There’s one thing my coach never tired of saying to me: “Hau den Ball ins Tor hinein!” – best translated with: “Just slam it into the back of the net!” What did yours used to say to you? What about this one: “Can you please come back out of retirement? We need you on the team!” Well, if ever you stopped playing and your team got into trouble, it’s quite possible you’ve heard that one before.

Like Michael Schumacher, whose comeback was the event in German sport on the weekend: the seven-time champion is back on the track and raring to go – again. Yesterday was his first race for his new team, Mercedes GP, and he finished sixth in the Bahrain grand prix.
Of course, Michael Schumacher is under a tremendous amount of pressure. On the one hand, German fans and the Mercedes team are expecting nothing less than the world championship; on the other, his competitors Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso are all themselves world champions and are all licking their lips at the thought of beating Schumacher, who is the most successful driver in the history of motor racing. It probably doesn’t bother him, though; after all, true champions need this adrenalin kick like we mortals need air.
Football is another sport whose fans are always happy to watch true star-players do their thing: obviously, the sheer amount of running means that age takes its toll, but that doesn’t stop fans dreaming of seeing Pélé, Maradona and Zidane working their magic one last time – wouldn’t that be fantastic?
It’s not just the fans who want their stars back, of course; there are several Bundesliga teams who are longing for the return of their great players – and several of them could really use them. Bayern München, for example, would probably like nothing better than having Oliver Kahn back: “the Titan” is without question the best German goalkeeper of recent years and there is still no-one to fill his goalie gloves. Hans-Jörg Butt, for example, will never be in Kahn’s league, especially not after the mistakes he made in the Champions League game in Florence; and despite the 2:1 victory against Freiburg, van Buyten and Badstuber in defence are certainly no dream-team – you’d need Franz Beckenbauer back ordering them around to make the Bayern defence watertight.
There are some less famous teams who could do with a helping hand from the past, too, like Borussia Mönchengladbach, who need Günther Netzer back. This midfield strategist from Borussia’s glory days in the 70s would have been just the right person to straighten out their play against VfL Wolfsburg and make the “Wolves” start worrying about goals: instead, however, the Mönchengladbachers went down 0:4. And if Netzer were to stage a comeback, it wouldn’t just help Mönchengladbach out, but would remove him from our television screens. His childish antics with co-commentator Delling are becoming increasingly annoying and ruining international games on the ARD network.
Another team that could use an old star is VfL Bochum, currently sinking into Bundesliga obscurity. If they had their old goal-machine Stefan Kuntz back, though, they’d be on the right road. He may well have earned his reputation as a striker at Kaiserslautern and in Euro 96, but back at Bochum in 1986 he was already the highest-scoring player in the league. Without him, though, Bochum are forced to suffer humiliating defeats against Ruhr-neighbours Dortmund, who won the weekend duel with a convincing 1:4.
The return of a certain Karl-Heinz Körbel would be just the thing for Eintracht Frankfurt, who suffered a 1:2 defeat against Hannover. This steely defender played 602 times for Eintracht in the 70s and 80s, holds a Bundesliga record and would certainly have held their defence together. Without him, however, Hannover were able to actually win a match and glimpse a silver lining on the otherwise dark horizon of relegation.
If FC Schalke 04 had a wish, they’d use it to request a very special comeback: not of a particular player, but of the league championship itself, which they haven’t won for 52 years: and with their 2:1 win against Stuttgart, Schalke is well on course to achieve this, too.
And what would Hertha BSC wish for? A time machine! If they could just turn back the clock to the beginning of the season, they’d be a happier team. After all, with the 1:2 home defeat against Nuremberg, their hopes of staying in the top league are shrinking fast; even a turnout of 57,000 fans was not enough to help the Herthians win a match in their own stadium. It now looks as if the Hertha coach will soon be shouting at a team that’s playing in the second division. Nevertheless, no matter which league you’re playing in, the coach’s words are always the same: “Just slam it into the back of the net”.

(Stefan Reichart/Brian Melican)

For an german Bundesliga blog click http://blog.magazine-deutschland.de

Results Matchday 26:

FC Schalke 04   -  VfB Stuttgart  2:1
Borussia Mönchengladbach   -  VfL Wolfsburg  0:4
VfL Bochum   -  Borussia Dortmund  1:4
1. FSV Mainz 05   -  1. FC Köln  1:0
Hannover 96   -  Eintracht Frankfurt  2:1
Hertha BSC Berlin  -  1. FC Nürnberg  1:2
Bayern München   -  SC Freiburg  2:1
1899 Hoffenheim   -  Werder Bremen  0:1
Bayer Leverkusen   -  Hamburger SV  4:2

Table

1   Bayern München   56 P
2   FC Schalke 04   54 P
3   Bayer Leverkusen   53 P
4   Borussia Dortmund    45 P
5   Hamburger SV    43 P
6   Werder Bremen  42 P
7   1. FSV Mainz 05 38 P
8   VfL Wolfsburg   37 P
9   VfB Stuttgart     35 P
10   Eintracht Frankfurt   35 P
11   1899 Hoffenheim    32 P
12   Borussia Mönchengladbach   30 P
13   1. FC Köln   27 P
14   VfL Bochum   27 P
15   1. FC Nürnberg  24 P
16   Hannover 96    23 P
17   SC Freiburg  20 P
18   Hertha BSC Berlin 15 P

Lady under the Engine Hood

Yesterday, I rediscovered Berlin’s hippest district: Kreuzberg. Initially, this post was solely dedicated to interesting bookstores in Kreuzberg, but on my expedition through the streets, I came across a lot more than just bestsellers and second-hand books.

Let me begin with a brief recapitulatation of Kreuzberg’s history. Kreuzberg, which means “cross-mountain“, is divided into two area codes. During the time of the Berlin Wall, three quarters of the southeastern part, also known as SO36, were closed off from the rest of Berlin. In this rather isolated area, the people living here cultivated their own culture. The majority of the people were foreigners, embracing the new symbiosis of Turkish, Persian, African and German culture. Today, more than 180 nationalities live in Kreuzberg, which makes this district a rare melting pot. On my search for interesting bookstores, I discovered a retro garage, a Persian candy factory and, of course, books en masse.

It was a sunny afternoon and I walked down the well-known Oranienstraße, a street you must see when visiting Berlin. The first bookstore that caught my attention was the Dante Connection, a store that specializes mainly in Italian literature, but also offers a broad collection of African, Asian and South-American novels. Only a few books and authors seemed familiar, many names I read for the first time. The lady at the front then explained that they primarily concentrate in special edition productions. Upon asking her if they sell the highly discussed German bestseller Axolotl Roadkill by Helene Hegemann, she tells me that they try to avoid anything mainstream, but at the moment they indeed have one copy in stock.

Philosophical / Sociological Book Store

I leave the store and continue on my journey, where a couple houses further, I notice a small sign on a gate, that reads: Metal Werkstatt, (metal garage). After I ring their doorbell, I enter through the gate into a world of metals and hammers and grey and silver tools. The owner of the garage tells me that his shop was established some 20 years ago. Here, he repairs old things or designs new objects. Since a few years, he lives here on a permanent basis. As I walk through the garage out into the backyard, I see a beautiful blue old-timer car, with a unique drawing under the engine hood. He mentions that he usually does not repair cars, but his “Baby“ needed some treatment.

I pick up my journey and enter a second-hand bookshop. Packing boxes serve as a table, a few people are rummaging inside the boxes and in the bookshelves. The young man at the desk explains that the bookshop focuses on philosophical and sociological books. Since the store buys books directly from their customers, most books are used and in a vintage state. He shakes his head when I ask him if they have “Axolotl Roadkill” - “This does not belong into our collection, I am sorry“, he says.

Persian Candy

I pursue my journey and run into a Persian candy factory. Oh my, all these sweet things look so very delicious. A woman tells me that this shop exists since the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is a family business and all ingredients are imported directly from Iran. She lets me taste some amazing chocolate-drops. After I let my mind devour every single piece of candy in that shop, I decide to continue with the bookstores.

My last stop is the Videodromshop, a store with popcultural reads. With a large range of entertaining coffee table books, it also offers an immense collection of old-school vinyl records.

Videodromshop

After having been to three bookstores, where two offered to order the number one novel I was looking for, I realized that the bookstores on Oranienstraße are all very special. Many books you have a hard time finding in regular bookstore are easily found here.

Next to a candy factory, a metal garage and many other stores, I think everyone will have some sort of success in finding a book they enjoy.

I will report more about books next week in reference to the Leipzig Bookfair.

Till then

The Berlin Messe (courtesy of Schrottie @ Flickr)

Sometimes, you could get the impression that Germany is just one big, sloppy mess. Well, that’s what you might think if don’t know much German. Even if you’re just past beginner stage, though, you could start to wonder if Germany is as modern and secular as it first appears: every city seems to have a huge “mass” that it’s very proud of. Yes, that’s right: no German city, even in the generally protestant North, is complete without its Messe.

The Messe, however, is not just a Catholic mass – no, it’s a peculiarly German creed of an entirely different persuasion: and unlike other religions, the Messe cult doesn’t divide and cause strife, because it really is all about bringing people together – 170,000 over five days in Berlin this week. Yes, that’s right: if you haven’t got bored of my ramblings by now and gone and looked it up, Messe is also the German word for trade fair – and I’m at the ITB tourism Messe in the German capital.

Having said that, a Messe really is a quite different phenomenon to what the British understand under the words “trade fair”. Off the top of my head, I can think of two cities in my home country that have dedicated trade-fair venues: London (Earls Court) and Birmingham (NEC).

Now let’s think about Germany. Well, three stops down the underground line from my place in Hamburg are the Messehallen of the Hanseatic capital. If I then get on the train and head south, it doesn’t take long before I hit Germany’s biggest Messe in Hannover (home of the world’s leading digital technology trade-fair, CeBIT). If I change trains there onto an ICE headed towards Stuttgart, I go through Düsseldorf, Cologne and Frankfurt – all of them Messestädte, the latter boasting the world’s most important book trade-fair. Stuttgart’s got a Messe too, by the way, and Munich. And as I head back north to Hamburg via Leipzig and Berlin, I go through another two very well known trade-fair locations. I wouldn’t want to miss out on Nuremberg, by the way, which has the world’s largest toy fair : yes, despite my recent 25th birthday, I’m just a big kid at heart.

You'll be crying - either with laughter, or due to onion fumes ((c) ITB)

And being a big kid is essentially what the whole Messe thing is about. These huge exhibition halls are regularly transformed into temporary themed wonderlands that you just want to run around shouting about. The Berlin tourism fair, for example, that I’m currently writing from, has hall after hall of country-stands, each more colourful and inviting than the last. There’s the Italy stand, tempting you with its cheese and ham, the America stand with burgers and fries, and then there’s the Hungary stand… Well, here’s were the big kid in you shivers: despite this Eastern European country being homonymous with hunger, they had nothing better to offer than a string of red onions: but hey, why worry about that when you can just sidle on over to the Bavarian tourism authority one hall further on: they’re offering beer from 10:00am onwards. What do you mean kids don’t like beer? This one does!

What else do big kids like? Huge statues of guys holding swords? Hermann, who I reported on last year, is here. Dancing and frolicking? Well, courtesy of the Turkish guests of honour this year, you got it! Or how about a tropical playground with palm trees, running water and a rocking ship? We’ve got one of those too! Or what would you say to a two-storey, space-age capsule with countless escalators to run up and down? Just stop by Dubai and the Arab Emirates and go for it!

Berlin Airports advertising at the ITB ((c) ITB)

Yes, the Messe is a truly fine thing. Sure, there’s some business done here – some very important business no doubt – but that’s all done in the first days during the week when the general public aren’t allowed in. As of Saturday morning, though, hordes of Germans (some with children, some with nothing better to do) will be storming the ITB looking for possible holiday destinations, product giveaways and – of course – free food. And if daddy wants a free beer, why not? No-one has to bring their car since the exhibition halls in Berlin – like all German Messen – are kitted out with several train stations and tube stops. Superb!

In fact, looking at the whole picture, the Messe really is a German religion inasmuch as it is a celebration of everything that makes Germany great: huge quantities of food, impressive logistical and organisational capabilities – and a willingness to have childish fun even wherever possible.

My flatmate is either dyslexic or has a better knowledge of English than I thought...

So I’m now a quarter of a century old! 25 – 2, 5. Yep, that’s right, yesterday I had my biggest birthday since my 21st, and probably the last one I’ll be able to look forward to without hot sweats and panic about losing the last remainders of my youth.

Having said that, now that I’ve experienced three birthdays in Germany, I can say that I won’t have any problems turning thirty here; because if there’s one thing Germans understand, it’s how to feiern a Geburtstag – and I’m not just talking about alcohol consumption here, although that too is involved.

No, the really great thing about having a Geburtstag in Germany is not the beer, but that Germans make a really big deal of you. It’s not just a “oh, look at you, you’re a year older – here, have a box of cut-price chocolates and let’s go to the pub”-thing like a birthday in Britain; here, it’s a you-festival of gigantic proportions where everyone gets very excited about, well, you. It’s you-you-you – or rather me-me-me – in a way that would never be tolerated in my home country, not even when dealing with children.

Thanks to asparagus_hunter on Flickr

When I think back my time in primary school in the early nineties on the outskirts of London, when you had a birthday the teacher read out your name after the register, you got a round of grudging applause from the other children and then you sat back down to colouring in your rectangles and triangles and trying to stop the kid next to you digging a pencil into your shoulder for kicks – or whatever it was we used to do back then.

Recently, however, I witnessed a birthday in a German primary school. The last lesson was cut short by fifteen (count ‘em!) minutes so that the child in question could hand out sweets to the others, repeatedly blow out candles on a birthday cake (yes! A cake! In school!) and then dance around excitedly for the remainder of the lesson. She was crowned the Geburtstagskönigin – or birthday queen – by the sole figure of adult authority in the room (i.e.: not me) and then allowed to do whatever she saw fit until the end of the day. As her mother picked her up after the lesson was over, I heard her shout “No mummy, I’m not putting on my coat today. And I’m not going to brush my teeth either!” As she shouted this, half-chewed gummy-bears and a few rotting milk-teeth came spewing out of her sugar-addled mouth. She followed it up by kicking her parent in the shins and then roaring “I’m birthday-queen and I command you to grovel before me and beg for your life!”

Okay, so I made that last bit up, but you get my point. Children out here learn very young that their birthday is the one day in the year when they can do anything they want, and this attitude –astonishingly enough – continues right into adulthood. In fact, I got called Geburtstagskind or “birthday child” several times yesterday, indicating just how essentially childish Germans get about the whole thing.

But of course, being childish is great fun! After all, it was the Gerrman-speaking Sigmund Freud who coined the term Regression, so these guys clearly know just how great it is to be five again for a day. And so on your birthday, no matter how old, you get everything your average five-year-old craves: heaps of presents, piles of sweets and lots and lots of attention. You also get some other stuff that five-year-olds don’t even know about, like alcohol.

Thanks to Flickr-user lincolnian_(Brian) - great name in brackets there, mate!

Whatever it is you get for your birthday in Germany, however, the main point is this: it should, wherever possible, be on the day itself. In the U.K., having a birthday on a Monday or a Tuesday is a clear invitation to simply relocate the whole affair to the nearest convenient weekend. Anyone you live with will say “Happy Birthday” on the day, give you a card and then forget about the whole thing until such time as you’re ready to drink excessively.

Germans don’t like that much. In most offices, people who have holiday left over take it on their birthday. If they’ve got none left, they come in, but they’re not seriously expected to work. In fact, they tend to bring a spread of rolls, cakes and sweets and a few bottles of bubbly Sekt with them and stop everyone else from working, too. And even if you’re an ascetic British freelancer such as myself who is congenitally incapable of taking time off until his work is under control, you’re not safe on the day: holed up at my desk, in my room, with the doors locked and nothing more than water in the house, the veritable flood of calls, text messages and e-mails essentially still stopped me from doing anything worthwhile yesterday. None of my customers cared that their articles and translations came in late, though: after all, they were on the blower to the Geburtstagskind too.

In fact, they were surprised that I’m waiting until Saturday to really hit the booze and were almost disappointed that they would get work out of me before then. Then again, this went down better than my plan last year of celebrating my birthday on Saturday 7th March. Vorfeiern? Geht gar nicht! German are really superstitious about doing anything birthday-related before the day itself, and so last year I had to wait until midnight for the Geburtstagskind-magic to kick in – no presents, no hugs, no nothing. Except beer, of course, but then again, there’s always some of that around here…

There’s one thing my coach never tired of saying to me: “Hau den Ball ins Tor hinein!” – best translated with: “Just slam it into the back of the net!” What did yours used to say to you? What about this one: “I’d like to thank my producer, my fans and, of course, my dad. Dad, if you’re looking down on us right now, this one’s for you!” Yes, it’s Oscar-time again and you can bet your last Euro that there were a few speeches like that last night. Now, the German Bundesliga is not exactly Hollywood, but if it were to award Oscars, the 25th day of play wouldn’t be a bad time to reward a few teams and players who have really excelled.

And the Oscar for ‘Showing pity to opponents’ goes to… Bayern München!
It really could have been Bayern’s day - they could have increased their lead at the top of the table to four points; but they didn’t want to. Well, at least they didn’t seem to want to in the first half of the game against 1. FC Köln. Instead, they were happy to let Cologne striker Podolski – their former team-mate – break his drought and shoot his way out of a crisis. After 1424 minutes of playing time without a single goal, Podolski finally managed to score again – with the not inconsiderable assistance of the Bayern goalkeeper Hans-Jörg Butt. In the second half, the Munich team had (to use a superb German footballing phrase) “no luck followed by bad luck”. The final result was 1:1 and gave Leverkusen the chance they needed.

And the Oscar for ‘Helping your neighbours’ goes to… 1. FC Nürnberg!
We all know that teams in the Bundesliga tend to play with their own success or failure in mind – Nuremburg, for example, are playing against relegation. So it was somewhat surprising to see them rushing to help their neighbours and big rivals Bayern München as it looked like they were about to lose first place to Bayer Leverkusen. But help they did as they beat the Rhinelanders Levekusen well with two goals from Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting and another from Mickael Tavares. Goals from Kießling and Helmes came too late and Leverkusen took their first defeat of the season.

And the Oscar for Accuracy goes to… The Strikers of the Bundesliga!
Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting, Edin Dzeko, Mohamed Zidan: what do these three Bundesliga strikers all have in common? That’s right, they all scored two goals on the 25th day of play. After all, there’s only one important thing in this category – and that’s goals, as Lukas Podolski will tell you…

And the Oscar for Best Actor goes to… Papiss Demba Cissé!
SC Freiburg vs. Hannover 96, that was the weekend’s death-match at the bottom of the table; for a long time, though, it looked as if the game between the poorest performing team on home turf against the poorest away side wouldn’t produce a winner or loser – then Papiss Demba Cissé, after having messed up three very good chances for Freibrug, decided to end this clueless kick-about by directing a free kick for Hannover straight into his own team’s goal. So that’s 2:1 for Hannover, and an award for Cissé – but no Oscar; it’s more of a Golden Raspberry.

Now, even after the wide variety of categories, no star guest should be allow to leave the Oscars without an award of some sort, which is why there are always the Honorary Oscars afterwards; if the Bundesliga were to award these too, then they would be given for “outstanding performances” – and there are enough of those.

And the Honorary Oscar for Being Bullied goes to… German football reporters!
Back in the day, being a reporter in the Bundesliga was a loafer’s life of pure pleasure: you’d sit back and take in a match on someone else’s costs; then after the game you’d stick a microphone in front of a sweaty player, babble some rubbish about “What did you think of the game, then?” and that was that; hard day at work over. The only thing you had to be careful of was not to run across Uli Hoeneß, Bayern manager and notable enemy of sports journalists. Apart from that, though, it really wasn’t hard.
Of course, that’s no longer the case. Nowadays, you’ve got to keep your head down like a war-correspondent when reporting sports – the notorious Hoeneß’ place has been filled by a wealth of players and managers who are willing to go nuclear at the first sign of conflict. Just try asking the Bayern coach Louis van Gaal if his team might have been just a little bit slow to adapt to the pace of a game and watch the fireworks as he goes on attack and accuses the journalist in question of having no understanding of football. Or there’s Schalke’s Felix Magath, who assumes that the person asking the question has never even touched a football and demands tribute for his army. Then there’s Lukas Podolski, asking a journalist unlucky enough to cross him after the Argentina game if he wanted “to take this outside”. So, as you can see, German sports reporters really deserve this particular award.

And the Oscar for Sex and Crime goes to… Amerell, Kempter & Co.
There’s an old phrase from racy German cabaret productions that translates as “Once you’ve lost your reputation, you can really start having fun!” And true to this motto, Messrs Amerell and Kempter have been doing a great job of ruining the formerly excellent reputations of German referees. Each detail of their abuse of their positions, of their sexual harassment and blackmail of those around them is more salacious than the last – and more damaging for the rather forlorn German FA, now reeling between evidence under oath, defending itself in court, exclusive interviews and anti-Bayern-Munich-e-mail-scandals. Those of us not working for the Deutscher Fußball-Bund, however, can just sit back with a bag of popcorn and watch the exciting spectacle: just like in Hollywood, there’s bound to be a lot of sleaze; and just like Hollywood, football is just a reflection of real life.
(Stefan Reichart/Brian Melican)

For an german Bundesliga blog click here.

Results Matchday 25:
1. FC Köln - Bayern München 1:1
Werder Bremen - VfB Stuttgart 2:2
Hamburger SV - Hertha BSC Berlin 1:0
Eintracht Frankfurt - FC Schalke 04 1:4
SC Freiburg - Hannover 96 1:2
VfL Wolfsburg - VfL Bochum 4:1
Borussia Dortmund - Borussia Mönchengladbach 3:0
1. FC Nürnberg - Bayer Leverkusen 3:2
1899 Hoffenheim - 1. FSV Mainz 05 0:1

Table:
1 Bayern München 53 P
2 FC Schalke 04 51 P
3 Bayer Leverkusen 50 P
4 Hamburger SV 43 P
5 Borussia Dortmund 42 P
6 Werder Bremen 39 P
7 VfB Stuttgart 35 P
8 Eintracht Frankfurt 35 P
9 1. FSV Mainz 05 35 P
10 VfL Wolfsburg 34 P
11 1899 Hoffenheim 32 P
12 Borussia Mönchengladbach 30 P
13 1. FC Köln 27 P
14 VfL Bochum 27 P
15 1. FC Nürnberg 21 P
16 Hannover 96 20 P
17 SC Freiburg 20 P
18 Hertha BSC Berlin 15 P

Rihanna performing "Rude Boy"

Two weeks ago, a friend asked me if I wanted to work at this year’s Echo award show. The Echo is the most important German music award, and this year’s artist line-up was impressive: Rihanna, Depeche Mode, Gossip, and the list goes on. In charge of the backstage area, I coordinated when the artists go on stage for their performance. I had a 16-hour day ahead of me that was planned by the minute. Here are the most important moments of the Echo 2010:

8 AM: Arrival at the Messe in Berlin, this year’s location for the Echo. Even though the Award Show only starts at 8 PM, my work-day begins 12 hours earlier.

8.30 AM: I met my wonderful colleague Yasmina. The two of us are designated as the head of the backstage area. With my “All Area“-pass and my headset I was allowed to enter everywhere at anytime. I am ready for the big day!

From 8 AM til 6 PM: First, we get familiarized with the location and the stage. On my roundtrip I stand on stage with the band Gossip who were doing a soundcheck for their number-one smash-hit “Heavy Cross“. It was cool! Later, we show the background dancers to their dressing rooms. They get prepared, warm up at the location and practice for their performance.

Rihanna, Robots and Dancers

6.20 PM: Rihanna enters the location through a secret entry way. Accompanied by her bodyguard and a friend, she wears sunglasses and a hooded jacket. She barely smiles and rushes into her dressing room where she stays for the next two hours.

6.40 PM: Robbie Williams enters the location. Only when I saw him, I understood how serious this event really is - my knees got all jiggley even though I’m not even such a big fan…

6.45 PM: Sade’s Crew enters - without Sade. Where is she?

6.50 PM: Depeche Mode is in the house!

6.51 PM: A spokesperson of Depeche Mode asks me where the band can sit – “It needs to be a fairly private spot, not where all the other artists are.“ Immediately I go on a mission to find them a more isolate spot. Mission accomplished, couch and chairs are being rearranged, spokesperson loves it and asks me for my name.

Rihanna with her Robots

6.55 PM: Through my headset I hear that Xavier Naidoo is going to be 20 minutes late. Typical!

6.57 PM: German goalkeeper Oliver Kahn just entered the Messe Berlin. He is one of the presenters of the evening’s nominations.

7.02 PM: On my quick snack-break I hear someone asking for me over the walkie-talkie: “Tina for Yolanda, there is a man here who has something for you“. No idea what she means with that, but I run back to the entrance hall and see a man holding two bags and a T-shirt in his hands. “Are you Yolanda? Here are two bottles of champagne and a T-shirt from Depeche Mode. They say thank you for the table.“ Wow! That was an unexpected surprise.

7.15 PM: We start sending the artists and the stars to the red carpet. Sade is still not there and no one can get a hold of her.

7.33 PM: Infront of Rihanna’s dressing room, her bodyguard tells me that she wont walk down the red carpet. Over my headset I inform my colleagues that “Rihanna is not walking down the red carpet because she doesn’t want to catch a cold.“ (FYI: The red carpet was indoors, and it would have been a 30second ride in her limousine to get there.)

Yasmina infront of the Echo Stage

7.35 PM: Finally, Sade enters the location. She is so beautiful and does not look a day older than 35. I can’t believe this incredible woman is 50.

8 PM: Yasmina and I make a check up: Everyone is ready, so we can start the show!

8.15 PM: The award show is on air! Three hours of live television without commercial breaks, which means that everything has to go as planned.

8.32 PM: Sade performs “Soldier of Love“: Simply perfect! The host congratulates her on her performance and her new album, but commits a faux-pas by pulling her hair, asking her what products she recommends in order for his hair to grow like hers. My headset was on fire because all the colleagues were outraged by this. There was nothing we could do about it though, the show must go on!

8.45 PM: Beth Ditto enters the stage with her band. Meanwhile, I have to take care of the background dancers for the Michael Jackson Tribute.

9.22 PM: Suddenly, Robbie Williams does not want to perform. I wonder what his problem is, and we kindly ask him to please go on stage and perform. Because of Robbie’s diva-like behaviour, we’re in delay. The Michael Jackson Tribute is pushed back 20 minutes.

9.45 PM: With more than 140 dancers on stage, the tribute for Michael Jackson is a full success. The dance to “Bad” looks good, really good!

Me with the Echo :-)

10.20 PM: Ke$ha’s performance rocks the entire audience. But the best is still to come.

10.45 PM: Because of the trouble with Robbie Williams, Rihanna’s performance is later. Suddenly everyone is stressed, because her performance is in 3 minutes and she isn’t even backstage yet! Calmly we tell her that she needs to hurry it up!

10.48 PM: Rihanna makes it on time and performs “Rude Boy“, leaving the audience in awe. This was the highlight of the evening!

11.10 PM: All the artists have performed, everything went smoothly and I am almost done with my job.

11.15 PM: The show is over and everyone is happy!!

12 AM: At the after-party with the drummers from Cold Steel, the band who plays for Peter Fox.

All in all, the Echo award show was a full success with stunning performances. Being part of such a big production made me realize how much work and effort is put into a show like this. Working backstage with so many artists was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and though it was stressfull, I feel like a dream has come true. It truly was an amazing experience.

Video: 2010-echo

Special Menu for Black History Month

Berlin is a growing metropolis known best for its originality. From world events like the annual film festival “Berlinale“ to the world’s best kept secret laundromat down the street, Berlin is home to everything your heart desires and everything your heart didn’t even know it desires.

In the past days, a couple of events and locations showed the internationality Berlin has in store, of which I find two worth mentioning. First, the Black History Month 2010 in Berlin, which exceeded all expectations, followed by my discovery of the laundromat slash event location named “Freddy Leck“.

Every year in February, Black History Month is celebrated on international grounds and since a couple of years, Berlin can call itself one of the proud hosts of this cultural recognition. During the four weeks in February, Berlin offers a span of special events that bring the Black culture and history closer to the people in the city.

Lamp made of Plastic Cups at Rosa Caleta

Collaborations range from art galleries that show exhibitions by black artists, book shops that host evenings of deep poetry readings, and restaurants with a “Black History Month“ special. Last sunday evening, this years Black History Month was rejoiced one last time at the Jamaican-European fusion cuisine Rosa Caleta in Kreuzberg. Sharmaine (last name unknown - Update 03/12/2010: Reid), the owner of “Dialogue Berlin“, a unique book shop slash café, did an outstanding job at presenting an evening with performances from artist and musician Satch Hoyt, singer Nuwella and expressive dancer and artist Todd Ford. During the impressive performances, Sharmaine took the time to read to the international audience about Black literature from America, Africa and the Carribean Islands. It was one of those surprisingly great evenings with good food and a delightful “side dish“ with impressive artists and acts.

Unfortunately, I was not able to attend any further Black History Events, but I heard of a reading I had missed that struck my interest because it was held in a laundromat - of all places. I decided to visit the owner of the laundromat, Freddy Leck, because it seemed like he had many more events planned.

Freddy Leck's Laundromat

I suppose that everyone has been to a laundromat before. But have you ever been to one with the best coffee in town, that has chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, that hosts readings and concerts?

“Welcome to the World of Freddy Leck“ was the first thing I heard when I entered the store. Of course the smell of cleaners was noticable, but so was the antique wall-paper, the funny framed pictures on the wall and the long carpet. Like in a “real café“, one can sit here and meet with friends. This is more than just a place with fresh clean clothes, this place is a hot-spot!

The customers range from the elite professor to people on well-fare. When asked to describe his motivations for opening a laundromat after being an actor, Freddy Leck says that he wanted to create a spot where people can still believe and dream. “Here at Freddy Leck, everything is possible“. And I thought I was getting my clothes washed, oh no, I was getting an entire soul and mind wash. Mr. Leck decides to tell me an anecdote about one person who came into his shop, who decided to wash all of his clothes, even the ones he was wearing. He ended up standing only in his underwear, waiting for his clothes to dry. Indeed, everything is possible at this laundromat.

With a very own line, Freddy Leck is a success

Still early in the evening, I am one of few young people in Freddy Leck. Two are sleeping on the comfortable couch in the back, waiting for their laundry to dry, while some are enjoying their third coffee watching TV on a brand new flatscreen. Upon asking Freddy Leck what his future plans are, he mentions that this weekend he will host the very first “wash-party“, hopefully soon a reoccurring monthly date by the summer. This place is not only used as a means of clean clothes, it is an event location. Film teams come here and use “Freddy Leck“ as a location while young people can rent this place for their parties. Freddy Leck, a small german laundromat that is even big in Japan today, is truly the proof of “If you believe, you will achieve“.

See you next time!

“Hau den Ball ins Tor hinein!” – Bundesliga blog for the 24th day of play – Its derby-time!

There’s one thing my coach never tired of saying to me: “Hau den Ball ins Tor hinein!” – best translated with: “Just slam it into the back of the net!” What did yours used to say to you? What about this one: “In order to enchant your audience, you have to open yourself to them and show them the determination inside you”? Ever heard that? Probably not – unless you’re also in an amateur dramatic club.

One place in Germany where this kind of talk can be heard at the moment is the Ruhr area around Essen, Duisburg and Dortmund, which is European Capital of Culture 2010 (along with Pécs in Hungary). The Ruhr area stretches from Hamm in Westphalia through to Wesel on the Rhine and counts several major cities and five million inhabitants; and at the moment, it’s one big showplace for sculptures and installation art, festivals and concerts, theatre and opera performances and countless other events. Monumental industrial relics, disused mines, old smithies: all the signs of the old industrial powerhouse the Ruhrgebiet once was have now become an exciting backdrop for art, drama and music all year long.

This is a clear indication that restructuring of the economy of the Ruhr area is continuing on its course from heavy industry through to the service sector. Once the booming centre of the German Wirtschaftswunder known worldwide for coal and iron, the Ruhr-cities and their population grew with their industry and melted into one another, creating a continuous urban area that stretches almost uninterrupted for 30 miles from East to West. And alongside iron, steel and coal, the workers on the Ruhr also produced an unparalleled football culture: soccer is the heartbeat of these cities, and anyone who wants to get to know them has to go to one of the temples of this culture.

There are plenty of them: Rot-Weiß Essen, MSV Duisburg, Rot-Weiß Oberhausen, Wattenscheid 09, VfL Bochum. Like most temples, their best days are clearly behind them; most have had their time in the big leagues, now they play in regional conferences – a few are still in the Bundesliga, but mostly keeping a low profile. All except Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund, that is; the two big Ruhrgebiet teams are still in full effect, fired on by a bitter rivalry with each other. True fans of these sides will not speak the name of the other, for example, calling them by the names of their neighbouring towns instead (Herne-West and Lüdenscheid respectively).

And when these two teams play against each other, all hell breaks loose: on the 24th day of play this season, this dreaded derby occurred.

The reasons for this football rivalry are not the usual poor-rich or catholic-protestant tensions (like in Glasgow); no, the rivalry only started in the 1950s and was a product of the miners’ close culture: back then, the workers stuck to their areas of town and threw their hearts and souls into football. Before the Second World War, Schalke (named after its area of Gelsenkirchen) was the undisputed number one, playing its own brand of one-touch-football known back then as the “Schalker Kreisel”. After the War, however, Dortmund rose to the top, taking the title six times after 1956 while Schalke celebrated its last league championship in 1958. In the spirit of this rivalry, 2008 saw Dortmund celebrate “Schalke: 50 years without the cup”.

Nowadays, these legendary Derbys are becoming less and less important. Not for the fans, clad in royal blue on the “Nordkurve” at Schalke or in yellow and black on Dortmund’s “Südtribüne”, but certainly for management and the players, who are faced with too many other important games – and too many players who don’t come from the Ruhr area. “We’d rather beat Dortmund than be champions” is an old motto that the Schalke coach Felix Magath would probably not agree with any more, so the fans love it when the players nourish the flame of rivalry – like Dortmund’s 21-year-old native, Kevin Großkreuz, who was recently quoted as follows: “I wouldn’t go to Schalke for all the money in the world. I hate them more than anything and if my son were to become a Schalke fan, I’d send the little beggar to a children’s home.” Schalke’s goalkeeper, also a local of his side’s hometown Gelsenkirchen replied in a similar tone: “A few of Dortmund’s players damaged my reputation in the first leg this season” – and now he is out for revenge.

Now, Neuer succeeded in doing the damage, but he and Großkreutz were not the main focus of the game. The one to watch was Ivan Rakitic. After a relatively flat first half, Dortmund got a penalty and Sahin put them in the lead; Schalke replied with a goal from Höwedes, and Dortmund’s goalkeeper then managed to knock out his own defender Matt Hummels in a rather unfortunate way: Kuranyi had pushed Hummels into Weidenfeller’s curled fist, leaving Hummels being stretchered off with a broken jaw. Rakitic then used the confusion sown in Dortmund’s defense to make it 2:1 for Schalke, meaning that Dortmund has not one this derby once since 2007 and putting his side behind Munich and Leverkusen at the head of the table.

Bayer Leverkusen, by the way, have managed to lose the heavy weight they were carrying: that being the Crown of the Table Leader, which they lost due to a 0:0 draw against Cologne (another “Derby”, this one on the Rhine). Now that they’ve drawn 11 times this season, more than any other team in the league, they’ve dropped back to second place.

So it’s all eyes on Bayern München now, who are back at the top of the table for the first time since 17th May 2008 – and all they had to do was beat Hamburg 1:0. This is another old rivalry, the “North-South banger” as it is known, and although it’s not strictly a derby, the duels the two teams fought in the 1980s for the first place have left their mark. Munich’s win was their first against HSV at their home stadium, Ribéry sealing the deal with a really remarkable goal. This puts Bavaria back at number one after a long chase up the table: and they’ll be looking to stay there.

Another true derby is in Lower Saxony, Hannover 96 against Wolfsburg: Wolfsburg are still champions from last year - and Hannover are still in the top league (just), so it was no surprise that the “Wolves” won 1:0.

This weekend’s player of the day was VfB Stuttgart’s Cacau thanks to his scoring both goals in their 2:1 victory against Frankfurt. The week before, he had already scored four goals – and scored the goal in Stuttgart’s 1:1 draw against Barcelona in the Champions’ League. You might say he’s on a roll!

Now back to the Ruhr area. With this weekend now passed, culture is back on the top spot, with Dortmund’s U-brewery and Gelsenkirchen’s “North Star” as it is known back at the centre of attention. It would seem, however, that the jury for Capitals of Culture 2010 was pretty keen on football: after all, Istanbul is also a Capital of Culture this year – and is the scene of another derby: Galatasaray against Fenerbahce. You can bet that the coaches for those sides will be preparing their teams for their meeting on 28th March with phrases like “you just can’t lose against them” and, of course, “Just slam it into the back of the net!”

(by Stefan Reichart/Brian Melican)

Read more about Ruhr.2010
http://www.magazine-deutschland.de/en/artikel-en/article/article/wandel-durch-kultur-das-revier-der-ideen.html

For an german Bundesliga Blog click here.

Results Matchday 24

FC Schalke 04 - Borussia Dortmund 2:1
Bayer Leverkusen - 1. FC Köln 0:0
Bayern München - Hamburger SV 1:0
Hannover 96 - VfL Wolfsburg 0:1
Hertha BSC Berlin - 1899 Hoffenheim 0:2
1. FSV Mainz 05 - Werder Bremen 1:2
VfB Stuttgart - Eintracht Frankfurt 2:1
Borussia Mönchengladbach - SC Freiburg 1:1
VfL Bochum - 1. FC Nürnberg 0:0

Table

1 Bayern München 52 P
2 Bayer Leverkusen 50 P
3 FC Schalke 04 48 P
4 Hamburger SV 40 P
5 Borussia Dortmund 39 P
6 Werder Bremen 38 P
7 Eintracht Frankfurt 35 P
8 VfB Stuttgart 34 P
9 1899 Hoffenheim 32 P
10 1. FSV Mainz 05 32 P
11 VfL Wolfsburg 31 P
12 Borussia Mönchengladbach 30 P
13 VfL Bochum 27 P
14 1. FC Köln 26 P
15 SC Freiburg 20 P
16 1. FC Nürnberg 18 P
17 Hannover 96 17 P
18 Hertha BSC Berlin 15 P

Today, we’re going to talk about toilets in Germany. Again. Now, since I’ve already blogged once for you guys about German attitudes to toilets, you’d be well within your rights to ask whether I’m some kind of faeces-freak: and the answer is no, I’m not crazy about toilets; but the Germans certainly are.

So, you’ve been warned. If you’ve got a weak stomach, you may want to stop reading now. If, however, you don’t want to be surprised and confused when you use a German toilet for the first time, then you might as well sit tight and read on while we, er, plumb the depths of everyday German living.

Not that we’re going that deep. The subject of today’s toilet-related excursion is in fact quite shallow: we’re talking what’s known in waste management as “reverse bowl design”. Reverse bowl design – or, to save my wrists, RBD, is where the toilet bowl contains a ledge onto which faecal matter lands before being swept down into the drain by the flush. Can’t quite imagine it? Never seen one before? Don’t worry, that’s normal.

After all, this toilet shape is unknown in almost every part of the world except Germany and, so I’m told, the neighbouring Netherlands. I’d certainly never come across it before living here, and whenever I get visitors from back in the UK, they always ask the same question after their first trip to our flat’s lovely green porcelain receptacle: “So Brian, tell me: what’s going on with these toilets?”

It’s a valid question. For those of us brought up in countries where we, ahem, drop our kids straight off into the pool, it’s quite a shock when we realise that the little blighters are still splashing around in the changing rooms after we leave. Not only a shock, it has a mildly unpleasant fascination: “So that’s what my crap looks like?”

The unpleasant fascination is, in most cases, immediately followed by an even more unpleasant realisation: “My crap really stinks that bad? I mean, I knew I didn’t smell of roses or nothin’, but goddamm!” Don’t worry, it’s not that you’re suddenly very ill and in need of a colonic; the problem is pure physics: when shit doesn’t immediately hit water, it hits the fan and smells monolithically disgusting. For a country that produced Einstein, this is a surprising lapse in basic knowledge that has horrific consequences on a day-to-day level.

Then again, if you talk to Germans about their RBD-toilets, they’ll point out the advantages in that matter-of-fact and direct way that only Germans can manage when talking about excretion. What are these advantages? Well, if you’ve got kids and they’ve swallowed something, you can check their “leavings behind” (this is a loan-translation of one of the best German words for poo: Hinterlassenschaften) to see whether it came back out. Or if you accidentally swallow your wedding ring, you’ll have ample opportunity to search for it. At this stage I would like to briefly point out that my acquaintance does not, to my knowledge, contain international drug runners.

The main reason, however, as far as most of my German friends are concerned, is that you get to have a good look at your faeces before they go down the hatch. “Why would you want to do that?” I ask; the answer is, typically in this country that gave the world Aspirin and the idea of employee health care, “so you can keep an eye on your health.”

Now, as a regular consumer both of beetroot and of German delicacies involving pigs’ blood, I’m quite used to slightly abnormal faeces; but I have to say that they have a point. When things really don’t look ship/t-shape, you’re generally ill. I know what my stuff mostly looks like, and when it’s not quite the same as usual, it often tallies with a slight cold or a bit of stress or similar. I can also recognise other afflictions – like hangovers, for example.

Having said that, I could do that back in the UK without having to render the toilet utterly unusable for several hours: you can just feel whether you drank too much or not. You also know when you’ve got a stomach-bug quite well enough without RBD (or, as I like to call it, “the ledge”).

So although I generally salute Germans’ interest in their health – and their no-nonsense relationship with the toilet – this is one area of daily life out here that I’m just not convinced about.

Inside the Berlinale Palast

After ten days of original films, special events and high society, the sixtieth film festival “Berlinale“ came to a closing this weekend.

Saturday evening’s award-ceremony highlighted the best films in the Berlinale-competition with an Oscar-like distribution of “Golden and Silver Bears“. The international judging panel, with eminent names like Renée Zellweger and others, awarded the Turkish-German production “Bal“ (“Honey“), by Semih Kaplanoglu, with the Golden Bear for Best Film. “Bal“ is the final part of a trilogy and tells the story of an enchanting relationship between a father and his young son through the eyes of the six-year old boy. The director chose to employ the rich sounds of nature rather than bland music in his film, which gave the film a very personal touch and a “real feel“.

Renée Zellweger: "With Gratitude and Affection!"

The personal touch was intensified on Sunday at the “Berlinale-Panorama“, an award for the best film elected by the audience. Over the ten-day course of the Berlinale, there were public voting booths, both online and at the participating cinemas. This year, the audience awarded the Brazilian/English film “Waste Land“ with the Panorama-prize.

Unfortunately, the Berlinale as a whole was not as highly rewarded as expected. There were many disappointing occasions: From the opening with a rather unspectacular film that didn’t draw any celebrities to the red carpet, to a similar situation with the anticipated closing premier of “Nine“. The Berlinale did not manage to attract even one star from this grand Hollywood-production. No Pénelope Cruz, no Judi Dench, no Nicole Kidman, not even the director Rob Marshall appeared to his own premier. What a slap in the face for the reputation of the Berlinale…But then again, stars like Leonardo DiCaprio and Pierce Brosnan took the time for their fans in Berlin.

A full dance floor at the Cookies

My desk

Then there was another celebration that exceeded everyone’s expectations: “Lieblingstag“ (“Favorite Day“) is a weekly party at the glorious Puro, and is located on the 20th story of a sky-scraper on the “Ku’damm“, which is probably the most popular shopping avenue in Berlin. The loft-like location offers a rare 360° view of Berlin – what could be better than partying over the roof tops of Berlin?!

During the Berlinale, the Lieblingstag-party was THE talk of town. Even some people at the Berlinale Talent Campus asked me if I had heard of the so-called Lieblingstag. Hundreds of people were queuing till late into the night, one guest even told me she waited for one hour before she could hit the dance floor, and still it was worth waiting for. This legendary celebration mixes the best of 70ies and 80ies with hip hop and house. No wonder no one wanted to miss out. Lieblingstag is Berlin’s best party.

That was it for the Berlinale, I hope you enjoyed my blog. If you decide to visit Berlin, please don’t hesitate to contact me at Young Germany or on Twitter, it would be my pleasure to give you some tips for Berlin.

Thank you for following my blog!

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