboard in the subway advertises more classical concerts than Vancouver sees in a whole year. And, not only is there so much culture, but it ranges from the world class (we saw Zubin Mehta conduct the Berlin Philharmonic), to the plain…

Groundhopping V

It may turn into a magical football year in Berlin. In mid-March, Hertha is on track for Europa League qualification, Potsdam leads the women’s league, and I got to watch Union beat Nürnberg to take the lead in Div 2 of the Bundesliga, hopefully on track for promotion to the first division. My first visit…

Silence of Concrete Houses

Both the apartments in Berlin are in buildings of the traditional Berlin height. Naturally, they are brick/concrete constructions. Even though both apartments are downtown, very few traffic noises reach the inside, it’s very peaceful. This, even though the first apartment looked out over very busy train tracks, and the second apartment is in a major…

The Policy Centre that Berlin has Become

One of the delightful and impressive surprises of life back in Berlin has been the extent to which Berlin has become important to Europe and the world politically. There are many manifestations of that importance in buildings that house government and the various organizations around it, but also the number of special interest representatives etc….

Bilingual Kids

When I was a kid, Berlin was a German-speaking city in my experience. Sure, tens of thousands of Turks were living in the city already, but residential segregation meant that we rarely came into contact with them. But there was one family, the As, who were living a multilingual life that has been a model…

Groundhopping IV

Ingm and I returned to the site of our first ground hopping adventure in Berlin, the Karl-Liebknecht-Stadion in Babelsberg, just outside of Berlin toward Potsdam. This time it was a rainy, cold day, making for a very different atmosphere than during our previous visit in September. But, despite the miserable weather, 1,200 people showed up…

There is so much… culture with friends

One of the great delights of the stay in Berlin is having a chance to see some friends much more than we have in past years. Obviously, that includes some old schoolmates of mine. But it also includes longtime family friends, some of whom offer a particular angle on cultural events in Berlin. ABA and…

Groundhopping III

In preparation for my first visit to Union Berlin’s Alte Försterei, the stadium that was literally built by fans, I’ve been listening diligently to the excellent Union podcast, Textilvergehen, and following reporting about the club. When I read that Union would have a test match against a storied lower-division club in a nearby stadium, I…