The Diary of Anne Frank is a deeply moving book which shook the world when it was first published. Its young author, a German Jewish girl called Annelies Marie Anne Frank wrote a secret diary whilst in hiding during the Second World War – and the book we see today is a compilation of all the passages she wrote down in it.

The Frank family were German, and nationalistic, having participated actively in the First World War. But with the start of the Second World War, they had to move, escaping the persecution of the fact that they were Jewish. They arrived in Amsterdam, and settled in the centre of the city. Anne’s father Otto worked in offices in front of a grand building. Nobody would have imagined that this work place would be turned into a refuge – but it was there that they hid for over two years, from 1942, until they were found, and trapped by the Nazis.

There were eight people living in the refuge; Anne’s family, and one other. Each little detail of this mythical, tragic existence is recorded in the book which today has been published in every country in the world, and has been translated into 69 languages.

The story provoked such a violent reaction from the public because she was just a little girl writing about her life, how she wanted to survive, be a writer, and have a family like anybody else. She is just one of many other people who were a part of this tragic history, and whose lives were marked by it.

Anne Frank died at 15 years old, from typhoid, as she was held in a concentration camp in Holland, along with her sister Margot.

d.b

If you rent apartments in Berlin you can find out all about this tragic history, and see the statues and memorials with your own eyes. It’d be a moving look at the history of humanity, particularly if you take along a copy of The Diary of Anne Frank with you.

Contact Me 

Translated by: Poppy
Contact Me

The Diary of Anne Frank is a deeply moving book which shook the world when it was first published. Its young author, a German Jewish girl called Annelies Marie Anne Frank wrote a secret diary whilst in hiding during the Second World War – and the book we see today is a compilation of all the passages she wrote down in it.

The Frank family were German, and nationalistic, having participated actively in the First World War. But with the start of the Second World War, they had to move, escaping the persecution of the fact that they were Jewish. They arrived in Amsterdam, and settled in the centre of the city. Anne’s father Otto worked in offices in front of a grand building. Nobody would have imagined that this work place would be turned into a refuge – but it was there that they hid for over two years, from 1942, until they were found, and trapped by the Nazis.

There were eight people living in the refuge; Anne’s family, and one other. Each little detail of this mythical, tragic existence is recorded in the book which today has been published in every country in the world, and has been translated into 69 languages.

The story provoked such a violent reaction from the public because she was just a little girl writing about her life, how she wanted to survive, be a writer, and have a family like anybody else. She is just one of many other people who were a part of this tragic history, and whose lives were marked by it.

Anne Frank died at 15 years old, from typhoid, as she was held in a concentration camp in Holland, along with her sister Margot.

d.b

If you rent apartments in Berlin you can find out all about this tragic history, and see the statues and memorials with your own eyes. It’d be a moving look at the history of humanity, particularly if you take along a copy of The Diary of Anne Frank with you.

Contact Me 

Translated by: Poppy
Contact Me

Couple swapping, or swinging is a big thing all round the world – there are more and more husbands and wives branching out and experimenting, to shake up their sex life, and give it a bit more excitement and intensity. Though these days it’s easy to find ads on social networks of couples looking for couple swapping, the best way of getting started is by going to a swinger house, as they are far more safe, with environments specially catered to this kind of encounter, and they allow a better kind of interaction with other couples, as there is no pressure to do anything – and the main thing is, it’s fun.

In a previous article, we suggested some rules and regulations for swinger houses, so that the experience goes more smoothly – and here are some more:

There is no one particular way of behaving, and swinging houses do not welcome any kind of disapproving behaviour. Just saying, “No thanks” is completely acceptable, and if it is your first time, remember that you do not owe anybody anything, and that all you need to do is act naturally and be yourself.

The only things accepted are those which are fun for everybody. If something is suggested which you are uncomfortable with, it’s important that you say something, to avoid any unpleasant moments when it is too late. In the same way, your suggestions and ideas are always welcome in a swinger house; and so long as the others accept them, you are free to fulfil your sexual fantasies, and have an amazing time with your partner.

You do not have special control over your partner. In swinging houses, discussion amongst couples are not allowed, so it is a better idea to establish ground rules, and what you are and are not willing to accept, before you go. Swinging is a way of carrying out new fantasies in a guilt and jealousy free environment.

If it is your first time, don’t shy away. Honesty will mean that other couples are more respectful with you and your partner, and will treat you with more patience and understanding.

If an experienced couple approaches a first timer couple, they must be polite, and be extra specially clear about what they are after. It’s important to lay out the basics as soon as possible; are they prepared to have anal sex or not? would the woman go with another woman? would he go with another man? All of these questions must be addressed before the couple swap.

It might be hard to understand, but swinging does not mean infidelity, because both parties are participating in the experience When somebody has a lover, it is a betrayal and deceit of their partner – whilst in swinging, there is a mutual complicity, and neither partner ends up excluded from the experience.

Some couples decide to try swinging for the first time in a different city to their own. If you like the sound of this, you can rent an apartment in Barcelona, and visit some swinging houses to experiment in, and revive your sex life. The night in Barcelona is the perfect setting for you to build a deeper connection with your partner.

Miruton

Without a doubt, one of the biggest cities for swinger clubs is Berlin. Rent apartments in Berlin and enjoy the city’s sexual freedom.

Contact Me 

Translated by: Poppy
Contact Me

When we talk about Friedrich Nietzsche, we are talking about a person whose books have been immortalized for all eternity for his transgressive work and different thinking to the time he lived. He died in Germany when he was just 55. Nietzsche was a writer, musician and philosopher. His works are still lectured and considered as classical from the nineteenth century.

His great work has crossed continents and eras that is why he is considered as an influential author among many contemporary thinkers. He did not accept whatever it was established in the society and gave it the benefit of the doubt, reason for which he ended up investigating many topics, especially about religion, culture and morality. As his work was cognitive, he was a starting point for his successors.

It was mid-twentieth century when his work took real academic value and together with Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud, he was considered as one of the “masters of suspicion.”

Thus Spoke Zarathustra is, according to Nietzsche, “A Book for Everyone and at the same time for No One”. It was written between the years 1883 and 1885 and recounts in a poetic and attractive form the feelings of the philosopher. Through the main character called Zarathustra, Nietzsche revealed his deepest thoughts.

The book is composed of several stories, one independent of the other, so they can be read in different order. It is interesting how the author finds a way to catch the ordinary reader’s attention to explain his philosophy in a very simple way.

d.b

Rent apartments in Berlin and get inside the German culture, customs, while reading Thus Spake Zarathustra. It is a book that will undoubtedly fascinate you.

Contact Me 

Translated by: Hans
Contact Me

Anonymous continues with the resistance fight. More and more people are joining this collective Internet movement, be it by posting through different blogs, webpages, Facebook or Twitter. Anonymous isn’t a group. Anonymous doesn’t have a face. Anonymous is the result of an information process that has been feeding itself for years. It is, effectively, the natural process of rhizomatic triggering of information on the net and around the world. Of a completely viral nature, the information travels everywhere in real time. Our connexions and links with other information consumers and producers in the world is immediate. Anonymous, eventually, had to appear, it’s part of the process. Anonymous is the first sign of a global transformation where there’s no going back. Reality, now more than ever, is being fought on the net.

Anonymous is therefor the answer to the decadence of the neoliberal and capitalist system, of the constant wars, of media violence, of the abuses of power by the press and the local governments, of the state lies, of the lack of work, of the worsening of social health and work services, of hunger. Anonymous isn’t a political party. Anonymous isn’t a terrorist group. Anonymous is the reaction to what the system has been rubbing in our faces for so long, it’s a loud voice shouting ENOUGH! against the constant abuses. The social networks finally ended up being the best tool to contaminate the world with freedom knowledge. The social networks have to keep politics of freedom of speech. That’s what it’s about, to share knowledge, freely.

Everyone is Anonymous. Everyone who wants to be is Anonymous. If you disagree with the state of things, you’re already Anonymous. They explain it simply, it’s a change in direction regarding the political agency and the resistance methods, without violence, without harm, including the public space. With the honesty that a face with no face of thousands of faces gives, united against the abuses and degradation of the times that we live in. Anonymous is the way to say enough to the world that’s consuming us, of finding a peaceful change and collective transformation. Anonymous is the future we’re all going towards.

How can you collaborate with Anonymous? Above all inform yourself, you have to be aware of what’s happening in your community, in your workplace, on the streets and local governments. Being part of Anonymous IS NOT ILLEGAL, it’s not punishable, it won’t convert you into an outlaw. Spread information about Anonymous. If you can, be creative, use art as a tool to produce flyers, posters, graffiti… Use the social networks to spread these new ideas. For more information visit and join the Anonymous forum: http://www.whatis-theplan.org/ and the Anonops Twitter #anonops.

Alexa Ray

The revolution depends that all of us put our Anonymous face on and carry on forward, informing ourselves. Get apartments in Berlin and a good internet connexion, inform yourself, inform your loved ones, make a community. Germany is putting pressure on. And so are we.

Contact Me 

Translated by: aleixgwilliam
Contact Me

The nineteenth century brought the institutionalization of the new bourgeois society. The custom developed in the eighteenth century, with the intention of recreating the flora and fauna of foreign countries that people like Louis Antoine de Bougainville or James Cook visited in their great transcontinental exploration voyages, was known as the Eden garden project. It is this baroque age characterized by confusion, worlds and realities in a universe have already started to seem possible both in light of alchemy, and the new science, plural, convoluted, twisted, folded and unfolded .We must go back to find the origin of the modern botanical gardens and zoos.

The royal houses and the aristocratic families embarked on a unique competition to see who had the greater variety of exotic and unusual species of both animals and plants, in their properties, encouraged both by fashion as by a desire to recreate and dreamy escape from reality surrounding reinvent the world and stop abysmally heady time.

The irrepressible urge of standardization, control and institutionalization of the bourgeois society itself regarding these attempts, often surprising and unpredictable, made it impossible to predict which species successfully would take root in European soil and how they will adapt and the mutations that would take place in the process, while updating the notion of paradise, which combined the most distant past to the future in a tense and dramatic relationship illustrated by the coexistence of nature and disturbing mechanical automata flaunted by the latest developments on watchmaking, the ones that served as a reminder of blurring the boundaries between nature and artifice. All these efforts were materialized in Berlin in 1844 in founding the first zoo in the city. Prompted originally by Frederick William IV of Prussia, the Zoo or Zoologischer Garten http://www.zoo-berlin.de/ became over the years into one of the world’s largest, housing up to 14,000 variety of animals species, more than any other zoo in the world.

During its growth, a series of extraordinary and fantastic oriental buildings in coexistence with other architectural structures of contemporary court were raised in, among them, the famous Elefantentor or Elephant Gate, where life-size sculptures two elephants support a corrugated Asian-inspired roof, The House of Antelope in the form of mosque and decorated with yellow Dutch brick turquoise, the Persian stable or, in the modern style, the filigree glass domes of the hippos’ House that allow us to observe these fascinating and imposing creatures both inside and outside the water.

Paul Oilzum

When we rent apartments in Berlin is terrifying to think about the images of these buildings, later restored, and the surviving animals loose on the streets of the city when the zoo was destroyed by Allied bombing in November 1943, when the Berliners used to eat bear ham and cook crocodile tails, that apparently had a taste of fattened chickens.

Contact Me 

Translated by: Hans
Contact Me

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Gambler is a masterpiece of world literature that became a classic very appreciated by all passionate readers. The author was born in Moscow in 1821 and died young in his beloved St. Petersburg in 1881.

His literary work fully explores the life in the nineteenth century with its political, social and cultural issues. It is admirable how the author paints the Russian society at a given time. At the same time, he perfectly describes himself and several of his stories are narrated in first person, which are considered to be autobiographical.

The Gambler is one of the most celebrated novels of the Russian author, because it puts Dostoevsky in the foreground, but under the pseudonym of Alexei Ivanovich. The character is somewhat complicated and obscure, but is also able to amuse the reader all the time, while being surprised by his attitude and determination.

Dostoyevsky has the same gambling addiction as Ivanovich in the novel. In The Gambler it is possible to discover the source of the character’s evil passion that started as an order by Polina Alexandrovna, an important woman to this great story. It is her who falls in love with the main character and together start living unreal stories.

But the narration is focused on a rich old lady called Antonida Vasilevna, a lady who is supposed to be near death. Stories of love, passion, deceit, death and gambling are key to the success of this novel that once you start reading it is not possible to stop. The same goes for many other Dostoevsky’s books, author that is considered one of the greatest of the literature throughout the world.

d.b

The Gambler is set in an imaginary city in Germany. Rent apartments in Berlin and feel like you are in the city that Fyodor Dostoevsky invented for his book. Read this wonderful work of Russian literature. It will be an experience you’ll never forget.

Contact Me 

Translated by: Hans
Contact Me

To the world of gothic festivals arrives a new face; E-Tropolis, which rather than just a festival, seems to be an assault on the ears. With a line up squeezed into just one day, there certainly won’t be time for a rest, so start preparing your body for some non-stop dancing.

E-Tropolis is a festival of dark electronic music taking place this year in early September in electro capital, Berlin. It has a brief history, with the first edition of E-Tropolis only being held last year, on the 26th of June. Due to the success of the first June event, it is to be repeated this year, with a new date, and a killer line up. The bands confirmed so far are VNV Nation, Solitary Experiments, Agonoize, Suicide Commando, Rotersand, Spetsnaz, Welle Erdbal, Front Line Assembly and Xotox, in C Hall – and Fabrik C, Formalin, Santa hates you, Faderhead, Acsii. Disco, and Haujobb Reunion in C-Club, where the after party is also being held.

Concerts start at 3pm, and from there on in there will be so breaks – just band after band under 2.30am in the morning, and then an hour later the party continues with some of Berlin’s best DJs hitting the decks until the following morning.

Want more information about the festival? Here’s the important stuff; a single entrance ticket costs 40 euros, but as people very rarely go to this kinds of events alone, the festival organisers have come up with a 5+1 ticket, where five pay, and the sixth goes free. The place is the Columbia Theatre, where there will be two stages; Columbia Hall, and Columbia Club – on top of which there will be all the amenities, two open air spaces, with bars and restaurants.

So make sure you look after yourself, get fit and ready, and call your five best friends, and rent an apartment; E-Tropolis is here, bringing you all the potency of Berlin’s dark electro.

For more information visit: http://www.etropolis-festival.de/home.html

Luz Obscura

Rent apartments in Berlin and prepare yourself for E-Tropolis festival – you’ll dance til you drop. .

Contact Me 

Translated by: Poppy
Contact Me

One of the key things about the surrealism movement was the notion of the Baudelairean flaneur figure – that aimless wanderer of the modern cities, in search of all things marvellous, and the true essence of the urban life. This was a figure which would have been inconceivable without two big precedents, which were the main points of inspiration; de Quincey and Confessions of an English Opium Eater, which had a huge impact on Baudelaire and the doomed poets; and also the North East Passage which gave access to another side, from which it was possible to live and think the impossible, as the one true way of living.

Amongst all the certainty and infallibility of the concept of coincidence, the aesthetic of that chance meeting of a dissection table and a sewing machine, and the parasols of the mysterious Count Lautréamont, the “marvellous” was found in the shape of fragments, broken mirrors, mannequins, telepathy, things with no use or function, photographs, dreams, corpses and cadavers, ready-mades; and the supreme surrealist fetish; the found object. Only with the discovery of all these things could one begin to embark on the contemporary adventure of the flaneur and all of his vagrant wandering of the streets.

As Walter Benjamin once unforgettably said, in the centre of that world of things and objects lay the most resounding element; the city of Paris itself. “Streets empty of people [like in the photos of Eugene Atget we are tempted to add]…No face is surrealist in the way that the true face of a city’s is.”
Benjamin was from Berlin, and he lived through that fascinating, brief period during which his city was the vibrant capital of the Weimar Republic – he lived there right up until he was forced, on the grounds of his double crime of being Jewish and left-wing, to abandon Germany forever. He understood more than most the importance of literature, and also the real life of the cities and landscapes. Benjamin’s Berlin has undergone many transformations since then; the destruction of the bombings, the ensuing ruin, the construction of the notorious wall, the [anti]-culture of the neubauten; the city’s underground and countercultures which inspired Nick Cave, and appeared in Wings Of Desire, the reappearance of the eastern part in the unification of the country… And now, where is the beating heart of the city’s marvellousness, the dark, urban core?

For the young Slovenian writer based in Berlin, Aleš Šteger, who has just published book of stories Berlin, the city might continue to be divided into two; no longer separated by a physical wall, but by the awful social and economic inequalities of its inhabitants; and the heart of the city might just be found in neighbourhoods like Charlottenburg, in the old eastern quarter – a run down, unsophisticated district, which nevertheless seems to be radiating that old Berlin urban pulse.

Paul Oilzum

A book which resounds with the lost footprints of Benjamin. A celebration, via a journey into the heart of the city, of its people, and its metamorphosis. And a great to book to take along with you when you rent apartments in Berlin

Contact Me 

Translated by: Poppy
Contact Me

Summer gets more and more unbearable. Thanks, global warming! We hurtle inevitably towards the destruction of the planet, and year after year, the temperatures rise and rise everywhere. Summer 2011 is already here, and it’s hotter than ever. Cities all over Europe either fill up or empty out during the summer months, with tourism reaching all corners, and people flocking to the beach like their life depended on it. Cities like Berlin are filled with events and special celebrations during summer. So before you run off and make your own escape, take note of the little gems to be found this summer, like Tangaland, for those days at the beach or the pool.

The key component of summer is taking off clothes. There are increasing numbers of scantily clad people in the streets, both men and women showing off legs, shoulders, whole arms, necks. Nudity descends upon the whole city – which is naturally, easy on the eye. Life is more attractive; so are usually mundane tasks such as going out to buy bread for example. The fact is, there is nothing quite like having a sexy, almost naked body nearby: it’s just human nature, and so is acting upon our desires. All that unites us also separates us; love, desire, sex and provocation all go together. Sometimes, hiding a small part of your body can be a grand gesture, of liberation, and self-esteem.

And what about you – what do you put on when you go to the beach? The amount of nudist beaches is growing all over Europe; more people are letting it all hang out, with no fear or inhibition, on show for everyone else to see. But there are times however when nudity and the erotic don’t necessarily go hand in hand. Sometimes they say the most sexy, appealing thing is that which isn’t shown, but merely suggested.

If that is the case, Tangaland offers you some of the riskiest designs of the season. Specialists in micro-bikinis and tangas, some of their pieces toe the line playfully between total exposure and not quite everything. The designs are sexy, fresh, brightly coloured and full of life – which is probably the best combination for bathing suits this summer. Also, Tangaland makes garments for men too, with the tanga functioning more like a codpiece, just about hiding the man’s private parts. You’ve got to applaud the amazing daring of this German brand which is breaking boundaries on beach wear. Certainly if your thing is to provoke and be provoked, get even hotter, and put out a bit of sexy attitude, then this is for you.

Alexa Ray

Before you escape the noise of the streets, rent apartments in Berlin and look out for Tangaland in all the best shops. It is quite definitely the sexiest accessory to be seen on the beach in this summer.

Contact Me 

Translated by: Poppy
Contact Me