East Germany

Weimar – where Classic meets Bauhaus

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I’ve started my Bauhaus discovery upside down from the timing perspective. First, when I moved to Berlin in 2014 I visited Bauhaus Archiv (currently under re-construction, with a temporary exhibition placed elsewhere in Berlin) and later on, visiting Dessau on a particularly gloomy winter day.

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This Easter I decided to travel to Weimar, in the heart of Germany, where not only Bauhaus was born, but where the new Bauhaus Museum has been recently opened. Not to mention, that everything was pretty much marked by Goethe’s and Schiller’s presence and a few other important Germans in the history. Except from the places which boastfully mention that Goethe war hier. Nie! (‘Goether was here. Never!’). This is the witty proof how proud Weimarers are about their rich history dating back to Classicism period and is renowned as the UNESCO Heritage Site.

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Easter time this year was exceptionally warm and sunny which was fantastic for sightseeing the city by foot. Even all-present Goethe mentioned that ‘Weimar is not a city with a park. It’s a park with a city’. Except from the Neues Museum, dedicated to modernism era, Bauhaus Museum, there’s several museums and houses worth visiting and all of them accessible within the purchase of a 48 hour Bauhaus Card for the whole region of Thuringia. Worry not, it is impossible to visit all the sites in such a short period of time.

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One of the places I’ve picked to visit was the Nietsche Archiv – a house where the eccentric philosopher spent his last 3 years of life. Although these years were rather gloomy and turbulent, the background stories one can learn from visiting the house and admire the exquisite interior design by the Belgian architect Henry van der Velde are definitely worthwhile getting to know.

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On the way to Weimar, it is worth to have a stroll around the neighbouring romantic city of Erfurt. Although it is not as charming as Weimar in my humble opinion, its Old Town has some interesting pieces of Prussian and Roman architecture, alongside with a few interesting museums as well.

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Now coming back to the Bauhaus Museum, which was the main reason for travelling to Weimar in the first place: currently, it’s a very crowded spot, potentially due to the 100th Years of Bauhaus celebrations taking place and the recent opening. The museum concentrates on the first years of Bauhaus, including the initial concepts, surrounding movements like the Triadic Ballet and is focusing on the emblematic pieces of interior design, including the famous Barcelona Chair by Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich.

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Interestingly, it shows the controversies around Bauhaus’ fascination over the usability and productivity as well as the gendered view on certain approaches (i.e. how to improve the life of housewives in the kitchen – how stunningly ironic it looks after years!). In the before-mentioned city of Erfurt, there’s an exhibition solely dedicated to the Women of Bauhaus, often dimmed in the light of their male colleagues.

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At the same time, there are Bach Weeks going on in Thuringia which are connected with the public spaces like the Bauhaus Museum. Unfortunately, getting the tickets to these concerts over the Easter period was impossible but all in all, three days spent around this stimulating and beautiful city was definitely worthwhile.

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I would definitely revisit Weimar for its historic charm, green parks, great restaurants and friendly people around. Soon, the Haus am Horn, a brilliant example of the ‘Martian architecture’ of Bauhaus will re-open for the public view. So I guess this is bis Später, Weimar!

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Welcoming spring: walking around Brandenburg

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The long-awaited longer days have come and I feel the awakening of my vital powers like all the flora and fauna around me. End of March is usually transformational for me, and looking back into my blog I can confirm this. After a week long overcast days, here comes the sun and people like me have the urge to go out, and be surrounded by nature.

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Berlin has arguably impressive surroundings, I have to say. However, it’s one of the greenest and cleanest (in terms of air quality) metropolitan cities I know and if you love long walks around the forests, parks or countless lakes around the city, listening to the bird songs of the early spring days, hiking around the Berlin is one of the best ways to recharge on the weekend.

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Thanks to my friend Aleksandra, I’ve joined a hiking meetup last month where like-minded nature and physical activity seeking folks pick a hiking trail and spend a day walking distances between 25-35 km on average. This time they’ve picked a lovely lake trail around Erkner, where some of the streets are even named as a ‘Way to Relax’ (Weg zur Erholung).

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And it’s not only the fresh air coming out of the forest, lake or meadow that make these hikes special. These are the people you meet on the way: often coming from similarly creative and demanding roles, willing to spend some time off the computer screen and connect with others, look at something different than a concrete jungle, which after over a half a year of winter can take its toll.

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I am grateful for the diversity of experiences I’ve had in this city so far. It’s been intense, it’s been lazy and I felt free to do whatever: be it dance the Sunday away in Berghain, to wake up and eat brunch when the sun sets, or be an early bird on the S-bahn to Erkner to take a scenic forest trail. And I’m ready for the spring to take over!

Frühlingsgefühle in Sächsische Schweiz

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February is a strange month: it’s short and you never know what to expect from it weather-wise, so it’s better to focus on the relevant cultural happenings, such as Berlinale. This year I took a bet and stayed in the city, overbooking myself throughout the festival, but at the same time, the weather surprised me in a very positive way.

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The days are definitely longer and there is more light everywhere – almost as if the springtime is ready to kick off. This reminds me of a remarkable weekend trip I took with my best friend Wero to Sächsische Schweiz two years ago around this time of the year.

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Thanks to one of my colleagues, we knew where to focus on this short, 48 hours trip. We booked a little apartment to stay in Kurort Rathen, a picturesque, yet pretty touristy town. We were quite lucky to be there outside of the high season, as it was fairly quiet and not overtly crowded. The only issue WE had was the culinary diversity – almost everything available was pretty represented by particularly heavy, traditional food. It proved it served us well after a long and strenuous hike!

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Upon our arrival, on a late Friday evening after work (it took us about 2,5 hours to travel from Berlin Hauptbahnhof to Dresden and further with a regional train), we had to cross the Elbe river with the ferry and we were literally the last passengers of the Fähre. Next day, from the very beginning we headed off to Lilienstein and Festung Königstein, wandering around meadows, woods and climbing up the typical rocky foundations in the region, which was pretty exciting. After having walked for over 20 kms of the steep terrain, we gladly ate a big Roulade mit Sauerkraut and not being used to such heavy food, fell asleep at 8 or 9 pm.

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After a typical, German Sunday breakfast-feast at the hotel next door, we headed off to Bastei to explore a few hiking routes around this most emblematic ‘rock bridge’, often associated with Sächsische Schweiz. It seemed that there was a plenty of Sunday visitors from Dresden which came for a stroll as the weather was sunny and blissful. Still, the views were breathtaking. At the end of our trip we headed off to Bad Schandau, from where a train was taking us back to Berlin directly.

I wish I could repeat this trip and see more of the hiking routes, however, time flies and I actually never re-visited Saxony, instead I went to Harz, which I can definitely recommend for the nature-loving Berliners to visit over the weekend.