...bright prospects...

friend philipp had a big load of luck when he cheated death last week while he was almost run over by a huge truck at berlin friedrichstr. The truck cut him, pulling over and suddenly turning right. tphilipp's bike was caught by some kind of protective fender bar on the car's side and got wrapped and folded around his leg. he got lucky. just slightly ripped ligaments, abraises and torn shoes. and this interesting piece of bicycle....

since july 14th, there is a new café at weinbergsweg 20 near rosenthaler platz, right next to the park am weinberg. it's called 'fleury' and offers exquisite french snacks, like quiche lorraine, quiche with salmon and spinach, quiche with goat-cheese and zucchini, a huge cheese plate served with grapes, alsatian salad with wurst and cheese, great lemon tarts and french beverages like kir royal, picon bière and very good coffee and frappè. in addition they run a small épicerie where they sell french specialities and wine.

the café has a very calm atmosphere and the interior is nicely selected, with french flower wallpaper, black and white photographs of actors, cute tables with red and white checker patterns. it's very relaxing to sit inside at the big windows or outside on the street, watching the busy mitte people and overstyled yuppies and scene addicts rushing by, the daily drug-dealer pursuits at the park and simply enjoying the private peace, flavored with one or two selections of fleury's tasteful foods.

it's definetly worth and recreative having breakfast there on a weekend morning or spending a whole afternoon at this place.

http://map.pages.de/berlin//weinbergsweg/20

i went to the noris bank at schönhauser allee/gaudystrasse yesterday and i was puzzled. their advertisement concept seemed kind of strange to me. symbolized loan sharks are supposed to get people order their giro accounts? a madly laughing psycho in swimming suit advertising for norisbank's easyCredit?

visitors of this year's open house walkthrough of the University of Arts (UdK) in Berlin hoped to see exhibiions of the students works - instead they just saw white walls.

as a protest, the students refused to show any of their works at the UdK because they did not want to represent the scruffy system of their university.

after several "retirements" almost half of all open professorships at the UdK are vacant. in the just started semester, 61 students were completely without class, without professors. The UdK propagates being the best university of arts in Germany and the students are angry.

the white walls inside the university building can be easily filled with arts, because the students have been busy being creative throughout the whole time. to show this, they wound up a self-organized exhibition on four floors in exile, at the uferstrasse 6 in Berlin Wedding.

In a relaxed ambience with cheap beer and bratwurst, visitors have the possibility to explore the creativity of the UdK's students inside the old factory building.

the exhibition is open until tomorrow evening. it's worth being visited.

http://www.ausser-haus.com/

today, on may 11, my grandfather would have celebrated his 111th birthday! Happy Birthday Karl Erich! Rest in Peace!

"All Religions are equal and good, if only the people that practise them are honest people; and if Turks and heathens came and wanted to live here in this country, we would build them mosques and churches."
- King Frererick II "the Great" of Prussia, 1740

While the old Prussian king and his followers seemed to be enlightened humans tolerant towards foreigners and other religions, today in the post-9/11 world, citizens of Berlin can get in rage easily, hearing about a new mosque to be built in Berlin Pankow/Heinersdorf.

The Ahmadiyya muslim congregation plans to build a new mosque on a piece of fallow land at the border of Heinersdorf in Berlin. For the evening of March 30th, they had planned an informational evening for citizens who have questions and concerns. around 1700 citizens arrived at 7:30pm, in anger and rage, shouting "we are the people!" and insulting guests and even the Imam Abdul Basit Tariq. The right winged NPD party organized a demonstration on April 1st against the mosque, carrying signs saying "Today we own Kreuzberg, tomorrow the whole world!" and other xenophobic bullshit.

It is very scary to see how the islamic religion is equated with terrorism or ghetto crime among the population of north-east Berlin and how they exclude their muslim fellow citizenss from german citizenship by chanting "we are the people" - it's just stupid and sad behavior.

The Ahmadiyya congregation is not even a radical branch of islamists, but a very moderate and reformist movement. - while thousands of Heinersdorfers seem to be radical fundamentalists as compared to the prussian open-mindedness of the late 18th century...

the school staff at berlin neukölln's secondary rütli hauptschule saw no other way than sending a desperate call for help to the senate of berlin.

"the overall rate of pupils with non-german originadds up to 83,2%"

"at our school there are no colleagues from other cultural backgrounds . we have to notice that the temper in our classrooms is ruled by aggression, disrespect and ignorance towards adults"

"according to a statement of one of our pupils, the more negative news about a school appear in the local newspaper, the more recognition in the hood it gets"

"in many classes the behaviour is ruled by total ignorance of all school content and inhuman appearance. teachers are being ignored, objects are tossed upon the staff, directives are being disregarded."

"we are helpless"

"perspectively this school should be closed"

the senate was put under heavy pressure to handle this call for help. two social workers with arabic background were sent to the school and being assisted by two psychologists. policemen will guard the school gate and search for weapons and other dangerous items among the pupils upon entry.

ghettoisation in berlin is increasing and crime and brutality have become more and more "cool" and hip among the teenagers from poor or immigrant backgrounds. the perspectiveless kids share "happy slapping" videos on their mobile phones. brutality is chic!

politics have failed...

©Stern

"Mein Führer: The Truly Truest Truth About Adolf Hitler" by Swiss director Dani Levy, who is Jewish, takes a tongue-in-cheek look at Hitler's final days and parodies both the dictator and recent portrayals of him such as the critically-acclaimed 2004 film "Der Untergang" ("The Downfall"), which itself broke a taboo by attempting to showing the Nazi leader's human side.. (© SPIEGEL)



Helge Schneider as Adolf Hitler - what a hilarious cast! I am really looking forward to seeing the master of neo-dada-nonsense-humour playing the personified evil itself!!