Berlin
Songbeat, Berlin: story of a German music start-up
Philip Eggersglüß and Marco Rydman are two Berliners who launched an online music business at the age of 25. We discuss court cases, 'limited company' statuses via the UK and Hong Kong and the benefits of working in the German capital
berlin, germany, songbeat, start-up company, culture, music, economy
Monetary union and media stress: young Greeks and Germans debate
This month, Greece was announced to be suffering a eurozone deficit of 12% - the maximum is 3%. The German media has called them the 'deceivers of the euro-family'. The Greeks respond that they are hypocrites, holding them accountable for debts from 1945. Who wants whose diplomatic blood? We hear immediate reactions from the two sides
berlin, economical crisis, germany, greece, eurozone, european union, athens
Berlin film festival: well, hello Leo
cafebabel.com are loyal attendees of Europe's biggest cinematic event, especially in the year it turns a dinosaur 60. Via a small team of pan-European correspondents in the capital, here's a selection of exclusives of the latest releases, a flashback through the festival's tormented history, a mystery trail on the heels of Banksy and interviewees who jump the hoops through our hearts and - literally - over our heads. Catch our Berlin babelblog and twitter page for more
- Metropolis: masterpiece recovered at last
- Berlin film festival: 60 years of masterpieces
- Communist-themed film reviews: Kawasaki's Rose vs Portrait Of The Fighter As A Young Man
- Israeli and Arab film pick at the Berlin film festival
- Florian Lukas: no more 'best mate characters' for the 'Good Bye Lenin!' star
- Kinshasa Symphony: why is Mozart in Africa an alien concept?
In the middle of our street
You have to know how to choose them, have fun in them, and leave them. Having a neighbourhood is a bit like having a second skin. It typically has your local, your loyal neighbours and shops. But neighbourhoods have their own skins too. Take the Gazi quarter in Athens which shed its industrial skin to become the latest craze, as happened to Kreuzberg in Berlin, or the renewed district of Jozsefvaros in Budapest. We take a little stroll around some European streets
Ties and tees: three innovative fashion initiatives from Ljubljana, Lille and Berlin
Between 20 - 22 January, the historic Berlin-Tempelhof airport compound served as the venue of Bread and Butter, the most prominent trade fair for urban and streetwear, for the second year in a row. We pick tie manufacturers, T-shirt street fashion and an eco-sports label as top of the crop
berlin, fair, lifestyle, culture, culture calendar, clothes, fashion
‘If I had to choose between sex and performing live with The Whitest Boy Alive...’
One day it was just computers. The next day, god brought instruments. Over the past decade, the Berlin-based band’s polyphonic electronic sound has translated into pure deprogrammed happiness for live dance fans across Europe. We hear the boys from Bergen, Berlin and Toruń out
berlin, dance, bands, brunch, norway, poland, best of cafebabel.com
Netaudio festival 2009: kick in the teeth for traditional record industry?
While traditional record labels plunge deeper and deeper into trouble, new formats for distributing music via the internet are basking in their success following a sell-out festival in Berlin
berlin, london, internet, culture, music, netlabel, creation
Music in November: Matias Aguayo, Rodamaal feat Claudia Franco
Music wanderings take us into left-field hedonism this month via the German dance scene with its Spanish house vocals amongst others. Album and playlist of the month as well as a featured favourite album classic
Picture that: it's only been 20 years since the Berlin wall fell
For its twentieth anniversary Europe will euphorically celebrate the fall of a wall that didn’t just split Berlin in two, but an entire continent. At 6:57 pm on 9 November, the GDR's Politbüro member Günter Schabowski announced that from now, east German citizens could travel freely. Hours later, Berliners were hugging each other from the east to the west. Another 20 years later, and the eurogeneration have made their motto out of this freedom of movement - eastern working girls invade Europe’s labour market, symbolic walls come to a fall in Paris, or exist in people’s heads. Does the spoiled post-89 generation know how lucky they are? Perspectives
- Czech internet forums, KSCM: disillusionment and nostalgia for communist past
- 9/11 - the fateful day of German history
- Twenty years on: why Berlin is not Germany
- 20th anniversary: go and see the 'Berlin wall' be destroyed in Paris
- Jean-Christophe Bas: 'the erasmus generation doesn’t know how lucky it is'
- What communism means to three central and eastern European women
It's like talking to a Berlin wall
140 kilometres of wall crumbled in 1989 and hundreds of European expressions arose as it fell. The idiom of the week is flavoured by the 9 November event
berlin, tower of babel, germany, cold war, iron curtain, berlin wall, languages
Le Corps Mince de Francoise: 'fuck off saying we’re trendy. We sing about what we are'
The trio hail from Helsinki, record in Berlin and are managed in the UK. We meet in Paris to dissect their pan-European wanderings and find out why exactly they diss boys and Finland so much in their screamy surface pop-experimental sound
Comparing Paris and Berlin 20 years after the Berlin Wall
On 9 November 1989, Romy and Niklas were little more than children. Twenty years on, they have grown up between Paris and Berlin. They remember the divided city and think of a modern Berlin 'standing alone and free'
berlin, germany, iron curtain, history, mur de berlin, commemoration, society
Berlin craze: tourists shun sights for ‘Kiez’ experience
The metropolis attracts more visitors than any other German city with almost 18 million overnight stays in 2008. But tourism is no longer about taking in the typical sights: tourists are now taking over ‘Kiez’ (city neighbourhoods) and bikes which, until now, were exclusively secrets for the capital’s residents
