The Needle: Berlin – Page 20 of 20 – A Berlin Memory Blog

Joseph Pearson 19/05/201023/06/2018

Karl-Marx Allee

It was a place to walk through, and stare. Built in the early fifties, Karl-Marx Allee, leading into Alexanderplatz, with

Living in Berlin

Joseph Pearson 06/05/201023/06/2018

Urbanstraße, 10967 Berlin, Kreuzberg

This stretch of Urbanstraße is clogged with four lanes of traffic and is not far from the discordant

Joseph Pearson 27/04/201002/07/2023

Linienstraße 113: Bötzow Privat

Pass by in the evening, and look into the picture windows illuminated by candles. Perhaps you will see a penumbra,

Joseph Pearson 20/04/201023/06/2018

A New Museum

Germany’s bold confrontation with its past, its sometimes self-flagellating intent to imprint guilt and scars onto its official history, marks

Living in Berlin

Joseph Pearson 12/04/201023/06/2018

Rosenthaler Platz, Berlin-Mitte

Dear Berlin-Mitte, We need to discuss our relationship. We’ve got problems. I suppose it’s inevitable after our years together. I’m

Joseph Pearson 11/04/201023/06/2018

Colonnades Unveiled

I was used to the Museum Island as building site. The edifices were interiors, not exteriors. You negotiated your way

Joseph Pearson 05/04/201023/06/2018

Schlachtensee 1940

These photographs taken last autumn I found unbearable to contemplate only a few weeks ago. But now, with warmer days,

Joseph Pearson 29/03/201002/07/2023

Augustraße 14-16

It is 1933 and Hitler has come to power. You are Jewish and live in Berlin. Do you have the

Joseph Pearson 27/03/201023/06/2018

Nazi Ruins: Albert Speer’s Only Surviving Works in Berlin

Most of my German friends are pacifists. They do not like seeing Germans involved in foreign wars. The

Joseph Pearson 23/03/201002/07/2023

A Palace of Tears

In front of Friedrichstraße station, along the Spree River, the Tränenpalast or ‘Palace of Tears’ has reappeared out of the

Blog Posts on The Needle

Joseph Pearson 23/03/201021/03/2012

Welcome to The Needle

The beginning of the 21st Century in Berlin may well be remembered for its outpouring of creativity –like Vienna in

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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