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Photo by Alex Yoku (2014) Used with Permission from the FIND Festival, Schaubühne, Berlin
Berlin Arts
Joseph Pearson 20/03/201423/06/2018

Why Theatre, and its ‘Idiots’, Still Matter in Today’s Russia

In Moscow, the Gogol Centre has produced a loose adaptation of Lars von Trier’s 1998 film Idioterne (The Idiots, or

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Berlin Arts
Joseph Pearson 13/03/201423/06/2018

240 Hours of MEAT

  The installation MEAT, upcoming from 3-13 April 2014 at the F.I.N.D. festival, an international theatre week in the German

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Living in Berlin
Joseph Pearson 08/03/201423/06/2018

Is Berlin ‘Over’? Yawn.

Every year or so, without fail, the press pull at that dependable news hook: Is Berlin ‘over’? Is Berlin ‘no

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Berlin History
Joseph Pearson 07/03/201423/06/2018

Cocktails in a Communist Beauty Salon

What must be Berlins’ best cocktail bar is located in what was once a Communist beauty parlour on breezy Karl-Marx-Allee.

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Living in Berlin
Joseph Pearson 27/02/201423/06/2018

You Know You’re a Savvy Expat Berliner When…

How long have you been in Berlin? And how good is your local knowledge? Take The Needle’s quiz. Looking back

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Foodie Berlin
Joseph Pearson 20/02/201423/06/2018

Berlin’s Disco Snacks

The craze surrounding Street Food Thursday makes me wonder why people choose the claustrophobic crowds at Markthalle 9 over one

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Berlin and German Politics
Joseph Pearson 13/02/201423/06/2018

Is Spring Coming? and The Attacks on Swans in Berlin

You wake to a blue sky, the temperature rises, and you dare to say Spring is coming. What do the

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Berlin History
Joseph Pearson 10/02/201423/06/2018

Review: German Concentration Camps Factual Survey, at the Berlin Film Festival

At this year’s Berlinale (Berlin Film Festival), on Sunday, the Imperial War Museum in London premiered their restoration of the

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Foodie Berlin
Joseph Pearson 06/02/201423/06/2018

Hookers and Hot Chocolate, at Grosz

It is intriguing, odd, and audacious for such a bourgeois Berlin coffeehouse to name itself after the great satirist of

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Places in Berlin
Joseph Pearson 02/02/201423/06/2018

KaterHolzig Poisoned, But Not Down

‘We’ve been poisoned by the mainstream ‘, say the folks at KaterHolzig on their website. Yet another classic of old Berlin––this

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Blog Posts on The Needle
Joseph Pearson 20/12/2013

Happy Holidays From The Needle––See you in January!

Have a beautiful holiday, see you in January with more posts! Love from Berlin!  

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About the Author

 

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

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 bi-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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