Life in the Poor but Sexy City – Economic Migrants in Berlin
As the European crisis deepens, more and more Europeans are moving to Germany in the hope of a better future, the country portrayed and hyped in the media as Europe’s [...]
Region germany
Sovereignty versus Coordination: Is Europe Cured?
Our blogger Josh Grundleger reports about the Bertelsmann Foundation’s fifth annual conference which focuses on economic growth through innovation, global financial governance and the eurozone crisis: “System Upgrade: Time for [...]
How Europe’s financial crisis ambushed my German class
None of us saw it coming. It was a cold November afternoon in a Berlin. We were huddled around four scratched-up tables practicing German. The topic was rent hikes caused [...]
Conflict is Here to Stay
Conflict is an innate aspect of human nature and thus inevitable. Man can never realistically avoid every single point of discord. Different perspectives, disagreements, divergent values, competing goals, and overlapping claims will always exist. Individuals, and the states they construct, in the quest to achieve their goals, will thus indubitably come to loggerheads. To ignore this fact is to lead policymakers, and the people who they are supposed to protect, down a dangerous path.
Germany’s dubious arms exports: Encouraging dictatorship and conflict on Europe’s doorstep
Germany has an official agenda of supporting democracy and peace. However, the German arms industry sells weapons to dictators or conflict-suffering regions, sometimes to the detriment of even the country’s [...]
Transformation Thinkers Conference: Lessons Learned
The Berlin Wall and The Pianist (2002), a biographical war drama film were my primary sources of information about Germany since 2003, derived from my bachelors study in International Relations- war and [...]
Berlin, the Biennale and Bullets
Who’s afraid of fearless art? by Manouchehr Shamsrizi FRSA Any postmodern arts scene has the éclat in its DNA, but in Berlin we can (readily?) see the impact of a [...]
New Sausage E-Shop Uses Pig Photos To Reduce Meat Consumption
Welcome to Meine Kleine Farm (My little farm), where you actually get to meet the meat you’re going to eat. Seriously, say hello to the cute piggy face on your [...]
A neighbourhood garden in Berlin, Germany
As part of our coverage on “The New City” we asked our bloggers for some pictures from their cities. Are there any places in their cities that are prime examples for sustainable urban living? But it could also be a negative example in order to show how a city should not look like.
The Prinzessinnengarten is an open garden in the middle of Berlin, were anyone can lend a hand, plant vegetables, learn about ecological agriculture and foster biodiversity.
The garden was opened in 2009 on a 6000 m² vacant lot. Today the garden brings together hundreds of neighbours and friends. It consists of mobile beets where anyone can plant something or take care of a plant. The beets don’t belong to anybody, they are the result of common work. People who lend a hand can purchase the produced bio vegetable to a price lower than in the low cost supermarkets. Others will have to pay some more.
The Prinzessinnengarten is an interesting way of making quality products accessible to a wider public, fostering knowledge about nature and relations between neighbours. And in a sense, it enables the people to reappropriate the city.
Pluses and Minuses of the Berlin Barcamp
Conferences and barcamps can be really great or they can be a dismal failure. The measure of success depends on the structure of participants, organization, topics and one element that [...]
Measuring the Influence of Internet Movements on Reality
“How the Internet Changes Our Reality” proclaims a vertical banner in front of the building of the Church of the Resurrection transformed into a ultra-modern Umweltforum venue hosting the Barcamp held [...]
Occupy Berlin: Serving the clientele
Berliners are also taking part in the global Occupy Wall Street movement. But the Berlin Revolution will have to wait a little… The relatively good economic situation means the masses [...]
The Myth and Reality of Green Politics in Germany: The case of E10 biofuel
While it has Europe’s most powerful Green party and a leading renewables sector, Germany’s opportunistic politics and poor public communication campaigns are undermining environmental initiatives, including the much-touted E10 biofuel. [...]
