NO ANGEL

1. I visited the Jewish museum: The history of the Jews in Germany from the fourth century onward. German Jews tried to change their fate by assimilating the general population. Gradually these 2 populations became the shadow of each other until the tragedy of the Holocaust took place and hence the loss of millions. The question of the other, the strange one, hidden hatred and terror in those turbulent times cover with its ashes all the living. And the achievements of the former collaboration between the genius of the German people and the genius of the Jewish people that could bring wonders to humankind had stooped. That unique breakthrough which had taken place was an outcome of that rare dialogue between philosophers, scientists, musicians and other artistic and writers, and it was lost under the Nazi regime. Names like Einstein, Marcuse, Oppenheimer, Wittgenstein, Freud and many others could flourish in the Weimar era and before thanks to the best conditions and close relations with German scientists, artists and philosophers. From the days of Mendelssohn, slowly the Jews considered themselves as an integral part of German society. Until the destruction started.

The voidence

Cracks and light

2. It is obvious and open that Berlin has become one of the more liberal places. Open minded. With education focused on tolerance, through openness to all arts and colors of human culture, through world music, early education, open discussion about the past, the present and the future. With its open door policy and acceptance of the other, Berlin is becoming a symbol of liberalism which takes its roots from liberty. Those cultures wise enough to understand how each different culture may enrich theirs will be the focus and the desirable, rich and strong places to be.

3. C/O

CO GALLERY

Somewhat as an answer. I was fortunate enough to pay a visit with my daughter Tali to this wonderful shrine of photography reflecting the creative, vibrant, inspiring Berlin. Moreover in these days one of the main attractions of this museum is the exhibition of Robert Kappa, one of the best known photographers of the birth of the state of Israel. For us it what was like farewell from homeland but in my mind I connected this exhibition to a brighter chapter in the history of the Jewish people. Like in old times many immigrants from all over the world, including survivors from the Holocaust, came or have come to build there own homeland. But of course nothing is simple in life, as we all know, and more than 7 wars in that tormented piece of land are the proof. These very days the Israelis and the Palestinians tried to solve the bitter and agonizing conflict – who knows – days will tell… I pray for the benefit of the two people and the coming generations.

Revelation

4. If people would be loyal to themselves they could see that love is the bliss and the source of happiness, no wars, no dominance, no power will make anybody happy but love. As Rabbi Nachman said: if you see the good in the other, then you see the good in yourself. If you see the bad or the evil in the other, then you see it in yourself. His words are based on the biblical verse: “love your friend (the other) as you love yourself”.

In my own words: Love is the natural fill of the soul.

5. All cultures and people are precious and irreplaceable to the great mosaic of the human experience. Every culture and people has its own beauty and wisdom. Those who understand it nowadays will benefit greatly (London. New York. Berlin).

6. Only a couple of minutes from lady B. brought me to this elegant Fasanenstrasse. There I can tell you of my private secret cafe is hidden there. You can find several beautiful galleries. In one of them Johanna Breede (photokunst) presents the works of Liselotte Strelow. I was especially moved by the photos of Thomas Mann and Gottfried Benn, the great poet and once the lover of the legendary expressionist poet Else Lasker Schüler.

7. In my room I am listening the Righteous Brothers: they say that time can do so much. Oh the wonderful music of the sixties.

8. Or as Kafka said: “Those who continue the search for beauty will stay young forever”. This is another good reason to fill your soul with love. This is why people preoccupied with thoughts and feelings of bitterness, get depressions (every feeling of boredom, hatred, and hostility is the result of depression) – all late results of childhood and malparenting.

9. Listen and experience this bitter-sweet sensation:

The poet

Das Cover

Quasi als Resümee und zur Feier unseres Einjährigen haben wir gestern auf der Pressekonferenz des internationalen literaturfestivals berlin (ilb) “Dear Frau Bleibtreu” vorgestellt. “Dear Frau Bleibtreu” ist die gedruckte Kollektion einer Auswahl von Blogeinträgen unserer 11 Autoren, die in den ersten 12 Monaten am LiteraturRaum teilnahmen. Die limitierte und nummerierte Auflage von 3.000 Stück ist im Hotel und auf Anfrage erhältlich. Illustriert sind die Texte mit Fotos von Ali Ghandtschi, der intime und sensible Blicke auf die Schriftsteller wirft. Wir freuen uns schon auf die nächsten Autoren – Liao Yiwu und Colin McAdam in 2010 – und auf viele spannende Blogeinträge, Lesungen, persönliche Gespräche und auf das Feedback aller Freunde des LiteraturRaums!

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LiteraturRaum starts its second year and celebrates with “Dear Frau Bleibtreu” (en)

Yesterday was the first anniversary of LiteraturRaum. One year ago in September, we started the project together with the internationale literaturfestival berlin (ilb), without really knowing, where it would lead us. The feedback of the participating authors, all the people interested in literature, our guests and the members of the cultural sphere was so positive, that we decided to prolong the project, which had initially be scheduled for one year.

As a resumee and celebration of our anniversary, we presented „Dear Frau Bleibtreu“ yesterday on the press conference of the ilb. „Dear Frau Bleibtreu“ is a printed collection of selected blogs which our 11 authors of the past 12 months wrote. 3.000 limited and numbered „Dear Frau Bleibtreu“ copies were printed. The texts in it are illustrated by photos made by Ali Ghandtschi.

We are looking forward to the authors to come – Liao Yiwu and Colin McAdam in 2010 – and to many exciting blog entries, readings, meetings and the feedback of all friends of the LiteraturRaum!

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Das “Making of …” von “Dear Frau Bleibtreu”

Noch verpackt und verhüllt - die Spannung steigt

"Dear Frau Bleibtreu" rollt an ...

Falscher Titel - richtiger Inhalt.

Handarbeit: Jedes Exemplar erhält eine Nummer per Stempel.

David Weinberger (Direktor Bleibtreu) und Ali Ghandtschi (Fotograf) halten die ersten Exemplare von "Dear Frau Bleibtreu" in den Händen.

Blue night

Dimensions

The child and the world

The light (Neues Museum)

Who is the one?

Summertime on Savignyplatz

Behind bars

August on Savignyplatz

Blue at Sony

The play

The cloud

The wonder

Odysseus

Conversation

Moment of grace

Geometry

Wordless

Moment of grace -2-

Colors

Ancient birds on Pergamon

Thousands of people made a pilgrimage to the Waldbuehne amphitheater. They came to the great ceremony led by the high priest, Leonard Cohen. 6.30 p.m. was the time; at 6.15, the amphitheater was half empty. By 6.30, they were there by the thousands, ages 18-70 from all nations and places.

He was there, his deep voice with all the prayers and pains, a voice better, deeper and more mesmerizing than ever; this was him, the high priest. It was not the soundtrack of their lives that brought the people there, but the soundtrack of their soul, the sound of love. “There is a crack in everything,” said the poet-troubadour/singer/cantor/musician Leonard Cohen,

“There is a crack in everything

that’s how the light gets in

Bring the bells…”

The light within, the bells of every beauty, these are the things that had brought the people there, as an antidote to cynicism—the disease of our generation.

It was an ancient ceremony where all the significant subjects of life were resynchronized, harmonized, praised with new purity, faith and exaltation. It was an old ceremony of great humility, modesty and compassion to the human condition. Leonard Cohen is a poet beyond everything and this has great importance; it means that he will accompany your soul for three and a half hours; that he will respect your intelligence, your mind; and mainly that he will facilitate within you this precious thing most intimate and most of the time hidden: your naked soul. Chastity and innocence.

He started by saying, “I am now before you in Berlin, which was once a turbulent place and now one of the most peaceful places.”

And one after another followed all his poem-songs for 210 moments of grace.

2. As I am moving all around Berlin and have this homey wonderful anchor in an inviting, gentle PLACE CALLED BLEIBTREU hotel with the devoted and pleasant staff. In the morning the shining breakfast and at night when I come back from the city a warming dinner, and the room with all my books and music that I brought with me. My homeland is my library; everything here affords me with this luxurious free time for writing.

3. On August 3, we had a special literary evening for Naomi Shihab and myself. It was a kind of celebration as we discussed childhood, the idea of sister languages and we read poems with actors and the team of the hotel made its best of the success of the event and indeed the audience was generous enough and my main host here, Mr. Uli Schreiber, the general editor of the Berlin Literature Festival, was generous enough to say that that evening is one of the best he has ever attended.

4. My colleague Naomi went away and now I have to keep on the mission, or rather I have the pleasure, “plaisir d’ecrire,” as Roland Barthes used to say.

5. The tree is green with red fruits and golden traces all around the branches, the local park is an island of peace and a source of simple joy.

6. Helmut Newton was a satirist; the way he used the camera is one way of celebrating life through the beauty of women and the body. As if he was invited to a fest with Bacchus.

7. I spent a wonderful evening as a guest of Uli Schreiber at Paris Bar, a place. One can watch the local milieu of beauty and the arts. It was Hesiod who said: happy is the one who listens to the song of the Muses.

8. Käthe Kollwitz was a great artist who used to listen to the shadows, and she held within herself human suffering. Personally she lost a son and a grand son in wars, as if her subconscious prepared her for the fate to come, but above all she was a great painter and a sculptress with great soul.

Champagne and a rose: a gesture of grace

But it all started 2 days ago, when I had landed at this elegant boutique hotel which carries out this important idea of LiteraturRaum and when I had been welcomed by the manager and the staff in a very warm and cordial way, and when I had had a pleasant conversation in the garden which is the heart of the residency.

CHAMPAGNE AND A ROSE

Two apples in my room to remind me of another image of beauty and the circle of time.

Circle of life

In the blue garden around the blue mosaic table I was welcomed warmly and openly by Mr. Weinberger, the manager of the hotel, and the literary project, LiteraturRaum, goes in accordance with the main goal of bringing into light new ideas, a goal which is the heart of literature. It takes such a long time until a new thought shines, you need to be free of all the worries of every day noise to let the spirit give birth to the original, Happy birthday! shines the golden bottle on the metronome of time and a warm and personal letter with best wishes by my host and in the name of the staff. You think that a contact, a human touch, is a moment of grace, what else could we seek against “the dying of the light”.

The blue garden

The blue bird

Happy birthday! shines from the table, from the eyes of the staff I met that morning, in the heart of this amazing, vibrant city. I am looking forward to be inspired by its artistic scene, its shadows and the new light which has made her perhaps the most interesting city in the world (with New York).

Happy birthday! Jacob from the international literature festival was also with us in the blue garden after he picked me up from the airport with his generous welcome.

And the room facing Bleibtreustrasse, the trees, the light, the people going by.

A bird over 31

And Deli 31 with its delicious food, around the blue table I thought about the literary saloons of the 19th century, and I am thinking how wonderful and useful it could be for the hotel to organize such an event every month:

The saloon of the blue garden with one central speaker, a poet or a prose writer, it could be A DINNER WITH A WRITER IN THE BLUE GARDEN. The BUZZ WILL SPREAD … Once upon a time there was a mansion in the heart of Berlin and it turned to be a boutique hotel which revives the tradition of literary saloons side by side with the LiteraturRaum.

Happy birthday!

I went out to Ku’damm and to the city lights.

© Israel Bar Kohav

Israel Bar Kohav, geboren 1950 in Givatayim bei Tel Aviv ist ein mehrfach ausgezeichneter Lyrik- und Prosaautor. Er arbeitet als Gestaltpsychologe in Jerusalem. Hier ist er außerdem Dozent für kreatives Schreiben und Psychologie an der Hebrew University sowie in Tel Aviv am Hakibbutzim College of Education.

Zusätzlich hält er eine Gastprofessur an der Ben-Gurion University im Negev. Seine Gedichte wurden in 13 Sprachen übersetzt. Israel Bar Kohav setzt sich für die Vermittlung zwischen Arabern und Hebräern ein und 2002 wurde er ausgewählt, vor dem europäischen Parlament aus Anlass der Verabschiedung des Friedensabkommens im Nahen Osten zu lesen.

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Residency: July 30th to September 22nd, 2010

Israel Bar Kohav, born in Givatayim near Tel Aviv in 1950, is a writer of lyrics and prose texts who has received numerous awards. He works in Jerusalem as a gestalt psychologist. He also teaches Creative Writing and Psychology at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University and at the Hakibbutzim College of Education in Tel Aviv. In addition he holds a visiting professorship at Ben-Gurion University in the Negev. His poems have been translated into 13 languages. Mr Bar Kohav is actively committed to fostering dialogue between Arabs and Israelis, and was chosen in 2002 to read to the European Parliament on the occasion of the approval of the peace agreement in the Near East.

We went, on another hot Berlin day, walking maybe 5 miles, to the astonishing gigantic memorial to the Soviet dead.I’m not sure I’ve ever been in a park quite like that, having never been to Russia. And, would never have found it without my friend’s friend. He gave fascinating perspectives on the changes in this city since the wall came down, and corporate capitalistic commerce entered every sector with a bang, and I am grateful to hear more stories from all directions.

Friend Lisa took me on “her favorite walk in Berlin which ends up with ice cream” – from Alexanderplatz, down the grand Unter der Linden Boulevard (walking in the middle!) through the Brandenburg Gate to Potsdamer Platz. We sat for some deep moments in the Room of Silence at the Gate, which felt just right – a place of so much history, honored by silence. “In silence is embedded the marvelous power of clarification, purification and concentration on essentials.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Also took a walk with other generous friends and their truly spectacular baby in Friedrichshain Park, rich with secret paths, tall trees, German red squirrels, fountains, cafes, an outdoor theater, benches, meadows for basking, and intriguing statues including a turtle with a human face.

Finally, I am starting to figure out how the intricate neighborhoods connect, which streets are wide seams, what sits next to what, how Mitte is somehow everywhere, and in what way. When you ride an underground, at first it’s hard to figure this out. Time and more aboveground movement help a lot. Although an avid bicycle rider at home, I felt spooked about riding in bustling Berlin, without my helmet, so never did. But that might be the best way to figure out neighborhood juxtapositions more quickly.

It is a great treat to be able to find one’s way matter-of-factly without checking any map. The M29 bus is brilliant. Yesterday I ordered food and drink in German and was understood. I had two dreams in which everyone else was speaking German.

The great singer Tish Hinojosa, friend from Texas, now resident of Hamburg, visited Hotel Bleibtreu for dinner. We ate fabulous fish with fennel and I learned that her last name means fennel. What kind of luck is that? Everyone check out her website and music if you don’t already know it!

I think of the now-moved-on-show of marvelous photographs, “and in the middle, me” by Esther-Judith Hinz, which showed at c/o Berlin. Maria Schindelegger wrote of her work, “Home. It is the static antithesis of mobility and globalization; the symbol of rootedness, identity, security, and intimacy…it fulfills our longing for a sense of attachment to place, for orientation, perspective, a feeling of getting down to the basics…Home is also a non-place, non-existent, a projection and a utopia; it is flexible, amorphous, individual, and lost forever.”

I have felt all these things here.

Forever VIELEN DANK — I thank the beautiful, shining, smiling, generous staff at Hotel Bleibtreu for helping travelers feel at home. This has been the nicest stay of my life anywhere and the greatest gift I was ever given. My personal light bulb has been readjusted. Berlin remains my favorite city on the planet – San Antonio, forgive me. Thank you for your mashed potatoes, fruit plates, morning greetings, good humor. I apologize for my clumsiness and linguistic idiocy.  Feeling a bit heartbroken to leave you all, I am confident that the next writer, Israel Bar Kohav, already munching away on his daily green apple, will enjoy your hospitality as much as Michael and I did. Upon arrival, Israel mentioned that he heard Berlin has 1,500 activities happening every evening. The sweetest of all daily activities remained returning to Hotel Bleibtreu, entering this sphere of beauty and kindness, feeling fully at home again. I will miss the big 3 on my floor. The smoothed-down featherbed comforters and the very soft pillows. Thank you Julia Tismer, David & Rachel Weinberger, King Theo Emanuel, Dr. Angelika Jansen, Christoph Niemann & Lisa Zeitz, Ulrich Schreiber, Katrin Hesse, Ina Bargmann, Markus Streichardt,  Juliane, Karin and Frank Erben, Maximilion & Luise Preisler, Anne-Dore Krohn, Ali Gandtschi, Ede Muller, Miriam Mollers, Lisa Repschlaeger, Jan Ralske, Ute who took me to see the fascinating Kunstlerkolonie neighborhood and made fresh lemonade as we shared our dreams for peace in Israel and Palestine, Bill Nye in New Guinea and Junko Yokota in Munich for reading my blogs and writing back, Madison Nye in Texas for same, Internationales literaturfestival Berlin, and all other old and new Berlin friends — wishing the literature festival great success in 2010.  Thank you every single person of every beautiful name at Hotel Bleibtreu.

Come see us in San Antonio someday. We will introduce you to our turtle with a turtle’s face.

My wonderful friend Junko Yokota, who does research at the INTERNATIONALE JUGENDBIBLIOTHEK in Munich in summers, came to Berlin for two lively days. We visited the Kathe Kollwitz Museum on the Fasananstrasse together. Kollwitz said, “Enough of dying! No one should die in action anymore!” She lost both her son and her grandson to war. The faces in her riveting work embody unspeakable grief.

It should be a requirement for any politician considering sending people to war to visit this museum. After weeks of visiting Berlin museums, one thinks a lot about power.
Who wants it? Why do they want it? What do they do with it when they get it? Why is it so popular? How do people have time for it?

This week I bought a Guardian, first newspaper in English I’ve read in a month after skimming headlines on-line. Catastrophes and chaos of war on all the front pages, new leaks of security, terrible hidden statistics emerging, margin to margin. Absolutely full disasters. Breaking news. And it is totally broken.

Secret stories, secret sorrows, how many dead, how many we will never know. How could a soldier kill tangible, fascinating people he never met & ever feel good again?

Berlin lost 30% of its old buildings to war – 30% destroyed or damaged. You look at a strange space between blocks of buildings and can’t help wondering what was there. A city re-stitched, re-designed, reorganized. So many finely stitched seams between old and new. Raggedy corners. A riveting ruin. In the remaining vestibule of the destroyed Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, the blunt signage is appreciated. “Insane politics led to the Second World War of 1939-1945.” Also, the gravely needed wisdom. “…A challenge to us all to constantly resist the solutions of political problems by means of war.” Hello Now?

To lift our spirits we visited the Atelier E.v.K at Chausseestrasse 116 (same block as Brecht’s home), an elegant, perfectly realized haven of exquisite clothes, purses, and scarves made by Eberhard von Knobloch, true artist of design, fashion, cloth, and making-women-feel-better.He stands back to examine the full effect of a garment on a client. He cares more that everything works together, that you look exactly right, than about selling clothes. This might come from his years creating costumes for a modern dance company in Vienna. We both partook of his therapy, with gratitude and delight for such artistry and kindness.

If you are in Berlin, go there! He opens at noon.

The only power I am interested in is the power of the good-for-a-month Berlin Transit card – any subway, train, tram, U-Bahn, S-Bahn, Ring-Train – watching so many fascinating people you will never see again. They hop on and off, and you oddly miss them, after only moments of observation. Step onto a train, know you are going somewhere interesting. If you don’t like that destination as well, or take the wrong train, hop on again. The power of movement. New train coming in 2 minutes. Or 3. But never 68. The sense of freedom is overwhelming.That’s power.

Also I am interested in the power of the kindhearted staff at Hotel Bleibtreu to make so many people from so many countries, cities, towns, feel at home, day-after-day. It’s a big beautiful home here. When I walk up the sidewalk after midnight, and re-enter the patio, I feel the comfort of the gentle hotel welcoming everyone home. That’s power too.