You asked me to tell you how we live in Berlin now.
Please, do come in – you’re welcome!
Oh, I’m sorry – I have totally forgotten that there are no electric bells beside the entrance door, and no name plates.
There is only a brass button – you press it, it purrs – and then you have to fight against the really heavy door.
If it is not after 6 pm, that is. Because then we have a problem, at least when you have forgotten your cell phone, and you came around spontaneously (if you have rung me up before, of course I will look down from the balcony). Decades ago there has been a concierge here (another vocation that almost became extinct!) who after a sharp glance let vistors in. But you came in the afternoon and now you are standing in the entrance hall of our house.
An estate agent has told me that in the Bavarian Quarter of Berlin there existed a directive that the entrance hall for the staircase had to be built in marble.
What I like is another directive that said that ‘even’ in the rooms of the servants there had to be a stove (that was not at all common in 1900 – when we looked for a flat in Berlin we sometimes saw tiny rooms formerly built for servants: the high walls were divided with a sort of intermediate floor – so that two servants could sleep on two levels one above the other).
Even though there are no bell plates next to the entrance door, you can find out on which floor we live: in the direction of the atrium you’ll find a big old wooden frame with carefully drawn names of the inhabitants.
Yes, there are many: the house is built like a U – the front house and two wings, the rear buildings.
We live in the front house. When an unknown neighbour rang to fetch a delivered parcel and I introduced myself and said: “Sorry, I haven’t met you before”, he said apologetically: “I live in the rear building only”, and I asked quite aghast: “Why ONLY?” Today I know that the expensive flats are those in the front house, in the rear wings live young academics, artists and the janitor.
On the staircase of our house lies a thick carpet – so the sound of the steps are absorbed.
But let us take the elevator! I have the key for it and will come down.
The elevator was built in 1900 – that was a special luxury at that time, in which the building tycoon Haberland built all the houses of the Bavarian Quarter – all equipped with electrical light (normal houses had gas), warm water and bathrooms – and it is said that the houses also had a central vacuum cleaner station, but that station I cannot discover ;-)
The elevator was modernized in 1977 –I feel a little bit ill at ease when I gaze at the metal plate which reads: “Dear user of the elevator! (…) In case of an entitled emergency call with good cause you will be connected with the control centre (…)”
See, I wonder: Who decides what is ‘an entitlement with good cause’?
14 comments:
I have been without good computer access the last few days, am just now catching up and see your marvelous post! What a wonderful tour you've given us to your new residence, right down to the "entitled emergency call with good cause," no less!
Dear Raining Acorn,
we are really happy to have found that flat (in a while I will show you why). Lot of competitors. And very much to discover yet.
You live there? Wow, that is an amazing place - absolutely brimming with character. Do we get to see your apartment and its balcony too ;-)
Dear Annie (Lady M),
welcome on my blog! And thank you - yes, I will open the door :-) Ah - the balcony is still waiting for spring: tonight I had to put warming foil over the pots - in th TV they forecast minus 5°C tonight!
We envy you your hallway! Very nice.
Dear Kevin,
thank you! We enjoy it too. As to the facade I will tell in time something that might stand in your fascinating tales of administration running wild :-)
Hello Britta,
Very creative way of introducing your dwelling place to us and the way you adopted to invite readers to ur home is also very innovative..
I feel very nostalgic while u narrated the steps where sound-absorbing carpets are drawn, because, somehow these places are familiar to me through western literature, though I'm not much educated in German literature..
but i have friends who stayed for a while in Germany and mastered that wonderful language..
Also, it deserves an appreciation, since u maintain ur health and diet to stay always fit,
Thanks for ur thoughtful comment to my post, and I feel that I have truly landed on a wonderful web page..happy to come back here soon..
Dear Tomz,
thank you for your kind comment, and welcome on my blog! We lived in Hamburg before, and quite a lot of my blogfriends had to endure my narrations about the move - so I wanted to show them that it was worth it :-)
I will follow your beautiful blog - and, by the way: Berlin is the city where the "curry sausage" was invented - I am living healthy, but am not fanatical - don't like attempts to be too perfect ;-)
entitlement with good cause? Und wie heisst das auf Deutsch?
Ein phantastisches Haus, wer putzt das Treppenhaus? Du weisst sicher, dass Englaender alle ihr eigenes Haus besitzen wollen, aber fuer eine Wohnung in einem solchen Haus wuerde ich noch mal zur Miete wohnen.
Einfach wunderbar.
Gosh - what a beautiful place! Looks very ritzy to me, and the rent must be a fortune.
(Hope you will have many visitors, so the doormat might colour down a bit - to achieve mellow sophistication.)
Really a lovely place, Britta! I love the entrance hall. It is so elegant! The elevator looks vintage and I like its classic style very much. I'm wondering how many can get on the car.
Dear Friko,
they write "Bei berechtigtem Notruf" - haha, just one of my very individual attempts to translate - I should have asked Son, who studied Law :-)
To buy a house in Berlin you have to go far outside, and that's just the contrary of what I wanted: I want urban wildlife (with quietness around the house). The janitor does clean the stairs (and shovels snow) - he is a real (beautiful) marvel (he works as a walk-on in films)
Dear Sapphire,
I am always glad to hear from you - I think of you a lot these days! The elevator is for "5 persons - 375 kg" - they get cautious these days, so they write the weight too, and right they may be :-) With my weigth you can put 6 persons and a two year old child inside - but maybe that would be a bit tight.
Dear Anonymous,
to all your questions: yes - yes - yes!
We work on that doormat - the next days friends from Bremen and then friends from Cologne will come (and a fine Englishman and a Hamburgian already helped :-) See: "We are partners in grime"
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