Asian Film Festival Berlin

11:56 PM Melissa 1 Comments

The Asian Film Festival in Berlin was the first film festival I have gone to. I attended a panel discussion called “Imagine(d) Kinship: Gender, Sexuality, and Kinship in Hong Kong Independent Film” and went to see Banga Banga – He Is On Duty. 

I was really surprised with the number of guests at the lecture. There were about 15 people there. When I imagined a film festival, I always thought there would be at least 50 people at each lecture and screening.

During the lecture, views of LGQT by Hong Kong residents, representation in the media, funding for producing and distributing films, sexuality and social discourse were discussed. Gum Gum, a lesbian film producer, was specifically mentioned. Her short film iD is an animation of a clay figure deciding on which of the 3 chairs to sit on. In the end the figure puts all three together and lays on them. My interpretation is that the chairs represent fitting into one heterogeneous sexual identity. The film shows viewers to go beyond the limited options of heterosexuality.
Guests about to watch Banga Banga
On the last night of the festival, I went to the Koreanisches Kulturzentrum (Korean Culture Center) to see Banga Banga. I HIGHLY recommend the film. It not only talks seriously about deeper social issues of immigration factory workers, power relationships between supervisors and immigrant employees, discrimination against immigrants, worker rights, identity, globalization and morals, but also the movie is a comedy that will make you laugh and cry from one moment to the next. 

My favorite quote: "If you can’t give to the poor, don’t steal from them."

In addition to what I learned from the festival, I enjoy that independent films speak to social issues a lot more than commercial films.

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The Bauhaus School

12:09 PM Melissa 0 Comments

Bauhaus Museum
Over the weekend, my class went on a trip to Weimar and Dessau. We learned more about the foundations of the Bauhuas School through seeing close-up examples of the style and understanding in-depth about the school’s history. Walter Gropius, founded and designed the Bauhaus. He developed the latest design style, which incorporated “new” materials of the period. This includes glass, iron and concrete. A fundamental objective of Bauhaus design is creating simple, functional objects that effectively use space, material, time and money.
Tour
At the Bauhaus School in Dessau, we had a wonderful informational tour. On campus, we visited the theatre, cafeteria, dormitory and Director’s room. The tour was my favorite part of the day because I got to appreciate Bauhaus principles and aesthetics as a saw its purpose more clearly through creations. 

Bauhuas School in Dessau

One principle is that the use of color has to be understandable. A more vibrant color, such as a bright orange, immediately grab student and visitor attention. Therefore, the bright orange outlines the door they should enter, such as the door leading to the workshop building. In comparison, a door leading to the cafeteria’s kitchen is outlined in grey, which makes it less noticeable and inviting, because it is only for kitchen staff to enter.

As I thought more about Bauhaus principles, it not only incorporates clean, new materials, but it also considers people's natural instincts of color.
Model B3 chair by Marcel Breuer
Designed by Marianne Brandt


One of the Meisterhaussiedlung (Master's House)

Contemporary Bauhaus Design

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Building and Strengthening A Brand: Ritter Sports and Berlin

12:25 AM Melissa 1 Comments

Welcome to Ritter Sport Schokoladenwelt (Chocolate Workshop)! This chocolate store has been on my eye because I pass it each week when I go to Humboldt University. Before, I thought it was just a regular café. Oh, how I was so wrong. The bottom floor is a playroom. The main floor sells delicious chocolate cakes, custom-made chocolate bars, numerous pre-made chocolate bars and additional Ritter Sport merchandise. The second floor has a café and exhibits. At the café, you can sit and enjoy many dishes and drinks. There are even ten different flavors of hot chocolate to choose! Also, each exhibit highlights the following: coco farming, factory production and Ritter Sport. The store reminded me of a smaller M&M store, such as the ones in Vegas and London. 
 
  
On the same night, I attended the Festival of Lights, a citywide illumination event at major Berlin monuments and landmarks. Since the festival center is at Potsdamer Platz, I went there to check it out. As I walked up the stairs from the U-bahn station, I could feel my excitement rising as crowds passed by. I’ve been wanting to see it for a while.

Once on the street, I immediately noticed Faces of Berlin, a mask with a video projection of Berliners, the city, monuments and animations. It was amazing to see because the light installation helps you understand what makes Berlin Berlin through the eyes of the artist. Of course, you can interpret it differently from the artist’s original message. Art is completely subjective.

Additional installations and activities in the area include a tree-lighted street, a pond filled with brightly-lit origami boats, colored penguins surrounding a light sculpture, a light motion-sensor screen and a neon floor game.


The Ritter Sport Schokoladenwelt and Festival of Lights revolve around branding, identity and consumerism. The executives at Ritter Sport are using the store strategically to promote and market the company. The store is located a block from Unter den Linden, a buzzing street lined with numerous tourists throughout the year as they visit museums, monuments and landmarks. Also, the store is specifically designed to make visitors feel welcomed and happy as they enter the colorful, bright shop filled with chocolate. Creating the store advances Ritter Sport’s identity as a legitimate international company and teaches customers its history, philosophy, non-profit collaborations and current projects. 

The Festival of Lights entices tourists and locals to enjoy a night on the town, while advancing Berlin’s identity to be the city of the 21st century. The festival is a contemporary celebration of the city, its history and people. In addition, the event celebrates and makes the structures and monuments highlighted even more important. It’s a way for Berliners and visitors to create new memories of Berlin. The wonderful, eye-boggling event is inspiring and showcases Berlin, production companies, sightseeing tours and artists. Keep in mind that it increases revenue for corporations and local businesses too.

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Berlin: Oktoberfest, the Reichstag, and Kreuzberg

2:36 PM Melissa 1 Comments

This past week, I went to Oktoberfest at Alexanderplatz (Berlin), laid out on the grass and read near the Reichstag, and went on a local tour of Kreuzberg.

Oktoberfest is a Bavarian beer festival that is originally from Munich. Today it is celebrated in cities all over the world, such as Berlin. The culture around drinking is much more open in Germany than in America. It was a pleasure to see the community come together and enjoy themselves in a healthy environment as people young and old drank, ate, sang and danced the night away at Alexanderplatz. Also, it was fun to see traditional Bavarian clothes, such as the lederhosen and dirnl. One of my favorite memories of the night was at the dance hall where young and older Germans were shaking it and happily singing German songs.
A couple of days later, my classmates, Roxanne, Libby, and Anna and I, went to relax and did some reading at the huge lawn by the Reichstag. When I was there, the sun was out and the sky was as blue as can be, so naturally many Berliners and vacationers were also enjoying their time outside. The Reichstag is where Germany’s parliament meets and was rebuilt after the reunification of Germany. The Reichstag was completed in 1999. One highlight of the building is a glass and metal dome, which gives viewers a 360-degree view of Berlin. How amazing is that? I am so excited to go explore it on a class field trip!
  The big, flat lawn in front of the Reichstag was lined with trees and shrubs on the edge. People were playing frisbee, picnicking and laying on the grass. Even though I am sightseeing in Berlin, it felt so good to just take my time and relax because usually I want to fit in a bunch of activities in one day. I don’t always take time to really appreciate what I see. I got to people-watch, read, and soak up the sun. Ohhhh, yeah.
On Tuesday, the class went on a tour of Kreuzberg. This was definitely one of my favorite things I have done so far. Manuela, our tour guide, was engaging, thoughtful and knowledgeable. In our neighborhood, She showed us the little things, such as the “stumbling stones” and symbols of where the Berlin Wall used to be. Even though we pass by them daily, some of us may not have noticed it until she pointed them out. The tour was so meaningful because the memorials, art and buildings we saw speak to Berlin’s history and its people. Thanks Manuela, John and Nara for such an incredible tour!

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Berlin's Ruins: Anhalter Bahnhof and the Bunker

4:13 PM Melissa 1 Comments

 
 
 
Opened on July 1, 1841, Anhalter Bahnhof became one of the major train stations in Berlin. It was built just outside the Prussian-built city wall and was less than one kilometer from Potsdamer Platz. After being redesigned, rebuilt and reopened in 1880, it was considered as one of the largest train stations in Continental Europe. A S-Bahn line was built in the 1930s, and opened up just after the Berlin Olympic Games in 1939. During World War II, Anhalter Bahnhof was primarily used for deportations of Jews and others persecuted in the war to Thereisienstadt. The train station then was mostly destroyed by bombing raids, and by 1952, the train station had closed down. After the Berlin Wall was built, Anhalter Bahnhof served as a border checkpoint for those who were entering East Berlin and was the last stop in West Berlin before being entering a “restricted section”. Today, Anhalter Bahnhof is still an open S-Bahn station and the surviving central portion of the front façade is still standing as a memorial.  

We didn’t know what and how we would feel before we explored the Anhalter Bahnhof…none of us have ever been there so we weren’t sure what to expect. It was about a thirty-meter walk from the S-Bahn stop, [the new] Anhalter Bahnhof to what used to be the main train station of Berlin, [the old] Anhalter Bahnhof. Only the front façade was still standing, this huge, massive façade—which apparently was only a small portion of the overall train station. Seeing the ruins of what used to be Berlin’s most crucial train station in the 20th century and witnessing the clearly visible destruction was overwhelming. Standing before the remaining façade of the Anhalter Bahnhof made us recall Sebald’s in-depth and gruesome descriptions of the air raid’s destruction in Natural History of Destruction. Homes were destroyed; thousands died a horrible, instantaneous death, many were left starving, homeless, alone…but it wasn’t just the people that suffered, the architecture suffered drastically as well, “The fire burned like this for three hours. At its height, the storm lifted fable and roofs from building, flung rafters and entire advertising kiosks through the air…Behind collapsing facades, the flames shot up as high as houses, rolled like a tidal wave through the streets…The glass in the tramcar windows melted…”[1] In Schivelbusch’s The Prize, Berlin was the trophy for the Allies, “To have Berlin, and consequently Germany, was…to have Europe.”[2] Germany was then divided, the Soviets in control of the East, whereas the Americans, the British, and the French had control over the West. At the time we visited the train station, we thought that the majority of the train station was completely destroyed leaving only the front façade standing. However, after doing some research, we discovered that the air raids caused some damage to the train station but most of it was still intact. It wasn’t until 1960 when the rest of the train station was torn down because of the East-West relations. The train tracks were heading East whereas the train station was located in the West. Once the wall was built the following year, the trains went nowhere because of the barricade and as a result; the majority of the station was destroyed. After the fall of the wall, the train station was never rebuilt and it now stands exactly as it once did back in 1960, “The very idea seems monstrous, even barbaric…to rebuild on German rubble what made it rubble; obsoleteness, outlived purpose, and an architecture of spent respect.”  
      
Next to the Anhalter Bahnhof was a bunker built by Hitler as part of his 1940-1942 bunker building campaign in response to the start of the Second World War. Many German residents gathered together during the night as Allied bombs fell upon the city. Many bunkers were underground, while some were above ground. About 12,000 people have stayed at the cement, windowless bunker. Today, the shelter is only one of a few sites where visitors can imagine what it was in the 1940s in Germany. In our reading of “Life Among the Ruins” this style of bunker is one of the public bunkers discussed in the writing as more of a propaganda enforcing machine than that of a truly protective measure. These bunkers would have been ran by the Hitler Youth in a very organized manner very at odds with the alternative option of a neighborhood cellar.

1 Sebald, W.G. A Natural History of Destruction. 4 Nov. 2002. The New Yorker. 4 Oct. 2011, 70.
2 Schivelbusch, Wolfgang. The Prize. In Cold Crater: Cultural and Intellectual Life in Berlin 1945-1948. UC Press, Berkeley, 1998.
3 Quoted Martin Wagner. Schivelbusch, Wolfgang. The Prize. In Cold Crater: Cultural and Intellectual Life in Berlin 1945-1948. UC Press, Berkeley, 1998, 15. 

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Welcome To Berlin

11:17 AM Melissa 0 Comments



I am studying abroad in Berlin at the Humbolt University! I am so fortunate to have this opportunity and I want to make the most out of my stay. There is about 11 weeks to explore the city, get to know the locals, and have a better understanding of its history. So many historical events and sites, including the Cold War, WWI, WWII, Berlin Wall, and Reichstag, were here.




Yesterday, I went to Mauerpark Flea Market. What a cool place to be! There were numerous stalls selling antiques, jewelry, screen-printed shirts, posters, photographs, and food. Next to the market was a field filled with around 400 people. They were relaxing on the grass, grilling food, and listening to live karaoke. I LOVED everything about the karaoke: the singer, the giant crowd, and the song (Backstreet Boys "Everybody"). It was AMAZING!


To get back home, we walked to U-bahn Bernaurstrasse. I was surprised to see the huge poster and some rods sticking straight up on the street. As I passed by I asked one of my classmates if she thought the Berlin Wall used to be there. The next day, I read Brian Ladd's The Ghosts of Berlin. Right in the book was a description of it. How perfect is that? The German Historical Museum created a memorial for the Berlin Wall. The Wall was constructed on August 13, 1961 and part of it ran along some Eastern apartments on Bernaurstrasse. The apartments faced a Western Berlin street and West Berliners helped Eastern Berliners over the wall as Eastern guards tried to prevent it. Days later, the apartment windows were sealed shut. Another significance of the Bernaurstrasse is that in 1964, a famous underground tunnel went pass the street and helped 57 people escape.

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