Mendelssohn-Bartholdy-Park/Gleisdreieck • a journey threw my mind

PLACES

Berlin is full of such constructions, heavy steel beams riveted together to form an industrial flavoured urban infrastructure upon which the local public transport system flows.

This is the section between U-Bahn Station Mendelssohn-Bartholdy-Park and U-Bahn Station Gleisdreieck, and although the “U” in U-Bahn stands for Untergrund – Underground – as much as 20% of it in Berlin travels above on these monuments to a bygone age, it’s what gives parts of Berlin it’s urban texture.

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

On another note, although street photography in Germany is legal, it’s becoming increasingly difficult as I once again discovered when out taking these images, although there is the panorama law in effect, I was approached by a police officer and told to stop photographing.

This is increasingly a problem in Germany, one Saturday afternoon last year while I was sitting on a public bench, on the Ku’damm, a main shopping-street in central Berlin, innocently adjusting the colour balance on my camera, the camera pointing down between my knees, I was approached by 5 different people, who all demanded that I immediately stop what I was doing, because they were of the opinion that whatever it was I was up to, that it was illegal, and I was threatened with the police and/or physical violence if I didn’t do as I was told, and my British accent only seemed to inflame the situation still further.

And it’s becoming ever more usual that when I’m out in a public space with the camera, that I’m approached by a complete stranger, who demands to know what I’m doing and then insists that I delete all the images on my SD-Card, whether I have taken any photos or not.

The natives here certainly have a peculiar sense of tolerance.