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When 70 percent of visitors can’t seem to locate your signature landmark, the city has a problem. Almost 20 years have passed since the Berlin Wall toppled, and its remnants have all but vanished. In hopes of resurrecting it for tourists, Germany’s “poor but sexy” capital is pushing a suitably sexy gadget. Available today, Antenna Audio’s WallGuide is the result of one year and almost $800,000 of painstaking legwork. Using GPS satellites, audio files and video documentaries, the handheld minicomputer retraces the path of the 12-foot-tall barricade, and can be tailored for walking and biking tours.
WallGuide includes Berlin’s historical greatest hits such as Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gate and Tempelhof (Berlin’s Nazi-era airport that’s set to close in October unless Hollywood can save it). But where the WallGuide really shines is off the beaten path: Now you can explore previously uncharted alleyways, paths and lesser-known sites. (As a former Berlin tour guide, I can tell you that some visitors would much rather swim in a converted coal barge, pictured, on the East-West border than wait on line for the Reichstag.)
If you don’t have the legs for one hundred miles of former wall (and don’t ride a bike), you might focus on Berlin’s fifth Biennial of Contemporary Art. Running through June 15, it’s spread across four city locations — most notably Mies van der Rohe’s iconic temple of light and glass, the Neue Nationalgalerie. Divided into Day and Night events, the exhibition’s somber subtitle is “When Things Cast No Shadow.” Could the contemporary art world’s most exciting city be wallowing in its dark history? Not likely. After all, this is where former Nazi bunkers are transformed into trendy art galleries.
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