The Berlin Wall Today

So, we had one great event at the Deutsches Haus presenting The Berlin Wall Today as well as Kurfürstendamm and other books, the latter by Stefan Maria Rother, published by Berlin Story Verlag. Kurfürstendamm is part of a series depicting streets in Berlin, and The Berlin Wall Today is, of course, a book about what is left of the Wall.

The place was sold out (except that it was free, but it was filled to capacity); we showed slides from all of the books, and then had a Q&A about Berlin. It was led by Rachel Libeskind, the daughter of World-Trade-Center architect Daniel Libeskind who attended as well. She grew up in Berlin while her father was designing the Jewish Museum.

Afterwards, we had white wine and Berliner Weiße, which is white beer with syrup. I didn't have any, though, since I was busy signing (and selling books). One got nabbed, so, where ever you are, I will find you!

Now I am looking forward to the next event, which will take place in Los Angeles. Also, new books  are to be expected, starting next spring. I will keep you posted! Plus, The Berlin Wall Today will be available in French; I hope before Christmas. And finally, before Christmas, I hope to get Berlin For Free as an e-book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and everywhere else. I will keep you posted as well.

Berlin Today

This is the final reminder, the event is today:

Paging Through Berlin

At 42 Washington Mews, Deutsches Haus, 6.30pm

So, hope to see you all!

Pirates in Berlin

Wow - that was one hell of an election! Berlin has voted for the State Assembly, and we have a new party: The Pirate's Party got 8.5 percent of the vote, pretty much out of nowhere. In Berlin, there is a 5-percent-treshhold to enter the parliament, and they made it. Their victory had been predicted, but not on that scale.

The Pirate's are an anti-establishment party devoted to Internet freedom and personal liberty. It is made up of, lets face it, computer nerds, basically. The party goes back to the Swedish Pirate's Party, is close to Wikileaks. They want the government to hold no secrets, are against cameras in public squares, and want to have votes on about everything on the Internet. They also demand free public transportation and want to legalize marijuana (fairly boilerplate in Germany). Well, that'll be fun.

Other than that, the Berlin mayor, Klaus Wowereit, Europe's first openly gay mayor, by the way, got reelected with 28.5 percent (slight loss). He will not continue to govern with the post-communists, though, because they did not get enough votes; 11.6 percent only. He can choose to work with the Green Party—17.5 percent—or the Christian Democratic Union —23.5 percent—, and he will probably do it with the former.

The Wall Street Journal sold the story as a loss for Angela Merkel, which is not really true. The CDU did, in fact, gain votes, although to not that much, only about 2 percentage points. Also, this election was about local politics. For The Green Party it was a gain as well, but not as much as they had hoped for. Their candidate, Renate Künast will now not become mayor, but that was to be expected as well.

In any case, don't forget the event at Deutsches Haus at NYU in Manhattan about our new book, The Berlin Wall Today, September 20, at 6.30 pm. It is free!

http://deutscheshaus.as.nyu.edu/page/cultural.program.calendar#20905

Paging Through Berlin

Berlin-lovers, here is the event for you: Our new book, The Berlin Wall Today, will be presented at Deutsches Haus of NYU, in New York City (by me). The book is about what is left of the Wall, admittedly not much, but still enough to walk the trail for one or two days. The remnants include original slabs of the Wall, graffiti-covered parts of the Hinterland Wall, which is a few hundred feet into the East, quite a few memorials, information steles, and five actual watchtowers. You can have a look into the book here. It will be available in English and German.

The event is free, it is on Tuesday, September 20, it starts at 6.30 pm and lasts for about one and a half hour (or so I believe). The location is Deutsches Haus, 42 Washington Mews, just north of Washington Square, near either the A/C/E and the B/D/F/M train at West 4 Street or the N/R at Eight Street.

Also presented is Kurfürstendamm, a new photo book by Stefan-Maria Rother, a Berlin-based photographer. This book was published by Berlin Story Verlag. Since both books are basically filled with pictures, we will be showing slides, and then have a debate about Berlin, led by Rachel Libeskind, the daughter of World-Trade-Center architect Daniel Libeskind. She grew up in Berlin.

So, I hope to see you all, and here is the link: Paging Through Berlin