The book is divided up into districts, with many examples of interior design and architectural renovation and remodelling. Berlin-Mitte is the first section, an area that was a cultural centre during the Weimar Republic, but rendered forgotten and inaccessible by the Berlin Wall which turned it into a frontier zone. After the fall of the Wall, the Mitte district again attracted attention, becoming the biggest construction site in Europe as the derelict Potsdamer Platz was brought back to life. Redevelopment also benefited the Brandenburg Gate. No longer a frontier, it has recovered its former status. But the book is concerned with Berlin’s interiors and in the first apartment, the wooden flooring, pale walls and understated attention to detail is a good introduction to the rest of the book. Lighting is important to the architects, designers and householders of these Berlin homes. Windows are often undecorated, while modern lighting creates focal points, comfort zones and warmth in rooms that might otherwise seem Spartan at times. Wood, metal, and glass are common materials, with pale walls a recurring preference. But there’s opulence too, most notably in the beautiful Russian Embassy.

Before the original Tsarist embassy was acquired on Unter den Linden, the purchase of the land required the Tsar to become an honorary citizen. Russian soil was then moved to the site. Unfortunately, the old embassy was demolished in 1942. In 1953 it was rebuilt as the Soviet Embassy in what some critics have called “Stalinist classicism.” Now the Russian Embassy once more, its aim is to promote a more positive image of Russia, which it does through concerts, conferences and lectures. The interiors look back somewhat to the Tsarist era. Huge chandeliers, gilt mouldings, and red and gold curtains decorate the Great Hall, but the vestibule is more modern, with pillars decorated in silver, and a somewhat nineteen-thirties art deco look. The opulence continues in the concert hall, and the main staircase which features marble, stucco, green malachite and golden bronze. The hall of mirrors sees a return to the richness of the Great Hall, with its enormous chandeliers and classical columns. This room was a meeting place for the four WWII allied powers in 1954. The more private ambassadorial rooms are also on display.

Later in the Mitte section, there’s an apartment with a roof swimming pool and a spectacular view of the city, but there’s also smaller homes on show. Sometimes the spacious, light, ultra-modern look gives way to a more old fashioned and cluttered setting. There are highly eclectic interiors, not surprising since some of these homes belong to designers and artists. Bookcases bulge under the weight of countless volumes. Darker and more vibrant colours decorate walls too. Clutter starts to take over, ending in a kind of visual overload in a set of interiors in a studio/home/shop.

Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain are the backdrop for the next section. An area formerly beloved of squatters, Kreuzberg was also the last stop on the subway, due to the Wall. Friedrichshain is an old working class district which has become a haven for those who have had to flee the spiralling rents and costs of the redeveloped and gentrified Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg areas. Kreuzberg has been home to generations of Turks, and is separated from Friedrichshain by the river Spree. The Oberbaum bridge connects the two districts.

The homes of this section are less Spartan, with warmer interiors, far more furniture, and a lot more clutter. Warm lighting creates cosy interiors, darker furniture is more in evidence, books pile up on the floor. Old plaster mouldings and cornices show off more traditional interiors. There’s also a Turkish café, and a wonderfully rich, hippyish, and shambolic set of interiors/exteriors around a construction truck home. This is the bohemian side of the city, but it’s clear that the wonderful summery existence in the photographs could make for a harsher lifestyle in the midst of a Prussian winter.

Prenzlauer Berg was a popular neighbourhood for the artists and intellectuals of former East Berlin. Squatters moved in after Reunification, taking over domestic and commercial spaces. There’s only a couple of examples of homes from this district, which is a shame. However, more can be found in ‘Berlin Apartments,’ published by teNeues. There, the attic rooms and warehouse conversions help to give a broader view of the area’s development.

Charlottenburg is one of the traditionally posher areas of the city. This is evident in the Askanischer Hof, an art nouveau hotel which has been photographed by Helmut Newton and welcomed guests such as Anthony Quinn and David Bowie. The interiors definitely look back to an earlier period in the city’s history. It’s followed by homes that mix the modern and the traditional, with lighter colours again predominating, until a wonderful explosion of red walls in one of the section’s final homes. A houseboat closes this chapter, offering a warm, natural wood interior, a wood-burning stove, and a dream of a quiet life spent floating on a canal.

Wilmersdorf opens with the home and workplace (brothel) of the very large (in every sense of the word) Molly Luft: “the fattest whore in Germany.” (Her own words.) It’s followed by a pension with more traditional interiors, and a darker, more cluttered apartment which becomes a salon once a week for people from the arts and science to meet and mix. With marble pillars, wood panelling and old carpets and runners lying around, this home leans towards the comfortably shabby. The home of Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal comes next. “To revive a tradition in Berlin and give it a future is of extreme importance for Jewish life” says the American, Teichtal, who was sent to Berlin in 1996. His grandfather’s family all died in the Holocaust. His home combines light interiors and traditional furnishings.

The Schöneberg and Tempelhof chapter features the home of an antique picture frame collector. The walls are covered in empty frames, and frames within frames. The narrow hallway might seem cluttered , but this is a home with character. The frames are rich and ornate, some dating back to the 15th century. Often frames of the same period or century decorate a single room: 15th-16th century, 17th, and a room full of 18th and 19th century frames. Ornate plaster mouldings, plain white or cream-coloured walls, and wooden or parquet flooring help to show the collection off to best effect. Some of the walls in these Berlin homes though are plain, stripped plaster, with patches of old paint. It’s a slightly old-fashioned answer to the modern Spartan look of the Mitte district apartments. There’s also the home of an elderly Berliner. Cosy and cluttered, it has the familiar look of grandmothers’ homes the world over.

Finally, we arrive at Grunewald and Außenbezirke, and houses in leafier surroundings. There’s a particularly beautiful set of interiors in an Art Nouveau house which features red walls, parquet flooring and a beautiful wooden staircase, but the colours become more muted in the bedroom which retains an amber glow of warmth while offering a tranquil sleep inside a wrought iron four-poster bed with translucent white curtains. The book ends with a converted boathouse and weekend retreat. It’s simply a large room with shower and storeroom attached. There’s a vaulted ceiling of white beams, pale yellow wooden walls, and wood flooring. French windows/doors open on to the countryside beyond. Nature surrounds this house, and the interior is divided up by the simple arrangement of furniture into dining space, cooking area and sitting area.

‘Berlin Interiors’ is a beautiful, large, and hefty book which comes with an informative tri-lingual (German, English and French) historical essay on the city, complete with black and white photographs of earlier times. Overall, it’s a book full of beautiful photographs, not just of interiors, but of the city itself, past and present. A city at the heart of Europe, still haunted by a problematic past, but looking forward to a brighter future.

Kara Kellar Bell is a film and media graduate from the West of Scotland, with a passion for European novels, French films, silent cinema, and Brazilian music (everything from Daniela Mercury and other pop stars through to bossa nova). As a writer, she likes to have room to move around creatively, so she’s not located in one genre. She writes realism and also stories of a more fantastic nature, usually grounded to some extent in the real world. She also takes delight in writing across the sexual spectrum, and as a bisexual, considers it important to remind people that things are not always black and white, either/or, in sexuality or in gender. For a selection of Kara’s writing on the Showcase section of this site, click here

© 2004 Laura Hird All rights reserved.