Where the Generals Lay

The Berlin Wall ran ruthlessly through everything – homes, city squares and even burial grounds. One of these was the Prussian-era Invalidenfriedhof. ...

Messages against gentrification started proliferating throughout Neukölln in 2011. - by SL Wong

Yuppies – Out!

The first street demonstration in Berlin we attended in 2009 was against gentrification, especially in Kreuzberg and Mitte. But it ...

This pair of statues flanked broad steps leading to the fountain in Körnerpark. - by SL Wong

Superboy

What's art, what's defacement? It's definitely defacement when it is a monument. Still, the paintwork on these Körnerpark statues evoked another image for me .. ...

The Hunt

This is a story of a waterlily pond, a frog and a snake. It is full of action, menace and suspense. Luckily, there is a happy ending although one party does look foolish. ...

The See-Through Dome

To tourists, the Reichstag building is defined by its magnificent dome, which is one of Berlin’s most popular attractions. I ...

First Snow

I was inordinately excited at my first Berlin snowfall. Perhaps because it happened in November when we were told it doesn't normally snow till January. Perhaps it was because November was a mere month after we had relocated. ...

'Knee over socks' - a Berlin thing? - by SL Wong

Berlin Socks

The shop label described the pair of long socks in the best Berlin English as ‘knee over socks’. I thought I would buy myself a pair of those that first Winter .. ...

All these were wonderful substitutes for the Indian sweets which we would enjoy in Malaysia during the Hindu festival of Deepavali. ω - by SL Wong

Syrian Sweets

Like a beacon, Konditerei Al-Iman drew us indoors to warm our bodies and sweeten our palates with tantalising desserts from Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. ...

Berlin Block (for Charlie Chaplin) by Richard Serra. - by SL Wong

Berlin Block

Tilted awkwardly “as if Chaplin was turning on his shoe”, this 77-ton Richard Serra ‘Berlin Block’ is both a tribute ...

Hannah Arendt is honoured on a Berlin street-name bordering the Holocaust Memorial (inset). by SL Wong

Evil According to Hannah Arendt

I became attracted to Hannah Arendt in 2011, whilst visiting an exhibition on the trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann. Eichmann was tried – and hanged – for his role in the Holocaust. ...

Rosa Luxemberg Memorial by the Landwehrkanal. - by SL Wong

For Rosa and Karl

Her murder was couched in terms of “Hohenzollern Germany celebrat(ing) its last triumph and Nazi Germany its first”, by socialist ...

View From Above

Photographing a bird's eye-view of Berlin is not easy: it's very flat and doesn't have big city skylines. But that’s part of the German capital's charm. ...