Sunday at the museums

When everyone was very busy watching the street parades at the Festival of Cultures, I decided (again) to be against the mainstream and see some exhibitions that I had on my list since a long time. Even though a small Turkish gathering with a lot of good food and colourful scarfs reminded that even in Charlottenburg there is time for celebration, I was not impressed and switched the U-Bahn for going to Kreuzberg. I continued my schedule and spent some pleasant hours at the museums around the Charlottenburg Schlosss.

Discovering the genius of Picasso

Out of the three museums I visited, the collection hosted by the Berggruen Museum was completely new for me. The collection was created by Heinz Berggruen, a friend of Picasso who dedicated at least one work to him. He had left Germany during the dictatorship and got back to Berlin only in the 1990s after a brilliant career in the world of arts from Paris and London. After his death, his family is continuing his legacy, taking care of an impressive collection of modern art, mostly comprised by the works of Picasso, Braque, Matisse and Cezanne, as well as Klee (with paintings of a higher quality compared to what I saw recently at Martin-Gropius-Bau) as well as beautiful sculptures by Giacometti. I do not appreciate all Picasso's works, but I cannot ignore his genius explained by many of the early drawings and paintings included in the collection. Someone with such a genuine talent and inspiration cannot do anything but paint all the time, trying different styles and ending up by decomposing the human figure into small little pieces, because the classical techniques are not enough. A highly spiritual experience that can be continued in the garden at the shadow of some grotesque creatures.

A drop of history in the cup of tea

The orange cup, by Marguerite Friedlander-Wildenhain

The garden is shared with a museum that I've visited before, Brohan Museum. This time, I was interested in the temporary exhibition that ended up today dedicated to the Avantgarde of Jewish Women in Ceramics (1919-1933) featuring interesting and very interesting personalities of their time: Marguerite Friedlaender-Wildenhain, Margarete Heymann-Marks and Eva Stricker-Zeisel. All of them had the chance to escape Germany in time after formative years spent in the ceramic factories or around the Bauhaus movement. Stricker-Zeisel had an astonishing life, with 16 months spent in the Soviet prisons and a lot of historical adventures in a crazy century

 I was lucky to see the exhibition, because there were many attractive and colourful models that brought a lot of pleasure to my eyes.

La plus belle, by Max Ernst

Back to Surrealism

My last cultural stop of the day was at the Collection Scharf-Gerstenberg, reuniting several surrealist works, by more or less famous artists, such as Odilon Redon, Oscar Dominguez, Victor Brauner, Francis Picabia, Miro, Yves Tanguy, Goya and Alfred Kubin, among others. The first room, was a bit disappointing, but later on I felt brought back into the usual surrealist ambiance of artists that I love. The creator of the collection, Otto Gerstenberg was the president of Victoria Versicherung and a passionate admirer of arts. During the war, his collection was hidden in the bunkers and partially seized by the Red Army in 1945, many works being brought to St. Petersburg and Moscow. Since 1995, the works were returned and are on public display at the museum. 

How you can eat the world and have it too

Social media is a wonderful tool to find out great ideas and opportunities, especially when it comes to the world of travel. It is how I discovered eat-the-world, a company based in Germany organizing various culinary tours in (for the moment): Berlin, Dresden, Cologne, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich and Muenster. If you visit one of those cities in Germany, don't hesitate to make a reservation for a different experience.

Elke Freimuth, the founder of the company, explains more about the idea and the future plans in the following interview.

Snapshots of Berlin. Photo credit: eat-the-world

 

Preserving and highlighting the food, culture and people of the city

 

What is the idea of your company? What can expect a tourist to experience when booking a tour?

The idea of eat-the-world is really simple: to get to know a place through its food and people. We want to show what life is like in a given district, so we show tourists the different cultures and foods found in these places. I was always curious about the food and the local way of life during my travels, but it was my stay in New York that really inspired me. While I was there, I noticed that small, family-run businesses were suffering because the large chains were taking over. In a way, these chains were driving the culture away. With this in mind, I came back to Berlin and started eat-the-world. It was my way to preserve and highlight the food, culture and people of the city, while helping out small businesses.

We are very selective with our local guides, so tourists can expect a real insider to guide them around any district. Our guides have usually lived in their district for several years so they really know what they're talking about. They're very informative: they have stories to tell, local spots to recommend, and notes about architecture and history to share. Of course, there's the food. We take tourists to seven shops and restaurants that may not necessarily appear in guidebooks, but are true to what the locals eat and where the locals go. They get a sample from each shop, be it a Turkish pastry, an Italian gelato or a Berliner currywurst. 

"We only work with passionate foodies"

 

How did you make the selection of the German towns included in the project? What are their main culinary profile? 

We only work with passionate foodies who are very knowledgeable about their cities. The same goes with our process of picking restaurant and shop partners. We select our partners very carefully. Our goal is to highlight the small, family-run shops that offer high quality food, which locals appreciate, and our participants too.

Do you plan to expand the project further, by including other German towns?

Definitely. Soon we'll offer tours in other German cities.

What are your plans for the next six months?

Beginning in April, we're launching separate English-only tours in five of the seven German cities. We'd like to have this option in all of our cities in the near future.

What kind of tourists are enjoying your tours?

We get a good mix of tourists and locals. A good percentage of our customers is German-speaking, but the percentage of international tourists is also growing, hence we decided to offer separate English-only and German-only tours. The good thing about eat-the-world tours is that it's really ideal for everyone. Food always brings everyone together.

 

"My shop has to be part of your food tours!"

What was the most pleasant experience you had lately that made you happy to launch such a project?

We are always very happy to see that there are a lot of people doing excellent, handcrafted food products. What they are doing every day is outstanding: delicious food, handmade. So recently, an owner of a candy shop (who sells handmade candies) called us because he heard about eat-the-world and he said, "My shop has to be part of your food tours! I do exactly what your philosophy expresses." He was very excited and insisted that we check out his products. Now, he's one of our partners ;-)