The Stasi goes Hollywood
by Marek Dutschke
And the foreign film Oscar goes to… Das Leben der Anderen! For the third time in Oscar history a German movie received the best foreign film award, after the “The Tin Drum” in 1980, “Nowhere in Africa” in 2003, and now the “The Lives of Others”, as it is known in the English language translated title. read more...
New York Times can go to hell
by Diana Arce
I feel like the more and more I read to NYT online, the more it starts to read like a copy of People Magazine, Gawker or the Right Wing Review. The last few weeks have included covers of Why Americans Don’t Marry, The New Speaker of House’s fashion sense, Angelina Jolie’s cold stare, and President Chavez’s national policies being compared to… well here is the quote: read more...
Move your ass and your mind will follow
Top 5 Clubs
By Mike Riemel
The time of the famous illegal clubs in Berlin _ like Blumenladen, Montagsbar, I.M.Eimer and the Rafgier crew (maybe) parties are over. Neighborhoods are too posh and the authorities check every basement too hard. Only in the summer, crews like barfuss, KlubGarnitur or Wir Sind Park take the risk of putting sound systems in parks. On weekend afternoons, you can still find a hundred to 300 people raving at places you wouldn't expect them. It's peer-to-peer propaganda, mail and sms-based to find out.
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Berlin doesn’t need a shadow economy; a virtual one would also do just fine
Hermann the German
Berlin’s economic woes have been long in the making and, considerable as they may now be, they only threaten to get worse in the future – at least in the short term. And although there actually appears to be enough work to go around, albeit illegal, what this city really needs is Aufbruchsstimmung (a “new start” atmosphere, the drive for economic renewal), an influx of new ideas and industry. read more...
Baklava: The Poor Man's Plight
"I am not rich enough to eat Baklava in my house."
After The Lord was wrapping up his first week of business, on the 8th day he thought about desert... "Let there be layers of bread, and nuts, and spices - and baked by the sun - and drenched in the honey of the bee."
So it was said and so it was done... the heavenly creation of Baklava.
Or so, it would seem to devotes of Baklava who can get themselves past what sits aging on many a tray in numerous Berlin Imbisses.
Just how did this sticky, sweet finger food make its way from Biblical Times to being a staple found in nearly every Turkish Imbiss in Berlin? read more...
Berlin Art: Just hype created by the clubs and ruins?
By Manuel Bonik
The art boom of (London) and Berlin in the 90s led to artist becoming a dream profession, at times the one most desired by German graduates. The Art Academy professors didn't mind--it was good for business. And apparently the students at the academy were isolated and introverted enough so they could be indoctrinated with the feeling they were unique and the world was just waiting for them to depart the academy's hallowed halls.read more...
'Mein Fuehrer': Berlin director takes heat for Hitler Comedy
OK, I wanted to start this piece with a Hitler joke, but I came up emptyhanded. Pages of google.de research using the German word for joke, "witz," combined with Adolf's last name, left me without a lead-in for this article.
Maybe Germany's most famous citizen still isn't a laughing matter to most Germans. Daniel Levy discovered that last week when "Mein Fuehrer" was released. In his last film, the Berlin director was swamped with praise for bringing back Jewish humor to German cinema in "Alles auf Zucker (Go for Zucker!), read more ...
Blasphemy charges dropped
but one of Mitte's top trash galleries closes doors
By Roy Kammerer
Foto-Shop was bound to clash someday with the officers watching them from the police station just across Invaliden Street. The hole-in-the-wall gallery just has to be suspicious--all the wrong kinds of people are there. Artists and life's unrepentant have adopted it as a habitat, floating in from nearby joints like the King Kong club or Berstuebl. read more ...
Working Together
Challenges in the digital global world
By Florian Schneider
If one principle could be seen to inform the opaque surface of what in the 1990s was called a “new economy” — the shifts and changes, the dynamics and blockades, the emergencies and habit formations taking place within the realm of immaterial production — it would certainly be: “Work together”. read more ...
Copyright, copyleft and the Creative Anti-Commons
A Genealogy of Authors’ Property Rights
By Joane Richardson and Dmytri Kleiner
The author has not always existed. The image of the author as a wellspring of originality, a genius guided by some secret compulsion to create works of art out of a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, is an 18th century invention. This image continues to influence how people speak about the “great artists” of history, and it also trickles down to the more modest claims of the intellectual property regime that authors have original ideas that express their unique personality, and therefore have a natural right to own their works - or to sell their rights, if they should choose. read more ...
The sun god of Berlin was dethroned – kind of...
By Marek Dutschke
Klaus Wowereit, the social democrat (SPD) mayor of Berlin and shooting star of the German political scene of the past five years, just recently came close to having his career take an abrupt turn for the worse. The representatives of his own party and that of his coalition partner, the socialist party (PDS), refused to reelect him in the first round of the mayoral electoral process.
The success story which was Klaus Wowereit began in the streets of West-Berlin, where he grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. He escaped the poverty of his childhood by becoming a lawyer and by slowly rising through the ranks of social democratic local politics. read more ...
It seems things are working out so well on the stock market these days that private households in Germany got 240 billion Euros richer last year. “The Germans have never been wealthier than they are now,” said the author of a study published by the Dresdner Bank.
The German Dax went up 22 percent last year and these stock market profits helped private incomes climb. They have climbed so much, in fact, that the two year stock market bloodbath which began back in 2000 has now been compensated for.
Like, hello? So it’s not enough that the Germans have been export Weltmeister for the fifth year running, now they’re muscling in on the world’s wealthiest, too?
But wait, that might be eine Nummer zu hoch (a size too big) for them. Despite the excellent development, German investors remain just as cautious as they have been in previous years, the study says. New investments are rare, the Germans preferring to take profits instead, and to put their money in more traditional and conservative though less profitable investments like savings deposit accounts.
And that might just help explain why so many high-income German individuals often walk (or are driven) around here so grumpy and irritable looking all the time: No risk, no fun.
Hast du was bist du was.
Kommentare auf Deutsch? Klaro.
‘OK, Kameraden, lass uns tanzen!’ A nice East German poster I found at the Mauerpark. At an achingly hip breakfast in Prenzl’berg the other day, my flat mate told me about a friend … more »
Vote over street name to honor shot student leader
Kreuzberg-Friedrichshein takes sides
By Marek Dutschke
Imagine what it would be like if someone wanted to name a prominent street in the middle of Berlin after the father you never met, because he died before you were born. Well, on January 21st every citizen of the Berlin district of Kreuzberg-Friedrichshein is called upon to decide whether my father, Rudi Dutschke, will have a street named after him. read more ...
The Red Baron
The Germans didn't mind that a flirt with Hollywood to film the Red Baron failed, and that Val Kilmer won't play the lead _ after all, they really want to is tell their own stories anyhow.
Manfred von Richthofen was World War I's biggest pop idol and one of their own, a kid that was a tech freak, aerial punk and sometime rebel. He was a Berlin product too, finishing his military education in the Lichterfelde district before shooting down a record 80 planes during World War I.
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HearWig - Episode 1 - ready for down loading
Hello, Berliners ... it's time to gather your lobes together, sit down by the old computer, rev up your iPod, and listen to our first Broadcast of HearWig.
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Rotor makes waves in Europe
Unknown to most of the English-speaking world, the Berlin band Rotor have made quite a name for themselves throughout Europe. Their sound is mostly instrumental, and can best be described as a cross between psychedelic rock and late 1970s punk. read more...
The Weirdest Band in Berlin???
Is The RotTT Berlin's weirdest music group? We don't really know (candidates abound in this city), but the Return of the Think Thing -- short The RotTT -- got the electricity shut off by the organizers a half-hour into their October performance at the Arena, one of Berlin's most popular venues. read more...
Church of Odin Takes Back Christmas
...and wants to ban Santa Claus too!
Do you love Christmas, but feel distanced from Christianity? Has it ever seemed to you as if Jesus of Nazareth didn't really fit in with the whole Christmas thing? After all, what's with all the fixation on snow, sleigh bells, and evergreen trees? Certainly not the sorts of things we find in the biblical world. Well, if you believe Fritz Lieber from the New Reformed Church of Odin, it's because Christmas, or Jul - the original name of the Holiday - has nothing at all to do with Christianity! read more ...
Do we need a World Constitution?
by Till Nikolaus von Heiseler
The question of a World Constitution has two sides, because any constitution wants to be a real instrument of positive law. That is why one has to ask firstly the following questions: 1) Who could introduce such a constitution? 2) Would such a centralist judicial instrument really be desirable? read more...
Pola Negri
During her long life, she was a lover of Rod La Roque, at one time engaged to Chaplin, threw herself on the grave of Valentino, accused by the French press as having an affair with Hitler, married a Baron - later - another marriage go around with a Prince, feuded with Gloria Swanson, ended her film career at Disney, and at the age of 100 living under the Texas sun.
read more ...
Berlin in 15 Seconds
Upload new attachment "statue-with-tower.jpg" A quick look at just about everything: ZG Shorts
Schlossplatz in Transition
If you want to understand contemporary Berlin, you will have to go to the place that represents the most recent history of Germany like no other: the Schlossplatz Located at the eastern end of "Unter den Linden", Schlossplatz literally translates to Palace Square (untill 1950, it was the site of the royal City Palace.) Schlossplatz gives an insight to the architectural, political and ideological transitions of Germany in the past three centuries. read more...
About zgBerlin
zeitgeist berlin: eclectic international multimedia magazine for berlin and beyond
We are a community-based project that is dedicated to covering Berlin and the rest of the world in an interesting innovative way. We are also interested in developing businesses through the site and have some ideas in that area. For content, we would like to see interesting work on just about anything (writing, photography, video, films, art work, what your organization (group) is up to, you name it. Our belief is that the more of us that work together, the more people we can reach. Interested in contributing, helping out or joining forces with us in some way? Contact us or submit at: ![[MAILTO]](?source=moinmoin&mode=attachment&uri=%2Fwiki%2Frightsidebar%2Fimg%2Fmoin-email.png)
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What People Are Up To
M.A.CU.M.B.A BERLIN PARTY ZURÜCK AUS DER KREATIVPAUSE
M.A.CU.M.B.A BERLIN PARTY
EVENTS BOOKING in ACUD KUNSTVEREIN 2007
JUN 24 M.A.CU.M.B.A BERLIN PARTY SUNSPLASH BOB MARLEY TRIBUTE JUL 01 ANNUL CANCEL OFF read more...
Exhibition ...then we take berlin. part 1
Opening Friday June 1st 18:00 1st June - 23 June 2007; wed-thurs 16-19h, fri 16-21h, sat 14-18h.
an exhibition of 3 contemporary Swiss Artists: Patricia Bucher, Tatjana Marusic (image above), Loredana Sperini
substitute
torstrasse 159,
http://www.substitut-berlin.ch
HACKmit! Exhibition Medien und Kunst zum Leben (Media and Art to Live)
1st May - 26th August 2007, MACHmit! Museum, Berlin, Germany Opening: 1st May, 11 am, Free entrance The HACK MIT! event at MACHmit! Museum fuer Kinder (www.machmitmuseum.de) is an exhibition and event about art and new media, with a particular focus on the concept of hacking. read more...
NACH STRICH UND FARBE
In the last five weeks of spring, some befriended Berliner artists are showing their latest works. This group has no name, follows no manifesto, their work is unrelated, and their association with one another is purely random. read more...
Kristijan Trummer, Postcards
See more and share your own pictures and artwork. Zg Gallery
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