Beautiful Berlin (part 2)

There’s something wonderful about the toilet walls of Berlin bars. Not for our Teutonic friends barely legible marker pen scratchings about the size of someone’s genitals or errant phone numbers promising untold sexual pleasures. Maybe it’s that Berliners are all too acutely aware of history, or maybe it’s just a place where Berlin men take the time out a toilet break affords and reflect on the state of the world. Either way, it's always worth having a good look around the walls and ceiling as you're spending a pen- spending a cent in a Berlin bar's public toilet.

Having said that, I did have some difficulty with public lavs in Germany. The confusion lies in the names, you see: Herron (Gents), and Damen (Ladies). Here's the problem: Herron contains the word ‘Her’, and Damen contains the word ‘men’. Now, how is my booze-addled brain to cope with that as I lurched towards the toilets at some ungodly time in the evening/morning?

Anyway, here are a few of my favourites found at various times on the walls of Herron across Berlin. 

(See here for Beautiful Berlin, Part 1)

I really miss Berlin. See you soon, old friend.

If for no other reason...

'They put a helmet on your head and a rifle in your hands and send you off to kill your brother in his native land, and I say LAY YOUR WEAPONS DOWN.'

'We can't go on this way, oh no! It's really up to us now, comrades. We can make it happen...Gotta put an end to war today!'

  

                             

Of course. And why wouldn't you have pictures of Leon Trotsky and Rosa Luxemburg going to the toilet, on the doors of your toilets?

'YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL.'

'Not so bad yerself.''

Love that someone actually replied, too. Just a great big love-in in this toilet.

'Give DARKNESS no chance.'

This reminds me of my old Hackney Green Party comrade who was seen on TV during the 2009 Copenhagen climate change summit using his bike as a shield/weapon as the Danish police were laying into protesters.

'The AfD is Racist.'

(AfD: Alternative for Deutschland - basically the German version of UKIP, only these bozos don't bother to cloak their latent racism.)

This wasn't a toilet wall, but including here in keeping with the spirit. Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg is the radical leftwing area of Berlin. The Greens basically run the show, representing this area in the Berlin Parliament.

'Nazis, you piss off! This is our quarter!'

'Football is when twenty-two men get behind a ball, and at the end, the Germans always win', Gary Lineker. Ahem...

Again, not from a toilet wall, but I love this, spotted in Dresden, and a lovely way to finish this post.

For more, see here for Beautiful Berlin, Part 1

Beautiful Berlin (part 1)

Part 1 of a probably regular series of just lovely things I've seen and taken a picture of in Berlin, from skylines to street art to interesting things found in bar toilets. And everything in between. Enjoy.

A day or two after Bowie returned to whatever fabulous planet he came from, the road where Bowie lived during his 3 year stay here was renamed. During his time here, he made 3 remarkable albums:  Low (1977), Heroes (1977), and Lodger (1979). 

My favourite story about Bowie's time in Berlin is about the inspiration behind those Heroes lyrics. The couple who 'kissed by the wall'  was Tony Visconti, his producer at the time, and backup singer Antonia Maass, who would kiss by the Berlin wall, not far from one of the the gun turrets ('the guns shot over our head'), in front of Bowie as he looked out of the Hansa Studio window during a smoke break.

Dear Rosa was executed by order of the ruling German social democrats in January 1919. Tools.

Her last known words are: '“Order prevails in Berlin!” You foolish lackeys! Your “order” is built on sand. Tomorrow the revolution will “rise up again, clashing its weapons,” and to your horror it will proclaim with trumpets blazing: I was, I am, I shall be!'

Yep. My English language college was on this very road.

You do get a better class of graffiti on the toilet walls in Berlin.

Spotted at a music festival last September when Merkel was starting to open up the German builders to Syrian refugees.

Wonderful murals on the wall of my local cafe. l-r John Lennon, Edward Snowden, Bob Marley (I think), not sure who that is, Amy Winehouse, and Malcolm X.

A flyer from Die Linke, the 'Left' party. Basically says 'Refugees welcome! Nazis out!' 

Interestingly, the Left party have their roots in the ruling party in the old Soviet East Germany. When the Wall came down, they regrouped, brought more lefty groups into a coalition, and relaunched. 

Spotted this very random but extraordinary scene in the Berlin suburbs on a train ride into the city. A big peace sign there, and to the left is a store mannequin wearing a Team Edward t-shirt. As in, Edward Snowden. Not bloody Twilight.