August 2011 – The Needle: Berlin

Places in Berlin

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Boules in Berlin, Paul-Lincke-Ufer (VIDEO)

On the north side of the Paul-Lincke-Ufer in Kreuzberg, along the canal, locals gather to play boules. The Sunday traffic–-bicycles,

Joseph Pearson 21/08/201123/06/2018

After the Nazis, are the Wertheims Coming Home?

The commercialisation of the former Wall’s no-man’s land progresses as fast as the cranes can haul girders. Awful, says a

Joseph Pearson 13/08/201123/06/2018

The Berlin Wall at 50

Today is an anniversary. The Berlin Wall went up 50 years ago. Imagine a family arriving at Friedrichstraße station in

Trips from Berlin

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From Berlin to Lviv, Ukraine

Turn your back for a moment on the West, and travel East as a corrective. Jump the train from Berlin, and

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Getting Messy at Burgermeister

Burgermeister (a play on words on Bürgermeister, which means the ‘city mayor’ with the simple addition of an umlaut) is a burger

Joseph Pearson is a writer and historian based in Berlin. His non-fiction portrait of Berlin was published in 2017. He published a second book, My Grandfather’s Knife, about how everyday objects tell World War Two stories, in 2022. His writing has appeared widely in the press, literary and academic journals, and has been translated into German, Italian, French, Arabic, and other languages. Born in Canada, he was educated at Cambridge University, UK, where he received his doctorate in history in 2001. He works at New York University, Berlin, and at the Barenboim-Said Akademie. Since 2008, he has written The Needle, which has become one of Berlin’s most popular blogs. For professional inquiries please contact his agency, Peters Fraser Dunlop, email him directly joseph [AT] cantab.net, or visit his professional website: josephpearson.ca