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Opinion and Politics

Opinion and Politics 

Why Does Kreuzberg Want to Save an ALDI?

09/03/201910/03/2019 Joseph Pearson

The Kreuzberg gentrification battle continues to rage around the Markthalle 9. Residents of the traditionally left-wing neighbourhood, paradoxically, are protesting

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Opinion and Politics 

Berlin or Paris? Questions one city asks of the other

15/09/201723/06/2018 Joseph Pearson

“What Paris Looks Like After Berlin” was a post I wrote in 2014 that generated debate among readers. Which city

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Photo by Alex Yoku (2014) Used with Permission from the FIND Festival, Schaubühne, Berlin
Opinion and Politics 

Speaking Up for Artistic Freedom in Russia: The Serebrennikov Arrest

28/08/201723/06/2018 Joseph Pearson

Kirill Serebrennikov, a familiar face to the Berlin theatre scene, has been arrested in Russia and will face a show

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Opinion and Politics 

Is Trump’s Rule Fascist?

30/01/201723/06/2018 Joseph Pearson

In Trump’s first nine days since assuming the presidency, he has adopted many positions that recall a ‘fascist style of

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Opinion and Politics 

Europe After Trump Day: Going Forward

20/01/201723/06/2018 Joseph Pearson

20.01.2017 BERLIN. Where does Trump’s inauguration leave us in Europe? Turning points in history are usually distinguished well after the

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Opinion and Politics 

Fear the News Cycle, Not Italy’s Referendum Result

05/12/201623/06/2018 Joseph Pearson

5 DEC 2016 The international press is dangerously over-dramatising the results of the Italian Referendum, after 60% rejected Italian PM Matteo Renzi’s

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Opinion and Politics 

The Absurd Italian Referendum

29/11/201623/06/2018 Joseph Pearson

29.11.16 Last weekend, I was at one of my favourite olive and salami merchants in Berlin, talking to the Neapolitan

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Opinion and Politics 

A Love Letter to my Brexit Lover, from Europe

28/06/201623/06/2018 Joseph Pearson

BERLIN, 28 JUNE 2016. I admit I was angry when you decided to leave. I knew it was the worst

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Opinion and Politics 

What Will Brexit Bring?: The Earthquake that Broke the Seismographs

25/06/201623/06/2018 Joseph Pearson

BERLIN, 25 JUNE 2016: What will the Brexit earthquake bring? I think it depends on how far you are from

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Opinion and Politics 

Would a Brexit be Good for Europe? A Schadenfreude Letter from Berlin

18/06/201623/06/2018 Joseph Pearson

BERLIN, 18 JUNE 2016 Fellow Europeans, let me offer you yet a cup of Brexit poison, one laced with Schadenfreude.

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Opinion and Politics 

Don’t Blame Refugees for Paris

14/11/201523/06/2018 Joseph Pearson

Islamic militants are responsible for what happened today in Paris, but remember that they are precisely what refugees arriving in Europe are running

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About the Author

Joseph Pearson is a writer based between Berlin and New York City. Born in Canada, he was educated at Cambridge University, UK, where he received his doctorate in history in 2001. His non-fiction portrait of Berlin was published in 2017. He is also the essayist and blogger of the Schaubühne Theatre, one of Berlin’s best known state-funded institutions. Since 2008, he has written The Needle, which has become one of Berlin’s most popular blogs. His writing has appeared widely in the press, literary and academic journals, and has been translated into German, Italian, French, Arabic, and other languages. For professional inquiries please contact:  joseph [AT] cantab.net.

What is The Needle?

The changing meanings of The Needle are the inspiration for these pages. Above Alexanderplatz is Berlin's television tower. The Needle surveilled the city during East German times like a threatening eye; then its meaning changed after the Berlin Wall fell. Berliners now think of the tower as a giant disco ball flirting with the city lights––a symbol of sex, electronic music and youth culture. This weekly documents the Berlin Renaissance today, mindful of a dramatic and terrifying history. Berlin is Europe's most exciting city, and The Needle is here to share.

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