In April 2024 we decided to have a sojourn to the intriguing vibrant city of Berlin, which arguably has a more varied yet brutal history than any other European city. Berlin was originally founded in the 12th century and over the years there was the bubonic plague, involvement in the Thirty Years War which destroyed a third of the city, a thwarted revolution and horrendous sanitary conditions in the late 19th century, all fairly standard stuff!
Hitler was appointed the Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and used the Berlin Olympic games in 1936 as a Nazi showpiece. I won’t belabour the barbaric activities in the city during World War 2 but will move onto the 36 consecutive nights of bombing undertaken by the RAF in March 1945 that dropped around 80,000 tons of bombs on Berlin. A month later Hitler committed suicide and Berlin capitulated to the Allied Forces.
Post war it was divided into four quarters with American, British, French and Soviet sectors and that infernal wall was built in 1961 before it later fell in 1989 and a year later both sides of Berlin were finally reunited. John F Kennedy visited in 1963 and made his solidarity speech with the famous line ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ translating as ‘I am a Berliner’.
Many movies have used the city as a backdrop including ‘The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp’, ‘The Bourne Supremacy’ and ‘Bridge of Spies’. Famous Berliners are the actresses Marlene Dietrich and Nastassja Kinski, composer Andre Previn (Preview!) and Olympic ice skater Katarina Witt.
Nina Hagen. Image Credit vintag.es
On the musical spectrum it has three major opera houses, six symphony orchestras, MTV Europe’s base and ‘The Godmother of German Punk’ Nina Hagen was born there. Between 1976 and 1979 David Bowie and Iggy Pop decamped there together to seek solace and recover from their drug addictions. Iggy released his first solo record and Bowie recorded his Berlin album trilogy of ‘Low’, ‘Heroes’ and ‘Lodger’.
We landed there on a Wednesday evening and managed to locate our compact rented apartment in the Rosenthalerplatz suburb of the city. We spent the duration of our stay on the eastern side of the city, and I liked the grittiness and durability of those areas. On our first evening we pottered out locally and in our debut bar they only accepted cash and I admired that healthy disregard for the new order. We found a fine Italian restaurant which had made good use of the grand old building and had grandiose lavatories. We also visited the 100 Gramm Bar near to the subway station.
Over the next two days we trogged many miles and visited all the tourist attractions including Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate, Museum Island and the remnants of the wall. The most impressive and heart wrenching was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe monument with the different size of statues to resemble the fallen. It encompasses a gigantic area of nineteen thousand square metres, and you could literally lose yourself in that vast maze!
Memorial of the Murdered Jews in Europe monument. Image Credit TripSavvy
We also headed into the impressive cathedral (Berliner Dom) and I surprised myself by heading up the winding stairs to the top, though couldn’t then wait to head back down as I now really struggle with heights. My vertigo affliction being such a significant sea change from the 14 year old Jimmy who trotted all the way up the Eiffel Tower without a care in the world! We sallied over to the bohemian East Kreuzberg but unfortunately did not have opportunity to visit the Ramones Museum, the area itself reminding me of Manchester’s Northern Quarter.
One of Gill’s long standing aspirations has been to actively head to a European city for a gig, therefore naturally her wish was my command. We first chose a band and then proceeded to check Jesus and Mary Chain’s roster and targeted a show at Berlin Huxleys in the Neukolln suburb of the city.
There was from the early 20th century a concert hall called Neue Welt which contained two halls, with capacities respectively of 1500 and 3000. Hitler spoke there in 1930 and in 1960 it evolved into a rock venue before closing in 1982. Acts to play there included Jimi Hendrix, Dio, Whitesnake and The Clash. It swiftly reopened as Huxleys with one singular 1600 capacity hall which has also staged boxing matches, fashion shows and tattoo festivals.
The location was thankfully only a short commute of about five metro stops from our digs, so we circled past to check the show times and then went to a nearby Vietnamese restaurant for some tea and a couple of pre-gig bevies.
It was a terrific venue despite one obstreperous numpty positioned near the bar and Mary Chain were in fine form. Whilst we were scouring the city earlier that day, I was opining that it would be great if they played ‘Reverence’ and they met that wish by playing a full length version in the encore. It was the 10th time I had witnessed them and was one of my favourite performances of theirs and was also Gill and I’s 400th gig together.
Huxleys. Image Credit neuwelt-berlin.de
The following evening, we visited the busy Berlin Hackescher Market where we saw a local performer called Jurgen and also Berlin Hackescher Parist where we viewed an act called Bonnie and Clyde. We flew home on Saturday lunchtime, which was also Grand National day, and managed to finally obtain a signal to lay a bet near to the airport. We watched the race on the train home from Manchester airport and straight after wished that the bets had been prevented by the European restrictions!