The documentary UNLIKE U – Trainwriting in Berlin follows a group of graffiti artists spraying trains in Berlin and explores their motivations and experiences through interviews. The film was originally banned from cinemas after complaints from Deutsche Bahn but the makers recently won an appeal against this decision. Unfortunately, though the film is available in full on […]
Twentieth Century Berlin on Film – The 1960s
The 1960s was a decade of great social and technological advances and Berlin, as the main flashpoint between the ideologies of capitalism and socialism, saw more changes than most cities. The loss of skilled workers to the West, as referred to in my Twentieth Century Berlin on Film – The 1950s post led the government […]
Twentieth Century Berlin on Film – The 1950s
Throughout the 1950s the government of the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik) continued a process of Socialisation in East Germany. Tensions were running high between the East and West and also amongst the people of the DDR. The ‘brain drain’ had started, as workers sought out the higher pay and better working conditions in the West. […]
Sunday Documentary: Legendary Sin Cities – Berlin: Metropolis of Vice
Metropolis of Vice, an episode from the Legendary Sin Cities documentary series focuses on the potent mix of sex and entertainment in the Weimar era Berlin of the 1920s. “Its very name became synonymous with perversion, debauchery and creativity. Berlin in the 1920s was the sex capital of Europe.” In response to the hyperinflation of the […]
Twentieth Century Berlin on Film – The 1940s
Continuing my Twentieth Century Berlin on Film series, footage of 1940s Berlin is dominated by the machinations and effects of the Second World War. At the beginning of the decade the city is a focal point for Nazi marches and speeches. During the war, the German capital is a prime target for the allied bombers […]
Twentieth Century Berlin on Film – The 1930s
Berlin in the 1930s was witness to Hitler’s rise to power as Chancellor of Germany and subsequently many shockingly destructive and despicable acts like the book burning of 1933 and the Kristallnacht in 1938. Continuing my Twentieth Century Berlin on Film series here are a few short videos that show Berlin in the 1930s. Summer […]
Twentieth Century Berlin on Film – The 1920s
The twentieth century was not kind to Berlin – war, economic depression, Nazism, division and re-unification all left their mark. Twentieth Century Berlin on Film is a series of posts that, through YouTube videos, will show the changes the city has undergone. We begin with the heady days of Berlin in the 1920s – in […]
Sunday Documentary: Cold War – Berlin 1948 – 1949
Part 4 of the fascinating and extensive Cold War documentary series by the Cold War International History Project, Berlin 1948 – 1949, deals with the response of the Western Allies to the Soviet Blockade of Berlin – the Berlin Airlift (Die Luftbrücke). Surrounded as it was by East Germany, West Berlin was dependent on a […]
Bowie and Beyond: A Music Fan’s Guide to Berlin (BBC Radio 6 Music)
Danny Robins’s programme for BBC Radio 6 Music’s Easter Weekend celebration of David Bowie is called Bowie and Beyond: A Music Fan’s Guide to Berlin but he goes all the way back to the Weimar era in his quest to understand why Berlin has made such a significant contribution to music. This is about more […]
Sunday Documentary: Bomb It
John Reiss’s Graffiti and Street Art documentary, Bomb It traces the development of the movement from the early writers in Philadelphia and New York to the adoption of Street Art imagery in mainstream advertising and exhibitions in galleries. Berlin features along with other cities with an Urban Art heritage and by talking to artists active […]