Detroit Industry Murals by Diego Rivera surround the Rivera Court at the Detroit Institute of Arts. They were created between 1932 and 1933 and were considered by Rivera to be his most successful work / © Photo: Georg Berg

And the winner is: Detroit Institute of Arts!

Forget New York, New Orleans or Chicago! Detroit in Michigan has the best art museum in the USA. The Detroit Institute of Arts, or DIA for short, was voted the best art museum of the year by the readers of USA Today. The DIA has a collection of around 65,000 works, making it one of the largest and most comprehensive art collections in the United States. Art from all over the world is shown in over 100 galleries. Among them is the Center for African American Art, one of the first collections dedicated to African American art. One of the most famous attractions in the building is the Rivera Court. The Detroit Industry … [more]

Artist Sevcan Çerkez with Nelin Tunc / © Photo: Georg Berg

Strong women. A gallery for International Women’s Day

On my travels, I often meet women with exciting CVs and extraordinary careers. I write about their creativity, their courage, their perseverance and their successes. With every well-written story about a woman, the internet becomes more feminine. Women often receive support and encouragement from women. This also applies to the women I present in my gallery for International Women’s Day. Mothers encourage their daughters, businesswomen encourage rural women, grandmothers inspire their granddaughters, friends are there for each other and women’s organizations support girls and women.

Avatar of the Sorcerer's Apprentice / AI / © Georg Berg

The grim secret of the Tellerrand stories

I woke up from a terrible nightmare. In it, the authentic Tellerrand stories were just hallucinations of an artificial intelligence, and I was the celebrated sorcerer’s apprentice who is even proud of it [Watch the AI-generated video]

The old telephone booth in the Waldhaus is now a cell phone retreat for the benefit of all guests who want to use the lounges and many other places in the house to read, play, talk or think. Pleasant times when the telephone was located in its own booth and not in everyone's pocket / © Photo: Georg Berg

Phone booth for cell phone calls

Inspired by Nietzsche: Near St. Moritz, the Hotel Waldhaus offers an escape from modern chaos and the right amount of interaction and tranquillity. The Hotel Waldhaus, once a popular meeting place for famous personalities such as Hermann Hesse, Thomas Mann, Theodor Adorno and Elke Heidenreich, has found an interesting solution. Instead of allowing guests to use their cell phones everywhere, the hotel’s old telephone booths have been converted into special places where cell phones can be used

Renovated Michigan Central Station will shine in its former glory at the end of 2023. The building has an eventful history. Decades of decay began in the 1970s. In the years after 1988, the building changed hands several times, once for less than 80,000 dollars. The station building became a stomping ground for vandals, homeless people, sprayers and junkies. From 2024, Ford Motor Company will use it as a mobility research campus / © Photo: Georg Berg

Enlightenment on a greenfield site

Michigan Central Station shines in its former glory at the end of 2023. While elsewhere in the world main stations were built in the heart of a city, in Detroit a monumental building was erected on a greenfield site in 1910. The aim was to revitalize the still tranquil Corktown district. That went badly wrong. As everyone knows, Detroit and later the whole of the USA relied on the car. Decades of decay began in the 1970s. The building changed hands several times, once for less than 80,000 dollars! Michigan Central Station became a playground for vandals, homeless people, sprayers and junkies and one of the most popular lost places for photographers. In future, trains will no longer run through this station. The Ford Motor Company is planning to turn it into a central research campus for mobility. Once again, the focus is on the future of global mobility and the Corktown district is set to benefit from this. This time it could succeed.

Christmas decorated street in the old town of Valletta, Malta / © Photo: Georg Berg

Lametta in Valletta

In Malta and Gozo, almost every street and square glitters in the run-up to Christmas. Angels, stars and often the three holy kings are brought into position in every village. Magnificent fairy lights are strung across the streets and fountains and squares are decorated with figures

Honey label Peopleneedlove500

Frequent flyer with a message

People Need Love is the first single by the pop band Abba in 1972. It is a simple song with a simple wish for peace and harmony, which unfortunately never became a catchy tune

Street art in Tbilisi, Georgia. Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin play chess while drinking Georgian wine / © Photo: Georg Berg

Political Street Art in Georgia

Walking through the Georgian capital of Tbilisi in 2023, one is struck by the many European, Ukrainian and Georgian flags, all conveying a clear message. The war in Ukraine is condemned as terrorism, for which Putin is responsible. The desire for Georgia to join the EU is also expressed. The political statements on the house walls are striking. Simple statements have the greatest persuasive power. Taken as a whole, they convey an unfiltered picture of the mood

Making-of Stollen baking. Georg Berg photographs master baker Tino Gierig from the Dresden Bakehouse baking an original Dresden Christmas Stollen / © Photo: Angela Berg

Everyone wants stollen!

For the winter issue of a gourmet magazine, we went to a Dresden stollen bakery in June. The original Dresden Christstollen has an eventful history and is today Saxony’s best-known ambassador of enjoyment. The fact that Dresden Christstollen is so popular also has to do with Augustus the Strong, who, just like us, did not adhere to the Stollen Etiquette, according to which one eats the first Christstollen on Christmas Eve. From the “Protzstollen” to the “Stollen Knigge”…

Collection of confiscated guns at Majete Wildlife Reserve. The park management of African Parks has assembled them into a memorial against poaching / © Photo: Georg Berg

20 years of African Parks in Malawi

In the Majete Wildlife Reserve, it stands like a memorial, the collage of countless rifles and guns that rangers have confiscated from poachers over the years. On August 29, 2023, the NGO African Parks celebrates the 20th anniversary of its commitment to conservation and biodiversity in Malawi.

Baobab at sunset / © Photo: Georg Berg

Baobab – Tree of Life

It stands out, its trunk is mighty and unusually wide, like a single giant elephant leg. We see the baobab tree again and again on our journey through Malawi. It is a gathering place in villages, standing on the bluffs of Lake Malawi, the floodplains of the Shire River, or along dusty roads. Its trunk serves as a water reservoir for the elephants in the dry season, its fruits are vitamin bombs and with its seeds the Malawis play their popular boabab game. Interesting facts about an icon of the savannah.

Courtyard Büyük Han, Great Inn, the largest caravanserai in Cyprus. Built by order of the first ruler of the Ottomans in Cyprus, Muzaffer Pasha, in 1572. In the courtyard there is a small mosque with a domed roof and a fountain for ablutions before prayer. The building is considered one of the most beautiful buildings in Cyprus and is located in the northern Cypriot part of the divided city of Nicosia / © Photo: Georg Berg

For a coffee in the caravanserai

For 20 years now, they have been drinking coffee against the absurdity of their situation. They put gallows humor and tolerance against prejudice and propaganda. They sometimes self-deprecatingly call themselves the Traitors Club because they are friends and strive for reunification, which displeases many of their compatriots. On a Saturday in April 2023, we are guests of the Büyük Inn Coffee Club in Nicosia.

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