Dinkelbrot und Butter

Yes, the past week as definitely been crazy, good and bad. Everything really seemed to culminate last Thursday, Valentine's Day, as R said. Drama at R's studio and receiving our one-year 'freelance artists' Visas. And, most importantly, R's formal proposal...to which I of course said 'Yes!'.

The ring, unfortunately, ended up being a little small and since it is made of concrete and steel it can't exactly be resized. So, I don't get to wear it until we can exchange it. We hope to send it back tomorrow and I will also be ordering a matching ring for R that is a little wider and thicker.

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On Saturday, we went to an opening at Mangus Muller Gallery near our house. It was a group show that was curated by WN and had a piece by my friend from Skowhegan EB.

Then we went to a party at the 'Housing Project' that a classmate of mine lives at. This term here is very different than the HUDD housing projects it brings to mind in the States. In Berlin, a House Project is basically a Commune, some of them are squatted but most, especially now, are just large apartment buildings where everyone has chosen to live communally (sharing kitchens, etc.). This specific one is in Friedrichshain, in one of the first areas squatted after the wall came down. I guess 10-15 years ago most of the buildings in that neighborhood were Housing Projects but since have become a trendy and desirable place to live (because of all that activity no doubt)...ergo all the squatters have been kicked out and the Housing Projects are slowing being evicted to make room for new tenants...who are willing to pay higher rents. The party we went to was a fundraiser, to help pay lawyer's fees to help them not get evicted.

I think the house was six stories, but I am not sure because I never went to the top floor. It has a central stair well with doors on each side of the landing on each floor. These could all be separate apartments, but instead the hallway is full of collective stuff and doors are always open. Everything was covered with graffiti and Anarchist Collective banners. There are three kitchens; one for meat eaters, one for veggies, and one is on the women only floor.



The first event for the party was the "Noisy Cooking Show", which basically was my friend's boyfriend cutting up veggies and tofu on mic-ed chopping boards and making a big pot of 'Love Curry' for everyone to eat for dinner.



The first floor was a squatted apartment (the landlord tried to fix up that was quickly broken into) which became a dance floor and lounge area. The second floor was another dance floor and beer bar, and the third floor had another lounge area a cocktail bar. The guy in the pic above is playing a theramin to electronic dance music with video being projected behind him.

We met a lot of interesting people and had a great time at this party. It was extremely insightful to experience first-hand this disappearing history in Berlin. One story we heard was about the previous weekend at this House Project. At some point all the electricity went out on the whole block. Since there was nothing to be done indoors everyone gathered in the street, brought out their instruments and proceeded to have a little unplugged dance party. The cops came and tried to get everyone to go inside but everyone didn't want to because there was no electricity to see or do anything inside. At some point the police turned to violence and ended up punching a bunch of people. One guy we met still had a black eye. I was really surprised to hear that the police here result to violence so easily but people told us many stories that demonstrated this was not a freak occurrence.

R had already started reading about leftist political history in Berlin, specifically with the book "Wie Alles Anfing/How is All Began: The Personal Account of a West German Urban Guerilla" by Bommi Baumann, who was involved in various groups active in the 70's, but ultimately found the whole movement to be problematic (I am still reading it). We also have watched a few documentaries, including one on the Red Army Faction (RAF), the most infamous of 'urban guerillas'. In the US we also have activists histories (we all know the hippies-turned -yippies- turned-yuppies), but even the Weather Underground actions pale in comparison to the actions pulled off by these German groups, from arson and countless bank robberies to kidnapping and murder. However, while the US groups were also spurred by cases of unprovoked police brutality, with the German groups it became a full on street war between the police and the state (who were still dealing with their Nazi backgrounds, sometimes literally) and activists (who became labeled terrorists) which lasted over a decade. Apparently some form of the RAF existed up until 1998, which sheds some light on the fact that both police brutality and leftist political actions are still prominent in Germany today. Their tension still exists.

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This is my last week of German classes but I decided to take today off, sleep in, and work on some of my own work at home. R woke up a little sick so I decided to make a big pot of chicken soup today. I have been getting into, and better at, making all kinds of soup.


Here is the stock starting to cook up.


Here is the final result, after about 4 or 5 hours of yummy stewing. We ate this up with some fresh German Dinkelbrot and butter. mmm...I going to go eat some leftovers right now.