Secret Place Berlin

Podcast
Personal Project
date: March 2020 - August 2021

Episode 1 - The Futuro House

An intergalactic journey through Berlin's future dreams of the past in the first ever podcast release under Secret Place Berlin. We explore a 1960’s pre-fabricated home intended for use on vacations, and its gradual decline then transformation into a worldwide phenomenon and cult design classic. Fewer than 100 Futuro’s were build and shipped around the world, Berlin received Futuro House #13.

For this episode we explore Berlin’s Futuro #13; its arrival, complacence in GDR’s Spreepark, dystopian decline and where it is today... this is the story about the Futuro House.

SHOW NOTES:
Quotes for this episode have been referenced from thefuturohouse.com/ a online destination for more info about Berlin’s Futuro #13 and various other Futuro’s stationed around the world. They are a group of collectors and admirers of all things Futuro. For info specifically about Futuro #13 please check out their website at futuro13.de/

Read more about Futuro #13 and Futuros worldwide in an interview conducted with Secret Place Berlin by The Society For Gentlemen Explorers

Music by Hyperia: Hyperia with sounds clips by Raymond Scott

Illustration & Image copyright Lacy Barry 2020, returning from outter space!

Secret Place Berlin · Späth’sche Baumschulen - Episode 2

Episode 2 - Späth’sche Baumschulen

In this episode we discover the history of a plant nursery that has survived multitudes of wars and seen Berlin go from Kaiser ruled Prussia to the capital of Federal Republic of Germany. Let us dive into the story of Späth’sche Baumschulen; the 300 year old plant nursery and eventual Tree School that uprooted thrice in 7 generations.

SHOW NOTES:
Information and quotes for this episode have been sourced and translated from the Nursery's website www.spaethsche-baumschulen.de/
Berlin based blog www.xn--kpenicker-strasse-zzb.de/
and of course Wikipedia.

Music by Hyperia in collaboration with various birds

Illustration & Image copyright Lacy Barry 2020 , picking apples.

                      

 

               

Episode 3 – Computerspielemuseum

Let’s revisit the not so distant past when the fall of the Berlin wall was not even a decade old and computer gaming was witnessing it’s first and second generation of devoted players. Come with Secret Place Berlin as we put our gaming faces on and step into a digital cyberspace at the Computerspielemuseum …or Computer Games Museum auf English. From Joysticks to Avatars, we play tennis without leaving the couch, battle 8-bit villains and drive like maniacs over unchartered CGI landscapes.

SHOW NOTES:
The first exhibition that set the Computerspielemuseum, in motion; Pong Mythos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4nwzxmr0Qg

As Promised , the Magnavox Odessey Ad link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLGBtkKPj2U

See current exhibitions, hours and admission prices at https://www.computerspielemuseum.de/

Music by Hyperia in cyberspace

Episode 4 – Steam Engines of Berlin

Climb aboard an old steam train and allow yourself to be transported back to the era of the Weimar Republic… when Marlene Dietrich dominated the silver screen, Mimi Thoma sang soothing ballads at late night cabarets, and Kurt Widmann & his Orchestra performed regular radio scores to the tune of a bustling booming Berlin up to the early eruptions of WW2. Berlin macht Dampf takes us there, as our host Lacy Barry recounts experiencing one of their vintage steam engines unexpectedly, in a real life account, for the very first time.


SHOW NOTES:
For the most impressive vintage train excursions Berlin has to offer, go to  https://www.berlin-macht-dampf.com/

For more Secret Place Berlin, follow and listen to a playlist curated to the theme of SPB Episode 4  – Steam Engines of Berlin.
Warmest Thanks to Oliver Carter Wakefield of Hot Club Du Monde radio show for suggesting some of the best German music of the 1920s-1940s for this playlist. Listen to his radio show at: https://www.mixcloud.com/discover/hot-club-du-monde/

Special Thanks to Radio Spätkauf for mentioning SPB in their last episode. Hosts, Joel Dullroy, Maisie Hitchcock, Jöran Mandik and Daniel Stern share 'Berlin News in English' in a wonderfully conversational and humorous way.
Listen on Apple Podcasts and RadioEins.
 
Music by Hyperia enroute in the 1st class passenger carriage. 

Halloween Sepcial Episode!! – The Mysterious Graverobbers of Stahnsdorf Cemetery

Happy Halloween Episode! Join us as we recount a spooky happening at Stahnsdorf Cemetery involving a story about corpse of the late filmmaker Frederick W. Murnau, known for the famed vampire cult classic ‘Nosferatu’ and the unexpected guest who revealed that story. 


SHOW NOTES:
For more Secret Place Berlin, follow and listen to a playlist curated to the theme of SPB HALLOWEEN SPECIAL EPISODE– Grave Robbers of Stahnsdorf Cemetery:

spotify:user:1261720013:playlist:46G4mOqmK2QVDtQ2g2VPGO

Follow us on Instagram @secretplaceberlin & Facebook at Secret Place Berlin

Music by Rossano Snel haunting the pipe organ.

Illustration crafted by this month’s guest artist and vampire Daniel Schnatterer. @daniel.schnatterer

If you’d like to be featured as a guest artist for one of Secret Place Berlin’s episode get in touch at info@lacybarry.com with a link to a portfolio of your work.

Story &  Narration copyright Lacy Barry 2020, tip-toeing through the pumpkin patch.

Episode 5 – Watch Towers of Berlin

Looking out from the top level of an East German watch tower, the scene looks very different from the one over 30 years ago when the Berlin wall was still in place. I imagined giant slabs of erect concrete to my right and left, barbed wire from the middle along with various barricades and dangers placed along a long grave track. If this was then, my job would have been to be aware of trespassers and escapees and my duty to arrest or shoot if necessary… even if those escaping were a friend or relative. But the scene is very different now, the tower is surrounded not with walls and gravel but rather a park, busy leisure seekers and rustling traffic, as though this tower was never intended as a pillar of threat, just a park fixture like any tree or shrub. Instead of wearing uniform, I am in my chosen clothing, surrounded not by other soldiers and artillery, but art, books, and sunlight… Welcome to The Watch.


SHOW NOTES:
To discover more about The Watch, exhibitions, opening times and residencies, please go to: https://thewatch-berlin.org/ and visit them on instagram at @residency.wachturm  

Follow us on Instagram @secretplaceberlin

Music by Rossano Snel striking the piano keys of the former GDR. 

Story, Narration, Illustration & Image copyright Lacy Barry 2020, on look-out duty.  

Episode 6 – Scents of a Century

We hear, read and watch a lot about Berlin in the 1920’s but what did it smell like? After all scent charges the memory like none other of the five human senses. Almost a century’s old perfumery holds such coveted scents, from Marlene Dietrich’s preferred floral, to the musky scents of the 1970’s Berlin smoking clubs and the spicy preferred scents of now.


SHOW NOTES:
To discover more about Harry Lehmann & Parfum nach Gewicht, Künstil. Blumen, and to order exquisite and delicate perfumes please go to: www.parfum-individual.de

Music by violinist Alice Colley among lavender fields.

Story, Narration, Illustration & Image copyright Lacy Barry 2020, gazing into the perfume shop window.  

Episode 7 – Sea Monsters of Berlin

When the summer approaches in Berlin, lakes and waterways become the splendor of Berlin residents.  Spending many joyful afternoons at waterside, wading in its shores and floating on its surfaces. In and around Berlin, there is a menagerie of lakes and rivers to choose from, and  leisure seekers take to its shorelines with joy and happiness, baptizing themselves in their waters each year. But what of some of the relics and hidden lore found on and at the depths of these beloved waters? In Episode 7 of Secret Place Berlin, come with me as I take you on a discovery in two cherished lakes or ‘see’s’ in German, of the mythical sea creatures that reside on its surface and the not so mythical that dwell beneath.

SHOW NOTES:
‘Der Nök vom Treptower Karpfenteich’  is Käthe Wetzel’s poem about the Nök

News articl es citing the famous Monster of Schlachtensee have been sourced from various Berlin news outlets; The Welt, Der Tagesspiegel, Berliner Zeitung and various others.

The story of the SS soldier remains found a in the giant catfish was found on Snopes.com

Music by Rossano Snel from the mysterious watery depths with special thanks to Maria Laskowska. 

Story, Narration, Illustration & Image copyright Lacy Barry 2021, floating dreamingly on the lakes surface.  

Episode 8 – Starry Skies Over Treptower  

When you wish upon a star, whether or not you’re near or far,
The celestial theatre of every night is tempting you to observe under moonlight.
For those stargazing with extra curiosity, may be delighted to get closer to nebulosity,
From a telescope over a century old, the greatest made as we are told.
A humble astronomer with large starry dreams, equally designed a mechanism for viewing planetary means.
Placing this great telescope on an observatory of wonder, teaching all beings of the skies we live under.
Debuting such an anomaly as a fair ground attraction, the instrument still holds the universe in its gentle refraction.
Archenhold was this astronomer’s name and The Great Refractor telescope is his ardent acclaim.

SHOW NOTES:
For guided tours, events and a view of the Observatory museum, see the Archenhold and other planetariums programs at www.planetarium.berlin

Music by violinist Alice Colley serenading an eclipse.

Story, Narration, Illustration & Image copyright Lacy Barry 2021, charting lunar phases.

Secret Place Berlin · Green Living Embodied at the Heart - Episode 9

Episode 9 -  Green Living Embodied at the Heart  

Housing in major global cities is an issue all over the world, especially in Berlin where it is often said ‘looking for an apartment is like applying for a job or a visa’. There’s a lot of paperwork, a lot of requesting, a lot of rejections before you find the one, …or it finds you. In this episode we explore a 1980’s housing project that asks inhabitants to construct the future living they desire in an eco setting. Positioned in the center of Berlin, the Ökohaus embodies the ‘green heart’ of the city and puts forefront blooming desires for healthier, greener, community based future living… possibly highlighting the reasons humans from near and far relocate to the German capital to begin with.  

SHOW NOTES:
Resource links for this episode can be found here: Off Beats, Solidar Architekten, NY Times

Video profile of the Ökohaus in German here.  

Music by Rossano Snel waving from a rooftop garden.

Story, Narration, Illustration & Image copyright Lacy Barry 2021, foraging wild wisteria and elderflower.

Episode 10 -  A City Within A City

Nestled just outside of the Ringbahn of Berlin, lay a historical little hub, a calm enclave carved out of a point in time when German Industry was at its height and technological discoveries were erupting regularly. Named after the British Queen, the area of Victoriastadt housed workers that spun wools and finery for her kingdoms consumption at high quantities. Initiating a spring of manufacturing from textiles to concrete, train brakes and pellet balls. Some relics still preserved, but virtually unnoticeable to commuters unless seen from an observing bike ride or by train window, for which the little city is surrounded by these silver snakes that guide trains. The train tracks create the boarders of Victoriastadt and their screaming lullaby is the soundtrack that signifies encapsulated mirages that poignantly speed by to be there one moment and gone the next. However all is well in the small gentle stadt, holding safe a close-knit community of artisans, historians, families and so on… a collection of people that are the result of over a century of evolutions. Though Victoriastadt is no longer an area to house workers to be employed by its nearby factories, the residue of its origins still remain. For instance, a switch-line booth may not hold the telephonic machinery it was intended for, but its shell houses a cultural craft of a newly developed artisanal kind. A tower that once dropped liquefied molton metals for its prize bounty, sits in remission above a block of row houses. And the robust bridges that safely elevate speeding trains above Victoriastads entry points, harbor mysteries of light sculptures beneath them. Glowing angels in hiding, waiting like dignified guardians, light the way to curiosity seekers that are beheld to uncover the hidden magic of a city within a city that awaits them.
Episode tip: Listen for the trains wisking by the background of this episode.

SHOW NOTES:
Articles explored for this episode: Wikipedia, Everstate Blog & Industreikulture Berlin.

to visit some of the closed monuments once a year in September on Tag des offenen Denkmals (Doors Open Day or Monument Day)    

Music by Rossano Snel throwing molton balls down the Schrotkugelturm