Rudi’s berlin
Not every hidden gem in Berlin is abandoned. Some are about to be abandoned, should be abandoned, or would be abandoned in any other city.
Some are simply neglected, overseen, ignored, unloved, maybe even unknown. This city is littered with memorials to forgotten heroes of yesteryear, bizarre sculptures, and other curiosities among the last vestiges of alternative culture holding out against the greed-driven forces of change.
This is Rudi’s Berlin, the places that tickle the city’s underbelly.
Café Achteck
In 1897/1898, there were 159 cast-iron public pissoirs offering relief to bloated Berliner bladders (mostly men’s), including 104 of the seven-stall urinals lovingly known as Café Achteck. Only a few remain.
Gaudí’s Living Room
A street-side stone living room on Florastraße is decorated with Gaudí-esque mosaics, inviting passers-by to linger in Pankow’s Sagrada Família.
Harald Juhnke Memorial
This square is a fitting match for a tragic Berlin hero. If you look up the memorial to Harald Juhnke on Google Maps, the first comment reads, “a sad, small, crap-covered square”– and that captures it perfectly.
The Tax Screw
Berliners dubbed the Rathenau fountain in Rehberge the “Steuerschraube” (Tax Screw) as commentary on the tax policies of the Weimar Republic at the time.
Schiller’s Bastion
The Schiller Bastion is not a defensive structure built to protect classical German thought, but rather the boundary of a park's garden terrace.
Anti-War-Café
The Anti-War Café feels like a romantic throwback to the plenary room of a 1980s squat. The main theme here is peace – peace on Earth and peace with the Soviet people.