Conductor Daniel Barenboim will today receive the first ever ‘Willy-Brandt International Prize’.
The prize is, presented by the Social Democratic Party of Germany /SPD to honour the memory of SPD German politician Willy Brandt, mayor of West Berlin from 1957 to 1966 and Chancellor of West Germany from 1969 til 1974.
Barenboim leads an Israeli-Arab orchestra – the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra- with which [...] Continue Reading…
Hundreds of Berliners again took to the streets this Saturday to demonstrate against the present financial system in which banks are attempting to force governments to make taxpayers pay for their mismanagement, profligate casino type hedge fund betting and unfettered greed.
This was the 2nd Saturday in a row that demonstrators marched to this theme – last weekend, around 10,000 people took part [...] Continue Reading…
The German Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schäuble is reported to have said yesterday that non-government private commercial lenders to Greece should either take a hair-cut or be given a hair-cut.
Brussels also wants these private banks to accept ‘haircuts’ – losses- of 30%-50% of their holdings in Greek debt instead of the presently agreed 21%.
In other words private banks should [...] Continue Reading…
Dear Friends of the Piano Salon Christophori!
Three upcoming concerts for you – and a special concert on Monday the week after next.
CONCERT # 1
This coming Tuesday, at 20.30 hrs best known as a terrific drummer and founder of the group ‘Metrobop’ Martin Krümmling will present his own trio, nice, easy to listen better and catchy jazz can not be. An absolute must [...] Continue Reading…
Foto recieved from OTA-Blog reader Bernard M. from the UK who wrote -
Saw this ‘Death to Swabians’ graffiti at Kollwitzplatz in Berlin Prenzlauer Berg last week.
It is a joke – and for Swabians from the south of Germany even funnier!
It is like reading ‘Down with Alaskans’ in New York …………or ‘Death to the Scots’ in London!
However it was written in chalk – [...] Continue Reading…
There could be a possible unexpected silver-lining for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, from the dark clouds of the Berlin city election last month, wherein, as expected the Social Democratic SPD won the largest number of votes.
Yes they did lose 2.5 % of the popular vote from 2006 elections and yes the CDU gained about 2.5% of the popular vote and again stayed [...] Continue Reading…
Dear Friends of the Piano Salon Christophori
In the next week I invite you to two concerts – though with a marginal difference – both with glorious international career musicians.
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This coming Friday at 20:30hrs, Kotaro Fukuma one of the most renowned young Japanese pianists of the present day, and also the most ‘European’ in his musical outlook the [...] Continue Reading…
Could this be the year that a Nobel peace prize goes to the former German chancellor Helmut Kohl?
According to a poll yesterday printed in the UK newspaper the Guardian, the chances are there but his name comes after , Julian Assange, Private Bradley Manning, Aung San Suu Kyi, – all of whom obtained many more votes than he did.
You can vote yourself – I [...] Continue Reading…
Pull up those PIGS!
Blog reader Theo sent in this picture on the Auguststraße in Berlin.
It is of a very large poster against the bank-bailout which are presently being planned in the EU and satirizing the present state of affairs – Merkel and Sarkozy pulling the strings.
These so-called PIIGS countries are the scapegoat, or have become the sacrificial lamb in the recent international financial crisis. [...] Continue Reading…
![Hertha logo [Wikipedia]](http://www.ota-berlin.de/blog/wp-content/Hertha_Berlin_SC13-150x150.png "Hertha_Berlin_SC[1]")
“Hertha Berlin, known as the Old Lady of German soccer, is finding her feet after a nasty fall into debt and decline.” – So reads the first sentence in a very good article which appeared in yesterdays New York Times by one of its sports writer Rob Hughes. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/05/sports/soccer/05iht-soccer05.html
What follows is one of those typically popular, heart-warming American type of come-back stories [...] Continue Reading…
In Berlin, and probably elsewhere, when you hear an airplane you instinctively look up at it.
Sometimes when it is an old clunker it is probably the old JU 52/Ju 54 – the Junkers airplane which flies from Schoenefeld airport and flies tourists for a 15min Berlin tour. http://www.ju52rundflug.de/
Aerial advertising is another matter altogether – and while they are known along most of the [...] Continue Reading…
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