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Did you know that in German sign language Berlin is symbolised by a bear’s ear? Even though, contrary to popular belief, the city’s name was not inspired by any large furry carnivore but has its root in a old Slavonic word barl (a marshland, a morass), the animal is Berlin’s symbol and is featured on its coat of arms.

This informative little video was created for those interested in learning the names of Berlin’s main old boroughs and localities in sign language – notice how the typical endings “-berg” and “-dorf” are pronounced. And make sure you learn at least several names by heart. Alexanderplatz should not be a problem to memorise, though;-)

 

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Did you know that Berlin is home to as many as 11,000 different bee colonies comprising some 500 million honeybees (mostly two sorts: Carnica and Buckfast)?

Over 1,200 Imker or bee-keepers registered in the Berliner Imkerverbund (Berlin Bee-keeping Federation) belong to one of the 16 Berlin bee-keepers’ associations working to protect and raise the number of those invaluable insects in the city.

As of 2011 the official campaign “Berlin Summt!” (Berlin Humms) puts bee-hives on top of prominent buildings in the capital. You will find them, among others, on top of the Berliner Dom and on the Berliner Abgeordnetenhaus, as well as on the roof of the Auferstehungskirche in Friedrichshain (famous as the meeting point for the DDR opposition in the 1980s) as well as on top of the German Museum of Technology in Berlin-Kreuzberg and in Tempelhofer Feld. As of 2015 a swarm of 250,000 occupies a very central and not exactly quiet location, Alexanderplatz.

Their produce is sold through the Berliner Senat as “Berlin Summt!” honey, offered in jars filled with liquid gold and with labels indicating the exact location of the beehive whose residents kindly provided the delicacy.

If you visit the Berlin Summt! web page, especially today on World Bee Day, you can learn things about bees that might come as a surprise. For instance, that you would need to have a long breath to keep up with a honeybee. In flight, they reach they a highly impressive speed of 30 km/h. Not to mention that fact that they can flap their tiny wings between 200 and 230-250 times per second…

The biggest Berlin Imkerei (bee-keeping facility) in the 1930s stood, by the way, on the roof of the historic Berliner Landtag – the state parliament – in what used to be known as Prinz-Albrecht-Straße, and was home to over one million bees inhabiting twelve large bee-hives. The Berlin Parliament returned to the building in 1993 – by then in Niederkirchnerstraße as the name Prinz-Albrecht-Straße was dropped in 1951 – and is known as Berliner Abgeordnetenhaus today (Abgeordneter stands for an MP). Some 50,000 bees followed the MPs in early 2011 and have been humming over their heads ever since.

honeybee in berlin
Bee-keeper on the roof of the Berliner Landtag in the 1930s (Columbiahaus at Potsdamer Platz in the background).

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Krollsche Oper Biergarten 1904 (photographer unknown)

A quiet afternoon at the Krollscher Wintergarten, also known as Krollscher Etablissement, beer garden in 1904.

The typical garden furniture is still in use today. Some of the one captured here might still be around and serving another generation of another beer garden’s fans.