Berlin  10-03-2010

The growing awareness of the travesty of our corrupt financial institutions is slowly taking away all incentive to invest in traditional markets. For that reason perhaps poker, specifically Texas Hold ‘Em is quickly becoming the new game of the new century.

 At least this way you know what your odds are and have equal chances to win, as opposed to playing the market against Goldman S(ucks)achs where we the public seem to lose every time.

If we follow this to its logical conclusion the events of Saturday’s robbery of the European Poker Tournament at the Grand Hyatt Hotel at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin are refreshingly old fashioned, hearkening back to kinder gentler times, when we at least knew who the criminals were!

Four suspects are wanted in the brazen daylight robbery and the possibility of two more accomplices is also being looked into. 

Considering the security and amount of cameras which are to be found in and around the hotel it was pretty loose playing for this quartet to imagine an all in bet like this would pay off. 

The robbery took place at 14:15 as the four entered the tournament armed with a machete and handguns. The target was the safe behind the registration table whose contents, by some accounts, held over 4 million Euro.  Though it was over in a matter of minutes there was nothing smooth about it.

As the suspects were fleeing a security guard took down one of the robbers in a choke hold forcing his accomplices to come back to his rescue, threatening the guard with a machete.  More embarrassing still a hotel intern managed to wrestle away one of the bags of money limiting the pot that the robbers “won” to 250,000 Euro.

Over 900 players took part in the tournament and the buy ins were between 300 Euro all the way up to 10,000 Euro for the high roller game.  Seven people were injured in the incident but no one seriously. 

The police believe they have a good chance of apprehending the four considering aforementioned video footage and the number of witnesses.  

The caper caused the Tournament to pause for a few hours but the players eventually returned to the game.

contributed by Mr B. Brahms

Berlin  09-03-2010

The German government – along with the EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton- has criticized the Israeli decision to build more Jewish homes on occupied Palestinian land saying it would hinder planned ‘peace talks’.  

The German Foreign Ministry on Wednesday voiced sharp criticism of an Israeli decision to approve the building of new homes on occupied land in East Jerusalem.

Germany  supports Israel’s right to exist and feels a special responsibility to it in light of the Holocaust and  has been very reluctant and  unwilling- many would say too reluctant and unwilling- to criticize the country over its relations with the Palestinians. However good friends should be critical in important matters – and this is very important.

The decision to build the homes, in a strongly Jewish Orthodox neighborhood near to a Palestinian village was announced on Tuesday – a day after the announcement that indirect Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, brokered by US Vice President Joe Biden, had been agreed.

It has been revealed that the US envoy was so enraged by this personal affront that he ended up being 90 minutes late for a state dinner hosted by Netanyahu, the bellicose Israeli PM and no friend of the Obama administration.

Israel had previously called a Moratorium on building any homes in the occupied West Bank.  

However, this did not include East Jerusalem which Israel seized by force in 1967   and later ‘annexed’ [permanently stole] in a move that no one internationally has recognized.

Relations between Israel and the EU, never very close, were recently strained even more after a murder in Dubai of a Hamas official – for which forged passports from EU countries including Germany were used. 

There is a strong and credible link leading to the Israeli secret service ‘Mossad’ as the perpetuator of this crime.

Berlin   09-03-2010

Verehrte Hörer,

Das Konzert am kommenden Samstag, dem 13.03.2010 um 20.30 Uhr wird wieder ein Höhepunkt unserer bescheidenen Konzertserie sein, kann man sich doch freuen den großen jungen Moskauer Virtuosen Georgy Gromov zu hören.

 Es wird ein klassischer Klavierabend mit der ersten Bach Partita, Beethovens Sturmsonate, einem Bartok und dem wunderbaren Faschingsschwank Schumanns. Georgy Gromov hat 12 erste und zweite Preise bei internationalen Klavierwettbewerben gewonnen, man darf also auf ein absolut hochkarätiges Konzert gefaßt sein.

Sehr herzlich

Christoph Schreiber

Piano Salon Christophori

Pappelallee 3-4, Remise

[U-Bahn Eberswalderstrasse]
D-10437 BERLIN

Berlin  09-03-2010

Berlin police were left hunting yesterday for four hooded bandits who stormed a poker tournament in the city centre of Berlin Potsdamer Platz and stole about 210,000 Euro in a brazen and cocky daylight robbery.

Four armed men ran into the 1000 player ‘European Poker Tour’ event at the Grand Hyatt Berlin -two of the four men were armed, one with a machete and one with a revolver, police have said, and they were not part of the kitchen staff.

The police were analyzing some camera footage taken during the crime, and one of the surveillance cameras outside the hotel caught one robber without his mask, but only from behind.

Based on this masterfull evidence the police are now looking for “ a man with dark hair, wearing a leather jacket, pants and shoes” – which describes about ¼ of Berlin.

 The police have faulted organizers for not hiring enough guards but also admitted that this type of crime is very seldom in Berlin.

Berlin/Paris    09-03-2010

Germany and France are proposing the creation of a European Monetary Fund which would mirror the activities of the International Monetary Fund, but then only for the European Union.

The EMF  proposal comes on the heals of the financial crisis EU-member Greece is experiencing – a deficit which is estimated at 12 percent of the country’s gross domestic product this year.

Fears of a default caused by Greece’s debt has caused the value of the Euro to decline by almost 5 percent in recent weeks.

Having an EMF would limit disruption caused by default of any single Euro zone member through the issuance of new debt backed by the fund – in laymans terms it is the EU’s way of saying “ currency speculators piss-off’!

A supporter to the EMF proposal thus far is the IMF head Dominique Strauss-Khan and Jean-Claude Junker PM of Luxembourg.

There has been a deafening silence from “The City” London and Wall Street – the two neighbourhoods where most of the scavenger-speculators operate- who have the most to lose from a unified Euro zone.

Berlin  09-03-2010

Big names and leading international companies at the ITB Berlin Convention

Royal celebrities, among them His Royal Highness, the Hon. Chief Mukuni of Zambia, and Fabien Cousteau, the world famous oceanographer, will figure on the list of more than 200 speakers – leading enterprises, ranging from Google to the World Wide Fund For Nature, will be debating the future of travel

As the international travel industry’s think tank, from 10 to 12 March 2010 this year’s ITB Berlin Convention is once again presenting an outstanding programme, with more than 200 leading speakers. The list of speakers and participants from practical fields, science and politics, reads like a Who’s Who of the travel industry. His Royal Highness, the Hon. Chief Mukuni of Zambia will add royal flair to the ITB Destination Days, which run over a period of three days. At the Africa Forum, at a discussion round with the Hon. Najib Mohamed Balala, Minister of Tourism of the Republic of Kenya, and Martina Kohl of the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF), His Royal Highness, the Hon. Chief Mukuni will be discussing how important tourism is among the measures for combating poverty, as well as the role of development aid. Well known author and TV presenter Manuel Andrack will speak on the subject of spirituality and tourism. Vural Öger, owner of Öger Tours, will also be setting the tone with his keynote speech on the challenges posed by the creation of sustainable tourism destinations.

At the ITB CSR Day the world famous oceanographer and environmental activist Fabien Cousteau will be raising some fundamental issues. In the second keynote speech he will be examining whether ocean protection and tourism are friends or foes. Along with other participants from the travel industry, Dr. Volker Böttcher, CEO, TUI Deutschland GmbH, will examine the topic of customer experiences as regards sales, and whether CSR is simply a fake concept. Along with other panel discussion members, Pier Luigi Foschi, Chairman & CEO, Costa Crociere S.p.A., will be answering questions from the audience at a session debating whether the expanding cruise market has a negative effect on the environment.

Leading figures will also be attending the ITB Aviation Day. Dr. Temel Kotil, CEO, Turkish Airlines will hold a keynote speech opening this headline event of the world’s aviation industry. At the global CEO Panel the following will take part in the panel discussion on the future of the world’s aviation industry: Joachim Hunold, CEO, Air Berlin, Stefan Pichler, CEO, Jazeera Airways and Emirsyah Satar, President & CEO, Garuda Indonesia. Mauro Oretti, Vice President Sales and Marketing SkyTeam, will examine the future of strategic alliances in aviation. Along with leading airport experts, Dr. Stefan Schulte, Chairman of the Board of Fraport AG, will be highlighting best practice examples for increasing public acceptance of air traffic in the vicinity of airports.

Prof. Dr. Claudia Kemfert, Head of the Energy, Transport and Environment Department at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), will open the ITB Global Future Summit at the ITB Future Day. Along with other experts she will be discussing the main trends as regards demographics, climate change, natural resources, technology and consumer behaviour. In a discussion round with other high-ranking participants, Peter Hill, CEO, Oman Air, will be analysing whether luxury tourism is still a viable market.

Finally, the search engine giant Google will be represented at the Global Future Summit with Patrick Schönemann, Geo Sales Manager DACH & Nordics, Google Enterprise, as well as at the PhoCusWright@ITB Berlin Technology Convention with Javier González-Soria. The paper due to be held by the CEO of Google Travel Spain, entitled “What’s New With Google”, promises fascinating insights and a look ahead regarding the latest developments of the enterprise heading the World Wide Web.

About ITB Berlin and the ITB Berlin Convention

ITB Berlin 2010 will take place from Wednesday, 10 to Sunday, 14 March. ITB Berlin will be open to trade visitors only from Wednesday to Friday. ITB Berlin is the world’s leading travel trade show. In 2009 a total of 11,098 companies from 187 countries exhibited their products and services to 178,971 visitors, who included 110,857 trade visitors. Parallel with the trade fair, the ITB Berlin Convention will be held from Wednesday to Friday, 10 to 12 March 2010. Full details of the programme can be found at www.itb-convention.com/program.

Fachhochschule Worms and the US-based market research company for the travel industry PhoCusWright Inc are partners of the ITB Berlin Convention 2010. SkyTeam is among the premium sponsors of the ITB Aviation Day, TopAlliance is responsible for VIP service, airliners.de is media partner of the airport session within the ITB Aviation Day and hospitalityInside.com is media partner of the ITB Hospitality Day.
Futouris, Kiel Earth Institute, Landau Media, news aktuell and Wilde & Partner are sponsors of particular sessions. Partners cooperating with the ITB Business Travel Days 2010 are: Deutsche Bahn AG, DRV Deutscher ReiseVerband e.V., Europäische Reiseversicherung AG (ERV), FCm Travel Solutions, hotel.de, HSMA (Hospitality Sales und Marketing Association) Deutschland e.V., schaefer mobility group GmbH, Seminaris Campushotel Berlin Science & Conference Center, Veranstaltungsplaner.de, the travel management association Verband Deutsches Reisemanagement e.V. (VDR) and Schlosshotel Fürstlich Drehna.
The media partners cooperating with the ITB Business Travel Days 2010 are BIZ Travel, Business&IT, connect, DMM Der Mobilitätsmanager, Geschäftsreise Effektiv, Markt und Mittelstand,Tempra, travel manager, TW TagungsWirtschaft and working@office.

Join ITB Berlin Pressenetz at www.xing.com.
Support ITB Berlin on www.facebook.de/ITBBerlin.
Follow ITB Berlin on www.twitter.com.

  Berlin  09-03-2010 

Programm für das Konzert am Sonntag, 14. März 2010, 17.00 Uhr

Gitarrenkonzert

Chopin-und-Champagner

Konzert am Sonntag, 14. März 2010, 17.00 Uhr – Berlin Mitte

NEUE ADRESSE:
Torstraße 164, 10115 Berlin

im ehe emaligen   Königlichen Leihhaus
Eingang über den Hof, linke Seite
U-Bhf Rosenthaler Platz, Linie U8

Auf Grund begrenzter Sitzplätze bitten wir um Reservierung auf der Webseite

Mihai Victor Iliescu – Konzertgitarre

Pavana Gaspar – Sanz
Canarios Gaspar – Sanz
Sonata in La – Domenico Scarlatti
Prelude from Suite no. IV for lute – Johann Sebastian Bach
Bourrée from Suite no. I for lute – Johann Sebastian Bach
Chaconne from Partita for Violin no. 2 – Johann Sebastian Bach
Étude – Fernando Sor

PAUSE

Danza del Molinero – Manuel de Falla
Danza del Corregidor – Manuel de Falla
Romance – Anonymous
Tango (Habanera) – Francisco Tarrega
Asturia – Isaac Albeniz
Milonga Argentina – Maria Luiza Anido
Choros – Heitor Villa-Lobos
Prelude no. 5 – Heitor Villa-Lobos
La Ultima Canción – Agustin Barrios Mangore

Mihai Victor Iliescu wurde in Bukarest (Rumänien) geboren und begann seine musikalische Ausbildung im frühen Alter von 5 Jahren. Sein Musiklehrer und Mentor war der berühmte Pianist und Dirigent Iosif Prunner. Er fuhr mit klassischer Gitarre unter der meisterhaften Leitung von Nicolae Epureanu fort; ein Mann, der als der Vater der klassischen Gitarre in Rumänien angesehen war.
In mehr als 24 Jahren des Gitarrenspielens erhielt Mihai zahlreiche Auszeichnungen auf nationalen und internationalen Festivals wie z.B. in Bukarest, Sinaia, Craiova, Costinesti. Er gab Liederabende in allen großen Konzertsälen Rumäniens. Als Konzertsolist spielte er in Begleitung von allen größeren Symphonieorchestern seines Heimatlandes und in Italien.
Sein Repertoire umfasst unter anderem klassische Stücke von Bach, Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Telemann, Sor, Mozart, Giuliani, Villa-Lobos, Mangore, Chatschaturjan, sowie auch Blues, Country und Rock

Alpenstueck – das Restaurant mit

süddeutscher Heimatküche

Heimatküche – das bedeutet für uns tägliche ehrliche Handarbeit von A wie Apfelstrudel bis Z wie Zwiebel- kuchen, mit süddeutsch-österreichischer Ausrichtung und ausnahmslos frischen, natürlichen Zutaten.

Öffnungszeiten im Restaurant: Täglich von 18-1 Uhr 

Tisch-Reservierungen bitte unter:

              030 217 516 46         030 217 516 46 oder

Alpenstueck
Restaurant mit süddeutschen Spezialitäten

Gartenstrasse 9
10115 Berlin-Mitte
 Terrasse im Sommer

====================================================

Kochkurse im Alpenstueck

Spass am Zubereiten & Freude am Genießen

Tipps und Tricks in der Alpenstueck-Küche: Schauen Sie Küchenchef Christian Rex und seinem Team in die Töpfe! Verfeinern Sie Ihre Kochkünste und holen Sie sich Tipps direkt von den Profis.

Kreieren Sie unter Anleitung ein 4-Gang-Menü mit anschließendem Dinner, zu dem Sie auch gerne Ihren Partner mit einem Gutschein einladen können.

Zum Nachkochen erhalten Sie von uns eine Mappe mit allen Rezepten. Termine für Kochkurse entnehmen Sie bitte der Seite “News”. Anmeldung & Geschenkgutscheine bitte unter:

Kochkurse können gerne auch zu anderen Terminen 
bei einer Mindest-Teilnehmerzahl von 8 Personen vereinbart werden.

Berlin  08-03-2010

In 1919 at the’ International Conference of Working Women’ in Copenhagen, Denmark, the groundwork for the first ‘International Women’s Day’ was established. This  conference - attended by more than 100 women from 17 countries representing unions, socialist parties and working women’s clubs-agreed to the plans drafted by Clara Zetkin to set aside the same day every year in every country to draw attention to the women’s rights movement.

[Photo shows Clara Zetkin -left- with Rosa Luxemborg in Berlin about 100 years ago - circa 1910- from Wikipedia]

Who Was Clara Zetkin?

Clara Zetkin (née Eißner; 5 July 1857 – 20 June 1933) was an influential socialist German politician and a fighter for women’s rights. Until 1917, she was active in the Social Democratic Party of Germany, then she joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) and its far-left wing, the Spartacist League; this later became the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), which she represented in the Reichstag during the Weimar Republic from 1920 to 1933.

Zetkin was born Clara Eissner in Wiederau, a peasant village in Saxony. Her father, Gottfried Eissner, was a schoolmaster and church organist who was a devout Protestant, while her mother, Josephine Vitale Eissner, came from a bourgeoisie family from Leipzig and was highly educated.

 Having studied to become a teacher, Zetkin developed connections with the women’s movement and the labour movement in Germany from 1874. In 1878 she joined the Socialist Workers’ Party (Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei, SAP).

This party had been founded in 1875 by merging two previous parties: the ADAV formed by Ferdinand Lassalle and the SDAP of August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht. In 1890 its name was changed to its modern version Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).

Because of the ban placed on socialist activity in Germany by Bismarck in 1878, Zetkin left for Zurich in 1882 then went into exile in Paris.

During her time in Paris she played an important role in the foundation of the Socialist International socialist group. She also adopted the name of her lover, the Russian revolutionary Ossip Zetkin, with whom she had two sons, Kostja and Maxim. Ossip Zetkin died in 1889.

Later, Zetkin was married to the artist Georg Friedrich Zundel, eighteen years her junior, from 1899 to 1928. Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburg, 1910In the SPD, Zetkin, along with Rosa Luxemburg, her close friend and confidante, was one of the main figures of the far-left revolutionary wing of the party.

In the debate on Revisionism at the turn of the twentieth century she, along with Luxemburg, attacked the reformist theses of Eduard Bernstein. Zetkin was very interested in women’s politics, including the fight for equal opportunities and women’s suffrage. She developed the social-democratic women’s movement in Germany; from 1891 to 1917 she edited the SPD women’s newspaper Die Gleichheit (Equality). In 1907 she became the leader of the newly founded “Women’s Office” at the SPD.

She started up the first “International Women’s Day” on 8 March 1911, launching the idea of it in Copenhagen, in what later became the Ungdomshuset. During the First World War Zetkin, along with Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg and other influential SPD politicians, rejected the party’s policy of Burgfrieden (a truce with the government, promising to refrain from any strikes during the war). Among other anti-war activities, Zetkin organised an international socialist women’s anti-war conference in Berlin in 1915.

 Because of her anti-war opinions, she was arrested several times during the war. In 1916 Zetkin was one of the co-founders of the Spartacist League and the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) which had split off in 1917 from its mother party, the SPD, in protest at its pro-war stance. In January 1919, after the German Revolution in November of the previous year, the KPD (Communist Party of Germany) was founded; Zetkin also joined this and represented the party from 1920 to 1933 in the Reichstag.

She interviewed Lenin on “The Women’s Question” in 1920.

Until 1924 Zetkin was a member of the KPD’s central office; from 1927 to 1929 she was a member of the party’s central committee. She was also a member of the executive committee of the Communist International (Comintern) from 1921 to 1933. In 1925 she was elected president of the German left-wing solidarity organisation Rote Hilfe (Red Aid).

 In August 1932, as the chairwoman of the Reichstag by seniority, she called for people to fight National Socialism. When Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist German Workers Party took over power, the Communist Party of Germany was banned from the Reichstag, following the Reichstag fire in 1933.

Zetkin went into exile for the last time, this time to the Soviet Union. She died there, at Archangelskoye, near Moscow, in 1933, aged nearly 76.

 She was buried in honour by the wall of the Kremlin in Moscow.

Hamburg    08-03-2010

Hamburg 1-0 Hertha Berlin

Marcel Janssen’s goal 5 minutes before the half improved Hamburg’s chances of placing 3rd in the Bundesliga’s at end-of-season, and at the same time pressed “bad-news” Hertha Berlin even further down the relegation table.

Hamburg, with Ruud van Nistelrooy –Van-the-Man, on the bench in the beginning, started strongly and Marcel Janssen saw a great effort from Dennis Aogo well saved by the Hertha goalie Jaroslav Drobny.  

Berlin had one of their few chances in the 14th minute when Rafael’s free-kick found Ramos – but his 25m kick was stopped by Hamburg’s Rost.

The lone goal  came in the 40th minute – Hertha’s defender Tunay took the ball into the penalty area but it was blocked and Janssen tapped into an open net from  7m.

Hamburg played most of the best football in an otherwise boring game with chances from  Eljero Elia and Thomas Rincon.

In the 75^th minute Ze Roberto showed that good and experienced older players in mid-field are worth their weight in gold. His excellent pass found Janssen, who in turn passed into the penalty area for Ruud Van Nistelrooy – who’s shot was blocked.