Long known as Germany's gritty industrial heartland, the Ruhr Valley is hoping to show a different side as one of Europe's cultural capitals this year. The Local takes a look at some of the highlights of RUHR.2010.
<b>Wallywoods, a seminal gallery for Berlin’s avant-garde art scene, is locked in a Stalingrad-esque struggle for survival with intractable municipal officials. Ben Knight slips behind the lines to talk with its curator of chaos.</b>
After three years of preparations, Germany’s industrial Ruhr Valley will kick off its year as a European Capital of Culture this weekend with elaborate celebrations aiming to withstand a looming winter storm.
The 2010 Berlinale film festival will premiere the latest film by director Roman Polanski, who is under house arrest in Switzerland awaiting deportation to the United States on unlawful sex charges.
“Colin” is the title and hero of the new sleeper-hit zombie movie playing at this year's <a href="http://www.britspotting.de">Britspotting</a> film festival. Made for a reported £45 (€50) in a lot of people's spare time, it caused enough of a stir in Cannes to get a British cinema release. <b>Ben Knight</b> meets Colin himself, <b>Alastair Kirton</b>.
Avant-garde Irish filmmaker <b>Vivienne Dick</b> is one of the special guests at this year's <a href="http://www.britspotting.de">Britspotting</a> film festival in Berlin. <b>Ben Knight</b> speaks to the veteran of the halcyon frisson of 1970's New York and economic downturn and creativity.
The German capital has changed dramatically in the 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. <b>Julia Lipkins</b> reports on a festival bringing together artists and urban planners this weekend hoping to share their visions for the city’s future.
Being billed as the most comprehensive exhibition about the Vandal civilisation ever, a new show about the notorious Germanic tribe opens on Friday at Baden's state museum in Karlsruhe.
Hoping to step out of Berlin's shadow, the eastern German city of Leipzig will host its fifth annual Designers’ Open event this weekend to highlight the city's up-and-coming creative scene.
Dresden State Operetta is preparing to stage the European premiere of George Gershwin’s musical "Pardon My English", which is set in the Saxon city, more than 70 years after it opened on Broadway.
Creative minds from all over the world flock to Berlin in search of their own artistic haven, but being able to stay afloat financially can often be an enormous challenge. <b>Exberliner</b> magazine takes a look at some of their schemes for survival.
The colourful plastic toy bricks you may have noticed patching up buildings around Europe recently have nothing to do with municipal budget cuts. <b>Shannon Smith</b> examines a Berlin-based artist’s quirky open-air installations.
Romanian-German writer Herta Müller, Thursday's winner of the 2009 Nobel Literature Prize, has used her upbringing under Nicolae Ceauşescu's oppressive regime as her main source of inspiration.
The Local's series "Making it in Germany" presents <b>Soula Parassidis</b>, a Canadian soprano singer who now performs at the Leipzig Opera after arriving with nothing but a suitcase.
David Wroe and photographer Penny Bradfield take in the spectacle of giant marionettes walking the streets of Berlin to celebrate German reunification this weekend.
Big-city Berliners will be turned into Lilliputians as a French theatre company marches its massive marionettes through the streets as part of German Unity Day celebrations this weekend.
Dieter Bohlen, a hectoring jury member on Germany’s version of Pop Idol, is officially an artist, according to a ruling by the Federal Social Court in Kassel on Thursday.
Berlin’s seminal punk venue SO36 might be celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, but it’s also on the verge of being shut down. Michael Dumiak looks at efforts to save Germany’s very own CBGB.
Exberliner Magazine talks to <b>Karl-Heinz Müller</b>, the man behind this week's Bread & Butter fashion show taking place at Berlin's iconic former airport Tempelhof.
Work began this week to repaint Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev's passionate kiss with East German strongman Erich Honecker on the longest-surviving stretch of the Berlin Wall.
The pre-World War II German city of Breslau – now Wroclaw in Poland – is the real hero of best-selling Polish author Marek Krajewski's murder mysteries, devoured by readers and translated so far into 11 languages, writes AFP's Bernard Osser.
