On the one hand Berlin airport, Elbphilharmonie, Staatsoper, BND…many “grands projets” in Germany currently have a few problems in being completed. On the other hand, these are the exceptions which confirm the rule: many projects – big and small – every day are delivered on time, on budget, on specification.
One of these is the refurbishment of the U-Bahn station Bayerischer Platz in Schoeneberg. This was our very first encounter with the underground Berlin when, in the Easter week of 2002, we parked our car nearby and took the U7 here. “Look at this station, it looks really shabby and…East Berlin…but it is strange since we are in the West” was our first impression. We still had not realised that West Berlin is dotted with concrete blocks, memories of a fast and furious building activities after 1945.
Now the white and bluette Betonklotz has been removed and a slightly modernist construction has emerged. What I particularly like is the fact that in the underground corridors and in the café upstairs a lot of photos remember the life of the Kiez in the years before WWII and tell the story of the many Jewish families living in this area. And I also like the way the windows have been decorated…by glancing outside the old Berlin of the late 1930s magically appears, like in a fata morgana.
