Foxy2

I seem to remember that we moved in around 1972, or slightly earlier (must ask Dad…).

Consequently, we are one oldest party in the house. When I was visiting our old family friends and neighbours living directly on the floor below us, I felt like traveling back in time…

They haven’t changed much (or any) of the original features from the original 1913-1930 set-up…

Each floor currently has 4 units. Given the layout and knowing that around the 1930’s it was common practice in a lot of the older houses to split the bigger units into halves - I believe that the original set-up was only 2 units per floor.

you enter the apartment and come into the long hallway…

to the left you have a bathroom and a small hallway to the kitchen & back entrance/Service entrance.

off the small hallway you the chamber for the maid.

there used to be bell unit next to the chamber door - each room was equipped with an electric bell and you could see which room was to be attended to.

here’s the kitchen…

that’s the old kitchen machine. Gas powered for the hub (under the granite plate) and the left top oven. The two bottom ovens were wood fired, IIRC. Theses units were taken out of order in the late 1970’s - early 1980’s - they had to change the type of gas and close the chimneys.

Central heating was integrated after the house was build - sometimes these radiators ended up in the weirdest places.

Under the window you had your ice box/fridge. The construction is completely lined with tin sheets (or zinc?) on the inside and the little door directly on the floor is where a fresh block of ice would whenever needed. Horse carriages with ice blocks would deliver these daily. There was an outlet for the thawing ice water on the outside wall.

This is one of the two front rooms facing the side street with a door to the balcony.

Complete with herringbone parquet and ceiling details. Initially, the centre of the ceiling had gas pipe coming out for the chandelier.

Found a better print of that arial shot…

But let’s shift over to my side of the street, right?

here are 2 historic shots of my block from the 1920’s (IIRC).

The first picture shows our apartment house’s corner on the left. We live on the 3rd floor and have our front room windows and balcony facing a quiet side street.

the 2nd picture shows the second half of the block facing the main street where the house entrance is located. Our house is the left part.

today…

Here some pictures of the side street with balcony…

And at the end of that side street is the house where the Berlin Army (Wehrmacht) surrendered to the Russian Army in the Battle of Berlin. The general declaration of surrender came a couple of days later, but not in Berlin…

^ just WOW!

Here’s an arial picture from 1914 of the area I still live in:

Pink - the first houses from the first phase (1912-13)

Red - our apartment house, second houses from the first phase (1913-14)

Blue - didn’t survive the WW2 (bombed out or demolished shortly after)

Green - see previous post: Union house of the German Book Printers and extension buildings

Yellow - Berlin surrenders on May, 2nd 1945 in the Battle of Berlin at this house (General Wassili Tschuikow’s headquarters)

Here’s a second pic from 1998 of the same area from a different direction:

Orange - Tempelhof Airport (1936-1941)

Here’s a good summary of the development of my neighbourhood Neu-Tempelhof:

https://second.wiki/wiki/neu-tempelhof

I plan to do some posts about the neighbourhood and the airport, but growing up in West-Berlin in the 70’s and 80’s meant that your stomping ground was almost the entirety of this political island (The Wall and an excellent public transport system is partially to blame) and growing up here was intense and colourful (the subcultures, the music)…

Also, a link to some more interior shots of the Book Printer’s House:

https://vielfaltdermoderne.de/berlin-verbandshaus-der-deutschen-buchdrucker/

2 more historic shots...

After WW2 they asked Max Taut to revisit the site and build those 2 additional houses (1953-55) to the left...

Today...

Half of the ground floor and the round end (still) is a public library (that I used to grow up in).

That's the backside...

And here's the 3rd building - a little skyscraper...

Unfortunately, I never had friends in kindergarten or school that lived across the street - because, technically, a different borough, they probably ended up going to different schools than myself.

Literature and historic shots...

It's very difficult to get inside, but occasionally they are doing tours. I've seen historic pictures for the front house apartments as well.

The gaps left and right weren't closed until after WW2. (When I get to do a post about the house we live in and the history of the settlement itself things will become more obvious.)

Details for the print house...

The factory floor picture should be from the 2nd floor.

And that's what it looked like growing up in the 70's (picture is probably late 50's - mid 60's):

Details of the stairs and elevators of the print house in the backyard…

Onto the last yard...

Some exterior shots from the back...

Here are some detail shots...

Growing up the first 2 windows used to belong to a dry cleaner...

Here's the driveway to the inner/backyards and the entrances to the apartments...

And into the first yard to the side buildings and the main printing house...

I was born in what was called West-Berlin back then.

My parents moved places a couple of times within Berlin, but we settled more or less sometime in the early-mid 70's into the current neighbourhood. It's an 3rd floor apartment in a building from around 1914 which is part of the Tempelhof airfield settlement/airport - Neu-Tempelhof or Fliegerviertel.
So, technically speaking, it's in Tempelhof-Mariendorf, but actually it’s at the meeting point of 3 more boroughs (Schöneberg, Kreuzberg, Neukölln).

Today, we are looking across the street from my apartment over to where Kreuzberg starts...this is an architectural model and our house is the generic cut-off at center front.

The focus are the 3 buildings across the street.

Today...

This is an ensemble of 3 separate buildings by architect Max Taut.

The main attraction is the first house - Verbandshaus der Deutschen Buchdrucker - build from 1924-26 in yellow bricks.

13 hours ago, Double 0 Soul said:

Nice to see you back @Foxy2

We have a Neighbourhoods Thread now.. no kebab thread tho

Thanks, Neal!

been preparing something for said thread for ages, but too busy/distracted/lazy to finish it and put it up…

A special edition from Avant.

On 11/6/2020 at 9:10 PM, Double 0 Soul said:

I was chatting to Eve last night over the garden wall while we were having a socially distant bonfire in the garden, she said she had to look Eigg up but it made her happy knowing her films are reaching the far corners..

Today's offering...

Yes, they did send a lovely package:

haven’t watched yet - but I’m sure it’s as good as their earlier feature. Tell them thanks you from my side...

here’s a picture from Eigg’s bonfire:

On 10/26/2020 at 7:00 PM, Jared_Lee said:

Finally, the details. Thank you to Ryo and Inoue for managing to get the original contest details into the second pair. I was only expecting the patch, but got the works.

This is the two cats brand and my first contest run with TCB found me and my cat Dimitri on the cover of a coffee table book. Sadly, after 18 years, I had to put him down last week. I'll consider this contest run a little memorial to him.

That would be Williams‘ “Men with Cats“ and both of you on the cover.
I have a copy in Berlin on the couch table but never made the connection.

My condolences - 18 years is a good age!

The 3rd volume arrived...

22 hours ago, JDelage said:

@Foxy2 - I'm sure you're right. The fabric feel is very different from both jersey and terry. It's very dry, dense, with little or no give. I should take a magnifier glass to mine to see...

That could be an indication for a warp knit (flatbed or cylinder) or something even more exotic and old like a Raschel machine...

edit:

SDA’s webpage says it’s done in Wakayama on those loopwheel machines, which means it should be the standard loopback sweater knit.

@JDelage
That’s probably a sweatshirt-type of knit - loopback or terry cloth/French terry.

the machines for those types of knits go back in time as well, but the resulting materials are not as simple as standard t-shirt jerseys and require 2- to 3-yarn/thread systems.

1 hour ago, Maynard Friedman said:

This is neither vintage nor loopwheel related but very much a t-shirt question. Obviously there are lots of indigo dyed t-shirts around but does anyone have or have seen a t-shirt that has an indigo dyed warp and a natural weft, just like a pair of jeans?

I know it’s a technical thing, but maybe you are not aware - knitting is fundamentally different from weaving in as much as that it is, in the basic application of t-shirt, just a single thread/yarn system.

yes, you can change the colours of yarn and/or you can introduces additional threads into the basic knit structure and modern machines having multiple heads, but for basic tee structures - weft knots or warp kits - you would only double or triple that one thread to add substance to the resulting knit fabric.

talking about about pique knits, sweatshirt knits (loopback) and a lot of the more sophisticated (and often much more 3 dimensional) knits out there - yes, those have multiple thread/yarn systems.

Who wouldn’t need a Bach or Beethoven tee...

Very nice everyone!

Lots of dolphins along the way - not sure if the video hosting works...

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/x338/KPFoxy/IMG_2308.MOV

part of the trip between the isles...

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/x338/KPFoxy/IMG_2303.MOV