August 23, 2014 :: Berlin

Guten Nacht –

Such calm travels… Not as much to report as when traveling in much more exotic places.. So, all is fine in Berlin..

Walked today from Soho House to the Markt Neun on Eisenbahnstrasse — a landmarked building with brick front that goes completely through the city block… in the old Eastern side.. It has decorative reliefs, and is one of four remaining covered markets in the city. Like most markets it’s a big open space with stalls.. but unlike many markets that are overflowing with fresh veggies and fruits and meats and fish… this market has a good supply of all the fresh necessities but it’s chock full of all sorts of stands and carts with cooked foods (street food mostly) and big communal tables.. So we settled in to rest from the 2.5 mile walk and tasted all sorts of goodies. You can get glasses (or bottles) of wine or beer for your lunch as well. The market was opened in 1891 and is located in the old East Berlin (which we visited years ago when it was East Berlin). The walk to the market was pretty mundane moving through areas that are clearly slated for “renewal”… lots of grafitti and boarded up buildings and crossing over the Spree (one of the canals) that once separated East and West.

After our rather slow and long lunch at the market, Mike and Richard took a taxi to the hotel and their apartment and Elizabeth and I walked back.. taking a route that was a bit out of the way.. going about 3 or so miles to get back.. We were headed to a famous flea market, but it turned out that it is only open on Sundays.. After a bit of work.. we all decided that cocktails on the roof of Soho House sounded like a great plan.. From the roof you’ve got great views of the whole city. The crowd at Soho House is probably average age 35.. maybe 40, so we are the “older end”.. but so be it. By the way, the lobby has paintings by Damien Hirt and the slogan of the place is “Eat Drink Nap”.. and Mike says this is a great goal.

It’s been a relaxing two days in spite of lots of walking and doing some work.. . Nothing like our winter trips. So I decided to dig a little deeper into the story of Soho House.. which turns out to be quite a story..

Soho House was built in the 1920s and I think is a bit of a monstrosity in its massive feeling from the outside.. From what I read, it’s 860,000 square feet (considerably larger than the White House). There’s a spa, with a large hammam.. And despite it’s strange history, when you go to the roof deck you can feel as if there are no world crises. Anyway, during the Nazi period, it was used as the headquarters of the Hitler Youth Organization. Interestingly, the building was originally commissioned by two Jews who wanted to turn their little watchmaking company into a department store.. They decided to make the building practical, not beautiful..

When Hitler and the Nazis rose to power, and economic pressures were put on businesses owned by Jews, they brought in two non-Jewish partners front the company. But then these new partners pushed out the founders.. The Jews fled to NY. The non-Jewish owners then rented the store to the Nazis. While the location (which was at the time not in the center of Berlin) was a strange place for the Nazis to create a government building.. the reason for the selection was that it was close to the headquarters of the Communist Party.. and was in a historically Jewish neighborhood.. a good place for the Nazis to locate in the heart of their enemies.

Also, a young Nazi activist who was killed by a Communist (and became a martyr) was buried in a cemetery across the street, allowing the German Youth Leadership to host activities and train millions of children in close proximity to the hero’s grave. Hitler Youth were in the building until the end of the war when the Soviets took control of East Berlin.. The Soviets then turned the building into the headquarters of the East German Communist Party and the Politburo (party elite) had its offices here. . The leaders of the Gestapo also had its offices here in this building.

The East German Communist Party relocated to a more convenient area and they turned the building into the Institute for Marxism-Leninism, which housed archives and a collection of historians who worked on an authoritative edition of the works of Marx and Engels, which I believe was never completed. After 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down and when Germany was unified, the heirs of the original Jewish owners retrieved the property through the various reparations laws. They struggled to sell the building (which some thought was filled with too many bad memories) .. and it stood vacant for more than a decade.. and then the Soho House folks bought the property. They gutted the building completely and left nothing of the original place(s).. Only the white, plain exterior remains — as it was when the Nazis and later the Soviets occupied it. Apparently the grave of the Nazi killed by the Communists can be seen from some rooms. The only history one can note is that some meeting rooms have names like Politburo…

So… that’s what I found out… about Soho House where the hipsters are drinking exotic martinis and people are swimming in the rooftop “endless pool.”

Tomorrow we are taking the train to Dessau to visit the Bauhaus (we visited the Berlin site of the Bauhaus about two years ago… ). Day trip.. leave in the morning.. lunch in Dessau and visit Bauhaus and back to Berlin.

Ende fur heute… Hope you are all doing well

Fern

Ps — For those of you who know our firm’s work with Bayer and the City of Berkeley in the 90s… Coming into town from the airport.. fairly close to the center.. there is a huuuge Bayer complex that stretches about four city blocks with at least one bridge that crosses over the city street connecting two of these enormous buildings.. with a giant Bayer sign on that bridge… !! Don’t think they needed a development agreement here.