Augenblick mal! 2015 - Spotted: Berlin

„Berlin is more a part of the world than a city.“ (Jean Paul, 1763-1825)

“To spot“: to discover something unknown. To recognise the significance of things which just a second ago seemed totally uninteresting. To find out more about places far removed from sightseeing bus tours. We are offering our guests from all over the world a number of exclusive city discovery tours. They have been organised and are led by our Berlin theatres and festival partners.

The tours will last between 30 and 75 minutes and will mostly be timed to connect with a show. You do not need to reserve in advance. Just turn up at the meeting point punctually on time. Unless otherwise stated, the tours will be in English.

Tours & Dates:
(8 tours & 11 dates)

Spotted: Berlin I
Old new Lichtenberg – through time and space
The tour leads from the Parkaue to the Dong Xuan Center, Berlin’s largest Asian market with a unique mixture of colours, sculptures and exotic goods. In the GDR Lichtenberg was the suburb for Vietnamese workers. The suburb still thrives on the culture’s amazing diversity. From here the tour leads past the Siegfriedshöfen to Lichtenberg station, one of the up-and-coming areas in the suburb.

Duration: appr. 60 minutes
Meeting point: THEATER AN DER PARKAUE, courtyard of Bühne 2
Presented by THEATER AN DER PARKAUE

Spotted: Berlin II
Today in "Tomorrow’s city"
In 1957 the greatest architects of the western world built their dream of a new city: the Hansa quarter. Modern, light, and non-hierarchical, it was an ideal city topography, seemingly free of any ideology. And right in the middle, since 1974, is the GRIPS Theater. What has become of this utopia? What does it mean to make theatre here?

Duration: appr. 45 minutes
Meeting Point: GRIPS Theater am Hansaplatz, Main Entrance
Presented by GRIPS Theater
Tour guide: Henrik Adler, Dramaturge at GRIPS Theater

Spotted: Berlin III
The Berlin Wall memorial site
The memorial site on the Bernauer Straße is the place where the wall was first built and which witnessed highly dramatic events: houses were bricked up, escape tunnels were dug. It gives a very special picture of the way Berlin was divided. The tour begins at the Podewil and ends at the Bernauer Straße underground station.

Duration: appr. 75 minutes
Meeting Point: Podewil, Entrance Foyer
Tour guide: Eckhard Mittelstädt, Project head of the Federal Assocation of Fringe Theatres and editor of IXYPSILONZETT. The Magazine for Children’s and Young People’s Theatre

Wed, April 22, 3.00 pm
following the performance of A Body Image
in English

Spotted: Berlin IV
Kunstquartier Bethanien: a place of art and culture
Tour of the house
The Kunstquartier Bethanien houses the Kreuzberg Art Room, a printing workshop, and the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg music school. Since 2011 it has also become an important venue for the performing arts in Berlin. Furthermore it is the home of the following organisations: the International Theatre Institute Germany, ehrliche Arbeit – independent culture office, She She Pop, DepArtment, the Dramaturg Society etc. During our tour we shall be telling you about the house, its long history and its current users.

Duration: appr. 30 minutes
Meeting Point: Kunstquartier Bethanien, Entrance Foyer
Presented by the International Theatre Institute (ITI)

Fri, April 24, 5.30 pm
following the Public Moment of WLPG & ITI
in English

Spotted: Berlin V
Round tour of Berlin-Charlottenburg
At times it was the “new West”, then again the “old West”. Charlottenburg was a village in front of the gates of the city of Berlin when the Prussian kings built their summer residences here. Around 1900 it became the new sophisticated centre of “Greater Berlin” and when the city was divided it was the vibrant cultural centre of West-Berlin.

Duration: appr. 45 minutes
Meeting Point: Deutsche Oper, Foyer Tischlerei
Presented by Deutsche Oper Berlin, Tischlerei
Tour guide: Sebastian Hanusa, deputy head dramaturg and artistic head of the Tischlerei

Wed, April 22, 10.55 am
following the performance of for good
in German

Spotted: Berlin VI
SOPHIENSÆLE – tour of the house
We shall take you through the history of the Sophiensæle. The central venue for fringe theatre groups is housed in the old artisans’ association house, whose turbulent history began when it was built in 1904/1905. Here the history of the workers’ movement and its independent advanced training institute meets up with Yiddish theatre and forced labourers and the theatre workshops attached to the Maxim Gorki Theatre.

Duration: appr. 40 minutes
Meeting Point: SOPHIENSÆLE, box office in the courtyard
Presented by SOPHIENSÆLE

Sat, April 25, 4.00 pm
following the performance of raw
in English

Spotted: Berlin VII
City walk through the Cloister Quarter
The Klosterviertel (Cloister quarter) is roughly as old as the city of Berlin itself. In the middle ages the later Klosterstraße was the most elegant street in Old Berlin. Alongside the Berlin seat of the Brandenburg Dukes, the quarter also housed the eponymous Franciscan Cloister and, for a brief period, the residence of the Brandenburg Princes, the so-called High House.

Duration: appr. 30 minutes
Meeting Point: Podewil Entrance Foyer
Presented by GRIPS Theater
Tour guide: Stefan Fischer-Fels, artistic director of GRIPS Theater Berlin

Thu, April 23, 11.00 am
following the performance of A Body Image
in English

Spotted: Berlin VIII
Historical Lichtenberg – back to the past
Just round the corner from the THEATER AN DER PARKAUE is the Stasi Museum, the former headquarters of the GDR Ministry for State Security. The tour will take you through the area where its staff once lived before moving on to Lichtenberg’s oldest quarter, the so-called Viktoriastadt, then a refuge for social outsiders in the GDR regime, and now a lively residential area with some fine late nineteenth-century houses. The tour ends at the S-Bahnhof Nöldnerplatz.

Duration: appr. 60 minutes
Meeting Point: THEATER AN DER PARKAUE, courtyard of Bühne 2
Presented by THEATER AN DER PARKAUE