Those poor folks who move to Berlin in winter will invariably leave by March, convinced that everything they ever heard about the city was just hype. I moved here one year in late September, just in time to catch a glimpse of the fleeting beauty of summer in Berlin. Everything moves outdoors. Cafes, restaurants, biergärten. The city relaxes in the heat and humidity.

The pleasure of watching a film outdoors, though, is one most Berliners seem unable to get enough of. Practically every neighborhood, greenspace, and central courtyard erects a screen, sets up hundreds of deck chairs and opens a small bar. Best of all, bringing a picnic is encouraged!

Unfortunately, as in most cinemas in Germany, non-German films are typically dubbed into German. Call me a purist but I would rather watch Mongolian Ping Pong in Mongolian, than in German; film is art and if Almodóvar wanted to make a film in German, he would. This is, sadly, an argument lost on Germans. But there are always cinemas, even open air ones, that offer some content in original programming, often with German subtitles. The best one for this tends to be Freiluft Kino Kreuzberg in Kunstquartier Bethanien. Keep an eye out for the following abbreviations: dt.m.engl.Ut, German with English subtitles; engl.m.dt.Ut, English with German subtitles; OmU, original language with subtitles (probably German); or OV, original version (no subtitles).

Info about the cinemas in Volkspark Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg and Rehberge can be found here.

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Freiluft Kino Kreuzberg | Cinemas, Relaxing, Theaters | Ticket € 6.50
Mariannenplatz 2 | Kreuzberg
Box office opens 30 min before show begins

Located next to the New Jewish Synagogue, the trio of backyards (see the Backyard article) “Heckmannhoefe” are really worth discovering.

Entering from Oranienburger Strasse, the first backyard contains a little bookshop and a candy-making shop in the basement, the “Bonbonmacherei” where you can watch Katja and Hjalmar produce traditional sweets with antique equipments.

In the second backyard, the main one of the three, you’ll see why this is certainly one of the nicest backyards complexes in Scheunenviertel. It houses a little theater, boutiques, cafes, restaurants and even a hairdresser’s shop. The surrounding ivy clad buildings invite you to take a seat on a bench next to a lovely little fountain.

In the third backyard which you can also enter from Auguststrasse there isn’t that much special stuff going on – except for the impression you’ll get when you see how residents have improved their homes with a nice little gazebo structure in their own backyard – that is the real Berliner backyard culture (see the Backyard article)!

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Heckmannhoefe | Art & culture, Relaxing, Shopping, Theaters
Oranienburger Strasse 32 | Mitte
Daily

“For me Berliner backyards are like surprises. You never know what’s waiting for you behind the gate.”

On one hand the way apartment buildings were built during the so called “Gründerzeit” (time around 1870-1914) produced the typical apartment blocks in Berlin, now known as “Altbauten” (old buildings) or “Mietskasernen” (tenements). On the other hand it gave Berlin those backyards everywhere.

In a particular area called “Scheunenviertel” (Barn Quarter) you can find a couple of very interesting “Hinterhöfe” where life seems to be hidden. Enjoy theatres, cinemas, galleries, museums, shops, cafes, bars, restaurants and other surprises there!

Except for “Hackesche Höfe“, now a tourist magnet and the most prominent complex of backyards, tourists and even Berliners don’t visit them. That is very unfortunate. And you will understand that if you go out to discover the following backyards: – Backyard of Haus Schwarzenberg (see the Haus Schwarzenberg article)- Heckmannhöfe (see the Heckmanhoefe article)- Hackesche Höfe: a complex of 8 backyards Rosenthaler Straße 40/41 & Sophienstraße 6- Kunsthof, contains very nice hospitality and quality galleries Oranienburger Strasse 27- Sophie-Gips-Höfe, contains the Hoffmann Collection (see the Hoffmann collection article) Sophienstraße 21- Rosenhöfe, Rosenthaler Strasse 36- Panasia/Gallerie Cicero, Rosenthaler Strasse 38

Also, I’d like to encourage you to keep your eyes open for many other backyards in this area and not to be shy to enter them. With a bit of luck you can find real jewels of cultural & night life in them!

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Berliner backyards | Art & culture, Bars, Cinemas, Coffee & tea, Shopping, Theaters, Restaurants
Different locations | Mitte
Various opening times

Kulturbrauerei is a complex of former brewery buildings (boiler house, machine house, stable, canteen,…) that are now host to the places we can find there now:Night clubs, cafes, bars, a cinema, theatres, an important concert house, a dance school, a billiard saloon, a cooking workshop, but also companies such as publishing houses, a bicycle hire shop (Berlin on Bike also offers guided tours on bikes) and many others.

Fans of old architecture will definitely enjoy Kulturbrauerei which is a wonderful example of the long period of historism. The 1889 complex has a bit in common with a castle from the middle ages. The renovation, completed in 2000, kept the old brewery air and hence made it one of the nicest cultural platforms in Prenzlauer Berg and surely in whole Berlin, too.

The website is user-friendly, in German and English and comes up with cool moving surround views. See here for the cultural program and opening times as well as the presentation of each venue.

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Kulturbrauerei | Art & culture, Bars, Cinemas, Music, Theaters
Knaackstraße 97 | Prenzlauer Berg
Daily