Berlin Companion Podcast

In December 1989 US department stores expanded their pre-Christmas offer by a very attractive item for late or for undecided Christmas-present buyers.

It was small yet profound - filled with more deep meaning than it modest size or weight could suggest. It was well-known to and caused a certain frisson among all Americans, yet it came straight from Europe. It was being sold in the US stores, yet back at home it was - in fact - still standing.

This is the story of the most concrete trade in human history: that with the Berliner Mauer.

Support the show

Read fascinating stories from Berlin's past and present, and listen to all the episodes from Season 1 and 2 of the podcast on Substack: theberlincompanion.com

Enjoy Berlin audio-tours created by yours truly: download Berlin Companion Audio-Walks App (free access code for all annual Substack blog supporters).

You can also find me at: @kreuzberged, @berlincompanion.bsky.social, The Berlin Companion on Instagram.

And if you would like to become a regular subscriber to this show and help me spend more time digging in my vast archives, chasing new stories and turning these into shiny new episodes - support the podcast by buying me a coffee or by subscribing to Berlin Companion at Substack (both links below):

Buy Me a Coffee (or a Beer)

Berlin Companion at Substack


Music for the show by Ionics (licenced via Soundta...

The sky over Berlin is never dark. Even at night. The main cause is the city's heavy light pollution. Berlin's streetlights, its signs, its permanently illuminated buildings - all they contribute to the problem. So much so that for the past two decades the city's observatories, like the Planetarium am Insulaner, have not been able to see the Milky Road. Light spreads over Berlin like a massive dome.

One of the main contributors to light pollution in big cities like Berlin are light advertisements - former neon signs have been almost entirely replaced by environmentally friendlier but otherwise much more unforgiving LED lights. The first illuminated ad sign installed in the German capital was the 1896 "Molton-Wein" ad on Spittelmarkt. A year later a red-and-white illuminated sign appeared on Leipziger Straße.

But it was the 1898 debut that made history: the first moving light ad in Berlin. Here's how it found its way onto Berlin's theatre stage and into the local lingo. And what it had to do with Berlin's most famous enfant terrible.


Links and Recommendations:

• Christopher Isherwood Walking Tour "Isherwood's Neighbourhood" with Brendan Nash 
• Jonny Whitlam's Waking Tours of Berlin "Whitlam's Berlin Tours"
• Photo of the Manoli-Rad on Berlin's Alexanderplatz 
• Wilhelm-Foerster-Sternwarte at Planetarium am Insulaner
• More about Manoli Cigarette Factory in Berlin at Jewish Places.

Support the show

Read fascinating stories from Berlin's past and present, and listen to all the episodes from Season 1 and 2 of the podcast on Substack: theberlincompanion.com

Enjoy Berlin audio-tours created by yours truly: download Berlin Companion Audio-Walks App (free access code for all annual Substack blog supporters).

You can also find me at: @kreuzberged, @berlincompanion.bsky.social, The Berlin Companion on Instagram.

And if you would like to become a regular subscriber to this show and help me spend more time digging in my vast archives, chasing new stories and turning these into shiny new episodes - support the podcast by buying me a coffee or by subscribing to Berlin Companion at Substack (both links below):

Buy Me a Coffee (or a Beer)

Berlin Companion at Substack

Send us a text

During 2022 excavations in the area of Berlin's Molkenmarkt - a historic plaza and the city's oldest market place - archaeologists discovered Berlin's oldest street, a Bohlendamm (corduroy road or log road). Two years later they made another great discovery - this time a series of small white clay figurines of Christian saints. What would they find, though, should they start digging under what is now Berlin's largest public park, Tempelhofer Feld?

Well, apart from the unexploded World War Two ordnance which is almost certain  still to be lurking somewhere under the asphalt roads and spreading wide meadows, they'd probably come up with a lot of old rubbish. Literally so. To built Berlin's most famous inner-city airport, Flughafen Tempelhof (later known as Zentralflughafen Tempelhof) tens of thousands of large cartloads of Berlin's garbage helped level the ground. Something far more natural, yet even more unappetising enabled the airport builders to prevent dust clouds from building on the site.

To find out who, why and using what ingenious methods built Berlin's favourite - even if former - airport; and what the Crusaders had to do with it, listen to this episode of your "Berlin Companion Podcast". A podcast about everything you never even knew you wanted to know about Berlin:-)

Support the show

Read fascinating stories from Berlin's past and present, and listen to all the episodes from Season 1 and 2 of the podcast on Substack: theberlincompanion.com

Enjoy Berlin audio-tours created by yours truly: download Berlin Companion Audio-Walks App (free access code for all annual Substack blog supporters).

You can also find me at: @kreuzberged, @berlincompanion.bsky.social, The Berlin Companion on Instagram.

And if you would like to become a regular subscriber to this show and help me spend more time digging in my vast archives, chasing new stories and turning these into shiny new episodes - get a subscription and become Berlin Companion's Companion:-)

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1459384/support

Send us a text

Eight out of ten people in our (scientifically absolutely unreliable) survey with only one question "What is it that you could never imagine Christmas without?", named it.

You can live with less or different Christmas dishes, fewer present are not a issue if the company is a match. And even spending the festive time away from your family can have its hidden charm (and be a blessing in disguise for both sides).

But no Christmas tree? However symbolic (a twig, a paper cut-out or a medley of dry sticks would do), the Weihnachtsbaum is as much as part of our "collective Christmas psyche" as Weihnachtsmann and festive illumination.

But when did that tradition reach Berlin? And what happened when, once hooked on the new symbolic, the city (or at least half of it) faced a Christmas-tree shortage? Today we are travelling back in time to 1959/1960. To West Berlin. Via Thuringia.


Recommended links:

Stadtmuseum Berlin Knoblauch-Haus 360° experience

History Flakes Podcast Episode about Friedrich the Great

Berliner Pyramide photo by Michael Setzpfand on Knoblauchhaus - Stadtmuseum Berlin page.

Support the show

Read fascinating stories from Berlin's past and present, and listen to all the episodes from Season 1 and 2 of the podcast on Substack: theberlincompanion.com

Enjoy Berlin audio-tours created by yours truly: download Berlin Companion Audio-Walks App (free access code for all annual Substack blog supporters).

You can also find me at: @kreuzberged, @berlincompanion.bsky.social, The Berlin Companion on Instagram.

And if you would like to become a regular subscriber to this show and help me spend more time digging in my vast archives, chasing new stories and turning these into shiny new episodes - get a subscription and become Berlin Companion's Companion:-)

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1459384/support

Send us a text

The first episode in the new series is both a starter and the main dish. It's a story of soup. Of instant soup that from the late 1860s on fed Prussian, German and even foreign armies, filled stomachs both on and off the battlefields, and was tested for its combat suitability not by one but by two "Soup Commandos".

Until less than a decade ago it was a staple in most German households. Today's episode is about one of great Berlin inventions: about Erbswurst.

Main theme for the podcast: “Assembly Line Frustration" © Ionics Music | TerraSound.de 

Support the show

Read fascinating stories from Berlin's past and present, and listen to all the episodes from Season 1 of the podcast on Substack: theberlincompanion.com

Enjoy Berlin audio-tours created by yours truly: download Berlin Companion Audio-Walks App (free access code for all annual Substack blog supporters).

You can also find me at:

• @kreuzberged
• @berlincompanion.bsky.social
• The Berlin Companion on Instagram

Last week we  talked about the long-vanished cemetery railway line which connected Berlin-Wannsee with Germany's second largest burial site, Berlin's Südwestfriedhof Stahnsdorf. This episode remains in the realm of both the dead and the railways but with a serious shift towards Berlin's centre.

This time we are travelling to the first half of the eighteenth century and will take it from there until we have reached (and left) one of Berlin's best-known railway termini, Potsdamer Bahnhof.

To see images of the old Dreifaltigkeitsfriedhof visit:

File:M Dreifaltigkeitskirche Berlin 1910.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

View of the church seen from Mohrenstraße looking west over Zietenplatz (Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1982-1213-508 / CC-BY-SA 3.0) - Wikipedia

To see photos of the first and the second Potsdamer Bahnhof look here:

First Potsdamer Bahnhof on a 1843  steel engraving by C Schulin after a drawing by E. Henning and in 1850 by an unknown author (both images in PD)

1890 Potsdamer Bahnhof with the cemetery before it (image in PD, here via Bildindex and Wikipedia)

You can see the exact position of the cemetery on the historic 1846 Berlin map here:
Kreuzberged - Berlin Companion

Sounds:
Main theme: “Assembly Line Frustration" © Ionics Music | TerraSound.de

Via Freesound:
"Bells and religious hymn on the top of "Dell'Avocata" mountain" by Felix Blume
"Train Stopping" by Vlatko Blazek via Freesound
"Gates of Heaven" by Theo Ther via Freesound
"Wales Steam-train" by Jrosin via Freesound
bbc_animals--f_07028130 via BBC Sound Effects
"Wind howling" via BBC Sound Effects
07037493 pigeons cooing via BBC Sound Effects
Water Trickling by Yoyodaman234 via Freesound
20070808.horse.wav by Dobroid via Freesound
U1 nearing Hallesches Tor by Katja Schäfer via Soundcloud

What do large cities do when they run out of space to bury their dead? They go beyond their limits. Traditionally all large European cities like Paris, Vienna or London eventually established new burial sites further and further from their centre. Vienna even considered using the pneumatic tube system to transport their deceased to the Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery).

By the end of the nineteenth century Berlin faced a similar problem and dealt with it the same way: by opening new cemeteries on its outskirts. In two cases it went even further: it set up new burial grounds in Brandenburg. Here's a short story of one of them and the railway line (not a pneumatic one) built to serve its guests - a line which opened for regular service on June 3, 1913.

To visit Stahnsdorf Cemetery with a guide, please visit the cemetery's web page at
Veranstaltungen - Südwestkirchhof Stahnsdorf (suedwestkirchhof.de)

To find out more about the famous Berliners buried in Stahnsdorf visit:
Wikipedia page of the cemetery

To see maps of the railway line known as "Leichenbahn" visit (highly recommended) page of
Stadtschnellbahn-Berlin

To watch a short film presenting the state of the line's remains today go to
The Vanished Railway Line to Stahnsdorf by AirBerl

To support the show and its running, please visit my Buy Me A Coffee page here.


Sounds:
Main theme: “Assembly Line Frustration" © Ionics Music | TerraSound.de

Via Freesound:
"Bells and religious hymn on the top of "Dell'Avocata" mountain" by Felix Blume
"Magnificat" by Tarikki
"Spooky Dark Pad" by John Wally
"Secundo tempore2" by John Wally
"Train Stopping" by Vlatko Blazek
"Gates of Heaven" by Theo Ther
"Wales Steam-train" by Jrosin



 

Many old Berlin flats in the typical 19th century apartment buildings are equipped with a curious feature: a small storage space under the ceiling, usually installed in the bathroom, the kitchen or the corridor. What makes these so curious is not their function today - a storeroom for suitcases, skis and snorkels or that gear you wore for your first Love Parade in the mid-1990s  - but the original purpose for which they were built. In this episode you will find out why they were in fact an indispensable addition to many middle-class lodgings.

You can follow Berlin Companion on:

Twitter at @kreuzberged and @BerlinCompanion
Wordpress blog at kreuzberged.com
Voicemap audio-tours at Audio tours by Beata Gontarczyk-Krampe » Storytellers » VoiceMap

To support the podcast via Buy Me A Coffee click here. Thank you!

Sound effects:

BBC Sound Effects Archive
sound of wardrobe door and drawers

Freesound
" Silent Movie - Sam Fox - Hurry Music" by FreqMan
"Berlin city courtyard in the evening" by SwampCommand

Storyblocks 
Magic Chimes on Wind by None

Main theme: “Assembly Line Frustration" © Ionics Music | TerraSound.de

The 1920s in Berlin were an incredible time, full both of misery and wonder. It was the time which brought both the worst and the best in people who lived there. And sometimes it helped pave way for genius. Or future classics.

Episode 5 of Berlin Companion Podcast tells the story of one such classic made in Berlin.

Sound effects:

BBC Sound Effects Archive
bbc_animals---_07037493 piegeons cooing
bbc_animals fighting for food

Freesound
"Suspense Comedy" by Tyops
" Ambient Traut" by Vann Westfold
" Silent Movie - Sam Fox - Hurry Music" by FreqMan

Storyblocks 

Main theme: “Assembly Line Frustration" © Ionics Music | TerraSound.de

You can follow Berlin Companion on:

Twitter at @kreuzberged and @BerlinCompanion
Wordpress blog at kreuzberged.com
and via all most popular podcast streaming services out there.

To support the podcast via Buy Me A Coffee click the link below. Many thanks, time-travellers!

We all know how annoying air traffic can be these days for those who experience it from the ground - not only is it a time-bomb just waiting to make our environment  go belly-up but it can also bring any conversation to a halt, if said conversation takes place under what is known as a flight corridor. But whenever if you think this is bad, here is a little story from the days where Berlin's first inner-city airport - the original Flughafen Tempelhof - became, at least for some, an ugly stain on the city's face.

Join me on an aerial time-travel escapade to Berlin in the late 1920s and beyond!

You can follow Berlin Companion on:

Twitter at @kreuzberged and @BerlinCompanion
Wordpress blog at kreuzberged.com
and via all most popular podcast streaming services out there.

To support the podcast via Buy Me A Coffee click the link below. Many thanks, time-travellers!

In April 1945, as the Red Army was closing its grip on Berlin, coming closer and closer to Hitler's last refuge under the Chancellery gardens, one of his favourite pilots managed to fly a small aeroplane into the burning capital and land it near Brandenburg Gate. On board she carried a wounded future head of the Nazi Luftwaffe.

Aircraft Capitan Hanna Reitsch.  Here is the story of her remarkable Berlin coup. And of her post-war denial.



Music theme:  “Assembly Line Frustration" © Ionics Music | TerraSound.de

Sound effects:
BBC Sounds (artillery barrage, Junkers Ju-88, Stukas, Messerschmitt, air-raid sirens, park ambience)
Search Results | BBC Sound Effects (bbcrewind.co.uk)

Freesounds.org (Junker Ju-52 by Reinsamba, Creative Commons Licence 4.0
https://freesound.org/s/128542/

Frog in the throat: private

In the 1920s elegant Berliners fell in love with a scent called "Treffpunkt 8 Uhr" (Rendezvous at 8PM). Made by a legendary local manufacture Schwarzlose - which still exists today - it stood for the Exciting and the Romantic but also for what Berlin seemed never to have enough of: time.

From 1787 when the first public clock appeared in Unter den Linden, clocks dictated the pace  of the city. Many appointments were scheduled under the chronometer. Later, the areas around public city clocks, the Normaluhren, became traditional meeting points for Berliners. So when in 1969 a new public clock was unveiled on the main East Berlin plaza, on Alexanderplatz, it became clear that the Weltzeituhr (World Clock) would be a witness to many a rendezvous in the years to come. As it has been until today.

Here's the story of two famous Berlin chronometers.

For anyone interested in history, Berlin is your playground. From old Slavic and Germanic tribes through Crusaders, alchemists and feuding houses to Prussian expansion, Emperors and world wars, including the Cold one.

But next to big events, which often changed the world  - and not always for the better - myriads of smaller things happened here daily, turning the city into what it is today: a melting pot of cultures, languages and stories. And a treasure trove of trivia.

This podcast aims to tell some of the most interesting lesser-known stories about Berlin from day one all the way until now. In no particular order, it will give you small insights into what's often forgotten or overlooked. Or is too small to make it into big history books.

So join me as we explore the nooks and crannies of Berlin. Welcome to Berlin Companion Podcast!


Main theme for the podcast: “Assembly Line Frustration" © Ionics Music | TerraSound.de