Posts about Berlin
© Frank Löhmer
The annual Carnival of Cultures in Berlin, a four day festival which celebrates the capital city’s rich cultural diversity, is taking place from May 25 to 28. Did you know that of the 3.4 million people who live in Berlin today, about half a million do not have German citizenship? Beyond that many more come from a mixed cultural background, which was the impetus of the city to start this event in 1995. The bulk of the celebration will take place in the vibrant Kreuzberg district, where the street fair allows visitors to sample international cuisine at a food pavilion and browse for crafts while also taking in performances and concerts. The festival culminates with a parade starting at 12:30 pm from Hermannplatz on May 27 where approximately 4,500 will participate with colorful costumes and floats. For more information about the parade and a route map, see the official website for the Carnival of Cultures.
Posted by Jessica | This post has no comments
May 20th, 2012 under Berlin, City Life, Special Events.
Singuhr Höre Gallerie
Putting a lot of effort into seeing contemporary art in Berlin may seem unnecessary. With over 300 galleries it’s difficult to walk down a street in the city center without happening upon a few, but these white cube galleries are only one side of Berlin’s art scene. Falling in line with artists who occupied buildings after the fall of the Berlin Wall, artists and gallerists today continue to explore the possibilities the city’s unused spaces offer, turning bunkers, post offices, and water reservoirs into art venues. The transformation and repurposing of unexpected structures that gives the Berlin art scene its unique character can also make gaining access to, or even just finding, sites a challenge. Below are five contemporary art spaces in Berlin, some hidden in plain sight and some off the beaten path, that are well worth putting in a little extra effort to experience. Read more »
Posted by Anne Patsch | This post has no comments
March 28th, 2012 under Art, Berlin, Culture, Docent Essays.
In the past four months I was fortunate enough to visit seven different countries and meet lots of lovely people. Along with business meetings and cultural visits, I also got a chance to try some spectacular food. Here is a brief summary of my favorite meals and snacks: Read more »
Posted by Petulia | This post has no comments
March 27th, 2012 under Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, City Life, Food and Wine, Istanbul, Madrid, Paris.
Tante Marianne by Gerhard Richter
Very few prospects quicken the blood and excite the eye/mind as much as a retrospective of the work of Gerhard Richter, one of the world’s most revered living artists. That very prospect awaits visitors to Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie this winter and spring, where some 140 of Richter’s paintings and five of his sculptures have been gathered as part of the phenomenal exhibition Panorama, on view until 13 May. Read more »
Posted by Julian Smith Newman | This post has no comments
March 14th, 2012 under Art, Berlin, Culture, Docent Essays, Special Events.
On April 22 we are running our Divided City tour of Berlin for €1 per person in honor of Slow Travel Berlin’s annual gathering. We love this organization, which seeks to promote a slower, more sustainable—and, therefore, deeper—approach to visiting Berlin. Read more »
Posted by Paul Bennett | This post has no comments
February 24th, 2012 under Berlin, Special Events, Travel News.
Last summer we had a client approach us with a new idea. She was spending nearly a month in Paris with her children and had heard about our Family Program of walks designed for kids and led by museum educators. We normally think of these as tours—one-off experiences that families enjoy during a visit. But what if, this client asked, she string together many of these—including a number of customized walks—into a kind of immersive, cultural summer camp. Wow, we thought, what a great idea. Read more »
Posted by Petulia | This post has 4 comments
February 14th, 2012 under Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Boston, Context Travel, Culture, Family Travel, Florence, Istanbul, London, Madrid, Naples, New York, Paris, Rome, Venice, Washington.
Well, it’s that time again. Ice floes are drifting slowly down the Spree, a light dusting of snow blankets Berlin’s roofs and trees, and the world’s largest publicly attended film festival is about to get underway. If the weather isn’t necessarily worth a visit (though they say it “builds character”) the movies certainly are. Read more »
Posted by Julian Smith Newman | This post has no comments
February 9th, 2012 under Berlin, City Life, Culture, Special Events.
At Context, our philosophy has always been about promoting and protecting the cultural heritage in each of the cities in which we operate. This heritage most familiarly comes in the form of monumental sites such as the Colosseum or iconic topics such Gothic architecture in Paris. But it also exists in smaller, sometimes more interesting, off the beaten path sites such as the Croton Aqueduct in New York or topics such as Thomas Jefferson’s time in Paris. Very often, however, these less well known aspects of a city’s heritage can be overlooked by enthusiastic visitors and busy locals.
Read more »
Posted by Carolyn | This post has no comments
January 31st, 2012 under Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Boston, Context Foundation, Culture, Edinburgh, Florence, Istanbul, London, Madrid, Naples, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, Rome, Venice, Washington.
The search for Context’s City of Literature 2011 continues with Julian Smith-Newman giving the case in favour of Berlin…
Vladimir Nabokov’s delightful short sketch A Guide to Berlin is by no means a typical traveler’s guide. In the story, a scarred, one-armed narrator sits in a typical Berlin bar and tells his “usual pot companion” about a number of very “important matters” that he has experienced over the course of his wanderings through the city (Nabokov himself lived in Berlin from 1922-1937, writing The Gift here as well as numerous other works of poetry and prose). Read more »
Posted by Rob | This post has 3 comments
October 19th, 2011 under Berlin, Books & Literature, Literary City Special, Uncategorized.
Coming to Berlin to see an exhibition of Italian Renaissance portraits may seem a little strange to some people. Once these people have seen the “Renaissance Faces” exhibit at the Bode Museum, however, they will no longer find the concept odd. The exhibition, which runs through 20 November, gathers together a phenomenal array of 15th century works, both by Florentine artists such as Donatello, Masaccio, and Botticelli and by artists active in the courts of Northern Italy and Venice–Mantegna, Antonello da Messina, the brothers Bellini, and many more. Through fascinating juxtapositions of paintings, sculptures, medals, and drawings, Renaissances Faces covers a wide variety of topics and themes, exploring questions of power, representation, social rank, ideals of beauty, and the “birth of the individual” through the faces of those individuals themselves. Read more »
Posted by Julian Smith Newman | This post has one comment
September 13th, 2011 under Art, Berlin, City Life, Culture, Museums and Monuments.
